Tag: tarot

Life Purpose

from Rachelle Charman’s Chakra Reading Cards

Some of us learn our life purpose early. Either we are drawn to it, or we are guided to it. I would say in my case both, and I’ve never wavered in knowing what it is and who I need to be to serve it.

Every experience, every triumph, every mistake, every person and place–they have all been part of it.

This does not mean that it has been without fear and false starts.

Here are a very few words from the card’s description:

It is our birthright to walk our path…ask yourself what it is that you love to do…what brings your heart joy…fear is a natural part…and is often created when you hold yourself back…

Be brave for yourself.

Tiny Tuesday!

I believe all writers are listeners and watchers from an early age. What we listen to and watch possibly shapes the kind of fiction we will write. I thought about elaborating on this, but my words began to sound almost judgmental. I don’t want them to be. I think any artist’s path has its own reason that isn’t mine to judge.

In my work in progress, I have two listeners and two watchers. I didn’t intend for it to be that way, it happened organically. I try to step aside and let them travel their own paths, too. This is one of the surprises and satisfactions of rewriting a thirty-year-old manuscript. I have learned, and that’s better for them.

Happy Independence Day!

The Renaissance-inspired Medieval Scapini Tarot by Luigi Scapini is one of the first Tarot decks I ever bought, oh… nearly thirty years ago? My friend Princess Patti told me decks should be wrapped in silk, and Lynne donated that silk Oleg Cassini scarf to the cause. The wooden box is one I handpainted, and it and the scarf have always been the permanent home of this deck.

It really is a lovely deck to look at–I’m honestly not much of a Tarot card reader, though I like to have mine read, and I have often read for my friend Big Hair Lisa, though not from this deck, and have also read for Debby, Geof, Geraldine, and my Four Princes (they being James, Timothy, Timmy, and Jim). If I never read for my friend Steve C, I should have, because he likes to analyze things and Tarot certainly lends itself to that.

Of course, when I opened this today, I pulled the Fool. Not at all surprised and one of my favorite cards. From our ever helpful Internet:

To be the Fool is exhilarating, so freeing.

Although The Fool is often depicted carrying a tote over his shoulder, The Fool has barely enough room for a toothbrush and maybe a sandwich for his next meal inside his tote. He has made no plans for his journey, he is joyously anticipating whatever comes next. Preparedness is not in his vocabulary or mindset. Think about it, if you were going off on an adventure you would probably plan for it weeks ahead of time, scheduling every move in advance. In general we don’t like to be confronted with the unexpected. Whereas The Fool, begins his circular journey at the zero point, full of anticipation and without worries or expectation. Zero is a very good starting point. The Fool offers opportunity to shed your emotional baggage, heal past hurts, and begin anew.

Anyway, the scarf is red, white, and blue, a reminder for me to wish you a happy, safe, and for your animals, fireworks-free Independence Day. May you always enjoy the abundance of freedoms our founders meant for us to have and our forebears fought for more than once.

Courage, citizens!

Relax

From The Relax Deck, I pulled the “Freeing Time” card:

Many of us live as slaves to time: rushing off to work, then hurrying home again, with precious little free time to do anything else. We should remember, though, that seconds, minutes, and hours are illusory, for the clock is a human invention. On weekends and during time away from work, take off your watch and do things as and when you wish. This will allow your body to re-establish its natural rhythm and make you feel more relaxed.

Can’t help it that this makes me laugh. Replace “take off your watch” with “put down your phone.” Then someone remind me: What are weekends?

The point is good, nonetheless.

Button Sunday

I don’t know why this button makes me laugh so hard, but so be it.

Early afternoon one day, Jim and I were sitting in the office drinking coffee and talking when I spotted a female cardinal under one of our trees. Jim turned around to watch for her and was rewarded by the sight of her mate in his gorgeous redness. He’d never seen a cardinal “in person,” so hey, Houndstooth Hall is like a nature preserve. (We won’t talk about the sighting of the palmetto bug about the size of the cardinal…)

The day we went to Body Mind & Soul, I was studying the shelves of Tarot and other cards to see if anything caught my eye–and the animal spirit guide deck did. There was an open box for interested shoppers, and when I turned the deck over, the card on top was the Cardinal. Jim and I locked surprised eyes; Debby spotted an unopened deck; and Jim made a gift of it to me. Now I need to learn how to read and lay out this deck in my leisure time. (ha ha, leisure time, so funny)

Pet Prose: Spyro

Author photo.

“Some days it felt like she had to work hard not to be cynical. It could be that she was tired to the bone. It could be that she never felt surprised by people any more. She’d had many years to see the best and worst of them, but it was their predictability, finally, that had worn her down.

Still, every night around dusk, she took the tools of her profession to the same spot outside the fenced park where the vendors gathered to wait for the tourists. She set up her table and covered it with the beautiful cloth a friend had brought from her travels in India decades before. The colors had dimmed, but in the light cast by the period street lamps and her candles, that didn’t matter. The fabric was just exotic enough to lend authenticity to the service she offered.

She placed her crystals and wands strategically on the table and took her cards from their scrap of silk. A stick of nag champa and a cleansing ritual, and she was ready for business. Until the first clients came, she could observe at leisure. She noticed the skateboarder, whose name she didn’t know, and his dog Milly. Some of the others didn’t like the skateboarders, but she’d long ago stopped being quite so precious about the marketplace. Skateboarders, musicians, beggars, shamans, or charlatans–there was room for all of them. Besides, Milly was a beautifully behaved dog and her young man was always polite. His eyes were intelligent and had a bit of mischief. As far as she was concerned, the world needed a little less meanness and a little more mischief.

Behind her, on the other side of the little park, she heard the cellist and the violinist begin. She closed her eyes for just a moment, breathing in whatever good energy there was, and then heard a sound she’d never thought to hear again, certainly not in the middle of the city. She tried to process the clamor of people’s reactions to what they’d heard, then opened her eyes just as the skateboarder and Milly hurried by. He tossed her a pouch and said, ‘Hold on to that until I find you again.’

She felt a moment of confusion and then, magnificently, wonder. The night was suddenly full of surprise.”

From Spyro’s novel Scorpio’s Deck.
 

I take photos. I write. My volunteer job is taking photos of rescued dogs and cats transported by the rescue group whose records I manage. Since working and volunteering don’t leave me a lot of time to write, I’m spending 2017 borrowing from what these dogs and cats are writing. They said it’s okay.

They’re only trying to help

In preparation for our move, there’ll be a lot of purging and packing, but right now I’m sick with some malady–at least it’s not ebola–so I’m not in the mood for filling boxes. I was working at my desk when I glanced into the dining room and saw Sarah Beth and Gina Ann pushing something around. I couldn’t figure out what toy it was, so I finally walked in there. It wasn’t a toy. It was an old painted box they’d removed from my bookshelves and managed to open.


“You don’t know how to read!” I told them. “Much less read Tarot cards.”

I put the box on a higher shelf, thinking, No big deal. Later, I could tell they were arguing over something, so I went into the living room, where I found this.


It’s what’s left of a coaster from Sloppy Joe’s from my trip to Key West back in 1987. It was in the box with the Tarot cards. And though I thought it was a nice memento, apparently the wieners thought I needed to get rid of it.


“We’re helpers!”

Good thing all my dolls are already off site in storage.