January Chapter one - Week Two - Celtic Myth and Magick Study

How was your first week reading Celtic Myth and Magick? Did you find a new tradition to explore, seek out an element that pulled you in or practice the magic power of 3x3 manifestations? If you haven’t checked out Monday’s Reflection and Exercises post for week one the here is the link: Monday Reflections and Exercises - Week One

This week’s sub-chapters come synchronistic. I was working on a short story snippet using the Druidcraft deck today and I had drawn the Five of Swords. Aside from the keywords and meaning I couldn’t help being drawn to the clothes that the man in the image was wearing.

As a Celtic deck it got me thinking about how I would even begin to describe the clothes and the reason that he would be wearing what he was. In writing there is a moment when I am often gifted by simply asking a question, and therein the universe provides. When I went to check out what the theme of this week’s reading would be, I got excited – Celtic clothes and art.

In the spirit of being inspired I have a challenge for you all, that I will be using throughout the week using my Druidcraft deck [I love it] First though here is the list for this week’s reading.

The sub-Chapters we will be reading this week are:

· Being Skyclad or clothed
· Celtic Dress : Modern Medieval Fantasy
· Variations of Celtic dress
· Celtic Art

Now for a Celtic Tarot Card challenge:

This prompt can be used with or without a Celtic based deck if you are a writer and want to explore the images and art on a card. Since this week’s theme is primarily clothing have fun looking at the images more closely and in a way you may have not before. You can do this before or after you read the chapters, or come do both and compare what you find.

Firstly you will want to line up the cards or spread them out, using a table or the floor. It doesn’t matter how you spread them out or what order.

Then start looking for images where the characters are wearing clothes, or if you want to take it a little further, where there are pieces of art in the background. Separate them into separate piles and put the rest away. If all the cards are full of clothed people then put them into piles of women, men and children.

Now look at each one.

· Are there any themes, colours, patterns or similarities?
· What, if any, are the differences between women, men and children?
· Are there any colours, images or people that stand out to you?
· Are you drawn to any card in particular? A character?

After reading through the chapter take a few cards and see if you can find the influences, ideas, and culture within the clothing.

· Do they resonate with the deck, or the meaning behind the card itself?
· Is there a particular item of clothing, jewellery or symbol that catches your attention?
· If there is art, what do you feel drawn to? Do you recognize a symbol? What does it mean to you?

If you are a writer take this one step further and choose a card to write a character profile or story snippet with. I will be back next week to share my own character profile based of this exercise.

The idea of this challenge is to get you looking at your cards more deeply, and to connect with the characters and culture within them. It is a great exercise to connect with the Celtic Myth and the artistic choices that our favourite deck artist have chosen.

If you feel guided check out the artist who created the deck. For the Druidcraft deck the artist is Will Worthington. I LOVE his style, and it always draws me in. You can see if the artist has any relating art that inspires and provokes you or you might even find a Celtic deck that you can add to your collection. I love will’s art as you really feel the Celtic energy and you can easily combine decks. I also own his Camelot Oracle.

On Monday I shared an exercise to create an elemental altar. Here is an example of mine. I used it to charge up the cards when I worked on an Ancestral spread. In each corner is a simple tea candle, then I have my homemade elemental rocks, shells I collected last year at the beach, stones from the garden, my Willow wand, crystals that resonate with nature for me and feathers from my collection.

Images (c) Copyrighted - Drew Constance 2016

Happy reading lovelies,

If you would like to share your reading experience of week one with me, feel free to comment, write a post, film a vlog of use the hashtag on INSTAGRAM

#celticmythandmagicstudy2016