Category: My Journal

I’m going to be honest about something that doesn’t always make it into the How To Use Tarot for Decision-Making posts.

Sometimes I use the cards badly.

Not badly in the technical sense. I know how to shuffle, I know how to read, I know my deck well enough after years of work together that the communication is usually clear. Badly in the sense that what I’m actually doing when I pull a card in a state of anxiety is not seeking genuine guidance. It is seeking reassurance. And seeking reassurance and seeking guidance are very different things, and the cards know the difference even when I’m trying to pretend they don’t.

I was born in South Africa. From Portuguese and Dutch descent.

I mention this sometimes and it lands differently depending on who I’m talking to. For most people it’s an interesting biographical detail. For me it’s a significant magical fact, in the sense that everything about how I came to practice, what I practice, and what I’m drawn to has been shaped by the experience of being from one place and living in another. By the particular kind of attention that displacement teaches.

I’ve been thinking about this question for a while, and I want to be honest about why.

Building CraftTalk means I am, in some capacity, a person who teaches things. I write about practice. I frame how topics are approached. I make editorial decisions about what gets covered and how. Whether I call myself a teacher or not, the function is there, and that means the question applies to me too. I’m not writing this from a comfortable distance.

So. Who gets to teach witchcraft?

I’ve been tracking the moon seriously for a little over a year now.

Not casually. Not the thing where you notice it’s full and light a candle and call it lunar practice. I mean tracking: the phase, the sign, the aspects it’s making to other planets, what I’m feeling in my body and my practice at each point in the cycle. A full month of deliberate record-keeping, repeated twelve times.

When I started building this in 2024 I thought I was building a website. A platform. A content hub for practitioners who needed better resources than what was out there. All of that is true, technically. But I’ve come to understand that what I’m actually building is a community, and that the community is teaching me things about myself that a decade of solitary practice did not.

I want to talk about the move.

Not the logistics of it – the boxes, the drive, the way you have to leave a place before you understand what it was to you. I want to talk about the months before it, when I already knew and was still pretending I didn’t.

Colorado was good to me in the ways that places can be good to you. The mountains were real. The altitude changed something in the way I thought. My practice deepened there in the specific way that happens when you have enough space and enough silence – there was room for it to expand into. But somewhere in the middle of 2025, something started to shift.

Coming Out of the Broom Closet
2025 was the year I finally stopped hiding.

As a Scorpio, I’m no stranger to keeping secrets, to holding things close, to maintaining that protective shell around what matters most. But this year, something shifted. The weight of staying silent about my practice, about what I actually believe, about who I really am, it became heavier than the risk of speaking out.

So I did it. I finally spoke openly about witchcraft. Not in hushed tones to a select few, but publicly, clearly, without apology. And in doing so, I made a decision that would shape everything that followed. I would build crafttalk.com as a learning and circle platform for practitioners who, like me, were looking for authentic community and genuine teaching.

That moment of choosing visibility over safety? Pure Scorpio transformation energy. Death of the hidden self, rebirth into authenticity. It wasn’t comfortable, Scorpio growth never is, but it was necessary.

The Lesson I Didn’t Expect
Here’s what I thought I knew about myself going into 2025: I’m a solitary practitioner. I work best alone. I don’t need community or circles or other people’s energy in my practice. I’m self-sufficient, independent, perfectly content in my solitary path.

Today marks another trip around the sun for me, and as an October Scorpio, I’ve been reflecting on what makes our energy so distinctly different from our November Scorpio siblings. While we share the same intense, magnetic sign, the cosmic timing of our births creates two very different expressions of Scorpio power.

The Dual Rulership: Mars and Pluto
Scorpio is unique in that it’s ruled by two powerful planets: Mars, the ancient ruler, and Pluto, the modern ruler. But here’s where October and November Scorpios diverge. Those of us born in October carry more of Mars’ fierce, warrior-like energy. We’re the first-decan Scorpios, and that Martian influence makes us quick to react, ready to strike, and always prepared to take immediate action.

Mars gives us that signature fire in our veins. We don’t just feel intensely, we move intensely. When something triggers our passion or our protective instincts, we respond with lightning speed. There’s no hesitation, no second-guessing. We see what needs to be done, and we do it.

November Scorpios, on the other hand, lean more heavily into Pluto’s transformative, mysterious energy. They’re the strategists, the ones who play the long game. While we’re charging forward, they’re planning ten moves ahead, working in the shadows to orchestrate deep, lasting change.

The universe has gifted us with a powerful trio of cards that perfectly embody the Sturgeon Moon’s energy. Let’s explore what The Moon, The High Priestess, and Seven of Cups reveal about this lunar cycle:

Card 1: The Moon – What Hidden Depths Are Ready to Surface?
The Moon card speaks to the deep, mysterious waters that the sturgeon navigates with ancient knowing. Under this full moon, you’re being called to trust your intuition even when the path ahead seems unclear. Like moonlight reflecting on dark water, not everything is as it appears on the surface. This card suggests that illusions or self-deceptions may be dissolving now, revealing truth that has been hidden beneath the waves of your consciousness.

Pay attention to your dreams during this lunar cycle. They carry important messages. The Moon reminds us that some wisdom can only be accessed in the liminal spaces between conscious and unconscious, between what we think we know and what we feel in our bones. Trust the mysterious currents of your inner knowing, even if they lead you into unfamiliar territory.

Card 2: The High Priestess – What Ancient Wisdom Seeks to Guide You?
The High Priestess sits at the threshold

The full moon in Capricorn is so powerful, I decided to do a 3 card draw, looking at:

What you are releasing
What you are manifesting
Guidance moving forward
🌿 1. Five of Pentacles (What you are releasing)
This card often represents a mindset of lack: feeling isolated, unsupported, or worried about resources (money, health, energy). Under this Full Moon in Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, there’s a powerful opportunity to release:

Fear of failure or being “left behind.”

Self-imposed limitations that keep you in scarcity.