I can’t think of a better card to  open the door here than The Moon.  We are approaching The Solstice, the longest night of the year, and The Moon casts her silvery light on the path ahead of us.  Welcome, to the liminal space of Magic Snacks!

There are some things that can not be seen in sunlight. It is too bright, too harsh. It is only by the softer light of the moon in silvery, half darkness that our connection to our wild animal natures can be made. In the light of the sun we go to work, raise our children, pay our bills, dress like proper respectable human beings, but under the moon, the human mask and pretentions of rationality fall away,  we are wolves howling in worship, in joy and in recognition of our true animal self. And what a relief it is to finally be able to express it! We make mischief, we eat, we dance, we fuck and we are deeply attuned to an epigenetic repository of instinctual knowing. This luminosity is intoxicating.

There is light and there is luminosity. In astronomy luminosity is a celestial body’s intrinsic brightness. Light, on the other hand,  is what is cast upon other objects by the luminous one. Wild animals, the kind we are dealing with here, the liminal ones like wolves, and lobsters, just to name two, are drawn to luminosity. They also possess the illumination of instinctual knowledge.

But what has to fall away in order to allow this emergence? Force (also called Strength) asks you to look at your relationship with this wild animal luminosity. In the book of Genesis, Eve received illuminated knowledge of good and evil from the serpent, one of the most feared and vilified animals on earth. The Hebrew letter associated with this card is Teth, which means serpent.

The message is clear. This beast taming business is fraught with dangers, both good and evil. The cobra is deadly but its venom can also be harvested and used for life saving medicine. It is both antagonist and redeemer at the same time.

A tamed lion won’t bite the hand that feeds it. Or will it?

What you’re asked here is to consider what you are taming and how you are going about it. Why, in deed, would you want to tame it when you could BE it?

The two of pentacles, begs the question. How do we balance this infinite duality of our conscious daylight selves with our instinctive moonlit natural selves without going crazy (The Moon asks). An infinite game.

But I don’t mean to say that we should all throw our clothes off run outside and howl at the moon,  forever abandoning the confines as well as the comforts of our daylight selves. In Finite & Infinite Games, Carse defines finite games as ones that have endings and boundaries, the participants obey rules. There are winners and losers. The infinite game, however, exists only to prolong the game, it is a drama with players and participants, but no winners or losers. A finite player wants to win, an infinite one shows self-sufficient strength. Force. Strength. Sound Familiar?

In the context of our theme here,  the light  these cards are shining is actually a message of nonduality. We can claim the redemptive power of our wildness simply through playing our own game, even when it brings us howling and gnashing our teeth at the boundaries of our respectable daylight selves. We can allow our wild luminosity to shine out of our very being. We are both the maiden and the lion – the individual human and the collective instinctual knowing.

I’m reminded of certain people I’ve known who you might describe as a force of nature. They charge, course and seer through life as if powered by the elements themselves. There is a light about them that both attracts and repels others. They may be hugely successful in their personal lives or in a state of complete chaos. It doesn’t matter in the infinite game. Their magnetism, their luminosity, comes from the fact that the barrier between them and their wild nature is very, very thin. Anything could happen with these Creatures.

Don’t we all want just a glimmer of their light?

Of course the lion is also associated with the sun, and we are approaching it’s rebirth. If the sun is autonomy, vitality, enlightenment and health, the moon is saying, ‘Not quite yet, my friend. Let’s sit here a moment longer in this half light and see what mysteries emerge.’

3. Now What Do You Do With All This?

Just take a bite and let all that sink in for a bit. All good?

Now it’s your turn to ask your cards:  What does the light of the moon want me to see? 

1. Pull 3 cards, write up your impressions and share them with the group. It’s perfectly fine to use some other divination tool than cards: runes or to meditate on the subject and share your musings.
   
   Note for novice readers: A good place to start is to just pull 3 cards and describe what you see and how it makes you feel? There’s no pressure to get it right. The point is to inspire your own self reflection.
2. Perform the spell! If you’re pushed for time and feel you have to chose either reading the cards or performing the spell, then perform the spell!
   

Speaking of the spell…

Tower of Power

We’re opening the door onto a 7 day  journey towards The Solstice together and candle magic is a great way to focus our group energy (literally build a Tower of Power) and send our intentions out to Spirit.

I saw my Great Grandmother do many different kinds of candle magic, although she’s turning in her grave to hear it called such. She was quite fond of dressing a candle even if  she made it seem as if she were  just decorating for the holidays. They could get quite elaborate, set inside wreaths of greenery with coloured ribbons snaking round and round and shiney stones embedded around the sides.  Sometimes the candles would turn up randomly at odd times of the year. She would explain, ‘It’s my Tower of Power, some days tear you down and you just need to build it all back up higher and higher.’

What Do You Need

1. A pillar candle or taper are best but tealights aren’t the end of the world, they just won’t make a very tall tower.
2. Oil for annointing the candle. A lovely essential or sacred oil is great but olive oil is fine too.
3. A sharp tool to cut or carve into your candle.
4. OPTIONAL –  anything you have to hand to decorate your candle. For example, glitter, coloured string, herbs, coins, stones  – as long as they resonate with your intention.

Here’s what you do:

1. Set an intention for this week,  preferably based on the theme ‘Light. Giving & Receiving’.  A few examples: I would like to stay calm over the holidays and not get stressed and rundown. I would like to be able to see what has held me back this year.  I would like to receive a huge whopping Christmas bonus from my employer. 

   *My intention: I want to heal my difficult relationship with my sister while I’m in America, get to know her better and repair the injuries that are between us.

2. Get to work. Gather your materials and open your ritual space in whatever way feels right to you, by burning a little incense or lighting a (different) candle. 
3. Now you are going to imagine as vividly as possible that your intention has already happened and you are in fact holding in your hands the manifestation of your intention. Hold and touch your candle with absolute delight at having received just what you wanted. Love your candle. Hold it close to your heart. Cherish it. Dance around with it. Talk to it. Tell it how amazing it is. Really take your time here, visualising as clearly as possible what it would be like to have this intention realised. And don’t forget to breath. Your breath sets the intention in motion. 
4. Now carve in your candle one word that represents your intention. For example: If your intention is to receive a big whopping Christmas Bonus you might carve the amount you wish to receive or just the word money. You can carve other words or symbols into your candle, or decorate it in any way you like. 
5. Annoint your candle with the oil of your choice and with a sense of reverence, light it. 
6. Chant the spell over and over while still holding in your mind the vision of your realised intention. Know that by enchanting this spell you are tapping into layers of resonance that span several generations. Feel the power of every Tower that has come before yours. Feel the vibration of  each word clearly in your mouth. Your mouth is the cauldron that contains and  builds the power of this spell.How many times do you need to say it? Until it ‘clicks’. You’ll feel it.
   
   

   Tower of power
   Spire of wonder
   Ignite my desire
   Build higher and higher

   ** Important: End by saying, ‘so it is.’

7. You can meditate, gazing into the candle, allowing any thoughts or impressions from this work come to the surface for as long as feels right for you. Know that what sits before you is no longer just a candle, it is literally a tower that contains the charge and power to manifest your intention. 
8. Thank the powers that be and close your ritual space by extinguishing your incense and your Tower of Power. You will light the Tower every day over the next 7 days for your work here.