I love gemstones and crystals. I also like to keep a personal glossary of metaphysical correspondences for the gemstones and crystals I acquire. That’s what this document for free download is. I’m sharing with you my personal glossary in hopes it might be of use to you.
I’m providing both the PDF and DOCX for free download below. Both the DOCX and PDF versions have “smart headings,” so if you open the left-bar navigation pane in either Microsoft Word or your PDF viewer (in Adobe Reader they’re called bookmarks), you should be able to navigate between the alphabetically listed entries with ease. All correspondence reference tables at the back of the document are also enabled as “smart headings.”
The docx file is given to you so you can edit or redesign the document to suit your own needs.
You can also download a program, like Calibre, and convert one of these files to a PUB or MOBI file for your e-book reader.
Tried to find a photo of me with tarot cards. This was what I came up with.
Writer and tarotist James Bulls posted a provocative piece on the 10 questions every tarot reader must answer. Check out the post here. I thought I’d answer them for myself, so here we go.
Photograph that is unrelated to the topic at hand but posting here for the visual effect notwithstanding because your eyeballs need there to be a photo here and I couldn’t source one that would be related.
First off, naturally I will be speaking in generalizations.
People my age are sandwiched somewhere in between the Old Guard and the Millennial Readers.
Although my mother is not a tarot reader, she’s a metaphysical reader/practitioner of sorts and I’m super sure that had tarot been accessible to her as a young one, she would have totally become a tarot reader. Instead, she reads other stuff. Like your face. No, I kid, but oh no, I don’t. She really does.
I can see her attitude reflected in many of the Old Guard tarot readers. “I’m not normal. Tarot is not normal. Damn straight this is fringe. Deal with it.”
There’s an unabashed embrace of marginalized culture. There’s no embarrassment with dressing woo-woo as you walk among normal society. You can almost see traces of a hedge witch mentality.
Although she has never come outright to say so, I get the distinct sense that she doesn’t want everyone and the mainstream to become diviners, mediums, shamans, and practitioners of craft. There is a tacit yet clear exclusionary attitude. Or at least that’s always been the impression I got. She doesn’t want (let alone buy in to the ideas of) Mediumship 101, “everybody’s psychic,” or “pay me $300 and I will certify you as a bona fide tarot master.” (Hi. Certified tarot master here.)
Meanwhile millennial readers apply general business and marketing tactics to tarot–e.g., general PR and marketing principles to tarot business, coaching anyone and everyone to become diviners, mediums, shamans, and practitioners of craft, if you so choose. There are efforts to establish tarot into mainstream culture.
There is a pop psychology approach to tarot (which I have been pegged and critiqued as adopting, so apparently I’m in this camp) that strives to normalize divination practices or astrology, and to talk about spell-crafting as the law of attraction and “yay for positive thinking.”
However, at the heart of the millennial approach is the notion of accessibility, a socialist attitude toward the metaphysics. We can all have equal access to the Divine, to metaphysical energy work. (I confess, that is the attitude I adopt. That line sums up my opinion.) Metaphysics is for everyone. This is not paranormal, it’s normal. You don’t need anybody else to help you connect to the Divine. You only need you.
Okay, so as circumstances would have it, I’m now only a couple paragraphs in and I’ve already changed my mind.
Maybe I haven’t changed my mind exactly, but it is for sure vacillating. Is it really a generational thing? Or is it just a two-different-schools-of-thought thing? Is my personal anecdotal evidence and direct observations even reliable?
I’m in effect just looking around me, only to the point I am able to physically see, and making gross generalizations about what else is out there based on only what I see. Is what I happen to see an accurate microcosmic sampling of the macro? I don’t know. I really don’t.
However, there is for sure a determined voice among the occultists and metaphysicians who say that “occult” means concealed, and we are not to remove the veil for all. Only those who choose the path should or even can go beyond that veil to see for themselves what is there, and then come back with divinatory or revelatory information as needed, like an appointed messenger.
Is that way of thinking a bit reminiscent of limiting literacy to the elite so that the proletariat must rely on figures of authority (like a priest or priestess) for Divine insights? That was the way of institutionalized Western religion for ages. Is it hypocritical when metaphysicians repudiate that kind of authoritarian approach to religion, pursue occultism because they’re anti-authoritarian and want the answers for themselves, but then once they’ve found those answers, act in the same exclusionary manner?
I’ve observed that the Old Guard, Mom inclusive, have this sense that what they do “isn’t for everyone.” She would probably opine that not anyone can just pick up a grimoire, follow something in there, and yield results. Only certain people can do that. As I said, there’s a staunch exclusionary attitude. I’m also sure if I introduced her to the 21st century spiritual coaching power of manifestation business model, she’d find it absurd.
Actually, she wouldn’t. She’s pretty open-minded. She’d be surprised at first, but then come around. “Okay, all right, I get it. I wouldn’t have thought of that but I get it.” For instance, it might take her some time to grasp the idea that, say, I’m holding an online webinar course on Learning the Opening of the Key for Tarot Summer School and teaching occult theories to a whole bunch of people I’ve never even met, all at once. Perhaps in her view, spirituality, divination, and woo-based teaching is done one pupil at a time, a single teacher to pupil relationship that is honed over several years, not in 60 minutes.
Whereas maybe I do have a more “free love” attitude here. We’re entering a social era where notions once reserved in the New Age or even occult category run as an undercurrent through mainstream society. Corporate offices pay for yoga classes and meditation retreats for their employees. Businesses far from the woo will consider feng shui tips and tricks. Law firms invite in tarot and palm readers for their company Christmas party. Silicon Valley high-tech companies will hire a witch to cast a circle of protection around their computers, protecting them from hackers. All true stories here. I doubt any of this would have happened even 20 years ago. Things are changing.
As woo practitioners such as tarot readers converge more with the corporate and mainstream worlds, they adopt corporate and mainstream commercial strategies to advance their tarot business. Corporate and mainstream businesses converge more with woo practitioners and adopt woo into their environments because hey, “anything to help us earn more money. If that’s a spell or feng shui, then let’s do it.”
So admittedly, there was no point or core thesis to this post. I just thought I’d ramble on some thoughts of late.
Whether you’re a tarot beginner (in which case may I suggest you check out “Introduction to Intuitive Tarot,” “Tarot and Pop Culture,” or “Unlocking the Major Arcana through Yoga”), proficient with tarot but looking to take your practice to the next level (ooh–check out my class on “Learning the Opening of the Key” *tooting my own horn*) or you’re aspiring to become a professional tarot reader (check out “Party Readings for Tarot Professionals” or “Tarot, from Hobby to Profession”), the first ever Tarot Summer School is a magnificent trove of tarot studies. A complete list of all course offerings is here, via this link. I’ll be a student, just like you, sitting in on all the courses. So many of them are getting me super excited!
There will also be campfire Q&A sessions where all enrolled students can come together (over the Internet; I don’t know how it works; it’s magic; you’ll have to ask headmistress Ethony) and I will try very hard to make it to one of those campfire sessions so if you want to chat with me, ask me your tarot questions, or whatever, you’ll want to enroll and gain access to the campfire Q&A.
Check out the below link to read all the course listings, meet the faculty, and watch everybody’s course introduction videos. It’s a really diverse group of tarot personalities.
And to give prospective students a free preview of my course, “Learning the Opening of the Key,” I’ve uploaded and made available the first video installment of the lecture series, the Introduction. Check it out:
If that sneak peek into my full course piqued your interest, then enroll today! It’s only $24 USD per course. Or get the lifetime access season’s pass for $199, which gets you all the courses this semester.
And if I did not manage to pique your interest, then… *shrug* doh. I did my best.
But do check out everybody else’s course offerings even if mine isn’t your cup of tea. I know at least one of those master classes is making you go “ooh!!” Embrace that “ooh!!” and your woo, and we the instructors at Tarot Readers Academy will see you at Tarot School this summer.
It begins around 25:11 when one of my favorite YouTube personalities Kelly-Ann Maddox talks about #TarotsoWhite and the “overwhelming lack of racial diversity in tarot and oracle decks.” Maddox covers it all. She acknowledges white privilege, too much whiteness in the human depictions on tarot decks, disappointment in the fetishization of people of color in the rare times they are actually portrayed (she gives the example of the Nubian queen), and wonders what it is like for us people of color to spend untold amounts of money on tarot and oracle decks only to flip through them to see that you’re not being represented.
Well. The reality is we’re used to it. Or at least I am. It wasn’t until around 2000 that my community was represented in the media beyond sage-y old kung-fu masters with broken English and fortune cookie wisdom, me-love-you-long-time, dragon ladies, geishas, or know-it-all nerds. I mean I guess I’m okay with the know-it-all nerd. I can sort of identify there.
The reality is I’m used to not seeing ordinary Asian faces in the media and tarot is no different. If I don’t see myself depicted on film, then what makes me think I should get to see myself depicted in the tarot courts? Instead, I get “pleasantly surprised” when I see non-stereotypical images of Asians, well, anywhere, and then doubly pleasantly surprised when it’s on a tarot card.
My first inclination is to say, as a person of color, the whiteness of tarot card imagery doesn’t bother me. But I can’t leave it at that. I have to ask myself why it doesn’t bother me. The reason why it doesn’t bother me is what I said before—by now I’m used to it. People of color are used to being invisible. And, well, that’s deeply problematic. So even if it doesn’t bother me, it should bother me just as it should bother every person of color. If it doesn’t bother you, then it will never change. And if it doesn’t change, then the racial paradigm will always leave us marginalized.
As for #TarotsoWhite, I really don’t know what to say on this topic. On one hand, I don’t want to think about race during a tarot reading. Anything in the imagery on a tarot deck that “stands out too much” (and I don’t mean in a semiotic way) can be distracting to me. Here’s the thing: I want to think about race. I want to talk about social justice. But maybe not during a tarot reading.
And I do find that sometimes racial diversity depicted on a deck can be distracting because—sad, sad fact—it’s not something we’re used to seeing. Racial diversity is really different for us. Seeing a token Asian dude or a Black woman doing something that is not stereotypical or fetishized is different, and it’s so different for our senses that it can actually become a distraction. It becomes your focal point because differences are always our focal points. Instead of turning my mental wheels on the symbolism of the pomegranates and what that omen holds for our seeker, I’m thinking, “Oh look! The High Priestess is an Asian chick! How neat!”
One comment you hear echoed among readers about #TarotsoWhite is that the whiteness in tarot is why they have a preference for abstract tarot and oracle decks where any human figures depicted are racially ambiguous. The subtext here is: “I want to be racially inclusive but I don’t want to think about race during a tarot reading and people of color depicted in tarot imagery is still kind of distracting so this is my best response.”
I get that. I dig it. I agree.
The catch is, if no one buys tarot and oracle decks featuring ordinary people of color (and by extension, tarot readers get used to seeing–and liking–decks that feature ordinary people of color), then deck creators and publishers won’t be inclined to feature ordinary people of color, and so we will never get to that point where the Asianness of an Asian High Priestess or the Blackness of a Black Emperor won’t distract us.
The only way for race to not be a distraction is for the topic of race to become boring. When the topic of race is boring, an Asian High Priestess and a Black Emperor will be no big deal for our subconscious to handle. Unfortunately, the topic of race is very interesting right now, especially given the racially charged climate we live in.
So if I, a person of color, don’t even want to think about race during a tarot reading, do other tarot readers want to think about race when they dish out the Celtic Cross? And if we don’t want to think about race in tarot but race featured in tarot makes us think about race in tarot, then do people really want to buy tarot decks that feature different races?
Well. We have to.
Social progress in the tarot world will only happen if it’s profitable for deck publishers to get on board with social progress. Otherwise, they’re going to throw out a few token people-of-color decks so as not to appear racist, and then stick primarily to the all-white Arcana cast. Frankly, it’s not profitable right now for deck publishers to feature people of color because even people of color don’t want to see people of color. Everybody wants to see white people.
Each one of us bears the responsibility of changing that dynamic. Tarot practitioners have to make a conscious, concerted effort to show deck publishers, by the power of our spending, that tarot decks with zero racial diversity are not profitable. It sort of has to be a forced change at first, you know, fake it ’til you make it, and eventually, racial diversity in tarot will finally feel natural to us.
But it’s a tall order because the race thing is so deeply engrained into us that most of us don’t even acknowledge it.
It’s like how my name “Benebell” can bother someone because [true story here–and this is the part that she figured was okay to say in public…] Benewell was the name of her [presumably White] Civil War ancestor and so my name Benebell becomes a nuisance and a point of distraction to her. The racialized reality is [here’s the part people would think is not okay to say in public…] Benebell distracts her because Benewell was an old white dude and Benebell is a young(ish) Asian girl.
The race issue, albeit subconscious, was the distraction, not the name issue. If I had been an old white dude, my name wouldn’t have bothered her as much. But it bothered her because of the race discrepancy. She just couldn’t get over an Asian girl “hijacking” her White ancestor’s name.
That subtle yet insidious anecdote extrapolated out to the tarot community at large explains why we find racial diversity in tarot distracting (though would die before we admit it). It’s because our brains have been wired for a very long time to envision a white High Priestess and a white Emperor, and a white Queen of Cups, and white kids in the Six of Cups, and white people fighting in the Five of Wands. When these people are not white, we can’t help but stop to think, “oh… hey.” And at its worst (like the Benebell vs. Benewell account) it’s a nuisance and at best, a point of distraction.
It’s just something we have to get over as tarot readers. Not only do we have to get over it, but we have to push homogeny out of profitability and convince publishers and deck creators that it’s just economic good sense to feature boring racial diversity. No Nubian queens or geishas, just plain, boring people of color, but, you know, decked out like the Queen of Swords or the hermaphrodite in The World.
Addendum.
The tarot and oracle decks that fetishize or exoticize race are popular because we can observe racial difference in a way that emphasizes difference. Somehow that’s okay for our subconscious to handle. It’s when different races, i.e., people of color, appear normal and run-of-the-mill that blows our [subconscious, and sometimes not so subconscious] minds. When people of color are depicted as the “other,” that’s okay, and we can work with that. That’s not distracting because the depictions play in to our preconceived stereotypes. Deck creators and publishers have to do better than that. Racial diversity and inclusion has to go beyond Afro-centric Timbuktu pharaohs of ancient Egypt Imperial China Japanese samurai culture art.
This has been going on for a while already and I am having so much fun! However, I don’t know if I’m reaching enough folks, so here is a blog post. You can sign up to get on a list of folks who consent to possible free randomized divinatory readings to be delivered to your e-mail inbox, perhaps when you least expect it. This is offered alongside all my reading services that you can book. More info on my “Book a Reading” page. Scroll all the way down to see the info on the Free Randomized Divination Sign-up.
I am a gemstone and crystal hoarder. I’m not an expert in rocks and minerals, but I am a zealous enthusiast and for the most part, can identify most common stones. Hubby, a world traveler, makes a point to bring back stones and crystals for me from wherever he goes, and not from stores at retail price points, oh heavens no– he’s not that kind of guy anyway. He’s an adventurer, rock climber, hiker, goes places where there is no running water, plumbing, electricity, or internet. Those are the places he brings home rocks and crystals for me from. I also happen to work for a company that owns a couple of mines and trades internationally in natural resources, so that helps. Finally, I buy a ton of stones on my own. Most places I buy from are ehh, okay, that will do. But this place… omigosh this place…. Crystal River Gems in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It started with a personal hunt for tumbled malachite. I bought some from this other seller, who will go unnamed, and was disappointed. It was expensive and then the stones that came were, for one, small, all under 1.0 inch, lackluster, and some were even chipped. I was displeased, but still needed to restock my personal malachite collection. Then I stumbled upon Crystal River Gems.
Okay first of all, they were selling the same weight of malachite and same size description at a slightly lower price than the place I had just purchased from. So right away I was a touch skeptical. Here is what came:
Malachite from Crystal River Gems
Every one of those stones is over 1.0 inch long. Over! Some close to 2.0 inches. The pieces have a great meaty roundness to them, not like some sliver morsels of gemstones that you get when you order in bulk. I also ordered the bloodstones you see above. I’m always in short supply of bloodstones, it seems, as I work frequently with them. Feels like everyone and their mother I metaphysically empower stones via sigils for need bloodstone. Anyway.
All participants were to take the above quote and run with it. The astrological correspondence for today is the 15th degree of the sign Aquarius, the fixed center of a fixed sign, with Aquarius expressed in Key 17: The Star card in the Major Arcana of tarot. The Star card is about “Awakening the Heart,” per Qabalistic correspondences subscribed to by the Golden Dawn. We can also look at the three decans of Aquarius in the Minor Arcana– the Five of Swords, Six of Swords, and Seven of Swords. Or let’s talk about how this mid-winter time of the year is a time of birthing– the quickening of seeds into the earth and the first litters of animals.
Those were the prompts we were given. We blogger participants were to take those prompts and write about something tarot-related. I’d like to talk about the Five, Six, and Seven of Swords in the Rider-Waite-Smith. For me–and the astrological correspondences may differ from reader to reader–the Five of Swords is Venus in Aquarius; the Six of Swords is Mercury in Aquarius; and the Seven of Swords is the Moon in Aquarius.
Perhaps these cards don’t immediately call to your mind an “awakening of the heart,” but in each of these cards, we see individuals who are on the verge of reaching that “still point” of their own center. In each scene, a specific spiritual seed is being planted in that moment that has been captured on the card.
In the Five of Swords, the figure in the foreground is beaming with victory for having defeated others, but we onlookers can finish that narrative– he is about to realize quite quickly that he is alone at the top, without friends, without camaraderie. Is his winning worth what he has lost? We know that he is about to experience an awakening of his heart, of realizing that winning isn’t everything.
As for the figures in the background who have been defeated, we can picture the next scene for each of these fellows. What do we ourselves do right after failure? We find a quiet corner to be alone and to lick our wounds. There is a moment of dark uncertainty, of not knowing exactly where we’ll go next with our lives, because defeat can feel like death. Yet it is this defeat (and also the realization that victory by unethical means puts us at an uneasy position of no support) that stimulates germination, triggering a growth within us. These figures are each at a still point, and to get past the defeat (and loneliness), there is no choice but to find their own center and then go from there. It is through an awakening of the heart that we get past our failures (or our ignorance) and move on. To me, the Venus in Aquarius correspondence speaks of an emotional awakening to come.
In the Six of Swords, the vast waters ahead of the figures in the boat represent that still point we head to when we’re trying to put distance between us and our past. While the Five of Swords shows us reaching the still point to experience an awakening of the heart, the Six of Swords shows us trying desperately to grasp at the still point, without success, because the boat is in movement, and we are in transit.
The hooded figure in the boat is said to be running away from a troubled past, with a prognostication that the future will bring smoother sailing. There is a paradox here, however. By the condition of the boat being in the water, the water cannot be smooth. The boat’s movement causes the rippling. Thus, the wisdom to be gained here is that so long as the boat is in movement, there can be no smooth waters. A still point at the center of the lake is required. That lake is a metaphor for our body of thoughts, the mind, noting the Mercury in Aquarius correspondence for the card. It is that future point when the figures in the boat come to a still point, no longer in transit, that their personal centers can become fixed and an awakening of their hearts can happen.
In the Seven of Swords, we see in the background the opposite of being fixed– we see the impermanence of the tents. If the Five of Swords is about an inevitable awakening to happen brought on by the circumstances we’re dealt with, and the Six of Swords is about the paradox of not being able to attain awakening when you run desperately to get to it, then the Seven of Swords, the Moon in Aquarius, is addressing what needs to happen at the subconscious level, noting the moon’s astrological attribution to our subconscious and the inner realm.
Toward an awakening is at the periphery of the consciousness for each of the figures in these cards, except the figure in the Seven of Swords. Even the victor in the Five of Swords is going to be forced toward awakening as soon as he realizes the isolation and loneliness that comes with his form of victory. But the figure in the Seven of Swords is unaware. The Moon in Aquarius correspondence for the Seven of Swords tells us that much is trapped in the subconscious. The figure in the Seven of Swords is entangled in the acts of both the Five and Six of Swords–simultaneously trying to gain an unfair advantage and trying to run away from trouble.
Yet I like to say that while the acts of the victor in the Five of Swords are intentional, they are not so by the figure in the Seven of Swords. Here is someone mischievous, but not devious. I do not see red hat red boots guy as malicious. He believes life has dealt him an unfair hand and he’s just trying to take control and gain his own edge. However, that is not stillness. His path is a far removed path from awakening of the heart. When the Seven of Swords appears in a reading, we must face our own disquiet and realize what we’re doing is not toward spiritual growth. We must take a deep dive into our subconscious to figure out what’s really motivating us.
The Five of Swords, with the numerical value five being closest to the “center,” also shows people who are closest to an awakening. As we move from the Six to the Seven, we move away from that center, and so germination cannot take hold. We can each identify with either the runaways in the Six of Swords or the runaway in the Seven of Swords. At every point, we identify with one or the other–each run an attempt to get to someplace better, but the Aquarian essence contains the true answer: finding the fixed position is what will awaken the heart.
Or father. I’ve been hearing a lot about parenting for pagans and wanted to add my own thoughts. However, I won’t be talking about it from the perspective of the parent. I want to talk about it from the perspective of the child.
Now, my parents are not pagan, mostly because that word is not in their vocabulary. They’re Taiwanese immigrants. However, my mother is a metaphysical practitioner, though she wouldn’t see it that way. What she thinks she does is as natural as cooking, praying, dreaming, meditating, and just using what you have within reach to manifest what you want.
I think that is an important point. Growing up, I never saw what she did as “occult,” though living in the Western society has made me realize that Westernerswould define what she does as totally occult. Paying attention to equinoxes and solstices, knowing when the veil was thinnest, when to honor the dead, what to do when there was heightened spirit activity, calling upon the elements of nature and combining it with recitations to make things happen, understanding the phases of the moon– these weren’t seen as pagan.
“After their deaths, in my dreams I went down to the realm your late auntie and uncle were trapped in and it was so cold and dark. They told me they were hungry. So we burned offerings and chanted prayers for them and then many nights later I visited them again. I saw that they were now in a different, better realm, very happy and at peace.” (Mom, paraphrased)
I’ve come to understand that in the Western society, that is absolutely bonkers, but in Mom’s world, that was perfectly normal. And accepted at face value. After a death in the family, she’d relay her dreams and all the relatives would just nod. Yeah, that makes sense, they’d confirm. Okay, let’s burn offerings and chant prayers. And then they’d all wait for Mom’s post-dream-shamanic-travels to verify that the offerings and chanting worked. Mom always said that dead people liked to call to her from the post-mortem realms they were in, and so she’d go to them in her dream state to bring back messages for the living. God, growing up when that happened, I’d cover my ears and run out of the room and make it clear to all who’d listen that I thought all of this was batshit crazy.
Okay. ::pulls out lectern:: I’m about to get patronizing and preachy about tarot. Uh oh, you’re thinking. This won’t end well.
Deck Image: Smith-Waite Centennial (U.S. Games)
If you are serious about mastering tarot, then you have to keep a tarot journal.
No “maybe consider” or “well this is how I do it” or “whatever floats your boat.” No.
You need to keep a journal.
You need to log your trials and errors. You need to record your ruminations and then go back to update those ruminations as your understanding of tarot evolves. You need to keep your own write-up of card meanings, which yes, in the beginning as a newbie will just be copy-paste general text from other sources but by the intermediate level, almost all of that copy-paste plagiarized (well, no biggie, this is private, personal journaling stuff) text will be transformed into your personalized, original understanding of each card.
benebell wen 