Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

A Blessed Equinox

My friend Cate Kerr of Beyond the Fields We Know wrote a lovely piece on Autumn Equinox, posted on her blog this morning.  I especially like what she says about this day being a threshold or liminal time, the border between summer and fall.

My friend Beth Owl's Daughter has a great post too, a bit witchier than Cate's.  I'l like to let them both speak for me today, about this holy-day.

I marked the Day & Night of Balance (Dark Ascending) yesterday, by walking around a nearby lake and getting caught up on the gossip of the neighborhood: thimbleberries are long gone, blackberries are about all picked over, Doug fir cones are hanging low, dripping with fragrant sap. 

Blessed Equinox, everyone.

Elder of Water (King of Cups)

A fisherman rows his boat out into the sound just before sunrise on Summer Solstice.  It's an inbetween time and place:  between night and day, between shore and sea.

What secrets does the breeze at dawn have to tell?
 

I've just finished him, after several interruptions over the last month.  And I have to tell you: I really, really love him.  

 I'm going to quote from the interview that Catherine Chapman did with me in Tarot Elements last week. She had asked a question about my creative process:

More recently, it was time to start the Elder of Water and I was unhappy with the photo reference I had planned to use. So I started thinking about the qualities of a person who was over 70 years old and had spend his life on the water. He would need to be a fisherman, I thought, or someone who was intimately familiar with the tides and moods of the Ocean Mother at all times of day and night. I decided I wanted him out on the water, in a boat but not a canoe, because I already had done that in The Canoe (Chariot). A rowboat sounded right to me. So I knew I wanted an elderly man in a rowboat, out on the water. Then my eyes happened to land on a beautiful print I bought recently from Cari Ferraro, a calligraphy artist. I read the quote by Rumi:

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell. Don’t go back to sleep.”

Dawn! of course! The setting should be at dawn, that magical time of transformation that is always so silent. I’ve been in the habit of getting up before dawn on Summer Solstice the last few years with my circle of island sisters. We head to the east shore of the island to watch the sun rise over the mountains and light up the water with color. I searched through the photos I’ve taken at dawn on Solstice morning, and found one that was exquisite and perfect — sky and water in shades of pink, violet and blue. From there, I remembered a picture book that my children loved when they were kids —”Dawn” by Uri Shulevitz. It’s a beautiful account of being out on the water at dawn, in a rowboat. (Read it — it’s total magic.) And I had the inspiration for my Elder of Water.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, dear Readers!

An Interview with me about the Gaian Tarot

Catherine Chapman of Tarot Elements just posted an interview she did with me.  She asked great, juicy, thoughtful questions.   I think you'll enjoy reading it!

Where did the Gaian Tarot begin for you?

I had the desire to create a deck of my own back in the mid-80’s when I was deep into Goddess and Tarot studies, especially of the Motherpeace and RWS decks. But the thought of painting 78 cards was daunting. (Little did I know . . .) Later on, in the late 90’s, I went through a period of time where I let go of all my esoteric interests like tarot, astrology and ritual. I moved to a small, rural island, built a straw bale house with my husband and started a wilderness awareness course of studies — learning about the native plants and animals, going deep into the Spirit of Place.

She looked straight at me and said, “YOU have to do a Tarot deck!”

In late 2000, I was invited to be the Artist Guest of Honor at a conference in Chicago. A woman I’d never seen before walked up to my vending table on the first night. She was wearing a T-shirt decorated with a sequined version of the RWS High Priestess. She looked straight at me and said, “YOU have to do a Tarot deck!” I heard the voice of the Goddess speaking through her; it wasn’t just an offhand remark. That woman turned out to be Janet Berres, who was the founder and director of the International Tarot Society (now, sadly, defunct). Throughout the course of the weekend, people kept coming up to my table and asking “Didn’t you do a Tarot deck?” By the 12th or 13th time I heard this, I capitulated. Message received.

Read the rest of the interview here.

Thank you Catherine!

The Hermit - Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

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

The Hermit

I usually think of this card as reflecting the need to withdraw from the world for awhile, to commune with Mama Gaia and fill one’s inner well.  I did that this past weekend when I stayed with my mermaid sister Nora on the island we both love so well.  I had forgotten the quality of silence out there.  It’s not terribly noisy where I live now, but there are more cars and homes and neighbors than there are on the island.  More than the thick morning fog, more than the sunset and moonlight on the water, more than the eagle and heron flying overhead and the goldfinches at the feeder, more than the stacks of stones at the beach and the scarlet-colored jellyfish coming so close to shore — it was the quality of silence that held my attention this past weekend.  

I think the Hermit is challenging me to bring that quality of stillness and silence into my work this coming week.

What does the card say to you, dear Readers?

Lammas at the River

Lammas is the first of the three harvests, with Autumn Equinox and Samhain (Halloween) to follow.  For me, it always carries a bittersweet feeling, especially since my dad died just before Lammas three years ago.  Summer is at its height with blazing heat, yet the leaves have already begun to fall.  The turn towards Autumn has undoubtedly begun.  

Our journey begins as we drive through farmlands and cornfields, leaving the city and suburbs far behind.

More photos after the jump.

Moments of Grace: Lavender by Sun & Moon

Harvested lavender & lilies with sisters the other night under a crescent moon & rosy-golden sunset, on a hill overlooking the western isles. Blessed be.

PSG: Unplugged

Photo found here.
Craig and I returned home in the wee hours this morning from Camp Zoe, Missouri in the Ozark Mountains, where we spent nine days at Pagan Spirit Gathering. It was a true “time out of time,” a time between the worlds. Even though some people had access to the internet (though not cell phone coverage), not much news from the world beyond us trickled down. And that was just fine with me.

I discovered that I love being unplugged, both from the internet and the phone.  Nine whole days. What happens when you unplug?  It’s all about slow time, natural time, as my friend Waverly Fitzgerald so often writes about. The days at Camp Zoe were divided into sections that reminded me of medieval Hours:  Waking; Morning Meeting; Noontime Meal; Noontime Concert; Workshop 1, Workshop 2 (or, River Play Time); Evening Meal; Evening Concert; Evening Ritual; Drum/Fire Circle; Bedtime.

Moments of Grace: Blossoms Overhead

When I walk out my front door and look up, this is what I see.

"May all eyes be open to the transforming delight of Summer this day; may the earth be made glad by the dance of life, may we discern the blessed peace of the Plain of Delight upon our planet." 

- Caitlin Matthews, Celtic Devotional

My Heart's Home

From the moment I drove off the ferry onto the island, I knew I was home.

No other place on the planet that I’ve ever visited has tugged on my heartstrings the way this one has.  I am relaxing into the knowledge that it is my true heart’s home and that someday I will live there again.

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.