This month’s been crazy hectic for me. Everything just seemed to want to happen this month and I feel like I’m being marshalled through everything. Most if it is fun stuff but it’s the planning and coordinating and packing and making sure everything gets done in an orderly time that’s the stressful crazy bit. So, what IS going on, you might ask? Well…
I’ve been thinking a lot about tarot and how to attract more seekers to my tarot practice. In the past, the tarot link at the top of my Shades of Maybe domain took site visitors to my Tarot Wiki. Well, as of Wednesday that’s no longer the case. I’ve installed yet another instance of WordPress and revamped tarot.shadesofmaybe.com so it functions more like a tarot business and blog, than a repository of my tarot related information.
I’ve added pages that tell seekers about my reading rates, ethics, reading events, as well as a page of testimonials from past seekers. I’m also slowly and steadily moving the bulk of the tarot-related posts from this area to there. In the future, I hope to post reviews, essays, readings and tarot-related tidbits from my life to that site. Of course, I also hope the area attracts more seekers who’d like me to read for them and help them achieve their dreams.
Like I alluded to on my twitter/facebook accounts, this second trip to Seattle was nothing short of magickal. There is so much going through my head I had to take most of the weekend to sift through it all, and while I’m still sorting through the experiences, I wanted to get something posted here right away. Once again, this is quite the long posting.
I’ve been trying to get back into the habit of doing daily tarot readings and kicked Friday’s festivities off with a three card draw. As it aligned perfectly with my feelings for the day, I will use the cards to structure my summary here. You can visit my photo gallery to see the pictures I took at the event.
Last night I lead my first GEM meeting. I decided to share a concept that Katrina Wynne teaches in her Transformative Tarot Counseling program. It’s called Tarot Alive, and it is a playful approach to using tarot. It combines role-play, numerology (to help with card selection), and meditation to show people how to embody the energies of the major arcana. Effectively they become the personality in the card.
It was my hope that by sharing Tarot Alive with others that it would present them some practical ways to use tarot, and the archetypes, as personal assistants on their path. For example, they could perform variants of this experiment to embody other personalities to receive help or assistance with blocks in their lives.
Corrine Kenner, of Tarot for Writers fame, emailed me today saying that she enjoyed my review of her book. She liked it so much that her publicist pulled a quote from it and put it on the book’s Amazon.com page. Locate my quote under the Editorial Reviews section as D*I*Y Planner. I feel honored. She also emailed me a sneak peek of the Tarot for Writers Workbook, a companion guide.
I woke up way too early today. Couldn’t really sleep, there’s too much going on in my brain. So, I figure I’d write out a post and see if it helps my mind work through whatever is keeping it awake. Please click the read more button to see everything in this post.
On Ravens in the Library: Still waiting to hear from the editors on the book’s release. It was supposed to get sent to the publisher this week. Due to illness and business, they’ve been running behind schedule. But the imminent release of the book has me all ancy… I want it to arrive now, darnit!
Tarot and writing go hand in hand for me. I entertain thoughts about writing a book on tarot one day and had hoped to include in-depth material on using the cards with a creative writing practice. Corrine Kenner beat me to that, with her Tarot for Writers. Now if I ever write that book, I’ll just be adding to the discussion she started.
I loved Tarot for Writers. Go read my review and find out why.
Artwork and Book Written by Timothy Lantz
Published by US Games Systems, Inc.
ISBN 1-57281-488-8
The Archeon is a very personal deck. It contains the personal mythology and beliefs of visionary artist Timothy Lantz. The Archeon Tarot defines and explores Lantz’s symbolism and mythology in a very contemporary and graphic fashion. The card’s imagery is absolutely stunning. Lantz uses a digital canvas to create the cards and explore the very depths of his soul. Long before this tarot deck was even published, I had seen images of the cards on his website. And I was impressed with what I saw. The cards are a wonderful blend of dark, gothic, carnivale mixed with elements of the mystical and fantastic. But don’t let the darkness of the deck’s imagery fool you because within each card there is a strong sense of light and beauty. Each card’s image contains dazzling backgrounds and characters expressing realistic emotions; each layer thick with symbolism. Even the cards’ back include snippets of Lantz’s personal mythology and symbolism.
Written by Riccardo Minetti, Artwork by Mara Aghem
Published by Lo Scarabeo and distributed by Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN 0-7387-0280-3
The Fey Tarot distills the best of both worlds in tarot and the art of Japanese anime and recombines them into something new and exciting. Written by Riccardo Minetti, featuring the artwork of Mara Aghem, this deck is wonderful for both the young at heart and in age. The tarot presented here is lighthearted and kind, “bringing no shadows.” However, this lightness does not eliminate the darkness of traditional tarot decks; instead, The Fey Tarot subdues and twists the negative card meanings inwards. In doing so, this set becomes easily accessible and understood by children.
