The Moon with Kenn Payne

After the ecstasy, the laundry. Once the Samhain ritual is completed and the spell for good health is done, back we go to everyday life. But witchcraft isn’t something we only put on for special occasions. In episode 29 of TABI’s Tarot World podcast, your hosts Victoria and Gwen speak to author, deck creator, artist, educator, practising witch and let’s face it, general polymath Monica Bodirsky about what it really means to be a witch. We talk spells and intention, integration, ancestor veneration, and then, yes, the laundry. And yet – Magic settles like dust on things we love, things that are nearby when we’re frightened, and in the special items we ask to help us. Monica keeps us grounded in the here and now while giving us tools to explore the Otherworld, and that includes the Otherworld you carry with you. Shadowland Tarot and the Between the Worlds Bone and Curio Casting Oracle Deck are designed to help us find what it is at the root of our expectations and desires so that we can make the unconscious conscious. We don’t need to call it fate if we can look behind the walls and ask what’s knocking. Monica tells us about her forthcoming book, Nocturnum, a Grimoire of recipes, rituals, and reflections for the modern mystic, which leads us to Icelandic sorcerers’ staves and what it’s like to grow up in a haunted house. Monica reminds us that our space is ours, and in the end, the act of living magic is learning how to walk in the world with everyone else who lives here alongside us.

Tarot and Magic go hand in hand. What else are we doing, when we work with the cards to look beyond what we see with our eyes? In Appalachian Folk Magic especially, the bridge to the Beyond is deeply rooted in the physicality of our bodies and the earth, and in Episode 28 of TABI's Tarot World, your hosts Victoria and Gwen talk to Appalachian witch, folklorist, author, and artist Byron Ballard about the intersection of the worlds we experience. Also like the Tarot, Appalachian Folk Magic is an amalgamation of many cultural traditions. Byron takes us from the lowlands of Scotland to the highlands of North Carolina via Child ballads - music being the source of so much magic - where it weaves the traditions of the Cherokee nation and hoodoo into a spirituality that works alongside a solid framework of Protestantism. We talks songs and spells, eggs and butter, waulking and keening, and our society's approach to death ... it's all about healing and making whole. A reader of playing cards since childhood, Byron discusses her approach to reading Tarot and which deck she favours, and then we move on to her own Oracle deck, The Revelator. An entirely hand-drawn deck with quilt squares as the background, The Revelator might be beautiful and evocative in its depiction of Appalachian culture, but don't be fooled -- the deck pulls no punches in its messaging. The first half of the deck is out now (keep an eye on TABI's blog for a review coming soon) and the second half is due out at the end of 2026/start of 2027. Make yourself a cup of tea, set your intention, and listen. There's magic in the making.

Court cards are just that little bit extra. The Pages, Knights, Queens, and Kings lead a double life — simultaneously like and utterly different from the Majors, and looking askance, or is it with covetous eyes at the Minors? It's no wonder they give a lot of tarot readers pause. But fear not. Our guest for episode 27 of TABI's Tarot World, author, Tarot reader, and tutor Alison Cross talks to your hosts Victoria and Gwen about how we can make friends with these courtly fellows. First up, we look at why it is that court cards can be so alarming when they turn up in a Tarot reading. Alison gives us clues to how we can respond when they do, which leads us to a discussion of readings more generally, and the expectations of clients vs reader. We get into a hot button topic for TABI — the third-party readings. How does TABI's policy work in the context of court cards, which by nature relate to people? How can we navigate safely between removing the humanity of the cards on one side and spying on people who have no idea they're the subject of a reading on the other? Alison keeps us right. She gives us some starter tips on her innovative 4H approach — how to break down a court card into sections and associate those sections with elements. In fact, Elements are key: they allow us to step behind the surface layer of 'gender' to see the core of the card. We wrap up with a look at Alison's favourite decks for court cards, and a peek at what she's got coming up. This is an episode not to miss — it's no exaggeration to say that Alison's approach will completely revolutionise your readings.

In episode 26 of TABI's Tarot World, your hosts Victoria and Gwen talk to accomplished author, tarot reader, and deck creator Liz Dean about the intuition that leads to healing in a Tarot reading. How does it work? Especially when we're first starting out as Tarot readers and we're grappling with that most stubborn of obstacles, our own self-doubt. So let's start there: how do we overcome imposter syndrome and learn to trust our instincts? Liz gives us some advice about how to get started, and she also tells us about her own practice -- how she incorporates Reiki into her readings for others, and also introduces switchwords, one-word affirmations that help us align with and trust the Universe and life itself. Life including the world around us, whose intimate connection to Tarot Liz highlights in her beautiful new deck, The Heart's Path Tarot. How better to follow our heart's path, our innate understanding, than to get out of our head and into the trees? We look at a few cards in The Heart's Path and Liz very kindly gives us two mini-readings -- and, having been the recipient of one of them, I can tell you that if there's anyone truly in tune with the energies of the world around her, it's Liz. She shares so many wonderful, personal stories about her path and experiences in life -- this really is an episode not to be missed. We know you'll come away as inspired as we were.

In the west, we grow up with an abundance of myths, legends, poems, and novels about male characters — stories that express the experience of, and provide a path for becoming a man. But what about becoming a woman? Where are the adventures, the footprints to follow through a feminine life — where are our guides? Your hosts Victoria and Gwen have found one. In episode 25 of TABI's Tarot World, we talk to artist, deck creator, tarot reader, and mystic Lucia Dami about the quest to recover what has been historically pushed aside but was never lost: the Divine Feminine. We explore the path of the Feminine first through Lucia's decks and her artwork. She tells us about her lifelong affinity for the Greek myths and how they informed her first deck — the black, white, and gold Elysian Tarot — and how her work with Tarot, Art, and the Divine Feminine comes full circle in her new deck, The Light in the Dark Oracle. For a more embodied, guided approach, Lucia offers 'Sacred Avatars' (on her website) and also 'The Archetypal Year' (on Patreon), in which we learn to witness and recognise the divine feminine in all her myriad forms. "You are so much more than you think you are," Lucia says, "you don't have to choose a certain [single] identity as a woman." We are large; we contain multitudes. Victoria and Gwen discuss which of the twelve sacred archetypes we feel comfortable with and which we don't, and how they change as we age and grow, and we then dive deeply into the darkness — following the Sumerian goddess Inanna on her Descent into the Underworld to understand why a myth that is 5,000 years old is so important for us today. We finish with news of Lucia's most recent projects, her new podcast, The Mystic Feminine, and an art exhibition in Hampstead. Details on all her work below.