Unraveling the symbolism of Wiccan altar setups

Wicca, a modern pagan religion that originated in the mid-20th century, places great emphasis on rituals and ceremonies. These rituals are performed to honor the divine and to connect with the natural world. They are seen as a way to harness the powers of nature and the cosmos to bring about positive change in one's life. The meaning and purpose of Wiccan rituals and ceremonies can vary depending on the tradition and the individual practitioner. However, there are some common themes and elements that can be found in many Wiccan rituals. First and foremost, Wiccan rituals are often seen as a way to commune with the divine.

Looking good so far though. I'm interested to see what other mechanics and double-faced cards you've used.

I can t really comment on balancing without testing myself, but I suppose it all depends how easily you can put cheap permanents of various kinds on the field. What to expect - A card you can cast from your library - An enchantment with -1 -1 counters on it - An uncommon cycle of commands - A cycle of common sagas - An alternative win condition - New Fortress cards.

First and foremost, Wiccan rituals are often seen as a way to commune with the divine. Wiccans believe in a pantheon of gods and goddesses, and these deities are often invoked or called upon during rituals. Through prayers, invocations, and offerings, Wiccans seek to establish a connection with the divine and seek their guidance and blessings.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: The Gathering [Spoiler]

Hi visitor! Are you looking for the official upcoming MtG set: Tales of Middle Earth? Sorry, this is not it!

But you can enjoy this custom set as well! Please have a look! Check it out HERE.

What to expect:
- A card you can cast from your library
- An enchantment with -1/-1 counters on it
- An uncommon cycle of "commands"
- A cycle of common sagas
- An alternative win condition
- New Fortress cards!

The full set is out! Check it out on the planesculptor spoiler.
Here there is the .mse-set file (v1.6). Download the folder and open it with Mainframe MSE.

If you are interested in additional printing material I can provide the whole set on a pdf. Feel free to email me at [email protected] or on PM here on magic set editor. Depending on your preferences, you can print the whole set in singletons, or as I initially conceived it: commons in 4x, uncommons in 2x, rares and mythics in 1x

If you happen to be italian, I have translated the whole set: here you find the set file, and here the planesculptor spoiler!

Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green

Post by jverse on Dec 23, 2020 14:05:59 GMT

Thanks for the feedback on my own set. I hope to be able to reciprocate. Excited to see what you've made.

Post by galva94 on Dec 25, 2020 15:13:26 GMT

This small set has lot going on, so let's start with the first mechanic: Fellowship

Fellowship is heavily inspired by the recent Party mechanic from Zendikar, but cares about "races" instead of "classes".

Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green

Post by jverse on Dec 25, 2020 23:59:59 GMT

I like this version of Fellowship better than others I've seen. It makes a lot of sense to model it after the party mechanic. I think the reminder text should say "consists" instead of "consist" though. Also in your title it should say "let the journey begin!"

Is there a reason Gimili is a berserker and not just a warrior? Also, is it intentional to have him potentially fight with creatures you control as well as those your opponents control? Seems odd for a creature named "Dwarf Friend" to be fighting amongst your own team.

Looking good so far though. I'm interested to see what other mechanics and double-faced cards you've used.

Post by galva94 on Dec 26, 2020 0:27:28 GMT

Thank you for the corrections. My english is not perfect unfortunately. About Gimli as a berserker, it's a reminiscence of an old iteration of Fellowship that used to check creatures with no common subtypes. The fact that it can target your own creatures in not tipically relevant, but i guess i will adapt with wotc standards.

Post by galva94 on Dec 26, 2020 18:59:08 GMT

There's no better world other than the Middle Earth to talk about Adventures!

Post by galva94 on Dec 27, 2020 22:26:16 GMT

The armies of Mordor, the dark land, are known for being cruel and relentless. Sometimes even one with the other.
Fight with your army and when you don't need it anymore. Exploit it to reduce the cost of your bigger spells!

See old version of the cards

Post by galva94 on Dec 28, 2020 18:57:36 GMT

Just some spoilers for tonight

Posts: 2,648
Set Hub: Under Construction
Favorite Card: Doran, the Siege Tower
Favorite Set: Innistrad
Color Alignment: White, Blue, Green

Post by Daij_Djan on Dec 28, 2020 22:31:32 GMT

• Fellowship looks like a clever spin on the party Mechanic indeed.
• Adventures are definitively very fitting for this set, also I like them in general
• Merciless fits nicely, but the wording feels a bit off. It should definitively say "cast" rather than "play", and I think modeling the wording after Emerge would be even better:

Post by galva94 on Dec 28, 2020 22:55:16 GMT

Thanks a lot! The feedback on power leverl balance are REALLY appreciated. Faramir was changed recently from UC to rare, but now that I see it you're right, it seems a little bit underpowered. I like the non-static ability tho, it is a little bit more unique and treaky. What about making it a 3/3 for 2WW maybe?

Thank you for the suggested rewording, I will change it very soon and update the cards.

Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green

Post by jverse on Dec 28, 2020 23:54:29 GMT

Really liking the mechanics and flavor of your set so far. Here's a bit of feedback:

Bilbo - This card feels very blue. I can understand why you'd want it to be green from a flavor perspective, but his adventure especially is blue (green doesn't tutor for artifacts and isn't friendly to them in general). Skulk and combat draw could also be blue, but the effect exists in green as well.

Great eagle - Love the design here. I would change the blink effect to only work on your own creatures. Also, the eagles themselves feel slightly underpowered. Looking through existing cards with flash and flying you should get at least a 3/3 or even a 4/4 for 5cmc. Check out Raff Capashen, Thryx, Fleetfeather Cockatrice, etc. I would probably make it 2UU for the current P/T or adjust it to 3/4.

Ring-wraith - Pretty strong, but I like it.

Mouth of Sauron - Super cool card. I'd like to play it!

Merciless is great. Personally I'm a big fan of keywording existing mechanics and focusing them into a set theme. Be careful with the cost reductions though. The goblin card especially feels like it could be overpowered if the right cards exist in your set. Getting three tokens for 1cmc is pretty powerful, and at common no less! Lash of the Balrog also feels very powerful with its merciless cost. Red doesn't often do one-sided board wipes and this one is pretty easy to cast.

Post by galva94 on Dec 29, 2020 8:08:26 GMT

Bilbo. Yes, this cards is blue. But I guess I wouldn't mind to stretch the color pie on a rare, as long as I don't make red counterspell or something. I have two other options: make the whole card white (but I guess it doesn't fit the color pie as well) or change the adventure part to red or blue. I'm leaning toward the latter, but i'll think about it. The presence of treaure tokens into green is justified by the UG mechanic that I will post soon, so we have to get use to it in this set. It's not how wotc used treasure so far, but its not the end of the world either.

About the eagle, the problem is that this set has very few flying creature (as you can tell if you watched the movie). A big uc flying can become oppressive in limited format, that's why I make the eagle a bit underpowered.

Post by galva94 on Dec 29, 2020 22:04:14 GMT

Here we are with maybe the hardest-to-make-work mechanic of the set, Majestic. Elves are surrounded by beauty and grandeur, and their spells are at best when they are in their fabled woodlands or in their beautiful palaces.

Collect four out of five permanent types to enable the full power of the Middle Earth most ancient race.

This ability can be hard to make work, and I often considered to change the number of permanents from four to three. Lot of testing is needed on this.

Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green

Post by jverse on Dec 30, 2020 5:31:14 GMT

I like the idea of Majestic and it fits perfectly with the elves. I can't really comment on balancing without testing myself, but I suppose it all depends how easily you can put cheap permanents of various kinds on the field. Treasure especially should help make Majestic easier to reach, and also any dual permanents like artifact creatures or enchantment creatures.

Out of curiosity do you have other sets that you've created? I like your design sense and would like to see some of your other work if possible.

Post by galva94 on Dec 30, 2020 8:34:55 GMT

This is my first complete custom set, but I have a couple of new ideas to work on in this 2021

Post by galva94 on Dec 30, 2020 20:07:38 GMT

Daily spoilers for tonight

Post by galva94 on Jan 1, 2021 23:27:36 GMT

A new race is born in the depth of Isengard. Control the opponent's board, while adding creatures to the field to take over the game!

Post by galva94 on Jan 3, 2021 11:17:56 GMT

Cycle of Sagas inspired by The Hobbit book's chapters.

I got this idea of inserting flavor text instead of a chapter, to not overload commons with lot of abilities. I think the result turn out nice
. Some people told me that this can be confusing though, so let me know what you think.

Posts: 2,648
Set Hub: Under Construction
Favorite Card: Doran, the Siege Tower
Favorite Set: Innistrad
Color Alignment: White, Blue, Green

Post by Daij_Djan on Jan 3, 2021 15:15:39 GMT

• Majestic is interesting but indeed tough to balance. Four permanent types is a lot, but at three a single artifact / enchantment creature would instantly fulfill all requirements.. I think I'd keep it the way it is for now.
• Mudborn is solid, not much else to say
• An Unexpected Party isn't a white card if it creates hasty tokens.
• Other than that, I like the concept of having flavor text on the common Sagas. I do think having it right in the middle is kind of confusing though.. It's been a while since I worked with the template: Is it possible to not have all chapter markers show up on the card? Like for A Short Rest remove the II and the card instantly becomes more grokable – and assuming that has been possible I'd then even suggest going further and indeed only use the lowest space for all the flavor texts. So on the chosen example you have the reminder text, then the I, the III, and finally the flavor text.

Post by galva94 on Jan 3, 2021 22:36:49 GMT

The idea of removing the chapter number is interesting: here is how the cards look:

I like the "blank" chapter in the middle, though, because the "story" behind the saga doesn't make much sense otherwise. For example, take Roast Mutton: the company finds the trolls (I), then Gandalf says the words on the flavor text (II), and finally the trolls became stone (III).

About haste on a white card, I tested it a while ago and it seems "natural" to me that the token enters with haste. More or less the same way a suspended creature enters with haste, doesn't matter which color it has. From the power level point of view, moreover, I find a little weak the white saga if the tokens aren't hasty, but I might definetly be wrong.

Post by galva94 on Jan 4, 2021 23:15:24 GMT

The days are dark in the Middle Earth, and the armies are ready to battle. Get shelter in a Fortress before it's too late!

The idea of making some Fortress cards out of the main Middle Earth locations, to me feels like a must in a Lord of the Rings custom set. Both the layout and the actual implementation of the card type has been pretty challenging. I know other users created a totally new card type, which is basically a Planeswalker card, just renamed. I see the need of doing that, because naming "planeswalker" a card which is actually a location/building doesn0t make any sense. But on the other hand, creating a new card type seems redundant and "rules-warping" from the wording point of view (you know, changing target planeswalker with target fortress of planeswalker and so on).

Fortress as I intended are just planeswalker with an extra line of text: "Creatures can't attack you", meaning that as long as you control a Fortress, opponents need to destroy it in order to get to you. This extra text is put on top, for no particular reason other than make the card a bit more "unique" and recognizable. No Plus effect for now: the risk of creating some oppressive card is high. At the end I even found space for a flavor text (on a planeswalker this may help to recognize that we are dealing with a different type of card)

Again, let me know what you think. Design, and power balance. Any feedback is gold

Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green

All new-to-Magic cards from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth (with set code LTR) released earlier this year, as well as rares and mythic rares from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Commander, in their non-Booster Fun versions feature this special showcase treatment.

Another important aspect of Wiccan rituals is the celebration of the cycles of nature. Wiccans believe in the sacredness of the Earth and the changing seasons. Therefore, many rituals are performed during specific times of the year, such as the solstices and equinoxes, to honor and celebrate the changing seasons. These rituals often involve the use of symbols, such as candles, flowers, and herbs, to represent the elements of nature and to create a sacred space. In addition to celebrating the cycles of nature, Wiccan rituals are also used to mark significant milestones in the lives of individuals. This can include rituals for births, weddings, and even funerals. These rituals serve as a way to honor and bless these important moments, and to seek the guidance and protection of the divine. Furthermore, Wiccan rituals often involve the use of magical practices and spellwork. Wiccans believe in the power of intention and the manipulation of energy to bring about desired outcomes. Therefore, rituals often include the casting of spells, the use of divination tools, and the setting of intentions. These practices are believed to harness the powers of the universe and to manifest one's desires. Overall, Wiccan rituals and ceremonies serve as a powerful tool for self-discovery, personal growth, and spiritual connection. Through these rituals, Wiccans seek to honor the divine, celebrate the cycles of nature, and create positive change in their lives. Whether performed alone or in a group setting, these rituals provide a sense of unity, reverence, and empowerment for Wiccans around the world..

Reviews for "Unveiling the secrets of Wiccan moon rituals"

1. Jessica - 2 stars - I recently picked up "Exploring the Meaning of Wiccan Rituals and Ceremonies" with the hope of gaining a deeper understanding of Wiccan practices. Unfortunately, this book fell short of my expectations. The content felt repetitive and lacked proper organization, making it difficult to follow along. Additionally, I found the author's writing style to be dry and uninspiring, which made it hard to engage with the material. Overall, I was disappointed with this book and would not recommend it to others seeking a thorough exploration of Wiccan rituals.

2. John - 1 star - As someone who was new to Wicca, I was excited to dive into "Exploring the Meaning of Wiccan Rituals and Ceremonies" to learn more. However, I found the book to be incredibly dense and jargon-heavy, which made it difficult for a beginner like me to grasp the concepts. The author seemed to assume that the reader had prior knowledge of Wiccan practices, leaving me feeling lost and frustrated. Additionally, the lack of clear explanations and practical examples made it hard to apply the concepts to my own spiritual journey. Overall, I would not recommend this book to beginners or those looking for a beginner-friendly exploration of Wiccan rituals.

3. Emily - 2 stars - "Exploring the Meaning of Wiccan Rituals and Ceremonies" failed to meet my expectations. While I was initially intrigued by the topic, I found the book to be overly theoretical and lacking in practical advice. The author delves into abstract discussions of symbolism without adequately explaining how these rituals can be incorporated into one's daily life. This left me feeling disconnected from the material and unable to apply it to my own spiritual practice. Furthermore, I believe the book could have benefited from more diverse perspectives and experiences, as it seemed to present a narrow view of Wicca. Overall, I was disappointed with the book's lack of practicality and diversity.

The connection between Wiccan rituals and personal empowerment