Hello and welcome to July! I hope you are well and finding joy often! Occasionally, I’ve decided to check in with either a blog post here or vlog update on my YouTube channel.
Our senior dog, HoneyCake, is experiencing a major decline. It leaves her confused at times, is negatively impacting her health, and has turned her sleep patterns upside down. This, of course, affects ours too. In addition, my own chronic illness and fatigue has left me a bit wiped out.
My productivity is at an all time low. This isn’t a complaint, merely my current reality. In the meantime, I will continue to do every thing in my power to alleviate my fur baby’s distress, make her comfy, and shower her with love and affection.
Update: As of the editing of this post, Honeycake has dramatically improved much to our relief and happiness. We accept that our time is limited and are soaking in these extra moments with her.
Divination & Spiritual Practice
Beyond feeding the money bowl, performing my established weekly candle rituals, and a few tarot readings, I’ve been pretty quiet.
I’m relying heavily on Goddess Athena for finding strength, courage, and wisdom to make the best decisions possible, Mother Mary for patience and compassion, and Goddess Isis for healing and protection.
I find myself reaching for a ritual oil I recently purchased a lot. It’s from the company Magic Fairy Candles. The ingredients include: orange, cedar, & patchouli organic essential oils and organic coconut oil.
I roll it on my wrists in the shape of a cross anytime I am feeling overwhelmed by sadness. It’s been super helpful. The scent is earthy with a burst of zest from the orange. I use it for grounding when I feel in danger of floating away into the vast space of sorrow.
Honoring Grief Roll-On Perfume
Decks I used this month include: Desert Illuminations Tarot by Lindsay D. Williams, Serpentfire Tarot by Devany Amber Wolfe, The Ritual Tarot by Tiera May, Making Magick: Manifesting your dreams (Rockpool Mini Cards) by Priestess Moon and my own oracle deck which isn’t currently for sale.
A handful of YouTuber’s I enjoyed watching this month were Amethyst Ascension Tarot & Astrology and her sister MissCoolala’s Mystical Musings, along with Summer of AstariaSen. Essence of the Moon, Midwest Magician, and Winds of Reflection are favorites as well. There are many more wonderful channels I will share in the future, but for now, please consider visiting these lovely humans & say I sent you!
Creative Projects
In June, I wrote 2 poems. One of these I am considering submitting in July to a publication. Edits to Rituals are ongoing in preparation for a round of beta readers soon.
I used some incredible artwork by Jason Glover of Grey Gnome Games to create a Majors only Tarot deck to celebrate my favorite YouTube solo gamer, creative, and philosopher Man Alone’s birthday. It’s available for free to all Seal Team Waffle Alpha members on his discord!
Solo Gaming Report
I haven’t had much time or bandwidth for play this month. Besides watching videos and window shopping for new games, I’ve been quite enjoying this fantastic Ace Gamebook, Dracula- Curse of the Vampire, by Jonathan Green with illustrations by Hauke Kock.
Described as “an interactive gothic horror novel” you have the option of playing as Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray, Dr. John Seward, or the big baddie himself, the Count.
This is no skimpy little choose your own adventure book. At 650 pages, 1000ish entries, and the ability to play multiple characters, I see myself returning to replay this adventure over and over.
I am attempting to keep Vlad from perishing for the second time. I’ve yet to play as a Vampire Hunter, but from what I gather there are points in the novel in which you can switch between them!
It’s very well written and beautifully illustrated. There are some simple stats to track, keywords to record, and you can choose to roll dice or use a standard deck of playing cards. I intend to purchase the author’s other games in this lineup!
One of my favorite purchases of 2025 arrived this past weekend! Flint: A Cairn 2e Solo Handbook by Man Alone is, in my opinion, an essential supplement for the solo player. There is so much goodness packed into this guide! Though balanced for Cairn, it can be adapted for similar games like Into the Odd, Knave, and Maze Rats along with OSR games.
You can scoop up the pdf, physical copy, or physical copy + pdf on DriveThruRPG.
The next day, I received my copy of Yochai Gal’s Cairn Warden’s Guide – Second Edition! Happy accident no? Okay, so it was a planned happy accident. I’ve been waiting for the print copy release to join my happy little Cairn collection. Enter the strange and dark Wood to learn about this awesome adventure!
Finally, I’d love to share with you the news of a developing project by Cezar Capacle. Mausworn is Cezar’s vision of combining Ironsworn by Shawn Tomkin and Mausritter by Isaac Williams along with his own touches to create a stand alone game for solo or group play.
He’s invited us to follow along and I did faster than you can wiggle your whiskers! I’ve been eyeing my copy of Ironsworn and Ironsworn: Starforged for longer than I care to admit without much desire to dive in. Mausworn will be the version I am meant to play. I feel it in my heart. I have faith in Cezar to make me a believer!
His game Oneironaut, is a solo rp that you play in your sleep utilizing lucid dreaming techniques. I picked up a copy and started a campaign this month. I’m using it as a way to track my dreams and hours slept. It’s a low energy fun way to end my night. The routine to slip into the dream realm is very relaxing.
Other games I received this month:
Elegy of the Sapphire Adept by Ecstatic Entropy Games
Willow: A Grim Micro Setting by Lazy Litch
Song of the Hedge Herbalist’s Adventure Zine by Jakub Wisz
The Secret of the Night Market for Perils & Princesses by Outrider Creative. Late pledges are still open!
Games I’m waiting for to arrive in the next week:
Brambletrek by Crossed Paths.
Apothecaria by Blackwell Games.
On The Table To Explore In July:
Perils & Princesses
Brambletrek
Apothecaria
A handful of solo journaling games
My Latest YouTube Video
Other Things I’ve Been Loving
Read more about this powerful heart wrenching collection here.
Thank you for reading friend. Please be kind to others and remember to be kind to yourself.
Until next time,
xoxo Carmilla
I currently do not receive any compensation for recommending these links. They are listed only for your convenience.
Carmilla Dawn 