Month: June 2019

Tarot for Troubled Times by Shaheen Miro and Theresa Reed

On By benebellIn book review, Sightsee the Tarot, tarot, tarot community, tarot exercises4 Comments

When You’re Feeling Lost: The Compass Spread

Surprise. I know I said here in this video that there would be no Sightsee the Tarot episodes over the summer. However, everybody makes exceptions for The Tarot Lady, amiright? I’m so excited about this newly released book, Tarot for Troubled Times (Weiser Books, July 2019) by Shaheen Miro and The Tarot Lady herself, Theresa Reed. So I just had to set aside everything else, make time, and share with you my impressions of the book.

This installment of Sightsee the Tarot walks us through The Compass Spread and then offers some insights into post-reading candle magic, per the guidance and tips you’ll find in this book.

When you’re feeling adrift, like you’re just floating along with no sense of direction, use the Compass Spread by Miro and Reed to chart a steady course.

In this companion post, I want to showcase the book.

Continue reading “Tarot for Troubled Times by Shaheen Miro and Theresa Reed” →

The Herbcrafter’s Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert and Latisha Guthrie

On By benebellIn deck review28 Comments

The Herbcrafter’s Tarot is a masterpiece, but it’s more than that. It’s a beautifully compiled trove of knowledge. Its companion book, written by Latisha Guthrie, is going to be one of your favorite go-to grimoires. The artwork by Joanna Powell Colbert is just perfection. She’s like a modern-day Pliny the Elder.

Production value for this deck is top shelf. It comes in a sturdy top and bottom lid box with a matte finish and everything, the deck and book, tucks in perfectly, with a matching green ribbon for ease of taking the cards out from its box.

The artwork is absolutely stunning. Look at Key 8: Strength, featuring garlic. I love the inclusion of garlic snapes and the detailing of honey-preserved garlic (one of my favorite recipes, by the way).

To see how you connect with the deck, choose one of the three cards above and remember which one you chose– left, center, or right. At the end of this review, we’ll revisit your selection.

Continue reading “The Herbcrafter’s Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert and Latisha Guthrie” →

Free Esoteric Tarot Online Course (for the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot)

On By benebellIn Spirit Keeper's Tarot, tarot7 Comments

THE SPIRIT KEEPER’S TAROT

VIDEO ORIENTATION COURSE SERIES

benebell wen

Click on banner for the Series I (2018) course page.

Series I (2018) was created for the First Edition black and white SKT deck, so when card images are featured, only the First Edition black and white will be shown. However, the substance of the information discussed applies to both the First Edition and the Vitruvian Edition decks.

Click on banner for the Series II (2019) course page.

Series II (2019) features both the First Edition and the Vitruvian Edition decks and is designed with both deck users in mind. Series I is more theoretical and when I created it, I assumed I was addressing an established, experienced practitioner, so the main purpose was to present my point of view to a fellow colleague. Series II is still far from being practical, but this time, I tried to account for someone who might not have attained years of metaphysical study and practice yet, so my hope is Series II will be more accessible.

Continue reading “Free Esoteric Tarot Online Course (for the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot)” →

White Sage Tarot by Theresa Hutch

On By benebellIn deck review, tarot11 Comments

The White Sage Tarot by Theresa Hutch and published in late 2018 by U.S. Games is a charming and whimsical little pocket-size deck in a tin in soft pastel hues. It doesn’t feature any humans and instead, focuses on the animal kingdom, though there are references to man-made objects as you’ll see.

The deck description provided by the publisher notes that the intention for White Sage Tarot is to be a balance of masculine and feminine energies. However, it still felt more feminine to me.

You get these quick-reference chakra correspondence cards because understanding the chakra correspondences will factor in to how you read with these cards. There’s also a little white booklet with card meanings that help you to read with this deck that otherwise diverges from traditional tarot imagery.

The cards follow the RWS order of keys in the Majors and rely on animals as omens. While upon first impression the deck may not seem beginner-friendly, there’s a way to get really beautiful and powerful readings with the White Sage Tarot, though I’m probably a bit of a maverick here…

…I totally sidestep traditional tarot reading techniques. I don’t even treat this deck as a tarot deck (even though it is, and totally follows the classical tarot structure).

Continue reading “White Sage Tarot by Theresa Hutch” →

Should Small Business Owners and Spiritual Entrepreneurs Quit Social Media?

On By benebellIn opinion, professional tarot, tarot community13 Comments

I was recently alerted to a blog article articled by a spirituality-based entrepreneur about how social media is terrible for small business owners, which ironies would have it, an article I wouldn’t even have known existed without social media…

The title of the article is this sweeping misleading statement implying that businesses are quitting social media in droves and why small business owners and spiritual entrepreneurs should follow suit. The article has kinda sorta gone viral in our little niche community, so by now I’m sure you already know which article I’m talking about.

I think it’s great that Leonie Dawson does what she needs to do for her own mental and spiritual health, but I’m a little wary of the blanket prescription.

Here’s the original article:

https://leoniedawson.com/businesses-quit-social-media/

Without hesitation, I co-sign on the toxicity of social media and how yes, we all need breaks from it for our mental and spiritual health, but I felt the way that she presented her arguments were imbalanced– to put it the kindest– and self-centered self-congratulatory naval-gazing– to put it the bluntest.

The thesis she presents commingles personal health and business health. Just like your personal and business bank accounts, gotta keep the two separate. Social media got on her personal nerves and then she made the business decision to leave social media because she can.

Continue reading “Should Small Business Owners and Spiritual Entrepreneurs Quit Social Media?” →

Twenty-Two Weeks with the SKT

On By benebellIn Spirit Keeper's Tarot9 Comments

This 22-Week Workbook is included with purchase of the digital files for the Book of Maps. Go HERE for more information.

22 Weeks with the SKT is a 158-page workbook and 22-week daily planner formatted at the standard US Letter size (8.5″ x 11″). It’s intended to be a guided spiritual-metaphysical immersion.

Note: The First Edition workbook is 214 pages because it includes the card meanings from the LWB (which were not in the LWB from the First Edition) and the additional chapter on Olympic Spirits that is new to the Vitruvian Edition Book of Maps.

The primary purpose of the immersion is to demonstrate how esoteric practices, divination, and integrated spirituality can enhance your everyday lifestyle, amplify your personal power so that you achieve so much more than you even realized you were capable of achieving, and help you to bring pain, anxiety, and even personal character flaws under your control.

Psst…

I’m compiling a YouTube playlist of some of Monday Meditation contenders that you might consider for your weekly 10-minute meditation. Check out the link below. You can save the playlist to your own YouTube account if you find those offerings useful. I will continue to add to it over time as I come across new 10-minute-long meditation videos I find useful and effective.

Monday Meditation Playlist

I’ve also compiled a Tuesday Vitality Strengthening playlist.

Tuesday Vitality Strengthening Playlist

The incidental secondary purpose of the immersion is to help you get acclimated with the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot cards.

Each week you’ll work with one of the Majors and a set of Minor keys. There is a suggested syllabus for each week if you want to work through the Medium White Book, the Book of Maps, and the online video courses in some sort of organized way.

You don’t have to work through the content in 22 consecutive weeks. Just 22 weeks. Any 22 weeks. However, you should probably work through them in consecutive 7-day or weekly increments. In other words, if you start it on Monday of one weekly module (the day of the Moon), then I do recommend making it all the way through to Sunday (the day of the Sun). And then if you need to, take a break for the next week or weeks, resuming the immersion on a future Monday.

While the face of the exercises are about learning and getting acclimated with the SKT cards, the actual purpose of the 22-week immersion is your personal spirituality. Every exercise is less about the SKT cards and more about your psychic training or development.

If you commit to the very digestible and accessible meditation work, strength or vitality training, mental training, and tarot reading-journaling prompts, you will leave this 22-week immersion with a repertoire of powerful esoteric practices under your belt.

Much of what you’ll acquire through this 22-week immersion will be transferable to your work with other tarot decks and even other divination systems. In sum, my ambition for this 22-week guided immersion is to advance your metaphysical practice. I want to meet you where you are right now and then push you farther ahead.

The digital files (PDF only) for the 22-week immersion workbook comes with every Premium Package order.

I’ll also upload it onto Lulu so if you want a spiral-bound physical copy of the workbook, you can order one straight from that third-party print-on-demand service. If 158 pages is a print job your home or office printer can take, printing the pages back and front double-sided, then I encourage you to print copies of it out on your own and set into a three-ring binder. It’s perhaps the most budget friendly way to work with this document.

When I haven’t provided enough writing space for you, you can continue in the back pages. I’ve included a handful of lined pages at the back of the workbook, so you can write a “continued on p. __” note on the last line of the writing block, and then continue where you left off on one of those back lined pages.

There is a daily planner page spread for all 22 weeks with to-do checkboxes in accordance with the planetary powers most prevalent each day of the week. There’s also space for you to record your experiences, insights, and take down notes of your studies.

A Daily Mindful Tarot Practice

On By benebellIn Sightsee the Tarot, tarot, tarot community, tarot exercises1 Comment

Mindful Tarot: Bring a Peace-Filled, Compassionate Practice to the 78 Cards by Dr. Lisa Freinkel Tishman blends the principles of Zen Buddhist practice with the tarot. The result is a meaningful text that will develop your tarot reading skills at three levels: (1) mindful awareness of yourself and your querent, (2) a deeper relationship with your cards, and (3) a transformed understanding of the tarot system. Mindful Tarot is filled with exercises, reflective journaling prompts, analyses of all 78 cards, and step-by-step examples of Dr. Tishman’s own daily practice.

Tishman is an extensively published and celebrated poetry scholar, Zen Buddhist minister, certified mindfulness educator, and former humanities professor and dean at the University of Oregon (UO). She is also the founding director of UO’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program.

Tishman currently serves as an interfaith chaplain at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield, Oregon. You can find a wealth of free resources and contact Tishman for her tarot reading or counseling services at Calyx Contemplative Care.

In this episode of Sightsee the Tarot, we explore Dr. Tishman’s mindful PULL approach to tarot reading and work through her signature Chariot spread.

Continue reading “A Daily Mindful Tarot Practice” →