Edain became a self-initiated Witch in 1981 and has been an active part of the Pagan community since her formal initiation into a large San Antonio coven in 1983. Edain has researched alternative spiritualities since her teens, when she was first introduced to Kaballah, or Jewish mysticism. Since that time, she has studied a variety of magickal paths including Celtic, Appalachian folk magick, and Curanderismo, a Mexican-American folk tradition. Today, Edain is part of the Wittan Irish Pagan tradition, where she is a priestess of Brighid and an elder.
An alumnus of the University of Texas with a BA in history, she is affiliated with several professional writer's organizations and occasionally presents workshops on magickal topics or works individually with students who wish to study Witchcraft.
This former woodwind player for the Lynchburg (VA) Symphony claims both the infamous feuding McCoy family of Kentucky and Sir Roger Williams, the seventeeth-century religious dissenter, as branches on her ethnically diverse family tree. In her "real life," Edain works as a licensed stockbroker.
Edain is the author of fifteen books, including Bewitchments; Enchantments; and her most recent release, Ostara: Customs, Spells & Rituals for the Rites of Spring.
one THE INVOKING PENTACLE SPREAD The Invoking Pentacle spread is one of the simplest in this book. It is designed to give you a broad overview of the facets of your past, the inherited inner traits that combined to make you who you are today. This may not only encompass past lives, but incidents from your current life that have created issues or karma that remain unresolved. This spread's name comes from the five points of the encircled star known as the pentacle. In the early twentieth century the pentacle became the adopted symbol for many of the Wiccan religious sects, but its history as a spiritual symbol far predates modern Wicca. The symbol has been found on two-thousand-year-old currency in western Europe. It represented the five wounds of Jesus on the banners of the twelfth-century Crusaders, and it can still be seen adorning the chancery of the elegant Essex Cathedral in England. Contrary to prevailing opinion, an inverted pentacle is not a symbol of evil nor is it a portal for negative energy (see Figure 1). Evil people have taken the pentacle, perverted it, and used it for evil, but that does not detract from it as an archetype of positive forces any more than inverting a symbol from any other spiritual path would be automatically evil unless used for evil. The inverted pentacle can be used for many magickal and mystical operations. In the case of this tarot reading, it represents that which has come down to us in this present life from various other lifetimes, the symbol of a sort of karmic stew that makes us what we are today. Shuffle your cards in your usual manner, cut the deck, and then lay the cards out according to the pattern shown in Figure 2. Read them in the same order in which you placed them, keeping in mind that the energies being revealed may come from several past lives, not just one.
Card 1 The first card in the spread is related to the element of earth and speaks to us of our physical selves, our occupations, our animals, our finances, our homes, and our families.
Card 2 This is the card of the water element and gives us insight into the spiritual, intuitive, and psychic forces that have combined to make us who we are.
Card 3 Card 3 is governed by the element of fire. Fire's energy is that of passion, courage, stamina, and transformation. A strong card in this position is indicative of positive change; a weak card is indicative of stagnant thinking or obstinacy.
Card 4 This card is governed by the air element and is related to our thoughts, studies, intellect, and powers of communication. The thoughts and communication shown by this card are not necessarily truthful or correct, but they are a part of our past and helped make up the energies and events that shape our current self.
Card 5 This is the card that represents your relationship to the fifth element of spirit. Spirit is your inner center, a place where all the other elements meet and blend within you. If one or more of these elemental energies are weak or excessive it can pull you away from your proper place-in your spiritual center seeking guidance from your higher consciousnness or your spirit guides. This card should give you insights into how this may best be accomplished. If your current you is not to your liking, take steps now to make positive changes. Use Cards 1 through 4 to help pinpoint the areas in which you may be most in need of rebalancing, then ask spirit to help you find your way back to your center.
Card 6 Card 6 gives you an overall impression of the current you as shaped by the four elements and spirit. If you are out of balance with the elements, or have moved away from your center or spirit, this card may at first seem inconsistent with the others. Be open to what it is trying to show you. If you don't understand it today, you may tomorrow or next week.
Example Reading
Card 1: Strength, reversed In our physical past our subject had the opportunity to display strength in both body and character and to know the limits of those strengths. In a reversed position this card can mean he allowed the powers of hatred or jealousy to consume and weaken him. In The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals, Mary K. Greer writes that, in its reversed position, Strength can indicate a time of being overwhelmed by life and by forces that seem beyond the seeker's control. This position is related to the element earth, which grounds and stabilizes us.When connected to Card 2 we can see a pattern emerging of past lives when the seeker dreamed too much, didn't take positive actions, refused to accept self-responsibility, and allowed life's difficult day-to-day issues to swamp him with their pressures.
Card 2: Four of Swords In the position corresponding to the element water we find a card of repose. This card is usually an indication that more time was needed in creative contemplation rather than idle daydreaming. The catafalque, ...(Continues)
