Author: benebell

Workshopping God’s Reading from Rachel Pollack’s A Walk Through the Forest of Souls

On By benebellIn cartomancy, personal spirituality, Sightsee the Tarot, tarot, tarot community, tarot exercises1 Comment

Carolyn Cushing and Jenna Matlin, in collaboration with Weiser Books, are hosting a series of content to celebrate the late Rachel Pollack’s re-release of A Walk Through the Forest of Souls. This is a day-long event for the tarot community, and you’ll find many contributors to this celebration.

Read more about the event in this announcement from Carolyn Cushing.

On May 10, 2023, Carolyn, Jenna, Weiser Books editor Judika Ilkes, and author Mark Horn will be live streaming here between 3 pm and 5 pm Eastern time.

Jenna Matlin and Mary K. Greer will be in conversation about A Walk Through the Forest of Souls here, going live at 8 pm Eastern.

My contribution is a video workshop of a tarot reading prompt:

That is a question presented in the book.

Continue reading “Workshopping God’s Reading from Rachel Pollack’s A Walk Through the Forest of Souls” →

Gender Discrepancies in Viewership

On By benebellIn opinion, tarot community2 Comments
Data collected from 2023

My interest in this particular consideration piqued earlier in 2023 when I noticed a sharp change in the gender demographics of who views my Yutube channel, which appears to have shifted just as the subject matter of my channel’s content shifted, from being tarot dominant to more I Ching.

Though I don’t have any screenshots to show, back in 2018 and well into 2019, the gender demographics for my Youtube channel was something closer to 20% Male and 80% Female, and that checks out for most of Tarot Tube and witchy content creators, especially among witchy content creators who present as female. I did notice that after 2019 when I started making more Taoist occultism content on the channel, the demographics shifted slightly to 30% Male and 70% Female.

(For clarification, when we say Male or Female, these are per the identifications opted in by the users.)

I didn’t follow the analytics too closely, so I can’t pinpoint exactly when the shift happened, but in early 2023, per the screenshot image above, I noticed suddenly that the demographics were closer to 50/50, which is in fact strange for the tarot and witchy communities and stranger yet for female-presenting content creators like me. You don’t typically see 50/50 demographics for viewership when it comes to tarot and witchy content. There’s typically an underrepresentation of men.

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Reading Your Critiques

On By benebellIn opinion, personal, tarot community23 Comments

In my head I’ve been mulling over a candid video chat I’ve been wanting to make for some time now, but it’s only these last few weeks of stirrings in our tarot community that concretized my motivation to just go ahead and do it. =)

I’ve only chosen one comment to read as an example of a recurring common critique I get, and the three recurring common critiques I’m chatting about in this video are as follows:

  1. I’m pretentious and elitist, and also an opportunist,
  2. My work is imbued with negative, demonic entities and/or I am possessed by or consort with negative, demonic entitles (evil, dark energy, etc., take your pick of descriptive), and
  3. I say insensitive things at all the wrong times (as interpreted from the writings I’ve put out there).

In the video I also reflect on authenticity, the perception of virtual authenticity, and how true, sincere human authenticity will come back to bite you in the ass online, and the only way to appear authentic is to fabricate and manufacture the illusion of authenticity.

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The Urban Incantations Tarot by Lynyrd-Jym Marquez Narciso

On By benebellIn deck review6 Comments

This tarot deck is badass. It’s grunge-inspired, urban fantasy, with a John Constantine vibe, and I’m so here for it. The color palette evokes conjured visions set against the shadows of night. Atmospheric, fraught with its air of mystery and dark grit, Urban Incantations Tarot by Lynyrd-Jym Marquez Narciso is like divination with the storyboard stills of a screenplay.

Click on photographic images for enlarged view

Narciso was inspired by the late 90s and early 2000s punk, rock, and alternative music scene. His art in Urban Incantations Tarot is rendered in digital mixed media. The style is cinematic, tense with drama– a brooding neo-noir.

The interminable nightfall, city lights, with scenes so evocative that you can hear the patter of rain and distant thunder. The way Narciso accentuates with smoke, flames, and droplets gives you the sense of an enlivened world, lambent and permeable.

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Transformational Oracle of the Morrighan by Bela Síol

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, oracle deck1 Comment

The Transformational Oracle of the Morrighan by Bela Síol and illustrated by Igor Alexandre is a mostly black-and-white illustrated deck with accents of color. The Oracle set is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking connection to the Morrighan.

Bela Síol is a Brazilian pagan priestess and creator of The Oracle of Nehalennia, The Oracle of Freya, The Oracle of Arianrhod, The Oracle of Venus, and many more. The illustrator Igor Alexandre is a priest and herbalist who explores themes of the occult, nature, and paganism in his art.

As a priestess Síol first connected with The Morrighan in 2009. Morrighan, or Morrigu, refers to the one but also the multifaceted Goddess of Ireland, namely the triad of goddesses Badb, Macha, and Morrigu, and sometimes appearing as the triad of Banba, Fodla, and Eriu. Still others, it’s a triad inclusive of the war goddesses Fea or Nemain.

This all weaves a complex mythology for The Morrigan. Síol’s The Transformational Oracle of the Morrighan is based on the triad of Badb, Macha, and Morrigu or Anand (sometimes Nemain). Each card explores one of the many key lessons connected to The Morrighan.

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Fragments: A Grogryn Oracle by Le Page Novembre

On By benebellIn divination, oracle deck, personal spirituality3 Comments

Those who love Renaissance fairs are going to love the Fragments Grøgryn oracle by the artist Le Page Novembre. Novembre describes themselves as “a queer, non-binary, neuro-spicy illustrator and writer” who crafts tarot and neo-medieval art, in the pursuit of “queering catholic imagery.”

They recently launched the brand Grøgryn, an indie sole proprietorship that creates oracles, tarots, and other games. One such artisanal works by Grøgryn is Fragments.

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Egyptian Gods and Goddesses (1870), 12 Prints

On By benebellIn create your own deck, divination, free download, grimoire, Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality6 Comments

Download zip file:
Twelve Ancient Egyptian Deities

These twelve images are sourced from an 1870 publication, Bilder-Atlas – Ikonographische Encyklopädie, a multi-volume compendium of reference books in German. The images are formatted to print at 5.0” x 7.0”, but the resolution isn’t the sharpest. Nonetheless, they still printed okay.

Oops! Please ignore the typo.

After you unzip the file, you’ll see four folders for four different versions of the twelve images. I’ve included the originals, a version where I converted the images to a warmer sepia tone, then two versions with borders for printing.

I’m sharing the files here for those who are fascinated by these sorts of finds.

If you want about 3 mm of patterned border to show and you’re using makeplayingcards.com to print your deck, then go with the 6 mm margin files.

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Comparing the First and Second Printings of SKT: Revelation

On By benebellIn Spirit Keeper's Tarot4 Comments

The current version of SKT open for pre-orders is the second print run of the full-color Revelation Edition. For ordering information, please click here.

Also, there continues to be confusion around the editions, print runs, etc., so I’ll try to clarify again.

In 2018, I printed a limited edition black and white SKT, with a print run of 1,000 copies. After those copies were sold, that’s it. Hence, limited edition.

In 2019, I printed a limited edition sepia-toned SKT Vitruvian, with a run of 2,000 copies, where each and every one of those 2,000 decks was given a name.

Both the black and white First and the sepia-toned Vitruvian are out of print. If and when you see them on second-hand markets going for astronomical prices, that’s not me. That has nothing to do with me.

In 2021 I released the third and final full-color Revelation edition of SKT. The Revelation is open edition. That means there will be various print runs. A first print run of 3,507 copies came out in 2021.

Now in 2023 there is a second print run of 3,168 copies.

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SKT: Revelation 2nd – Printing Status Update

On By benebellIn Spirit Keeper's Tarot10 Comments
Tarot Uncut Sheets

On our production milestones, we’re at the stage of cutting. The uncut sheets have all been printed. After cutting, the next stage will be gilding.

Our factory informed us that they are projecting May 7 for delivery outbound, which means we hope to receive it on our front doorsteps by July 15.

Card back design for the Certificates of Authenticity (noting assignment of Orders)

Interspersed throughout this status update post will be photos our factory sent to us. They’re really good about keeping us in the loop and providing full disclosure of the process, so for that I’ve been grateful.

Just love catching the partial glimpses of the printing machinery!

Continue reading “SKT: Revelation 2nd – Printing Status Update” →