Welcome and Merry Meet, you magickal souls!!!!
Back in December 2023, I signed up for a Vision Board workshop with That Witch Karena at The Witch's Inn. I really enjoyed it and it's helped to change my thoughts around doing a vision board in general so as soon as I realised I could, I signed up for the same workshop for 2025.
It was another amazing workshop and I learned so much about the energy surrounding the next 12 months. That Witch Karena highlighted that 2025 will be the year of the Hermit - the tarot card not necessarily how I personally live my life! Karena worked this out using Numerology by adding each digit of the year together to get 9 (2 + 2 + 5 = 9) and the ninth card of the Major Arcana is The Hermit.
In traditional tarot, The Hermit card shows an older man with a white beard carrying a lantern and a staff, and wearing a cloak. The man shows us in the simplest form, and this card is relevant regardless of our gender.
The lantern itself is symbolic of a general guiding light that we can follow through our lives.
Within the lantern, there sits a star that shines out, symbolising inner wisdom that we hold within us.
The staff shows that we have support and stability to lean on, even if we don't recognise its form in the moment.
The cloak indicates the divine protection that we always carry, as well as the privacy that we don't have to share every aspect of our journey with the rest of the world.
Finally, the mountain top that the old man is stood on is indicative of perspective, whereby space and distance are good things and help us to see the bigger picture.
However, for this workshop, I chose to use my Forest of Enchantment tarot deck by Lunaea Weatherstone. This deck is alternative and has different image and names for some of the cards but I can still connect with it (especially considering that it is the first tarot deck that got me to fall in love with and understand tarot). For example, the suits are as follows: Spells are Wands, Visions are Cups, Challenges are Swords, and Boons are Pentacles.
Within this card, there is a badger sitting in his very comfortable sett (that's what a badger's home is called), surrounded by things that can symbolise wisdom and knowledge.
The books and papers could hold knowledge on any topic we (or the badger) could think of, and they can also be symbolic of any kind of knowledge.
The armillary sphere sat above the fire shows the presence of the divine but also that knowledge and learning is infinite.
The bottles that sit on the shelves indicate the metaphorical rebirth that can accompany learning new things.
The chair could represent the safe and comfortable place that can help with introspection or looking within.
In this card , the fire is in place of the star and lantern, representing the light that can guide us to the knowledge we need, and the inner wisdom that we always have access to.
But something that I didn't know was that in Celtic mythology, badgers represent wisdom and protection. To be honest, this actually makes sense with the energy of the whole card, and the traditional symbols and their meanings. However, when I see this card, I feel like it's also suggesting being self-sufficient, doing my own thing regardless of what others might think, but it's also about the comforts of home.
Karena pulled cards for those who signed up for the workshop, and while I will share the specific cards, I won't share the messages that were shared. So the cards were: Eight of Swords, Eight of Cups, The Emperor, and The Sun. I want to mention the cards as they will be relevant later on.
After pulling cards, Karena moved on to an exercise about setting intentions for 2025 and using those intentions to create sigils for the year. Three intentions were suggested and that's the number I went for, although I did struggle (as I usually do) to think of what I wanted to do for this coming year. Due to personal preference, I will be keeping my intentions to myself.
I will say that the method Karena used to turn these three intentions into sigils was one I hadn't used before but it was really interesting to use. Karena had a table of numbers from 1 to 9 and which letter would be substituted for each number. Using that table, the letters were transcribed into numbers and any repeats were removed. The numbers that were left were put together in whatever form felt right to be a sigil.
I chose to write out my intentions on one side of a folded piece of paper and then draw the sigils on the other so that the sigils are visible while the intentions are hidden. I did this so that I could use that piece of paper as part of my vision board, sitting underneath my personal photo in the middle.
After this, Karena led a tarot reading and posed three questions before giving attendees time to pull cards and make any notes. For these questions, I pulled a total of SEVEN cards!!!! However, before this spread and even before creating the sigils, I decided to shuffle my cards and another two jumped out for me to pay attention to and I wanted to include them as well. With these first two cards, I didn't have any particular question so I'm assuming they are general guidance I need.
General Guidance
The White Hart, Moonlight
The White Hart in this deck is representative of the Fool which starts the Major Arcana off, so it has the same associations of a new start, new beginnings, and taking the jump into the unknown. This card also tells me to follow my h(e)art to make it through the misty forest that I'm stood on the edge of, symbolised by the White Hart who stands without fear and looking directly at me. The White Hart is beckoning and patient as he waits until I'm ready to take this blind leap of faith.
In this deck, Moonlight is this deck's version of The Moon. This specific card is connected to the story of Watership down, particularly the character of Fiver who is shown within this card. Fiver was in touch with his intuition, receiving visions from the divine being that is described within the books (and screen adaptations). This is all connected to the Moon as in traditional tarot, it is associated with following intuitive messages and signs, just like Fiver did with his warren and other rabbits along the way. Perhaps another message is for me to connect more deeply with the Moon.
So putting both cards together, I'm being told to pay attention to the signs that I will be shown in the future as well as those I'm currently being given in the present so that I can be guided through this next phase of my life. The Moon can guide me and I should let Her be one of my spiritual advisors.
What tools do I already have that can help me?
Starlight
This is another alternative card and is the equivalent for The Star. I will admit that this is one of my favourite cards because it's all about hope.
Stars are only visible at night, even though they are present in the sky during the day. This tells me that there is light to use to navigate through life during the darkest times. In this card, the stars are the embodiment of hope.
There are elves sitting in trees and looking up at the stars to show that I can't be looking down all the time. I can't hang my head and just watch my feet if I want to use the stars to navigate because I won't be able to see them. So I have to look up, literally and metaphorically, but I also need to be still enough to see the stars because I can't see them when I'm moving without losing my balance (and my way).
What would help me let go?
Three of Spells, Nine of Visions, Sunlight, Council of Animals, Two of Spells
With the Three of Spells, I need to remember to leave some details in the hands of the Divine. I can do as many spells and rituals as I want but it doesn't mean that I will receive everything as described because it might not be in my highest good. So I need to make a wish and send it out to flow where and how it will.
With the Nine of Visions, there's a confirmation of making wishes through the age-old medium of tossing a coin in a "wishing" well. I really felt like this card and the Three of Spells were just telling me to make a wish and leave it at that. It's interesting that these two cards are multiples of three, specifically three times three because three is a magical number (the Triple Goddess, saying things three times) and therefore nine is even more so.
Sunlight is this deck's version of The Sun, which was present in Karena's group spread. To me this card is saying that I need to enjoy life more and make the most of things. Golden sunlight is streaming down to highlight everything surrounding the faun, which represents me, in that part of the forest.
The Council of Animals is saying that just being myself is enough. No one else's judgement or opinions, regardless of who the person is, matters apart from my own. If I'm happy and enjoying life, then that's all that matters. I can't please everyone so I should focus on pleasing myself.
With the Two of Spells, I got the feeling that this was saying that I shouldn't be afraid to ask for advice and/or guidance from anyone or using any mediums. But I also feel that there is a warning against asking for advice too often or without a focus, because then the guidance I might receive is more likely to be mixed, all over the place, and contradictive.
How can I work more with the Hermit's energy in 2025?
Eight of Challenges
Whis card appeared, I burst out laughing because it was the second card to re-appear for me. As I mentioned before, Challenges are associated with Swords so this card is a different version of the Eight of Swords.
So with this card, I get the feeling that I can work more with Hermit energy (as if I don't live a "hermit" life) by working on my habit of imagining the worst of any given situation when I don't know all the details of what's happening. By doing this, I can then see the reality of everything and dealing with that instead of a hypothetical situation.
I won't know if the thorny brambles are real if I don't stop covering my eyes. So I need to be brave in the face of the unknown, which comes back to the White Hart.
This reading was so deep and called me out on a few things, like the habit of worrying more about the possible worst rather than the definitely real. I may not ask for my own personal guidance very often from any of my decks or divination tools but this is something that I do want to work on improving.
Anyway, after getting these cards, Karena opened up the space so that we could craft our Vision Boards with her. I used stickers and cards from a duplicate Wild Unknown Archetypes deck to represent what I want to manifest in the next 12 months. I want to do more candle magick so there are a few candles. I have some pentacle stickers from the scrolls that Witch Casket have sent out for protection, plus some Moon phase stickers for the Lunar Cycle and connecting with the Moon more. Everything on my Vision Board was chosen and placed with intention.
All in all, this was another epic workshop hosted by That Witch Karena At The Witch's Inn. I look forward to the next Vision Board workshop and seeing what the next 12 months hold for me. I cannot recommend working with Karena more because I never regret connecting with her so I hope you will reach out to her.
Peace and love to all!!!!
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