Welcome to The Grove. Within this shaded sanctuary we will explore all facets of Wicca and The Craft. This is a safe place, where you’ll find help, support and guidance. There will always be shelter here. The Grove is also a place to share techniques and knowledge with others in the Craft. We will have a regular discussion group once a week covering everything from house cleansing to circle etiquette and everything in between. Together we’ll find questions for our answers and grow.

LOL!! Thank you for your kind blessings! Wiccans have always called discussion / teaching circles "Groves". I didn't mean to step on Druidic toes. I'm sure your "Groves" are much more "Druidish"! I invite the Bard to post his wise words here for all to benefit. <s> Merry Met and Welcome to the Grove!

Brightest Blessings!

Queenie

Welcome home Sylvie!

(((hug)))

Thank you Sun Singer! I wanted it to be warm and inviting. I haven't gotten the table cloth spread out yet with all of the picnic food, but I have set up the Adirondack chairs. <g> Have a seat , make yourself comfortable and and stay a while. I'll even make a drink for you! What are you having?

 I can't figure out what's keeping everyone else. I'm sure they'll show up eventually. <s> Will you be joining us for next Thursday's Discussion Group? I hope so.  Feel free to post something in the mean time.

>>I'm tempted to say I'm having a tankard of dark red wine, but I have a feeling the choices might be lemonade, iced tea or Coke. <g><<

<passing a large, wooden tankard of dark red wine and a large cloth napkin. >> <s> Red wine stains!

I'm an iced tea drinker myself, though I do love a good cup of mead now and then. My favorite is Chaucers.

>>Don't know that I can join the discussions, but am looking forward to posting here more than I did in the past.<<

Well, I hope that you can. I'm glad that you'll be posting here more often! Welcome home SunSinger! <g>

Interestingly enough, The Living Consciously Section in our sister forum New Age Living has many points that apply to this section.  When we come in here, we can't leave our brain at the edge of the trees for easy retrieval later. We have  to be awake here. I'm not the kind of person or teacher that gives answers. I just help people find the right questions,as they help me do the same. My answers only work for me. Sure, there are "how to's" that will be posted, but there is also so much more! <g>

Is there a topic you'd like to explore?

>>My outlook is primarily Qabalistic, though I always find exciting and interesting areas of overlap with those whose focus is traditional witchcraft, wiccan, or druid-oriented.<<

SunSinger,

I have a passing acquaintance with the Quabala/Cabala. I was originally taught that one should only study Quabala when "over forty and with a full stomach". It stands to reason, since without stability in life or life experience, it can do a real number (no pun intended) on your head. I see the Quabala as life's blue print. I'm no scholar of Quabala, let alone an architect with a protractor! I'm allergic to math.

The cross over is there in many places. During the time of the Crusades, The Jews hid the People of Other Faiths(Pagans)from persecution and vise versa. During that time, a lot of sharing naturally occurred.  There were also more modern occultists who drew connections from Quabalistic Mysteries.

>>While those who know me may say I'm a dreamer, they don't always see that I am also very pragmatic. So, I tend to be most interested in topics about techniques/practises that produce real-world results (one way or another).<<

Although I read Aramaic and Hebrew, I've never felt a great pull toward the higher ritual magicks. They fascinate me, but I'm a lazy witch.<gg> I prefer getting my results the easy way. There have been times when I've needed to know how to do something that involved higher magick, but those times have been few. The one thing that I have learned is that getting there is the important thing. It's all connected one way or the other. We all eat. Some of us eat with forks and spoons, some with chop sticks, some with fingers and some with eating knives, but in the end we all manage to accomplish the ingestion of  food. I realize that's a simplification, but it make sense to me.<g>

What techniques and or practices are you interested in?

>>I tend to focus on the Tree of Life and it's paths, each with the relevant Tarot Cards. The middle pillar is the most balanced path, though Binah is (for me) the most useful sefirot. Healing and the use of dreams for influencing "reality" are other high-interest areas.<<

There is some discrepancy over the connection between Tarot and Quabalah/Cabala.  You probably don't want to hear that.<g> <looking pointedly at my toes and shuffling>  In any case, the connection seems to be made via the aleph bet. As I said..I am no scholar! I only know this, because a friend of mine practically tore her hair out doing extensive research into the history/histories of Tarot, for the her book.  More on that later! Tell me more about how you use this.  As I said...duh...not my thing.<g> Do you mean the Tree of Life Spread, or the Table?

In my case, there are dreams and there are Dreams! Since my chosen specialty is the study of healing, I'm way interested in this!  Right now, I'm studying the Meridians and the 5 Elements . You see, I'm a massage therapist and I just love finding new ways of looking at this stuff! Tell me more!<G>

Queenie,

Some suggest that the Tarot cards were developed in relation to the "heresy" stories about Mary Magdalen.

There are multiple views of Qabalah/Kabbalah/Cabala, one being that it's a general blue print for ritual magic and divination, one being that it's an extension of Judaism with great emphasis on the Zohar, and one being that it's more of a code language for expressing alchemical and other secrets in art, verse, or stone.

Whether Tarot cards were developed prior to Qabalah (which would mean they were around before Abraham who, according to tradition, first articulated the dimensions of the tree of life) or whether they came later, they can be used to describe both the dimensions (sefirot) and the paths between them.

I seldom use Tarot cards, because my focus is not divination so much as it is concerned with proactively influencing the future. When I'm "stuck," I may try to get unstuck (in terms of my thoughts) with the cards of the I Ching.

In addition to associating the tree of life with the flow of creation itself, one can use it as a basis for meditation, either by visualizing one's chakras in relation to the sefirot in a particular branch or by concentrating on the sefirot that relates mostly to what one is trying to accomplish.

If you have ever visualized colors of light hovering near your energy centers (head, throat, heart, etc), then you are doing a version of a tree of life kind of technique. If done before sleep, it enhances dreams. In general, it makes one feel better and more intuitive in general.

--Sun Singer

Hi,

Is that "Wicked Pack of Cards" book the source you alluded to earlier when you said you didn't want to freak me out about the purported true source of the cards?

--Sun Singer