meet the most magickal you: 3 books for self-exploration
It might not sound like fun to dive into the subconscious (most of us have some unpleasant, sketchy shit lurking around in there), but that’s where the gold truly lies. Diving into the depths of the unseen, be it in our dreams, the zodiac, or the collective unconscious, is a quest that yields the most invaluable loot: think untamed creativity, better relationships to self + others, and a deepened awareness.
Uncovering your strengths and weaknesses, identifying limiting beliefs, recognizing your natural gifts, and making peace with your shadow self are just a few of the transformative benefits that you can enjoy as you spend some time untangling the once-unknown to get to know the real you.
A little disclaimer before I get into it here: you do not have to be any of the following to explore the books/practices that I mention in this post:
a practicing witch, or even remotely into witchcraft
a regular tarot reader, or familiar with every single card
an expert astrologer who doesn’t need to Google every transit
If you are any of those things, that’s obviously awesome. I encourage all curious spirits who feel called to do so to enjoy these books, comfortably explore each practice, and hopefully benefit as much as I have from the self-exploration tools they each provide.
Now, let’s venture in between the stars and the shadows.
Astrology is a topic that I am deeply passionate about, and I realize it can be a polarizing subject. You either think it’s total bullshit, or you eat it up. I’m in the second camp, and eating well. Astrology has very observable legitimacy, and studying it has pulled me out of some very scary mental places through self-understanding.
WHY THIS BOOK?
The Complete Guide to Astrology: Understanding Yourself, Your Signs, and Your Birth Chart by Louise Edington is on my list for many reasons. For one, it’s a great foundational book to begin your exploration into astrology (or brush up if you’re more adept). The keyword here is foundational; there are countless resources on this topic, as well as variations of astrology, and I encourage you to research what works best for you.
Edington’s book was my first on western astrology, and it has been a valuable resource ever since. I appreciate the inclusive, modern language, and the approachable explanations of the basics. The first portion of the book will get you acclimated to the planets and their meanings, the nature of each of the 12 signs, and the houses. These basics alone will grant you rewarding insight into your personality and how you naturally connect with the world around you.
Though The Complete Guide to Astrology does creep into more advanced ideas, you only need to jump into that if you want to. If you want the bare-bones introductions to the planets, the signs, houses, and modalities, you'll find it in this book— and that's enough to get you started.
HOW IT CAN HELP YOU
Learning and studying your birth chart—a snapshot of the planetary positions at the time of your birth—can serve as a roadmap for navigating your cosmic configuration and discovering why you are the way you are. Knowing which planets govern which areas of life and personality, you can learn how to better flow with yourself and others.
For example, Venus is the planet of love, relationships, beauty, material wealth, and values. Looking at Venus' placement at the time of your birth can tell you a lot about how you operate in relationships, depending on the sign of the zodiac it occupies. Sticking with the example, if Venus was in the sign of Aquarius (air sign) when you were born, you may have a more detached, airy attitude regarding relationships (of any kind) and crave a more cerebral connection above all else.
There's a reason most people don't identify with the horoscope they find in the newspaper or on Instagram. Most general horoscopes focus only on the sun's placement, but that's just one part of the puzzle! Discovering how each planetary placement makes you uniquely you can be a healing experience, especially when you identify and make peace with any"negative" aspects in your chart.
Edington's book is an approachable, great resource that can help you better understand how the signs, planets, and luminaries influence your day-to-day life and how you respond to it.
While we’re still in the realm of the stars, let’s talk about dreams. Sometimes, dreams don’t seem to make sense. “Why did I dream about making out with that dumb bitch?” or “Why do I keep dreaming about the ocean when I am afraid of water?” are questions many have asked.
But the symbolism and feelings involved with your dreams can spill gallons of tea about your true desires, inhibitions, and patterns, opening up new pathways to personal healing.
Example: You most likely didn’t dream of sleeping with your obnoxious boss because you secretly find them attractive. There’s a more significant chance that you had this dream because you're being called to find your power and become more assertive in a healthy way.
Dreams occur more often than not to steer our attention to matters that need to be addressed on the physical plane. Through their imagery and the emotions they conjure, dreams are a valuable resource for understanding our unconscious and transforming our waking lives.
WHY THIS BOOK?
Decode Your Dreams by Ian Wallace is a book I keep in my nightstand drawer. It is a fantastic reference for deciphering some of the more common dreams you might have to make sense of things in your day-to-day life.
Wallace does a beautiful job of gently explaining what dreams are, why we have them, and how the art of deciphering them can contribute to real change and possibility in the waking world. This book illustrates how you can learn to recall, analyze, and even engage with your dreams so that even the “pointless” ones become informational gold mines supporting your personal growth.
In Decode Your Dreams, Wallace unravels some core meanings of several dream types, including death and birth, love and romance, familial, wealth, recurring, and more (yes, the teeth-falling out one is covered, and the meaning will surprise you). Within each section, you'll find examples of each type of dream, along with meanings and suggested actions you can take to process or carry out what the dream is urging you to confront.
HOW IT CAN HELP YOU
Working with your dreams is a healthy practice that can bring you into harmony with your whole self, as you'll discover your true, unrushed feelings, find the "why" behind any conflicts or roadblocks you're experiencing, and open up the potential of deep healing on so many levels.
If you have trouble remembering your dreams, fear not— there are many ways to improve your dream recall, the main one being journaling. When you wake up, just be for a moment. Allow yourself some time to let any fragments of your dreams come to your waking mind. No detail is too small. Write down or voice record what you saw, felt, heard, tasted, or otherwise experienced in the dream.
The more often you write or voice record them, the easier it will be to recall your dreams and the more information you will remember. By creating a record of your dreams, you're gifting yourself with a guidebook to your subconscious; you'll be able to go back at any time to really dissect the visuals and emotions of your dreams and learn their correlations to events in your daily life.
Dreamwork benefits everyone, but it is truly invaluable for artists, writers, creators, and makers. Studying our dreams while being open to the wisdom they reveal amplifies our creativity by identifying fears (are you a member of the impostor syndrome club?), showing us the blockages we need to clear, revealing glimpses of our true potential, and, of course, being a deep, nourishing well of cosmic inspiration.
Let us shift from the stars to a different realm of the subconscious and discuss tarot as a practice for self-exploration (and care). I was once told by a teacher years ago that, "tarot is, first, a mirror." Hearing that phrase changed my relationship with the tarot forever, and it encouraged me to continue my practice without being afraid of "doing it wrong." While, yes, the cards can help you navigate future events, working with the tarot can reveal creative solutions to your everyday challenges and gift you with a deep awareness of yourself, shadow and all.
WHY THIS BOOK?
Learning to read tarot can be intimidating as fuck. Have you ever tried to memorize all 78 cards? It's not fun, or very effective to just cram it into your skull like exam material (glances over at my unfinished pile of flashcards). There are much easier ways to learn + connect with your deck, and Tarot by Numbers shows us one such method.
Don't let the title make you nervous; there's no major math involved. Rather, this book by Liz Dean actually simplifies the act of learning the tarot by revealing what the numbers have to say, as opposed to the main focus being on the imagery. That is of course not to say that the images on each card aren't important, because they are. But, especially if you are just starting out and getting reacquainted with your intuition, it helps to have the guidance of the number systems that show up throughout the deck.
Tarot by Numbers demystifies the deck by teaching you how to approach a card by looking at the number on it, and explains how the symbolism of each number can help you make connections with the imagery for clearer answers. As for the unnumbered cards such as Pages and Knights, Dean provides a super-approachable guide for deciphering these cards in your personal readings.
But, getting back to the numbers aspect, please believe me when I tell you that it helps tremendously in learning the deck for yourself, and in the process, sharpening your intuition and trusting yourself even more. This book was a game-changer for me when I started to take tarot more seriously, and I still regularly reference it as a guide. By knowing the meanings and associations with each number, you can combine this insight with the other elements and bring an immediate awareness to what the cards are trying to tell you.
HOW IT CAN HELP YOU
Whether you are completely new to tarot or you're a seasoned reader for others, reading cards for yourself can deepen your relationship with your true self and help you make sense of your own thoughts. And if you are quite new, Tarot by Numbers is a great place to start so that you can learn the deck with ease and incorporate a tarot practice into your energetic wellness routine.
Shadow work is a key component to overall energetic wellness, and reading tarot for yourself is a safe way to dig a little deeper into your subconscious and discover any self-sabotaging habits/thoughts, unhealthy obsessions, destructive behaviors, and the like. As an example, let's look at what the Devil card could mean in a personal reading.
Numbered 15, the traditional Devil card shows two people (or demons, depending on your interpretation) chained to a stone pedestal, upon which the horned Devil sits. They appear to be prisoners, until you notice how loose the chains really are.
Using the guidance of Dean's book, we can first consider the number of the card. Five on its own symbolizes imbalance, but 6 represents love and harmony. The Devil's 15 reduces down to 6, but in this case, it is the reversed energy of the Lovers card (6). So instead of peace and healthy love, we find the possibility of disharmony, obsession, addiction, or feeling entrapped.
Following our example, if you pulled the Devil in a reading while asking the deck for insight into why you've been feeling creatively blocked, this card would be majorly suggesting self-sabotage, being tied to old ideas and bad habits, or potentially being tied to greedy motives for your creative business. Or, perhaps you are holding yourself back by trying to “perfect” your work. The Devil can pop up to remind you to free yourself from your own mental chains and create freely, from a place of love and pure expression.
Aside from highlighting unseen, self-made obstacles, a personal tarot practice can truly help you keep in touch with yourself, regain your own trust, and discover creative solutions to everyday issues.
TL;DR: Getting a little more familiar with basic astrology, working with your own dreams, and developing a self-care tarot practice are a few ways that you can get to know the real authentic you, while learning to see yourself (and your obstacles) in a different light. What I’m not saying is that tarot, dreamwork, or astrology will magically erase all of your problems. But these practices can 100% help you embrace your authentic energy, make peace with your shadowy side, and work through creative blocks by learning more about how you operate and why.
Are you feeling inspired to untangle the unknown with any of these books, or do you already incorporate these practices into your own personal rituals? If you care to share, I invite you to chime into the comments on my Instagram post about these beautiful books.