Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

Straw Bale Home for Sale on a Jewel of a NW Island

Here are of two views of the great room at Heron House. This is the house that Craig and I built together, lived in for eight wonderful years, and are now releasing to a new owner who will love it as much we do.  Are you that person?  Or do you know someone who might be?   Click here for all the info on the listing and on the island community and location.

"This straw bale home has a unique beauty and feel with its softly curved walls, 10' high wood and beam ceilings, deep window wells and R-48 insulating factor! It's like living inside a sculpture. Special features include a gracious entry with lovely stained glass heron window/door, beach rock fireplace, guest wing with private bath, master bedroom with a lovely tiled bath and "moon window", a second floor bonus room, plus a studio space above the 2 car garage. There is good indoor-outdoor flow with French doors leading to a private, covered deck. The location has a rural feel, and is just around the corner from the beach, adjacent to undevelopable land in back."

Blessed Be.

The Bounty of Summer

The morning's stash from the Farmers Market — who could resist?  An island friend was selling his produce and said he'd be stir-frying up new potatoes, sugar snap peas and garlic tops for dinner — we moaned and bought his peas and garlic to go with the potatoes and salmon we have at home.  Radishes for Craig's tacos and Rainier cherries from the other side of the mountains at $10 a pound — ouch.  But oh, so sweet. With every bite we remember we're supporting an organic farm family who've had a rough spring.

And this has nothing to do with summer or good food but I just want to thank Arwen for such a lovely review of this blog.  It's really something, sometimes, to "see ourselves as others see us" (a nod to Robbie Burns).  Thank you Arwen!

8 of Air, 8 of Swords

Are you wondering why this 8 of Air is so different from the RWS 8 of Swords?   It’s because I’m looking at the energy of the number (8) and how it’s expressed in its element (in this case, Air — which is about communication, conversation, making plans, study, talking and listening — all that good Gemini/Sag/Aquarian stuff!).

If you remember, I’m following Teresa Michelsen’s vision of the numbers as 3 sets of 3 mini-dramas, plus the transitional 10.  The three middle cards (2, 5 and 8) are the challenge cards in each of these mini-dramas.  I see the 2’s as a test of choice; the 5’s as a test from the world outside; and the 8’s as a test of transforming the vision or intention of the 7 into reality. 

In the 8 of Air, we see a small group of people sitting in circle.  They’re holding council.  One man is talking while the others are actively listening.  Perhaps they are planning a political action, remembering the words of Margaret Mead: “Never doubt the ability of a small group of concerned citizens to change the world.”  Perhaps they are working to achieve consensus on an issue that is important to their bonds as a spiritual group.  Maybe they are a peer counseling group. Or they could be participating in the deep transformation that can happen when we tell our authentic stories, and others listen deeply from their hearts.

In the RWS 8 of Swords, we may feel blind and unable to move.  It’s more of a challenge from the inside out.  In my 8 of Air, the challenge has to do with making a vision into a reality, with the help of others.  But it’s also about the challenge of working with other people in small groups.  Anyone who has spent hours in circle, attempting to reach consensus, will understand the shadow side of this card!

May we all learn to give good attention to others, to listen deeply and to listen well.

This card is dedicated to James Wells and his work with council circle.

Home from the Readers Studio

I’m home from another deeply satisfying Readers Studio.  This is one Tarot event I will just not miss, even though the ten-plus hours of travel to and from the east coast is exhausting.  (Yesterday was my rest, recoup, and reconnect-with-my-sweetie day.)   

Even now I have a collage of mad images and snippets of conversations, faces and readings dancing around in my head.   I realized on the way home that the folks I connect with at the Readers Studio are becoming another family for me and these events are our family reunions.  Even though we may only see each other once or twice a year, our bonds are strengthened each time and go a little bit deeper. 

I love being with people who really “get” me and value the work that I do.  I love being able to share my unique gifts with others and be appreciated for it.  (Who wouldn’t?)

I’ve been involved in a number of spiritual and mundane groups over the years, and I’ve found that the people of the Tarot tribe are some of the warmest and most generous people anywhere.  There is a significant lack of superiority/ego among the Tarot luminaries — the authors, teachers and deck creators.  They are accessible and totally down to earth.  Is there something, do you think, about a lifelong study of Tarot that helps people maintain this balance of self-confidence and humility?  I wouldn’t be surprised.

A-Taroting We Will Go

I just watched the sun rise over Manhattan from my 11th floor hotel room in Newark, and a lovely orange ball of fire it was!  It's warm here on the east coast — what a change from home.  I'm here at the Tarot School's Readers Studio and already spent yesterday evening hanging out with some of my Tarot buddies -- James and the Toronto contingent, Corrine and Dan from Minneapolis, Julie from Watertown, Wisconsin, Thalassa from San Francisco,  Debbie from NYC (who so kindly allowed me to ship my vending gear to her flat in the city) and more lovely people I just met.  The hotel bar concocted a number of Tarot-inspired drinks, including the "Taro-tini." I tasted Debbie's "Death" and it's definitely a winner, though I'm more likely to stick with Temperance (a virgin strawberry daiquiri).

I'm headed downstairs now to set up my vending table, looking forward to a grand day of laughter and learning.   See ya later!

Random Thoughts on Earth Day

(Earth Day morning!  This is the same view as the photo I took two days ago. Welcome Spring!)

I have a few thoughts and links for you today, on Earth Day 2008.

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, makes a good case in this NY Times editorial for why we should bother to “go green” these days, in the face of discouragement and despair that whatever we do won’t be enough to turn the tide of global climate change. 

It’s about a change in consciousness. 

“Sometimes you have to act as if acting will make a difference, even when you can’t prove that it will,”  Pollan writes.   “That, after all, was precisely what happened in Communist Czechoslovakia and Poland, when a handful of individuals like Vaclav Havel and Adam Michnik resolved that they would simply conduct their lives ‘as if’ they lived in a free society. That improbable bet created a tiny space of liberty that, in time, expanded to take in, and then help take down, the whole of the Eastern bloc.”

Do you know about Earth Hour, 8 PM your time tonight?

I read about this yesterday on Beth OwlsDaughter's blog, then received an email from Gaian Tarot reader Danielle Salerno.  I'm going to quote part of Danielle's email to me:

Earth Hour is an initiative run by the World Wildlife Federation to get the notice of the public on reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.  On Saturday March 29th, 2008 communities, individuals, and businesses across the globe will be turning off their lights for one hour, from 8pm to 9pm (local time).  Last year this was done in Sydney, Australia with very encouraging results (i.e. a 10.2% reduction in annual greenhouse gas emissions for the whole city), and this year it is being opened up to the rest of the world.

If each of us turns off our lights for one hour on Saturday night, it would make a big difference globally, both in reducing emissions and in increasing awareness about the seriousness of global warming.  More information about Earth Hour, including an online sign-up and free media can be found at www.earthhour.org.

And just now I stumbled across this report from CNN, "First cities go dark for Earth Hour" . . . Sydney has done it again!

I'm in!  I'll be turning the lights out tonight at 8:00.   How about you?

What You Give is What You Get

Hello dear readers . . . I sure have been scarce in the blogosphere this spring.   But you see, I am still SPPing — sorting, purging and packing.

My mermaid sister Nora spent four days with me last week, helping me to whip things into shape around here.   I really don't think I could have made it through all the emotional landmines without her.   She helped me to sort through all of my dad's things that we had put in the closet after he died.  I filled a bin of memorabilia (and labeled it!) for my son and granddaughter and gave some things away to Nora's kids (my dad was like a grandfather to them).  I gave away his Coast Guard dress uniforms to a local theatre group for costumes.  I felt so guilty about not wanting to keep them, but they were large and bulky.  Nora suggested a theatre group, and it was done.  Hooray!

Christine Kane has a great blog post today about decluttering.  I just had to laugh as I read about the things she says to "toss out right now" since I just finished tossing out many of the things on her list.  Breadmaker, anyone?  Ancient hand-crocheted doilies (or in my case, bad oil paintings by a long-gone aunt)?  A box of old cassette tapes? (I don't even have a cassette player anymore!)

Old Becomes New, Winter to Spring

Just lifting my head up from my ongoing sorting-purging-packing routine to say Happy Spring!   Blessed Ostara!   May we all rejoice in the new life sprouting up around us, whether or not it's still buried in snow!

One of the many projects I'm juggling right now is helping Craig with the marketing for the old Victorian house he spent the last 9 months rehabbing.  When we bought this house it was a mess; some realtors thought it should be a teardown.  But Craig had a vision, and he pulled it off.  Pretty dang impressive!  It even turns out that he has great interior design skills.  Who woulda thunk it. 

So if you know anyone who is interested in moving to Bellingham and is in the market for a 1906 Victorian remodeled with a modern floor plan and a spectacular view of Bellingham Bay and the San Juan Islands . . . visit www.2605Eldridge.com (a nice little website I made with iWeb) and check it out.   Open House is this coming weekend!

And may Flora dance in your garden!

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.