Witching Hour: The Beginnings of My Tarot Journey
There’s always that resurgence of energy each year August comes to an end, as though every cell in my body just knows that Summer’s (finally) coming to an end soon. Though Autumn in Hong Kong is never the cozy breezy weather you would imagine, it is also the biggest excuse for me to embrace all of my witchy wackiness in all its glory.
So while I’ve talked about my tarot journey on Kickstarter and maybe other places, but I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it here (?). In a nutshell, I’ve been reading the cards since I was fifteen, thanks to my discovery of my aunt’s huge collection of abandoned tarot decks, which I’ve now inherited. Most of that collection are Rider-Waite-Smith tarot decks, which is also why the RWS deck is my default deck, though I also use Angel Oracle cards.
Since my aunt is the original tarot reader in the family, I still look to her for guidance when I’m stuck on certain cards, but otherwise, I’m mostly self-taught. I’ve also been teaching myself to read with Lenormand cards ever since I realised that the image and word associations that pop up in my head during readings are actually a sort of “vision.” These visions are flashes of colour and symbolism, sometimes even scenes, numbers, and names that will pass through when cards are flipped during a reading.
However, my readings do have a weakness. I’m not able to read continuously and often need *very* long breaks. We’re often talking about months and sometimes years. One of the longest breaks I took from tarot reading was one that lasted for three years (2016 – 2019). But it was also during this three-year break that I was able to learn to place restrictions on my practice.
You see, tarot reading takes energy from me, whether I like it or not because my practice involves a certain level of (often uncontrollable or even unwilling) channelling. I don’t get to control what or how much I get to see or sense. Yet, even despite that lack of consent to see these “visions,” I still had to pay a price. On good days, I’d just be tired and sleepy. But on bad ones, I’d be coughing blood. They would usually just be a few specks, like when you have a sore throat. But after the last reading before my break, I returned to my dorm room and coughed enough blood to form a dark red puddle, the size of a five-dollar coin, soaked in the piece of tissue.
That’s also why despite being a witch, my practices are limited to tarot reading and protective spell work. Anything more, including and not limited to manifestation spells and curses, are taboo for me. But that’s a story for another day.
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I hope you liked this lil’ rant, I’ve been wanting to record my journey with occultism and witchcraft for a while but never figured out how. I was going to weave my stories into fiction but that extra element takes away the authenticity of the story, even if it does protect certain private details. So instead, I’m going to journal these and omit anything I’m not comfortable with sharing, as a way to discuss the practicalities of the craft. Join me at some point in the future on my methods to care for my tarot decks 😊 Or let me know what you’d like to know more about! I’m also getting back on planning a tarot class so this is also a way to gather my thoughts.
You can also read most of the gist of my tarot journey from my zine that is included when you purchase my tarot deck — shop reopens on 4 September 2021 at 11PM HKT :P (Shameless self promotion)