- Author: Emerald Lotus
- Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
- Publication Date: August 2026 (US) / (UK)
- RRP: US $16.99 / GB £15.99
- ISBN: 978-0-7387-8096-2
- Reviewed by: Tracye Quinlan, Prairie Moon Coaching & Tarot
I came to charm casting through a card-based mediumship class that used charms cast over cards as an extra layer of meaning. When I wanted to learn more about it, Emerald Lotus was the name that kept coming up — the go-to resource for all things charm casting. I found her videos and pages, my curiosity grew, but I had no real foundation to build a confident practice on. So, when I learned this book was coming out, I could barely imagine waiting until August. When the opportunity to review it for TABI came along, I may have squealed just a little. What I didn’t expect was that this one small book would turn out to be a complete course in itself — something that could genuinely give me the basis for a confident charm casting practice.
Emerald Lotus is a widely recognized divination educator whose viral charm casting videos have reached hundreds of thousands online. She teaches accessible, empowering divination through workshops, courses, and social media, and her presence on the page carries the same warm, openhearted quality that draws people to her online. For those who have found her through a screen via YouTube or Instagram, and wondered whether a book could go even deeper than her already generous online content, the answer is a clear yes.
The book opens with something rare in the world of divination publishing: a genuine acknowledgment that readers come from different worldviews. Right in the introduction, Emerald Lotus addresses both the spiritually oriented reader — those who see charm casting as direct communication from spirit, guides, angels, or ancestors — and those who approach it through a psychological or scientific lens, viewing readings as reflections of the subconscious. Her position is simple and inclusive: whatever you believe, charm casting will work for you. It’s a gracious opening that sets the tone for the entire book.
She follows this with a brief but honest history of casting practices, noting that while throwing and placing objects for divination has existed across cultures throughout history, charm casting in its current form — using small personal or symbolic items chosen by the reader — is a relatively modern practice, emerging largely in the 2010s. She credits Carrie Paris and the Magpie Oracle, created in 2014, as one of the first instances of charms being sold specifically for divination, while drawing a thoughtful distinction: because the Magpie Oracle followed the Lenormand card system, it sits at an interesting crossover point rather than representing the fully customizable free-form practice she describes. Emerald Lotus makes no claim to have invented anything. She is transparent that the tips and practices in this book were developed through her own personal journey, and that she believes charm casting is still in its earliest stages as a recognized divination system. That humility is refreshing.
Charm casting sits at an interesting intersection in the divination world — it’s not tarot, it’s not strictly oracle, it draws more from folk magic and intuitive practice than from any established card system. For TABI readers who work primarily with tarot, this book offers something genuinely complementary. I myself have used charms cast over Lenormand and tarot spreads in mediumship readings, layering physical objects alongside cards to deepen the message. Emerald Lotus speaks directly to this kind of cross-system use, and her framework supports it beautifully.
The book’s structure is detailed without being overwhelming. Early chapters cover the fundamentals of intuition development — what the psychic clairs are, how to strengthen them, mindfulness practices, journaling, and the value of finding a community — written in a way that is genuinely accessible to someone who has never encountered any form of divination before. From there, she moves into building your charm kit, and this is where the book’s central philosophy becomes most tangible. Your charm kit can come from anywhere: a junk drawer, a nature walk, a bulk charm order, a board game. The question she asks is simply: is it small enough to cast with, could it break while casting, and does it resonate with you? Everything else is up to you.
What prevents this openness from becoming overwhelming is the meaning-making framework she provides. She walks through themes you can use as source — family, friendship, finances, beginnings, celebration — and offers an abundance of reference material for things like colors, shapes, numbers, animals, weather, flowers, seasons, food and drink, and more. Details like that a triangle charm could represent manifesting, the mind-body-spirit connection, balance, or a love triangle. I actually have a triangle charm that turns up often and I’ve never quite settled on a meaning for it. She suggests a star might mean divine guidance, protection, hope, or luck. The book also includes shadow charms — broken hearts, dark clouds, handcuffs — acknowledging that a system which can only deliver good news is not an honest one. This depth in approach will resonate with experienced readers.
She goes further, offering exercises to help you develop your own personal meanings: asking what an item is used for, what it makes you think of, what others associate with it, or what it might say if it could speak. She recommends documenting your charm meanings and revisiting them as your practice grows, and I have already picked out a new journal for this alone. The book provides detailed, but easily digestible, information on preparing, enchanting, energetically cleansing, and protecting your charms. She covers the ethics of reading for yourself and others, gives real examples of readings she has done for friends and clients, and — importantly — addresses what to do when a reading goes wrong, or when your human mind gets in the way. That chapter alone distinguishes a real teacher from an enthusiastic practitioner.
The second half of the book functions as a working reference: specific charm meanings, color associations, and symbolic suggestions organized for quick consultation. You would never have to generate a single meaning on your own if you didn’t want to. With this book, you could literally start reading charms immediately.
I should note: I came to this book with an existing charm collection — a large one — I didn’t, in all honesty, have a relationship with most of the pieces in it.
Reading this book is actively changing that. The descriptions throughout the book — and the way she ties meanings into other modalities — are helping me solidify connections that were vague and find meaning for charms I’d never been able to place. That’s not something I expected to get from a book alone — without taking a course or years of hands-on practice — and it says a lot about Emerald Lotus’s ability to write across a wide range of experience levels.
One practical note: this is a paperback, and a well-used copy will show wear. Given that this is exactly the kind of book you will use constantly — kept with your charm kit, pulled out when adding new pieces, referenced mid-reading — that is worth knowing going in. It is not a limitation so much as a tradeoff, and personally I consider it a fair one. The book’s compact size is part of what makes it so useful; it fits easily in a bag and travels well. A hardcover version would be sturdier. It would also be less likely to end up in your bag beside your charms, which is precisely where this one belongs.
Charm Divination is recommended for absolute beginners who have never encountered any form of divination practice, for experienced card readers looking to expand or complement their existing toolkit, and for anyone who has ever picked up an interesting object and felt that it meant something. Emerald Lotus has written the book she wished she’d had when she started — and it shows.
Charm Divination: Casting Trinkets to Harness Your Intuition will be available from Llewellyn Worldwide and from online booksellers in August. Learn more about the author at EmeraldLotusDivination.com. Shop her charm kits at etsy.com/shop/EmeraldLotusMystic.
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