The Metaphysician’s Day Planner – Order Today

On December 4, 2016October 11, 2019 By benebellIn cartomancy, divination, Fu talismans, Holistic Tarot (book), I Ching, personal, personal spirituality, professional tarot, promotional, Tao of Craft (book), tarot community40 Comments

The 2020 Metaphysician’s Day Planner is Now Available

Click on the above image to visit the product description page.

$25

The Metaphysician’s Day Planner

I juggle a full-time day job in corporate law with writing and publishing books, doing interviews and talks for the book tours, part-time professional tarot reader and astrologer, blogger, avid home cook, and pro bono legal work on the side, all while being a metaphysician and keeping myself buried in metaphysical studies, so I do get asked a lot about how I organize my day. How do I make sure I am on top of my schedule of court appearances, hearings, and conferences for work, my client reading list for tarot and astrology, food prep for the week and menu planning, domestic chores, personal health and fitness, and everything in between?

With a day planner, of course. There is a set way I organize and format my personal day planner to cover everything I do. And now I’d like to share it with you. I’ve put together a 2017 day planner and organizer for the metaphysician.

It’s part day planner–annual, quarterly, monthly, and daily. And it’s part grimoire.Carrying around metaphysical correspondences and quick reference sheets helps immensely with memory retention. It’s my approach to broadening and deepening my esoteric knowledge.

Out on the market right now you’ll see a ton of beautiful, vibrant, inspiring, mind-body-spirit-based day planners and calendars rolling out for sale now.

Mine is none of that.

So if you’re looking for something with lots of pastel colors, inspirational quotes, affirmations, and space for you to jot down your secret desires, then this is not it.
Rather, this is a glimpse into how I organize my life and how I balance professional and personal accomplishment with esoteric studies. I don’t spend three hours filling in blank workbook prompts on what I love about myself. I don’t need “go get ’em, tiger” quotes in sans serif font printed in glittery hues across my planner cover. Instead, my planner is about optimizing the hours of my day and getting stuff done. I need a day organizer that helps me get stuff done. I don’t want color, because color ink is expensive. I want substance and I want economy.

That’s what my day planner is all about. And I’d like to show it to you. I made one up for my sister Cindy, so you’re going to see screenshots of hers for illustration.

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Amor Oscuro Lenormand by Diana Chin

On December 1, 2016December 2, 2016 By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review2 Comments

The Amor Oscuro Lenormand by Modern Witchy Woman Diana Chin is an independently published deck that is a glimpse inside an artist’s sketchbook, sketches that narrate what Chin describes as “the story of an interracial couple through 36 symbolic messages.” The Amor Oscuro pays homage to diversity in divination through the lens of a multiracial woman.

You can order your copy of the Amor Oscuro just in time for the holidays, here, via GameCrafter. I’ve been getting back into Lenormand as of late and have loved doing so with Chin’s Amor Oscuro. If you’re a Lenormand deck collector, then you’re going to want to get this one.

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Starlight Dragon Tarot: Deck Review

On November 28, 2016November 28, 2016 By benebellIn deck review, tarot7 Comments

I’ve spent this past Scorpio month tinkering with the Starlight Dragon Tarot by Nora Huszka and Steph Engert, which was perfect, since I get a Scorpio vibe from this deck. Here we have a 79-card tarot deck, though you can certainly use just the traditional 78, that summons into your life the bold spirit of dragons. It is a majestic yet cerebral deck to get your favorite tarot reader this holiday season and while I would consider it a more advanced deck to work with, any artist or writer friend of yours will pull boundless inspiration from the energy of the Starlight Dragon so for sure get it on your gift list!

I’m reminded a bit of T.A. Touchkoff’s Russian Gypsy Fortunetelling Cards (Harper San Francisco, 1992) in terms of the square format and aligning the cards along four edges to form divinatory mosaics. However, the Starlight Dragon is unique in its own right and springs to life from its magnificent coloring. You’ll detect the bold signature of Huszka’s handiwork, and yet what we get from the Starlight Dragon, especially after having worked with Huszka’s Gypsy Palace Tarot, is a declaration of this artist’s incredible versatility.

Often when you examine multiple decks from the same artist, it can get difficult to tell one deck apart from the other because the artistic point of view is the same. Here we get a touch of Huszka’s penchant for bold coloring but she has challenged herself as an artist and creator to pull out from within an entirely different visual perspective and I commend her for that. Again, it speaks volumes of the artist’s versatility.

The card back imagery is incredible. We see what appears to be a single double-headed dragon knotted in the formation of a lemniscate, depicting the colors representative of the spirit energy from the Majors and the four elemental energies of the Minors and peeking through the lemniscate are two dragon eyes. Along the four corners you’ve got glyphs representing the four phases of the moon. Every detail of Starlight Dragon Tarot is thoughtfully executed and done so with perspicacious precision.

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How to Earn $50K or More as a Part-Time Professional Reader

On November 16, 2016April 24, 2023 By benebellIn divination, free download, professional tarot, tarot community6 Comments

Did I get your attention with that gimmicky blog title? Let me get even more specific with my gimmick. Learn how to earn $50K or more from working 27 hours per week.

After being bombarded by online gurus claiming they could teach people how to earn six figures from a home business, most of them offering spiritual services, and believing that there is such a code to earning those six figures, I challenged myself to crack that code and see if I could engineer such a formula.

I couldn’t.

But, I did figure out how to earn 50K, actually I contend to you more than that, from working what is essentially a 27 to 30 hour part-time work week, from home, as an entrepreneur.

At least I think I did. Anyway, I’ve written up my findings.

Whether you decide to go crazy and tack on 27 hours of extra work to your current working schedule to launch a spiritual service venture part-time (technically, a 27-hour work week counts as “part time”) or you’re aspiring to go full-time as a professional reader offering spiritual services and want some tips, I’ve put together a little handbook that instructs on a formula I came up with for achieving the targets I listed: $50K in earnings from a spiritual business service by putting in a 27 hour work week.

Intrigued?

Then download the handbook. I offer it in both PDF and DOC file formats.

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Method Journals: Documenting Your Woo-Woo Experiences

On November 14, 2016October 26, 2016 By benebellIn divination, personal, personal spirituality, Tao of Craft (book)8 Comments

Journaling 01 All Journals

I’m often asked about my own journaling methodologies and how I document my personal work. At any given moment in time, I have the above-pictured four books/journals/what-have-you. Each one serves a different purpose for me.

If you want a more in-depth peek inside that big black one you see pictured above, check out this video I uploaded onto my YouTube channel:

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Event in Sonoma: Taoist Magic and Tarot Divination

On November 12, 2016April 24, 2023 By benebellIn divination, feng shui, free download, Fu talismans, Holistic Tarot (book), promotional, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism, tarot, tarot community5 Comments

2016-10-03-taoist-magic-and-tarot-divination-ig-post

The first hour will be a talk on Taoist cosmology, the history of Fu talismans, the 13 principles of craft as derived from the Yellow Emperor’s Classics of the Esoteric Talisman, intersections of science and magic, and how practitioners use divination to know and then craft to change.

consecrated-fu-talisman-paper-11-11

The second hour will be a hands-on workshop where you will use tarot divination to help you design and craft a Fu sigil, working with Chinese oracle bone script. Fu sigil paper consecrated on 11/11, cut and prepared at 11:11 am, and then consecrated at 11:11 pm will be provided for your use. You can take some home with you to craft the sigil. It is recommended that the final sigil be crafted on the day after the workshop, on the full moon.

jiao-bei-divination-moon-blocks

I’ll bring my Jiao Bei divination moon blocks and set them out on the table top for anyone who seeks to use them for a personal divination. Free for your use at any time during the event. Please handle respectfully.

Event Downloads:

The 13 Principles of Craft (PDF)

Tarot and Fu Sigil Crafting Workshop Handout (PDF)

Zip File of Oracle Bone Script and Sigil Images

All attendees will also go home with a consecrated and blessed pocket gemstone, with the hopes that it helps you along in all your magical endeavors.

gemstones-yin-yang
For more detailed metaphysical correspondences of the gemstones per my perspective, check out this previously uploaded PDF for a glossary of gemstone correspondences. Find the entry for the stone you picked (or the stone that picked you…) in the PDF if the one-two word correspondence on the yellow card wasn’t clear.

Glossary of Gemstone Correspondences (PDF)

Limited copies of Holistic Tarot and The Tao of Craft available for purchase for $20 each.

There will also be book signings if for some reason that interests you.

Beginner Learning and Teaching of Tarot: A Socratic Method

On November 8, 2016April 24, 2023 By benebellIn beginner tarot deck, cartomancy, divination, free download, Holistic Tarot (book), tarot, tarot symbolism9 Comments

I often get asked how I would teach tarot to a beginner, what Lesson 1 would be, and also how to learn tarot if you are a beginner with no past exposure to tarot.

Recently I had an encounter where I gave my version of Lesson 1 of beginner tarot and I’ve been granted permission to share a transcript of it. Of course, this is paraphrased, but my memory for details is pretty good. I dare say this is a pretty accurate representation of the conversation and discourse that took place. I taught by the Socratic Method, though I wonder if she realized that.

The cards drawn and as identified are the actual cards from the Lesson 1 reading experience. For those who are more familiar with tarot techniques, basically what I did was first have her select her significator card, perform the Opening of the Four Worlds from the First Operation of the Opening of the Key, and then from the card pile she found her significator, draw three cards at random and perform a three-card past, present, and future reading.

If you’re at all curious how I might teach Lesson 1 of Beginner Tarot, here it is, as a downloadable PDF.

Download “Beginner Learning and Teaching of Tarot: A Socratic Method” (PDF)

Book Review of Radical Dharma by Rev angel Kyodo Williams, et al.

On November 7, 2016January 17, 2024 By benebellIn book review, personal spirituality2 Comments

Tackling the legacy of racial injustice and white supremacy by applying Buddhist principles to take down privilege and trigger collective awakening, ministered by African-American Buddhists who temper Black prophetic traditions with the Dharma may seem ambitious, but that would be the incredible premise of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation by Rev. angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Rod Owens, with Dr. Jasmine Syedullah. With chapter sections like “The Abolition of Whiteness” and “A Theory of Queer Dharma,” Radical Dharma reads like a sermon at the kind of church I would want to attend regularly.

The book is philosophy; the book is in part memoir on spiritual journeying (“Remembering in Seven Movements” by Lam Rod Owens) and in part the proposition of a new religious doctrine, Radical Dharma. Through Radical Dharma, people of color and those from marginalized groups can finally achieve the healing they need and recover from the traumas of social injustice.

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Spiritual Service Professionals: How to Win Every Refund Dispute

On October 27, 2016April 24, 2023 By benebellIn free download, professional tarot, tarot community12 Comments

Deck Pictured: Oswald Wirth Tarot (USGS, 1997).

This won’t be an interesting post.

It’s targeted only at spiritual service professionals.

So unless you are a professional tarot reader, astrologer, life coach, divination mentor, or are engaged professionally in a similar form of spiritual business, this post will not be of much interest.

I’m posting it kind of as a PSA so that it is available to any spiritual entrepreneur who manages to find this page.

If you teach business tips and strategies to spiritual entrepreneurs, then I ask of you to incorporate the contents of this post into your educational materials. Screw credit or no credit or infringement wtf ever– just get your people informed, will you? Who the hell cares who came up with the idea first. Just get the information out there to fellow spiritual service professionals.

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Golden Thread Tarot Review

On October 24, 2016 By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, divination, tarot9 Comments

Lately my go-to reading deck has been the Golden Thread Tarot by Tina Gong, published by the Labryinthos Academy. Although as of this writing the deck has been sold out (giving you a sense of how in demand it has been!), if I were you, I’d write to the deck creator directly and see if you can get on a pre-order list for the second print run.

In Taoist cosmology, the Huang Tao (黃道), or Golden Path (has also been translated as Yellow Path), designates the path of the sun, representing the solar calendar. For harmony and prosperity, one should time significant life events (such as weddings, business grand openings, funerals, etc.) to the Golden Path. The Golden Path also represents the space-time continuum. Whether Gong was cognizant of it or not, the Golden Thread Tarot pays homage to the Golden Path, which is particularly poignant, given that the tarot deck as Gong has created it is purposed for divination and insight into one’s Golden Path. As modern and fresh as the Golden Thread Tarot is, it connects to a very ancient, very traditional cosmological and metaphysical principle.

Gong began the deck as an illustration project, though it evolved into both the physical deck you see pictured here and a companion mobile app. You can learn more about the app here on her website. I often say that I use tarot like a lantern, holding it up to shine through the darkness and gain you greater visibility for what is around you, so you have a clearer sense of your own path. The Golden Thread Tarot turns out to be a perfect manifestation of that concept. The opaque black background the images are set against represent the proverbial darkness and the gold line drawings illustrating the key symbols of the Rider-Waite-Smith inspired tarot imagery represent that light shining through our darkness, giving us Sight.

I also love how Gong describes the concept as inspired by the night sky and “the archetype of a single string that connected all things within the universe, threading images in a murky unknown.” Each card feels like a Jungian archetype from the collective unconscious.

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Author: benebell