Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

Two of Fire - Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

2009-12-07T09:39:19-08:00

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

Mmm, yet another fire card to warm us up! I don’t know what the weather’s like where you live, but here we’re having an extended period of sub-freezing temps. It’s bright and clear and sunny, and oh. so. cold.

How lovely then to see the fire dancers from the Two of Fire lighting up the night sky with heat and passion.

Today I will finish up the commentary on the last four Majors for the Gaian Tarot companion book, then I’m switching gears to prepare the house for overnight guests and our annual St Lucia Party next Saturday. Cleaning! Shopping! Decorating! This will be the busiest week of the Yuletide season for me. Next week I’ll relax a bit and get refocused on writing the book.

What will light you up and keep you warm this coming week?

Explorer of Fire - Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

2009-11-30T09:26:29-08:00

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

Explorer of Fire

My first thought upon seeing this card was to relate it to the upcoming Festival of Lights that we celebrate each December. No matter what we call the holiday — Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Yule — it’s all about lighting up the darkness. And this mesmerizing Fire Spinner is definitely doing that. Craig and I have gone up to Vancouver, BC several times to be part of their annual Solstice Lantern Festival, and a highlight is always seeing the fire dancers on Solstice Night. There’s something so mesmerizing about watching the flames spin and swoop around.

This week — this month, really — I am spinning and swooping into an intense creative period of writing/editing/rewriting the Gaian Tarot companion book. Hours are getting longer and the writing more intense as my deadline approaches.

Here’s what I wrote last week about the Explorer of Fire:

When you get this card in a reading . . .

You are playing with fire. You love fast paced, high energy situations — taking risks makes you feel more alive. You love entertaining and dazzling others, as you share your enthusiasm and let the sparks fly. Your creativity and eroticism revitalizes you as well as others around you. You inspire others when you dare to charge fearlessly into a dangerous situation. You take a stand and move quickly on issues that are dear to your heart. Be bold! Now is the time to take courageous action.

Affirmation: I am on fire with passion and creativity.

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

Guardian of Earth - Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

2009-11-23T10:23:23-08:00

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

Guardian of Earth

What a lovely card to appear for Thanksgiving week (here in the US). In another nice bit of synchronicity, I will be writing the text today for the Guardian of Earth. I love the tender expression on this farmer’s face as he judges whether or not the corn is ripe for harvest.

What have we all tended this past season, dear Readers? What are we personally harvesting and giving thanks for?

At this writing, I am deep in the midst of writing, rewriting and editing the companion book for the Gaian Tarot, as well as tweaking some of the artwork for the deck when my left brain gets fried with too many words. So I am still in the tending phase of caring for my garden, yet I am harvesting as well — harvesting the pre-orders that have come in for the Gaian Tarot Limited Edition and celebrating the culmination of this long journey of creation.

When I first posted this card here two years ago, there was a very lively conversation in the comments. It’s fun and illuminating to go back and read those comments now.

I hope everyone who is celebrating Thanksgiving this week has a lovely holiday, and many blessings to all of our global friends as well. Group Hug!

Ace of Fire - Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

2009-11-09T08:56:30-08:00

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

Ace of Fire

Hah! Well I just love seeing this little Snake show up this morning, since I started writing about the Aces yesterday for the GT companion book. To me, fire is all about passion and creativity and energy, and the Ace of course is a new beginning, a birth. It’s a perfect card for me this week, as I begin the final shaping of the book.

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

New Amulets . . .

2009-11-05T09:20:43-08:00

I've just posted more Tarot Amulets on my site, with lovely beaded necklaces by Lunaea Weatherstone. Have fun browsing and shopping! :-)

More on Offering Our GIfts to the World

2009-11-05T07:13:59-08:00

After I wrote yesterday's blog post, my friend and marketing coach Elizabeth Genco Purvis posted this article in her newsletter and on her blog. (She highlighted my successful launch, too.) I'm reprinting it here with her permission. It's for all of you out there who have a dream or a gift or a talent and haven't quite shown up in the world with it . . . I hope you find it inspiring.

Mindset Insights: How Are You Offering Your Gifts To The World?

by Elizabeth Genco Purvis, the Marketing Goddess

"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?"

Reading those words from my client Joanna Powell Colbert (posted on her blog after her successful launch) was an invitation to stop, take a breath and remind myself why authentic, integrity-filled marketing is so important.

As soul-based business owners, many of us have real issues with marketing, promotion, selling our services, and all the rest. Personally, I used to completely tie myself up in knots at the thought of promoting myself or my marketing services. And I'm a marketer! (Hello, irony, hello!)

Here's what I know to be true:

1. We all have gifts to share with the world. Gifts, talents, strengths. (Healers, especially, often have more gifts than they know what to do with. Am I right or am I right?)

2. We have a choice: we can embrace those gifts, or let them die on the vine. And by "embrace," I mean claim them, use them, and value them (and ourselves) enough to charge what we're worth.

3. If you're not doing what you can to connect with the people who need your gifts - also known as marketing - your gifts are dying on the vine.

Embracing my gifts - really owning them and valuing them, and reflecting that value in my pricing - is something that was - and is - very difficult for me to do.

Ultimately, though, it was #3 above that really kicked my butt into action to get the hell over myself and not hide out. Because it really hit me - I mean really hit me - that if I didn't push past all that ego stuff and step up and start offering my gifts, it's not me who misses out.

Ultimately, using your gifts is NOT about you - it's about others. Your clients.

Everyone has a special gift to offer the world, including you. Are you getting it out there? I hope so, because the world needs you and your gifts, now more than ever.

Bright blessings and massive success to you...

Deep, deep thanks

2009-11-04T07:11:53-08:00

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!

A Hallowed Altar

2009-10-30T16:04:44-07:00

There's something very satisfying about building an altar. A deep calm comes into my soul.

I am remembering my Beloved Dead.

A Blessed All Hallows to you.

COUNTDOWN: only 5 days left on the Special Offer for the Limited Edition!

2009-10-30T08:59:30-07:00

I am just sayin'.

Gaian Tarot Limited Edition Special Offer ends November 3rd!

My Autumn Altar

2009-10-29T12:23:20-07:00

The wind & rain created this beautiful altar for me.

Of course, Cleo thinks it's time to rake the leaves off the studio deck. Ya think?