Rainbow Obsidian, Book of Shadows versus Grimoire and Suite of Wands Deep Dive

In this illuminating episode of Intentional Spiritual Living with Brian, we explore the powerful energies of Rainbow Obsidian and how you can incorporate this protective and heart-healing crystal into your spiritual toolkit. Brian will share practical tips and insights on harnessing its grounding and transformative properties to support emotional healing and self-reflection.

Next, we unravel the mystical origins and key differences between a Book of Shadows and a Grimoire, two essential tools in magical practice. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or just beginning your spiritual journey, this segment will help clarify how these sacred books serve different roles in recording spells, rituals, and personal experiences.

Finally, Brian takes a deep dive into the suit of Wands in Tarot, offering an in-depth overview of its fiery, dynamic energy. Learn how the Wands cards represent creativity, action, and passion in your readings, and how they can guide you toward embracing new opportunities and personal growth.

Tune in for this rich episode that blends crystal wisdom, magical knowledge, and Tarot expertise to inspire and empower your spiritual path!

Transcript

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Music, hello and welcome to season three, Episode Nine of intentional, spiritual living with Brian. What kind of a information packed episode, the second to the last episode of this season, time has flooded, and we've done the flown when we've done this. And I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. Today we're going to cover part nine of our 10 part build your own crystal toolkit, and we're going to talk about rainbow obsidian today. Then we're going to talk about the difference between a book of shadows and a Grimoire, and when you would use each and kind of a little bit of the history of that. And then I'm going to do a deep dive. Rather than do a three card Tarot pull, like I do every week, I'm going to do a deep dive into the entire suit of Wands with Tarot and kind of explore patterns and tarot readings, and how to pull out these patterns and come up with an answer for yourself or who you're reading for. I think it's going to be a really good discussion. So with no further ado, let's get started. You all right, let's continue with part nine of our 10 part building your crystal toolkit deep dive series this season. So I want to talk about a very special crystal to me, at least. And I want to clarify again for anyone new that's listening. So if you were to Google, for instance, what would I use orchid calcite for? Metaphysically or spiritually, you will come up with tons and tons of different meanings, and they will be vastly different. They will be different based upon the person that is telling you about them. And I want to stress what you're about to hear from me is my opinion. So with rainbow obsidian, you will find documented lots of properties revolving around protection. Anybody that comes into a metaphysical or spiritual shop, and they're looking for crystals. They're looking for protective stones. They go straight for Black Tourmaline, and they go for black obsidian, and a piece of rainbow obsidian, when you first pick it up, actually doesn't have any redeeming qualities that's a lot different than black obsidian, until you start spinning around in certain lights, and then you see these beautiful hues and swirls and orbicular patterns of greens and blues and purples, and that's where it shines. And so what I have used it for in my life, especially in my younger years is that not everything is as it seems, and it's for self reflection. You know you might be battling bodily issues, and you look in the mirror and you think that you're ugly, you think that you're overweight, you think that you're underweight. You hate your hair. You know you have black hair, and you wish you had blonde hair. You have blonde hair, you wish you had black hair. And it goes on and on, and so I, for many years, carried a piece of rainbow obsidian with me for that very reason, not bodily issues, but I just always had anxiety when I worked in information technology, and I always felt like I had to defend my ground, and I always had anxiety around everything I don't now, because I am living my best life and doing what I'm meant to do, but in those times, I was struggling. And what rainbow obsidian means to me is that you can look at something from a different angle and see something totally different than what you just are seeing at a quick glance in the mirror, if you will. And it doesn't have to do with physical looks necessarily, or physical shapes anything like that. It could be disappointment and anxiety for where you're at in life, whatever it is. If you think about a tarot card called the page of cups, if you don't know what that is, it is a young page holding a chalice that has a fish popping its head out of it. It's the same kind of mentality, if you will, like, I've never looked at it that way. There shouldn't be a fish popping out of that cup. You know, there shouldn't be green and purple swirls and what looks like a piece of black glass, and so with rainbow sitting and it's a lovely, lovely way for self reflection and seeing the truth for what you really are, not what you've predetermined in your mind. Because we all are biggest critic, and it has again. I want to, I want to drill down on the fact that I'm not talking about looks and weight, whether you're too big or too small, that could be part of this, but it has to do with your overall sense of self worth and how you view yourself, because a lot of us view ourselves in very unsightly light, and as a result, being our own worst critic, then we. In our own way from blossoming and doing what we're meant to do in rainbow obsidian in your pocket. I have two small pieces in my collection that I carry around, and I also have a large palm stone. But when I'm feeling like I need that extra oomph, and I need to really believe in what I'm saying and know that I'm offering something good, and I'm feeling a little down and out, Rainbow obsidian is the way to go, and that's what I reach for. So that's my personal experience with rainbow obsidian. I think it is a very powerful and a type of rare stone to add to your collection. And I highly, highly, highly encourage you to do so. I hope that you have the same love for it that I do. All right, coming up next, let's talk about the difference between books of shadows and grimoires, and why we would use either, Okay, let's talk about the Book of Shadows versus a Grimoire, and why you would use either of those. So we get people coming in the store all the time, especially young aspiring witches, wanting to build their book of shadows and wanting to know how to do that, and what the proper way and what the difference is between a Grimoire and a book of shadows, and it brings up all kinds of discussions. And so I wanted to talk about it today so that I can give you my thoughts on it and some facts about it that I know, and you can make your own decisions. Taking it from there, if you've been listening this entire season, we actually had an entire discussion on negativity in the craft and how there's a lot of hatred against Wiccans, because some people that do rituals, they feel like everything in this craft is based around Wicca, and when they show up to rituals, they're not Wiccan, and they have a different sort of beliefs. It's more pagan beliefs, non Wiccan, and it just gets into all kinds of arguments and gatekeeping and that type of thing. And that it's no different with the Book of Shadows versus grimoires. And so Book of Shadows is actually a term that was invented sometime in the 1940s I'm not quite sure of the year. I'd have to look it up. It is Wiccan. It is a Wiccan term, and what a Book of Shadows is is nothing more than a cookbook for your spirituality. It's personal. I mentioned this in the last episode. I don't have a book of shadows or a Grimoire. It's all mostly in my head and little pieces of paper and chicken scratch here and there. My writing, I can barely read myself. I'm not crafty and making beautiful things like that, so I just I don't have one. But for those that do your book of shadows, you know, for instance, you and your friend get together and you're doing a prosperity ritual, and you pull together your crystals and your herbs and candles and any other materials that you, you know, could be some Chinese coins, a lucky, you know, the lucky Toad from China, that type of thing. And it works for you, let's say, and you get what you asked for. You'll want to write down though that ritual, and you'll want to have it for repeatability. That's the theory. No, that's fact there. That's what you would do with the Book of Shadows. Now I'm going to talk about my opinion a little bit on that spells and rituals like that don't always necessarily deem themselves worthy of repeating the exact same way. Because if you really get down to brass tacks and you are doing you've designed a ritual with specific crystals and a specific intention, rarely would you have the exact same intention happening, and rarely would it be the exact same situation. And so I would always, always be adjusting those rituals and spells. And so for me, having a cookbook of all the spells and rituals I've done wouldn't necessarily fit my needs. Now, would I have, if you think about it as a like a food cookbook, you know, a base yellow cake recipe that never changes, and then we add to that for the different flavors and the different icings and whatever else we want to change to such cake. Then yes, of course, that might help me. But for me, a book of shadows is not something that is necessary, because rarely do I do two exact rituals. And that holds true even with what I teach in the in the store. You know, we have very heavy duty candle magick events, and I'm telling you right now, Nothing ever stays the same in those classes, even though it might be for prosperity, we're going to be using different crystals, different herbs, different oil blends and that kind of thing, depending on the vibe at the time. What's going on in the world, what we're asking for. Same thing with personal spells and even more so, you know, rarely would I be, you know, let's just say I get together and I do a massive ritual to get a new job, and I collect all these materials, and it takes me a month to do so, and I put it together, and it's a big ritual, big spell, and I've done it. It's a specific job that I'm looking for. So I wouldn't want that in my book of shadows to turn around. Because it's going to be extenuating circumstances every time I ask for such help for that. So enough about that. I bet that dead horse you get what I'm saying. So, Book of Shadows 1940s a Wiccan term. It's a personal spell book for what works for you and what you do in your craft. And it doesn't always necessarily have to be spells. It could almost be a personal journal. You know how you feel about amethyst, how you feel about burning mugwort. I don't know it could be anything, and it's very specific to you, almost like a diary, if you will. Moving forward into a Grimoire. Grimoires came about in the 18th century, which was the year 1701 to 1800 give or take. And it is a historical book. And so you would look up a Grimoire and find out how things used to be done, historically for prosperity spell, with some people were talking about that manifesting spell, and it might have been called something else in that century. And that is a completely different book than a book of shadow. So you might find a Grimoire ancient texts, even in a library, you would never find a book of shadows there. And so, can you create I get people asking me all the time, can you create a Grimoire? Yes, you could absolutely create a Grimoire, Grimoire, and you would just be citing historical texts and kind of putting your spin on the way of which might have done a manifesting spell back in the late 1800s the 1700s doesn't matter, and it becomes more of a guidebook and a template for other people, and that's the difference between a Grimoire and a book of shadows. And once again, I brought up that Wicca thing, because a lot of people have issues with the book of shadows because they say, That's Wiccan. I'm not Wiccan. This is a age old thing that comes up in this craft. It makes me exhausted, because I feel like we're all just together in the craft. Whether you're a Wiccan, a pagan it doesn't matter. We're all here for the same purpose, and that's enhancing our own lives. So that kind of argument really, really, kind of disturbs me, as if you couldn't tell from the previous episode, but I wanted to talk about these two differences, so Book of Shadows and Grimoire and how you can use them. Coming up next, we are going to do a deep dive on the suit of wands. I'm very excited about this. I'm a Tarot aficionado, and even though I'm a Virgo and I'm an earth sign, the fire suit of wands is, by and large my favorite suit in a tarot deck. And I'm gonna talk about noticing patterns and tarot readings and how you can pull them out based on suit. So that's coming right up. All right, let's get into the suit of wands. Generally speaking, I want to talk about the suit of Wands next week. For our final episode this season, I'm going to talk at a high level about the suit of swords, and then in a subsequent season down the road, I'll pick up with Pentacles and cups. I started with the suit of Wands simply because it guides my life, to be quite honest, it's my favorite suit in a tarot deck because of what it stands for. So let's get started talking about it. So before I dive into what the suit of Wands means and the elemental representation and all that kind of good stuff, I want to talk about patterns in tarot readings and why it matters when you've laid out a Tarot Spread and you've got your current in front of you, let's just go with a traditional Celtic cross, which is a 10 card spread, and the person comes In and they ask you, for instance, I just feel lethargic and work is just humdrum. Life is humdrum. Everything is okay. Nothing's really wrong. But I just wanted some guidance as to how to get out of this seven season slump that I'm feeling, if you will, and just made that up so and then I sort of notice one of two things, either there's a lack of Wands cards completely, or an abundance of Wands cards in situations like what's missing, what's the solution, what's your hopes and fears, what your external influences are telling you that type of thing, those kind of patterns are very key. To getting a direct and beautiful answer from the universe when you're reading Tarot. So there's a little tip for you. And so once we start talking about the meaning of wands, it will make sense to you. But looking for patterns of suits, not necessarily the Major Arcana, you know, if you get heavy cups, cards, heavy pencils, pentacles, heavy swords, it doesn't matter where they're at, and you have a pattern with a particular suit, it can really tell you the answer that the person's looking for. So the suit of Wands in a tarot deck, every suit has an elemental representation, and the suit of wands is represented by the element of fire, which may be the very reason why I love it. So for me, a little bit about me, I am driven by passion and things that matter to me. What gets me out of bed in the morning? And if there's nothing going into my life and everything is humdrum and nothing is exciting me, my life will spin out of control. It's happened multiple times, not for many years, because I've gotten a handle on it, and I know what to do. And so I need that fire and that passion and that drive. And the suit of wands is all about energy, passion, creativity, taking action, inspiration, even. And so that's why it's just so important to me. It's an important suit. And so the key themes, if you're reading Tarot and you want to know how to decipher some of this stuff, action and initiative. Suit OF WANDS gets us out of bed. It gets us running to the goal, whatever that is for us. And so often, when I'm reading Tarot, and I have a lack of wands, or an overabundance of Wands in areas of the spread that tells me that passion is needed. I always ask the basic, simple question of my queer and that is, what is it that gets you out of bed in the morning? What do you care about? And most of these people, when I ask them, that, struggle to answer that. And that's why wands are so important. If you can't answer what's important to you, what you stand for and what you care about, then you do have a lack of passion and a lack of fire in your life. And we need to refine that, you know? I We are only here for a very short time, and so we have to have something that that makes us tick, if you will. And a lot of times people go, you know, well, you know, I, I'm just going to make up things here on the brick layer, on the Mason for instance, that's what I do eight hours a day, and I'll stop them, and I'll be like, Okay, does that bring you joy? Do you come home loving what you do, or is it a means to an end? Is it your job to pay the bills, but you'd much rather be doing I don't know a painter, and that's how we kind of get down to it, but this entire suit is all about these themes. It's all about again, action, initiative and passion and energy, what you care about, and spirituality and creativity and willpower and determination to get from point A to point B. And let's talk about some specific cards. I won't go all over all of the cards, because all the wands cards ace through 10, and then the four court cards, because we would be here for longer than this podcast needs to be. But I pick out some favorites and just go over some themes, and I just kind of want to get you thinking about what this suit means and how important it is. So a good place to start off with. Let's talk about the ace of wands, as in all aces in a tarot deck, they are new opportunities, new potential. And I highlight, italicize and underline in bold, potential, because aces are a double edged sword in Tarot. You know, they're exciting, new beginnings. Everybody loves to see the ace of cups. You might means a new romance, perhaps is brewing for you, but it just means potential, and it's going to require work and follow through. Wands are a perfect suit to call out the potential pitfalls of an ace actually, because Passion Projects hobbies, you know what? One at the core of wands? You know, you you wake up in the morning and you're all refreshed and excited to take on a new passion project, but that can fizzle out over time, and it requires effort and follow through. And that's the pitfall with aces in Tarot. But if you do get the ace of wands in a favorable position, you know it's indicating a start of a passion project, a creative project, a new idea, a surge of energy inside yourself to get you out of bed in the morning and get you excited about doing something, the birth of something new, a new business adventure. And it's it's an exciting time, but just remember always that it does require significant follow through. And now let's take that all the way up to the 10 of wands. And it's an interesting card, and it may not be everything that you would think it was in traditional Tarot. You know, when you get to the 10 you've reached your. Reached it, you're feeling good, all that kind of good thing, but the 10 of wands is a little bit different. The 10 of wands actually reminds us that passion projects, doing things that we love, living our best lives, takes its toll, and it's a lot of hard work, and so it kind of represents responsibility, overwhelmed feelings, burden, and it means that you're kind of carrying too much on your shoulders. And so when the 10 of wands comes up in a reading, it's someone that's actually taken the fireball and ran with it, and they are building their own empire and living their best life and doing things that they want to do that nourishes their soul, but they're doing it without the help of others, and they've reached a pinnacle in their Juan's career, if you will, that they need to get other people to help, so that they can continue smiling from ear to ear, doing what they love, and not give up their passion to go back to an eight to five job because they feel like it's simpler. And I know that was a lot of verbiage there, but these cards are so, so so deep. And that's why I wanted to kind of deep dive and just pull out 234, cards and talk about wands, because it's my favorite. So I want to talk about one more, and that's the page of wands. So for my Tarot neophytes, if you will, they're the page knight, queen, king of all four suits. And these are the cards that can really trip people up, because they're truly energies, and people get tripped up on quadrants of life. You know, youthful. You know, if you get the page of anything, it's from age zero to, let's say, 18, and that's not telling you to act like an 18 year old, but what it is telling you to do is look at things with an 18 year old's surprise and awe, because we become jaded in our path, if you will. And so the page of wands is a favorite of mine, especially when it comes up in the what is needed to get well or the final outcome from the universe, a recommendation from the universe, and a reading the page of wands means that it's just asking you for that youthful enthusiasm and curiosity and that willingness, that non jaded willingness, to explore a new opportunity. It's a card of adventure, meaning that you're about to take on something new. It could cost money, it could take time, it could take energy, but it's worth doing. It's a fresh perspective. It invites you to embrace your passions, that fire that sits inside your stomach, and that age old question that I ask every time I get a Tarot reading that has to do with wands, it is what gets you out of bed in the morning. What is important to you? What do you care about? Because the answers to those questions is going to reshape the path that you are on, and it's so so, so very important. And so the page of wands, I love, because it kind of comes back to that whole time of life where it's so exciting, and that's all we care about, and that is our discussion on wands. I hope you have enjoyed this and got something good out of it. It really is important with Tarot to kind of, when I teach tarot and stuff, I mean, the least important thing about Tarot is members memorizing card meanings. But if you can step out of your head and out of the academia of it and look for patterns, emerging patterns, and the way the story comes around, and getting a quality answer to someone based upon themes, I think you'll be Much, much, much, much more successful in your readings. You all right, friends, that is a wrap on season three, episode nine. Thanks for listening. I hope you learned some good stuff about the suit of Wands and tarot and grimoires versus Book of Shadows and rainbow obsidian. Next week, our final episode for this season, I am going to be talking about Sunstone for your part. 10, of building your crystal toolkit, as promised. In episode eight, I am going to talk about a few of the sacred geometry shapes and how they relate to building out an intentional crystal grid for anything and everything you want to do. And I'm going to do a deep dive, not unlike what I just did on the suit of Wands or tarot, but we're going to do the suit of swords, and I will save these suit of cups in the suit of Pentacles for a later season of intentional spiritual living with Brian. So with that, I look forward to seeing and hearing from you all next week. Have a great week.