Melissa Cynova - Kitchen Table Magic: Pull Up a Chair, Light a Candle & Lets Talk Magic

About the Author

Melissa Cynova (she/her) has been reading tarot cards and making magic since she was a kid. Her first book, Kitchen Table Tarot, won the Independent Publishing Award for Best First Book and COVR Visionary awards. Her second book, Tarot Elements: Five Readings to Reset Your Life, was released in 2019. Navigating the Scorpio Sea , the companion book to Maggie Stiefvaters Scorpio Sea Tarot, was released in fall 2020.

Melissa lives in St. Louis with her person, Joe; her lovely teenagers; two dogs; four black cats; and a tortoise named Phil. She is super into 1,000+ piece jigsaw puzzles, superhero movies, and exhaling with her friends.

Contents

: The Basics

: What Is Magic?

: Getting Started

: Quiet Space and Ritual

: Magical Tools and Supplies

: Magical Timing and Direction

: Magical Help

: The Spells

: Luck

: Prosperity

: Home and Hearth

: Personal Blessings and Protection

: Love and Healing

: Divination

Introduction

There is nothing about magic that holds it out of your reach. You cant be too poor or too young or too brown or too queer. You cant be unqualified. You cant be in the wrong spiritual tradition, even if your spiritual tradition is none at all. You cant be removed from the magic, because it lives inside of you.

You knew it when you were young, making potions out of rainwater and wild mushrooms. You felt it when you read Matilda and Harry Potter and realized that sometimes, if the idea was clear enough and your intent was large enough, you could make things happen too. Its very easy to rationalize those things away. I found myself drawn to any book about magic that I could findfrom Mercedes Lackeys Valdemar series to the seemingly magical Encyclopedia Brown, who used logic as his magic wand, and from Meg and Charles Wallace in A Swiftly Tilting Planet to Shakespeares Titania and witches three. I sought them out because I believed in them. I believed in what they could do, and I believed that I could create amazing things too.

My friend Karen Rontowski was talking with me before recording her podcast, Paranormal Karen . She offhandedly said, Id love to learn magic, but I dont have time to study and go to classes. It seems so formal. I nearly swallowed my gum.

Although I know people who have studied high or ceremonial magic, most of the witches or practitioners I know are throw some salt at it kind of folks.

What I mean by this is that I came into magic kind of by accident and never learned the ceremonial way. Most of the women in my life had little magics that they used around the house all the time. Make a handprint star on a seed when you plant it; say a prayer so it grows. Now, they would likely never call it magic, but thats what it is. To bless a plant, to remove negative energy, to look at the leaves to see if theyve flipped over and are waiting for rain. This is the magic we all know. This is the magic thats part of our heritage. This is a collection of folk magic and Neopaganism that does not prescribe to any specific faith tradition. The faith is all you.

I have been practicing magic since before I knew what magic really was. My favorite book when I was young was called The Girl with the Silver Eyes , about a girl named Katie who was special and had to figure out how to use her powers. I felt I had so much in common with her. I knew that there was something amazing about me and in me, but I couldnt figure out what it was.

It took finding other witches and books for me to figure it out. I finally could name what I was: witch . I could finally name what I could do: magic . There have been times when Ive forgotten that Im a witch, when the universe or circumstance knocked the wind out of me, but Ive always come back to it, this control over the world around me, of myself, of my intentions. This is my gift. This is what I was trying to figure out as a child. Its been over twenty years now since I was finally able to name it, and it grows stronger every year.

In this book, I will use the words witch and magic . Magic is the energy you possess to control your life. A witch, to me, is anyone who has and uses magic. It does not rely on gender or magical studies. Being a witch and using magic are not exclusive to any faith, belief system, or religion. Witchcraft and magic are inherent. Intuition and psychic energy are the same; they just come from different directions. Intuition comes from the inside, and psychic energy comes from the outside. Therefore, spirituality and religion are not necessary. Theyre welcome if you want them to be, but they are not at all necessary. Your magic can be added to your spiritual tradition, or you can keep it separate. Its up to you.