When you walk into a Buddhist or Taoist temple anywhere in the southern regions of the Mainland, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, heck– just in general the East Asian cultural sphere– you are going to see moon blocks. Baskets full of moon blocks. It’s so you can ask your question of the patron divinity or spirit, then toss the moon blocks and receive an answer from beyond.
Moon blocks can also be used for divination with the Zhouyi (I Ching).
The selfie function is hard. I never know where to look…
This is a TarotTube tag started by @Kelly Bear but I’ll be participating via blog post. =) I was tagged by the lovely and precocious @JessReadsCards. The prompt is to share 5 tarot decks, 4 tarot books, 3 tarot spreads, 2 tarot reader habits or tarot reading paraphernalia, and 1 piece of advice (or alternatively, 1 tarot card you’d like to embody).
Ack. You can see my Invisalign attachments in the above photo. And of course now that I called it out, it went from 50% chance you’d see it to 100% chance you’ll see it. Also, shameless off-topic plug for my new book, I Ching, The Oracle. The first few months after an author has released a book, you’re just gonna have to brace yourself for a lot of promo. =D
This is a quick look-see and walk-through of a beautiful ink and watercolor oracle deck I received. The Great Lakes Oracle: Freshwater Energy (Everyday Treasures Edition) is illustrated by Sarah Palmer and comes with a guidebook written by Colleen Footit.
The Great Lakes reminds me of childhood summer vacations. Having grown up in upstate New York, I’m most familiar with Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. This deck is personal to me. It is nostalgia. Palmer’s art style is very much emblematic of Americana and the Naturalism Movement.
This post will focus on the differences between the First and Second, and showcasing the additional options and alternates from the expansion packs.
Left: Second Edition magnetic flap box. Right: First Edition 2020 tuck box.
The Second Edition comes in a sturdy magnetic flap box, compared to the first edition cardboard tuck box. Also, the above photo shows the difference in deck sizes. You’re getting a lot with this Second Edition pack!
Instead of 78, we now have an expansion pack of 84 cards in total, including unique cards such as The Witch. For a deck titled the Ink Witch Tarot, I’m loving this bonus. I like using this card as the significator, and that use aligns with the creator’s intentions– per the guidebook, “This card represents you— and anyone else who might use this deck.”
I’m struggling with swords placement in my Six of Swords wip. In fact, there’s a lot to this illustration composition that I’m struggling with. Maybe you’ll have some suggestions on what I can do.
I’ll start from the beginning. I knew I wanted to play with the religion and science dynamic in the Six of Swords, and my ambition was to do that in a way that isn’t too cliche.
After a series of hard hits and feeling the dooming sense that her world was collapsing around her, Jessi Huntenberg went outside to sit alone in nature and cleared her mind. Once her mind was clear, she heard the universe whisper to her, “Paint.”
And so she did. The Genius Garden Tarot was created from 78 acrylics on canvas paintings, and the first work to be produced was St. Brigid, then a smoldering brush fire, and then a woman in nude. These three visions in succession conveyed the divine message that came to instruct Huntenberg’s creative direction.
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.
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.
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.
benebell wen 