September 19, 2024 • 28 mins
In this illuminating episode of Intentional Spiritual Living with Brian, we explore the powerful energies of Rainbow Obsidian and how you can incorporate this protective and heart-healing crystal into your spiritual toolkit. Brian will share practical tips and insights on harnessing its grounding and transformative properties to support emotional healing and self-reflection.
Next, we unravel the mystical origins and key differences between a Book of Shadows and a Grimoire, two essential tools in magical practice. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or just beginning your spiritual journey, this segment will help clarify how these sacred books serve different roles in recording spells, rituals, and personal experiences.
Finally, Brian takes a deep dive into the suit of Wands in Tarot, offering an in-depth overview of its fiery, dynamic energy. Learn how the Wands cards represent creativity, action, and passion in your readings, and how they can guide you toward embracing new opportunities and personal growth.
Tune in for this rich episode that blends crystal wisdom, magical knowledge, and Tarot expertise to inspire and empower your spiritual path!
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:15):
Music, hello and welcome to season three, Episode
Nine of intentional, spiritualliving with Brian. What kind of
a information packed episode,the second to the last episode
of this season, time hasflooded, and we've done the
flown when we've done this. AndI hope you've enjoyed it as much
as I have. Today we're going tocover part nine of our 10 part
(00:37):
build your own crystal toolkit,and we're going to talk about
rainbow obsidian today. Thenwe're going to talk about the
difference between a book ofshadows and a Grimoire, and when
you would use each and kind of alittle bit of the history of
that. And then I'm going to do adeep dive. Rather than do a
three card Tarot pull, like I doevery week, I'm going to do a
(00:59):
deep dive into the entire suitof Wands with Tarot and kind of
explore patterns and tarotreadings, and how to pull out
these patterns and come up withan answer for yourself or who
you're reading for. I think it'sgoing to be a really good
discussion. So with no furtherado, let's get started. You
(01:30):
all right, let's continue withpart nine of our 10 part
building your crystal toolkitdeep dive series this season. So
I want to talk about a veryspecial crystal to me, at least.
And I want to clarify again foranyone new that's listening. So
(01:53):
if you were to Google, forinstance, what would I use
orchid calcite for?
Metaphysically or spiritually,you will come up with
tons and tons of differentmeanings, and they will be
vastly different. They will bedifferent based upon the person
that is telling you about them.
(02:13):
And I want to stress what you'reabout to hear from me is my
opinion. So with rainbowobsidian, you will find
documented lots of propertiesrevolving around protection.
Anybody that comes into ametaphysical or spiritual shop,
and they're looking forcrystals. They're looking for
protective stones. They gostraight for Black Tourmaline,
and they go for black obsidian,and a piece of rainbow obsidian,
(02:37):
when you first pick it up,actually doesn't have any
redeeming qualities that's a lotdifferent than black obsidian,
until you start spinning aroundin certain lights, and then you
see these beautiful hues andswirls and orbicular patterns of
greens and blues and purples,and that's where it shines. And
so what I have used it for in mylife, especially in my younger
(03:00):
years is thatnot everything is as it seems,
and it's for self reflection.
You know you might be battlingbodily issues, and you look in
the mirror and you think thatyou're ugly, you think that
you're overweight, you thinkthat you're underweight. You
hate your hair. You know youhave black hair, and you wish
you had blonde hair. You haveblonde hair, you wish you had
black hair. And it goes on andon, and so I, for many years,
(03:21):
carried a piece of rainbowobsidian with me for that very
reason, not bodily issues, but Ijust always had anxiety when I
worked in informationtechnology, and I always felt
like I had to defend my ground,and I always had anxiety around
everything I don't now, becauseI am living my best life and
doing what I'm meant to do, butin those times, I was
(03:41):
struggling. And what rainbowobsidian means to me is that you
can look at something from adifferent angle and see
something totally different thanwhat you just are seeing at a
quick glance in the mirror, ifyou will. And it doesn't have to
do with physical looksnecessarily, or physical shapes
anything like that. It could bedisappointment and anxiety for
where you're at in life,whatever it is. If you think
about a tarot card called thepage of cups, if you don't know
(04:04):
what that is, it is a young pageholding a chalice that has a
fish popping its head out of it.
It's the same kind ofmentality, if you will, like,
I've never looked at it thatway. There shouldn't be a fish
popping out of that cup. Youknow, there shouldn't be green
and purple swirls and what lookslike a piece of black glass, and
so with rainbow sitting and it'sa lovely, lovely way for self
(04:26):
reflection and seeing the truthfor what you really are, not
what you've predetermined inyour mind. Because we all are
biggest critic, and it hasagain. I want to, I want to
drill down on the fact that I'mnot talking about looks and
weight, whether you're too bigor too small, that could be part
of this, but it has to do withyour overall sense of self worth
(04:46):
and how you view yourself,because a lot of us view
ourselves in very unsightlylight, and as a result, being
our own worst critic, then we.
In our own way from blossomingand doing what we're meant to do
in rainbow obsidian in yourpocket. I have two small pieces
in my collection that I carryaround, and I also have a large
(05:09):
palm stone. But when I'm feelinglike I need that extra oomph,
and I need to really believe inwhat I'm saying and know that
I'm offering something good, andI'm feeling a little down and
out, Rainbow obsidian is the wayto go, and that's what I reach
for. So that's my personalexperience with rainbow
obsidian. I think it is a verypowerful and a type of rare
stone to add to your collection.
And I highly, highly, highlyencourage you to do so. I hope
(05:30):
that you have the same love forit that I do. All right, coming
up next, let's talk about thedifference between books of
shadows and grimoires, and whywe would use either,
(05:57):
Okay, let's talk about the Bookof Shadows versus a Grimoire,
and why you would use either ofthose. So we get people coming
in the store all the time,especially young aspiring
witches, wanting to build theirbook of shadows and wanting to
(06:17):
know how to do that, and whatthe proper way and what the
difference is between a Grimoireand a book of shadows, and it
brings up all kinds ofdiscussions. And so I wanted to
talk about it today so that Ican give you my thoughts on it
and some facts about it that Iknow, and you can make your own
decisions. Taking it from there,if you've been listening this
(06:40):
entire season, we actually hadan entire discussion on
negativity in the craft and howthere's a lot of hatred against
Wiccans, because some peoplethat do rituals, they feel like
everything in this craft isbased around Wicca, and when
they show up to rituals, they'renot Wiccan, and they have a
different sort of beliefs. It'smore pagan beliefs, non Wiccan,
(07:00):
and it just gets into all kindsof arguments and gatekeeping and
that type of thing. And thatit's no different with the Book
of Shadows versus grimoires. Andso Book of Shadows is actually a
term that was invented sometimein the 1940s I'm not quite sure
of the year. I'd have to look itup. It is Wiccan. It is a Wiccan
(07:21):
term, and what a Book of Shadowsis is nothing more than a
cookbook for your spirituality.
It's personal. I mentioned thisin the last episode. I don't
have a book of shadows or aGrimoire.
It's all mostly in my head andlittle pieces of paper and
chicken scratch here and there.
My writing, I can barely readmyself. I'm not crafty and
making beautiful things likethat, so I just I don't have
(07:44):
one. But for those that doyour book of shadows, you know,
for instance, you and yourfriend get together and you're
doing a prosperity ritual, andyou pull together your crystals
and your herbs and candles andany other materials that you,
you know, could be some Chinesecoins, a lucky, you know, the
(08:05):
lucky Toad from China, that typeof thing. And it works for you,
let's say, and you get what youasked for. You'll want to write
down though that ritual, andyou'll want to have it for
repeatability. That's thetheory. No, that's fact there.
That's what you would do withthe Book of Shadows. Now I'm
(08:26):
going to talk about my opinion alittle bit on that spells and
rituals like that don't alwaysnecessarily deem themselves
worthy of repeating the exactsame way. Because if you really
get down to brass tacks and youare doing you've designed a
ritual with specific crystalsand a specific intention, rarely
(08:47):
would you have the exact sameintention happening, and rarely
would it be the exact samesituation. And so I would
always, always be adjustingthose rituals and spells. And so
for me, having a cookbook of allthe spells and rituals I've done
wouldn't necessarily fit myneeds. Now, would I have, if you
(09:10):
think about it as a like a foodcookbook, you know, a base
yellow cake recipe that neverchanges, and then we add to that
for the different flavors andthe different
icings and whatever else we wantto change to such cake. Then
yes, of course, that might helpme. But for me, a book of
(09:30):
shadows is not something that isnecessary, because rarely do I
do two exact rituals. And thatholds true even with what I
teach in the in the store. Youknow, we have very heavy duty
candle magick events, and I'mtelling you right now, Nothing
everstays the same in those classes,
even though it might be forprosperity, we're going to be
using different crystals,different herbs, different oil
(09:51):
blends and that kind of thing,depending on the vibe at the
time. What's going on in theworld, what we're asking for.
Same thing with personal spellsand even more so, you know,
rarely would I be, you know,let's just say I get together
and I do a massive ritual to geta new job, and I collect all
these materials, and it takes mea month to do so, and I put it
(10:13):
together, and it's a big ritual,big spell, and I've done it.
It's a specific job that I'mlooking for. So I wouldn't want
that in my book of shadows toturn around. Because it's going
to be extenuating circumstancesevery time I ask for such help
for that. So enough about that.
I bet that dead horse you getwhat I'm saying. So, Book of
Shadows 1940s a Wiccan term.
(10:35):
It's a personal spell book forwhat works for you and what you
do in your craft. And it doesn'talways necessarily have to be
spells. It could almost be apersonal journal. You know how
you feel about amethyst, how youfeel about burning mugwort. I
don't know it could be anything,and it's very specific to you,
almost like a diary, if youwill. Moving forward into a
(10:57):
Grimoire. Grimoires came aboutin the 18th century, which was
the year 1701 to 1800 give ortake. And it is a historical
book. And so you would look up aGrimoire and find out how things
used to be done, historicallyfor prosperity spell, with some
people were talking about thatmanifesting spell, and it might
(11:18):
have been called something elsein that century. And that is a
completely different book than abook of shadow. So you might
find a Grimoire ancient texts,even in a library, you would
never find a book of shadowsthere. And so, can you create I
get people asking me all thetime, can you create a Grimoire?
Yes, you could absolutely createa Grimoire, Grimoire, and you
(11:42):
would just be citing historicaltexts and kind of putting your
spin on the way of which mighthave done a manifesting spell
back in the late 1800s the 1700sdoesn't matter, and it becomes
more of a guidebook and atemplate for other people, and
that's the difference between aGrimoire and a book of shadows.
(12:05):
And once again, I brought upthat Wicca thing, because a lot
of people have issues with thebook of shadows because they
say, That's Wiccan. I'm notWiccan. This is a age old thing
that comes up in this craft. Itmakes me exhausted, because I
feel like we're all justtogether in the craft. Whether
you're a Wiccan, a pagan itdoesn't matter. We're all here
for the same purpose, and that'senhancing our own lives. So that
(12:26):
kind of argument really, really,kind of disturbs me, as if you
couldn't tell from the previousepisode, but I wanted to talk
about these two differences, soBook of Shadows and Grimoire and
how you can use them. Coming upnext, we are going to do a deep
dive on the suit of wands. I'mvery excited about this. I'm a
Tarot aficionado, and eventhough I'm a Virgo and I'm an
(12:49):
earth sign, the fire suit ofwands is, by and large my
favorite suit in a tarot deck.
And I'm gonna talk aboutnoticing patterns and tarot
readings and how you can pullthem out based on suit. So
that's coming right up.
(13:18):
All right, let's get into thesuit of wands. Generally
speaking, I want to talk aboutthe suit of Wands next week. For
our final episode this season,I'm going to talk at a high
level about the suit of swords,and then in a subsequent season
down the road, I'll pick up withPentacles and cups. I started
(13:39):
with the suit of Wands simplybecause it guides my life, to be
quite honest, it's my favoritesuit
in a tarot deck because of whatit stands for. So let's get
started talking about it. Sobefore I dive into what the suit
of Wands means and the elementalrepresentation and all that kind
of good stuff, I want to talkabout patterns in tarot readings
(14:02):
and why it matters when you'velaid out a Tarot Spread and
you've got your current in frontof you, let's just go with a
traditional Celtic cross, whichis a 10 card spread,
and the person comes In and theyask you, for instance, I just
(14:22):
feel lethargic and work is justhumdrum. Life is humdrum.
Everything is okay. Nothing'sreally wrong. But I just wanted
some guidance as to how to getout of this seven season slump
that I'm feeling, if you will,and just made that up so and
then I sort of notice one of twothings, either there's a lack of
(14:43):
Wands cards completely, or anabundance of Wands cards in
situations like what's missing,what's the solution, what's your
hopes and fears, what yourexternal influences are telling
you that type of thing, thosekind of patterns are very key.
To getting a direct andbeautiful answer from the
universe when you're readingTarot. So there's a little tip
(15:04):
for you. And so once we starttalking about the meaning of
wands, it will make sense toyou. But
looking for patterns of suits,not necessarily the Major
Arcana, you know, if you getheavy cups, cards, heavy
pencils, pentacles, heavyswords, it doesn't matter where
they're at, and you have apattern with a particular suit,
(15:24):
it can really tell you theanswer that the person's looking
for.
So the suit of Wands in a tarotdeck, every suit has an
elemental representation, andthe suit of wands is represented
by the element of fire, whichmay be the very reason why I
love it. Sofor me, a little bit about me, I
am driven by passion and thingsthat matter to me. What gets me
(15:48):
out of bed in the morning? Andif there's nothing going into my
life and everything is humdrumand nothing is exciting me, my
life will spin out of control.
It's happened multiple times,not for many years, because I've
gotten a handle on it, and Iknow what to do. And so I need
that fire and that passion andthat drive. And the suit of
wands is all about energy,passion, creativity, taking
(16:12):
action, inspiration, even. Andso that's why it's just so
important to me. It's animportant suit. And so the key
themes, if you're reading Tarotand you want to know how to
decipher some of this stuff,action and initiative. Suit OF
WANDS gets us out of bed. Itgets us running to the goal,
(16:33):
whatever that is for us. And sooften, when I'm reading Tarot,
and I have a lack of wands, oran overabundance of Wands in
areas of the spread that tellsme that passion is needed. I
always ask the basic, simplequestion of my queer and that
is, what is it that gets you outof bed in the morning? What do
you care about? And most ofthese people, when I ask them,
(16:53):
that, struggle to answer that.
And that's why wands are soimportant. If you can't answer
what's important to you, whatyou stand for
and what you care about, thenyou do have a lack of passion
and a lack of fire in your life.
And we need to refine that, youknow? I We are only here for a
very short time, and so we haveto have something that that
makes us tick, if you will. Anda lot of times people go, you
(17:14):
know, well, you know, I, I'mjust going to make up things
here on the brick layer, on theMason for instance, that's what
I do eight hours a day, and I'llstop them, and I'll be like,
Okay, does that bring you joy?
Do you come home loving what youdo, or is it a means to an end?
Is it your job to pay the bills,but you'd much rather be doing I
don't know a painter,and that's how we kind of get
(17:35):
down to it, but this entire suitis all about these themes. It's
all about again, action,initiative and passion and
energy, what you care about, andspirituality and creativity and
willpower and determination toget from point A to point B. And
let's talk about some specificcards. I won't go all over all
(17:58):
of the cards, because all thewands cards ace through 10, and
then the four court cards,because we would be here for
longer than this podcast needsto be. But I pick out some
favorites and just go over somethemes, and I just kind of want
to get you thinking about whatthis suit means and how
important it is.
(18:18):
So a good place to start offwith. Let's talk about the ace
of wands, as in all aces in atarot deck, they are new
opportunities, new potential.
And I highlight, italicize andunderline in bold, potential,
because aces are a double edgedsword in Tarot. You know,
(18:38):
they're exciting, newbeginnings. Everybody loves to
see the ace of cups. You mightmeans a new romance, perhaps is
brewing for you, but it justmeans potential, and it's going
to require work and followthrough.
Wands are a perfect suit to callout the potential pitfalls of an
(19:00):
ace actually, because PassionProjects hobbies, you know what?
One at the core of wands? Youknow, you you wake up in the
morning and you're all refreshedand excited to take on a new
passion project, but that canfizzle out over time, and it
requires effort and followthrough. And that's the pitfall
with aces in Tarot. But if youdo get the ace of wands in a
(19:22):
favorable position, you knowit's indicating a start of a
passion project, a creativeproject, a new idea, a surge of
energy inside yourself to getyou out of bed in the morning
and get you excited about doingsomething, the birth of
something new, a new businessadventure. And it's it's an
exciting time, but just rememberalways that it does require
significant follow through.
(19:44):
And now let's take that all theway up to the 10 of wands.
And it's an interesting card,and it may not be everything
that you would think it was intraditional Tarot. You know,
when you get to the 10 you'vereached your.
Reached it, you're feeling good,all that kind of good thing, but
the 10 of wands is a little bitdifferent. The 10 of wands
(20:06):
actually reminds us that passionprojects, doing things that we
love, living our best lives,takes its toll, and it's a lot
of hard work, and so it kind ofrepresents responsibility,
overwhelmed feelings, burden,and it means that you're kind of
carrying too much on yourshoulders. And so when the 10 of
(20:28):
wands comes up in a reading,it's someone that's actually
taken the fireball and ran withit, and they are building their
own empire and living their bestlife and doing things that they
want to do that nourishes theirsoul, but they're doing it
without the help of others, andthey've reached a pinnacle in
their Juan's career, if youwill, that they need to get
other people to help, so thatthey can continue smiling from
(20:50):
ear to ear, doing what theylove, and not give up their
passion to go back to an eightto five job because they feel
like it's simpler. And I knowthat was a lot of verbiage
there, but these cards are so,so so deep. And that's why I
wanted to kind of deep dive andjust pull out 234, cards and
talk about wands, because it'smy favorite. So I want to talk
(21:12):
about one more, and that's thepage of wands. So for my Tarot
neophytes, if you will, they'rethe page knight, queen, king of
all four suits. And these arethe cards that can really trip
people up, because they're trulyenergies, and people get tripped
up onquadrants of life. You know,
youthful. You know, if you getthe page of anything, it's from
(21:34):
age zero to, let's say, 18, andthat's not telling you to act
like an 18 year old, but what itis telling you to do is look at
things with an 18 year old'ssurprise and awe, because we
become jaded in our path, if youwill. And so the page of wands
is a favorite of mine,especially when it comes up in
(21:55):
the what is needed to get wellor the final outcome from the
universe, a recommendation fromthe universe, and a reading the
page of wands means that it'sjust asking you for that
youthful enthusiasm andcuriosity and that willingness,
that non jaded willingness, toexplore a new opportunity.
(22:17):
It's a card of adventure,meaning that you're about to
take on something new. It couldcost money, it could take time,
it could take energy, but it'sworth doing. It's a fresh
perspective. It invites you toembrace your passions, that fire
that sits inside your stomach,and that age old question that I
ask every time I get a Tarotreading that has to do with
(22:38):
wands, it is what gets you outof bed in the morning. What is
important to you? What do youcare about? Because the answers
to those questions is going toreshape the path that you are
on, and it's so so, so veryimportant. And so the page of
wands, I love, because it kindof comes back to that whole time
of life where it's so exciting,and that's all we care about,
(23:02):
and that is our discussion onwands. I hope you have enjoyed
this and got something good outof it. It really is important
with Tarot to kind of,when I teach tarot and stuff, I
mean, the least important thingabout Tarot is members
memorizing card meanings. But ifyou can step out of your head
and out of the academia of itand look for patterns, emerging
(23:23):
patterns, and the way the storycomes around, and getting a
quality answer to someone basedupon themes, I think you'll be
Much, much, much, much moresuccessful in your readings. You
(23:55):
all right, friends, that is awrap on season three, episode
nine. Thanks for listening. Ihope you learned some good stuff
about the suit of Wands andtarot and grimoires versus Book
of Shadows and rainbow obsidian.
Next week, our final episode forthis season, I am going to be
talking about Sunstone for yourpart. 10, of building your
(24:15):
crystal toolkit, as promised. Inepisode eight, I am going to
talk about a few of the sacredgeometry shapes and how they
relate to building out anintentional crystal grid for
anything and everything you wantto do. And I'm going to do a
deep dive, not unlike what Ijust did on the suit of Wands or
(24:37):
tarot, but we're going to do thesuit of swords, and I will save
these suit of cups in the suitof Pentacles for a later season
of intentional spiritual livingwith Brian. So with that, I look
forward to seeing and hearingfrom you all next week. Have a
great week.
Music, hello and welcome to season three, Episode
Nine of intentional, spiritualliving with Brian. What kind of
a information packed episode,the second to the last episode
of this season, time hasflooded, and we've done the
flown when we've done this. AndI hope you've enjoyed it as much
as I have. Today we're going tocover part nine of our 10 part
(00:37):
build your own crystal toolkit,and we're going to talk about
rainbow obsidian today. Thenwe're going to talk about the
difference between a book ofshadows and a Grimoire, and when
you would use each and kind of alittle bit of the history of
that. And then I'm going to do adeep dive. Rather than do a
three card Tarot pull, like I doevery week, I'm going to do a
(00:59):
deep dive into the entire suitof Wands with Tarot and kind of
explore patterns and tarotreadings, and how to pull out
these patterns and come up withan answer for yourself or who
you're reading for. I think it'sgoing to be a really good
discussion. So with no furtherado, let's get started. You
(01:30):
all right, let's continue withpart nine of our 10 part
building your crystal toolkitdeep dive series this season. So
I want to talk about a veryspecial crystal to me, at least.
And I want to clarify again foranyone new that's listening. So
(01:53):
if you were to Google, forinstance, what would I use
orchid calcite for?
Metaphysically or spiritually,you will come up with
tons and tons of differentmeanings, and they will be
vastly different. They will bedifferent based upon the person
that is telling you about them.
(02:13):
And I want to stress what you'reabout to hear from me is my
opinion. So with rainbowobsidian, you will find
documented lots of propertiesrevolving around protection.
Anybody that comes into ametaphysical or spiritual shop,
and they're looking forcrystals. They're looking for
protective stones. They gostraight for Black Tourmaline,
and they go for black obsidian,and a piece of rainbow obsidian,
(02:37):
when you first pick it up,actually doesn't have any
redeeming qualities that's a lotdifferent than black obsidian,
until you start spinning aroundin certain lights, and then you
see these beautiful hues andswirls and orbicular patterns of
greens and blues and purples,and that's where it shines. And
so what I have used it for in mylife, especially in my younger
(03:00):
years is thatnot everything is as it seems,
and it's for self reflection.
You know you might be battlingbodily issues, and you look in
the mirror and you think thatyou're ugly, you think that
you're overweight, you thinkthat you're underweight. You
hate your hair. You know youhave black hair, and you wish
you had blonde hair. You haveblonde hair, you wish you had
black hair. And it goes on andon, and so I, for many years,
(03:21):
carried a piece of rainbowobsidian with me for that very
reason, not bodily issues, but Ijust always had anxiety when I
worked in informationtechnology, and I always felt
like I had to defend my ground,and I always had anxiety around
everything I don't now, becauseI am living my best life and
doing what I'm meant to do, butin those times, I was
(03:41):
struggling. And what rainbowobsidian means to me is that you
can look at something from adifferent angle and see
something totally different thanwhat you just are seeing at a
quick glance in the mirror, ifyou will. And it doesn't have to
do with physical looksnecessarily, or physical shapes
anything like that. It could bedisappointment and anxiety for
where you're at in life,whatever it is. If you think
about a tarot card called thepage of cups, if you don't know
(04:04):
what that is, it is a young pageholding a chalice that has a
fish popping its head out of it.
It's the same kind ofmentality, if you will, like,
I've never looked at it thatway. There shouldn't be a fish
popping out of that cup. Youknow, there shouldn't be green
and purple swirls and what lookslike a piece of black glass, and
so with rainbow sitting and it'sa lovely, lovely way for self
(04:26):
reflection and seeing the truthfor what you really are, not
what you've predetermined inyour mind. Because we all are
biggest critic, and it hasagain. I want to, I want to
drill down on the fact that I'mnot talking about looks and
weight, whether you're too bigor too small, that could be part
of this, but it has to do withyour overall sense of self worth
(04:46):
and how you view yourself,because a lot of us view
ourselves in very unsightlylight, and as a result, being
our own worst critic, then we.
In our own way from blossomingand doing what we're meant to do
in rainbow obsidian in yourpocket. I have two small pieces
in my collection that I carryaround, and I also have a large
(05:09):
palm stone. But when I'm feelinglike I need that extra oomph,
and I need to really believe inwhat I'm saying and know that
I'm offering something good, andI'm feeling a little down and
out, Rainbow obsidian is the wayto go, and that's what I reach
for. So that's my personalexperience with rainbow
obsidian. I think it is a verypowerful and a type of rare
stone to add to your collection.
And I highly, highly, highlyencourage you to do so. I hope
(05:30):
that you have the same love forit that I do. All right, coming
up next, let's talk about thedifference between books of
shadows and grimoires, and whywe would use either,
(05:57):
Okay, let's talk about the Bookof Shadows versus a Grimoire,
and why you would use either ofthose. So we get people coming
in the store all the time,especially young aspiring
witches, wanting to build theirbook of shadows and wanting to
(06:17):
know how to do that, and whatthe proper way and what the
difference is between a Grimoireand a book of shadows, and it
brings up all kinds ofdiscussions. And so I wanted to
talk about it today so that Ican give you my thoughts on it
and some facts about it that Iknow, and you can make your own
decisions. Taking it from there,if you've been listening this
(06:40):
entire season, we actually hadan entire discussion on
negativity in the craft and howthere's a lot of hatred against
Wiccans, because some peoplethat do rituals, they feel like
everything in this craft isbased around Wicca, and when
they show up to rituals, they'renot Wiccan, and they have a
different sort of beliefs. It'smore pagan beliefs, non Wiccan,
(07:00):
and it just gets into all kindsof arguments and gatekeeping and
that type of thing. And thatit's no different with the Book
of Shadows versus grimoires. Andso Book of Shadows is actually a
term that was invented sometimein the 1940s I'm not quite sure
of the year. I'd have to look itup. It is Wiccan. It is a Wiccan
(07:21):
term, and what a Book of Shadowsis is nothing more than a
cookbook for your spirituality.
It's personal. I mentioned thisin the last episode. I don't
have a book of shadows or aGrimoire.
It's all mostly in my head andlittle pieces of paper and
chicken scratch here and there.
My writing, I can barely readmyself. I'm not crafty and
making beautiful things likethat, so I just I don't have
(07:44):
one. But for those that doyour book of shadows, you know,
for instance, you and yourfriend get together and you're
doing a prosperity ritual, andyou pull together your crystals
and your herbs and candles andany other materials that you,
you know, could be some Chinesecoins, a lucky, you know, the
(08:05):
lucky Toad from China, that typeof thing. And it works for you,
let's say, and you get what youasked for. You'll want to write
down though that ritual, andyou'll want to have it for
repeatability. That's thetheory. No, that's fact there.
That's what you would do withthe Book of Shadows. Now I'm
(08:26):
going to talk about my opinion alittle bit on that spells and
rituals like that don't alwaysnecessarily deem themselves
worthy of repeating the exactsame way. Because if you really
get down to brass tacks and youare doing you've designed a
ritual with specific crystalsand a specific intention, rarely
(08:47):
would you have the exact sameintention happening, and rarely
would it be the exact samesituation. And so I would
always, always be adjustingthose rituals and spells. And so
for me, having a cookbook of allthe spells and rituals I've done
wouldn't necessarily fit myneeds. Now, would I have, if you
(09:10):
think about it as a like a foodcookbook, you know, a base
yellow cake recipe that neverchanges, and then we add to that
for the different flavors andthe different
icings and whatever else we wantto change to such cake. Then
yes, of course, that might helpme. But for me, a book of
(09:30):
shadows is not something that isnecessary, because rarely do I
do two exact rituals. And thatholds true even with what I
teach in the in the store. Youknow, we have very heavy duty
candle magick events, and I'mtelling you right now, Nothing
everstays the same in those classes,
even though it might be forprosperity, we're going to be
using different crystals,different herbs, different oil
(09:51):
blends and that kind of thing,depending on the vibe at the
time. What's going on in theworld, what we're asking for.
Same thing with personal spellsand even more so, you know,
rarely would I be, you know,let's just say I get together
and I do a massive ritual to geta new job, and I collect all
these materials, and it takes mea month to do so, and I put it
(10:13):
together, and it's a big ritual,big spell, and I've done it.
It's a specific job that I'mlooking for. So I wouldn't want
that in my book of shadows toturn around. Because it's going
to be extenuating circumstancesevery time I ask for such help
for that. So enough about that.
I bet that dead horse you getwhat I'm saying. So, Book of
Shadows 1940s a Wiccan term.
(10:35):
It's a personal spell book forwhat works for you and what you
do in your craft. And it doesn'talways necessarily have to be
spells. It could almost be apersonal journal. You know how
you feel about amethyst, how youfeel about burning mugwort. I
don't know it could be anything,and it's very specific to you,
almost like a diary, if youwill. Moving forward into a
(10:57):
Grimoire. Grimoires came aboutin the 18th century, which was
the year 1701 to 1800 give ortake. And it is a historical
book. And so you would look up aGrimoire and find out how things
used to be done, historicallyfor prosperity spell, with some
people were talking about thatmanifesting spell, and it might
(11:18):
have been called something elsein that century. And that is a
completely different book than abook of shadow. So you might
find a Grimoire ancient texts,even in a library, you would
never find a book of shadowsthere. And so, can you create I
get people asking me all thetime, can you create a Grimoire?
Yes, you could absolutely createa Grimoire, Grimoire, and you
(11:42):
would just be citing historicaltexts and kind of putting your
spin on the way of which mighthave done a manifesting spell
back in the late 1800s the 1700sdoesn't matter, and it becomes
more of a guidebook and atemplate for other people, and
that's the difference between aGrimoire and a book of shadows.
(12:05):
And once again, I brought upthat Wicca thing, because a lot
of people have issues with thebook of shadows because they
say, That's Wiccan. I'm notWiccan. This is a age old thing
that comes up in this craft. Itmakes me exhausted, because I
feel like we're all justtogether in the craft. Whether
you're a Wiccan, a pagan itdoesn't matter. We're all here
for the same purpose, and that'senhancing our own lives. So that
(12:26):
kind of argument really, really,kind of disturbs me, as if you
couldn't tell from the previousepisode, but I wanted to talk
about these two differences, soBook of Shadows and Grimoire and
how you can use them. Coming upnext, we are going to do a deep
dive on the suit of wands. I'mvery excited about this. I'm a
Tarot aficionado, and eventhough I'm a Virgo and I'm an
(12:49):
earth sign, the fire suit ofwands is, by and large my
favorite suit in a tarot deck.
And I'm gonna talk aboutnoticing patterns and tarot
readings and how you can pullthem out based on suit. So
that's coming right up.
(13:18):
All right, let's get into thesuit of wands. Generally
speaking, I want to talk aboutthe suit of Wands next week. For
our final episode this season,I'm going to talk at a high
level about the suit of swords,and then in a subsequent season
down the road, I'll pick up withPentacles and cups. I started
(13:39):
with the suit of Wands simplybecause it guides my life, to be
quite honest, it's my favoritesuit
in a tarot deck because of whatit stands for. So let's get
started talking about it. Sobefore I dive into what the suit
of Wands means and the elementalrepresentation and all that kind
of good stuff, I want to talkabout patterns in tarot readings
(14:02):
and why it matters when you'velaid out a Tarot Spread and
you've got your current in frontof you, let's just go with a
traditional Celtic cross, whichis a 10 card spread,
and the person comes In and theyask you, for instance, I just
(14:22):
feel lethargic and work is justhumdrum. Life is humdrum.
Everything is okay. Nothing'sreally wrong. But I just wanted
some guidance as to how to getout of this seven season slump
that I'm feeling, if you will,and just made that up so and
then I sort of notice one of twothings, either there's a lack of
(14:43):
Wands cards completely, or anabundance of Wands cards in
situations like what's missing,what's the solution, what's your
hopes and fears, what yourexternal influences are telling
you that type of thing, thosekind of patterns are very key.
To getting a direct andbeautiful answer from the
universe when you're readingTarot. So there's a little tip
(15:04):
for you. And so once we starttalking about the meaning of
wands, it will make sense toyou. But
looking for patterns of suits,not necessarily the Major
Arcana, you know, if you getheavy cups, cards, heavy
pencils, pentacles, heavyswords, it doesn't matter where
they're at, and you have apattern with a particular suit,
(15:24):
it can really tell you theanswer that the person's looking
for.
So the suit of Wands in a tarotdeck, every suit has an
elemental representation, andthe suit of wands is represented
by the element of fire, whichmay be the very reason why I
love it. Sofor me, a little bit about me, I
am driven by passion and thingsthat matter to me. What gets me
(15:48):
out of bed in the morning? Andif there's nothing going into my
life and everything is humdrumand nothing is exciting me, my
life will spin out of control.
It's happened multiple times,not for many years, because I've
gotten a handle on it, and Iknow what to do. And so I need
that fire and that passion andthat drive. And the suit of
wands is all about energy,passion, creativity, taking
(16:12):
action, inspiration, even. Andso that's why it's just so
important to me. It's animportant suit. And so the key
themes, if you're reading Tarotand you want to know how to
decipher some of this stuff,action and initiative. Suit OF
WANDS gets us out of bed. Itgets us running to the goal,
(16:33):
whatever that is for us. And sooften, when I'm reading Tarot,
and I have a lack of wands, oran overabundance of Wands in
areas of the spread that tellsme that passion is needed. I
always ask the basic, simplequestion of my queer and that
is, what is it that gets you outof bed in the morning? What do
you care about? And most ofthese people, when I ask them,
(16:53):
that, struggle to answer that.
And that's why wands are soimportant. If you can't answer
what's important to you, whatyou stand for
and what you care about, thenyou do have a lack of passion
and a lack of fire in your life.
And we need to refine that, youknow? I We are only here for a
very short time, and so we haveto have something that that
makes us tick, if you will. Anda lot of times people go, you
(17:14):
know, well, you know, I, I'mjust going to make up things
here on the brick layer, on theMason for instance, that's what
I do eight hours a day, and I'llstop them, and I'll be like,
Okay, does that bring you joy?
Do you come home loving what youdo, or is it a means to an end?
Is it your job to pay the bills,but you'd much rather be doing I
don't know a painter,and that's how we kind of get
(17:35):
down to it, but this entire suitis all about these themes. It's
all about again, action,initiative and passion and
energy, what you care about, andspirituality and creativity and
willpower and determination toget from point A to point B. And
let's talk about some specificcards. I won't go all over all
(17:58):
of the cards, because all thewands cards ace through 10, and
then the four court cards,because we would be here for
longer than this podcast needsto be. But I pick out some
favorites and just go over somethemes, and I just kind of want
to get you thinking about whatthis suit means and how
important it is.
(18:18):
So a good place to start offwith. Let's talk about the ace
of wands, as in all aces in atarot deck, they are new
opportunities, new potential.
And I highlight, italicize andunderline in bold, potential,
because aces are a double edgedsword in Tarot. You know,
(18:38):
they're exciting, newbeginnings. Everybody loves to
see the ace of cups. You mightmeans a new romance, perhaps is
brewing for you, but it justmeans potential, and it's going
to require work and followthrough.
Wands are a perfect suit to callout the potential pitfalls of an
(19:00):
ace actually, because PassionProjects hobbies, you know what?
One at the core of wands? Youknow, you you wake up in the
morning and you're all refreshedand excited to take on a new
passion project, but that canfizzle out over time, and it
requires effort and followthrough. And that's the pitfall
with aces in Tarot. But if youdo get the ace of wands in a
(19:22):
favorable position, you knowit's indicating a start of a
passion project, a creativeproject, a new idea, a surge of
energy inside yourself to getyou out of bed in the morning
and get you excited about doingsomething, the birth of
something new, a new businessadventure. And it's it's an
exciting time, but just rememberalways that it does require
significant follow through.
(19:44):
And now let's take that all theway up to the 10 of wands.
And it's an interesting card,and it may not be everything
that you would think it was intraditional Tarot. You know,
when you get to the 10 you'vereached your.
Reached it, you're feeling good,all that kind of good thing, but
the 10 of wands is a little bitdifferent. The 10 of wands
(20:06):
actually reminds us that passionprojects, doing things that we
love, living our best lives,takes its toll, and it's a lot
of hard work, and so it kind ofrepresents responsibility,
overwhelmed feelings, burden,and it means that you're kind of
carrying too much on yourshoulders. And so when the 10 of
(20:28):
wands comes up in a reading,it's someone that's actually
taken the fireball and ran withit, and they are building their
own empire and living their bestlife and doing things that they
want to do that nourishes theirsoul, but they're doing it
without the help of others, andthey've reached a pinnacle in
their Juan's career, if youwill, that they need to get
other people to help, so thatthey can continue smiling from
(20:50):
ear to ear, doing what theylove, and not give up their
passion to go back to an eightto five job because they feel
like it's simpler. And I knowthat was a lot of verbiage
there, but these cards are so,so so deep. And that's why I
wanted to kind of deep dive andjust pull out 234, cards and
talk about wands, because it'smy favorite. So I want to talk
(21:12):
about one more, and that's thepage of wands. So for my Tarot
neophytes, if you will, they'rethe page knight, queen, king of
all four suits. And these arethe cards that can really trip
people up, because they're trulyenergies, and people get tripped
up onquadrants of life. You know,
youthful. You know, if you getthe page of anything, it's from
(21:34):
age zero to, let's say, 18, andthat's not telling you to act
like an 18 year old, but what itis telling you to do is look at
things with an 18 year old'ssurprise and awe, because we
become jaded in our path, if youwill. And so the page of wands
is a favorite of mine,especially when it comes up in
(21:55):
the what is needed to get wellor the final outcome from the
universe, a recommendation fromthe universe, and a reading the
page of wands means that it'sjust asking you for that
youthful enthusiasm andcuriosity and that willingness,
that non jaded willingness, toexplore a new opportunity.
(22:17):
It's a card of adventure,meaning that you're about to
take on something new. It couldcost money, it could take time,
it could take energy, but it'sworth doing. It's a fresh
perspective. It invites you toembrace your passions, that fire
that sits inside your stomach,and that age old question that I
ask every time I get a Tarotreading that has to do with
(22:38):
wands, it is what gets you outof bed in the morning. What is
important to you? What do youcare about? Because the answers
to those questions is going toreshape the path that you are
on, and it's so so, so veryimportant. And so the page of
wands, I love, because it kindof comes back to that whole time
of life where it's so exciting,and that's all we care about,
(23:02):
and that is our discussion onwands. I hope you have enjoyed
this and got something good outof it. It really is important
with Tarot to kind of,when I teach tarot and stuff, I
mean, the least important thingabout Tarot is members
memorizing card meanings. But ifyou can step out of your head
and out of the academia of itand look for patterns, emerging
(23:23):
patterns, and the way the storycomes around, and getting a
quality answer to someone basedupon themes, I think you'll be
Much, much, much, much moresuccessful in your readings. You
(23:55):
all right, friends, that is awrap on season three, episode
nine. Thanks for listening. Ihope you learned some good stuff
about the suit of Wands andtarot and grimoires versus Book
of Shadows and rainbow obsidian.
Next week, our final episode forthis season, I am going to be
talking about Sunstone for yourpart. 10, of building your
(24:15):
crystal toolkit, as promised. Inepisode eight, I am going to
talk about a few of the sacredgeometry shapes and how they
relate to building out anintentional crystal grid for
anything and everything you wantto do. And I'm going to do a
deep dive, not unlike what Ijust did on the suit of Wands or
(24:37):
tarot, but we're going to do thesuit of swords, and I will save
these suit of cups in the suitof Pentacles for a later season
of intentional spiritual livingwith Brian. So with that, I look
forward to seeing and hearingfrom you all next week. Have a
great week.
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