Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

Registration now open for PSG

I'm attending Pagan Spirit Gathering for the first time ever this summer, and — lucky me! — I'm one of the presenters.  Craig will be performing an acoustic set, too.  I'm looking forward to this experience — my mermaid sister Nora has been trying to get me to go for years.  And now it's finally happening.  Will any of you, dear blog readers, be there too?

Guardian of Earth (Queen of Pentacles): Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

What do we most need to know for the coming week?

Guardian of Earth (Queen of Pentacles)

http://www.gaiantarot.com/minors/guardians.html#earth 

What a relief.  After an intense Bindweed week, I’m ready to move on to the grounded stability of nurturing my projects and getting a lot accomplished.  

One of the things I love most about this image is the way the farmer is so tenderly examining the ear of corn, which he has raised from a kernel planted the previous spring.  He has sown, watered, weeded and protected the seedlings all summer and now the corn is ready to be harvested to feed the community. Day by day, bit by bit, he does what needs to be done. By following his own passion, he nourishes a tribe.

This is how I feel about my own work — my artwork and my web design work. It satisfies me and makes a difference in the world.  

And how do you read this card?

End of the week Bindweed Musings

As the past week unfolded, the lessons of the Bindweed card became clear to me on a number of levels.  I have mused more than once in these pages about strategies for keeping oneself calm, centered and at peace even in the midst of troubling or dramatic events.  Darned if this same theme didn't emerge again this week.

Because that's what it's all about in the end — how to stay calm, peaceful and even joyful when it seems like the whole world is crashing in on you.  This week brought resolution to two major issues in our lives — long term tenants moved into our island home (I am so happy to have an extended island family living there) and the Victorian house that Craig rehabbed finally sold after a year on the market. (We won't break out the champagne until escrow closes, but things are looking very good.)  So there's an end to supporting three houses, which has been a major financial drain this past year, and even more importantly an end to the specter of foreclosure.

Bindweed (the Devil): Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

What do we most need to know for the coming week?

Bindweed (the Devil)

Well, I have to admit I was not particularly pleased to see this fellow turn up and almost put him back in the deck.  But that’s not playing fair, is it?  I asked what I (and you, dear readers) need to keep in mind this week, and this is the card that turned up.

My interpretation of the Devil card as Bindweed, that invasive non-native species, is that of a life lived terribly out of balance. And so I ask myself how and where my life is out of balance. It’s clear to me that right now my work-for-clients is taking the biggest portion of my time and attention, but that seems to me to be appropriate for this season. (I am grateful for the abundance of work!)  It will only become a major problem if it continues all year at this pace. I am more out of balance in regard to my attention to my physical body — with these long hours at the computer, I have only been getting to the gym twice a week and I want to ramp that up.  

My intuitive hit when I turned up the card, is that it’s about the niggling worry I have at the pit of my stomach that we may not be able to stay in our house come the summer. Without getting into the gory details, I ran some numbers over the weekend and realized that losing the house is a real possibility.  So now my thoughts stray to that possibility and I begin to worry. Then I mentally smack myself on the side of the head and remember Mike Dooley’s wise words “Thoughts are things! Pick the good ones!” and turn my attention elsewhere.  Still the worry persists.  So perhaps it’s a good week to not only ramp up my attendance at the gym, but also to ramp up writing in my gratitude journal, to banish the negativity and to invite abundance and a secure home into my life.  

And how do you see this card, dear Readers?

Two of Fire (Wands): Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

I thought I’d take a page from Beth OwlsDaughter’s blog and start posting a Gaian Card of the Week every Monday.  

What do we most need to know for the coming week?

Two of Fire (Wands)

Mmm . . . what a lovely card to turn up for the Full Moon in Leo!  

There’s some kind of powerful attraction going on here . . . possibly to a person, but it’s just as likely to be a place or a creative project — it could be anything we are passionate about.   

But the Two’s often bring up the theme of choice — we don’t have to act on every attraction.  We can just enjoy the sparks that light us up.  Or we can follow through with that person, that place, that project . . . and see how far the creative flame will blaze.   

Burn brightly this week, dear readers!

(And I’d love to hear your reading of this card in the comments.)

Mermaids on Retreat: Photos & Doodle-Sketches

Last weekend, I traveled with my mermaid sisters to Orcas Island for our annual Imbolc/Brigids Day retreat. We are a circle of women who first gathered together during the Goddess classes I taught in the 90's. They went on to complete the priestess training program I created. I have long since stepped down as "leader" and am glad to be one of a circle of equals. I have many other dear friends locally and around the country — but there is something very special about sharing your soul with a group of women that you have known intimately in sacred space for nearly fifteen years.

We spent most of the weekend talking and listening, cooking and eating, walking and laughing. This year we chose topics for our rounds — Health, Finances, Work/Career, Relationships, Spiritual Path, What We Care About the Most. And at the end, we set goals for the coming year. We would go around the circle by topic and each woman had a chance to speak as briefly or as long as she liked about that issue in her life. Then the rest jumped in with feedback or questions. The process becomes a cauldron for self-discovery and reflection, and I believe we all emerge from the Retreat with new energy and new clarity about our lives.

Oh, are you wondering why we call ourselves Mermaids? I wrote about that here, a few years back.

I opened a new sketchbook and sat and doodle-sketched throughout the weekend. I'm sharing some of those doodle sketches here. Please, be kind! These are not even remotely polished like my professional work. They are done solely for my own pleasure. It's pretty fun though, how I've managed to capture the essence or attitude of the mermaid sisters through a few simple lines.

Blessed be.