What is charm casting?

Charm casting is a form of divination using jewellery charms and trinkets.

History of charm casting

Divination with charms gained popularity in Victorian times with a practice called a “cake pull.”

“Back in the Victorian times, small charms had a piece of string or ribbon tied to the charm, and the charms were placed under the bottom of a wedding cake all around it, so the ribbon ends were sitting out all around the outside of the edge of the cake.

At the wedding ceremony, the bridesmaids pulled the ribbons out, and the charms they drew represented their fortune. This tradition is called “cake pull”.

The charms were usually in the shape of hearts, bells, four-leaf clover, ring, baby symbols and any charms that represented home and family and luck.”

This tradition was practised in Germany and Switzerland. Porcelain figures were wrapped in dough and baked in a cake. It seems to me very much like the tradition of putting a coin, ring or wishbone in a cake or Christmas pudding for luck and the element of surprise and also like the Chinese have their words of wisdom enclosed in a fortune cookie.

“In some other countries during the 1930’s – 1950’s people would bake the metal charms inside the cake itself. They would mix the batter and place 8-10 charms wrapped in parchment around the edges of the cake and then bake it. When the cake was consumed (and hopefully, you didn’t swallow the charm), you would unwrap the charm, and this was your fortune.

During this period, you could buy everywhere little boxes of charms, with little pieces of parchment paper. A description of the meanings of each charm was printed on the back of the little boxes. This is where they called them “tea charms” or “tea favours”, as the charm meanings were based on tea leaf reading symbols.

This ceremony was often done at Halloween or New Year’s Eve to have fortune throughout the coming year. It was so popular as everybody wanted to have the luck on their side the upcoming year.

Around the world, there are many different ways for charms to be used in both cakes and loaves of bread. No matter in which country or according to which tradition charms were used in food goods, it has always been for good fortune and abundance.”

Source - Karin Dalton-Smith https://www.find-my-jupiter.com/en/how-about-using-charms-for-fortune-telling/

Karin’s website - https://www.teawithkarin.com/

Her Etsy shop - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TeaWithKarin

Charm casting may also have some origins in osteomancy or bone casting. Osteomancy is an ancient form of divination practised by ancient tribes where they would toss animal bones onto the ground. These days people still use ethically sourced bones but they also can add feathers, crystals, trinkets, charms, coins and basically any interesting oddments found around the home and out in nature that provide a memorable meaning for them to learn what the symbols mean.

WHERE TO BEGIN WITH CHARM CASTING?

Sourcing your charms

You don’t have to spend lot of money when building your collection. Start slowly and gradually build up. Have a think about what might be the most common symbols. Gathering about 25 symbols to start with and build up to 50 or more as time goes on is a suggestion. Some suggestions of charms to start with might be

Angel, Axe, Baby/Child, Bird, Boat, Book, Butterfly, Chair, Clock, Coffin/Gravestone, Cross, Dog, Elephant, Fish, Flower, Fox, Horse, House, Key, Lion, Man, Mask, Money, Moon, Mouse, Ring, Scissors, Snake, Star, Teapot, Tower, Tree, Tunnel, Woman

Some sellers on sites such as Etsy can put together a starter pack of charms for you and often with an instruction leaflet. However, an inexpensive and fun way is to find your own. First start looking at what you have around your home. Do you have bits of jewellery you don’t use such as a ring, a dice, a domino, an old key, a crystal, an unusual keyring, a small shell, any buttons with pictures on, trinkets?

Next visit your local charity shop and look out for any charms and jewellery pieces. I find though that the best source of charms is that well-known auction site. Go to the jewellery sellers section. Start with a theme. You may have noticed that animal symbols come up regularly. You could bag an elephant, monkey, giraffe, fish, tortoise and horse for just a few pounds or dollars. Do the same with a transport theme, halloween, food and drink. Sellers also have their own starter packs which are often quite reasonable. You may end up with more than one of a particular charm but pulling 2 baby charms might mean something significant in the reading!

Making a start

Start with one charm at a time. Make your own dictionary. This can also be applicable to tea leaf reading and dream symbolism.

Find some keywords for your symbol

Look at the positives and not so positive meanings of the symbol. Write down what the symbol means to you in the following areas of life:

Love and relationships, Career, Health, Spiritual

This will be a good basis for remembering the charms

For example - cat

Keywords - Independence, Contentment, Laziness, Aloofness, Agility, Territorial, Female Friend, Spiteful

A cat in love might be someone who is loving and affectionate for a while then walks off to have a bit of their own space.

A cat in career might be self-employment. Somebody who wants to work independently. A cat in a health situation might mean the need to look after yourself, grooming and having a bit a rest.

A cat spiritually might mean finding your own path, finding your own “thing”, your territory, knowing your boundaries, realising that other people need their own space too.

Choose a charm a day to work with until you have a good idea what it means to you.

Building it up with 3 charms

Once you are feeling comfortable with looking at your charm symbol and having a good idea what it might

mean in many situation then you could start looking at drawing 3 charms. This could be a daily read or

past, present and future perhaps. Reading the charms is no different to reading other divination systems

with 3 cards, crystals, runes etc. You are building up a story and breaking it down into segments. Keeping

a diary is the best way to record your readings. Looking back on them can help consolidate what you

have learnt.

Working with tarot and oracle cards

Charms make a great addition to card readings such as tarot, lenormand, kipper, playing cards and oracle cards. They make excellent clarifiers in a reading where the reader might need some additional information and add extra insight.

9 box spreads

Taking it further a reading can branch out into 9 box readings. These are essential in mastering the more complex and involved Grand Tableau spread.

However, the 9 box spread can convey an awful lot of useful information. It can be read row by row, horizontally and vertically, diagonally and in each corner. The centre card or symbol is the most important as a significator could be placed here, for example a heart for love readings, coin symbol for money etc. These spreads can be done with cards or just with charms. Build up a story as you go along. You could even designate your own placements for the lines so top line 1-2-3 could be love, middle 4-5-6 could be work, bottom 7-8-9 could be spiritual. This is just an example.

Grand Tableau

Grand tableau spreads are much more complex and very involved 36 card layouts with each position relating to a “house” or particular area of life. They are typically done by lenormand readers but can also be done with tarot or tea leaf reading cards. In the lenormand, the 1st house is the rider and shown as someone on a horse, 2nd house is clover, 3rd house is a ship, 4th house is a house and so on….Focusing on one section at a time in the spread and typically a 9 box area or something of interest, having a break and coming back to it later stops a reader from feeling too overwhelmed. Charms can add an extra layer to this particular type of reading. If you can master the symbolism in the grand tableau then you really have cracked it as a reader!

Using casting mats and cloths

Casting mats, boards and cloths are becoming more and more popular these days and are a captivating, visual way of charm casting. Shown below is a wheel of life with the different areas of a person’s life displayed in a circle. A plethora of charms in one section should be noted as much activity there. Equally no charms at all in a section may be relevant.

If you are handy with needlework or woodburning skills you could make your own. A very basic board could be made though using card, felt tip pens or sharpies and a ruler if for personal use. A circular board would also be ideal for learning how to dowse with a pendulum.

Bibliomancy

Using bibliomancy with charm casting

Bibliomancy is divination with books. The origins were with the bible and dictionaries. You can use any book or magazine though. I find poetry and children’s books a lovely way to work with this form of divination.