Category: grimoire

Your Tarot Journal (Collaborating with Scarlet Ravenswood)

On By benebellIn grimoire, Learn the Tarot, personal spirituality, tarot, tarot card meanings, tarot community15 Comments

Scarlet Ravenswood from Arcane Alchemy and I have teamed up to talk about keeping a tarot journal. Earlier this week I chatted with Scarlet and her co-host Dan on their podcast Cosmic Keys. Be sure to check it out. =)

Subscribe to Scarlet over on YouTube and Follow Her on Instagram.

She and I also teamed up to put together two free downloads for you. The Tarot Study Journal is, in short, where you keep card meanings and your research. The Tarot Readings Diary is where you log readings you’ve been doing for yourself or for others.

I will be creating these two journal versions for those with the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot deck (I’ve got the e-mail addresses for all purchasers) so stay on the look-out for that! I’ll be sending the downloads to your e-mail inbox in the next few weeks.

Scarlet and Benebell’s

Tarot Study Journal

PDF download, 516 interior pages

Psst… If you’re working with the SKT deck, then hold out for a version of these two journals that include sections keyed for the SKT. I’m going to be contacting you all via the SKT Newsletter with a ton of downloads, DOCX and PDF.

Continue reading “Your Tarot Journal (Collaborating with Scarlet Ravenswood)” →

Tarot Correspondences by T. Susan Chang

On By benebellIn book review, cartomancy, grimoire, tarot, tarot community, tarot symbolism7 Comments

This book is such a must-have. Those of you who’ve been following along in my orientation video series for Spirit Keeper’s Tarot will have seen that I recommended Tarot Correspondences as the tarot book to get if you want to work with correspondence systems.

Chang’s Tarot Correspondences is tailored to all levels of tarot proficiency, whether you’ve “been reading for decades” or “you just picked up your first deck,” (as noted in the Introduction). “Correspondences,” she writes, “are patterns and connections inherited from esoteric systems. In tarot, correspondences line up with specific cards.”

Working with tarot correspondences is premised on the doctrine of sympathy, a Hermetic principle that the way one system goes with the other is part and parcel to the magic that happens. Correspondences, notes Chang, are the bridge between worlds. And I couldn’t agree with her more.

Continue reading “Tarot Correspondences by T. Susan Chang” →

Zoroastrian Magical Protection Charm

On By benebellIn grimoire, Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality, Spirit Keeper's Tarot4 Comments

The following is an excerpt from The Book of Maps, the companion guidebook to the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, a hand-illustrated black and white tarot deck crafted with practitioners of the mystic arts in mind. The pen and ink drawings were inspired by woodcut prints from the late Renaissance. Symbology called upon is based predominantly on medieval European alchemy, astrology (the Sacred Seven), Hermeticism, Zoroastrianism, Abrahamic angelology, Kabbalah, Catholicism/Christianity, Sufism, and Egyptian mythology.

For more information about the deck, go to:

Excerpt from The Book of Maps

Zoroastrian Magical Protection Charm

In an Avestan text dated to the 9th and 10th centuries, Ahura Mazda reveals to Zoroaster the magical powers of the falcon feather. The Magus who prays over a falcon feather can empower the feather into a charm that will ward off evil, cure and cleanse one of evil possession, and protect whosoever wields the feather against demons.

Continue reading “Zoroastrian Magical Protection Charm” →

Grimoire Inspiration: The Wooden Books Series

On By benebellIn book review, grimoire, Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality2 Comments

By far my favorite source of inspiration for my grimoire comes from the Wooden Books series published by Bloomsbury. I have the four-book set shown above, which I like to keep displayed out on a coffee table in our living room.

I reach for these books often and you’ll see why once you peek inside the page spreads. One of the questions I get asked the most is about my grimoire or personal book of methods/book of shadows.  I’ve given my thoughts into how you might structure and organize your grimoire here (How to Create Your Grimoire: Inspiration From One Approach) and you can check out a three-video series I did for the 2017 YouTube Pagan Challenge where I share the pages of my own private book.

Each one of these four books informs my grimoire work in a different and valuable way. You can click on the photos in this post for the enlarged 1200 pixel-side image file for a closer viewing. I’m hoping these few snapshots already start to generate amazing ideas and inspiration for you.

Designa I use to inspire decorative borders, ornamentation, and just the design elements in my grimoire pages. If you’ve ever seen a flip-through of my book and now see these page spreads from Designa, you’re going to see the influence for sure.

What I most love about using these books for inspiration is not just the design elements, but the explanatory entries as well. That way I’m informed about the design elements I’m using and I can use them with intention and significance. Everything in my grimoire is meaningful to me and symbolic, and much of that capacity comes from consulting these books.

Continue reading “Grimoire Inspiration: The Wooden Books Series” →