Free Tarot Teleseminar on Feb. 6

ANNOUNCEMENT!
Preview Call on Thursday, February 6th with James Wells

Next week on Thursday, I’ll be offering a FREE preview call of my beginners’ tarot course — Essentials of Tarot Reading — and would love to have you join in. I’ll be sharing some of the basic ideas that will be covered in the course, and you’ll have an opportunity to ask me any questions you might have about it.

Here are all the details:
Thursday, February 6th at 12 Noon Pacific, 3PM Eastern
Call in: (661) 673 – 8605
Pin Code: 197286#

I LOVE teaching and responding to questions, so I hope you’ll join me!

REMINDER: The first ten people who sign up for the course itself get a very cool bonus, a free 20-minute session with me! Register by emailing me at circleways@yahoo.ca and by paying with PayPal (credit card also possible). The course starts soon!  See my EVENTS page to find out more.

Email me at circleways@yahoo.ca to register.  Even for just enquiring about the course, I’ll be happy to email you a PDF called NINE TIPS FOR KEEPING A TAROT JOURNAL.

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Actions Louder Than Words

We’ve all heard the adage that actions speak louder than words.  A consultation with the tarot isn’t always about talking and delivering head-centred information; it can become a ceremonial encounter to help a person set in motion what s/he wants to create in hir psyche and in hir life.

For example, a client named “Sarah” and I discussed some of her goals for 2014 and used the Gaian Tarot to come up with ways to help her meet those goals.  One of her aims was to change her name to something more authentic rather than what her family thought she should be called.  But change it to what?  One of the cards in her layout was the Ace of Fire which suggested to both of us some form of rebirth or giving birth to herself, all well and good as far as concepts go.  But what to do with that…

Together, we came up with a simple enactment for Sarah to carry out at home.  It was amazing to watch the video of the ritual that she sent me.  Sarah donned a green sweater (like the green skin of the baby snake in the card) and crouched in a cardboard box.  Her partner taped some white tissue paper over the top of the box, then turned out the lights.  After allowing Sarah to reflect silently for a while in her “egg”, her partner lit a candle (like the sparks in the background of the card picture).  Hearing the striking of the match and seeing the new light was Sarah’s cue to burst out through the tissue paper, to hatch, to give birth to herself.  Then she sat with the candle and reflected on the hatching experience.  She told me that her new name is based on the quality she experienced as she “came out of her shell”.  She feels that what presented itself is who she really is and plans to legally change her identity.

Beautiful!

What are YOUR thoughts about such embodied tarot encounters, friends?  I’m listening…

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A Card-of-the-Week Mapping Process

Many of you know that I like to use the tarot as a tool for mapping out strategies to get to my personal goals and business targets.  How might you do this simply and efficiently?  Here’s an enjoyable and manageable way to use the tarot (or other symbolic insight tool) as a proactive weekly tool for getting closer to your chosen long- or short-term goal.

Once a week, let’s say on Sunday evening, set aside 15 to 20 minutes for yourself.  Sit down with your tarot deck, your notebook, and your calendar or electronic reminder device.  Spend a minute or so holding your aim in your mind, using as many of your senses as you do so.  Pick a card from your pack.  Reflect for a moment on the card’s imagery.  Jot down seven qualities that you most like or appreciate in the picture.  Now write down one doable, concrete action for each quality.  This will give you a total of seven actions to take.  Plug each one into a day of the coming week.  As each day arrives and you look at your calendar or your device beeps to remind you, perform your activity for that day.  Repeat this process every week.  Your target will become more refined and you will attain it.

Here’s an example.  I sat down with the Dark Goddess Tarot by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince and held my goal to fill up the retreat I’ll be offering in May in my mind and senses.  The card I drew was the Seven of Water (Maeve).  The seven qualities I noticed and appreciated in this card’s image in that moment included welcome, generosity, hospitality, symmetry, simple beauty, gentle intoxication, and quiet celebration.  Here’s my list of daily actions for the week:

• Monday.  Welcome.  Write the letter of welcome that people who sign up for the retreat will receive from me.
• Tuesday.  Generosity.  Come up with a nice bonus gift for those who are considering participation in the retreat.
• Wednesday.  Hospitality.  Set a date for an informal afternoon tea at which local people can ask questions about the retreat and get to know me a bit better.
• Thursday.  Symmetry.  Look in my calendar for the half-way point between now and the first day of the retreat.  Jot down what needs to be done on both sides of that date.
• Friday.  Simple Beauty.  Print a beautiful poster to give to people in person and to post here in town.
• Saturday.  Gentle Intoxication (altered state).  Put on a drumming CD and use it to do some journeying to ask about what I most need to know or learn about the retreat.
• Sunday.  Quiet Celebration.  Do a simple ritual of gratitude to celebrate the good that has happened this week around the retreat — light a candle, say “Thank you, Life”, and silently bless all who have signed up thus far.

I hope that you’ll use this Card-of-the-Week mapping process for something in your life.  Let me know how it goes for you in the Comments section.

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Wholeness Reading for Our Species/Culture

One of the most empowering tarot spreads I’ve created is the Wholeness Layout, based on the four corners and centre of Trump XXI, the World.  The version I offer here is one for all of humanity.  See most depictions of the World card as a reference, then visit the diagram and position numbers and meanings here:

1         2

5

4         3

1. What mental and communicational choices can contribute to the wholeness of our species/culture?
2. What emotional and relational choices can contribute to the wholeness of our species/culture?
3. What spiritual and growth-oriented choices can contribute to the wholeness of our species/culture?
4. What physical and material choices can contribute to the wholeness of our species/culture?
5. What, for our species/culture, is an experience of wholeness?

I used a non-tarot deck, the beautiful Sustain Yourself Cards by James Wanless, to do a reading with this layout.

1. CATERPILLAR.  As a species/culture, we can think of life as a process, know that we can grow into something different/more, and keep our realised potential at the forefront of our thoughts and speech.
2. WAVES.  As a species/culture, we can let our feelings flow freely, respect and ride our undulating emotions, and live with the realistic ups and down of relating with one another.
3. TULIPS.  As a species/culture, we can follow the pull of the life-force in our desires, mate/unite with the Source, and allow our growth to arouse the evolution of all of existence.
4. CHEETAH & SUNFLOWER.  As a species/culture, we can set high standards for physical health, aspire to health as wealth, and let our material well-being grow out of that at which we excel.
5. DEAD FISH.  For our species/culture, wholeness can include acceptance of impermanence, composting or recycling the outworn so that something new may flourish, the end of life as we’ve known it as a species, a union of body and Earth, and a release of all that we are not.

Feel free to post your own observations about these cards, or any cards or tools YOU end up drawing, in the Comments section of this blog piece.  You can also take the questions to your journal and/or to a conversation circle.  What comes to YOU about this reading?  We’re listening.

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NOTE: WordPress is being difficult and will not allow me to paste the images here.  You can look them up online or in your own copy of the deck mentioned.

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Welcome to the Year of the Chariot!

Welcome to 2014!
2 + 0 + 1 + 4 = 7.
In the tarot, 7 is the Chariot. Some questions for us to carry in our hearts and minds this year include:

* How do you remain in control when everything is in rapid motion?
* What enables you to confidently steer your inner and outer experiences?
* How do you direct or facilitate fast-moving changes?
* What needs your participation to help keep it moving?

 

Image: The Chariot from the Tarot of the Sidhe by Emily Carding.

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