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.
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:
Daily chakra reading
Chakra assessment card spread
Seven chakras balancing card spread
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.
Which of my chakras is overactive?
Which of my chakras is underactive or blocked?
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.
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.
Start by gathering the chakra cards and placing them in order (either vertically or horizontally) from the crown chakra to the root chakra.
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?”
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.
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.
Start by gathering the chakra cards and placing them in order (either vertically or horizontally) from the crown chakra to the root chakra.
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.
Place each pile on top of its coordinating chakra, shuffle them, and turn them face down.
Allow your intuition to guide you in selecting one card from each pile.
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.
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.
Hold your pendulum in your hands and ask it to help you determine the health of each of your chakras.
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.
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.
A Card Spread for Eclipse Season
Eclipses can seem scary, and they are certainly a powerful energy! Generally, eclipses are thought to be wild cards, magnifying the energy of a new moon (for a solar eclipse) or a full moon (for a lunar eclipse). I like to think of eclipses as portals for endings and beginnings —things may be “eclipsed out” or “eclipsed in.” It’s common for births, moves, engagements, new jobs, break-ups, new relationships, and more to happen around eclipses and during eclipse season.Eclipses can also be powerful illuminators, bringing hidden truths and feelings to the light for us to work with and heal through.
Three Dark Moon Rituals
The dark moon is one of my personal favorite times of the cycle. It’s the last few days of the waning time of the cycle, when the moon continues to shrink and eventually disappears from the sky.Different traditions honor the dark moon at different times. Personally, I honor the dark moon when you can’t see the moon at all in the sky--which is technically the new moon. Others honor the dark moon the last few days before the new moon. I recommend using your intuition and noticing how you feel during these days to understand when to honor the dark moon versus new moon.
The dark moon is one of my personal favorite times of the cycle. It’s the last few days of the waning time of the cycle, when the moon continues to shrink and eventually disappears from the sky.
Different traditions honor the dark moon at different times. Personally, I honor the dark moon when you can’t see the moon at all in the sky--which is technically the new moon. Others honor the dark moon the last few days before the new moon. I recommend using your intuition and noticing how you feel during these days to understand when to honor the dark moon versus new moon.
So what is the dark moon all about?
The dark moon is our time for radical rest, for deep clearing and releasing, and turning within. This is the time to cancel plans, to do shadow work, to go to sleep early and wake up late, and to pull tarot or oracle cards to tune in to your inner voice.
Keep scrolling for a few rituals to consider working with at this time.
WATER SPELL FOR CLEARING
One of my favorite spells to work during the dark moon is this simple water spell. Water is a helpful element for cleansing and purification, and this spell works especially well when the dark moon is in a water sign--Pisces, Cancer, or Scorpio. You’ll need:
A large glass of water
A piece of paper and pen
To start, choose what you’re focusing on releasing. Maybe there are blocks to self-expression, fear of being rejected, shame around your path, or blocks to abundance. Once you’ve decided what you’re ready to release (you’re welcome to spend some time journaling on this to get clear), start making a list of all the limiting beliefs and stories that you hold associated with this block.For example, let’s say you’re working with clearing blocks to abundance. Your list might hold beliefs like:
I can’t make money doing what I love
People with money are jerks
It’s wrong to have money when other people have so little, etc.
Keep letting the beliefs flow! I tend to fill up a whole page when I do this spell.
Once you have your list, it’s time to work the spell. Ground yourself, cast your circle, and pick up your list. You’re going to say the first belief out loud, starting with “I clear the belief that ________ from my body” and then taking a big sip of water. Pause and notice, feeling and visualizing the water moving through your body, cleansing this belief from your system on every level.
Repeat this for each belief on your list, taking your time and really feeling the beliefs move out of your body.
Card featured from The Ritual Deck
When you’re done, use the energy of your palms to charge your last sip of water with what you do want - abundance, healthy self-expression, creativity, etc. - and feel your whole body being charged with this intention by the power of the element of water.
Give thanks to water and the Universe for their help, ground yourself again and open your circle.
CANDLE MAGICK FOR RELEASING
For this spell, you’ll need:
Black taper candle
Carving tool like a sharp point crystal, toothpick, or athame
Black tourmaline, smoky quartz, or petrified wood
A simple oil like grapeseed or bergamot essential oil
Rosemary
Start by cleansing all of your items for the spell. This can be done by wafting rosemary smoke over them or visualizing light cleansing them.
For this spell, you’ll be carving what you’re releasing into your candle as well as the glyph for Pluto, the planet that helps things die and be transformed. For your words, keep them simple and powerful by carving the basics of what you’re releasing like “fear” or “self-doubt.”
Anoint your candle with your oil and roll it in your dried rosemary. As you carve and anoint your candle, visualize your all of whatever you’re releasing - your fear or your self-doubt as in the example above - pouring into the candle.
Place your crystal(s) and candle on your altar, light your candle, and start meditating on the flame. Continue to visualize all that you’re releasing pouring into the candle, and watch as it burns and turns to smoke. Stay with this meditation until you feel a shift in your energy - until you really feel a release.
Let the candle burn out if you can or snuff out the candle and continue the same spell each night until the candle has burned completely.
SHADOW WORK TAROT OR ORACLE SPREAD
The dark moon is a deep invitation into shadow work.
What is shadow work?
Simply put, it’s an intentional exploration of our shadow side - the parts of ourselves that we reject, that we’re ashamed of, that we stuff down and hide. Click here to learn more about shadow work if you’re new to it!
For this ritual, you’ll want to create a ritual space - whatever that means to you. For me, it usually means cleansing my space with smoke beforehand, lighting incense, and lighting candles. Maybe you also like to take an essential oil bath beforehand, or sprinkle herbs in a circle around you.
All you’ll need for this ritual is:
A journal and pen
Spend a few moments grounding yourself, then shuffle your cards and pull a card for each of these questions:
What part of my shadow is rising to the surface to be worked with?
How has rejecting this part of myself manifested in my life?
How can I show this part of myself more love and integrate it into my whole self?
Give yourself the gift of sitting with your cards after you pull them. Spend time meditating on your cards, journaling about them, or even painting with them to process and understand what their messages are for you.
NEW MOON CARD SPREAD
Every new moon, we get a beautiful opportunity for a fresh start. The new moon is the time of the lunar cycle where we get to dream, vision, and set intentions for what we would like to heal, manifest, and create for the new cycle.Cards, whether oracle or tarot (learn all about the difference between oracle & tarot cards and how to choose here), can be a powerful way to help us gain clarity and understand how to work with the whole cycle holistically. Keep scrolling for your new moon card spread and to learn how to work with the cards throughout the whole moon cycle!
Rituals to Help You Thrive During Mercury Retrograde
Every Mercury retrograde, it feels like the whole internet goes crazy (including Instagram crashing, the technology breakdowns with Mercury retrograde are real!) for a while with memes blaming a whole slew of problems on Mercury retrograde.But the fact is, Mercury goes retrograde a few times a year every year, and it can be an incredibly potent time for your growth and transformation if you treat it as such. I really believe that all cosmic events happen for us, not to us, and we can let them have power over us or we can view them as empowering invitations to help us on our journeys in specific ways.In this blog, I’ll be sharing some rituals for Mercury retrograde to help you tap into the magic of this time. But first, what is Mercury retrograde?
Using the Cardinal Directions in Ritual
The cardinal directions, North, South, East, and West, can help you with more than navigation. Each direction holds a meaning of its own and corresponds to one of the four elements. There are both simple and complex ways of using the cardinal directions in ritual.A variety of cultures honor the cardinal directions. This article is looking at them from a Pagan and Wiccan perspective. The four directions are often used by Native Americans on the medicine wheel. Neither way is wrong or right, just different, and for different purposes.Read on for meanings and three ways to start using the cardinal directions in your magickal practices.
The cardinal directions, North, South, East, and West, can help you with more than navigation. Each direction holds a meaning of its own and corresponds to one of the four elements. There are both simple and complex ways of using the cardinal directions in ritual.
A variety of cultures honor the cardinal directions. This article is looking at them from a Pagan and Wiccan perspective. The four directions are often used by Native Americans on the medicine wheel. Neither way is wrong or right, just different, and for different purposes.
Read on for meanings and three ways to start using the cardinal directions in your magickal practices.
Connection to the Four Elements
Each direction corresponds to one of the four elements; understanding these connections can help you better understand the energy of each direction.
North corresponds to Earth
East corresponds to Air
South corresponds to Fire
West corresponds to Water
A quick note about these correspondences. The elemental correspondences can vary depending on your location, cultural background, or intuition. Catherine Beyer explains this in her article The Five Element Symbols of Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Spirit.
The Golden Dawn originated in England, and the directional/elemental correspondences reflect a European perspective. To the south are the warmer climates, and thus is associated with fire. The Atlantic Ocean lies to the west. The north is cold and formidable, a land of the earth but sometimes not a lot else.
If these correspondences don’t feel right to you, that’s ok! For example, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere, you may find that the correspondences feel off. You can reassign the elements in a way that feels natural to you or is in better alignment with your cultural background.
Direction meanings
Here’s a more in-depth look at some meanings and correspondences of each direction.
North
Physical body
Health
Chakra: Root
Element: Earth
Color: Green
South
Hardships
Challenges
Willpower
Chakra: Solar Plexus
Element: Fire
Color: Red
Three ways to use the cardinal directions in ritual
1. Add a layer of meaning to your ritual
The easiest way to start implementing the cardinal directions into your magickal practice is by facing the direction that makes the most sense for what you’re doing. This idea can be applied to oracle and tarot card readings, candle magick, ritual, spellwork, meditation, or working with the moon.
Here are a few examples:
Face North if you’re doing a meditation focused on your health.
Face East if you’re performing a card reading for the new moon because the new moon represents new beginnings.
Face South if you’re asking your guides about how to overcome a problem.
Face West if you’re doing a ritual to help you let go of something.
2. Calling the quarters for protection
The next time you’re practicing a ritual or psychic work start by calling on the four directions, this is also referred to as “calling the quarters.” Calling the quarters will bring you protection and the energy of all of the elements during your practice. It’s also said to create a sacred space that is connected to the spirit realm.
There’s more than one way to call the quarters. A quick google search will offer you a variety of options, but here’s one way:
Imagine each direction as a wind that you’re invoking into your space. You can even imagine a specific Goddess or God for each direction. As you call in each direction, stand facing the direction you’re calling in and ask it to join you for your ritual practice. Many like to start by calling in the North winds first because it will keep your ritual grounded. Rotate in a circle, going through each direction, asking it to join you. When you’re done performing your ritual work, release the winds, and thank them for their assistance and protection.
3. Altar placement
Whether you’re creating a new altar or updating your current altar, the direction it’s facing will have an effect on it. Try to place your altar in a direction that matches the season of life you’re in or want to be in.
Has your altar or sacred space been in the same location for a long time? It might be a time to rearrange and face your altar in a direction that’s in better alignment with your life. Check the meanings for the directions above and note which one feels like where you’re at or want to be right now.
