Author: benebell

SKT III Status Update Report

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Magical in the Mundane, personal, personal spirituality, Spirit Keeper's Tarot, tarot, tarot community18 Comments

I’ve just finished up the first drafts of the Fives, so I figured it might be a good time to share a status update on SKT III (edition still unnamed). There are some videos up already on my YouTube channel to get a little more into the creator intentions behind each card, though public videos ended at the Threes. I’ve put the videos on pause for now, in terms of releasing them.

Works-in-progress drafts only; final production subject to change

If you might recall, Key 1: The Magus was the very first card I learned digital painting on. The line work was done by hand, scanned in, and the color was subsequently done via digital painting software programs. Then it was Key 2: The Priestess, and so on.

It’s amusing to look back on those first five keys, because it’s painfully obvious how scared of color I was. =) I didn’t know what I was doing. I was winging it. And you can tell.

It’s not until Key 6: The Lovers card that a noticeable improvement happens. Then after Key 7: The Chariot, off I went! =) Now that I know how to color, after finishing the Tens I’m going to return to Keys 1 through 5. I’ve already made notes on how I want to revise them.

You can click on any of these image files for an enlarged view.

Continue reading “SKT III Status Update Report” →

Order the 2021 Metaphysician’s Day Planner (with Add-On Options)

On By benebellIn promotional12 Comments

Order the 2021 Metaphysician’s Day Planner today! We offer this custom-tailored package year-round, so order any time!

Delivery Time:

Delivery time will be within 7 days from date of order.

$25

  • Metaphysician’s Day Planner for 2021, with your birth chart (in Whole Signs) and 2021 solar returns chart in the front pages
  • See below for all features in the Day Planner
  • The Metaphysician’s Guidebook (delivered as a pdf e-book, with an additional option to order a physical copy)
    • The Guidebook includes basic instruction on how to read your birth chart and solar returns chart, run transits forecasts for yourself, and insights into the key astrological events of 2021
    • A break-down and explanation of each section in the Day Planner and how to optimize your work and planner organization with those sections
    • Insights into how to work with the grimoire end pages and integrate metaphysical study into your everyday life
    • Basic name analysis with numerology tutorial (for both personal names and business names)
    • Basic medieval geomancy tutorial
    • Lifestyle articles on time management, goal-setting, achievement, how to deal with failure, and more
    • 2021 void of course moon times
    • And so much more!

+ $5 Add-Ons

If you’d like the printable do-it-yourself files for the SKT Mini deck, it’s an additional $5 add-on to your planner order.

You can also opt for the $5 add-on for the printable do-it-yourself Way of the Warrior oracle cards (text-only). Information on the oracle deck below.

For those who’ve never purchased a metaphysician’s day planner before, see below links to previous versions and you’ll get a sense of the contents.

How to Order

STEP ONE:

Either send $25 for the day planner only,

Or send $30 for the day planner + add-on options (please specify whether you want the SKT Mini or the Way of the Warrior oracle deck)

Or send $35 if you want the day planner plus both the SKT Mini and the Way of the Warrior add-ons.

Send by PayPal or GooglePay to abelldelivers@gmail.com.

You can also click on this link: https://www.paypal.me/benebell

STEP TWO:

E-mail me at abelldelivers@gmail.com your completed Order Form (see below).

  1. Name as you want it to appear in the book:
  2. Date of birth (month/day/year):
  3. Time of birth:
  4. Location of birth (city, state/province, country):
  5. City, state, and country of residence for 2021:
  6. Size option, from the following (check one option below):
  • [ ] Standard US Letter Size, 8.5” x 11”
  • [ ] European A4 Size, 8.27” x 11.69” (210 mm x 297 mm)
  • [ ] Trade Paperback, 6” x 9” [Warning: Font sizes 7 and 8 used; less space to write in; minor changes to grimoire pages to fit the substantive content into the smaller page size]

If you order the +$5 option, please also include:

7. Mini deck option (check one option from below):

  • [ ] SKT Mini Printables
  • [ ] Way of the Warrior Printables
  • [ ] Both – Note: +$10

Continue reading “Order the 2021 Metaphysician’s Day Planner (with Add-On Options)” →

Tarot Skills for the 21st Century by Josephine McCarthy

On By benebellIn book review, tarot, tarot community9 Comments

Josephine McCarthy is one of the preeminent magicians of our time. She is the founder of Quareia and author of several incredible tomes, among which I’ve read The Work of the Hierophant and The Exorcist’s Handbook. I’m also a big fan of her deck, LXXXI, which I’ve reviewed here. I am now so excited to be sharing with you my thoughts on her latest endeavor, a comprehensive book on tarot that covers both the mundane and the magical meanings of each card.

The edition I received for review is hardcover, with a beautiful velvety matte book jacket. I love that the title anchors the book in the 21st century, while the book’s aesthetics feel Old World to me. I haven’t seen this quality and caliber of production value in a tarot book for quite some time now, so there is something quite exquisite about learning tarot from McCarthy’s text.

The book begins with a strong introduction, giving you a sense of who your teacher, the author, will be, and the context from which classical tarot interpretation sprang. Having read dozens of tarot books published in the last few years, this one is refreshing in its traditionalism, formality, and also its design as a handbook to teach tarot as a venerated practice.

Continue reading “Tarot Skills for the 21st Century by Josephine McCarthy” →

Simplicity Tarot by Emilie Muniz: A Tarot Deck for Everyone

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, tarot, tarot community12 Comments

The Simplicity Tarot by Emilie Muniz is this perfect RWS-based deck that checks all the boxes that people keep saying they want in a tarot deck, but don’t seem to notice that Simplicity Tarot exists. It flies quietly, humbly under the radar, and I have no idea why. Muniz’s deck features all the hallmarks for what our community keeps saying we want in a tarot deck, and yet this deck isn’t trending. Why is that?

Here is this deck with imagery that feels classic, timeless, not overly modern, with refinement and elegance, beautiful on any reading table spread, and has the diverse representation so many of us readers today want in a deck.

Continue reading “Simplicity Tarot by Emilie Muniz: A Tarot Deck for Everyone” →

Accessing Genetic Memory Through Tarot: Ancestral Connections and Past Life Recall

On By benebellIn conferences, professional tarot, promotional, tarot9 Comments

The first iteration of this course content was presented at the 2018 Tarot Readers Studio conference in New York.

About the Course

Recent scientific findings have established a link between genetics, inheriting memories from our ancestors, and those inherited memories being retained within our neurons.

In other words, a deep reservoir of untapped knowledge is resident within our own genetic and cellular memory.

This master class will address using tarot as a tool for triggering an altered state of consciousness, which can then facilitate retrieval of genetic memory from the unconscious.

We will be using ritualized tarot techniques to recall generations past, to have conversations with our ancestors through tarot, to find out who they were, where they were from, what their lives were like, and most importantly, what messages they have to share with us, for us at present and for their own future lineage.

Continue reading “Accessing Genetic Memory Through Tarot: Ancestral Connections and Past Life Recall” →

SKT 3.0, Second Septenary Walk-Through

On By benebellIn Spirit Keeper's Tarot12 Comments

Are you getting SKT fatigue from all my obsessive posts about this deck? =)

I apologize for being so single-track in all my postings at the moment, but that’s just where my mind is at.

I’m amused at how with each edition, I seem to change the same cards over and over. Like here in the second set of Major sevens, once again it’s the Hermit card I revise and the background of the Wheel of Fortune. However, this time around, I did change up my Temperance.

If you watch the above video on YouTube’s platform, timestamp links are in the video description box, so you can skip around from section to section.

This previous post is where you can find the video on the First Septenary of cards. This post is a pictorial walk-through of Keys 1 – 11.

Continue reading “SKT 3.0, Second Septenary Walk-Through” →

Walk-Through of Key 1 to Key 11 in SKT III

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot17 Comments

This will be a walk-through of Keys 1 through 11 from the Major Arcana for the forthcoming third edition of the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot. Please note that I don’t anticipate the deck coming out any time sooner than 2021, and don’t be surprised if it doesn’t come out until 2022. I also won’t be doing pre-orders until the whole deck is done.

Continue reading “Walk-Through of Key 1 to Key 11 in SKT III” →

Inspiration and Process for Coloring SKT III; The Emperor Revisited

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot11 Comments

Yeah, I’m going full-color (sorta– it’ll be a muted palette) for SKT the Third (I’ll be calling it something else, something fancy-shmancy, but for now it’s SKT the Third).

If you click into YouTube to watch the video on that platform, you’ll be able to skip around using the timestamps I’ve provided in the description box.

Continue reading “Inspiration and Process for Coloring SKT III; The Emperor Revisited” →

SKT the Third, Experimental Trials: Trying Out Full-Color

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot15 Comments

I made a little video to showcase the evolution of my Lovers card from the SKT, laced with Bach’s Prelude in C Major. =) You can click on that YouTube logo along the bottom bar of the video to enlarge.

Experimenting with color…

Please understand that nothing has been committed to just yet. This is nothing more than an experimental trial, though I’m sharing it with you as an entry in my SKT progress diary. Your honest feedback is welcomed!

Actually, it’s very welcomed. Like the previous shitty-Emperor-card post. You all gave me really good critiques that were specific, detailed, and because of the collective you, I had something tangible to work with as I continued trying to draw a good Emperor card. (It’s still in the works. We’ll revisit Key 4 at a later time.)

Continue reading “SKT the Third, Experimental Trials: Trying Out Full-Color” →

HALP ME WHY CAN’T I DRAW AN EMPEROR?!

On By benebellIn create your own deck, Spirit Keeper's Tarot49 Comments

Yeah. I needed the title in all-caps. Because I’m screaming at the top of my lungs and yanking at my own hair.

WHY IS DRAWING THE EMPEROR CARD SUCH A STRUGGLE?

For an irrational woo answer to that, I might say maybe it’s because our global collective culture is moving away from dominant-masculinity, and as a feminist I’m certainly not going to cry a river over that shift, but it does mean I’m really, really struggling with tapping in to that masculine energy.

Continue reading “HALP ME WHY CAN’T I DRAW AN EMPEROR?!” →