My tarot cards and crystals replace your god
Every Sunday, millions of people go to church, praying and asking God for guidance in life. But my Sunday ritual goes quite differently: I place a collection of crystals in a circle and start shuffling a tarot card deck. While they might be more unconventional practices than going to church and praying, my spiritual practices carry importance to me that is as deep as, or maybe deeper to me than religion does for some of the millions of people who attend church.
As someone who was raised unaffiliated with religion, I’ve never believed in a god in the traditional religious sense. I never turned to prayer when I was going through hard times and never went to church on Easter Sunday. When I was a child, I was shown to seek solace in nature and the people around me, and I began to find my own church of sorts in the outdoors. I also began to look for signs from the universe everywhere in my life, especially when nothing seemed to make sense to me.
In middle school, I began collecting crystals and learning more about their metaphysical healing abilities, and I started to form my beliefs and spiritual practices. Some people might go to church or pray without truly believing what they are doing, and that is where I believe that my spiritual practices might be deeper to me than church is to others. As much as someone might make fun of me for it or tell me it’s not real, I wholeheartedly believe that crystals help heal things within myself. I believe that my tarot card readings are giving me real advice and clarity and I believe that my pendulum really is answering the questions I am asking it. I love my spirituality practices and the witchy whimsy that come with them.
Personally, I hold no judgment towards anyone who believes in a god, but I have learned that not everyone has the same respect for spirituality as they do for religion. If someone was sharing their beliefs about God with me, my first thought wouldn’t be to say, “There’s no way you actually believe in that” to them because I don’t share the same views, but there have been numerous people who have said things along those lines to me when I shared my spiritual beliefs or practices. The one time I responded to this sort of judgment with “Well, you believe in God, do you really think that’s real?” I was told I was being rude and insensitive, but respect should go both ways.
If it is seen as rude to judge someone for their organized religion, it should be seen as just as rude to judge another person for their spiritual beliefs, no matter how unconventional they might seem to others.
