The Earth Spirit Oracle: Mystery

Moving unseen in her shadowy jungle world, the jaguar slips between the realms of night and day, reality and fantasy. Her golden eyes pierce through the veil of darkness, seeing all with pristine clarity. Mayan cosmology speaks of the jaguar’s connection to the underworld—the land without light. She is known as the keeper of secrets and the guardian of portals between realities. In Mayan, her name means ‘sorcerer’ or ‘high priestess’ and her spirit was invoked to guide spiritual seekers on vision quests.

This card, like a blank rune, represents the unknowable. You may be faced with a great mystery, something hidden in the shadows. Jaguar spirit is beckoning you to peer into the mysteries of life. When she is present in your life, you may experience enhanced psychic abilities, prophetic visions, or vivid dreams. You can invoke her spirit to achieve telepathy, remote viewing, precognition, or clairvoyance. Perhaps add some herbal tea with blue lotus flowers, hawthorn leaf or passion flower, or essential oils such as sandalwood, patchouli and lavender, to your nightly bedtime ritual. In conjunction with jaguar medicine, these will lubricate your mind and stimulate your third eye, otherwise known as your pineal gland—the psychedelic centre of higher states of consciousness.

When this card appears, prepare to be mystified! Remain alert for synchronicities, and be open to what bubbles below the surface in that inscrutable realm of the subconscious. Puzzling events, chance encounters, and curious riddles are all likely to present themselves. Bizarre experiences may manifest in an instant, as if formed from the ether, and be gone in a flash. Insights may appear in unconventional forms. The jaguar reveals herself for the briefest moment, before disappearing into the shadows. Her message is to embrace the mystery in whatever form it takes, with no regret for its fleeting nature.

“IT IS ONLY THROUGH MYSTERY AND MADNESS THAT THE SOUL IS REVEALED.” – THOMAS MOORE

The Earth Spirit Oracle

I’ve just received the first sample of The Earth Spirit Oracle, and I’m absolutely thrilled with the beautiful colours and velvety feel of the cards. This was a dream project for me, and I am so grateful to my beautiful co-author, Melissa Jane Conrad, for inspiring me and collaborating with me to make this dream a reality. As I create each card, I am lovingly imbuing the illustrations with magic, channeled from nature herself. Moving through the seasons, weaving the lessons she teaches me into every new card, I have never felt more connected to my inner child, and my faerie soul. You’ll find themes of folklore and fairytale, ancient wisdom traditions and herbalism, astrology and the tarot, and as you work with the cards, you’ll find a deeper meaning that resonates and blossoms within your own life. I guess you could say that every single card is close to my heart and dearly special to me. As an artist, and a wild, witchy woman, this is the ultimate expression of my creative and intuitive gifts – from my spirit to yours.

“A dreamer, I walked enchanted, and nothing held me back.' ~ Daphne du Maurier

Oracle cards are some of my very favourite intuitive tools. My ancestors used runes to divine knowledge of the past, present and future, and I still use those mysterious ancient stones today, but as an artist and a lover of enchanted things, I simply cannot resist a beautifully illustrated oracle or tarot card. I love to gaze upon the images, letting my imagination run free and my intuition unravel deeper mysteries hidden (consciously or unconsciously) within the art itself. I turn to my many beloved decks for guidance almost daily and love to sit with them and contemplate their meaning as I walk in the forest, meditate, practice yoga or even whilst cooking. Once I open up to their intrinsic magic, I find that the cards act as a portal to inspiration, insights and beautiful synchronicities unfolding in my life. Sometimes, I like to place a card on my desk while I paint, allowing the energy of the card to flow through my hands and into an artwork. After all these years, I still marvel at the uncanny accuracy and perfect timing of my cards. With this deck, I wanted to capture the cheerful, rainbow colours and positive energy of the natural world, as it is seen through the eyes of a child. Because when we step into our inner child, we become a bright light, eyes wide and full of wonder, and so much more open to receive.

It is my dear hope that these oracle cards will gently awaken your intuitive wisdom and inspire the joyful imagination of your inner child. Melissa and I have designed this oracle to provide insight into the present, guidance for the future and a portal into the sublime magic of the natural world. With each card you pull, we encourage you to feel it deeply and unravel the meaning presented to you. We want you to dig your feet deeper into the dirt, feel the path you are on and be reminded that the Earth has your back – and we have hers. The Earth speaks to us in a language we already understand. What is she saying to you? What calls you forward? We created this oracle to pull you into the depths of her soil, beneath the ocean reefs, to the heights of the star strewn atmosphere and to feel the synergy of the trees and wind in your body. You are connected to each bee, bird and wild flower that you see – and you were meant to see them for a reason!

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” ~ Jawaharal Nehru

At the time of writing this blog post, I have just 14 cards left to illustrate, and the deck is due to be published in August 2022. You can pre-order your copy now via my shop, and follow along my journey on Instagram as I share each new card I illustrate. In a following blog post, I will share my sketches and creative process. Each card is sketched in pencil in my notebook first, before I begin the luscious colouring process. I’d be delighted to share my journey with you…

Creating a Crystal Grid

The ancient Lemurians encoded cosmic wisdom in crystals and used them as powerful activators to enhance psychic ability, telepathy and healing gifts, to manifest and even to create portals to other worlds. Grids are intentional arrangements of stones designed to raise energy for a specific purpose. Think of them as a way to amplify and supercharge the power of the crystals within them.

There are many ways to create a crystal grid, being guided by your intuition to create a mandala of great beauty, radiating out in the shapes of sacred geometry – think of the flowers of a petal. But, for a basic grid, take 4 of each stone you want to work with, 8 small quartz shards, 1 central ‘power stone’ and 16 tiny tumbled chips. I like to work in multiples of four so that the stones point in multiples of the 4 cardinal directions.

Gridding in any sacred geometric shape is powerful. Use your intuition to place stones according to size, shape, colour or texture and remember to have fun! Whisper mantra or invocation as you place your stones, burn essential oils and even add flowers and leaves to your grid for amplification and beauty.

Remember that you’re magnifying the energetic properties of the crystals and getting them to work together in a synergistic way. Here’s a simple, step-by-step guide to placing your first crystal grid:

Step 1: Set your intention

The first thing to do is determine the intention behind making a grid. Possible purposes could include manifesting abundance, attracting love, amplifying your intuitive powers, activating lucid dreaming or balancing a specific chakra. As an example, I’m going to create a grid with the following intention in mind: “Activating my throat chakra, so that my heart can experience it’s fullest expression and my higher chakras can transmit their knowledge freely to my heart. Calling on the courage to speak my truth at a time when we’re all being asked to be more courageous in the world and not shrink.”

The throat chakra (Vishuddha), and it’s vital role as a conduit between the heart and higher chakras, is something I’ve been thinking of a lot lately. The signs of an unbalanced throat chakra include fear of speaking, social anxiety, shyness, and the inability to express your thoughts.

Step 2: Pick a grid shape

Grids can be tiny or massive, but a nice basic grid can begin as a circle, with a large central ‘power’ stone, 4 medium-sized rough or tumbled stones and 8 small clear quartz shards radiating out from the centre. You can then create a ring around the entire grid of 16 tiny stones or flower petals – just have fun with it! Different geometric shapes work with different energies - triangles tap into simplicity and structure, squares help with boundaries, while spirals are about reaching out and expanding. The circle represents belonging, oneness, and protection. I like to place grids in my bedroom, so that their effects will work overnight while I’m dreaming, near plants and by a window to receive solar and lunar energies.

Step 3: Choose your stones

You’ll want to choose crystals that have the properties that coincide with your intention. I’m choosing a grid to help me tap into my voice and overcome the fear of speaking up, so I will choose stones that help me reach that place. These include stones like blue lace agate (which I will place at the centre), lapis lazuli and chrysocolla to help with communication, heart chakra stones like amazonite and malachite for universal love, self-compassion and self-acceptance, clear quartz shards to call in my spirit guides and the council of light, and some rainbow moonstone chips around the edge to bring balance, harmony and hope while enhancing creativity, compassion and inner confidence.

If you can’t find everything you need, use what you have, even including elements of nature like flower petals, leaves and seashells. You can also place other trinkets in the grid, whose energy coincides with your intention. These can stand in for the stones and add even deeper meaning to your grid because of their personal connection to you.

Step 4: Use your voice to activate your grid

Once you have your grid in place, activate it with your intention. This means speaking the intention aloud so that the universe knows you’re serious. For example “Star guides, star ancestors, Council of Light, with this crystal grid I activate my throat chakra and inspire courage in me. Through these stones, I ask that you help me lift my voice and shine my light, even when I have the urge to shrink.”

Each time you pass your grid, you can hold your hand to your heart, take a deep breath and remind yourself of its purpose. Crystals are from the earth. They’re healing. They’re supportive. They’re there for you. We’re walking on them all the time. They’re with us in our own brains and they’re as old as stardust itself. And so are you! Enjoy x

Photos: Maha Rose & Unearthed Crystals