The Power of 4-card, 5-card, and 6-card spreads

Sometimes you need something a little bit more robust. One of the simplest things you can do is add to a smaller reading.

Spreads that build on a smaller spread assume that you understand how to use those smaller spreads. If you are still iffy on those I recommend reading back on the smaller spreads, or at the very least refer back to them if you don't remember something very well. For example, if you are looking at a five card spread that uses the smaller "past, present, future" spread and you don't remember the time scale for that spread, go back and refer to it to remind yourself before continuing on with the 5-card spread.

These lists, are of course, NOT comprehensive. Feel free to play around with them, make them your own. ^_^

List of 4-card spreads: https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/4-card-spreads.html
List of 5-card spreads: https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/5-card-spreads.html
List of 6-card spreads: https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/6-card-spreads.html

In love and light,
Ruth ~ Lady of Radiant Joy

Prayer, Prophecy, and Choice

Please bear with me. I hardly know where to start with this. I only know what I feel in the Deep Heart of my Soul. Also, please bear with me in that much of what I say comes from the perspective of my Mormon heritage, yet, it is still a message for all those who wish to Hear.

It is said that in the last days before the return of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, horrible things will happen in the world; not just natural calamities such as earthquakes, but that there will be blood in the water, and great terrible wars fought, and other horrifying dehumanizing things. Basically the worst of the worst of things are said to happen, which sounds insane considering what is in our history. It's called the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, because it's going to be horrendously awful. Worse still, it is said to be inevitable.

Every Christian knows this.
Everyone touched by some sort of apocalyptic prophecy according to their belief system knows this.
How incomprehensibly horrible it will be, and the righteous will be saved, praise be!

And then, then I hear prayers that ask God to speed up the coming of the Lord. I hear this especially when good people are trying their best but they are tired. I hear it now, in variant forms, and I wonder, is this what is meant by scripture that says that in the last days people's hearts will fail them? Because, what an awful, selfish, uncompassionate, mean-arsed prayer to say.

You believe it is inevitable that man-made tragedies are going to happen and you are praying for them to happen FASTER just so you can "be saved" and get out of the world you are in. Wow. Do you see how cruel a prayer that is? What about those who aren't ready for it yet!? What about the people who need a little more time to complete their missions here on Earth? It is also a condemnation of yourself, that you can't handle the world you agreed to live in!

What if, instead, you were to pray to God to ask for your Heart to be strengthened? What if you actively made the choice to do something different to help mitigate the horrors of man-made end times?

You heard me right. Oh yes. Let's do something different. Man made end times are just that, man made. And since they are man made, it means that all of humanity, each and every one of us, has the power to choose something different.

With every prophecy there is a choice. It is an "if this then that" proposition. IF you don't repent, THEN these bad things will happen. However  IF you repent, THEN these good things will happen.

We can herald the coming of the Lord by having our shiznit together! By sharing this world together in more and more Christlike ways, where we all actually take care of each other, where we don't judge differences, but celebrate them. The way we are now, it's like the hands are hating the feet, the brain hating the heart, the organs hating the abdomen, despite all parts being part of the one organism, one body.

There are things we can do to change the course we have set. We can delight the Lord, and ourselves, by cleaning up the mess we have made.

Stop praying for Jesus to get over here faster.
Start praying for how you can make life on Earth better for everyone
Start praying for more time so we can have the time we need to make it better.
Start praying for strengthened Hearts so our Hearts won't fail us, but be made strong in Light and Truth and Love, so we can make it better.

With every prophecy there is a choice.
What will you choose?
-To herald the coming of the Lord with a ravaged garden?
-Or to herald the coming of the Lord with a garden flourishing with all manner of life?

The more of us who choose the latter, in thought, word, and deed, the more likely the latter will be realized. It is the only Christlike thing to do.

Elements of the Tarot

Here is the basics of how I personally conceptualize the elements in the Tarot, through personal study and personal experience.

FIRE 🔥🜂
     ✦ WANDS ☨

              👁 WILL, passion, action/reactions, instinct - learned, light and life

              👁 Common imagery: Bread of life, sun, lions, salamanders, light, warmth

     ✦ COMMUNITY 👭
     ✦ Playing cards: Clubs ♣
     ✦ Cardinal direction: North↑
     ✦ Hogwarts House*: Gryffindor 

WATER 🌊🜄
     ✦ CUPS ⛾

              👁 EMOTION, subtler energies, romance, patience, fun, friendship

              👁 Common imagery: Water of life, ocean, moon, lakes, rivers, dolphins, other aquatic animals

     ✦ WOOD 🌳
     ✦ Play cards: Hearts ♥
     ✦ Cardinal direction: South↓
     ✦ Hogwarts House*: Hufflepuff 

AIR 🛫🜁
     ✦ SWORDS ⚔

              👁 MENTAL STATES, logic, seriousness, planning, belief systems, weathering the storm

              👁 Common imagery: Sword of truth, breath of life, butterflies, crows/ravens, clouds

     ✦ VIBRATION 🔊
     ✦ Playing cards: Spades ♠
     ✦ Cardinal direction:  East→

     ✦ Hogwarts House*: Ravenclaw 

EARTH 💎🜃
     ✦ PENTACLES  ✪

              👁 MORTALITY, family life, nature, the material world, work, comfort 

              👁 Common imagery: Salt of the earth, fruit, rams, snakes, cycles, mountains, land

     ✦ METAL ⛰
     ✦ Playing cards: Diamonds ⯁
     ✦ Cardinal direction: West←
     ✦ Hogwarts House*: Slytherin                  

SPIRIT ☥∞
     ✦ MAJOR ARCANA 💀
              👁 Interplay between our souls and dense matter, following our Hearts,  our purpose, virtue and values, 

              👁 Common imagery: the infinite symbol, crowns, bridges, books, roses and lilies, stars, radiance

     ✦ POWER 🍏

              👁 All that was, is, will be, and ever could be; worlds within worlds

     ✦ Playing cards: The wild card, the Joker. 🃏 
     ✦ Cardinal direction: Center •
     ✦ Hogwarts "House"*: The Sorting Hat

ALL ELEMENTS 🌎🔮
     ✦ Intuition, connection, love

              👁 Typically water is seen as the intuitive suit, but in my experience in working with the elements all the elements involve the spiritual  ability of intuition. The difference is in how it's being expressed. 

              👁 All the suits and both arcana deal with concepts of connection and love. All of the elements are interconnected. One cannot exist without the others. 

*Note: I do not at all agree with JK Rowling's TERF stance. I included the Hogwarts houses since the Harry Potter universe has become so popular that everyone knows what house they are in, just like how everyone knows their astrological sun sign. 

Page updated July 24, 2020

The Power of 1-card, 2-card, and 3-card spreads

Sometimes less is more. After all, if spreads are consistently are too complex and take up too much time they become inaccessible, especially under the demands of our world today. Then we don't use the cards and reap nothing because we sowed nothing.

No thanks. Short is good. Quick is good. And all of these little spreads can be expanded as needed! Sometimes using one card to ask an initial question and then after interpreting, doing another one card reading to answer a follow up question is the most efficient way to do things so you may end up with a larger spread at the end, but you built it all off that first one, piece by piece as needed.

Spreads that are created for Tarot cards can be used for oracle cards. Spreads created for oracle cards can be used for Tarot cards. My focus is using Tarot card examples since I use Tarot the most. However I  do not go into extended explanations for the meaning of each card in the example, only what's relevant to my experience with the cards using these spreads. All examples are real personal examples.

So, grab your favorite deck and give these babies a try.

List of 1-card spreads: https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/1-card-spreads.html
List of 2-card spreads: https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/2-card-spreads.html
List of 3-card spreads: https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/3-card-spreads.html

These lists aren't comprehensive. Try out others'! Make up your own!

Have fun! Play with the cards! Humor is helpful, even when things are serious. ^_^

All blessings bright and beautiful.
Ruth ~ Lady of Radiant Joy :)

Handy Dandy Spirit Animal Guides Update

Five spirit animal guides have been added this week!
The Bluejoy, the Blue Sea Slug, and the Narwal.
Also the Pyrosome and the Tardigrade!

Enjoy!

https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/jay.html
https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/blue-sea-slug.html
https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/narwal.html
https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/pyrosome.html
https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/tardigrade.html

Go here for all things S.A.G related: https://www.ladyofradiantjoy.org/p/spirit-animal-guides.html
More updates soon! <3

Various Methods of Cleansing, Aligning, & Clearing Your Tarot/oracle Deck

This is a handout I created for one of my meetup classes. A new student yesterday inspired me to start putting these up online! I hope you find them useful.

This is NOT a comprehensive list. You do what’s best for you. Some people like a lot of fanfare, others like simple, and for others it’s whatever the mood strikes them. Context matters as well. If I’m reading at a fair I do the knocking method between each reading. At home, I do what strikes my fancy but tend toward the simple, and toward combining methods.

These methods can be used to cleanse, align, and clear yourself or any of your personal things.

Also, some people will have different associations, such as smudging with air because of the smoke, but to me, it’s primarily fire because there would be no smoke for the air to play with had it not been for the fire.

There is no right or wrong. There is only doing what's right for you while at the same time accommodating others. For example, my family hates the smell of sage, so I don't use that method.

Elemental methods

• Holy Song (Air)
• Chanting 
• Om mani padme hum
• The Divine in Me sees the Divine in You
• Or other phrasing, or poetry that feels right to you
• Singing
• Feathers
• Ringing a bell(s) 
• A bell app will do if you don’t own an actual bell
• Holy Water
• Submerged in blessed/holy/moon water (in a ziplock)
• Spritz blessed/holy/moon water above the deck.
• Put under the light of the moon
• Place it in a seashell or put seashells around the deck
• Holy Soil (Earth)
• Submerged, or sprinkled, with salt or in soil (in a ziplock)
• potted soil is sufficient
• Crystal Grid/Crystals
• Selenite and/or clear quartz
• on top of the deck or wrapped with it
• NOTE: You can use pictures of crystals to call in that energy. It’s a part of the Earth, and we all have ready access to that energy
• Holy Fire 
• Tea-light candle burning on top (if thin, put a piece of aluminum foil for safety underneath it)
• You can use an electric candle for this
• Smudging w/sage or a santo stick (but ethically since these things are endangered now)
• Incense
• You can use a wax warmer for this
• Put under the light of the sun.
• Holy Spirit
• Reiki (Universal Life Force Energy)
• You can also chant it to bring in the Reiki energy
• Motoki (Calling on Mother Earth)
• Shamanism
• Asking Light/Source/Divine/Love/Angels/Guides/ to bring in the energy of cleansing, aligning and or clearing. 
• Prayer - power words & phrases, holding intention for cleansing, aligning, and clearing
• Trace holy symbols that have Divine meaning to you.

• NOTE: You can use symbols of the elements to bring in the elements without bringing in the literal elements. 

Combination & Miscellaneous methods

• Meditation
• Free Insight Timer App (for both Android and Apple)
• Dancing, around or with your deck to spiritual music
• Put inside an abalone shell (water) with a selenite stick or other cleansing crystal (earth), and then have a lit tea-light candle (fire) set on top of it in fresh air (also fire breathes air)
• have a small bowl of crystals and water with a small candle on top. Set entire bowl on top of the deck, or next to the deck on a special cloth.
• Setting deck out in nature for earth energy, or some good for fresh air
• Holding deck to the Heart, expressing love and gratitude for the deck, then kiss the deck
• Shuffle with the intention of cleansing and clearing the deck
• Invoking the four directions
• Essential oils, the scents can be grounding
• Creating blessing jars to put on top of your deck/item, with the intent of cleansing, aligning and clearing
• Other not mentioned nature items that feel right to you
• Knock on it three times 
• I like to do this once with each hand then with both hands together for the Celtic triple sacred three (3x3) effect