Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

And "Church of the Old Mermaids" goes to . . .

xJane!

Congratulations!   I've sent you a private email asking for your mailing address.

Everyone else -- treat yourself, and buy a copy of COTOM for yourselves this Solstice!

Yet Another Raffle! Giving away a copy of "Church of the Old Mermaids"!

I promised one more raffle before Solstice, and it's a good one!  Sister Kim Mermaid will send the lucky winner a copy of her wonderful novel Church of the Old Mermaids.  Just leave a comment at the end of this post between now and Friday morning December 19th at 10 AM PST.  By now you know the drill!  :-)

Myla Alvarez, novice, walks into the Sonoran desert near Tucson, Arizona and begins telling stories about the Old Mermaids who were washed ashore onto the New Desert when the Old Sea dried up. In this mystical new world, they lived, created, and walked in beauty. Myla finds sustenance and meaning in their lives and stories. When an old friend returns to the Old Mermaid Sanctuary, Myla questions everything about her life. What if Homeland Security discovers the refugees she harbors at the sanctuary? Will the Old Mermaids come to her aid? Church of the Old Mermaids is a tale of redemption, love, compassion, and mystery.

Be sure to visit Kim's Old Mermaids blog, where she's writing and posting new stories about the Old Mermaids all the time, like this one.  

And if you don't win the raffle, you just might have to buy a copy for yourself.  Wit and wonder, love and mystery.  What else could one want for Solstice?

Another Raffle! Giving away a copy of the Mythical Goddess Tarot!

We had so much giving away a copy of Kris Waldherr's Doomed Queens last week, that I thought we'd do it again.

This time we are giving away a gorgeous new Goddess-themed Tarot deck, the Mythical Goddess Tarot by author Sage Holloway and artist Katherine Skaggs.

Just like last time - leave a comment at the end of this post between now and Friday morning Dec. 12th at 10 AM.  Once more I'll copy the names down, mix 'em up in a basket and have Craig pull a name.  Sage and Katherine will ship a copy to the lucky winner!

When I first heard there was a new Goddess deck available, I honestly wondered what it could offer that hadn't already been done (with the Goddess Tarot, Daughters of the Moon, Triple Goddess Tarot, Goddess Inspiration Oracle, and other Goddess decks.) But one glance at the first card — Uzume, the Fool — caught my attention and made me laugh, and I was hooked. 

Gaian Tarot Publishing News

I have the signed contract in hand . . . so I can finally let you all know.  The Gaian Tarot deck and book will be published by Llewellyn Worldwide in the spring of 2012!

Yes, I know it seems like a long way off, but Llewellyn's publishing schedule is already set for 2010 and 2011.  Crazy, huh?  But this gives me a year to finish  the last four cards, the companion book, and to rework some of the artwork on cards that could be better.  I doubt I will ever do another complete Tarot deck, so I'd like this one to represent my best work.

There are many people to thank — and you all know who you are — but right now I'd like to especially thank Barbara Moore for presenting my proposal to the folks at Llewellyn.  Yay Barbara!

I may be releasing a collector's edition of the 78-card deck before the Llewellyn version is published (and thanks to Llewellyn for allowing this).  If I do, I will use a professional green printer and go deluxe all the way.  I will have to figure out if I can afford to publish an edition of say, 200.  It will be expensive to produce and therefore to sell.  It would be helpful to me to know how many of you might be interested in buying one.  The price could go as high as $200.00.  Yes, not a consumer edition, I know.  (It would include the full deck, a booklet, a beautiful bag and some extra added goodies.)

Thanks to all of you who have come along on this Fool's Journey with me!

Raffle: Giving away a copy of "Doomed Queens!"

I'm giving away a copy of Kris Waldherr's new book, Doomed Queens!

Just leave a comment at the end of this post between now and tomorrow morning at 10 AM PST.  I'll print off the names, cut 'em up, put 'em in basket, and choose.  Who will be the lucky winner?

I've been a fan of Kris' work since The Book of Goddesses was published many years ago.  I'm sure you know her Goddess Tarot and her Lover's Path Tarot and my personal favorite, the Goddess Inspiration Oracle.

With her newest book, Kris has turned her attention away from Goddesses to the dark side of female empowerment as expressed through the lives of tragic queens, "Royal Women Who Met Bad Ends, from Cleopatra to Princess Di." 

One of the reasons I love Kris' books so much is the presentation.  This book is like an oldtime chapbook, lushly illustrated with deckled-edged pages.  Just flipping through the pages is a real joy for any bibliophile.  And the text is full of dark humor.  Each story chronicles the life of a royal woman who either sought power or had power thrust upon her, and how it ultimately led to her death or disgrace.  It's an amusing way to learn forgotten bits of women's history, and to ponder how things have changed — or perhaps have not changed as much as we would like to think. Each tale has a cautionary moral at the end, like this one about Alexandra Romanov: "Don't trust a holy man who acts like the devil."

So leave a comment here sometime in the next 24 hours, and soon a copy of Doomed Queens will be winging its way to you!

A Meme for Book Lovers

Beth OwlsDaughter, she of the lovely daily devotional Owl's Wing blog, has tagged me with a book meme, which has nudged me to post a blog entry for the first time in two weeks.  Just when I was getting ready to write about 2008 being my Hermit year and how I'm craving more and more time in sacred solitude . . .  ah well, that can wait a day or two. Or three. Or fourteen.

Here's the rules of the meme . . .

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I reached out my hand to the credenza behind me and pulled the top book off the haphazard pile sitting there waiting to be shelved.  Ah ha!  It's Waverly's juicy new book, Slow Time: Recovering the Natural Rhythms of Life  . . .

"The farther north you go, the greater the likelihood of developing SAD, whose symptoms include decreased activity, overeating, oversleeping and weight gain. Now don't those actually sound like the normal reactions of an animal to a period of cold and darkness? Hibernating animals need stores of fat, both to protect them from cold and to provide energy during the long winter sleep."

Hmm . . .  I tag Waverly, Lunaea, Cate, Jade and Chavala.

Eight Random Facts about Me . . .

I was tagged for this meme by Kris at Inside Art and Words . . .

1.  I've never lived farther than 50 miles or so from the beaches of the west coast (and usually much closer), except for 10 months in 1973 when I lived in Denver, Colorado. (I grew up in west Los Angeles.)

2.  I became a born-again christian in 1972 and spent most of the 70's in church, so I don't recognize most pop songs from that era.  I left around 1980 when I had the revelation that the church was about power, not love. I used to sneak into the local community college and read copies of Ms. Magazine, which radicalized me.  The book that turned my life around at that time was:  From Housewife to Heretic by Sonia Johnson, the woman who was excommunicated from the Mormon church for supporting the ERA.  (Remember the ERA?)  I wasn't a Mormon, but her account of her experiences with the church had many parallels to mine.  That book introduced me to the feminist concept of patriarchy.

Kris Waldherr's Art & Words

Kris Waldherr very kindly highlighted my work on her blog, Inside Art and Words, today. I'm sure you've seen Kris' work before, in the Goddess Tarot, the Lovers Path Tarot, and the children's classic Book of Goddesses.  I'm excited about her illustrated novel, The Lover's Path, and am looking forward to her Goddess Inspiration Oracle which will come out this fall. I confess to visiting this page regularly to pull a Goddess Inspiration card. Check it out and pull a card of your own.  Thanks Kris, and blessings to you!

Siren Song

"Sing, dance, create. If you have to choose one, do all three at once."
—Sister Bridget Mermaid, Church of the Old Mermaids

I've been inspired by Cate's weekly postings of the "Mama Says Om" themes for months now and finally decided to give it a try myself.  This week's theme is "song," and the first thing that came to mind was Sister Kim Mermaid's excellent revisioning of the term "siren song."  Wikipedia tells us that "the term 'siren song' refers to an appeal that is hard to resist but that, if heeded, will lead to a bad result."  And we all remember those nasty stories about mermaids luring sailors to a watery grave with the haunting melody of their songs.  Definitely a demonization of the sacred feminine.

But leave it to the Old Mermaids to uncover — recover — create — a new meaning for the term.

A new Old Mermaids story

I just finished reading Sister Kim Mermaid's birthday present to me.

I chuckled, I chortled, I giggled and laughed out loud.  And at the end, I cried a little bit too.  Then I went to the stove and brewed up a blend of Old Mermaid Tears Tea and Reading Magical Tales Tea and poured myself a cup. 

Magic is afoot here, sister Mermaids!  My heart is full.