The Importance of Pleasure + 3 Pleasure Rituals

We are spiritual beings, but here as humans, we have bodies. Our bodies experience a wide range of sensations and emotions — fear, anxiety, shame, joy, love, pleasure, and many more.

Pleasure is one of the things that feels so specific to having a body - something that’s available to us through the tactile, through sensation, through what we can see and feel and touch.

One of my favorite quotes about pleasure comes from the classic The Ethical Slut: “pleasure is a worthwhile goal in and of itself.”

Many of us have learned in our society that prioritizing pleasure is selfish, unnecessary, and even wrong. But pleasure is our birthright, and as the quote above shares — it is worth pursuing. We all deserve to experience pleasure. 

In this blog, I’m sharing three rituals to help you tap into pleasure. Scroll down to read them!

Before we jump into the rituals, here's a list of ritual items that correspond to pleasure. Any of these items can be used to help you set the intention to invite in more pleasure. They are in no way necessary, but if you have them on hand, feel free to add them to any of the following rituals.

Pleasure Correspondences:

Crystals- rose quartz, garnet, carnelian, ruby

Element- Water

Colors- pink, red, orange

Tarot cards- The Empress, Queen of Cups, The Sun

Plants and scents- Rose, sandalwood, ylang ylang, patchouli, cinnamon

Shell- CowryEnergy points- Sacral

1. Presence Ritual

To me, one of the key ingredients to pleasure is presence. Many of us aren’t present throughout our days for many deeply valid reasons, from trauma to busyness, but when we aren’t present with our lives, I believe we miss out on a lot of the pleasure available to us in the moment.

For this presence ritual, all you’ll need to do is bring presence to something you’re doing in your day. Here are some examples of things you could try doing more mindfully to experience the pleasure within them:

• Taking a walk

• Eating a snack or a meal 

• Gardening

• Watching the sunset

• Having a conversation with someone you love 

• Listening to a song you love 

• Listening to a poem over audio 

• Moving your body in some way (yoga, dancing, running, etc.)

• Having sex (solo or with others) 

Whatever you choose, try to ground yourself beforehand with a few breaths, a hand on your body, petting your animal companion, or doing something else that feels grounding for you. 

Throughout the experience, try to keep your breath deep and truly notice your embodied experience. When you feel yourself drifting back into your mind (I can almost guarantee this will happen, and that’s okay!), try to just notice that, release the thoughts, and return to your breath. Just keep showing up with your breath and your presence, and see how it helps you attune to the pleasure that’s available to you at this moment. 

2. Exploring the Senses Pleasure Ritual

This ritual is inspired by a group experience I took part in at Spirit Weavers a few years ago called Pleasure Stacking.

For this ritual, you’ll want to gather items that can stimulate the senses (sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch). Get creative and use what you have around you! What items in your space open up possibilities for you, feel delicious, or spark curiosity? 

Here are some things that I have used for this ritual to inspire you: 

• Crystals with different textures 

• Silky fabrics 

• Eye mask 

• A delicious tincture that tastes like cacao  

• Fruit  

• A CBD pre-roll  

• Velvety fabrics 

• Scented massage oil  

• Incense  

• Candles 

• A chain from a necklace  

• Sensual music  

1. Once you select the items you'll be working with for this ritual, set yourself up somewhere you feel comfortable - I like to lay down on a yoga mat on the floor.

2. Light your candles and incense if you’re using them, and start to breathe deeply and tune into the senses.

3. The intention of this ritual is to connect with pleasure through the senses and through the body. The only guideline is to use your tools intuitively and keep breathing!

4. Try to really stay present with sensation. You might start by rubbing oil on your body and massaging yourself, experimenting with different pressures. You might trace the chain from your necklace over your belly, taste your tincture or fruit, let your music wash over you and find organic movement, breathe in the scent of your incense, or wrap yourself in different fabrics.

5. As you work with this ritual, notice what happens in your body. Notice what feels delicious in your body, what just feels weird, what your body wants more of. Can you give yourself what you need?

6. As you keep tuning into the senses, allow any organic pleasure mantras to arise like “I deserve pleasure,” “My pleasure is sacred,” or “My pleasure matters.”

7. Notice, too, if shame arises or thoughts telling you that you don’t deserve pleasure, it’s not okay to feel good, etc. Allow these thoughts and feelings to be here - it’s okay! They’re important information. See if you can breathe into them, honor them, and return to your journey through the senses.

8. Take as much time as you need. Remember that experiencing pleasure is your birthright.

9. When you’re ready, close this ritual by placing your hands somewhere on your body and speaking some loving words to yourself, to your body, to whichever parts of you need it.

Ritual to Open to More Pleasure

This ritual is intended to support you in feeling in your body where you hold blocks to pleasure - and moving them out in a fun way. 

In my opinion, it’s not only our tears and pain that move energy and blockages. We can open to more pleasure, and we can move blocks out of our bodies in a fun and playful way as well. In this way, we become open to experiencing more pleasure and create a new pattern in the body. 

For this ritual, feel free to put on some music and create a sacred space, whatever that means to you - (maybe lighting candles or incense, or not - you are a sacred space so you don't have to do anything but you can if you'd like!).

You’ll want to be somewhere you can be comfortable, like in your bed or on a yoga mat.

1. Once you're set up and comfortable, start to feel in your body where you hold blocks to pleasure. I recommend starting by sitting in meditation and breathing deep, feeling these places that are present today (and if you can’t feel anything, that’s okay too).

2. When you feel ready, start to move those blocks in a fun and intuitive way. Just play - see if you can let the moving of these blocks itself be fun and pleasurable.

3. You can use laughter, orgasm, shaking, yelling, roaring, moaning, hissing, vibrating, circling, dancing, moving, or anything else you can feel into or think of to move these blocks out of your body.

4. Can you let it be pleasurable? Can you let it be fun even to heal and explore and transmute? Let your creativity and intuition take over when it comes to moving these crunchy, sticky places out of your body.

5. When you feel complete, take a moment to breathe and notice your new state. Can you feel where there is more space, more openness, in your body? How does your connection to yourself feel now? Breathe, notice, and perhaps take a few moments to explore these questions and process your experience in your journal.

Looking for more pleasure-based rituals? Check out this blog post for more rituals for Beltane!

Your spell's over, now what? 3 Ways to release or repurpose your ritual items

You waited for the perfect moon phase, gathered your supplies, and sent your magic out into the world. Now, you’re left with the remnants of your magical workings. What can be done with your leftover jars and bowls of notes, rocks, herbs, and candle wax?

Whether your magical workings have come to fruition or not, you have quite a few options when it comes to releasing or reusing your past spells. In this blog post, I’m going to share three different ways to honor and release your sacred spells and objects. 

It is the very act of your spell and ritual work that releases your desires out into the universe. The remnants left behind can serve as helpful reminders, but repurposing or releasing your spell will not break or reverse anything. There are certainly some practices that may require you to keep the components of your spell intact, however, if that’s the case, you’ll undoubtedly know. Trust your inner guidance system. 

As you read through these options, know that you can use one or all of these methods to repurpose or release your spell objects. Some objects may not work for certain methods outlined below, in that case, it’s okay to combine. You can also check out this quick video I created for our Instagram page. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

1. Burning Ceremony

Fire is a transformative tool, so this method goes beyond simply making space for new spells. If your spell has ended it may be time to let it transform in new ways. This method can also be helpful to aid you in detaching from the outcome of your spellwork. Fire is powerful!

A burning ceremony is a great option for spells that include paper, herbs, candle wax, and other burnable objects. Most candle wax is paraffin, which means it’s not ideal for burying in the ground, and reusing it can be time-consuming. If your spell has leftover wax, burning it is one of the easiest and safest ways to release it. 

For this method, you’ll need a large cauldron, fireproof dish, or outdoor fire. Depending on what the contents of your spell were, you’ll likely want to do this outside to prevent a huge plume of smoke from inhabiting your house. As you release your items into the fire, trust that the energy will continue to transform and benefit yourself and others. 

2. Release to the Earth

A gentler option is to release your items back into the Earth. For this method, it’s imperative that you only release items that are natural and biodegradable. For example, most candles are made from paraffin wax and are not suitable for this method. I also do not recommend burying glass jars or bottles. Herbs, plants, biodegradable papers, and crystals are ideal for this method. If your spell was contained in a jar or vessel of some kind, I recommend reusing it, see the next section for tips on this. 

Items that should not be given back to the Earth:

• Salt: salt can harm or even kill plants

• Candle wax: most candles are made with paraffin wax which is not biodegradable

• Anything that is not 100% biodegradable

You can bury your items in a meaningful location or in your backyard, the location itself doesn’t need to be special. If you live near a natural body of water, releasing them into the water is a great option as well. This method can be transformative like the fire but in a gentler way. I find this method is great for inspiring a sense of gratitude and giving thanks to Mother Earth.

3. Cleanse and reuse

For all the objects you want to reuse like meaningful crystals and items that don’t burn or biodegrade, you’ll want to energetically cleanse them. Because spell and ritual work evokes such strong emotions, it’s important to energetically cleanse items before reusing them for another purpose. Unless, of course, the energy you imbued your items with is something you want to keep around. However, if you performed a spell for letting go of a past relationship, and then want to use the same jar or tools for helping you gain a new career, it’ll be best to cleanse your items.

There are a variety of ways to cleanse physical objects. Here are a few simple techniques. 

• Place your items in salt overnight.

• Hold your items in cleansing smoke like rosemary, cedar, lavender, or some other herb in line with your spiritual heritage. 

• For rocks or other items that are waterproof, hold them in running water.

• Hold your items in your hands and call on any guides, spirits, or energies you work with to cleanse your items. 

No need to let your sacred space fill up with spellwork from the past! I hope you enjoyed these tips to keep your spell and ritual practice open and flowing.

Card Spread & Sigil Ritual for Aquarius Season

Welcome to Aquarius season! Our fixed air sign, Aquarius energy is about authentic expression, bringing forth the new age and the next world, and upgrading the collective to its highest expression.

To learn more about Aquarius energy, you can check out this blog post. In this post, I’ll be sharing a card spread and a sigil ritual to help you tap into the healing invitations of the Aquarius season. 

Practice these Aquarius offerings together or separately, whatever feels best for you. Scroll down to explore both of them!

Card Spread for Aquarius Season

For this card spread, you’re welcome to use a tarot deck or an oracle deck. In the spread, we’ll explore the Aquarius themes of authenticity and belonging. 

I invite you to create a ritual space for you and your deck to communicate by taking a moment to ground and center yourself; lighting some incense, herbs, or candles that help you drop into your heart space; and opening to allow messages to come through. 

When you feel centered and ready, shuffle your deck and draw a card for each of the following points:

• Where do I have a block from authentic expression?

• How can I support my authentic expression in this area?

• What's keeping me from feeling a sense of belonging? 

• How can I create deeper belonging within myself?

• Who will I be in my most authentic expression?

Take some time to journal and/or meditation on your cards to connect with the full meaning they have to offer you.

Sigil Ritual for Aquarius Season

For this ritual, we’ll be creating a sigil to help you embody your truth. As an air sign, Aquarius evokes truth. You can see this in the King of Swords, our Aquarius card in the court cards of the tarot. It invites us to speak and embody our truth, to take up space with our voice and our message, and to not shrink - even when we’re afraid. When we embody our truth and share our voices, we create more authentic belonging. Associated with group energy and friendships, this is something Aquarius energy is deeply connected to. If sigils are new to you, think of them as a powerful symbol that is completely personal to you. What you’ll need: 

• paper

• pencil

• optional: crystals, herbs, or candles that support the element of air like yellow or blue candles, mint or citrus, and amethyst or kyanite. 

Ritual Steps: 

1. As with the card spread, open your ritual by taking some time to ground and center yourself. You might like to visualize yourself sending roots down into the core of the earth, take some deep breaths, place your hands on your body, or do something else that feels grounding to you. 

2. After you ground, you might like to cast a circle to protect your ritual space and invite any well ancestors, spirit guides, or other loving beings you have relationships with to join you in ritual.

3. When you’re ready, it’s time to create your sigil. Write down some phrases and affirmations on your paper that support you in speaking your truth. Just let them flow! Some phrases to get you started: I EMBODY MY TRUTH. or I AM TRUTH.

4. After you write them down, sit with the phrase (or phrases) you wrote. If you wrote multiple phrases, speak them out loud and see which one lands in your body. Choose one that feels alive and supportive.

5. Re-write that phrase or phrases on a new page. In the next few steps, you’ll work towards simplifying and unifying this phrase into a single symbol. 

6. Re-write the phrase again, removing all of the repeating letters and vowels. 

7. Re-write this line, turning the remaining letters into simpler symbols or shapes, like this. 

8. Connect the lines together into a symbol in a way that feels intuitive and natural to you. This can be as simple or as elaborate as you’d like. As you create, breathe deeply and focus on your intention. 

Tip: If drawing isn’t natural for you, this might feel uncomfortable, and that’s okay! Focus on the intention of your statement rather than what the sigil looks like. Remember this is a symbol for you and you alone. 

Tip: Your sigil will look different than the one pictured.

9. When you’re ready, it’s time to activate your sigil. You can do this in many ways, but for this ritual, I recommend a brief meditation. 

10. Place your sigil to your heart, with your palms on top of it, and breathe deeply. Visualize light (any color that comes intuitively is great) flowing from your heart to the sigil, activating each piece of it. Spend some time here letting energy flow, and when you feel an energy shift you’ll know that your sigil has been activated. 

11. Close your ritual by placing your sigil on your altar, under your pillow, on your bedside, or somewhere else that you’ll see it regularly and be reminded of its power. 

Wishing you a nourishing Aquarius season, and please feel free to share your ritual experience with us on Instagram!

Seeing the unseen // Scrying 101

Scrying is an ancient divination practice where you connect with your intuition and work to make the unseen seen by gazing onto a reflective surface.

Scrying is a broad practice, therefore mentions of it pop up in a variety of places throughout history. Scrying is referenced in ancient Egypt, England, Greece, and Persia (to name a few.) Nostradamus reportedly relied on scrying for many of his predictions as well. 

The tools you can use for scrying are as vast as its history. You can use crystals, water, the moon, fire, smoke, a mirror, or really any reflective surface. 

Artwork copyright Cassie Uhl 2020-infinity, please credit if shared.

Though clear crystal balls work for scrying and are commonly shown as a scrying tool, it is not the only kind of crystal used for this practice. Black obsidian mirrors are commonly used for scrying, but really any crystal with a reflective surface will do. You may even decide that you'd like to use a specific crystal in alignment with your desires for a scrying session. Sphere, larger palm stones, and flat mirrors or slabs all work well for this practice. 

As varied as scrying is, the piece that remains consistent is the desire to reach an altered state to receive visions. The visions you receive from scrying could be from spirit or your subconscious. That’s for you to decide. 

I love scrying for its power and simplicity. In this post, I’ll be sharing how to scry! Keep reading for five steps to try scrying for yourself.

A note on working with the moon. The full moon and the dark moon are ideal times to try this practice. I like scrying with the full moon to help illuminate and the dark moon for going within and accessing intuition. Don’t let the phase of the moon stop you from trying this practice; these are just suggestions. 

Getting started with scrying:

1. To begin your scrying practice, create a ritual space for yourself, and gather your bowl and water. (As I walk you through scrying, I’ll be using the example of a bowl of water, but remember that there are many other ways to scry that I shared above.) 

2. You’ll want to be in a dark room with only one or two candles lit. 

3. Once your space is ready, enter a trance state through meditating, energy work, drumming, chanting, breathwork, or any other practice that helps you drop into your subconscious mind. 

4. Once you feel like you’re in an altered state of consciousness, relax your eyes and gaze into your bowl of water. Breathe deeply, let yourself soften, and ask a question silently (for example, what is holding me back in X situation? Or what do I need to know about Y?). 

5. Gaze into the bowl and let yourself see what you see. It may take time for images to come up, but if you stay focused and present, they will. Allow the images, words, and sensations to flow, rather than holding on to them tightly.

When you feel like you’re done, you’re done! Spend some time journaling about what you felt and saw to help you answer the questions you came to receive answers for. 

Remember, the subconscious mind works with symbolism, so don’t discount anything that you see even if you’re not quite sure what it means at first! Think of the information you receive, like the symbolism in dreams: sometimes we are left with more questions than answers. Sometimes the questions are the answers. Sometimes a thread is what you are offered, and you can choose to follow it or not. Sometimes symbols may not mean anything at first but are asking to be engaged with over time. 

Let the process unfold, and see what comes up for you! 

4 Ways to Perform Chakra Readings with The Ritual Deck

Your chakras are a primary energy source in your subtle energy body. They connect to your physical body and the rest of your subtle energy body, like your aura. If you'd like to connect with your chakra energy in new ways and learn different rituals for balancing your chakras, I created The Ritual Deck to help you do this. This oracle card deck is extremely versatile!

In this post, I will outline four ways to use this deck as an energy and chakra reading tool. If you have the Ritual Deck already, some of this is outlined in the guidebooks (along with other useful card spreads, like working with the moon phases.) Update 2022: The original Ritual Deck is currently discontinued but we're working on having a similar version eventually! 

The four techniques I’ll outline in this post are: 

1. Daily chakra reading

2. Chakra assessment card spread

3. Seven chakras balancing card spread 

4. Using a pendulum with the chakra cards for an energy reading

If you want to learn more about the chakra system in general, you can deep dive into the chakra system, explore my new book, Understanding Chakras.

Keep reading to explore four ways to use The Ritual Deck to work with chakra energy.

Daily Chakra Reading

One of the simplest ways to use the Ritual Deck with your chakras is to separate the seven chakra cards and work with just those seven cards. Shuffle the seven cards and ask any of the following questions. 

1. Which of my chakras is overactive? 

2. Which of my chakras is underactive or blocked? 

3. Which chakra should I focus on today? 

You could also spread your cards out and hover your hand over them to make a selection. Here’s a video I shared with these techniques if you’d like to learn more about selecting your cards.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

Select a card when you feel ready. Now that you have an idea of where you should focus your energy, you can separate the cards with that chakra and choose a ritual. For example, if you chose the throat chakra card, you would separate all of the cards with the throat chakra symbol in the correspondence bar and select a card (either intuitively or as a personal choice) to focus on for that day. 

Chakra Assessment Card Spread

This technique works well if you’d like to gain general guidance about each chakra. It can tell you more about each chakra's health and where you may want to focus your energy to help each chakra. You’ll be using the entire deck for this method. This spread works well for yourself or others. Follow the steps below to try it out. 

1. Start by gathering the chakra cards and placing them in order (either vertically or horizontally) from the crown chakra to the root chakra. 

2. Hold the rest of the card deck in your hands and begin shuffling the cards. As you shuffle, ask aloud or in your mind, “What does each chakra have to share with me right now?” or “What do I have to learn from each of my chakras right now?”

3. When you feel ready to stop shuffling, start at one end of the chakras (either crown or root, wherever you feel called) and flip one card over for each chakra card. 

4. The card you selected for each chakra is the guidance that the chakra wants to share with you. It could share a celebratory card indicating it’s happy and open or a card that may indicate that it needs some extra attention. 

As with all card readings, rely on your intuition first and your guidebook second for what each card means for each of your chakras. If, after this spread, you feel like you have some chakras that need some extra love after performing this card spread, check out the one below for help balancing your chakras. 

Chakra Balancing Card Spread

This card spread, outlined in the guidebook, works like a charm to balance specific or all of your chakras. This spread is great to use on yourself, or to use with other people. Follow these steps to perform a chakra balancing card spread. 

1. Start by gathering the chakra cards and placing them in order (either vertically or horizontally) from the crown chakra to the root chakra. 

2. Separate all of the cards that correspond to each particular chakra and place them into piles. For example, all of the cards with a root chakra correspondence will go into a pile together. You should end up with seven piles (one for each chakra). There will be a different amount of cards in each pile. Tip: Use the correspondence legend at the end of the guidebook as a quick reference if you like. 

3. Place each pile on top of its coordinating chakra, shuffle them, and turn them face down.

4. Allow your intuition to guide you in selecting one card from each pile. 

5. Now you have seven cards, each corresponding to one of your seven chakras. Perform the ritual for each card to balance and restore your chakras. 

You can use the same technique for one chakra, the upper chakras (crown chakra, third eye chakra, and throat chakra), or the lower chakras (solar plexus chakra, sacral chakra, and root chakra). If you’re focusing on one specific chakra, you may decide to select multiple cards to practice more than one ritual.

Performing a complete chakra body balance spread will require time, so feel free to spread out the rituals over the course of an entire week. This applies to any other lengthy card spreads outlined here. 

Using a Pendulum with the Chakra Cards for Energy Readings

This is a technique I outline in my new book, Understanding Chakras. You don’t technically need the Ritual Deck to perform this one, but it does come in handy! You’ll also need a pendulum for this technique, preferably one that you’re already comfortable with using. If pendulums are new to you, you can read more about them here. 

Using a pendulum for chakra readings may yield different pendulum movements than you usually receive. Your pendulum will usually react in one of three ways when using them to read chakra energy. The pendulum will circle clockwise, counterclockwise, or be completely still. 

These are not firm guidelines and rather soft suggestions. Energy is unique and fluid. Use your intuition and trust your instincts when using this technique to determine chakra health. 

• Clockwise Spin: Chakra is healthy and open.

• Very Large Clockwise Spin: Chakra may be overactive. 

• Counterclockwise Spin: Chakra may have a disruption or could be releasing negative energy. 

• No movement: Chakra is blocked or has experienced extreme trauma.

Follow these steps to try this technique. 

1. Start by gathering the chakra cards and placing them in order (either vertically or horizontally) from the crown chakra to the root chakra. You won’t need the rest of the deck for this technique.

2. Hold your pendulum in your hands and ask it to help you determine the health of each of your chakras. 

3. Hold your pendulum over each chakra and make a note of its movement for each. Using a notepad or journal is helpful for this technique. 

4. Once you know each chakra's health, you may decide to back to the previous technique to help balance any chakras that need balancing. 

I hope you feel even more empowered to work with your chakras using The Ritual Deck! Chakra energy is one of many ways to use this versatile oracle deck. You can use these techniques in similar ways with the five elements and the moon phases.

Sinking into acceptance // 4 Rituals for the Waning Moon + Card Spread

The waning moon phase is nature's way of calling you inward. How can you truly know what you need to release, shed, or let go of if you haven't allowed yourself time to go inward and fully experience your emotions? This phase is your invitation to feel and allow.

The waning moon phases occur after the peak of the full moon to the dark moon. Energetically this phase represents a time of allowance, acceptance, and shedding.

Growing up, most of us are taught to bottle our feelings up rather than sinking into them and accepting what is. Acceptance doesn't mean rolling over and taking it or being okay with the status quo. Not by a long shot. Acceptance of the current moment means allowing yourself to fully experience whatever is bubbling up in you at the present moment. 

If things in your life, or the world at large, are not aligned with your desires and want them to change, you don't have to accept them as they are. What you do need to accept is your feelings about these situations. It's in the allowance and acceptance of situations that healing, growth, and change can occur.  

There's an opportunity to grow from every situation you're presented with, and this phase asks you to be open to the learning and evolving process rather than pushing against it. Imagine the energy of this lunar cycle as a big unconditional and loving hug. 

Here are a few keywords to understand the basic energy of this lunar phase. 

Energetic Themes for the Waning Moon

• Passiveness

• Acceptance

• Allowance

• Releasing

• Shedding

• Letting go

• Resting

The rituals outlined below will work well together, but if you don't have the time or tools to perform all of them at once, that's okay, do what feels most aligned with your needs. Keep reading for four ritual suggestions for the waning moon phase. 

1. Candle Ritual for the Waning Moon

Candles are an ideal ritual tool for this moon phase because they can be used as a very passive tool. I suggest using this candle ritual suggestion in tandem with one of the ritual suggestions below so your candle can burn as you sink into a ritual. There's more than one candle color that will work for this lunar phase, here are three suggestions, go with what feels best for where you're at, or use all three!

Pink candle: Pink candles offer soft and loving energy. This candle color is ideal for bringing in self-love and acceptance. This candle color is often suggested during the waxing moon phase to call in romantic love. For the waning moon phase, its energy will be used as a tool to call in self-love. 

Blue Candle: Blue candles offer peace and respite. If you've been in a cycle of overwhelm and feel like you can't catch a break, this is your candle. The energy of this candle can help you soften into the present moment to access your emotions better. 

Purple Candle: Purple candles offer inner wisdom and perspective. If you're in a place of allowance with your emotions but struggling with accepting them, the energy of a purple candle can help open you up to a higher perspective and shed light on why you feel the way you do. 

If candle magick is new to you, and you'd like to learn more about how it works and the process I outline here, check out this past blog post on candle magick basics. 

Once you've selected your candle color(s), you may want to anoint your candle with a specific oil. I suggest lavender, bergamot, rose, or geranium work well with the energy of the waning moon. If you don't have any of these available, a simple carrier oil, like almond or coconut oil, will work just fine. 

Anoint your candle with your oil, hold it in your hands, and impress it with your energy. Repeat this intention or something like it that feels good to you, "I love and accept myself as I am. I am allowed to feel the fullness of my emotions and will let them flow through me. I trust that Spirit will show me what needs to stay and what needs to go. So it is."Light your candle(s) and stay with it as it burns. 

2. Waning Moon Meditation

If you're going to do any of these waning moon rituals, meditation is my top suggestion. I covered this topic in-depth in a previous post, so I'm not going to spend too much time discussing it here. But, if you've followed me for long, you know that I adore meditation. 

Meditation opens you up to your inner world, which is step one in allowance and acceptance. As I said above, you have to take the time to explore your inner landscape before you can truly know what needs to be released. Meditation and internal reflection is the first step in this process.  

Click here to get my free waning moon meditation or here to read my previous blog post on meditating with each moon phase. 

If you'd like to add some supportive crystals to your waning moon meditation, I suggest rose quartz and a grounding stone of choice like obsidian, black tourmaline, or garnet.

3. Waning Moon Card Spread

Use this card spread with your favorite oracle or tarot card deck. These questions can offer guidance on finding more acceptance in your life and suggestions for releasing anything holding you back from your highest good.

If you didn't begin with the candle ritual or meditation suggestion above, take a moment to connect with your breath and ground yourself. 

1. In what area of my life do I need to soften my resistance?

2. What lesson does my resistance have to share with me? 

3. Where can I focus my energy to bring more acceptance into this area of my life? 

4. How can I integrate these lessons into my life?

5. How will I hold myself back if I am unwilling to explore my resistance?

6. What old ideas do I need to shed to come into more wholeness?

Be open and honest as your cards reveal guidance to you. The next ritual can help you uncover any confusion you may have about your reading. If your reading is initially unclear, leave it, be open to signs from Spirit, and revisit it at a later time. 

4. Write and Release

This ritual suggestion works well after performing either the waning moon meditation or waning moon card spread because you should be fresh with emotion and insight. Take some time to write about what came up for you. Alternatively, if tarot and oracle cards aren't your thing, you can use the card reading questions above as journal prompts. 

Writing is a powerful tool for exploring, feeling, processing, and releasing your emotions. Here's a conclusion from a study conducted on the healing benefits of writing: "There is power in written expression and the personal sharing of one's story. Writing shows promise not only as a therapeutic tool during intervention, but as an ongoing avocational activity with many personal and health benefits." 

Try to write without judging what you're writing and let your thoughts and feelings flow. 

Choose to release your writing in a way that feels good to you. You can burn the paper in a fire-proof vessel, bury your text in the earth, release it into a flower body of water (ensure that your paper is compostable if you do this method!), or something else that feels good to you. You cannot do wrong; the purpose of all ritual is to bring meaning and healing to your experience, so trust that the releasing method you select is what will serve you best.

 I hope you feel empowered to love and accept yourself fully, emotions, and all. Dance with all aspects of your being. Know that in each moment, even the uncomfortable ones, there is an opportunity to go deeper and find wholeness.

Understanding the Energy of Scorpio Season

Welcome to Scorpio season! Our fixed water sign, this archetype is here to help us transform darkness into light.  

Whether you have Scorpio placements in your birth chart or not, we’re all feeling into this energy during this season. In this blog, I’ll share what Scorpio is all about, the planetary and tarot associations of Scorpio, and how to understand Scorpio in your chart. 

SCORPIO ENERGY + RULING PLANET

Scorpio has a reputation as being intense and…a little scary. Scorpio energy is definitely intense but scary only if you’re afraid of depth, shadow, and transformation. It’s no accident that Scorpio season takes place in autumn when things are shedding and dying in n nature around us. So it is in nature, so it is in us. 

Mars is the traditional ruler of Scorpio, and it lends the archetype its fiery intensity. Pluto, the modern ruler of Scorpio, brings the death and destroyer energy to this sign. Most millennials (born late 1983 to late 1995) have Pluto in its home sign of Scorpio, making this generational energy a very present one at this time on the planet. 

At its most soul-centered and deeply rooted level, Scorpio is here to take us into the depths and transmute darkness into light. Associated with topics generally thought of as taboo like sex and money (some of my personal favorite things to talk about, but maybe that’s thanks to my Scorpio stellium!), Scorpio gets right to the heart of the matter. 

All signs have a shadow energy and expression, and in its shadow, Scorpio can tend towards power games, secrets, betrayal, and fear. But when fully integrated with its polar sign, Earth sign Taurus, Scorpio finds a steady foundation from which to transmute, a rooted power, and a sturdiness the watery emotions of this sign need to flourish. 

SCORPIO IN THE TAROT

In the tarot, Scorpio is associated with Death, Judgement, and the King of Cups. Each of these cards speaks to a different aspect of Scorpio energy.

Featured decks are the Waite-Coleman Tarot Deck and Starchild Tarot Deck.

Death is the card in the tarot that deeply speaks to shedding and letting go. What was dies and takes new form - becomes compost for the Earth from which newness can be birthed. This is the continual process of Scorpio and a critical one in nature. 

Judgment, ruled by Pluto, surfaces that which is hidden from the underworld and brings it to the surface to be seen. What could be more Scorpio than that! This card speaks to the dealing in secrets, dredging from the depths, and shadow work that this archetype does so well. 

The King of Cups, fixed water in the court cards in my tarot practice, teaches us emotional mastery. We learn how to feel the depths of our feelings and use them to create change. We lead the way with love and compassion for others. A card associated with healing, it speaks to the healing potential around feelings, change, and shifting identities that Scorpio can offer us.

UNDERSTANDING SCORPIO IN YOUR CHART

To understand Scorpio in your chart, you’ll want to look at a couple of pieces:

• Any planets in Scorpio

• The house that Scorpio rules in your chart. Whatever house Scorpio rules indicates the area of life where you are meant to continually find death and rebirth.

• Your 8th house. Scorpio traditionally rules the 8th house. The sign that rules your 8th house can add another layer indicating how Scorpio themes show up in your life.

Another way to understand Scorpio energy in your life could be to ask your oracle or tarot deck: how is Scorpio energy showing up in my life right now?

Want to connect more deeply with Scorpio energy? You can work with rhodonite to stabilize emotions, moonstone to support you through emotions and transformation, or smoky quartz to help release negative energy from the body. Check out crystals to support you during Scorpio season in the shop here. 

Understanding Residual Energy vs. Spirit

If you identify as an empath or highly sensitive person (HSP), you've probably experienced residual energy and encounters with Spirit. Here's the thing, though. Each of these is totally different; they present in different ways, have different purposes and should be dealt with in different ways. 

Empaths and HSP's are much more sensitive to extrasensory information. Check out this past post if you want to learn more about empaths.

One thing you need to know as an empath or HSP is how to differentiate and deal with different kinds of energy.

Once you understand some of the fundamental differences between residual energy vs. Spirits, you'll be able to approach them in a way that makes more sense too. 

What's Residual Energy

Residual energy is emotional energy that's been imprinted from a person (living or crossed over) onto clothes, furniture, objects, and places. Residual energy is often most potent when the person who left the imprinted energy experienced strong emotions or was around the object/place regularly. This is why homes will often have such a strong feeling, especially for empaths, because our living spaces collect and hold onto so much energy.

Jewelry, keys, wallets, and glasses are everyday items that can collect a lot of residual energy. Any place or object that a person frequently visits or uses is subject to collecting residual energy. Crystals are also a prime target for residual energy to hang out as they're so great at storing information, especially the quartz family. Learn more about caring for your crystals here.

Being an empath made so much more sense to me once I understood residual energy. I've never been a fan of thrifting and don't like to own secondhand furniture. It always felt overwhelming to me. Thrift stores are energetically "noisy," and being in one makes me feel like I'm being bombarded with information and feelings that aren't mine. When I learned that I was an empath, this made sense. Because antique stores are rife with residual energy, they are a strong pass for me. 

Watch more on this topic on our IGTV here.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

What, or who, are Spirits? 

Before I dive in here, I want to point out that I'm using the term "Spirit" very broadly. Breaking this word down could literally take up a book in and of itself! Spirits could be loved ones passed on, ancestors well before your time, angelic beings, animal spirits, guides, elemental spirits, or even malevolent spirits. A Spirit could be an entity that was once human (loved one passed on or an ancestor) or a being that was never in human form (angels, animal spirits, guides, etc.) For the purposes of this article, I'm grouping all of these into one and referring to them as "Spirits." 

The reason I'm doing this is that there's one big difference between residual energy and Spirits, and that's consciousness. All Spirits have consciousness, residual energy does not. Think of residual energy as the leftover imprint of someone's emotions. Whereas Spirits are aware of what they are doing and what they want. 

How to tell the difference between residual energy and Spirits?

Residual energy doesn't decide to let itself be known or try to contact you. It just is. On the other hand, Spirits usually have a goal or a desire to make contact with you or let themselves be known. This distinction is the easiest way to discern between residual energy vs. a Spirit. 

The way that you experience residual energy or Spirits will depend a lot on how you experience extra sensory information (clairsentient, clairalience, clairvoyant, etc.) If this is new to you, hop on over to this article to learn more about the different clairs and how they each present. 

Regardless of how you experience extrasensory information, a few things can be a clear sign of residual energy vs. a Spirit. 

Residual Energy: 

• Will cause you to notice emotions when you pick up an item or walk into a space. 

• If you ask the thing or space a question, you usually won't get an answer, or the answer will not be directed at you.

• The sensations you experience with the object or space usually lessen over time. 

• Though you may experience images and sounds connected to an item or space, they're not directed at you; they're just there. 

• They are usually easier to cleanse away (if desired), or you can simply distance yourself from the object to place. 

• Residual energy can be composed of both positive or negative emotions. 

Spirits: 

• Usually have a purpose or a goal in making themselves known to you. 

• Will continue to let themselves be known to you, even if you move locations. 

• Will be more forceful in letting themselves be known to you.

• May be contacting you to help you, request help, or could have maleficent intentions. You will need to determine this by communicating with the Spirit. 

• Similar to residual energy, Spirits can inhabit objects, people, and places. Use the above points to discern. 

• Though typical energy cleansing methods (herb cleansing, etc.) may work (if desired), a Spirit may require more in-depth techniques to communicate with or remove them.  

Why does it matter and how to work with these energies? 

If you identify as an empath or HSP, it's essential to understand outside energies affecting you. If you inadvertently surround yourself with objects with strong residual energy, it may be difficult to discern between your emotions and the emotions of the residual energy. Understanding when residual energy is present can cue you to take the necessary steps to either remove the object or energetically cleanse the object or space. 

Here are some general suggestions for clearing residual energy from objects, places, and your aura.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

There are some instances where you might like to keep residual energy. If you have a cherished object from a loved one that has their residual energy on it, you may very well want to keep it and that's totally fine!

It's equally important to be aware of a Spirit occupying your energetic field. Now, how you approach and handle connecting with a Spirit is much more in-depth than what I can cover here.

Generally speaking, you'll want to communicate with the Spirit to ascertain its intentions and then take action based on what you learn. Here are some suggestions for honing your ability to communicate with Spirit. 

• Hone your intuitive abilities by working with your third eye chakra. Learn more about this here. 

• Use a tool to help you communicate with the Spirit like a pendulum, oracle or tarot cards, or through meditation. 

• Be straightforward and ask the Spirit for clear communication. 

• If you think you're being contacted by an evil Spirit, don't hesitate to reach out to someone with more experience in this realm to help. 

As Spiritual beings in physical form, we must understand both physical and extrasensory information. This may seem like a small shift in understanding, but it's a powerful one. I hope this made you feel more empowered to discern and work with the different energies surrounding you. If you have a question or a comment, I encourage you to ask on our Instagram page here.

Understanding the Energy of Libra Season

Welcome to Libra season! Our cardinal air sign, this archetype, initiates autumn and brings us into the fall season. 

Whether you have Libra placements in your birth chart or not, we’re all feeling into this energy during this season. In this blog, I’ll be sharing what Libra is all about, the planetary and tarot associations of Libra, and how to understand Libra in your chart.

LIBRA ENERGY + RULING PLANET

Libra doesn’t just initiate autumn. A sign focused on relationships and exchange; it initiates right relationships. Traditionally a peacemaker and peacekeeper, Libra energy can also initiate peace and connection. 

Libra may be an air sign, but it’s ruled by Venus, a planet that invokes sensuality, pleasure, love, and beauty as well as soul fulfillment. Through Libra, we learn to invest in relationships that fulfill us at a soul level. This energy teaches us about love and the ways love can change us, open us, grow us. The air aspect of this sign points to communication and exchange, helping us learn how to communicate truth, love, and beauty. 

Featured Card is The Ritual Deck. 

Libra’s Venus ruling helps us understand the power of creativity, beauty, sensuality, and pleasure. We learn to pour forth our creativity in service of beauty - and not just beauty on a surface level, but the beauty of a sunset or a piece of art that really changes us at a soul level. 

Associated with fairness and equity, Libra’s scales teach us the value of justice and how to find the middle ground rather than constantly sliding between extremes. 

All signs have a shadow energy and expression, and in its shadow Libra can tend towards indecision, codependency, making peace above all, and giving up your power. But when fully integrated with its polar sign, fire sign Aries, Libra learns how to not dissolve into the ocean of “we” but retain individuality, to fight for what’s right, and create incredibly fulfilling relationships based on independent expression and embodiment. 

Learn more about Libra season from me in this video from Cassie Uhl's IGTV.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

LIBRA IN THE TAROT

In the tarot, Libra is associated with Justice, the Empress, and the Knight of Swords. Each of these cards speaks to a different aspect of Libra energy. 

Justice speaks to the truth: what is true and what is not. From a place of truth, we can then decide what needs to be done, what actions must be taken to right wrongs, and center into a place of fairness. When Libra is in its most soulful expression, it does this rather than splashing in the shallow end and keeping things light all the time. 

The Empress invokes Libra’s Venusian aspects. Pleasure, beauty, and just being are centered over capitalism’s workshop of practicality, logic, and doing. 

The Knight of Swords is a double air card, making it the airiest card in the tarot. Too much air can mean flightiness, flakiness, lack of direction, and indecision (all of which we can see in the shadow of Libra). But channeled air can be powerful — intellect and focus engaged in the direction of our choosing. 

UNDERSTANDING LIBRA IN YOUR CHART

To understand Libra in your chart, you’ll want to look at a couple of pieces:

• Any planets in Libra

• The house that Libra rules in your chart. Whatever house Libra rules indicates the area of life where you are meant to focus on love, pleasure, beauty, and fulfilling relationship. 

• Your 7th house. Libra traditionally rules the 7th house. The sign that rules your 7th house can add another layer indicating how Libra themes show up in your life.

Another way to understand Libra energy in your life could be to ask your oracle or tarot deck: how is Libra energy showing up in my life right now? 

Want to connect more deeply with Libra energy? You can work with rose quartz for love and beauty, jasper to support standing up for what you believe in, or pink and green tourmaline for balance and creativity. Find a card spread and ritual for Libra season here. 

3 Ways to Understand the Health of your Chakras

When it comes to working with chakra energy, one of the first questions I receive is how to know if your chakras are blocked. Like all things relating to energy work, there are a variety of ways to approach working with your chakras.

Before we dive in, the most important thing for you to understand is how you receive extrasensory information. I dive deeper into this topic in a past blog post here. If you don't know what kind of "clair" you are, I suggest you give it a quick read. You can also check out a graphic I created below for some of the most common clairs. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

In this post, I'll break down why understanding the health of your chakras can be beneficial to you in everyday life and in your spiritual growth. I share three methods in this post, which you can apply to understand the health of your chakras and, in some cases, heal them. 

Why would you want to understand the health of your chakras? 

As above, so below. As within, so without. I refer to this adage often because it's so applicable to spiritual work. What goes on in your energetic body (auras and chakras) can also manifest in your physical body and vice versa. 

Understanding the health of each of your chakras will shed light on your physical health, current life situations, future path, and where you may want to focus your energy. 

Let's dig into some ways to start working with and understanding the energy of your chakras. 

Understanding the Polarities of Each Chakra

Understanding the traits associated with each chakra will enable you to ascertain the health of your chakras quickly. This method can take a bit of time, especially if the chakras are new to you. You'll need to have a deep understanding of the polarities of each chakra. What I mean by this are the traits of each chakra when they're functioning optimally, and the shadow aspects of them as well when they're blocked. The expression of each chakra can range from overly open, balanced, to totally blocked, or somewhere in between. I discuss this more in this video. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

Here's an example of how this technique can be applied. Have you ever felt overwhelmed and like you can't focus? These are all manifestations of a blocked or stagnant root chakra. The root chakra is responsible for your sense of safety and connection to the earth. If you're feeling this way, the next step would be to take action to activate and balance your root chakra. This could mean simply taking a break to go for a walk outside or performing a quick root chakra meditation. 

Here are my top suggestions to gain a better understanding of the polarities of each chakra. 

• If you want to dive into understanding the chakras right now, find blog posts on each of the chakras here: root chakra, sacral chakra, solar plexus chakra, heart chakra, throat chakra, third eye chakra, and the crown chakra. 

• I also cover the chakras in The Goddess Discovery Book V1, The Ritual Deck, and in my new book Understanding Chakras. These are great options if you'd like ritual suggestions and tools to go along with each chakra. 

• For deep dives into understanding each of the chakras, I suggest Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith PhD and the Complete Book of Chakras by Cyndi Dale. I'm particularly fond of Dale's book as it offers information on chakra systems from around the world. 

Feeling Chakra Energy with your Hands

If you consider yourself clairsentient and feel energy easily, this technique will work well for you. Even if you're not clairsentient, I encourage you to try, as anyone can learn and acquire new kinds of psychic abilities!

Your chakras are spinning wheels of energy, continually taking in and emitting energy. If you have the gift of clairsentience, you'll be able to feel this energy coming out of your body. I share the best way to get started with this technique in a previous post that also has a video breaking this technique down. Click here to check it out. 

Essentially, you're going to want to get yourself into a meditative state, activate the chakras in your hands by rubbing them together and begin to hover your hands above where each of your chakras is. You may start to feel a bulge of energy push your hands out as you come near each chakra. How far the chakra comes out from your body can be an indication of how under or overactive it is. You may also receive information about the health of each chakra as you feel into each one. 

Using a Pendulum to Work with Your Chakras

Pendulums are such a useful spiritual tool! If pendulums are brand new to you and you want to get the basics, check out this previous post here. There are SO many useful applications for pendulums, and understanding the health of your chakras is one of them. The technique I share here works well for doing chakra readings on yourself or others. If you're working on yourself or someone else remotely, you'll need a pendulum and a piece of paper or a drawing of someone with the chakras. You don't need anything fancy though and can even use a piece of paper with the chakras written down on it as a reference. Your pendulum won't know the difference! If you're working on someone else in person, all you'll need is your trusty pendulum. 

Before you start, ensure that you have formed a good relationship with your pendulum. You must understand how your pendulum communicates with you. Generally speaking, a clockwise swirl means "yes" or "open," and a counterclockwise swirl means "no" or "closed."

How to check your chakras with a pendulum: 

1. As with all spiritual work, take a moment to quiet yourself. 

2. Call on any spiritual support you'd like (guides, angels, ancestors, etc.).

3. Hold your pendulum over each chakra and ask if the chakra is open or closed.

4. The pendulum should begin to swirl one way or the other, indicating the health of each chakra. It is possible that the pendulum won't move at all; check out this previous post I mentioned above for more on why a pendulum might not move. 

5. Once finished, thank any spiritual aids you called on. 

As always, run any information you received through your intuitive filter, and if it feels off, you don't have to act on it. If you feel like the reading you received from your pendulum is accurate, you can now take steps to work with any chakras that may be blocked, stagnant, or overactive. 

The best thing about the pendulum technique is that after you've worked with a chakra that's a little off, you can retest with your pendulum. I'm often astounded at how quickly I'll get an open and balanced swirl from my pendulum after working on a chakra that needed some extra love. 

Understanding the Energy of Virgo Season

Welcome to Virgo season! Our mutable Earth sign, this archetype is here to bring us through the portal that is late summer into the fall.

Whether you have Virgo placements in your birth chart or not, we’re all feeling into this energy during this season. In this blog, I’ll be sharing what Virgo is all about, the planetary and tarot associations of Virgo, and how to understand Virgo in your chart. 

Cards featured are the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Deck and The Ritual Deck.

VIRGO ENERGY + RULING PLANET

Mercurial Virgo wants to discern and understand. Ruling over the digestive organs in medical astrology, Virgo analyzes, discerns, and purifies. What is no longer needed, that can be cleansed and released? What is of value and should be expanded? 

At its core, we can think of this archetype as the priestess, the healer. Virgo loves to be in deep devotion and in the act of service - pouring their gifts out for the world. Think of the Vestal virgins in ancient Rome, who tended to the sacred temples and their flames.  

Some astrologers say that Chiron, the wounded healer, is the ruling asteroid of Virgo. Chiron’s rulership offers a different dimension to Virgo, one of deep, embodied healing. Connected to the body and holistic health, this sign works to unite body, mind, and spirit. 

When I think of Virgo, I think of the lush fullness of late summer, the back-to-school energy of getting all of your ducks in a row for an organized and productive fall, building altars with fresh flowers, making offerings to the Earth and rivers, and nourishing the body with delicious food, care, and intuitive movement. 

All signs have a shadow energy and expression, and in its shadow, Virgo can tend towards perfectionism and judgment. But when fully integrated with its polar sign, water sign Pisces, Virgo learns to integrate Earth and water, mind and spirit, to become a vessel for love to pour through.

VIRGO IN THE TAROT

In the tarot, Virgo is associated with the Hermit, the Magician, and the Queen of Pentacles. 

The Hermit, ruled by Virgo, shows us how Virgo can be in service. The Hermit shares their wisdom accumulated through life experience and deep reflection with others - being in service through the sharing of knowledge. The Magician, ruled by Mercury, points to the Mercurial aspect of Virgo.

The Magician teaches us that when uniting intellect, emotion, creativity, and spiritual downloads, you can be a powerful force of will, able to create and manifest in the physical world. 

The Queen of Pentacles, mutable Earth in my tarot practice, helps us root into the Earth aspect of Virgo. This card teaches us how to be in our bodies, work in the most aligned ways towards what we desire, and honor ourselves as nature. 

UNDERSTANDING VIRGO IN YOUR CHART

To understand Virgo in your chart, you’ll want to look at a couple of pieces:

• Any planets in Virgo

• The house that Virgo rules in your chart. Whatever house Virgo rules indicates the area of life where you are meant to be in deep devotion and service. 

• Your 6th house. The 6th house is the Virgo house. The sign that rules your 6th house can add another layer indicating how Virgo themes show up in your life.

Another way to understand Virgo energy in your life could be to ask your oracle or tarot deck: how is Virgo energy showing up in my life right now? Want to connect more deeply with Virgo energy? You can work with black tourmaline for grounding and protection or amazonite to gain focus and clarity. Find a ritual for Virgo season here. 

How to See & Experience Auras

Seeing doesn't have to be believing, especially when it comes to auras. My introduction to auras came by way of sensing my energy field with my hands. Here's the thing, everyone experiences extrasensory information (auras, energy, intuition, etc.) differently.

How people experience extrasensory information is explained by the "clairs." To understand some of the most common clairs and to determine what your extrasensory gifts are, click here for a past post I shared. You can also learn even more about the clairs and auras in my new book, Understanding Auras. 

In this post, I'm going to share three ways for you to experience auras. If one doesn't work for you, don't worry about it! It doesn't mean that auras aren't real or that you can't access them; it means that you need to try a different approach.

Keep scrolling for three different techniques to experience auras and a video from me to learn more!

Feeling Energy & Hand Scans for the Aura

Did you know that you have chakras in your hands? Chakras are spinning energy centers that can, among other things, receive energy. You have seven primary chakras that align along your spine, but there are far more chakras, but that's a post for another day! Activating and accessing the chakras in your hands is an easy technique to sense the energy of auras.

To perform this aura sensing technique, you'll need about 20 minutes of dedicated quiet time. 

Steps: 

1. Take 2-5 minutes to center yourself. Focus on your breath or meditate for a bit to drop into the present moment. 

2. Begin to bring your awareness to the sensation of the air touching your skin.

3. Start to rub your hands together. Do this for about 20-30 seconds. 

4. Stop rubbing your hands together and slowly move the palms of your hands apart by about a foot. Then slowly move your hands back together. 

5. You may start to notice some sensations in between your palms. It might feel like you have an invisible ball in between your hands or like a tingling sensation on your palms. Be open and try not to doubt any sensations you receive.

6. If you are feeling some energy in between your palms, I encourage you to begin running your palms over your body to see what you can sense in your aura. 

7. If you're not feeling anything, don't worry about it. Try again tomorrow; if you still don't feel anything, you might experience energy differently. 

This technique will work best for those with the gift of clairsentience or clear feeling, but I recommend everyone try it out! Check out this video for more on sensing and seeing auras. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

Seeing Auras

Ahhhh, the holy grail of auras! Everyone wants to see the rainbow of colors around people. Some people are born with a natural ability to see auras, but most of us will have to practice. Take it from me; I've been practicing seeing auras since my teenage years. To this day, my preferred method to work with auras is by feeling energy and my intuition. I can see auras, but it takes far more effort. 

You'll need: 

• 20-30 minutes of uninterrupted quiet time

• A neutral-colored blank wall

• Patience

• If possible, an aura buddy to practice with

Steps:

1. Hold your hand out at arm's length in front of you with a backdrop of a blank neutral colored wall. Alternatively, if you were able to wrangle an aura buddy, have them stand about a foot away from the wall, and then you can stand about 4-6 feet away from them. 

2. Try to relax your eyes. 

3. Focus on the space around your hand or your model, but still close to the body, almost like you're looking through the body. 

4. If you're able to see anything, it will likely be the etheric layer of the aura, which usually presents as a white, grey, or light blue band of light around the body that's usually about 1-2 inches thick. 

5. Take breaks often, try to adjust your focus in different ways if it's not working, and go easy on yourself. THIS. TAKES. PRACTICE. 

These are just the basics, for more on this topic, I suggest my new book. This technique works best for those with the gift of clairvoyance or clear seeing.

Find all buying options for the “Understanding” series, including Understanding Auras, here.

Sensing the Aura with Your Intuition

This last method works well for all of the clairs! If you've struggled to connect with your aura using either of the two methods above, try this. 

To perform this aura experiencing practice, you'll need 20-60 minutes of uninterrupted quiet time. 

Steps:

1. Take 5-10 minutes to get into a meditative state. You can practice some breathwork, do a guided meditation, or repeat a mantra. Whatever works for you to drop into a tranquil and meditative state. If you need some guidance, here's a post all about meditation. 

2. Once you're in this state, ask aloud or within your mind for your aura to be revealed to you. 

3. Wait, be patient, and be open to different kinds of information. 

4. Information could come to you in a number of ways, depending on which of the clairs are strongest within you. For example, a clairaudient person might hear (aloud or in their mind) what color their aura is, a clairvoyant person might see their aura in their mind's eye, and a claircognizant person might suddenly know what color their aura is. 

5. Trust the information you receive. If you are skeptical about the answer you received, try again another day and see if the same answer repeats. 

6. If nothing is coming to mind, don't worry about it. Stay in meditation for as long as you'd like and be open to messages throughout the day. Information may come to you differently, or you might need to try again another day.

To learn more about auras, check out either of these blog posts, What is an Aura & What Does Yours Mean and 7 Tips to Protect Your Aura. You can also learn more in my new book, Understanding Auras. I hope you feel empowered to connect with your aura! 

Breathwork Basics // Understanding & Getting Started with Breathwork

Breathwork has been practiced for centuries across many different cultures - Chinese, Jewish, the ancient Greeks, India, different tribes in Africa, and more - for healing, reaching ecstatic states, reaching states of extraordinary consciousness, self-discovery, and spiritual healing.

My definition of breathwork is consciously working with the breath for healing. 

We breathe every day, of course, but often we’re breathing unconsciously. When I first found breathwork through yogic pranayama, it shocked me how powerful it was to breathe consciously. Different breathwork patterns can bring up various things with you, offer varying levels of intensity, and creating a wide variety of effects.

In the book Holotropic Breathwork, author Stanislav From shares that the word breath can be translated to mean spirit or soul.  In Latin, the word spiritus is used to describe the physical intake of air but is also the word for spirit. 

Breath nourishes us on a physical level (we literally can’t live without it!), but for centuries different cultures have thought of breath a bit differently: as spirit, as life force.

In this blog, I’ll be sharing a bit about the benefits of breathwork, a few different styles of breathwork, and how to get started with a breathwork practice of your own. 

BENEFITS OF BREATHWORK

One of the things I love about breathwork is how different every experience can be. With that in mind, here is a non-exhaustive list of some of the benefits I have personally experienced through breathwork and/or witnessed clients experience: 

• Unblock creativity

• Open to your intuition

• Open your heart 

• Heal trauma 

• Feel your feelings

• Ground and drop into your body

• Calm your mind 

• Relax 

• Release stress 

• Release shame 

• Clear stuck energy from your body 

• Experience joy, love, and pleasure 

• Connect with yourself

• Connect with the Universe

• Find a place of steadiness and peace within 

• Heal unhealthy patterns

• Release fear  

I’ll share about three different patterns of breath to work within the sections below,  but please know that this is just a sampling of the many different breath patterns out there. 

DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING

We start here with a simple but powerful breath, also known as abdominal breath or belly breath. I find this breath to be relaxing, grounding, and centering. It helps us get into the body and release stress and tension, making it a great meditative practice. 

The intention of this breath is to breathe deeply in through your nose into your belly and exhale out of the nose or, ideally, the mouth. 

Your belly expands with your inhale (because of the downward movement of your diaphragm) and contracts to your spine with your exhale (because of the upward movement of the diaphragm). Breathing into your belly really means that the lowest lobes of the lungs, somewhere we don’t usually breathe into, are being filled with breath. 

This breath can be done lying down or sitting up, and I highly recommend placing one hang or both hands on your belly to really get a feel for the movement of the breath.

Try this breath out with five or ten rounds of inhales and exhales to start, then spend a moment noticing how your body feels. What sensations are present?

BREATHWORK

The style of breathwork I am trained in and facilitate is simply called breathwork and was taught to me by my teacher David Elliott. This breath comes from the pranayama tradition in India. 

This three-part active breath is intended to move stuck emotional energy, and it’s the most powerful breath style I know to heal trauma, open your heart, and move energy. With that being said, it is a much more intense breath than diaphragmatic breathing and has a few contraindications. 

For any breathwork, you’ll want to talk to your doctor if you have a condition or health issue you’re concerned about. For this breath specifically, talk to your doctor before practicing if you’re in your first trimester of pregnancy, have a history of seizures, experience retinal detachment, or have an aneurysm. 

This breath can create a lot of sensation in the body, including vibration and tingling and/or numbness in different parts of the body. It can bring up memories, intense emotions like anger, and grief. Sometimes, folks will connect with a guide, or ancestor, or have another type of dreamlike experience. 

To practice this breath, you’ll want to either lay down or prop yourself up - just make sure you’re fully supported in whatever way feels best to your body. When you’re ready, breathe in through your mouth into your belly, in through your mouth into your heart/high chest, and out through your mouth. 

To try out this breathwork, start with just five minutes of breath followed by a few minutes of rest and integration. Or, check out the Zenned Out IGTV to breathe along with me in a short guided breathwork practice. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

BOX BREATH

Box breath, or square breath, can help regulate the nervous system, lower blood pressure, improve sleep, and help you feel more relaxed - making it a great breath to practice when you’re feeling stressed or to relax before bed. 

According to the Mayo Clinic, the slow holding of the breath “allows carbon dioxide to build up in the blood, which enhances the cardio-inhibitory response of the vagus nerve when you exhale and stimulates your parasympathetic system. This produces a calm and relaxed feeling in the mind and body.”

Box breath can be done sitting up (recommended) or lying down if needed. To practice, inhale slowly and deeply through your nose for a count of 4. Hold your breath for a count of 4 (this is internal breath retention). Exhale slowly through your mouth for a count of 4. Hold the breath out for 4 (this is external breath retention). So you’ll inhale for four counts, hold the breath in for four counts, exhale for four counts, and hold the breath out for four counts.

You can change the counts to match your lung capacity, perhaps working with a count of 3 for a lower capacity for 8 for a larger one. You may find that your capacity grows as you continue to practice, as well. 

Try it out with four cycles of breath, then notice how you feel. 

CREATE A REGULAR BREATHWORK PRACTICE

The most incredible thing about breathwork is that it truly allows you to become your own healer. It’s a body-based, self-healing practice that is quite accessible for most folks. 

You now have three different styles of breathwork to work with - I recommend trying them all out, and seeing what feels best for you. Then, try committing to practicing that style of breathwork every day for at least a week for just a few minutes, journaling about how the practice made you feel after each practice. 

If you’d like to learn more about breathwork, I recommend checking out my wonderful friend Jennifer Patterson’s book The Power of Breathwork. 

Crystal Cleansing & Charging 101 // 8 Ways to Care for Your Crystals

Perfectly structured lattices of molecules repeat and layer until a crystalline structure begins to emerge. Crystals are the magical and living offspring of earth, heat, and pressure. Viewing your crystals in this way can help you sense their aliveness, at least it does for me.

The perfect structures within crystals make them masters at storing and emitting energy. Because they’re so easily impressed upon, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they will require energy maintenance, just like you and me.

Aside from honoring your crystals as the entities that they are, charging and cleansing them will also make them more useful. Like all energy beings, your crystals may hold onto unintended frequencies or could be charged with energy that’s not in alignment with your desires. 

Before we dive into some actionable steps for crystal care, I’d like to pull apart the differences between cleansing and charging. Even though these terms are often used interchangeably, they are entirely different facets of crystal care.

Here's a breakdown of the differences between crystal cleansing and charging. 

Now that you understand the basic functions of cleansing vs. charging crystals, let’s dive into some steps you can take to care for your crystals. 

These suggestions are by no means an exhaustive list of ways to cleanse and charge your crystals! Learn more in my new book, The Zenned Out Guide to Understanding Crystals. I also recommend you run everything through your intuitive filter and only practice what feels like a good fit to you. 

Crystal Cleansing 101

Here are a few reasons why you might want to cleanse your crystals: 

• It’s new

• You let someone else handle it  

• You no longer need to use it for a specific purpose 

Your cleansing schedule can be as regimented or as intuitive as you like. You might decide to cleanse your crystals every time you receive or purchase a new one, or you can wait until the crystal feels like it needs cleansing. I lean towards the more intuitive method, but both are valid. 

5 Ways to Cleanse Your Crystals

1. Direct sunlight for 10-20 minutes. This method works best with bright midday sunlight. Sun cleansing is one of the simplest and most effective cleansing methods. Caution: some crystals can fade in sunlight. Here are some of the most common ones: amethyst, citrine, celestite, and fluorite. Short periods in the sun, will be okay, but do not leave crystals susceptible to fading in the sun for more than ten minutes every few months. 

2. Hold in running water for 2-5 minutes. Fresh running water from nature is ideal, but tap water will do in a pinch. Water from nature will require less cleansing time. 

3. Bury in the earth for 1-5 days. The burying method is gentler, so it requires a bit more time. 

4. Hold your crystal in cleansing smoke of your choice. Frankincense, lavender, rosemary, or even a cleansing incense will work. 

5. Hold your crystal in your hand and call upon your guides, ancestors, and angels (or any other force you connect with) to cleanse your crystal. Visualize a white or rainbow light enveloping your crystals and cleansing away any unwanted energies. 

Crystal Charging 101 Here are a few reasons why you might want to charge your crystals. 

• You want to use it for a specific purpose. 

• You feel as though it has lost its effectiveness. 

• You feel intuitively nudged to charge the crystal or feel as though the crystal is requesting to charging in a specific way. 

You don’t have to charge your crystals to work with them, but it will undoubtedly enhance their effectiveness and increase your connection with your crystals. There are similarities between the techniques used for cleansing and charging; the most important distinction is that charging is adding specific energy to your crystal. There are a variety of ways to do this, but understanding your intention is critical. 

3 Ways to Charge Your Crystals

1. Place your crystal under the light of the moon phase of your choice for 1-2 nights. Working with the moon phases is one of my favorite ways to charge my crystals. Each moon phase has specific energy; you can learn more about that here. For example, if you’re working with a crystal to give you energy, you’ll want to charge it under the light of a waxing moon. The waxing moon is the growth phase of the moon and corresponds to action and energy. Alternatively, if you’d like to charge a crystal to help you rest, you’d want to charge it under the dark moon, which is a restorative moon phase. 

2. Place your crystal in the morning or evening sun for 20-30 minutes. Our life-giving sun can be used for both cleansing and charging. I do suggest being mindful of what time of day you use the sun for either charging or cleansing. This method works well if you feel like your crystal needs a little boost of energy. 

3. Charge your crystals with your hands. The heat and warmth of your hands alone are enough to charge up your crystals. Charging with your hands is an ideal method to use when you’re working with crystals for massage or bodywork. Hold or rub your crystal in your hands for 1-2 minutes for a quick charge. 

I hope you feel empowered to start connecting with your crystals using these tools! Your crystals will thank you, and the more you connect with them, the better they’ll work for you. 

You can dive much deeper into this topic in my new book, The Zenned Out Guide to Understanding Crystals. In this new book, I share how crystal energy works, how to program a crystal, and how to use crystal grids. This book also contains a fully illustrated crystal guide! 

5 Rituals for Lammas & Lughnasadh

Lammas, or Lughnasadh, is one of the four cross-quarter days on the Celtic Wheel of the Year. This holiday, celebrated by ancient European pagans, marks the beginning of the harvest season. 

The name Lughnasadh comes from “Lunasa,” which means August in Gaelic. Lammas is the English word for this harvest festival, which is Anglo-Saxon for “loaf mass.” I tend to use both names, as I have both Irish and English ancestry. 

At the beginning of the harvest season, the themes of this holiday are abundance, gratitude, harvest, and honoring the fruits of our labors and intentions throughout the year thus far. 

Honoring the sabbats with ritual is a beautiful way to tune yourself into nature and connect with Mother Earth. Scroll down for 5 Lammas rituals to help you celebrate this day! 

1. Meditate to connect with Lugh. This holiday is associated with the sun god Lugh (which you can see in the name Lughnasadh). Lugh is a warrior deity in Celtic mythology known for being skilled in many things, including fighting, building, and the arts. 

For this ritual, sit in meditation (ideally, outside under the sun if that’s possible for you) and ask to connect with the energy of Lugh. In my practice, I like to work with deities energetically as archetypes that are already within myself, but please, do whatever works for you! You can ask Lugh to share a message with you, ask him to share his skills in a specific area you need help with, simply offer him gratitude, or bring forward another question specific to you.

Bask in Lugh’s energy until you feel complete, offer gratitude, and close your meditation with a few deep belly breaths.

You can find a meditation for Lughnasadh here to help you harvest the fruits of your labor over the previous year and tune into the energy of pride.

2. Explore what you are harvesting in your life at this time. Try this tarot or oracle card spread for deeper clarity around the abundance in your life right now. 

• What I am harvesting at this time 

• The roots of this harvest (aka, what happened to make this harvest possible internally and externally?)

• How to step into the energy of gratitude 

• How to continue to create abundance in my life 

Spend some time meditating with your cards or journaling about their meanings to go deeper. 

3. Support local farmers. I love when ritual becomes tangible and infused with life, and this is one of those rituals! Ask yourself how you can support local farmers in your life. Perhaps you’d like to commit to doing a CSA next year or buying some portion of your food locally. Perhaps you can go to the farmer’s market, purchase some things and get to know your local farmers. Get creative and support those who make our physical harvest possible every day. 

4. Bake a loaf of bread. Associated with grains, this is the perfect day to bake a fresh loaf of bread. Do this with loved ones if you’d like for a more collaborative process, and infuse intentions of gratitude and abundance into the baking process. Share the bread with your loved ones afterward, and talk about what the themes of this holiday mean to you.  

5. Make an altar. Making an altar is a beautiful way to honor any sabbat. Get creative and make it your own! To inspire your own creativity, here are some ideas of things you might like to put on your altar:

• Bread or grains 

• Yellow, orange, red, or brown candles

• Local, seasonal fresh vegetables 

• Your tarot cards from the spread above

• The 8 of Pentacles, 10 of Pentacles, or any other cards that represent harvest, abundance, and gratitude to you 

• An ear of corn 

• Sunflowers

• Citrine, pyrite, or tiger eye

To learn more about the different sabbats on the wheel of the year (plus, get a free printable), click here. Learn more about the intersection of the first harvest season, Leo season, and Lughnasadh and the history of the Celtic God Lugh here.