Tarot

Jumping Juiceberries! What is a Jumper Card?

Posted on August 15, 2022
Painting by Fernando Botero called "Woman Falling From A Balcony." Most of the painting is of a large woman in a green dress, suspended in mid-air as she falls from a second-story balcony. The skirt of her green strapless dress billows away from her lower half, revealing a hint of red undergarments and black stockings with garters. Her high heeled shoes are green like the dress. Her long brown hair cascades down one side of her face. A man peers out of a door below her, watching her fall. Behind them is visible the tiled roofs and church steeple of an Italian town.

This post was originally published on paigezee.com on June 27, 2013.

If you’ve read anything I’ve written about Tarot, you’ve probably encountered the word “jumper.”

WELL NOW PAIGE, JUST WHAT IN THE HECK DOES THAT MEAN?

In Tarot, a jumper is a card that falls out of the deck while you are shuffling.

When this happens, you have two choices: you can put the card back in the deck and continue shuffling, or you can look at and interpret it.

I like to do the latter.

How do you interpret a jumper?

1) You can think of it as immediate advice. What were you thinking about when it fell? Was your mind wandering (tsk!), or were you focusing on the reading? Whatever was on your mind, consider the jumper(s) the Tarot’s two cents on the matter.

2) You can set it aside until you’ve drawn your cards, and then interpret it as additional insight into the reading.

Generally, unless the querent was thinking about something significant when the jumper jumped, I go with option #2. I see jumpers as elaborations on the main message of the reading. That way, if I’m doing a two-card daily draw or a simple three-card spread, the jumper provides information that I may need, but my limited spread doesn’t have room for. It may also elucidate confusing points in the reading, or emphasize something I usually overlook.

When interpreting a jumper, it helps me to visualize its role.

The jumper knows its message is important. It’s seething in the shuffling deck, practically vibrating with impatience. Finally, it just can’t take it anymore and — (AAAAAAAAHHH~!) — makes the mad leap of faith into my lap or onto the floor.

Then, when I tune into the card to hear its message, I imagine a teensy weensy little voice piping up in all caps. This all-important visualization a) helps me pay attention to the importance of the message and b) cracks me the fuck up.

HEY BABE YOU’RE RIGHT, THIS IS IMPORTANT, the jumper says. I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE YOU GOT THAT.

or,

HEY BABE, I KNOW YOU’RE GOOD AT THIS AND ALL, BUT YOU REALLY NEED TO LOOK AT THIS ASPECT OF THE SITUATION YOU AREN’T SEEING, another jumper might say.

Jumpers point to the REALLY important parts of the reading. Like a big black underline, or a furious cloud of asterisks and arrows.

Jumpers are my friends. Sometimes I get more than one at a time; more often than not, I don’t get any. But when I do, I get really excited. I think it means I’m onto something.

“The Tower” by Elric2012

If you read tarot, do you ever encounter jumpers? How do you deal with them?

Next time a card leaps from your deck, listen to what its teensy weensy voice has to say.

Even if it’s yelling at you in teensy weensy caps lock.

with love and lots of questions,

Paige

Paige's signature

P.S. I was interviewed about jumper cards by my mentor, Theresa Reed a.k.a. The Tarot Lady, on her fabulous podcast Tarot Bytes!

Divination Tarot

Bears Guarding Caves: A Reading For Now

Posted on May 21, 2021
lovely purple lilac blossoms

My disco ball is sparkling and the lilacs are blooming!

It’s the moooost sweet-smelling tiiiiime of the yeeear

I’ve been walking around my neighborhood sniffing all the lilac bushes I can get close to. It’s a small joy that brightens my day no matter how heavy the clouds can get — and hoo baby hippos, can those clouds get heavy and grey.

There is a terrible lot going on in the world right now. I’m going to cut right to the chase: a reading for these times, because hot summer sidewalk burns! is it a time to be alive!

To the Tarot!

(Psst – My calendar for June is now open! If you’re interested in a personalized and in-depth email or video reading at my current prices, please peruse. My list of services will soon be changing and expanding. Stay tuned, spicy shrimps!)

I’m using the Wildwood Tarot and just layin’ it out on my lap with a cup of tea. And uh, every single one of these cards is a Major Arcana card. We’re really in it now, my spicy shrimps!

Clockwise from top to bottom we have:

  • Underlying Influence: 5 The Ancestor
  • Energy of the Moment: 7 The Archer
  • Advice for Moving Forward: 15 The Guardian RX
  • Clarifier for 15 because as my friend Amelia Quint taught me, it’s sometimes helpful to pull a clarifier card when one pulls trump 13, 15, or 16 (aka Death, Devil, Tower) : 20 The Great Bear
  • Message from our Holy Helpers: 19 The Sun of Life RX

Well fuck!

We are influenced by the existing systems and structures.

The status quo. The shit-pies in the fields are creeping up on us like foul-smelling tribbles. A reckoning is due for how our world handles food, money, and, you know, the most basic securities and pleasures of being embodied. All that Taurus represents, and which Uranus is stirring up.

Let’s name it: the existing system and its structures are white supremacist settler-colonialism and its conjoined twin, capitalism.

We are also influenced by the loving generating power of our ancestors and the land from which our bodies, those ancestral vessels, are made.

And the land is hurting.

If you live in the United States, like I do, the land is aching from all the violence done to it. The land aches from overdevelopment, pollution, harmful industrial agriculture, frakking, tree-felling, and oil pipelines. And it’s essential to remember: the underlying cause is settler-colonialism that works hard to separate the land from indigenous sovereignty as much as it can.

So what do we do?

The present moment finds us seeking a way forward. We do our best to protect and ground ourselves. We may be closing ourselves off or opening ourselves up in an attempt to help us achieve what we want, for better or worse. Setting boundaries. Asking for and receiving support from our holy helpers. Finding that we must both protect and tap into the power of the body’s three major power centers: head, heart, and root.

We can step into sovereignty and self-mastery.

We can recognize the power we have and how to wield it in a way that serves life. We can connect with our innermost self and the relief of truth therein.

I am frankly shocked by the dual card-draw of Major Arcana numbers 15 and 20, which in the Wildwood Tarot are both imagined as a bear guarding a cave. In the first, a bear’s upright skeleton blocks the seeker’s path and in the second, a living polar bear is perched atop the entrance to the cave beneath the constellation of Ursa Major, the Big Bear.

I mean, shit!

What does the image of a bear guarding a cave say to you?

I encourage you to sit with that. Share in the comments — I’d dearly love to hear your thoughts and insights!

For me, it speaks of the power of dreaming, among other things. Awake or asleep, dreams show us the seemingly impossible. Dreams reveal our inner truths. They dredge up things we might rather not face. They force us to confront those inner truths. They connect us to other people, places, and things, both living and dead.

Last night I dreamed of a cave. It was small and shallow but wide. The stone was sandy-colored and kinda soft. There were books being stored in the cave. I was sorting books of my own and choosing whether or not to keep a trilogy with sweet vintage cover illustrations.

In with the old, out with the new?

Should I stay or should I go? (DANCE BREAK)

We have the power to dream of a healed world.

Our holy helpers remind us that within ourselves, we have access to the courage and guidance we need. That inner fire is stoked and strengthened by fuel. Fuel like asking for help and guidance when we need it. Fuel like dialogue with our bodies, the land, our beloveds, and ourselves. Fuel like groundedness in our sovereignty and the clarity that brings.

LIKE BUTTAH TO GHEE

So we have this inner fire, and we strengthen it through dialogue with our bodies, lands, beloveds, and selves, and armed with this light into the underbelly/underworld we go.

I mean this both literally, as in there is hell happening on earth right now for oppressed people in settler colonial states like the U.S. and Israel*, and figuratively, as in when one person hurts all people are hurting, and we have deep inner healing and reclamation of power to do.

And we have the power to be successful. We are made of stars and earth and sea for crying out loud!

Right now, I want to ask you something. The sun is rising. You have been dreaming. What is your dream? What are the images, figures, landscapes, and words bouncing around your consciousness right now that ring true, even if you don’t understand them right now? What echoes? What calls?

What is your dream?

A sunny windowsill with four objects on it. From left to right: a chunky geode rock, a shamrock-pattern teacup holding a spray of cherry blossoms, a glass-blown bluebird of happiness, and a small bell with a stained glass handle in the shape of three cherries. The sky in the background is blue with big puffy white clouds.

*You may have heard about what’s happening in Palestine and Colombia right now. Here are some links to resources and voices:

I love you,

xo Paige

Paige
Psst — My calendar for June is now open! If you’re interested in a personalized and in-depth email or video reading at my current prices, please peruse. My list of services will soon be changing and expanding. Stay tuned, spicy shrimps!
Ritual

Scorpio Super-Moon Ritual

Posted on April 23, 2021

I’m performing a ritual on the night of Monday, April 26 — the Supermoon in Scorpio.

This is a ritual to offer spiritual support for the emergence of springtime revelations.

A revelation is the recognition of something which has been present but hidden or unacknowledged.

The season is shifting and things are coming up for each of us right now. There is a call to action, a message, being disclosed by your soul.

WHAT IS IT?

With this ritual we aim to cleanse ourselves of anything in the way of receiving that message loud and clear. We aim to ground ourselves and receive the revelations available to us now. We aim to move forward guided by the wisdom of our higher selves.

YEAH WE DO

what to expect

There are two options for participating in this Supermoon Ritual: one includes a personalized written report and one does not.

Personalized written reports will contain an approximately 3-card Tarot reading on your specific situation and detailed descriptions of any signs and omens observed on your behalf during the ritual.

If you choose to participate in the ritual without the personalized report, you’ll still receive a general report for the group as a whole; it just won’t be personalized to you specifically.

Here’s a breakdown of what to expect from the ritual:

  • I’ll send out an email with instructions for you + questions you can sit with during the night of the Supermoon
  • You’ll send me your personal info: name, petition (you’ll receive instructions on how to prepare this), and birth time/date/place info (optional)
  • I’ll dedicate a candle to you, cleanse the candle, dress it with an oil and herbs mix I’ll create just for this ritual, and set it on an altar I’ll be creating for this work
  • As the candles burn I’ll sit with the altar, listen and pray for guidance, and perform divination on our behalf
  • Everyone will get a general report afterwards with advice for moving forward
  • If you selected the Ritual + Report option, you’ll also get a personalized report of your candle’s burn plus a customized Tarot reading just for you

This is a solitary ritual, meaning there’s no group call involved — all communication will be via email. There are 10 spots available.

how to book:

what you can do at home

  • cleanse yourself with a pour-over bath or hand wash of salt water: sea or kosher salt, preferably
  • add Epsom salt to your favorite soaking bath
  • sit with, meditate, or journal on the questions provided
  • pull some cards and journal on what comes up
  • keep notes on signs and omens you notice on Sunday the 25th, Monday the 26th, and Tuesday the 27th of April
  • pay attention to your dreams on those days

This Supermoon is going to be a doozy. Wherever you are, whatever’s coming up for you right now, I’m sending you love.

xo Paige

Paige
Tarot

MAGIC HAPPENS WHEN YOU FOLLOW THE CALL

Posted on December 28, 2020
illustration of the moon card featuring a luna moth

Hot baby fish feet! The world is full of magic!

We know that invisible and mysterious threads of connection link us to the world and each other, and magic is what happens when we tap into those connections.

I love seeing tangible examples of what happens when we heed the call to step outside the worn paths of prescribed normalcy and expectation.

Recently I had the pleasure of chatting with kindred spirit Juanita Benedicto, co-creator of the upcoming Faunabelle Tarot, who experienced just such a calling and followed its twists and turns and leaps and bounds to unexpected results: the creation of this “compassionate and kind tarot deck for children and the young at heart.”

“A tarot practice develops creativity, empathy and greater understanding of self and others. “

Juanita Benedicto, Faunabelle Tarot

YES yes YES SPEAK IT ! Juanita described the Faunabelle Tarot to me as a “Trojan horse of kindness that impacts anyone who’s near the child and the deck.”

Talk about MY! JAM!

These wizardly ears perked right up at word of a Tarot deck designed for children (and the young at heart). When I first began seriously studying Tarot, I was working as a babysitter in San Francisco. I’d always have my cards with me. Sometimes the older of the two kids would request that I shuffle my deck and lay all the cards out on the table; then we’d go through the cards and describe the narrative that appeared.

Kids love stories and asking questions and the magic of uncovering and understanding themselves and the world around them!

HOT DOG I’m delighted to see a tarot deck designed with children in mind — and that, like Sesame Street, is seeded with more advanced references.

Take Faunabelle’s Hermit for example: in a nod to the earthiness of the card, which is astrologically associated with the mutable Earth sign of Virgo, Juanita and Nicola have placed the Hermit Raven in the woods alongside the Three Sisters: corn, squash, and beans, that holy trifecta of plant cultivation in many indigenous cultures*.

I love the way astrological symbols have been tucked into the cards’ compositions: the symbol for Virgo can be found hidden on a mushroom cap in the Hermit Raven’s forest!

You can see previews of the other cards at Faunabelle Tarot’s gorgeously concise and well-organized Kickstarter page.

My favorite part of Faunabelle’s Kickstarter is the section on sample questions children can ask during a Tarot reading:

“Questions a young reader might ask FAUNABELLE include:

  1. How can I get along better with my sister/brother?
  2. What reminder should I take with me today?
  3. How can I tell my friend something that’s hard to share?”

But of course, anyone who’s spent any time with children knows how good they are at asking questions. My personal favorite question a child has ever asked me is, “When does God die?” (I gave him the Alan Watts “God is the universe playing hide and seek with itself over and over” answer and he nodded and proceeded to ask me about the plot of Star Wars: The Phantom Menance).

Children are smarter, more sensitive, and more capable than they usually get credit for. And they are SO GOOD at asking questions! My fellow readers know that the secret to good tarot readings is good question-asking.

I’M REALLY CURIOUS: do you read Tarot — or some other form of divination — with children? what kinds of questions do you ask? what curious insights arise? I’d love to hear your stories of reading with kids!

LINKS & LOVE

The Faunabelle Tarot Kickstarter Page

Juanita and Nicola’s website: Star, Stone & Fable

*Read more: “Meet the Three Sisters Who Sustain Native America” by Andi Murphy

xoxo

Paige

Full disclosureclaimer: if you make a pledge using my Kickbooster link, 5% of the pledge comes back to me. I’ll be putting any such funds toward the creation of my own forthcoming Tarot deck! And the decks start coming and they don’t stop coming and they don’t stop coming and they don’t stop

Uncategorized

leaves move with the wind

Posted on February 17, 2020

I am writing this, and it is September.

Leaves move with the wind and the light splits apart, reforming again and again in endless waves. I’m on the couch and my feet are hot. A sense of unreality pings in my chest, a physical twinge of pain disquieting me from a distance.

I know; I do not know.

I am bound by my skin. I breathe in. I am limitless and absolute. Contradiction comes easily to me now. I breathe deeply and exhale myself, boundless and formless. The breathing exercises calm me instantly and palpably. I am connected; I am cleansed; I am communing with myself and the void.

This is a typical morning routine.

The breeze ruffles the leaves, dapples the light, caresses me through the open window. It cools the tea on the windowsill. The book in my lap has a book underneath it; sometimes I like to read two or three at a time, shifting between them, my attention catching and breaking like the surface of water shattered by a kingfisher diving for trout. My mind is whetted on words. There is a fountain coming up and if I don’t direct its flow properly I risk distraction, dissipation, and downright do-no-goodliness.

In the morning I am quiet unless I am singing.

Or unless there is someone present with whom I can chattily share the streams of energy bubbling up through me. I am a morning person; my thoughts run quickly at dawn. I’ll be honest: sometimes it’s nonsense.

HEY say diddle diddle dum diddle day

Sometimes they’re snippets from a song, or someplace like Sesame Street. The lines do laps in my mind. They weave a sing-song backdrop to thought and movement.

To the redwood, to the redwood, to the redwood redwood tree!

I let the chorus play in my head, a joyous noise propelling me forward, keeping me afloat, helping me hold my breath when the way dunks me under the surface.

Does it get any easier?

I am writing this, and it is January.

The bare branches outside my window reveal fat squirrels. A blessing. The cup of tea in my lap steams and cools. There is a book beneath my book. I am reading again, thirsty as a mountain hiker in June. I eat up the words and they flow back out of me by the thousands. I write in acorn-caches. Some I’ve forgotten. Others I return to night after night, running the words through my hands and head and heart.

I am the fat squirrel in the window, and I am the person curled into the armchair. I am the nut and the tree. At night I sense the dead, and calm my child-fear of the dark. I say nothing to anyone about this, except the few who see them too.

There’s a new dawn on the horizon.

I should know; I get up early enough. Working at a bakery has retrained me to wake early: a natural habit of mine but one that depression easily overrides.

Light spills over the horizon and across the sky in slow motion. It squeezes and releases my heart more expansive than it was before. Leonard Cohen lyrics twine themselves through the sing-song weaving in the background of my mind:

there is a crack in everything/ that’s how the light gets in

It gets easier.

I’m writing this, and it’s 2020.

The sky is grey and the squirrels are fat, fat, fat. I love them. My fingers are itching with winter restlessness. Time to write! time to paint! time to weave and spin.

The hours of quiet contemplation I’ve invested are paying off. So is the inner chorus that tills the soil of my creative mind, preparing it richly for the seeds germinating there.

My hands are busy and my vision of the way forward is clearing. New glasses leave bruises on my bridge. Clarity can be dizzying at first, disorienting, but one adjusts. And until I do, I may bump around a bit.

But I’ll get a band-aid. Shake it off. Like the kung fu grandpa in the Food Lion parking lot, which is a video I’ve watched so many times it autofills when I type “k” into the Youtube search bar.

Question: where do we go from here?

It gets better. It gets worse. It gets better.

Leaves move with the wind and dazzle us with dappled light.

I’m writing this, and today is a once-in-a-thousand-years palindrome: 02/02/2020.

Backwards, forwards, it’s all the same. Joni Mitchell sings about the circle game, round and round. The Magnetic Fields sing about the Ferris wheel and the feel of a flying saucer landing.

I can’t sleep/ cause you got strange powers/ you’re in my dreams

a half moon is visible in the sky next to a brick building with tall thin dark windows, seen through a window fogged with condensation

What guides us forward?

As the year turned my dreams got weird, vivid, and deep. After the Christmas new moon I succumbed to the process of reflecting in contemplative waters that grow increasingly clear and deep, though dark.

Seeing too much too soon can be a shock and isn’t always advisable. I’ve been easing into it: hydrating, stretching the body, and remembering to eat even when the pantry is less than inspiring.

This is the time of year when I perform New Year readings for new and returning clients and of all the potential ways of harnessing new year energy to encourage contemplative growth and goal-setting, these readings are just. The most.

The depth and breadth of the new year reflecting pool?

It’s gold. It’s clear water running over river stones. It’s friendship under pine trees and sunrise over the hill you’ve just climbed. It’s languid reflection under the sun, time taken for just yourself and your inner world.

It’s honesty and imperfection.

It’s looking for patterns, recognizing them, and knowing what needs to be changed.

It’s asking questions and listening.

It’s connection to your truest self in context.

It’s opportunities for understanding.

It cultivates compassion for self and others.

The reflection process is a reminder that we are safe, because the ultimate truth is love. Everything else on top of that, no matter how hard it is, is faceable with love.

And love is everywhere.

If you’re interested in booking a new year reading, which I will be offering until the Spring Equinox in March, you can follow the link on my Work With Me page — or send $125 via PayPal (zaferiou@gmail.com) or Venmo (@PaigeZaferiou).

xoxo Paige

Paige Zaferiou
Captain's Log

Hear It (Heal It)

Posted on February 20, 2019
boston and the sea

Sometimes I wonder if I’m going mad.

The world unravels and spins before us, but just beyond reach. There is a shortness of breath. The sky is falling! The maw of the abyss yawns beneath our feet!

How can we possibly survive?

That is the chorus I hear around me. I feel the tightness as I hold my own breath. I flinch at the slightest provocation, my sensitivity screaming in my nerves and between my ears.

The lights of the ER are too bright, the droning of Dr. Phil on its TV screen unbearable to my throbbing head. I leave before receiving treatment, unable to take another hour in that bright loud torment.

I receive massage from an energy worker, and it helps. I put on Brandi Carlile’s heart-wrenching album By The Way, I Forgive You, slide into the almost-too-hot bath, and let the epiphanies wash over and into me. I gasp with knowing.

I’m tired of the veneer of sanity. I’m tired of the way things go. I’m tired of the auto-response Fine, I’m fine.

My fingers itch for the keyboard, for the PUBLISH button. I miss blogging. I wish to return to this medium, but I am tired of listicles and how-to and Useful, Polished, Perfect.

I want to write wild and rambling. I want to pull myself to my feet. I want to share with you the pacing feeling in my legs, the urgency of late-night sleeplessness.

.

It is late February, 2019. Chiron, the Wounded Healer, has moved into my own sign of Aries. Uranus, the Chaotic Rebel, is about to move out of Aries and into my other sign of Taurus. I feel revitalized; I feel galvanized; I feel all kind of -ized. My teeth ache to rip into the festering stitches, tear open the throbbing wounds, let in air and sight to that which has been hidden for too long, too long.

I’m ready. I’m unsteady and I’m afraid and I’m here, shaky and standing. I’ll sit if I have to. I’ll crawl.

It’s time to heal.

Let’s begin.

Captain's Log

Captain’s Log: I’m Sorry I Left, Though It Was For The Best

Posted on September 10, 2018
tell me, what did you learn?
…we’re all gonna die, we’re all gonna die, we’re all gonna die
— Sufjan Stevens, “Fourth of July”

Captain’s Log: stardate…now.

It feels like approximately a thousand years since I really sat down and wrote a blog post like I used to do.

If you’ll permit me to remember…

I started the first incarnation of this blog in August 2012 while living in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood. Less than six months later, I officially launched my professional reading practice and called it Tarot + Tea.

Deeper I joyfully dove into the blogging world; I wrote hundreds of articles and made many excellent friends.

In early 2015, as I prepared to move from San Francisco back to New England, I began to experience what I later understood was shaman sickness and an initiation journey that would last about three years. Around this time I lost my entire website to a weird cyberninja combination of harddrive death and domain issues. So in November 2015 I moved the site here to paigezaferiou.com and started over again.

But the years of initiation that followed proved to be unconducive for blogging like I had been doing it.

The writing I was doing was private, frantic, centered around processing the frightening initiation experiences, not ready to be shared.

I had nothing to say on the blog other than HELP. HELP. HELP. To write would be to expose the raw wounding of initiation; I was cautious and protective enough of the process to keep it to myself.

The blog stayed mostly silent while I descended into hermitude in the woods of far Western Mass and, further, into an unexpected unofficial shamanic co-residency in Brooklyn that brought me to my knees.

It all culminated in an extraordinary homeless shamanic road trip, summer 2017,  at the end of which I found myself on the shores of Salem, Mass with a literally life-giving job at a vegan-ish cafe. At last, stability! ascention out of the underworld!

At last, time and space to come to terms with these experiences and their effects on me and my future!

Last week, I laughed out loud when I got to chapter 3 of Gordon White’s excellent book The Chaos Protocols: Magical Techniques for Navigating The New Economic Reality (emphasis mine):

Properly used, magic will destroy your life. This is a feature, not a bug. Ever since modern humans first emerged into full consciousness those who worked with spirit, be they shamans or witches or magicians, moved into their tribal function only after some kind of Otherworld trauma experience. Some event has to occur that provides the magician with a lasting, visceral, unshakable knowing that the universe extends beyond what can be physically observed.

chaos in the morning

initiation survival tools: a huge jar of chamomile, a mug made by monks, a hunk of rose quartz, a Shining Moon Studios journal, the DIVINA dream journal, and some good magical reading.

Some kind of Otherworld trauma experience.

Yeah.

The story of the Otherworld trauma experiences that led to my initiation as one who works with spirit on behalf of my community is long and complicated. I’m currently outlining a picture book about the experience, so stay tuned for updates about THAT creative journey.

My intentions in writing this post is to clarify where the hell I’ve been for the last few years – and to begin to remember what this blog is for.

Cultivating healthy creative output. Communication. Sharing thoughts and ideas. Asking and answering questions. Opening and continuing dialogues. Speaking out from within.

Upon reflecting over some of the creative projects I’m working on at the moment, it’s clear that increased creative output is a sign that the underworld initiation period is truly ending/ed at last.

I’d like to think so.

I’d like to return in strength to this means of expression, this weird web logging, this private/public/passé form of sharing.

I’d like to deepen the dialogue, hearing from you in return.

I’d like that.

Looking forward with love,

xoxo PaigePaige Zaferiou

Witchcraft

Join In! Crucible of Courage Ritual Magic for the Leo-Aqua Eclipse

Posted on July 26, 2018

When I look in the mirror, I expect to see a black eye.

Nick Drake sings, who knows what a face is for? (Dead man, it is for connecting the world within to the world without.)

When I look in the mirror, I expect to see physical manifestations of the intensity I’m feeling during this eclipse season.

THE CHANGE! it beats away at all that is old, dried, dead, dying, ready to flake off and away as growth and expansion happen.

IT’S HAPPENING

Change is come to take us away, take us apart, take us up, take us down.

Courage, Merry, Courage for our friends!

It is big. It is scary. It demands much from us.

It is what we make it.

WHAT ARE WE MAKING?

We are making magic.

scroll to the bottom of this page for the bare bones break down

Play is essential to my understanding and practice of magic.

Playing with our experiences and expectations is key if we wish to survive the change that is upon us, whether or not we’re ready.

Play strengthens the heart, enriches the mind, and exercises the imagination.

Play expands our understanding of what is possible.

Play encourages compassion.

It’s been three years since my initiatory sickness started. I feel ready to begin playing like this, with magic, with all of you, once again.

AS YOU PROBABLY KNOW, on Friday July 27 we are headed for a big ole eclipse along the Leo/Aquarius meridian, calling into question our relationship with sovereignty and the limitations we carry.

Under this eclipsing full moon, I want to perform a Crucible of Courage spell.

REAL QUICK ASTRO-BABBLE:

Leo, Sun-ruled, is obviously represented by the royal Lion. Aquarius, Saturn/Uranus-ruled, is represented by a person carrying a container of water.

So, during a time of tension in which we are caught between the energy of sovereignty and the energy of containment/transcendence, called to upgrade our relationships with these energies and ourselves, we could each use some courage.

Crucible of Courage is a formula intended to “reinforce your own ability to deal with difficult people or situations.” (s: Lucky Mojo)

I’M HERE FOR IT

Throw yourself into the cauldron of ritual magic that unfolds possibility in your very real life!

HOOTY HOO

Throw your hat into the sacred ring of connection, upliftment, and flow!

SOUNDS GREAT

It’s a candle circle spell!

WOW THANKS wait what

a frame picture of david bowie as aladdin sane with six small candles burning before it each on top of a round paper astrology chart

kind of like this but actually totally different

For this Crucible of Courage spell:

I’ll be setting up a circle of carved and dressed candles around a central master candle — on an altar of David-Bowie-blessed integrity.

The candles will be set atop natal chart petition papers*, so you’ll need to provide your birth info – date, place, and time if you have it – to participate in this spell.

*your natal chart, printed out, inscribed with intention, and dressed with magical powder and/or oil.

Under the Leo/Aquarius lunar eclipse on July 27, with the aid of some helping spirits, I’ll set these lights and pull cards, watch for signs, and record my observations.

The next day, I’ll mail out packets of the candle’s remains for you to dispose of. I’ll include any messages that came through for you during ritual.

You’ll also get, via email, instructions on how to dispose of the candle’s remains as well as suggestion for something you can do each day to keep yourself grounded in the power and integrity of intention.

RITUAL BREAK DOWN

CONDITION

Crucible of Courage

INTENTION

to reinforce our abilities to deal with difficult situations and people.

to increase our connection to helpful allies of spirit and flesh.

to strengthen healthy boundaries for our heart, body, mind, work, and pleasure.

to have courage for change.

POPCULTURE HELPING SPIRITS (a selection)

David Bowie

The (Cowardly) Lion

PLANETARY ENERGIES

Saturn

Uranus

CAPACITY

13 total with 10 spots currently available.

COST

$85 payable via PayPal zaferiou@gmail.com OR Venmo @PaigeZaferiou
*INCLUDE BIRTH INFO (date/city/time if you know it), NAME, and CONTACT EMAIL*

INCLUDE

your Contact Email

your Full Name

your Mailing Address

your Birth Info: date, city, and time of birth if you know it.

INCLUDED

carved, dressed, and blessed candle set for you

snail mail packet with candle remains and divinatory message(s)

disposal instructions and continuing practice suggestion

QUESTIONS?

Comment below or message me at paigezaferiou@gmail.com.

I LOVE YOU.

Blessings on all of us during this tumultuous time of opportunity and upgrade.

xoxo PaigePaige Zaferiou

Personal

The Only Thing

Posted on July 18, 2017

Signs and wonders, water stain writing the wall
Daniel’s message, blood of the moon on us all
— Sufjan Stevens, “The Only Thing” from Carrie & Lowell

The exhilaration of initiation.

The stink of failure and frustration.

A parking lot under the moon.

A car in the middle of a field.

Two lone graves in wet grass.

A cathedral of capitalism beside a river.

Dragonflies, butterflies, feral boardwalk cats.

Saturn returns.

It’s a strange, strange, strange world.

Do you ever feel stretched out, as if your body is a long cat and someone has just picked you up beneath your armpits?

Do you ever feel strange and certain? Do you ever know something without knowing how you know?

Do you ever feel completely lost and unknowing?

Do you ever wonder where the moon came from? Who is her father? Where is her mother? Did she spring fully formed or did she grow, gathering herself to herself over time?

The only thing I know for certain is love.

I’m sending love to you right now.

I know you need it. We all do.

The only thing I know is it’s wise to be kind.

Be kind to yourself today. Be kind to your world.

I love you!

xoxo PaigePaige Zaferiou

Living A Magical Life

Hear These Whispers and Take Heart

Posted on March 17, 2017
water signs by beth hoeckel

Snow swirls down on the streets of Brooklyn.

I’m tired, honey.

I’m tired of falsehoods; I’m tired of pretending everything is fine.

Everything is not fine.

People are sick and lack access to proper medical and spiritual care.

Refugees still seek safe haven from the obliterated homes they were forced to leave behind.

Flint Michigan still does not have clean water.

The Dakota Pipeline looms like a filthy specter over indigenous people who have been pelted with water in freezing temperatures, lost limbs to non-lethal bullets, and been mauled by dogs.

Everything is not fine.

And yet.

And yet.

And yet.

We’re still here. We’re still united by love, that invisible indivisible thread of divinity.

Never forget it. Never let the love in your heart die out.

Come on, come on
You think you drive me crazy
Come on, come on
You and whose army?

— Radiohead, “You And Whose Army?”

sleepless collage by beth hoeckel

In these times, we need each other more than ever.

We need our soul family, our crew, our band of badasses. We simply cannot get through this on our own.

We simply cannot.

No matter where you are on your journey, or how long you’ve been standing uncertainly at the crossroads, or how many free rides you’ve accepted, or how tired you are: you are not alone. You deserve community. You deserve compassion. You, and me, and the guy down the street, and the one across the world.

For a long time, I’ve been thinking about starting a little coven of my own.

I do not yet know what form this will take, or how we’ll make it work, or what we’ll find ourselves doing, exactly, but I know that it feels right, and people are asking for it, and the time is now.

We need support more than ever. We need held space, safe space, and community.

If there’s one thing this here chickadee knows how to do, it’s how to hold some got-dang space.

HOLD THAT SPACE like some kinda outer space witch queen.

SPACE QUEENS UNITE

So hear these whispers and take heart:

You aren’t alone. There are weirdos out there who are your kith and kin. You’ll recognize them when you find them. They are precious; treasure them and allow yourself to be treasured in turn.

We are strong together.

I love you. I treasure you. I am immeasurably, unspeakably grateful for you.

xoxo PaigePaige Zaferiou

“Water Signs” and “Sleepless” by collage artist Beth Hoeckel

Captain's Log

Captain’s Log: A Very New Year

Posted on January 6, 2017
it's all good

When I dream, I dream in flight
the swells and stills of all that’s come and the
setting forth our kindred sum
a point in a constellation

— Ayla Nereo, “Wild Burn”

Captain’s Log, stardate January 2017.

It is, most definitely, a new year.

HALLELUJAH

I feel…well, I have a lot of feelings. I could do a whole interpretive dance performance based on my feelings in this singular moment in time. I’ve even got a soundtrack picked out; it’s called My Psychic Shuffle because my music collection’s shuffle function is freaky in its apt offerings of poignant lyrics at just the right moment.

Psychic Shuffle would be a terrible band name.

Technological mysticism aside…

REPORT, Ensign Z:

  • New Year Readings are up, available via email and Skype, and I’m thrilled to be slinging New Year cards with y’all bodacious babes once again! This is my favorite seasonal offering. I love hearing how things have changed for you in the last year and what this next year holds! MAGIC!
  • The 2017 Radical Self Love Almanac is available for purchase, featuring my Tarotscopes alongside articles and rituals by such illustrious folks as Veronica Varlow and Tess Whitehurst. Love those magical babes!
  • Greenwood Conjure is go! For all your practical magic concerns, Khi Armand and I have set up this tidy little situation to combine our strengths and skill sets in service of our local and global community. We’re currently offering diagnostic readings, sorcerous services, and the setting of lights. More goodness to come! You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates.

Readings through Paige Z’s Tarot and Tea will of course still be available, though occasionally you will find that the BUY NOW buttons are gone. This is necessary in order to maintain a healthy life-work balance for myself. These downtimes will likely be during the dark moon, on weekends, and holidays.

Witches gotta rest!

img_9525

flower crowns are an important part of the witch’s restoration process

BEHIND THE SCENES REPORT:

  • I’m working on a new offering for women who are in a transitional period of life. I’d like to run a batter tasting, so to speak, starting around Candlemas at the beginning of February. If you are a woman and you feel like you’re in between worlds, uncertain of exactly what lies in the unknown territory ahead, add yourself to the interest list here and you’ll be the first to get The Scoop.
  • Video blogs are coming soon, due to extremely popular demand! I HEARD YOU. Thank you for your input and feedback! Thankya big-big.
  • Creative art projects are in the works that I hope you’ll find interesting… Right now I’m doing sketches, studies, and am working on the best way to share these projects with you. Follow me on Instagram @tarotandtea for periodic art updates and WIP glimpses.

ALSO: at the tail end of 2016, one of my best and oldest friends gave birth to the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen in my life. Welcome to Earth, Emerald Poole! You’re going to shake things up and change the world, I know it. I mean hello, baby, you’re a double Capricorn with Pluto exactly rising?!? POWER CHILD!

that's what I'm talking about.

that’s what I’m talking about.

The world is full of nonsense with which we must deal.

The road is long and we carry on as best we can: keeping company that uplifts us, making due where we are lacking, trying our best to understand who we are and what we’re here to do.

For all of you who have been following me through the years, or who are newcomers to my world:

I’m grateful beyond words for your continued support, companionship, and courage.

It’s not easy, being incarnated in bodies on Earth. The fact that you choose to spend some of your time with me, well, it puts me in the mood to get up and do an interpretive dance.

HI! YA! HEY!

I love you and I wish all the best for you in 2017.

PAIGE OUT

xoxo
Paige Zaferiou