Tag Archives: spirituality

Why a DIY Tarot Club?

10 Tuesday Feb 2026

Posted by in Art Craft and Beauty, Magic, Tarot

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Tarot has been a love of mine since I first discovered magic. Using art to listen to spirits, explore intuition, find inspiration, reflect, and to explore the world as an enchanted place… what’s not to love? Last summer I went to the Tarot – Origins and Afterlives exhibition at the Warburg Institute in London (I’ve got a handwritten blogpost to type up about that still…) and it reminded me of how much fun I used to have painting my own cards in the school library at lunchtime.

And thus the idea of the DIY Tarot Club formed.

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Official Blurb:

Have you ever wanted to make your own tarot deck? Do you want to learn how to read tarot but memorising meanings from a book just leaves you cold? Then join the DIY tarot club and craft your own deck of tarot cards to learn the cards in a creative, playful way.

Humans learn best through play, and making your own deck is a tried and trusted method of learning tarot.

No art skills (nor ai) required!

The DIY tarot club includes a workbook to guide you through the process, and live monthly sessions (with replays) to explore some of the cards and make your own personal cards. We’ll explore the symbolism and stories in the cards, and inspire each other.

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It feels even more important to me as each month goes by and generative ai becomes more ubiquitous because, frankly, the act of making something with your own hands is powerful magic. As adults most of us are already discouraged from making art, from drawing or singing, or dancing, or whatever, because most of us will never be commercially polished, and having a tool that can spit out a shiny image with just a few keystrokes can increase that discouragement – why bother drawing anything when a machine can generate a picture much more efficiently, in any number of styles, to a highly polished commercial level?

Well honestly, for most of us, that’s not the purpose of making art.

To make your own DIY deck of cards is to play, to connect with the symbols and meanings of the tarot in a deeper way, and to find a sense of pride in the process of creating something out of next to nothing.

Of all the artworks, the decks, the pieces of history that were at this exhibition, it was the hand drawn deck of Austin Osman Spare from c1906 that really leapt out at me.

Hand Drawn Tarot cards by Austin Osman Spare at the “Tarot – Origins and Afterlife” Exhibition at the Warburton Institute, 2025

Here is a sample of the cards by a celebrated artist, long lost and rediscovered in the Magic Circle’s Collection only recently. And yes, some of them are more detailed palm-sized paintings, but some of them are just doodled figures and scribbled text.

I have opinions on gen-ai, and more questions about what place it has in an animistic world, but more than that I have a deep knowing that when we make stuff, when we play, we learn, we heal, and we grow. Add into that easily learning a magical tool that sometimes feels super complicated and you’re on to a winning combination.

I know that making things can be challenging, so I’ve designed a process where everyone can finish a usable deck of tarot cards, be supported, and have fun on the way.

Anyway, the DIY Tarot Club will be available to members of the Grove Tier and above on Patreon, our first live session is scheduled for Monday 9th March, and I’ll be dropping more information for members about how you might like to prepare next week.

I’d love to see you there but even if you don’t join us, do me a favour and grab a pen and scrap piece of paper and doodle something today. Just for fun. (And perhaps share this post with a friend if it feels inspiring!)

In delight,

~Halo

Decorative Button - DIY Tarot Club

Have you ever wanted to make your own tarot deck? Do you want to learn how to read tarot but memorising meanings from a book just leaves you cold? Then join the DIY tarot club and craft your own deck of tarot cards to learn the cards in a creative, playful way.

Humans learn best through play, and making your own deck is a tried and trusted method of learning tarot.

No art skills (nor ai) required!

The DIY tarot club includes workbooks to guide you through the process, and live monthly sessions (with replays) to explore the Tarot and make your own personal cards.

DIY Tarot Club – Grove Tier

A Witches Skill: Shapeshifting

20 Saturday Jul 2024

Posted by in Magic, Witchcraft 101

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I’m settling back into life after an adventure weaving lunar magic in Italy and reflecting back on some of the powerful experiences and beautiful magic that was shared. One piece was on shapeshifting, a skill that has fascinated me since I first discovered, aged 11, that there were adults who also believed in magic and I wondered;

“If witches are real, are shapeshifters real too?”

I soon discovered that shapeshifting is one of the skills of the witch.

(Curious? Join The Enchanted Academy here for a free Masterclass on shapeshifting!)

Shapeshifting shows up throughout history, myth, legend, and even into modern practices today. The skill to shift ones shape, to take on a new perspective, new abilities, new understanding.

Today we think of it as an imaginative or energetic practice, and it is. But it is worth remembering that the world is more nuanced than we think, and the physical is not so far away from the spirit.

Historically shapeshifting was often described as being literal, and there are accounts of people flying to safety (1), or becoming bears, wolves, and hares.

Terry Pratchett (2) illustrates the traditional witchcraft practice of faring forth in animal form well, when Granny Weatherwax hangs a sign up saying “I ate’nt dead” and sends her spirit out to “borrow” an animal’s senses, but it was common in this practice that the spirit was sent out in animal form, as a physical presence itself . The witch-spirit-as-animal, running as a hare, could even be injured and that injury would appear on their body the next day. Scottish witch Isobel Gowdie describes a famous example of this. (3)

The line between physical and spiritual is more porous than we might believe.

I first experienced this practice in a group with the story of Ceridwen and Taliesin (4), where they shapeshift during a chase, travelling through the realms, but I’d spent years exploring it beforehand – in dreams, in meditations and journey, out walking, and even playing hide and seek!

Some of the ways you can work with shapeshifting include:

  • Shifting your energy body to be more inviting or to discourage advances
  • Changing colours to project different impressions or hide!
  • Borrowing the heightened sight of the red kite, or hearing of the hare
  • Exploring different perspectives and landscapes through journeys to learn, and to gain insight
  • Remembering your relationship to the other beings in the web of life
  • To be inspired
  • For fun!

So much in life shifts and changes that exploring deliberate shapeshifting is also a wonderful magical tool for reflecting on what stays the same. What is consistent in you when you become a hare? A cat? A bird? What is, deep down, the core of you?

And what is eternal when everything else changes too? If you feel unsettled and overwhelmed by the fast paced chaos of modern life, finding that thread can be a powerful way of anchoring yourself.

Shapeshifting is, then, perfect for exploring different perspectives and finding the deep truths, for knowing yourself as well as the other.

So I’m really excited to share that I’m offering a FREE “masterclass” on shapeshifting as a witches skill, on Monday 22nd July! You can come and find out more about Shapeshifting, and experience it for yourself, in The Enchanted Academy, which has itself shifted shape and has a new home!

Come deepen your magic and explore the witches skill of shapeshifting in The Enchanted Academy, and gain access to our free community of gorgeous magical folks.

Button with text: A FREE Masterclass at The Enchanted Academy, The Witches’ Power of Shapeshifting - Monday 22nd July, 8pm (UK) with Halo Quin - Experience the wisdom of animals, heighten your spirit senses, & learn to fly. Join TEA here : www.the-enchanted-academy.mn.co
I choose Magic ~ Enter TEA here

Masterclass FAQ

  • Will there be a replay?
    • Yes!
  • Does it cost anything?
    • The community is totally free, with monthly events including masterclasses, prompts, healing and oracle swaps. There are courses and such that you can choose to sign up to when you’re ready to dive in deeper!
  • Why should I listen to you?
    • I have almost three decades of experience in magic, and many years teaching. Magic is my life (I also have a PhD in philosophy so I have thought about this stuff thoroughly too). My goal is to give you the skills to enchant your life and the world, and I work hard at it. But you can come and see for yourself by joining The Enchanted Academy for free.
  • How do I access the class?
    • Sign up to TEA here and turn on your notifications, the details will be posted in the Common Room!

Notes for the curious:

  1. I heard a tale from Peter Stevenson about enslaved people in the Americas growing wings and flying across the sea to home, which he learned from their descendants. There are other examples of this but this was in the last 200 years, so really recent.
  2. This is in “Lords and Ladies” but the whole “Wyrd Sisters” arc in Terry Pratchett’s work has brilliant illustrations of witchcraft.
  3. Isobel Gowdie was a witch executed in Scotland in the 1600s who gave a huge amount of information in her testimony including a famous charm for becoming a hare. Emma Wilby has written extensively on this in her book “Visions of Isobel Gowdie”.
  4. You can read a version of this story in my book, “Gods and Goddesses of Wales”
Button with text: TEA - The Enchanted Academy - with Halo (on an orange, gold, & red patchwork background)

The Enchanted Academy

A home for real magic, real community, open now!

Come and deepen your practice with experiential classes, discussion prompts, oracle and healing swaps, and courses available to embody your magic.

Find out more here or click to join now:

I choose Magic ~ Enter TEA here

What Do Pagans Believe?

07 Thursday Dec 2023

Posted by in Druidry, Magic, Reflections, Witchcraft 101

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(and how does that look in the world?)

Today I flicked through a copy of “Cults and New Religions; A History” by Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley, and I naturally went straight to the chapter on “Wicca and Modern Witchcraft”, to see what they were saying about my religion – Pagan Witchcraft (and yes, I consider myself religious, but not dogmatic!).

The bits I saw I thought were quite accurate – Modern Witchcraft and Wicca are both paths under the “Pagan” umbrella, alongside Heathenry (generally speaking) and Druidry… with a fair amount of overlap! Not every Witch will consider themselves Pagan, and that’s ok, but most seem to be happy to sit under that umbrella.

What I did really like was how they characterised “Pagan” paths as, for the most part, sharing three common beliefs (paraphrased!):

  1. The Earth is Sacred.
  2. The Divine is immanent (in the world, including us).
  3. We have the ability to interact with the divine/spiritual/magical forces of the world. (i.e. Magic is possible!)

There will be a few pagans who disagree, or want to elaborate, but I think that’s a pretty good description.

So if you believe these three things and don’t subscribe to another faith, and the vibe of Paganism appeals to you, you might be one of us! You don’t even have to pick a tradition or a specific Path, you can just be Pagan. Or you can be Pagan and… like me.

Picture of autumnal trees by a frosty patch of grass in the sunshine – the beauty of the world is all around us.

I do have some thoughts, of course, like recognising that just because we can “interact with the spiritual forces of the world”, doesn’t mean we all do, or that what we do always works out as we intend, but many of us do absolutey do things that we call magic based on this understanding of the world.

And this makes me wonder about “belief” vs “experience” – I don’t just “believe” these things, I experience Nature as Sacred, the world as Divine, and magic as possible.

Our understanding of the world shapes how we treat it and how we experience it.

The stories we tell change the world we live in.

Our experiences.

And our actions.

In my Crimson Craft teachings I often speak about how “love” is a verb, it isn’t just something we feel, it is also something we do.

And if nature is Sacred, the world is Divine, and we can effect it, then how does that understanding, those beliefs, shape how we act in the world?

Many of my friends are protestors, street-activists, and campaigners for change in policy.

Most people I know are trying to live more lightly upon this beautiful, sacred, earth.

In Reclaiming Witchcraft, we’re having conversations about how we can treat each other better, be better allies to indigenous folk, queer folk, disabled folk, BIPOC and folk disproportinately effected by the systems of power that would rather keep us apart. We’re working to remember and act from the understanding that we are each divine.

We each take the steps we can, and one piece of this is remembering that we are part of the world.

Remembering that, if the divine is in the world… it is in us too.

If the Earth is Sacred, then you too are Sacred.

So how will you choose to treat yourself as such? To treat others as such?

All while holding those essential boundaries and practicalities of life, of course, which can seem paradoxical!

(Which is why I love working with the Red Goddesses who hold both radical Love and strong boundaries, they are lovers and fighters… but that’s a story for the future… join my mailing list to make sure you don’t miss it!)

What do you think? Is that a good way of describing the fundamental beliefs/ethos of Paganism? And if you are Pagan, what ways do you treat yourself, others, and the world as holding the divine?

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