Eight of Pentacles - Owl Magic

Hard at work

In the predawn hours.

Owl keeps her company, 

Adds wisdom to power. 

Takes her time 

Honing her crafts and art. 

Always willing to learn more

Have more love in her heart. 

Pays attention to the details 

Committed to the process. 

Elbow grease and forehead sweat 

Sweet taste of success.

Learning the sacred trades,

The tools in their way 

No longer the apprentice, 

This artist has plenty to say

The rewards of patience, 

Enjoying health and wealth. 

Here is a woman 

Who truly loves herself.

Feeling like a Queen

 

Speak to the Queen, and the Queen will Answer
- Finnish Proverb

Being a triple Libra, I have always associated myself with the Queen of Swords. She is somewhat known to be cold-hearted and a little bit of a bitch,  but I always have taken that in stride, that being an acronym for Being In Total Control of Herself.

We see her here with a crown of butterflies, which usually I associate with her sister air sign Gemini, but it does show to me that she has flitting thoughts and can sample the nectar from every flower. She is also graced with a snowy owl, symbol of wintry wisdom, long-term survival, and the ability to see in the darkest of times.

The Queen of Wands purrs like a cougar. She knows she is a woman well loved, and she enjoys flirting across the spectrums. Yellow sunflowers burst around her; orange California poppies grace her arm tattoos. Sensuous and serene, her warm hold robes exude her being centered in her third chakra of will power. She is Will. She is Power.

Orcas accompany the Queen of Cups, matriarchs of the sea. Killer whales are one of the few animals that experience menopause, the sense that the grandmothers are here to tend to the generations. She knows storms and calm waters, typhoons and the slow growth of the clams, who witness the eon-long changes much like the rings on redwood trees. Her blue and purple robes evoke both the crown chakra and the third eye - The Queen of cups is deeply intuitive, pays attention to her dreams, and is in love with the Moon.

The Queen of Pentacles is enjoying the garden harvest, which is ripe with apples, grapes, roses, and pomegranates. The Tree of Life is carved on her throne. 

The king counted his money, she counted her honey, and now she is ready to both reap the abundance and save the seeds for future endeavors. She is seen with a hare, ears a-twitching, nibbling at the grasses, eyes darting everywhere. While calm, the hare is alert, ready to respond at any moment- that is her responsibility, her ability to respond.

The Tarot of a Rambling Rose soon available on Amazon!

Tarot for the Dogs

I had so much fun making my deck, The Tarot of a Rambling Rose. Now I'm working on the guidebook - it could take a bit. Meanwhile, I've sold half of my first printing, and will not reprint until next year, so if you're interested, send me a message!

Part of the fun was choosing a particular animal for each card. It seemed obvious to choose birds for the air cards, marine mammals for the water cards, etc. but what came up in both the minor and major Arcana were dogs. Now, I am a cat person, hence my companion calico cat through my journey through the tarot, but as I contemplated each card, I thought about dogs in my life...

Sweet Maisy dog, black lab, constant companion at the Herland Women's Book-Café during her time of seizures. Maisy was transpetual - a cat trapped in a dog's body, as honored in my book, Vibrissae. We see her here in the Eight of Pentacles as the loyal, steadfast friend who witnesses the hero as she carves the tree of life into the church walls. When you pull this card, notice being the apprentice, connect with peers, guilds, and colleagues to both offer and receive support in developing yourself now.

Doberman - as noted in Carolyn Gage's play, No Dobermans Allowed. Fitting for the Hierophant, the False Priest, who is unpredictable, power-hungry, and generally full of themselves. On one hand, "Abstinence makes the Church grow fondlers," and on the other hand, if you pull this card, maybe "let your karma run over your dogma."

We see both a domestic dog and a wolf on the Moon card, representing both our tame and wild selves, what ebbs and flows, but both parts want to howl at certain times, uniting with the pack, raising our voices, releasing our sorrows. Much like during COVID, when folks would bang pots and pans or howl from balconies, this card invites us to connect with our neighbors, friends, and allies in the most basic of ways.

A Love Bi Any Other Name

Speak to the Queen and the Queen will Answer - Norwegian proverb

Happy June! I've gone through a few iterations of the Lover's Card for my new deck and book, Tarot of a Rambling Rose, and I think the latest is just fabulous! 

Traditionally the Lover's Card has the man looking at the woman, the woman looking at the angel, the angel smiling down - the perfect love triangle? They are naked in their splendor, with the tree of life and the burning bush on either side, and our favorite serpent hanging out in the branches. Snakes represent transmuting old poisons, shedding the skins of the past, and welcoming in fresh wisdom based on past experiences.

In my deck, I started with a representation of my husband, but I thought a lot about how our lover is often a mirror of yourself, and wanted to play with that idea more, so first created a more gender-neutral image, but it just felt flat. Now, as a tattooed love babe, who would  be not just my reflection, but my inspiration, as in, takes me out of my comfort zones, challenges me to be my authentic self, despite and cultural norms or inhibitions? And if not a lover - partnerships, friendships, collaborations, moving from the solitary practitioner and feeling you have to do it all on your own to teamwork, support, networks. 

So entered The Drag Queen. Different from the Empress and other Queen cards, The Drag Queen is larger than life, both male and female, the union of opposites, both constrained and free, resplendent in their glorious nature.

“During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for. It didn’t look like we were going to win then and we did. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to win now but we could. Keep fighting, keep dancing.” - Dan Savage

While most of us long for a lover as in a soul-mate, spouse, constant companion, one of the messages from this card is to remember Aphrodite, the goddess of love is also the goddess of self-love. When you pull this card, rather than running out in search of a mate, take some time love yourself. Rather than hunting after love, attract love by being your authentic, radiant self. Instead of seeking a love-life, take some to simply love your life. There is plenty of time.

Some self-love rituals include cleansing your space/aura with sage, lavender, or dragon's blood. Buy yourself new sheets, fresh underwear, rearrange your bedroom, buy yourself flowers. Make it as pleasing as possible, for as Starhawk says, "All Acts of Love and Pleasure are my Ritual."

My Tarot Story

I first became interested in the Tarot after reading Live or Let Die by Ian Fleming when I was living in Luxembourg during elementary school.  We would drive out to the airport to find books in English, and there was a dearth of children's books, but many a murder mystery and spy novel. In the book there was a Tarot reader named Solitaire, and I became enchanted with the whole concept.  

I started boarding school in England for junior high, and I remember going to Harrods in London, which was renowned for its toy department. There were plenty of card decks, game decks, chess pieces, and toy soldiers, but no tarot. In the ninth grade, once we had moved back to America and I was living in Maryland, I wrote an essay about the tarot, sparse information gleaned from the Random House Encyclopedia.

Fast forward to summer after sophomore year of college at Wesleyan in Connecticut. My roommate invited me to visit her in California for a week - basically, I never left. In one fell swoop, I fell in love with Santa Cruz, met the parent of my child, pierced my nose, and bought my first tarot deck - The Motherpeace Tarot by Karen Vogel Vicki Noble. 

About a year later, I bought the Daughter's of the Moon by Ffiona Morgan and Shekhinah Mountainwater, which was a black and white deck (now out of print). It took almost three years to hand color it it. Later, I hand painted the Du Wacky Du deck, using sharpies as they were glossy, but also embellished them with glitter and ended by using mod-podge. Years later, they're still slightly sticky, and when I use them, they make a satisfying crackle as I shuffle.

After a brief stint in Idaho, I moved back to Santa Cruz and began working at Aries Arts down in Capitola Village, where we had about seventy different tarot decks. This was the beginning of my education in the esoteric, and I soon began taking astrology classes as well. When I opened Herland, we had about fifty decks to start, but then a neighboring store, 13 Real Magick closed, and my collection doubled. Most of these I gifted to other metaphysical stores when Herland closed in 2004.

As a part of my PhD program in Holistic Health, I wrote my thesis, Journey Through the Tarot, on using the tarot as an integrated healing system by comparing the Daughter's of the Moon, Tarot of Transformation by Willow Arlenea and Jasmine Cori, The Osho Zen Tarot, and the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith deck. 

I started my own deck, the Holistic Tarot, probably a decade ago. It's been through a couple of stuttering starts - watercolor and colored pencils, simply learning to get better materials and starting again, let alone  increasing my art skills. I'm working on a Rune card project in watercolors, it's about halfway done. 

I attended a Soul Collage class at Cabrillo college in 2016, which led to the creation of the Baby Crones Tarot deck and book. I made the images first, encircled them in copper tape, secured in glassine envelopes, and added affirmations later on the printed decks. Then I challenged myself to write the 78 accompanying meditations.

I did a series of twenty-two tarot portraits with Chip Chapin. We did the major Arcana, taking photo's in our kitchen but then I stopped, not sure of backgrounds or how to create the next 52 cards. 

Now I'm working on the "little white book," not so much to provide the usual tarot interpretations of each card, but to discuss why I chose certain symbols, and specifically, the animals I added to each card - from chipmunks to vultures, orcas to opposums, so much rich animal magic to share. I've found errors on a couple of cards, and am not quite happy with the Lovers card, so will make some corrections and reprint.

Some of The Hard Cards

"What is the difference between Tarot cards and Oracle cards?" Great question. 

The Tarot is a system of 78 cards intersecting between five modalities (Spirit, Physical, Emotional, Intellectual, Energy) and numerology (ones are beginnings, two are balance, etc). 

Oracle cards have their own system. My favorite are Medicine Cards. Usually around forty-fifty cards, they might follow a particular path, most have positive images and lovely affirmations. I like using them as clarifiers - energetic resources, focus points, sources of support. 

This is one of the reasons I love the tarot - Here are these 78 life lessons, the pretty moments as well as the knitty-gritty. Its the hard stuff that we have to look at, and the beauty of a tarot reading is getting the root of the moment, as well as validation, a new perspective, and often, just plain old good advice. The part of us that "knows" without the shame, guilt, doubt, disbelief getting in the way.

Of course, the Major Arcana depict the Major Life moments - Death, The Tower, The Devil (more on these later), but its also the Minor Arcana that let us tune into our finer sensibilities, just like paying attention to the moon. 

Disappointment. Grief. Despair. Exhaustion. Sorrow. Heartbreak. Doubt. These are all human emotions, human life lessons. Seeing oneself reflected in the cards does not mean you are destined to be cursed with this particular affliction, but instead asks you, just like going to grandma, insert tarot book, to get a new perspective. What are the resources on the card - animal, plant, color, chakra. Like the cat who licks its wounds, lick yours, heal, and move on.

Socrates once said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Look, learn, apply. The tarot has much to offer as you gather information, reflect, and then make the best decisions.

Tarot of a Rambling Rose

I had so much fun generating The Tarot of a Rambling Rose based on a photo of me from Santa Cruz Pride last year. Even though it felt a little narcissistic, I loved seeing all my tattoos, swinging skirts, beaming smile. I added in a variety of personal symbols including my ubiquitous black top hat with a rainbow sash, fingerless gloves knitted by my dear friend Joanne, and a plethora of fierce eye wear. Also  animal guides to each card, especially my dear calico cat, as part of the cards depicting my own hero's journey.

For example, the Justice card has a small hippo. Why? Well, in Egyptian mythology when one dies your heart gets weighed by Maat, the goddess of truth, balance, and order. She takes the feather of truth from her forehead. If your heart is as light as a feather, you get reincarnated. If it is not, your heart gets chucked to the hippopotamus God, who eats it all up, chomp, chomp.

The Seven of Swords has a mischievous raccoon helping me steal away, a vulture hangs out with me in the Death card, and an opossum swings by it's tail in The Hanged One, a black lab, tribute to Maisy Dog, is my companion in the Three of Pentacles. Then there are ravens, butterflies, snakes and salamanders, even octopi, oh my!