Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

Deep, deep thanks

Just wanted to offer up a prayer of gratitude, and thank all of you who pre-ordered the Gaian Tarot Limited Edition during the October Special Offer.  Just before midnight last night (the cut-off date and time), the 350th order came in.  This number exceeded my hopes and expectations.  

The success of the Special Offer is due not only to the project itself (the deck and book and goodies that come along with it), but also to the marketing plan.  Sometimes I think I worked as hard on crafting the marketing plan as I did on the whole deck!  Well, not quite, but sometimes it felt like it. I want to acknowledge and honor the Marketing Goddess, Elizabeth Genco Purvis, for her guidance during this process, as well as the other women who were in the Abundant Business Mastermind Group with me. 

And the lesson here, dear Readers, is this:  if I can do it, so can you!  (Every one of us has a special gift to give to the world.  What's yours?  And how are you offering it to the world?)

I'm pretty thrilled.  And although I was not quite prepared for the mountain of admin work it would take to process the orders, print & sign & package the gifts etc, I am not complaining.  What a joy to be able to produce this deluxe package for a group of people who are really going to appreciate it!

The Limited Edition is still available for pre-order and it will be ready by Spring Equinox or sooner.  And the Llewellyn mass market version will be out in 2011. So there's something for everyone!

While many of you are working on your novels by participating in NaNoWriMo in November, I'll be writing like crazy this month too. But it will be non-fiction.  I'll be finishing up the companion book to the Gaian Tarot, reworking those last few pieces of art and getting the art files ready to go to the printer.  Then, I'll be designing the book and getting it ready for the printer.  I'm really looking forward to a couple of months of intense creative work.

My heart is very full this morning.  Deep, deep thanks.

Blessed be!

Three of Water - Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

Three of Water 

Ah now, don’t they look like they’re having fun?  Where in the world am I going to find time this coming week to frolic and play with my friends?   Perhaps it’s more of an inner attitude, to be reminded to keep a light-hearted attitude as I go about my business this week, and to rejoice in the bonds of friendship.  Although there is that Halloween party coming up next Saturday night . . .

And what about you, dear Readers?  What does this card say to you?

Interviews, we have Interviews

Last week, the esteemed Mary K. Greer, one of the grand High Priestesses of the Tarot world, featured the Gaian Tarot on her blog. Here's an excerpt from her post:

Mary: Is there a particular kind of question or issue that your deck is ideally suited to respond to?

Joanna: It’s designed for people who want to go into the depths of the issue at hand, and is not really a deck for superficial questions.  It’s for people who are walking a spiritual path, especially those who find sustenance through their connection with the natural world.  I’ve been told by readers who use the Majors-only deck with their clients that it cuts right to the heart of the matter at hand.  Because people recognize themselves in the figures on the cards, they also find inspiration in them and can envision solutions to their problems.

It also seems to lend itself quite well to Rachel Pollack’s “Wisdom Readings,” in which we ask about the larger issues of life.  Two readers that I know, James Wells and Carolyn Cushing, have developed Wisdom Questions for this deck that focus on what we can all do to heal the Earth in this time of global climate crisis.

Today, the lovely Leonie of GoddessGuidebook.com posted her interview with me.  She asked me how I found the Goddess within, which took me back about 30 years.  And she asked what my favorite cards were.  That was hard to choose! Here's an excerpt from her post:

Leonie:  How did you discover the Goddess in you?

Joanna:  Oh my. That’s going back a few years. I spent most of my 20’s in church, as a fundamentalist, charismatic Christian. I was married with two small children, a stay-at-home mom with a husband who didn’t make much money. My whole life was circumscribed by the church. I don’t even remember popular music or films from that era. In the late 70’s I had a “feminist epiphany” and realized that the church I attended was not about love, it was about power. The church leadership was interested in having power over the lives of the congregation, and men were taught to have power over women. I pulled my children out of Christian school and left the church. My husband followed, rather reluctantly. [more . . .]

And rumor has it that Arwen may be posting an interview with me this week too, so stay tuned.  :-)

New Tarot Amulets w/a Halloween theme!

I now have a few new Tarot Amulet necklaces available to purchase. Many of these have an All-Hallows theme featuring the Elder of Fire. I'll have more up on the website in a couple of weeks, but thought some of you might like to wear a sparkly fire-colored Tarot Amulet necklace for Hallowe'en! Check them all out here:

http://www.gaiantarot.com/shop/amulets/

The luscious beading, of course, is by Lunaea Weatherstone.

Two of Air - Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

The Two of Air

I love this card because it reminds me to slow down and to find the silence at the heart of our busy lives.   This week, as I package the thank-you gifts and prints for the lovely folks who pre-ordered the Limited Edition, as I deal with banks and PayPal, as I pack warm clothing then get on a plane headed for Maine . . .  I’ll remember to take some time each day for silence, for listening to the birds, for listening to the wind, for “proceeding at the pace of guidance."

And what about you, dear Readers?  What does this card say to you?

Open for Pre-Orders!

Yes, I opened the doors yesterday to pre-orders for the Gaian Tarot Limited Edition.   Whew!   What a wild ride it was yesterday, with orders flooding in.  I'm so grateful for such a wonderful community.

If you haven't clicked on through yet, you can find all the juicy details here.

Blessed be. 

Coming next Tuesday: Pre-order the Gaian Tarot Limited Edition!

Be sure to watch for a special announcement in my blog and newsletter next Tuesday October 6th — I'll be opening the doors to pre-sales for the Gaian Tarot Limited Edition!  I've put together a truly fabulous package for you, with some extra added incentives for pre-ordering during the month of October. 

You can bookmark this link now - or check it out today and read what Mary K. Greer and other Tarot authors, teachers and readers are all saying about the Gaian Tarot. 

Meanwhile, I'm off to San Francisco and BATS tomorrow! 

Blessings to all.

Elder of Earth (King of Pentacles)

     Well, here she is, the 78th card.   

Whew!

I'm so glad to end the deck on such a positive, high note.  (It's not the true end, of course; I'm still going to completely redo the 5 of Water, and revise a few other cards).  But this is still a kind of completion. And how perfect to end with One who mastered the art of manifestation in the physical world. 

A woman sits in her lush autumnal garden, spinning wool into yarn that will eventually become sweaters, scarves and hats for the winter to come. 

Sister Deer comes to visit and munch on the windfall apples, but pauses to gaze at the viewer, as if to say: And what are you doing in my back yard?

As we gaze as the Elder of Earth, we are reminded of the Three Fates:  She Who Spins, She Who Weaves, and She Who Cuts the thread of life. She will play each of those roles in turn, but as for today, she spins.

And what does the Elder of Earth say to you, dear Readers?

Ace of Earth - Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

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

The Ace of Earth

Ah.  Well it’s really lovely to turn up this card — the first card in the suit of Earth — just as I am finishing up the artwork for the last card in this suit, the Elder of Earth.   There’s a definite sense of completion here, especially since I am a triple Earth sign myself.

(I just realized that I also gave the Elder of Earth a deer — a doe, a mother deer — as her animal ally.  That wasn’t a conscious connection to the fawn in the Ace of Earth, it just “felt” right.  Lovely.)

Lately I have been pondering the evolution (or, rather, devolution) of my relationship with the Earth over the years I’ve been working on the Gaian Tarot.  I’m still as grounded as I ever was, in the sense of always rooting spiritual concepts or realities in the physical world.  I’m still in love with my “Place.”  But in the past couple of years especially, I have spent so much time focusing on work for hire and work on the artwork for the Gaian Tarot, that I have not spent as much time in Nature as I used to.  This is also, in part, a consequence of moving off the island.  I don’t go on daily walks the way I used to.  I no longer have a regular practice of going to a “secret spot” the way I used to.  I no longer take a sketch journal outside and sketch just for the meditation and pure pleasure of it.  I’m not gardening either. 

Kind of ironic, don’t you think?  This is something I definitely need to change.  

A couple of folks have asked me what creative project will rush in to fill the space that will be left when I finish the Gaian Tarot.  Well I have all sorts of new art mediums (like encaustic) that I want to experiment with.  But more than anything, right now I am longing to take my sketchbook outside and just be, walking and sitting and sketching in the embrace of Mama Gaia and Mama Ocean.  

And so, I am profoundly grateful to see the Ace of Earth today, with its promise of a new beginning.   

Here’s what I’ve written previously about the Ace of Earth:

The Ace of Earth shows a newborn fawn nestled up against the base of a red cedar, surrounded by the unfolding spirals of young fiddlehead ferns.

Deer are common yet magical animals, who have the reputation of being able to lead one into the Otherworld. Grown stags symbolize virility and strength, as well as the wildness of the woods. Of the four creatures depicted in the Aces, only Fawn stays close to home for the first few days after birth, where its mother nurses it frequently.

Divinatory Meanings: The birth of new strength, grace and stability. Manifestation in the physical world. A strong bond between mother and children. The spiral path between the physical world and the Otherworld begins to unfold. Roots run deep.

What does the card say to you, dear Readers?

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!