Pre-Order the 2024 Metaphysician’s Day Planner

On By benebellIn promotional19 Comments

It’s that time of the year again, for the Metaphysician’s Day Planner.
You get the day planner customized with your birth chart, solar returns chart (note specific casting method), and what you’d like printed on the interior first page.

There’s also a 2024 guidebook with astrological forecasts for the year plus other useful charts and references. The front chapters are in the form of a workbook, guiding you step by step through how to use the birth chart and solar returns chart to write in your own individualized forecasts for the year.

A blank journal is also included. If you like to get matching sets, the above shows what I chose for the standardized cover design for all three books, but of course, as always, you will get many cover art options to choose from and you can totally customize your own.

New to the MDP? CLICK HERE for a walk-through of its contents.
In short summary, it’s customized with your birth chart, 2024 solar returns chart (though I calibrate to the day adjusted to the time zone of your 2024 place of residence rather than to the sun’s degree), and the text you’d like on the interior first page. (Most people will customize their name here, a power word for the year, or a brief phrase.) This name or text is in Prompt #3 from the Order Form below.

Each year I offer an optional +$5 add-on (though last year it was a +$8 add-on). The 2024 add-on is explained here (click on hyperlink).

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In Defense of Indie Deck Review; Also: On AI Generated Images

On By benebellIn cartomancy, opinion, tarot community34 Comments
Source: facebook.com/Indiedeckreview

I don’t have a dog in this fight, no skin in the game as they say. There is more benefit to me opting out of this conversation and staying quiet. In fact, speaking up would be ill-advised; I only stand to lose.

First, a quick statement about my personal background, as that will be context for my perspective. I am a self-taught illustrator and in the late 90s was highly skeptical of using digital art in tarot. Everything people who are against AI are saying right now about AI in tarot art was exactly my perspective of digital illustrator tools in tarot 30 years ago (because I did not understand digital art).

At the time I was alarmed to see how many digital artists could create something with the computer that looked almost too perfect, and do it so quickly, but then if you take away their tech and put a pencil in their hand, they could barely do freehand sketches.

However, my judgmental opinion was on the basis of a very superficial understanding of digital art. As I learned more about the process and was exposed to more digital artists as individuals, getting to know the intricacies of their creative process, the more my opinion evolved. I met more and more digital artists who could do phenomenal freehand sketching, and who had simply chosen digital software as their medium, not unlike deciding on acrylics, or pastels, or watercolor, or clay.

Now for the commentary on current affairs…

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Author’s Thoughts After Three Books

On By benebellIn I Ching The Oracle (book), opinion, personal7 Comments

Posted an author unboxing (actually no, it’s not really an unboxing) and first impressions (is it a first impressions?) of my third book, I Ching, The Oracle.

Then decided to swing by over here on my blog to repost and share some additional personal ruminations. Here are some of my thoughts and reflections after publishing three books.

Holistic Tarot debuted in 2015, then The Tao of Craft came out in 2016. I didn’t publish another book until 7 years later, 2023.

There’s this unspoken pressure on writers to crank out books on a fairly regular, repeating basis. To be clear, no one demands it of us; it’s more of an unspoken self-imposed peer pressure. You look around and all your colleagues are writing a book a year.

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Changes to the YouTube Channel and Access to Past Videos

On By benebellIn Bell Chimes In, Learn the Tarot, Magical in the Mundane, personal, personal spirituality, promotional, Sightsee the Tarot, Spirit Keeper's Tarot, Taoism, tarot, tarot community, Tinkering Bell, traditional witchcraft7 Comments

In an effort to curate the publicly visible videos on the Benebell Wen YouTube channel, many past videos are now unlisted but still publicly available via the Playlists tab.

For a ballpark sense of how many videos are now unlisted, as of this posting only 129 of 405 total videos are publicly visible in the general Videos tab and thus only those 129 videos are searchable on the YouTube platform.

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The Tarot & Astrology Handbook by Argus Kaldea of MoonPriest

On By benebellIn astrology, book review, cartomancy6 Comments

The Tarot & Astrology Handbook: The Quintessential Guide for Harnessing the Wisdom of the Stars to Better Interpret the Cards is a beautifully done reference guide to interpreting the tarot through the cards’ astrological correspondences. This is a handbook that unveils new depths of meaning in the cards by examining them through an astrological lens.

The author, Argus Kaldea, is an astrologer and tarot reader based out of Greece. You might have heard of him or seen his popular videos on TikTok as @MoonPriest.

Not only will you learn the astrological correlations connected to all 78 cards in the tarot, but also how to integrate these two tools– tarot and astrology– together. The tarot reader will learn astrology, and the astrologer will learn about the tarot.

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When the Tarot Community Incites Anti-Chinese Xenophobia

On By benebellIn opinion, tarot community41 Comments

There’s been a rise in anti-Chinese xenophobia here in the West, and the tarot community has been no exception.

Yikes, did the well-known public figure in the world of tarot just say, in that above comment, that they “know of no Chinese printing” company that doesn’t steal copyrighted work? And then imply that Chinese people like to “beat the foreigner” aka exploit white people?

Every one of these screenshots were authored by someone I know or know of, someone I am connected to via the tarot community. Many are by well-known public figures in our community– published and celebrated tarot authors and popular deck creators. However, I’ve redacted names and profile pictures because that’s not the focus here. This is not about calling anyone out. Let’s focus on the content of the messages being spread in the tarot community and what social impact it might be having.

If you don’t think the rise in anti-Asian hate and violence here in the US is connected to all of these little microaggressions against the Chinese, then you haven’t been paying attention.

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Lady of the Nine Heavens and the I Ching

On By benebellIn Fu talismans, I Ching, I Ching The Oracle (book), Magical in the Mundane, personal, personal spirituality, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism, traditional witchcraft7 Comments

This video is part of a companion course series leading up to the release of my third book, I Ching, The Oracle. I’ve covered this topic previously here, “Mysterious Lady of the Ninth Heaven (Jiu Tian Xuan Nü, 九天玄女).” However, given the personal relevance, we’re revisiting the Lady of the Nine Heavens, now within the context of my Purpose for publishing this new translation of the Book of Changes.

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Tarot Deck Personification (cf. Animism?)

On By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, opinion, personal20 Comments
Per usual, random photos of decks interspersed throughout the post to keep visual interest.

Yesterday I was invited to live-chat with the Three Fat Readers and one of the topics that came up was deck personification. You can watch a replay of it here.

The timing of our sit-down together coincided with a greater conversation that’s been trending in our community as of late. Tarot Readings From a Bitch covers the controversy succinctly here and gets the ball rolling by asking the question.

I very much enjoyed ScholarBot’s perspective and explanation for not personifying tarot decks, linked here.

Robyn’s Reflections shares why and how she personifies some decks and not others here.

Lisa and Dawn Michelle chat about deck personification here.

This particular issue recycles in the tarot community every so often, so if you go back five years, you can see this video by Katey Flowers on personifying tarot decks.

Since the opening premise of the tarot deck I created, the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, was to explore and experiment with the concept of animism, I thought I might chime in. To that end, I’d like to separate out the discussion on deck personification and the discussion on animism.

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Ba Gua: The Eight Trigrams

On By benebellIn feng shui, grimoire, I Ching, Magical in the Mundane, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism, traditional witchcraft9 Comments

This video lecture course is an overview of the eight trigrams (八卦, Bā Guà). It is part of a companion course series leading up to the release of my third book, I Ching, The Oracle.

Ba Gua Correspondences Table

My goofy mnemonic for remembering the order of the trigrams

Timestamps provided in the video description box (you’ll have to watch on the YouTube platform). Apologies, the editing and audio are a bit choppy. The timing of the slides and voiceover narration are off in a few places.

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