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Catherine Bitzer

Expert Guru
Cathii has always been in in love with the strange and unusual. This started with Dracula by Bram Stoker when Cathii was 12 years old. After reading the book, she found herself attracted to all sorts of "dark" arts.

This attraction led her to magic, Tarot, writing, and all sorts of other strange and wonderful things. She is now the product of all these experiences and has published writing on Chaos Magic, the Tarot, and self-help issues.




7 Tips from Catherine Bitzer

Tarot Decks: So many choices, so little time

The Tarot is just one of those things in life where the first-time buyer is faced with an overwhelming sense of choice. According to Tim Thompson of Psychic View Points Entertainment(http://www.psychicviewpoints.com/tarot.html), there are over 400 decks to choose from. The styles are wildly different. Some ultramodern card makers have gone as far as deriving entirely different systems from the Tarot.

So what to do? Know yourself.
How? By asking questions like this:
Why do you want to buy a Tarot deck?
Will this be your first deck?
What do you want to use it for?
Are you an experienced Tarot user?
What kind of images appeals to you?
Do you like to study things in depth and find your own answers?
When learning, do you like investigating the history of your topic?

The answers to these and other self-searching questions will give you some clarity. Some decks completely deviate from tradition. Others are very close to the most traditional current deck: the Rider-Waite deck. Beginners often like to examine the Rider-Waite deck to form a sound basis of existing Tarot knowledge before venturing into the more unconventional. Others like to plunge into the weird right away.

The best advice, as with so much in life, is to follow your heart.

Finding a home for your deck

The arrival of a new deck is always exciting. You can’t wait to look at every single card. You appreciate its beauty, you feel its energy. You do a couple of readings. It is like a new pet or baby. You want to spend as much time as possible with it. And you want to make a home for it; a special place that belongs only to your Tarot deck.

Where you place your new deck depends on many things. If you're a collector, you may wish to display the cards among your existing decks. If you have close friends or family that don't understand your passion for the cards, you may wish to have a secret place for your cards, that only you know about. You can buy the cards a little box. Wooden
boxes tend to be popular. You could even make it a box if you’re handy. This gives it a nice personal touch. If you’re not that handy, buy a plain box and decorate it with paint, self-adhesive vinyl, or some other material.

Whichever way you choose to provide a home for your Tarot deck, this action helps to establish the bond of friendship between yourself and your new deck. Now be sure to use the cards often, and the blessing will perpetuate itself for the rest of your life.

Self-Improve with your Tarot

In addition to being a tool for the traditional purposes of fortune telling and magic, the Tarot can also apply to more current needs such as self-improvement.

Try this:
Prepare as for a normal reading; light incense and candles; do a meditation or preparation ritual – whatever it takes to “get you in the mood”.

Now concentrate on an area of your life that you feel needs improvement. Ask the cards to help you identify strategies in which to accomplish this improvement. Draw one card.
What do the image on the card and its associated meaning suggest to you regarding your area of difficulty?

Write down your impressions and place the card face-up with the rest of your deck when you store it in its home.

On the following day, look at your chosen card again and note any new impressions. Then repeat the exercise, choosing a new card. Do not replace the previous card in the deck, but keep it face-up with the new card.

Repeat this daily for several days, until you feel that you have enough cards. Use your chosen cards to do a reading on your self-improvement needs. Make yet more notes when interpreting the spread.

Choose the three most significant cards from the reading and place them face-up when you replace your deck. Look at them and your notes every day, and do whatever they suggest until you accomplished the improvement you need.

Choosing your path

Choosing magic is a lot like choosing a religion, a marriage partner, or a pet - you are seldom the only one making the choice. You should keep this in mind when choosing a magical path, because there are many. For the uninformed, it may seem that there is only one, spectacular path to follow – the path of the witch, who can levitate and do all sorts of interesting tricks with her talents. But magic is much more than that.

Like religion, magic asks you to commit to a set of values. On the other hand, you are not required to do this for a lifetime or go to hell. This is what initially attracts many people. Religion, especially of the organized variety, tends to ask you to commit for your whole life. The different magical paths on the other hand are there for you to choose from. In a world that is increasingly open to choice, this can feel like a spiritual evolution. But this brings you no closer to making the actual choice, or doing it wisely.

So what do you do? How do you choose between Wicca with its various divisions, Chaos Magic, or any of the other paths out there? It is important to ask yourself what you want from your new path. Are you attracted by media portrayals of fighting demons and throwing balls of energy? Or are you simply looking for a more fulfilling spiritual path? Once you’ve sorted out what it is you want, you can get on the Internet.

If you don’t know a lot about magic to begin with, the best starting point is probably news and chat groups. Sign up and ask lots of questions. The people in these groups will be at various levels of experience, and will help you figure out which paths you are most attracted to. When you’ve identified two or three directions that attract you, you are ready to do some research on your own. Look for Internet sites dealing with the path you’d like to follow. Find out everything there is to know about it. Finally, look for magical groups in your physical vicinity. It is possible that these are not available. That’s what the Internet is for. Find groups targeting your choice and join them. What’s left is enjoying the effects of your decision.

Strengthening your will

Successful magic depends on the inner self of the magician. This is true across the board, regardless of the magic path you choose. This means that, in order to make a success of the more spectacular part of your craft, you need to strengthen what magicians refer to as your “will”. There are a variety of ways in which you can do this.

The first is to be specific about what you want. In daily life, get familiar with exactly what it is you want, not only on a spiritual level, but also on a physical level. You might for example want (or indeed need) a car, a home, or a life partner. You may want to be healthy and happy. You could want to be thin or successful – or all of the above. It does not matter what it is you want. The point is that you want it, and in wanting, you can strengthen your will. So make a list of everything you can think of wanting.

The next step is to pick one of the things on the list. Before going to bed, concentrate for about 5-10 minutes on the item. Then write down: I will … and the rest of your wish. The words “I will” are important, because they focus on the strength of your will rather than your desire. Desire, as several self-help gurus tend to claim, focuses on the fact that you do not yet have the desired item. “Will” implies a larger amount of certainty. Practice saying “I will” rather than “I want” on a daily basis.

Another important way to strengthen your will is through visualization. Visualize yourself basking in the joy of having your will. See yourself in your ideal home, car, or swimming in all your money.

These practices will give you the confidence you need to become a truly powerful magician.

Family, friends, and your magical self

You know how it is. They go ballistic at your first ear piercing – that wonderful, all-knowing creature we call family or friend. So how on earth will you tell them of your dabbling in the Dark Arts?

This is a difficult question. Many of today’s young people are looking for spiritual pathways of their own, rather than the ones their parents follow. There are many reasons for this. These range for a simple search for the new and exciting to an honest search into the depths of one’s own personality, being and needs. The point is, few parents, especially those from the more fundamentalist traditions, approve.

Of course it’s easier when you’re a bit older and no longer living with parents whose rules need to be followed. Still, a slightly more aged person still has to deal with family and friends who may not understand a sudden interest in the dark and mysterious. So what to do?

There is a choice of three actions.

First, you could choose to directly confront your friend or family member and tell them upfront that you are interesting in pursuing a study of magical arts.

The problem with such a direct approach is that, especially if they don’t expect it, you’ll encounter a large amount of resistance. On the other hand, you might see this as a valuable opportunity to strengthen your will. Keep a hold of your emotions and continue explaining calmly why you are choosing your path.

You may however at first prefer to do things in a more clandestine way. This approach is not without its problems either. You may for example feel that you’re deceiving both yourself and your loved ones by not telling them exactly what you’re into. A good way to deal with this is to show them in subtle ways. Throw in a reference to magic here and there. Watch reruns of “Charmed” with them and say things like “That’s not right…” from time to time. Leave candles, crystal balls or Tarot cards in open view.

Finally, if you re living in a severely restrictive environment, it might be best to do everything in secret. In such a case, the best you can do is find time for yourself, practice and learn as much as possible, until you find a more suitable home for yourself.

The choice

Depression, like stress, is the disease of our age. Of course it doesn't help that we do most of the bad stuff that happens to ourselves. A bad marriage for example is often the result of choice. On the other hand, some days are just depressing without any good reason.

This is the trick: understand that, while what happens is not always your choice (I mean, how could you have known that your marriage would turn out this way?), how you feel is. Let me repeat: you can choose how you feel.

Of course this is a difficult concept to grasp. Bad things happen, and you feel depressed. Or your brain releases a hormone, and you feel bad. The good news is that this is a typically reactive view, and you can do something about it. The bad news is that it’s easy. It’s work.

The point is that you must choose to start changing your attitude. You don’t need to do it all at once. Take one step at a time. Begin your fall out of depression by just once every day thinking about something or someone that makes you happy. Contemplate why you are happy (or at least can be happier) thinking about this. Do this for as long as you can. Try to increase your daily doses of this thought. As you build the habit, more positive thinking patterns will begin to manifest themselves.