Author: benebell

Critiquing Your Own Art (Handbook)

On By benebellIn create your own deck, free download, Magical in the Mundane, personal, personal spirituality8 Comments

I’ve written about my self-taught art journey during the pandemic here. I found a bunch of MFA art program syllabuses online and aggregated them together into my own curriculum, then scoured the interwebs for online courses, video lectures, tutorials, books, blogs, anything and everything I could get my hands on to learn composition and the core principles of art making.

You can also download my art study journal here, which is what this handbook, a free download, is based on.

Critiquing Your Own Art

PDF Download

It reads as if after you’ve produced a work of art, you’re supposed to run through the checklist of items for review page after page in this handbook and self-audit how well you did in each of the categories. Yes and no.

It’s funny, whenever I endeavor to unpack something into its parts to analyze, people accuse me of being too analytical at the cost of creativity and intuition.

But if you observe me in the everyday, you’d think me a hypocrite, because in life, I very much operate off intuition rather than pure, cold logic. I go off my feelings way more than I go off rational deduction.

Yet rational analysis is the necessary checks and balances to your supposed intuition. Your intuition can get tainted by bias. So you have to be hyper self-aware and mindful.

While I would be the first to agree that you do not need a checklist to determine and define what is or is not great art, there is some value to deconstructing why we consider certain pieces “great art” and others not.

And if you can deconstruct that, can you then use it as elements to construct “great art”? I don’t know, but why not try? Even if you fail, you’re going to learn valuable lessons from that failure, so I welcome it, don’t you?

If anything, this sort of guided checklist helps you to more likely spot areas for improvement in your craft.

Anyway, that’s how this handbook got started, and you’ll see that the contents are extracted from that art study journal from 2021, which I kept as reference throughout 2020 while I was working on the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot. I converted the content into, well, a bunch of concrete, tangible points for consideration when critiquing your own art.

It’s not like every single one of the points in this handbook will be 100% applicable to you. It’s more about using it as a general reference, to help you navigate self-assessment of your craft.

Here’s the MS Word doc version for those who want to cut and paste around, and change it up to make it personalized:

Critiquing Your Own Art

DOCX Download

The content within this handbook is free for you to use, share, adapt, and build upon in any way that serves you, be that for personal or commercial purposes. Whether you distribute the PDF or DOCX as-is, remix it into your own content, my goal is for this to reach those who will benefit from it. So do whatever you Will with it.

The Ten of Swords. Ego-Death. Soul Wound. The Double-Cross.

On By benebellIn Etteilla Tarot, tarot, tarot card meanings, tarot symbolism31 Comments

Left or Right – Which one do you prefer? The left G-rated version that leans more into psychological pain? Or the right bloody version that leans more into the physical manifestation of our suffering?

First three left to right are representative of the TdM, RWS, and Thoth, respectively; fourth is from the DruidCraft Tarot, and fifth is from the Tarot of the Owls by Elisabeth Alba and Pamela Chen

The Ten of Swords in tarot has come to be associated with betrayal, treachery, backstabbing, the pain of being double-crossed, and the breach of trust. So how a deck creator illustrates the Ten of Swords reveals a lot about their unconscious processing of these themes.

It’s also the soul wound, a crisis of faith, where faith and reason are at war. It’s the mob mentality vs. individuality. Seeing an artist’s rendering of the Ten of Swords will reveal to you that artist’s relationship to the archetype of the ego-death.

At least that’s always been my impression.

Continue reading “The Ten of Swords. Ego-Death. Soul Wound. The Double-Cross.” →

Tarot for the Magically Inclined by Jack Chanek

On By benebellIn book review, personal spirituality, tarot, tarot community, tarot exercises, traditional witchcraft1 Comment

This is a wonderful sequel to Jack Chanek’s Tarot for Real Life, a down-to-earth primer that de-mystifies the tarot, whereas here in Tarot for the Magically Inclined: Spells and Spirits to Stack the Deck in Your Favor, we delve straight into the mysteries of the tarot.

Continue reading “Tarot for the Magically Inclined by Jack Chanek” →

Monetizing Mysticism (Here We Go Again?)

On By benebellIn Magical in the Mundane, opinion, tarot community23 Comments
I’ll be sharing random snapshots of my witchy bookshelves just because.

I was listening to the podcast (a great one, by the way) Occultish Behavior: The Unholy Hour with Ivy Corvus and Justin Bennett, Episode 4: The Monetization of Magic where Ivy and Justin share their thoughts on paid endorsements, paywalls, charging for online courses, and so much more. They explore a spectrum of opinions, which I think so many of us can resonate with. These are observations I myself have been grappling with, so it was really fruitful to hear their perspectives.

Tangentially related are other recent thought pieces I’ve been enjoying: Thorn Mooney’s “Reflections on Community” and Kelly-Ann Maddox speaking on “Buying the Witchcraft Aesthetic.”

As a collective we cycle back to this subject for conversation every few years. A year ago that #Occultea tag had lots of pagan and witchy content creators addressing social media witchcraft, grifters, aesthetics, consumerism, and gatekeeping. Consumerism in spirituality comes up frequently in the tarot community, which I’ve previously chimed in on here (Tarot Tube and Classism) two years ago, touching on many of the topics Ivy and Justin cover in this podcast episode, specific to tarot social media spaces, rather than the broader witchy/pagan space.

When we monetize the teaching of sacred knowledge, we complicate and maybe even risk committing sacrilege. But if we don’t meet humans where they are and provide monetary compensation, they’re not going to share their work.

For many holding sincere religious beliefs around how they’ve divinely received the sacred knowledge, trying to put a dollar and cents price tag on the value of that knowledge is intuitively icky. And yet if we don’t value that knowledge — and we demonstrate value by paying for it — then these sacred cultural traditions risk going extinct.

It seems like the majority agree that people should be adequately compensated for their work, but also we judge that at some point it’s just greedy, gross, and profane. We don’t want you to starve, but if you get too popular and start selling your stuff for too much, we’ll knock you off your high horse.

It’s funny how an oft-repeated tenet in the artist/creator community is “charge what you’re worth,” except when you do, you get vilified. If you charge a “grotesque” amount of money for your work, you’re perceived as having an inflated ego, and you’ll get accusingly asked, “What makes you think your work is worth so much.” Which also is a silly question to ask, because if the creator is doing business right, then the clear answer is the marketplace. The marketplace has accepted that their work is worth that much. It’s not ego. It’s capitalism. Okay maybe it’s both.

We all agree that some sort of balanced approach is best, but we disagree on what “balanced approach” means. Where do you draw the line and why do you draw the line there? Is charging $30 for an online course on planetary ritual magic okay? What about charging $300? $3,000? You say it depends on the content of that course, but how do we even apply an objective standard for review?

As an author and educational content creator of topics in mysticism, I struggle a lot with what a “balanced approach” means to me. I want to produce diligently researched, comprehensive, substantive educational videos on YouTube, but it’s a lot of work. It’s time-consuming, and at this point in my life, time is very precious. So if I’m going to invest my time and energy into making free educational videos to increase equitable accessibility to sacred knowledge, then I want to be compensated for that work, but how? Do I want money? Initially I think, no, I don’t need money for it. I just need something in exchange to feel like it’s fair, to feel like my investment sacrifice of time was worth it. But what?

Continue reading “Monetizing Mysticism (Here We Go Again?)” →

“Tarot and Oracle Card Reading” from the For Dummies Learning Series

On By benebellIn book review, cartomancy, tarot, tarot card meanings, tarot community, tarot exercises, tarot symbolism1 Comment

You’re probably quite familiar with the “For Dummies” learning series that were popularized in the 90s. The book series published by Wiley & Sons de-mystifies difficult subjects and is known for accessible, easy-to-understand, plainspoken writing. Wiley could not have chosen a better author for the task than my dear friend Charles Harrington.

Although the “For Dummies” series catches a kitschy rep, this is in all seriousness a legit, no-nonsense, superb beginner’s book on tarot and oracle decks — and I love the dual coverage this compact yet comprehensive book packs for you.

Continue reading ““Tarot and Oracle Card Reading” from the For Dummies Learning Series” →

My 30 Days on the Ketogenic Diet

On By benebellIn holistic food, personal11 Comments
Thank goodness uni (sea urchin) is keto-friendly!

I guess I’ll start with the ending spoiler: this was not for me. Yet if keto was a cult (sometimes I think it is), the Hubby says he’d join in a heartbeat (he jokes, but you get what he’s saying). The Hubby now swears by keto.

Everything about having to be on a ketogenic diet fundamentally runs against my impulses, inclinations, my intuition, my preferred lifestyle, my joie de vivre, like this was 30 days of stripping away the meaning of life from me.

Also, at the tail end of this blog post I’ll share some woo thoughts on keto, and what I felt like was the impact of a ketogenic diet on those who are psychic or hyper-intuitive.

Keto-Compliant Huli Huli Chicken over Green Beans in Garlic Sauce

Balancing out the text reviewing my 30 days of keto will be keto food pics. I’ll also share a pdf download of 30 days of keto dinners. On weekends I meal-prepped for weekday breakfasts and lunches, i.e., fridge fully stocked with soft-boiled eggs, various seasoned ingredients to easily build salads, foods cut and at the ready for easy charcuterie boards.

30 Days Keto: Meal Plan Print-Out

In case you’re curious, here’s a print-out of what we ate for 30 days:

Click here for the PDF

To any keto purists reading this, yes, our meal planning included several vegetables considered “not keto-friendly,” but are nutrient-packed. I found that I had to integrate “not keto-friendly” vegetables into our meal planning to avoid vitamin deficiencies.

The problem with the keto diet (if I may…) is the high risk of nutrient deficiencies, and if you eat “dirty keto” (more on that later), then you’re probably taking in way too much sodium, way too much bad fats, etc. If you aren’t hyper-aware of what exactly you’re eating just to stay keto, you’re putting yourself at a much higher risk for elevated cholesterol, liver stress, kidney stones, and if you already have digestive issues and lack of gut microbiome diversity, you’re gonna exacerbate those conditions if you’re not super-careful on keto.

Before we continue, in case it’s not overtly obvious to you already, I’m not a nutrition scientist, I’m not an anything at all that would remotely qualify me to talk about dieting or ketogenesis. This is just a lay person cooking food in a lay people kinda way and sharing my lay person opinions on something I know nothing about (but experienced for 30 days).

Local Northern California white surgeon roe (aka cheap caviar)

Oh, and one more thing about that print-out of meal prep. Cuisine-wise, it’s primarily East Asian, but California (specifically Bay Area) influenced, as “farm to table” as practicable, local and seasonal. If that’s not your palate, then the print-out is going to be quite useless to you. =P

Continue reading “My 30 Days on the Ketogenic Diet” →

Learning the Opening of the Key (OOTK) – Course is Now Free

On By benebellIn cartomancy, divination, free download, Holistic Tarot (book), Learn the Tarot, professional tarot, tarot, tarot community, tarot exercises9 Comments
Opening of the Four Worlds

Just a note for those who might be interested: the “Learning the Opening of the Key” video and workbook course from 9 years ago is now freely available.

You’ll first want to click onto the below hyperlinked page to download the workbook PDF and all supplemental materials:

Learning the Opening of the Key (Online Course)

Continue reading “Learning the Opening of the Key (OOTK) – Course is Now Free” →

The Tyrant Embodied in The Chariot Card (Etteilla Tarot Key 21)

On By benebellIn cartomancy, Etteilla Tarot21 Comments

This Chariot card took me 11 months to complete. Well no that’s not a fair representation. What I mean is I started the first draft of this card almost a year ago, and then just… stalled. (Funny enough, for a Chariot card…)

It’s still not done done, but it is a complete first draft. For every single card, I think I’m done, and then a few days later, sometimes weeks later, I happen to glance at it and suddenly spot egregious problems I need to fix.

“Le Despote Africain.” Upright, the keyword is Dissension, or Discord, and in reverse, it’s Arrogance.

Grimaud’s Etteilla III associates Card 21 with Rehoboam, the legendary 10th century BCE son of King Solomon who divided the previously united Kingdom of Israel into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, and who imposed harsh policies and burdens on the people.

Kinda fun to see the two Chariot cards side by side for comparison. On the left is from my Spirit Keeper’s Tarot deck, Revelation Edition. It’s philosophically fascinating how the slightest little change makes the biggest difference.

In the SKT, the line drawing pre-color is in black, thickness 7. For the Etteilla, line drawings are done in brown or midnight blue, thickness 4 or 5. Look at the dramatic difference just that one little change makes.

Continue reading “The Tyrant Embodied in The Chariot Card (Etteilla Tarot Key 21)” →

Why the Tarot Community is Facing a Cultural Reckoning

On By benebellIn cartomancy, opinion, professional tarot, tarot, tarot community38 Comments
Random photos of my Spirit Keeper’s Tarot deck, Revelation Edition, because I didn’t know what else to use as images for this blogged reflection…

I think it was in 2022 that I first realized what it is I was witnessing: the tarot community as I’ve come to know it was dying, though it was also making way for the rise of something else.

Archangel of Mysteries, Key 13: The Reaper, and The Defector (Eight of Chalices) from the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, Revelation Edition

The “Dying Internet” Theory

First, tarot trends don’t happen in a vacuum, immune to sociopolitical movements. In fact, we can often tie tarot trends to exactly what’s happening in the global mainstream society. Which is why we’ll start by laying the foundation and address the trending theory of a “dying internet.”

There’s this speculative idea that’s been whispered (or maybe more than whispered as of late) in tech circles here in Silicon Valley about how an organic, people-driven internet that echoes physical society is being replaced by manufactured template content and occupied by bots, more and more being generated by AI rather than written from scratch by a human, resulting in decaying authenticity and homogenization. As they put it, “the internet is dying.” It’s a slow, systemic collapse of feral, original human-authored (can’t even believe we now have to clarify) content being outrun by outsourced content mills, ad-driven clickbait drowning out the authentic individualized voices, monoculture, fake engagement, faked popularity, and more and more paywalls.

The theory isn’t so much saying the internet is dying dying, but rather, the internet as Gen Xers and Millennials have become familiar with is quietly fading away and morphing into something that will be unrecognizable to us. What was refreshingly democratizing about the world wide web is what’s dying.

A “Dying” Niche Tarot Community

I think I need to explain myself here. It’s not that I think the tarot, as a niche interest and esoteric study, is dying or will ever die. That will always reinvent itself and persist. It’s the form of the niche tarot community as those of my generation have known it that’s dying and soon to reincarnate into something we may find unrecognizable.

When the tarot first went online (at least as I recall and per my personal participation) back in the 90s, it was almost entirely conversational. We were discussing tarot, and often in a very nerdy, niche way. We were engaging in dialogue, debating, debunking, sharing, and not merely broadcasting canned information about it.

I feel like discourse used to be more in-depth, whereas now, online content about tarot is keyed to quick consumer consumption, because if you don’t, then your content doesn’t generate high engagement, whereas when you do play the SEO game, your content rises to the top. We’re rewarding homogenization.

And again, this isn’t something that shifted overnight. Any of us who’ve been here a bit have watched it happen right under our noses. Many have griped about it, especially back when the online tarot community was still more conversational. Nowadays there’s no more griping or controversial “drama,” no more raw TMI personal ramblings, because it’s all highly-edited strategically produced vanilla content keyed to generate ad revenue, rather than for sincere interpersonal discourse. The disintegration and morphing into the (to me) unrecognizable didn’t happen like a Tower moment; oh no, it’s been slow, gradual, in a normal wear-and-tear sort of way.

Continue reading “Why the Tarot Community is Facing a Cultural Reckoning” →

The Great Nine-Day Matsu Pilgrimage

On By benebellIn film review, Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality3 Comments

This video does a remarkable job illuminating one of the most important community (island-wide, and so national) celebrations in Taiwan. You follow a group of first-time participants on the pilgrimage and learn about the festival’s history, the lore and mythology of Mazu (older generations spell it Matsu), and her spiritual, communal, and political significance.

It’s from one of my favorite YouTube channels @TaiwanExplained, produced by TaiwanPlus, an English-language news and entertainment platform educating the international community on all things Taiwan.

The video covers a nine-day pilgrimage, though some devotees do a seven-day pilgrimage. It starts with three statues featuring the triple aspects of the goddess Matsu 三媽, carried in a traditional sedan chair, from the Matsu Temple in Taichung, to go on a 60-mile pilgrimage by foot toward the Fongtian Temple in Chiayi. Devotees stop at many temples along the way, and join in various types of local festivities at each stop.

For the mystic-oriented, it’s a week of sleep deprivation, overload to your physical senses, just walking through a constant haze of incense smoke, firecrackers, a lot of dancing and celebration, drinking, and socializing with complete strangers that, within a very short period of time become like family. It also, in effect, becomes one of the largest outdoor gatherings of spirit-mediums, diviners, psychics, and channelers you’ll experience.

Continue reading “The Great Nine-Day Matsu Pilgrimage” →