Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

Moving Day

It’s been a long time coming, but I finally moved my blog to a WordPress site called Gaian Soul.  I started my blog here on the Typepad platform in September 2003, and today I successfully moved all seven years of blog posts over there (in spite of Mercury Retrograde!). 

I originally started this blog to have some company during the years I spent creating the Gaian Tarot. Now that the deck is finished and is making its way in the world, I decided I wanted to have a new site that would encompass my interest in Tarot but not be limited to it.

So I came up with the title “Gaian Soul,” and the tagline: “At the crossroads of Creativity, Nature and Spirituality is . . . Transformation.”  And that pretty much sums up who I am and what I care about.

I invite you to take a look around the new site (yes, several areas are not quite done) and subscribe to my blog through email or RSS.

And if you haven’t already checked it out, I’d love for you to have some of my free stuff!

Please update your links and your RSS feeds to the new site. I won't be posting here anymore. 

Thanks for coming along on this wonderful journey with me.  I’m grateful for your company!

The Gardener: A Business Vision (or, "Your Ideal Day")

In the Gaian Tarot Circle, we’ve been studying one Gaian Major Arcana card a month. This month’s card is the Gardener (aka the Empress).  Even though I created this card a few years back and know it intimately, I’m finding it has new and timely messages for me. A couple of nights ago, a group of us from the GTC had a conversation about the Gardener card on a teleseminar call. 

 

The key insight that emerged for me during the call is that the Gardener card is my exact model for how I want my business to be.  There's clearly been an enormous amount of work done — look Ma, no weeds! — but the Gardener has co-created with the nature spirits and with Mama Gaia Herself to create a lush, fertile, abundant garden.  And . . . she is relaxed, happy, healthy, and enjoying the "fruits of her labors"!  And she is pregnant with her next project . . .

I’m a Capricorn and a triple earth-sign to boot, so I have a tendency towards overwork and work-aholism.  Sometimes I feel guilty for taking an entire weekend off.  (I know, I know . . .)  So I’m very excited to have this card as a model for how I want my business to be.  Abundant, prolific, lots of hard work done . . . and I’m taking time to relax and enjoy it all.  Oh yeah!

There’s nothing more powerful than a clear vision of how you want your life and your business to be.  If you don’t know where you’re going, how can you possibly get there?

Many moons ago — well, back in the early 80’s — I read a book that had an enormous impact on my life.  That book was Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want by Barbara Sher. I still have my original copy with all my notes scribbled in the margins. I don’t think I did all the exercises in the book, but the one I did do (more than once) is the “Ideal Day” exercise. This was incredibly powerful for me, because it allowed me to dream about what I really wanted for my life.  Back in the early 80’s the highlights of my “Ideal Day” were: 

What Does "Right Livelihood" Mean to You?

Last week I asked my newsletter readers and my blog readers to answer a few questions about the content for the “right livelihood” e-course I’m currently creating. 

One question I asked had to do with the term “right livelihood.” I was interested in how people responded to it as a possible name for the course. 

I found it quite interesting that a number of people didn’t seem to realize that the term is a Buddhist one.  It’s part of the “Noble Eightfold Path” — eight precepts that all begin with the word “Right.”  

never assume . . .

I assumed that most people who are spiritually-minded would recognize the term, but I was wrong — and we all know what they say about assuming!

“wrong” livelihood?

A number of people objected to the term as they felt it implied that there is a “wrong” way to earn one’s living.  And actually, according to Buddhism, they’re right. (I’m not a practicing Buddhist, so please correct me if I’m wrong here.) The Eight-Fold Path directive is to earn your living in an ethical manner, that does no harm. Specifically, there are injunctions against: trading in weapons; trading in people (slavery or prostitution); trading in meat (including breeding animals for slaughter); trading in alcohol or addictive drugs; trading in any poisonous or toxic product.

All of those would constitute a “wrong” livelihood. We could make our own list of injunctions which, in this day and age, might include things like trading in products that require a huge carbon footprint.  

earn your living with great joy and be of service to the world

The connotation of “right livelihood” today, especially to those of us who came of age in the 60's, is about more than finding an ethical way to do business (as important as that is). It has more to do with earning your living while being of service to the world. And, for me, it assumes that the thing that gives you the most joy is the way you can best be of service to the world. In fact, if something does give you great joy, that’s a significant clue that it is the unique gift you have to offer the world. And the world is waiting for what you have to offer.

“Vocation is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need,” wrote Presbyterian minister Frederick Buechner.

What does “right livelihood” mean to you?

(Image above is a detail of the Gaian Tarot Six of Earth.)

Right Livelihood or Soul Work Secrets? questions for you . . .

Dear Readers,

I know I'm not the only person out there who wants to make an abundant living doing the work they love. Most of you know that my life changed pretty dramatically this past year, as I made the change from doing my "heart & soul work" part-time to doing it full-time. I have a fabulous coach in Elizabeth Genco Purvis, and I've studied marketing and business techniques from other teachers as well.

I believe that each of us has a unique gift to share with the world. I know from first-hand experience how frustrating it can be to not have enough time or energy to put into your soul work because you're too busy making a living at a "real" job.  (Of course there's many of us who love our "real" jobs.  I'm just talking to the folks who'd like to try their hand at being a "spirit-rich entrepreneur," as Elizabeth says.)

So I'm in the midst of creating an e-course on "Right Livelihood" for those of you who either have a dream about pursuing your soul-work as a business, or who are already doing it part-time and want to take it full-time. 

If this is something you're interested in, I'd love it if you could help me create the curriculum for this course by answering a few questions in the comments section.

• Do you need help clarifying the vision for your soul-centered business?
• Are you clear about the kind of work you are called to do, but don't know how to start getting your business off the ground?
• What do you see as the biggest obstacle(s) to moving into your soul work full-time?
• What is the biggest challenge you have in taking your business to the next level?
• What do you most need help with?
• Do you like the name "Right Livelihood" for the course? How about "Soul Work Secrets"? Any other ideas?

Thank you! I appreciate your help so much.