To Quote Yoko Ono, "Yes, I'm a Witch"
"My voice is real, my voice is truth, I don't fit in your ways"
It’s the oldest story in the world. Kid watches The Craft and Bewitched, kid gets excited about magic, kid grows up to be a witch and tarot reader.
Maybe that’s not the oldest story, but I believe some version of it is pretty common. As children, we get lost in our world of imagination. I would cut up plastic bags and make cloaks for my dolls, and I would take my bedsheets and do the same on myself. I would walk to school and wiggle my nose at the traffic light to change it to red so I could cross. I was always drawn to witchy stuff. I admired the power and confidence they exuded. They seemed to have an inner trust in themselves and their magic.
Now, I didn’t grow up in a magical family. It’s not like they discouraged it or willingly ignored, it just wasn’t a thing. We weren’t religious either. Catholic if we have to put a label on it, and I remember whenever I would sleep over at my grandma’s house she would have me recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary. That always brought me a sense of peace. We weren’t churchgoers, but those moments at home praying would always make me feel like there was a sense of magic and that spiritual guides really do exist.
Growing up queer and shunned by church members I had a tough time finding my place. I don’t believe I have found it yet, but I am making a home within myself more and more everyday, and that’s what matters. I’ll expand on that story another day. But I was never mad at God, I was more confused and sad that I was being rejected by people who claim to be followers of love.
These people didn’t stop me from continuing my search. A search for my place, for magic, for something greater than me. Well, turns out I find something way smaller than me.
I was working at a place that wasn’t very fulfilling, and I had decided I needed to find something not quite like church but that felt holy. A place where I could sit in contemplation and be able to ask myself (and hear myself) what it is that I’m missing from my life.
I went to ask our All-knowing Lord Google and found a metaphysical shop a block away that hosted almost daily reiki circles. Perfect! I became obsessed. I would go 2 or 3 times a week just to receive reiki energy (having really no idea what reiki really was, I just knew it made me feel calm) and be able to sit in meditation. No one really bothering me. Basking in the energy of reiki and crystals.
In the end, the reiki practitioner would hand us an oracle card with a message on it. After a while, those started to make a little too much sense. How did a random card someone created somewhere in the world not knowing anything about me, make a card that spoke to me and my situation in that moment? I must explore more! That’s when I found something way smaller than me, a deck of tarot cards. I tend to shy away from mainstream stuff. If too many are loving something I tend to find something else. Such a rebel (cue eye roll). I noticed no one around me was working with tarot cards, only oracle. While I love all cards now, oracle was not the guidance I needed. I needed the punch and no-bullshit attitude that tarot provides. Cards like Death, Devil, Tower, 10 of Swords that turn people away from tarot were the very reason I was drawn to them. I knew there was more than the surface and I need to deep dive.
Unknowingly, it was a deep dive within myself. Tarot became this tool for self-discovery, self-evaluation, self-development, and a gateway drug into the magic I had long forgotten from when I was a kid wiggling my nose at traffic lights, and trying to control ocean waves.
Since discovering tarot and being open to the magic within myself and all around me, I’ve remembered and embraced my grandmother’s prayers back into my spiritual practice, I’ve felt that energy is real and with a little bit of mindset shift and intention, magic can be very real.
Magic has been a way to reclaim my power that society tries to take from you. You got bullied, shunned, rejected, and abandoned by the world at large, but one thing that will never leave you is you. It’s your power, your eternal soul, your innate magic, your unique energetic print, that is unchangeable and forever yours. All that can be encompassed and summarized by one little word, and for that, yes, I am a witch.
with love and tarot magic,
Icaro
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It’s time to claim your inner witch! Use this spread as a guide.
Card spreads can be used with any deck of cards (tarot, oracle, playing cards, whatever you prefer to work with), or use the questions as journal prompts, no cards necessary.
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