From My Table to Yours

Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

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From My Table to Yours

My table at Isis Books in Denver. The room is one of the reader rooms shared by all the readers; the table setup is mine.

This month’s wrangler, Arwen Lynch of Tarot by Arwen, posed the question, β€œWhat can I share from my table to enrich my community?” Of course, I immediately thought of my reading table and how each reader I know makes their table unique with table cloths; decorations; implements such as crystals and gemstones for clearing, building or grounding energy; symbols to invoke the energies of guides or deities; multiple decks; and sometimes the tools for alternate modalities, such as oracle decks, a pendulum, runes, or a crystal ball. But my mind quickly progressed from the mundane to the astral, and how readers set their space psychically. I’d like to share both my practical table setup as well as some tools I use to energetically prepare my reading space.

My table set up is pretty utilitarian. I cover the table with a black cloth printed with a blue, olive green, tan and gray Celtic knot design. I never intended this, but it ends up matching the basic colors of the card backs for two of the decks I use most often: the Legacy of the Divine and the Tarot of the Old Path. I set out an acrylic holder for business cards. I put a little note after the last business card, that I can read through the clear plastic, that says β€œNewsletter?” so that I remember to ask people if they’d like to sign up for my e-mail newsletter.

A taper candle with quartz points and other stones in the holder.

The one pretty decoration I have is a taper candle in a glass holder that is shaped like a five-pointed star. I put some small beads in the holder, including a peridot and two citrine for prosperity and abundance, and then a combination of jade and rose quartz beads. Jade helps access intuition and the astral planes and wards off negativity. Jade and Rose quartz both stimulate the heart, the center of compassion, to bring emotional balance and healing to my sessions. These beads sit in the bottom of the candle holder, and then on top of them I place a quartz point in each of the five points of the star shape. The quartz, bedded on these stones for intuition, compassion and prosperity, magnifies those qualities and, positioned in the shape of a five-pointed star, creates a zone of high energy and protection. The burning candle clears negativity and helps charge the crystal points.

I like my candle setup and what it represents and how it energetically affects the room. In fact, I used up the last of my candles a week or so ago and neglected to restock, and so I didn’t put out this setup last week. One of my regular clients came in and the first thing he said is, the room feels different. So my clients feel the energy too!

Unfortunately I don’t always have the freedom to burn candles in all the venues I work in. So I learned early on that when candles weren’t permitted, I would need an alternative for clearing my space and increasing energy. That’s when I started creating room sprays from essential oils.

My first room spray was a last minute thing when I found out that I couldn’t burn candles or incense at a psychic fair. I found a plastic spray bottle lying around, and filled it with water and added a splash of rosemary essential oil. I mostly used the rosemary because it was what I had on hand, but to me the sharp, piney scent felt like it would both clear negativity and increase psychic energy at the same time. Many people might choose to use sage or cedar, or a clever combination of oils, but ever since I first tried rosemary it has been my reliable and easy-to-make room spray.

Last year at our Denver Tarot Meetup group, we had a guest presenter talk to us about the magical properties of herbs and how to use them to help increase our intuition and create a space conducive to doing tarot work. Under her guidance, I created a spray that used orange and peppermint essential oils in a water base. The orange oil helps create a sense of well-being and confidence while the peppermint is refreshing and stimulating. This spray is especially helpful for clearing my own personal limitations on a day when I’m not feeling up to it or after a reading with a difficult client when I need to get back into my usual head space quickly for the next reading.

My orange-peppermint room spray in a two-ounce amber glass spray bottle with masking tape label.

I love using essential oil room sprays to energetically clear and prepare my space. You can design your own recipes for room sprays–they are extremely easy to make. All you need is a spray bottle, water and essential oils. You can get small plastic plant misters (I like the one pint size) at the dollar store or other bargain store, or you can get two to four ounce glass or plastic spray bottles at your local metaphysical store or health food store. You can get distilled water at any grocery or health food store. I get my essential oils at metaphysical stores as well as at the health food store. Rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) can be added to the recipe to serve as a scent fixative and to help prevent the spray nozzle from clogging due to the oil. Some people substitute Vodka or brandy. Feel free to play around with proportions until you find what works for you. And as always, remember to label your concoctions!

Chances are your local metaphysical store will have someone on staff who can answer all your questions about oils and preparations using oils. Nancy at Isis Books answered all mine!

Rosemary Room Spray

Rosemary has strong energetic cleansing properties and banishes negativity and unwanted astral entities. It has fiery solar properties (astrologically it is Sun in Aries), which raises the energy of the room. Its name means β€œdew of the sea” which gives it lunar qualities including heightened intuitive awareness. Rosemary also strengthens the memory and lifts the spirits.

2 cups distilled water
5 ml rosemary essential oil
(1 t rubbing alcohol – optional)

Fill a pint spray bottle with distilled water (ok, I totally admit I use tap water). Add about half a 10 ml bottle of rosemary essential oil (and optionally the alcohol). Generously spray the room you read in or around your reading table before starting to read and periodically throughout the day to clear negative energy and raise the energy of the room to a higher level.

Orange-Peppermint Room Spray

Orange increases a sense of well-being and confidence while peppermint refreshes and stimulates. Orange helps to lift depression, bring joy and inspire creativity. Peppermint helps to clear the mind so you can focus. Both oils are considered to be purifying and increase psychic awareness.

ΒΌ cup distilled water
5-10 drops orange essential oil
5-10 drops peppermint essential oil
(1/8 – 1/4 t rubbing alcohol – optional)

Fill a 2-ounce spray bottle with distilled water. Add the oils (and the alcohol if you choose to use it). I like to make this one a little stronger since I use it less abundantly. I’ll do a quick spray in each corner of the room and the center of the room when I need to clear my personal energy or after reading for a difficult client.

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Joy Vernon has been teaching energetic and esoteric modalities for over twenty years. She is one of the Psychics of Isis in Denver, Colorado and also reads at Northern Lights in Fort Collins. She teaches Tarot, Astrology, Qabalah and Traditional Japanese Reiki. She is a Certified Professional Tarot Reader and a member of the American Tarot Association. Her specialty is Empyrean Key Transformational Guidance, which helps her clients break through blocks and align with their higher purpose. For information on upcoming classes or to schedule an appointment, please visit JoyVernon.com.

Β© 2013 by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved.

Joy Vernon
Joy Vernon

Joy Vernon is widely recognized as an expert tarot teacher and respected community leader. With over twenty-five years’ experience teaching energetic and esoteric modalities, Joy brings expertise and practiced familiarity to her specialty of esoteric tarot, which layers astrological and qabalistic symbolism onto the traditional tarot structure. Under her leadership, the Denver Tarot Meetup grew into one of the largest and most active tarot-specific meetups in the world. Now Joy runs the Greater Seattle Tarot Meetup. Joy works as a tarot reader, astrologer, and teacher in Burien, Washington. To learn more, please visit JoyVernon.com.

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  1. room sprays! What a fantastic way to get the benefits of incense without the headaches of nullifying your insurance! And so cool that your reading cloth mirrors the colours in teh decks that you use – thank you for this, Joy!
    Ali x

    • You’re welcome! I don’t think my insurance has anything in it about candles or incense, but your offhand comment has got me wondering now. πŸ™‚ I should double check!

  2. Well, this is a definite keeper. As I move into professional Tarot reading, I’ll be needing all this cool energetic advice. Thanks so much!

  3. I have rather been neglecting my oils. Rosemary is great for concentration. Have you tried Bergamot rather than Orange? It’s very uplifting πŸ™‚

    • I love Bergamot in my tea! πŸ™‚ But no, I haven’t tried it in a room spray. I’ll have to test it out! I have substituted lemon when I’m out of orange, which also seems to work. I think all the citrus tend to help with lifting spirits.

    • You might like to start with Lavender and add maybe some lemon balm (melissa) or rose or bergamot or grapefruit. The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy by Valerie Ann Worwood has some great blends to reduce stress. She also lists each oil and its properties in a concise table in the back. I also like using Scott Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs as a reference.

  4. It is always interesting to me to see how others set up their table, and I have recently gotten into essential oil room sprays myself. Thanks much for sharing your table and your room spray recipes! ~ Jordan

  5. Oh, I love room sprays – and I’m liking that you offered two here for us to share, even from across the pond!
    I like your simple table design, thank you kindly for sharing that with us, you’ve certainly bought food for thought and creative ideas to us all, Joy.
    Blessings!

    • Thanks Cassandra! I feel in some ways like my table design is “overlooked” in that it’s not nearly as fancy as a lot of readers I know. But it suits me, is practical and not crowded, so I like it!

  6. Joy, the last post on the train but one of the best. Like you, I love to set my space up with a crytal grids, candles and I dont spray but i annoint the candles and crystals with a specific oil depending on my intent for the day, or for the client. Peering into your room is like sharing a space with my soul sista. Thanks for this.

    • Yes, I like to anoint my candles too! I keep the leftover rosemary oil in my bag and use it to anoint the candles. I like your idea of setting an intent for the day! Thanks, Joanna!

  7. I love the thought you’ve put into your candle’s energetic properties – it looks beautiful and sounds like it works amazingly. And the room-spray is an excellent tip, thank you!

  8. Wow. This was a super post, Joy. And thanks for the recipes. I love room sprays but rarely think to make mine! Just a lovely post. And thanks for making me remember how much I miss Isis Books! πŸ˜€

  9. Room sprays! Wow cool… but dangerous for me! I use ink sprays for my art, and I have a tendency to mistake my drinks where the pot of water to dip in the brushes O.o So I bet I would end up taking the wrong “spray” xDDDD (I am dangerous with sprays… my table is already “decorated” with some along with the computer lol )

  10. This post is a delight! I love essential oils and also use them to clear the room I’m reading in, which is often my husband’s tiny office in a building where I am not encouraged to burn candles or incense. I will definitely try these recipes…

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