Cardinal’s Song

anniversary

seventeen years since her death

a cardinal sings

 

Read Full Post »

Please send me my ideal client

Dear Readers,

    I invite you to imagine me speaking the James’ Ideal Client paragraph (see below) to your friends, colleagues, family members, students, clients, community members, and other important people in your sphere of influence.  When you read it, who comes to mind that embodies the qualities I mention?  I kindly request that you refer those people to me for personal tarot consultations.  My work, and the work of so many self-employed visionaries, relies on such person-to-person referrals and I deeply appreciate them.  Thank you in advance.

 

JAMES’ IDEAL CLIENT:

 

     As my ideal client, you remember that at your core you are creative, resourceful, and whole.  You realise that your personal wellness and the wellness of the entirety of life are interconnected.  Your ability to be in the present moment empowers you to gain insights and make conscious choices that reframe the past and sculpt the future.  As my ideal client, you are rooted in practice rather than dogma.  You work with me in an interactive, co-created manner that is mutually enjoyable and enriching.  Your balance of intellect and intuition enlivens our dialogues.

 

The people you refer can contact me at:

(416) 966 – 2685

evolutionary_tarot@yahoo.ca

 

With much appreciation and respect,

James

Read Full Post »

Mid-way Point of Seven Whispers Circle

Tonight will be the fourth gathering out of seven for our Seven Whispers study circle, the mid-point.  The topic is “surrender to surprise”.  For me, the tarot card that best illustrates this phrase is the Tower.  Boom, sudden shift, aha, whoops, catalyst for change, tearing down and reforming, eek, zap, hooray!  All of these words could apply to the Tower card.  And they could apply to “surrender to surprise”.  I like Christina Baldwin’s suggestion for how to do this:

1. Notice what’s happening.
2. Work with what’s happening.
3. Accept what’s happening.

So, what’s happening with YOU right now?  Have you accepted it?  How are you working with it?

Read Full Post »

Please rename this holiday

Today in Ontario is a holiday that first began last year.  They call it Family Day.  I truly wish that they would have named it what it really is: It’s-February-And-We-Need-A-Long-Weekend-to-Survive Day.  I hope that the people who gave this day its appellation remember that family takes many forms.  For me, it’s any pair or group of people or beings in which love, nourishment, understanding, and support are present.  Family might be people who are related by blood or they might be people related to one another by a philosophy or cause.  A family might be two opposite sex people who are married or it might be four same-sex people who live and love together.  A family might be three generations of blood relations under one roof or it might involve a single person with hir plants and animals.  Perhaps it could look like a community of like-spirited folks who work for peace and healing.  Maybe it’s a travelling theatre group that brings awareness to world issues.  I drew a tarot card to respond to the question, “What is the essence of family?” and received the:

ACE OF CUPS, upright.  Family’s essence is the desire to love and be loved.  It’s the seed of intimacy with others.  It’s the starting point of co-operation, teamwork, emotional expression, and closeness. 

Any other thoughts?

Read Full Post »

Valentine’s Day Cards

There are many forms of love and many people in our lives who can give and receive those expressions of love.  Make a list of people that you love.  Name the form of relatedness that you share with each.  Go through your face-up tarot deck and choose cards that most look or feel like each of these relationships.  What richer story about each personal connection do you gain from these cards?  Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

 

Read Full Post »

Tarot Nostalgia…sigh

For the last few days, I’ve been wishing for a tarot renaissance like that of the mid/late 1970s into the late 1980s and early 90s.  A lot of juicy stuff was coming out at that time.  A blossoming of new decks, including round ones and quirky hand-drawn images, books that took tarot out of a power-over fortune-telling paradigm into an egalitarian insight paradigm, symposia, and much more.  The cards were explored though the lenses of psychology, feminism, cross-cultural anthropology, meditation, and many other disciplines.  Tarot personalities who are now considered tarot legends were going out on a limb with cutting edge material.  Publishers actually dared to print this cool new stuff instead of the usual beginners’ pablum.  There are still good things happening — the Tarot School puts on the Readers Studio, Thalassa offers the Bay Area Tarot Symposium, and Barbara Rapp’s Los Angeles Tarot Symposium still draws people — but I sense sometimes that there are some tarot people who think they already know it all, that they don’t need to stretch, don’t need to hear anyone else’s opinion.  I might have my ways of working with the cards, but I’m interested in my colleagues’ latest innovations.  I want to see a kaboom of the next right thing in Tarot Land.  Please let me know when you see it. 

 

Read Full Post »

Shake Up Your Tarot Practice

To keep your tarot reading sharp, it helps to fine-tune your skills and shake up your comfort level.  Read a tarot book by an author you don’t know.  Use a deck you don’t like.  Attend a tarot conference or class.  If you do predictive readings, try being therapeutic.  If you do therapeutic readings, try being predictive.  If you don’t usually read reversals, give it a shot.  Start a tarot practice circle.  Try whatever feels a bit on the edge for you.  You’ll stretch yourself in good ways.

Read Full Post »

Blessed Imbolc

It’s a lovely, sunny late winter day here in Toronto.  The fire of Brigid seems to be shining through. 

On Saturday, Steven and I hosted a Soirée Musicale in our home.  Thirty-seven of us enjoyed music, wine, food, and each other’s company.  Exhausting, but fun!

Yesterday, I was at Daré, the spiritual circle for healing and peacemaking of which I am a member and which I help to host and hold.  We heard people’s dreams, ritualised them, did creative expression around them, and held council around them.  Particulars would breach the confidentiality of council, but the theme that emerged for many of us was the healing of the wounded sacred masculine.  He needs to be morphed from a distant, divisive, bossy, war-monging killer back to a virile, life-giving font of wholeness, protection, and masculine beauty.  As many of you know, “God” is no longer a name I give to the Divine.  I had quite enough of that and its connotations for decades.  Nowadays, I’m more likely to refer to Goddess, Life, Source, Wholeness, the Sacred, the Great Centre, Infinite Mystery, or some other name.  It’s important to remember that all of these are just metaphors.  As far as I’m concerned, the Divine is a neutral life-giving energy onto which we project all of our best human qualities.  And I don’t believe in a so-called devil.  That’s just us projecting our worst onto the same life force and shirking personal resposibility.  May we love the war out of men’s bodies and minds.  May we love each other enough to remember our innate wholeness.

A blessed Imbolc to all.

Read Full Post »