Exploring & Creating Personal Symbolism for Power-Raising, Divination and Spellwork
“You know, symbolism is not something normal people have to worry about.” Someone I used to sit next to in my college English class said it once when our professor asked a question about the significance of a curtain in The Scarlet Letter. I remember the pause in my note-taking as I realized she was right. It was true. Not for me—a theater-kid, English major, and practitioner of magic—but for most people. For most people symbolism was something we talked about in terms of art, something that we partook in primarily as passive consumers. We were fed symbolism. We were told what it meant. And we just accepted it.
Whether it was Shakespeare, Poe or Victor Hugo. Beowulf. The Chronicles of Narnia. Hell, even religious texts. There was almost always someone guiding our study who was going to tell us the exact meaning of the symbolism we were presented with, who was going to make sure we understood symbolism the right way. That is, their way. Or, at least, the education system’s way. Because, like my collegiate peer said, symbolism wasn’t something normal people had to worry about. It was something that our teachers had to worry about us being able to explain on paper—and that was the end of it.
The idea got under my skin a little, especially as someone who prided themselves on their understanding of symbolic elements of literature, theater and magical practice. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered: Did I really understand the symbolism I had been exposed to in the past—or did I just commit someone else’s understanding of it to memory for a passing grade? When I played Lady Macbeth on stage, had I really understood what I was saying, what pictures I was painting? Or had I just acted according to the director’s notes?
Suddenly, I felt the grip of crisis on parts of my identity. There was so much about my passions that relied on my understanding of symbolic language—whether it was spoken, observed or performed. As a practitioner of magic, symbolism wasn’t just something I needed the Cliff’s Notes on. It was a language that I needed to be able to speak, read, write and translate. I needed to understand symbolism the way a mechanic understood the working parts of an engine; well enough to take it apart, change it and put it back together. Well enough to dig into the roots of my practice’s history and folklore. I wasn’t fluent in symbolism, I realized. I had just memorized a few key phrases—and that knowledge made me feel as though I was headed toward an inevitable dead-end in my magical study and praxis.
In the practice of magic (just as it is in literature, theater, and artwork), symbolism is a vehicle for deeper understanding. It is a language that expresses things which may not be as impactful or powerful if we were to lay them out in plain speech. It allows us (with or without the use of words) to convey messages of spirit, power, energy and emotion that are otherwise beyond description. Our understanding of these symbols can manifest as complete thoughts of which we are aware and cognizant—but it can also manifest as bodily sensations, shifts in one’s mental or spiritual energy, or the alteration of one’s perception. Take the image of snow, for example. It is familiar to most of us, but evokes different responses in different people. One person may see a picture of a snowy day and think of winter. Another may be transported back to a particular winter memory. Still another may think nothing but feel suddenly cold.
This makes symbolism a powerful tool for working magic. But using that tool requires us to understand it, just as the artists and writers who are (very often) our first experiences with symbolism understood it before they put it to use. As a practitioner of spirit-based magic, I believe that building a relationship with a particular tool, curios or concept is a crucial part of building that understanding. The stronger a relationship we are able to build, the more information the spirit of that tool or concept will be willing to share with us; the closer a connection we are able to forge, the more malleable that tools or practice becomes to our changing needs.
As with other tools and concepts, the understanding and application of symbolism can and does vary significantly from practitioner to practitioner. One practitioner may work with a specific set of four tools, all with connections to various forces and elements; while another may use an entirely different set of six tools which they chose based primarily on their practical physical functions. Still another practitioner may use a set of four tools exactly identical to someone else’s, yet attribute them to entirely different forces, spirits, and elements within their craft. The same variation applies to the significance and application of symbolism in divination, magical practice, power-raising, etc. Even if two practitioners are taught to use the exact same set of symbols in their practice, the relationship that they build with those symbols will still be unique. Thus, their application and interpretation of those symbols will not be identical.
our perception births interpretation
When it comes to symbolism, our perception of a specific symbol cannot simply be taught. Although our first encounter with the symbolism of the elephant, for example, may come from a children’s book, our overall understanding of the elephant may have many layers. For many of us, the practice of magic is not our first foray into symbolism. We bring with us our understanding of these same animals, plants, weather, etc. that we garnered from books, poems, songs, paintings, and even nursery rhymes. We know about the Big Bad Wolf long before we read about the wolf as a symbol in our dreams and divination. We associate red with the color of blood automatically because we know blood to be red. We develop our early understanding of the symbols for death based on our experiences with death—whether those experiences are through euphemisms, funeral services, religion, or grief.
These experiences and variables come together to form our perception of each specific symbol or concept that we will deal with in our careers as practitioners of magic. Our perception is the lens through which we view any kind of information we are presented with. It doesn’t matter whether the information comes from an article, school, a book, or a spirit. Our perception always alters (and sometimes limits) how we take that information in. Try to recall the first time you were presented with information that defied what you had previously been taught. Maybe it happened the first time you encountered a religious faith that was different from your family faith. Or perhaps it was your first exposure to new information about something like Indigenous American history, the American slave trade, or the American Civil War (all things which, if you live in the United States, you know we are often fed misinformation about).
Whether you realized it or not, your perception formed your reaction to those encounters with new information. Not only do our perceptions provide a framework for viewing such information, they also help determine whether we will reject it, modify it, or expand our awareness to allow ourselves to absorb it. And we continue to use and modify that framework as we study magic. I know, for example, what the common symbols in the folklore behind my practice are. So, if I have a dream about a black snake crawling through pine needles, I might naturally assume it has some magical or spiritual significance. Because those symbols fit into the framework I have built for my understanding of symbolism. On the other hand, if I have a dream that a mongoose is playing the lute, I’m probably just going to wake up saying, “Damn, that was a weird dream. I have got to stop eating hummus before bed.”
My relationship with the folkloric and cultural symbolism that drives by practice helps to narrow my understanding of what makes a symbol meaningful to me and my practice. And that is important. Our relationship with the symbols of our practices, faiths, cultures, etc. must come together to help us narrow our understanding of symbolism down to our personal symbol set. We have to work within those lenses because, without them, everything has the protentional to be a meaningful symbol. Focusing our symbol set and allowing that naturally occurring lens to do its work is how we become fluent in the language of our personal symbolism.
How we use symbols in magical practice
Before we dive into finding, connecting to, and even creating personal symbols for magical working, let’s talk for a bit about how these symbols are used and what a big part they play in the lives of many, many practitioners of magic. For those of us who choose to work with it, symbolism is present through almost every aspect of magic. So, this is not an exhaustive list. There are endless possible applications for symbolism in magic. With that being said, since every practice and practitioner is a little different, not everything on this list will apply to everyone’s personal practice.
Not everyone, for example, utilizes divination as part of their magical practice. Not everyone focuses on power-raising as a separate step in within the process of preparing for and performing magical workings. So there will be things that are listed here which are not relevant to your practice, and things which may be utilized in your personal practice (which may even be at the core of your personal practice) which do not appear on this list. That is fine! The purpose of this post is not to cover every possible application of symbolism in magical practice, but to improve readers’ understanding of symbolism as a tool and to empower practitioners to get the most out of the use of symbolism.
Some of the common applications of symbolism in magical workings and practice include:
Extrinsic Divination with Premade Divination Tools: When we discuss extrinsic divination, we are talking about what I like to call “outward-facing” divination. That is, divination that relies on something other than what you have contained within yourself, such as divination performed with tools. Premade divination tools are the tools that we buy and use that come with their own imagery. Immediately, whenever I mention this sort of premade imagery, my students and peers can identify Tarot and oracle decks as being premade tools. Yes, they are excellent examples of what this means. Tarot cards and oracle cards come with their own imagery, which we then incorporate into our understanding of symbols and symbolism. This imagery is typically visual, expressed through pictures that are printed directly on the cardstock for the practitioner to see and interpret. In some cases, the symbols are not represented by pictures, but are expressed in words. This is the case in some oracle decks as well as with Tarot decks that may present the name and number of the card without the accompanying picture.
Another example of what would be considered premade divination tools would be runes, which are traditionally associated with Heathen spiritual practices as well Scandinavian magical practices. Of course, you can make your own set of runes—as is quite common and, in some traditions, required. But the symbolism is still premade. Unlike most Tarot and oracle decks, these runes are not associated with any visual symbolism. But they are still rooted in symbols and symbolism. If you are familiar with runes and the practice of reading runes, you know that each rune represents a symbol such as the flame, the ox, or strife. I’ve sometimes seen educators say that each rune represents a “word”, but I prefer to think of each rune as representing a “concept”. The symbols presented in the runes are premade because they are foreign to us as modern practitioners, because they are based on Viking and early Scandinavian concepts. These are aspects of life that every early Scandinavian understood because of their religious practices, their cultural worldview and their daily needs. Whether they were a practitioner of magic or not, they understood the symbols associated with the runes, because they understood the importance of that flame or that ox to their wellbeing and survival, because they understood significance of strife or the unknown within the framework of their faith.
Now, although these tools come with their own imagery, the interpretation of them is not a passive process. With premade divinatory tools and symbol sets, the process of understanding and interpreting symbolism is two-fold. First, we consider the symbolism that is explicit within the imagery. This combines both the traditional associations for a given card, rune, or idea, and the expression of the artist (who may use a variation of what we consider to be traditional or may invent something new to us). Using the lens that I mentioned earlier (made up of all of our past experiences, personal understandings and foundational knowledge of symbols in specific and in general), we then decide how to incorporate that information into our working knowledge and practice.
Beyond that, there is process of gathering the information that is implicit within the images; things which neither the long tradition of the tools nor the artist who created the images may have intended but which are unlocked through a combination of reflection and preexisting knowledge. This isn’t always a step that we consciously follow, but it happens. Even if it only happens in the moments that we spend looking at a card for a reading, we take the time to look at the image, consider its meaning and unfold the layer of it which applies to a given situation. In some practices, this may be an established step on the path of understanding a given tool. The texts from which we take our understanding of the runes, for example, details the process by which the runes were discovered by Odin through meditative trace, introspective spirit work and a ritual of self-sacrifice (sometimes known as a Death Journey). This is intended not just to tell the story of how the runes came to be passed to humanity, but also to provide a model for the meditative process that should be involved in familiarizing oneself with the runes. In its simplest form, this is the act of going into the self and reflecting on the meaning of each rune and symbol. And it is something that we may do (either actively or passively) with every symbol we incorporate into our symbolic systems.
Extrinsic Divination with Self-Designed Tools or without Tools: Extrinsic divination can also be performed without the use of premade tools. This is divination that is performed with tools of one’s own design (such as painted bones, oracle stones, etc.) or without tools at all (such as reading clouds or interpreting omens). With this type of divination, the practitioner must call upon their background with symbolism and upon their understanding of any regional, folkloric, religious, spiritual, cultural, magical, literary, artistic, or other symbolism which they have accepted and integrated into their working understanding of symbols and symbolic language. When we’re using painted items, marbles, buttons, or other colored items, we must rely on our understanding of the symbolism of colors. We must decide whether black is a color of strength or of strife, whether red is associated with victory or of anguish. We make those choices on a broad level when we’re painting the items and being mindful of all of the possibilities of the colors we’ve decided to use. And we make them on a more specific level when we’re engaged in a reading, when we are using the surrounding colors or the position of an object to decide what the color means in the specific context of the reading.
The same is true when we read clouds or tea leaves, or interpret omens. We lean into and pull from our backgrounds when it comes to understanding animals, shapes, and objects as symbols. We utilize (both actively and passively) symbolism that is specific to our practice, our folklore, our faith, and our cultural customs, and we build onto those as our understandings and crafts expand over time. We then differentiate these meanings to apply them to individual questions and readings.
Intrinsic Divination: Another type of divination that we encounter—though we tend to discuss it a lot less than we discuss divination that involves tools—is intrinsic divination. Intrinsic divination is divination that does not rely on any external tools. Instead, images and messages are received through inner senses, unseen by onlookers. Examples of intrinsic divination include premonitions in the form of psychic feelings, dreams, and visions. It also includes scrying, a form of divination performed by gazing into a focal point (such as a mirror, a fire, smoke, a crystal ball, or an empty space on the wall). Although scrying leans into the use of tools, it is still considered intrinsic divination because the tools do not posses their own self-contained set of images and symbols. The symbols that we “see” and sense through the performance of intrinsic divination may come from within us, or they may be filtered through us. Either way, they are presented to us on the canvas of the mind. The information is gathered by the Inner Eye and processed through one’s psychic senses.
Nevertheless, intrinsic divination still relies on the interpretation of symbols. Symbols in intrinsic divination often take the form of bodily sensation. Practitioners may interpret these feelings based on their experience with bodily sensations as the result of heightened emotions. Some practitioners have described a flush of heat on the body or face as a sign of anger or strife. Some have mentioned the feeling of hands on their shoulders as a sign of a spiritual presence with them. Symbols received through intrinsic divination practices may also take the form of images, similar in effect to daydreams. These may be individual images or detailed scenes. Practitioners may also receive messages in the form of words and sentences—particularly if their divination is performed with the aid of a spirit guide or familiar. These messages are often threaded with symbolic language and may still be entirely symbolic.
Spell-Writing & Magical Working: The use of symbolism in magical practice is strongly connected the art of divination, but this is certainly not the only application of symbols. Symbolic concepts and language are also used in the creation and performance of spells, rituals, and other magical workings. We can see this easily in the theories and mechanics associated with Sympathetic Magic—that is, magic which is designed and performed on the guiding principle of “like attracts like”. In this kind of magic, an object (such as a photograph, a candle, or a doll) becomes the symbolic extension of a person, place, or goal; the item is then burned, poked, dressed, altered, or acted upon in some way that serves as a symbol for the change a practitioner wishes to create.
But there is infinitely more to the connection between symbolism and magical working than the application of symbolic thinking to Sympathetic Magic. As is the case with the creation of our personal divination items—like painted bones, scraps of fabric, or colored stones—practitioners of magic often apply principles of color symbolism to their magical workings. In most cases, these connections between colors and the intentions they represent is known as correspondence; however, there are similar-but-different concepts in specific practices that my have different names. In my own practice, for example, the magical significance of an object or item is known as tyda (plural, tydor)—a word that roughly translates to “meaning”. Symbolism is also used in the language of a practitioner’s incantations, in the timing of their workings, and in whatever steps they choose to include in their preparations.
Power-Raising: Many practitioners connect their power (or some fraction of it) from a set of personal power symbols. Power can be obtained from such power symbols in a myriad of ways. The first, and most common of these methods, is to syphon off or tap into what is perceived as the symbol’s natural power. We see this done in the use of the Elements (as associated with Wicca and many other modern magical traditions) as well as in symbol-specific magical practices (such as Storm Witchery or Hearth Magic). In such cases, power is obtained through meditation and understanding of the innate power of such symbols—be they one of the traditional four elements associated with contemporary magic, an animal symbol, or an element of folklore and fairytale, such as a white snake or a golden apple.
Power symbols can also be personal. They can be based on the practitioner’s relationship with a specific spirit or entity. They can also be symbols that our connected with the practitioner’s innate power. These can be adopted through the process of mindfully building a relationship with and understanding of a particular symbol or image. They can also be discovered or revealed through rituals of self-examination or introspective spirit work intended to allow the practitioner deeper insight into the nature of their power and the form that it takes.
Symbols for power raising can be used through meditation and visualization, as well as spirit and energy work through mindful interaction with the image, essence, or spirit of the symbol. It can also be done by physically surrounding oneself with, interacting with, and utilizing symbols such as fire, string, ritual regalia, etc. We may see this in the use of candles in one’s workspace or to burn curios as part of a spell. We can also see it in, for example, the use of one’s own hair in their workings. When these items are also symbols of a practitioner’s personal power, they serve a double function in the practice and performance of magic—both as symbols of the working, intention and symbolic action, and as symbols of the practitioner, their personal power, the working parts of their practice, and the weight of their will.
Finding & Creating Personal Symbolism
Just as there are many ways to use personal symbolism in one’s magical practice, there are many ways to find and create a personalized symbol set. Once again, there are far too many ways to try to list in a single post. Pretty much every practitioner develops their own methods (either from scratch or by modifying existing practices). What we address in this post is a selection of the most common, most accessible means of finding and creating personal symbolism for magical working and divination.
Discovering Personal Symbols: Most of the ways of putting together personal symbol sets in magical practice can be separated into two categories. One of those categories involves the finding or discovery of those symbols through various practices and channels. These can include meditation and visualization, special rituals, spirit communication and divination.
Personal power symbols that we find in these ways can come from a lot of different sources; the methods that we use to discover them are extremely versatile with regards to the origin of the information we receive. As such, this information can be transmitted by ancestors, deities, spirit guides, and even other parts of our own spirit. This kind of message most commonly unfolds within the context of dreams and are often unprompted by the recipient. Power symbols can be revealed even when the person is not seeking them—and, sometimes, even when the recipient is not an active practitioner of magic.
For practical reasons, it is easiest to divine these symbols using techniques that involve very detailed visual results. It can be much easier to understand and interpret the messages regarding these symbols when they are sourced or received in dreams or scrying, for example, than when they are revealed through Tarot. This is just because, while it is easy to identity an owl when we see one, it can be slightly more difficult to look at the Tower and see beyond the tower.
If you are confident in your scrying abilities and visualization skills, you can find a scrying ritual for this purpose on my personal Patreon as this month’s exclusive spell. If you are less confident in those skills (or prefer not to use them), you can find a less visually involved method to divine and discover power symbols at the end of this post.
Creating Personal Power Symbols: Another way to devise a personal symbol set involves intentionally choosing the symbols and building a system around that imagery. This method is particular helpful when you want to base your symbol set on a particular source, such as regional or ancestral folklore, religious symbolism, the imagery of particular magical tradition, or whatever other imagery you are inspired by.
Where divining or discovering your personal symbol set involves uncovering innate (but possibly hidden) symbols and energies within yourself, creating a personal symbol set for yourself involves reflecting on what we know about ourselves, our inspiration and our energy, and mindfully forging or strengthening connections between the symbols and the practitioner’s power. In doing this, the practitioner is basically creating a key allows them to tap into different sources and levels of power.
Different practitioners and different traditions have varying beliefs on what power is and where it comes from. Many people believe that the power utilized in magic is sourced externally. This includes power that the practitioner draws from elements, from specific locations, from spirits, ect. In these instances, the power symbol can be used as a way to tap directly into those power sources through imagery and visualization.
Other practitioners believe that this power is sourced from within the practitioner—that it is generated within the spirit, soul, or parts of the body. In this case, the symbols can be used as a means to visualize one’s innate personal power. Doing so may allow the practitioner to direct, change, and shape that power to suit their magical goals. It can also aid in the process of filtering, escalating, and focusing that personal power into something more useful than the raw energy, undirected energy.
Methods for Finding & creating symbol sets
There are many, many methods of both finding and creating personal symbol sets to use in your practice. As with most things in the magical community, there is not really a “wrong” way to seek out these symbols or for them to make themselves known to a person. My advice to those who are looking for a way to develop a personal symbol set to incorporate into their work is the same as my advice about almost everything magical: If a method doesn’t work for you, there is always another way. Don’t ever feel like, because something doesn’t work easily the first time, it’s just not meant to work. When you try a method, keep what works and modify or leave alone what does not.
With that being said, I have written two methods to help practitioners get started on their journey to building and improving their symbol set below—one for discovering symbols which may be innately connected to the practitioner, and one for actually creating a symbol set from scratch. Both are suitable for practitioners of all experience levels, and can be done without being proficient in trancework, scrying or other skills that many beginners are not comfortable experimenting with. I have also included a scrying method on my Patreon, where I talk about my personal journey through the world of magic and post a spell/ritual each month.
Discovering Symbols Through Sortilege: I mentioned briefly that it can be more difficult to use Tarot and other methods which are heavy-handed with their own innate imagery. And that’s true. For many people, Tarot’s wealth of inherent symbolism may make it difficult to decode messages regarding power symbols which are not traditionally or widely associated with reading the cards. With that in mind, I have written this card-pulling method to be performed without Tarot or oracle cards—but, if you are comfortable using Tarot and oracle cards with this method, you are more than welcome to do so.
Step One: Choose your method of divination and draw, write, or inscribe a variety of possible symbols on them. (If you plan to use these materials only for this working, slips of paper or index cards will work. If you intend to use them in other contexts, you might want to consider staves, coins, or coated cards as a sturdier option.) I recommend combining symbols which are significant culturally, ancestrally, spiritually, regionally, etc., and writing each down on a coin, card or other tool. Make sure to include a large variety of things—animals, plants, weather phenomenon, natural elements, magical tools and curios, etc.—to ensure that your symbol set allows for an assortment of possible applications.
Step Two: After creating or selecting your tool, design and set up a ritual atmosphere as you normally would. Lean into your own practice and beliefs to determine the most favorable timing for divination, introspective spirit work, forging new bonds and opening new doors. Set up your workspace according to your custom and go through all of the steps you normally do before such a rite.
Step Three: Begin your first session by drawing a very small number of cards, coins or objects. Remember that (for many practices) working with symbols requires the practitioner to build a relationship with each symbol, or with its spirit. And this process takes both time and reflection. Thus, it is better to limit the number of symbols you are adding to your practice to just a few at a time, repeating the rite as much as you feel is necessary.
Step Four: Either during your working or at another time (depending on your preference), take some time to reflect on each symbol. Reflect on each one and take notes on what the symbol means to you; what feelings, thoughts, and sensations it evokes; and possible applications for each symbol. You can find an in-depth follow up reading to help answer all of these questions farther down in this post.
Creating Symbols Through Reflexive Journaling: Reflexive journaling is the practice of keeping a running account of a specific activity, process or project. This is something that many people already do when navigating their magical practices in general. Many people who keep a Book of Shadows may keep a section for personal accounts and records. Other practitioners may keep a separate magical log or journal to chronicle their growth and experiences.
When a practitioner creates a symbol set—whether it is based on folklore, fairy tales, aesthetic value or something else—it is done by intentionally forging relationships between the the symbols and their practice/themselves. Reflexive journaling is an important tool in this process because it allows the practitioner better organize and define the process over time. (And, yes, the creation of symbol sets and the forging of these relationships is a process that occurs over a long period of time.)
Creating a symbol set isn’t just about identifying the symbols and incorporating them into your working, but also building a bridge between the spirit of the symbol and the spirit of the practitioner so that the two are bonded together. I like to remind myself of a quote from Skryim when it comes to forging energetic partnerships with symbols and concepts: “You must hear the word within yourself before you can project it into a Thu'um.” And, as cheesy as it sounds, that’s the idea. The process of creating a symbol set and bonding oneself to ones symbols does involve some level of feeling the symbols—especially in cases where working with you symbols involves channeling their energy in some way.
Step One: Begin by clearly defining your intended symbols. Write down each symbol and be as specific as you need to be. If you associate different energies, spirits or significance to a forest fire and a hearthfire, make that clear. Define each symbol and make note of your initial thoughts and feelings about the potential significance of each.
Step Two: Set aside time to work with each of the symbols that you have listed. This time might include research, freewriting, reflection, meditation, visualization, divination, ritual, or spirit work (depending on your practice and its elements/working parts). This is an intuitive process. Do what you feel you need to do in order to connect with the spirit or energy of each symbol and spend as much time doing so as you feel comfortable.
Step Three: Keep a running log of your work with symbols. Your reflexive journaling should detail all of your symbol work (from initially defining your symbols to experimenting and working with them in spells and rituals) and can also include anything that you feel enhances your study and research. Include artwork, pictures, stories, quotes and anecdotes as you feel necessary to better your understanding of and relationship with each symbol.
Step Four: As you continue to work with your symbols, make note of any changes or developments in your symbol-based practice. Keep track of how you use your symbols, how best they seem to work and what modifications you make over time.
Not sure how to get started with your reflexive journaling? Check out our free printable Symbolwork Worksheet to get started.
Follow up & Further Exploration
After finding or creating your personal symbol set, it can be helpful to follow up with divination to help you glean more information about your symbols, their significance to you and your practice, and their possible applications within your craft. To that end, we have created our Know Your Symbol Spread, a divination spread that is intended to help you get to know each of your symbols a little better, unlocking new potential interpretations and uses in your magical workings. This spread was created with Tarot and oracle cards in mind—however, it can be modified for use with other tool-based means of divination depending on your preferences.
Please note that this spread, like most of the resources we post here, is free for personal and professional use. If you redistribute, modify, review, or otherwise utilize this spread, please include credit and a link to this post wherever your work is posted. This reading is suitable for exploring one symbol at a time. Please read the reading details thoroughly before using to determine if your reading will require modification.
understanding the symbol spirit/energy
The first section of this reading deals with understanding the symbol’s spirit or energy. This is useful when it comes to getting to know and connecting with the symbol, particularly in those practices where all work is based on spirit and the relationship between the practitioner and those spirits. It is also helpful with regards to being able to feel, sense and communicate with those energies/spirits, and with applying these symbols to introspective spirit work and intrinsic divination.
1 - The Core Energy of the Symbol: This placement explores the core energy or spirit of the symbol. This will give you insight into the significance of the symbol and your connection to it.
2 - The Shadow Side of the Symbol: This placement explores the shadow side of the symbol. Every spirit is multi-faceted; even the spirit of a symbol. This will give you insight into the lower energies related to this symbol and how it can be used in baneful workings.
3 - The Highest Energy of the Symbol: This placement explores the highest, most illuminated side of the symbol spirit. This gives you insight into how this symbol can be used in higher workings, healings, and other efforts of spiritual advancement.
understanding the meaning
The second section of this reading focuses on the “meaning” of the symbol. That is, it is intended to help you understand the message that these symbols bring or carry when you use them in your practice. Note: We have included 3 “message” placements in this spread, but you can pull as many messages as you feel you need to.
4 to 6 - The Message/Meaning of the Symbol: These placement explore the messages and meanings that the symbols have when used in divination, as well as the messages and energies they send when used in spells and other magical workings.
Applications to your craft
7 to 9 - Applications in Spellwork: This placement explores how this symbol can be used in spells, rituals, and other magical workings.
10 to 12 - Applications in Divination: This placement explores how this symbol can be used in divination, as well as what it may mean in readings, omens, and dreams.
Note: To explore more areas specific to your craft, simply add more sets of three cards as needed.
Disclaimer: Each of the Crowsbone writers and guest bloggers has their own magical background, beliefs, traditions and practices. These post represent the opinions, research and beliefs of the individual writers. We do not believe that they represent beliefs and rules associated with all magical practice or witchcraft; nor do they represent the beliefs and opinions of all of the Crowsbone community.