Trad Wives vs. Girl Bosses; Etteilla Art on the Nine and Eight of Swords

On By benebellIn Etteilla Tarot, opinion, personal16 Comments

Anyone else notice the intensity of recent conversations swirling around so-called girl bosses and trad wives?

Funny enough, as I nosily listen in on video essays, podcasts, and commentaries, I’ve been sketching the Eight and Nine of Swords from my Etteilla deck.

Now you’re like, wait what does the Eight and Nine of Swords in the tarot have to do with girl bosses and trad wives?

I thought nothing. But the illustrations I seem to have subconsciously done at this time sure are amusing.

Chronologically I worked on Card 56, the Eight of Swords first, which appears to give off girl boss energy, then moved on to Card 55, the Nine of Swords, which one might identify with trad wife.

This blog post is another installment of my Etteilla Tarot art project status updates.

At the same time I thought it’d be fun to pepper in some rambling on this whole trad wives, girl bosses conversation du jour.

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Witches Among Us by Thorn Mooney – Contemporary Witchcraft and Wicca

On By benebellIn book review, personal spirituality, tarot community, traditional witchcraft7 Comments

I’m a huge Thorn Mooney fan. I’ve been following her work since, gosh, over a decade ago when people were still uploading grainy YouTube videos of late-night ramblings about the Craft. Witches Among Us: Understanding Contemporary Witchcraft and Wicca (Llewellyn Books, Oct. 2024) is her third book.

In writing Witches Among Us, Mooney wears dual hats: that of the religious studies scholar and that of a longtime practitioner with experience in multiple traditions. In reviewing Witches Among Us, I’m wearing the hat of someone who is witch-adjacent. I do believe I am within the target readership because I am not part of the in-group of contemporary witchcraft or Wicca, and therefore I am reading this book to learn more about that group.

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Trademark Registration DIY (USPTO)

On By benebellIn create your own deck, free download, professional tarot, tarot community1 Comment

If you’re not a very disciplined, organized, love-to-do-research, always-did-your-homework Type A personality with strong Virgo vibes, then skip this blog post entirely and do not try to DIY intellectual property law. Hire an attorney.

Even if you are all that, this is not legal advice. I am not your attorney. This is a free-for-all blog post you came across on the internet, on a website about fruity-tutti metaphysical arts no less, so if you leave with even a few nuggets of insight to get you started on the right track, call it a win. Which is to say, do not blissfully rely on what I’ve said here. Apply critical thinking.

But… For an attorney to do the due diligence, put together the application, and steer your trademark through registration with the USPTO, it can cost around $2,500 if it’s a simple, un-problematic trademark. And if you’ve got unique circumstances or someone ends up challenging your mark, then the fees will skyrocket out of control.

If that sounds like way more than you’re willing to spend, well the good news is technically you can file a trademark without a lawyer. Yes, technically it can be DIY, though that comes with quite a bit of risk. If you do it wrong, your application will get rejected, you won’t get your trademark registered, and you will be out of pocket the $250 or $350 you paid for the filing fee (no refunds).

Nevertheless, I’ve always been a do-it-yourself (DIY) type and if you’re kinda like that too, and you are willing to roll up your sleeves and do a lot of research, homework, and study yourself, and you accept the risks of DIY trademark registration, then maybe you don’t need to hire a lawyer or take your chances with one of those discount run-of-the-mill legal services websites. Maybe you can shoot your shot and try to register your trademark on your own.

Here are the basics.

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The Semantics of Devil, Demon, and Ghost: 鬼 Guǐ

On By benebellIn I Ching The Oracle (book), Magical in the Mundane, personal spirituality, Tao of Craft (book), Taoism, traditional witchcraft12 Comments

I stumbled upon an online discussion criticizing Fabrizio Pregadio’s translation of gui 鬼 to “demon, devil” [in Encyclopedia of Taoism (2008)], calling this translation inaccurate and problematic. The commenters in that discussion thread preferred the translation of gui to “ghost,” emphatically declaring that gui as ghost is the right approach, and that equating gui to demon or devil is wrong.

The rationale was that demon and devil have a connotation of evil in the West, which the term gui does not have. The term “ghost” is a bit more neutral – they say – and so gui as ghost is the better translation.

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Cat Aura Tarot by Malumir R. Logan and E. C. Mazur

On By benebellIn deck review6 Comments
Prismatic edging on the deck.

The Cat Aura Tarot tunes in to the magical perspective of cats, and like the intellect of cats, this deck is so much more, as you’ll soon see. “These curious, courageous, and happy felines have so many stories to share with you,” writes Malumir R. Logan, the deck creatrix, author, and cat mom who is the proprietor of Acorn and Burdock.

She teams up with illustrator E. C. Mazur, whose highly detailed nature and animal art is absolutely mesmerizing. Be sure to check out her online art portfolio.

This deck is calibrated to work with the chakra system and with our auras. Per the guidebook, chakras are energy centers in our bodies, whereas auras are the electromagnetic field surrounding our body in a way that reflects the health of our chakras.

The colors of our auras reflect the color spectrum of chakras. So, for instance, a yellow-gold aura is telling us something about the dominance of the solar plexus chakra in that person; a green aura communicates something about the heart chakra, and a violet aura communicates something about the crown chakra, etc.

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#Tarot7Connection (TarotTube Challenge) Responses

On By benebellIn Bell Chimes In, tarot, tarot community5 Comments
Black Ink Tarot by Evvie (Evvin) Marin (Interrobang Tarot)

I saw the #Tarot7Connection video challenge via Marilyn from Tarot Clarity on Tarot Tube and decided I would post a response via blog before reading the questions! =)

Old Style Tarot by Alexander Ray

For visual interest, there will be random photos of pretty tarot decks accompanying my responses – no connection between the photos and my responses beyond coincidence.

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Inner Light Tarot by Serena Borsella

On By benebellIn deck review1 Comment

Before I read anything about this deck, as I set down the first two rows of cards, my immediate first impression was this has to do with yoga.

And that all made sense when I read that the creator, Serena Borsella, is a yoga coach.

The Inner Light Tarot is modern femme boho-chic. It radiates with the light of a California summer sun, inspiring harmony of physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, to achieve union of body, mind, and spirit.

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Who’s Afraid of Big Bad Generative AI?

On By benebellIn Bell Chimes In, opinion, personal, tarot community22 Comments

I kind of feel bleh for talking about AI so much, but everyone in every nook and corner of my life, personal and professional, is talking about it, so it’s hard to avoid wanting to chime in.

When you’ve got multiple thumbs in varying (and very different) pies, you’re exposed to a diversity of opinions, and wow is it diverse. If you’re only mingling in liberal arts circles, then you’re not hearing, truly hearing, the discussions about AI happening in the scientific circles, and if you’re only mingling in scientific circles, then you’re not hearing, truly hearing, the discussions about AI happening in the liberal arts circles. And so it’s been interesting hopping from one camp over to the other and back to witness the contrast.

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Is the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot (SKT) for Beginners?

On By benebellIn Spirit Keeper's Tarot24 Comments

While lurking I recently saw a comment that made me smile and chuckle. A person had asked whether the SKT would be a tarot deck suitable for total beginners. This person also e-mailed us at abelldelivers (which only the hubby J checks with any frequency, and I only respond back to emails delivered there if J has nagged me at minimum five times to sit down and reply to the querent to answer the question goddammit). Other times J will come in to my room, rephrase the person’s question, get my response, and I guess rephrase my response to answer that person directly. This turned out to be one of those other times.

In that thread, the commenter writes that we had replied to their inquiry and said that “yes, there is no reason why this deck could not be used as a beginner’s deck.”

My first thought was, wait, did I really say that?

Okay, here’s what happened. I totally remember now.

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Cosmic Wisdom Tarot by Ethony and James Fenner

On By benebellIn deck review, tarot, tarot community2 Comments
Page of Swords from the Cosmic Wisdom Tarot

The illustrations for the Cosmic Wisdom Tarot has this nostalgic and heartwarming animations-of-your-childhood storybook style to it that is then paired with one of the coolest tarot card meanings guidebook I’ve come across.

Cosmic Wisdom Tarot Guidebook – page spread for The Magician card

I love the creative mind-map layout for the card meanings. Each card comes with a definitive “this card means yes” or “this card means no” in the case of asking a yes or no question to the cards. I love the bullet points of keywords and single-sentence thesis for each card, upright and reverse, and then the breakdown of symbolism, which is also going to help you learn the RWS system.

The Majors. Click on photo for enlarged close-up view.

The Cosmic Wisdom Tarot is outfitted to be a great beginner’s deck, if you or someone you know is looking for one, because in addition to the RWS-keyed deck art, the guidebook does a great job presenting the tarot as a versatile tool, whether you are interested in learning it for divination, for self-discovery and personal growth, spiritual cultivation, or for inspiring your creativity.

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