Stellar Tarot

Some of you may remember that about 3 years ago I had a shop on Etsy that I sold tarot and oracle card readings from, and, you may also remember that about 2 and a half years ago when I was pregnant with my youngest child, Emelie, I was facing a lot of health issues around that pregnancy, and was essentially unable to continue working as a tarot reader, as I was facing both a lot of difficult physical symptoms, as well as being quite troubled emotionally. I closed my shop down, intending to open it back up again a few months after she was born, and carry on as usual.

Things didn't exactly go according to plan. A lot has happened in the last 2 and a half years since I closed my shop, some good, some bad, but all of it ripe with lessons to be learned and experiences that made me grow as a person. But I am happy to say that as of yesterday, I am back in business as a tarot reader.


http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/stellartarot
Those of you with long memories will look at that business name …

I have searched for you everywhere.  I looked for you in the changing moon, and in the rising sun.  I swam in rivers cold and walked amongst tall trees.  I lit candles in your honor, and tried many hats on for size. I listened to the whispering wind and tasted burning forests in the air.  I watched countries destroyed and questioned all the death. And then, when all the noise,  death, emotions, and nauseating smells threatened to break me, You appeared. and I realized it was You, always You. In everything, and were everywhere, and had been with me all along.
-A poem, by me. Copyright 2016 to Jess Johnson. May not be reproduced without written permission from the author. Feel free to share away on social media with proper credits though! <3

(all images in this post are sourced from Google Images, and come from Pinterest and Tumblr. My searches included witch tea and pagan tea, in case you want to find them yourself)


As a pantheistic witch, my faith views are that everything is sacred, from my fellow human beings to the things we create, to every rock, tree, and blade of grass. I believe in balance, and that everyday, mundane activities can be made sacred simply by the intention we put behind it. Of my favorite things to do everyday that feels sacred is to make tea. Whether it's my morning cup of Earl Grey to help me wake up, or a fancy loose leaf tea that I make to sip on during meditation or ritual, or a pot that I will share with friends, tea is something that I make constantly throughout the day, and that in my opinion, greatly improves the mood and energy, just by being there. 
Tea can do so much for me. I drink it as a stimulant in the morning, the heat and the taste feel like they are bringing me to life (not t…

The Wheel of the Year is one of the first things that new witchlings and baby pagans come across when they start along the path. Learning which days are sacred to nature-based worship is often a point of interest, and dozens of books have been written on the subject of sabbats, their history, and how to celebrate them in our day and age. But for many people, the Wheel of the Year is a tricky thing to incorporate into their Gregorian calendar, and lately, I've been no exception.
What we have come to know as the Wheel of the Year is a mish-mash of various ancient and modern holidays, that are spaced equally over the span of a Gregorian calendar, about 6 weeks apart from each other. Many of them have related holidays close by, or on the date of pagan holidays, with different names, like Candlemas or Imbolc landing on the modern Groundhog Day. When pagans first start to circle the wheel, it can feel very strange or even out of place to celebrate a day that they have never given much …

For the third year in a row, one of my favorite internet peeps, Kelly-Ann Maddox, is hosting Self-Love September on her social media accounts. She blogs, instructs in videos on YouTube, tweets and Facebooks her little heart out about all things self-love, and things related to self-love for the entire month, pouring resources into the world for those who are hungry for some of that good stuff. And for the third year in a row, I have been hungrily following along, soaking up as many resources as possible, hanging off every word, and journaling like a mad woman when I hear that passage said just right and it sparks something in me that needs to be tackled, picked apart, and examined.

This year Kelly-Ann has encouraged us to share our self-love stories with the world, and while I intend to do so, this blog post won't be it. Well, all of it, anyways. I am sharing a tiny fragmented piece of something that is helping me with my journey towards managing my depression and anxiety (again).…

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was one of the worst, and one of the best birthdays that I can remember.

If you've watched me on YouTube for more than about 5 minutes, you will probably have heard me mention that I have never had the best relationship with my mother. Our closeness has waxed and waned over the years, the worst years being when I was a child and teenager, and the best being post-divorce with my first husband. But lately things have started to go south again, as my mother has put the renovations of her home at the top of her priority list, and family at the very bottom. This has not sat well with me at all.

It became apparent just a few days ago, however, just how low I was on the totem pole of her life, and it broke me. I had one of those ugly sobbing on the kitchen floor moments after it happened, and not being much of a crier, that is saying something. In fact, I'm liable to break down into one of those again just even talking about it, and so that is REALLY…

My path as a shamanic witch has led me through a lot of pagan, magickal and occult territory over the years, from books to tv shows and movies, to my own experiences. There is nothing quite like being down in the dumps and then finding that thing that gives you the spark to be or do better that gets you excited all over again. This week, it's been re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time in YEARS. 
I was a big Buffy fan when the show was running in the 90's and early 2000's, but I never watched the whole series start to finish, religiously. I decided to give it a shot, and I'm nearly through the first season already. Not only have I found it inspiring, but my kids are falling in love with it too, especially my pre-teen step-daughter. She thinks Buffy is pretty cool. My 5 year old son is both intrigued and scared by the show, so he watches sporadic bits, and my 1 year old just likes the theme song to dance to. But I've found it incredibly inspiring fo…

Thus far I've shied away from talking too much about magick on this blog, but that's about to change lovebugs, and I'm busting out of this little shell in a big way. That's right, I'm going to pop my magick-blog cherry by talking about something that may make some of you rather uncomfortable... menstrual blood, and magick.

First off, before we go ANY further, please understand one thing: I am well aware that if you Google "menstrual blood, magick" that pretty much every article that pops up will talk about using menstrual blood in love or romantic control spells. This blog post couldn't be further from that topic if it tried. If any of you have watched my YouTube channel for more than 5 minutes, you will know that when I read for others, I refuse to read for what I call "the absent third-party." Meaning, if that person isn't sitting in front of me (or paying for the reading), I'm not reading for, or about them. So, please rest assure…

I don't know about you guys, but when I first discovered witch craft at the age of 12, I was already so done with the dogma of my Catholic upbringing. I hated being told exactly what to think. I hated the idea that the only rules I could follow were the ones that God set down for us. I  hated that my idea of what was "good" and what Catholicism thought was "good" didn't always match up. When my mom stopped making me go to church, I was over joyed. I felt free, and when I picked up a copy of Candlelight Spells a few weeks later, I was hooked for life.

I didn't drop anchor at Wicca. It was an appealing religion on many levels, but a lot of the "rules" that Wicca had didn't quite match up with what I believed, or wanted to do. The idea of working in a coven, for instance, was something that I pursued for a long time because I felt that I had to. When I finally gave myself permission to practice as a solitary, it was a relief. But then, it bro…

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a link to a website on my Facebook page, to a woman's online store called Greenwoman Studio. She makes all sorts of need things, but the item that really stood out for me were her handknit goddesses. I guess you could call them stuffies, or even charms or spells, depending on how you approach it. I toyed with the idea of purchasing one, but with some of them being over $50 a pop (USD) I had to say no. Luckily, Greenwoman sells her pattern. And I just happen to be a whiz with a set of knitting needles.

I purchased the pattern, and 2 whirlwind days later, I had produced three of them. I decided almost right away that I would make one for each of my daughters as sleep charms, and one for myself to use as part of a spell, but also to serve as an altar decoration, focal point, and hell, I'll admit it - a comfort object to hold on to when I'm having one of those days/moments/nights.

I knew I wanted to stuff the goddesses with a blend of herbs that…

The world of tarot is inundated with new decks and books all the time. This time 10 years ago you had a few choices beyond the traditional Rider-Waite or Thoth decks, but not a lot. The trend towards themed decks hadn't really caught on yet, and the idea of using tarot as something other than a tool to tell your future was also quite unheard of. So the same old ideas about tarot continued to proliferate; you had a significator card being chosen for most readings based on their physical features "matching" ones intended by the court cards, ideas about how you should acquire your tarot cards (as a gift, rather than purchasing it yourself), and of course, the idea of reading cards that are reversed. 
Early in my tarot career, I did read reversed cards. I wanted to follow the status quo on that front, and of course, wasn't there a special little blurb in the book about how to read the card if it's reversed? Weren't they intended to be read both ways? But as time…

But it's only March 2nd, Jess! Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?

Well, maybe... but I find around the 3 week mark after a sabbat, I kind of naturally start to drift away from the energy of what was, into the energy of what is coming up. I'm either getting on the bandwagon early because I'm really feeling the spirit of the season, or because I'm decidedly NOT feeling it. This year with Ostara, it's the former. And for big turn-of-the-season sabbats, that's usually how I am... my eyes are popping with all the signs of the changes, the return of green and color the earth is putting a spring in my step (yes, pun intended) and the very air around me feels ripe with possibility, energy, and freshness.


This year, Ostara and Easter are actually quite close together, separated only by a week. This makes it, in my opinion, so much easier to incorporate my sabbat festivities with the socially-accepted holiday, because I am able to actually get the whole f…

Maybe it's the fact that I'm a water sign, a Cancer, and ruled by my emotions. Maybe it's because I'm an empathic woman in tune with my feelings. Maybe it's just a fluke. But when the moon turns full, and most witches are celebrating the beauty of the moon, I can usually be found trying to hide under my covers. For me, when the moon is full, the world is often too much. I'm more sensitive, I tire more easily, and I'm a raw nerve, an emotional wreck. I get depressed quite easily during a full moon, and overwhelmed if people around me are experiencing heavy, difficult emotions. I usually have good intentions to do ritual on the night of the full moon, but by the end of the day I am usually emotionally exhausted, and go to bed early.

Oh sure, I put my crystals and decks into the full moonlight to charge them, and I've put water in a cup onto my balcony to charge in the light and drank it in the next morning, charging my cells with this potent healing energ…

Since I was a little child, I have been a crafty person. I was coloring and drawing pictures well before I went into preschool. In grade school I brought home more creations than my mother knew what to do with. If there was a medium to work with, I most likely worked with it. Once I got into middle and high school, I took further art classes to hone my skills, and I took up new creative hobbies, like pottery, knitting, and sewing. Yes, it's safe to say that all my life, I have been bitten by the creative bug.

It was a pretty natural thing, then, for me to try to find ways to work my witchy ways into crafting once I really set myself on the pagan path. I have never been afraid to get my hands dirty with a project, so I've tried my hands at a number of things, from wand, staff, and broom making (most of which are now gone, because I had to leave the items behind when I left my ex-husband), to bags for tarot cards, altar cloths, dream pillows, and more.

Most recently, I found mys…

She expands and contracts like a diaphragm Her life's breath tied to me; to my presence Each movement outward is an expansion and when this new world is too much she folds back into me Her center Here she grounds, she heals, she recovers roots are put it, nourishment taken in the form of touch, words, kisses, whispers and like a tree in spring she sends off new shoots growing upon a sturdier and stronger trunk Her presence is like a heart beat Bah-boom; close Bah-boom; explore over, and over, and over again Until she gradually replaces me with her own personal power
Such is the process of motherhood; attached together as one for so long then they break free to find their own way
Copyright Jessica Johnson, all rights reserved. This poem may not be reproduced without the author's express permission and knowledge. Be kind, share with references, link back to the blog if you share.