Those who’ve purchased Metaphysician’s Day Planners from me in the past are familiar with this +$5 option I offer each year.
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Category: personal
Author’s Thoughts After Three Books
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.
Changes to the YouTube Channel and Access to Past Videos
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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Lady of the Nine Heavens and the I Ching
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.
Tarot Deck Personification (cf. Animism?)
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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Orange Peel and Rice Powder DIY to Treat Hyperpigmentation
I wanted to put this out there in hopes that someone googling for this info will find my post. So yes, topically it’s a bit outside my beaten path here on this blog.
I made my own citrus peel powder + rice grains powder face treatment to deal with hyperpigmentation and texture concerns, applied it twice daily for 100 consecutive days, and am now sharing my thoughts.
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Art Project: Scrapbook Collage Cards
The real reason this post is going up is because I want to show off my cute little arts and crafts project. Otherwise there is no other purpose to them. So permit me to flaunt and brag about my accomplishment. This is where you ooh and ahh, or at least pretend this matters to you. =)
Like, I’m not going to sell them or turn them into an oracle deck (although you totally can, and what a great idea that is!) so what am I going to do with these scrapbook collage art cards I made… oh, I know, flex about it on my personal blog.
I mean. They’re pretty cute, aren’t they? You can give me that much. =)
But I will try my best to force out a more meaningful message for the collective, something you might be able to get out of my personal arts and crafts dabblings. This is a really, really easy craft project you can do at home, and I’ll explain why I believe it’s worth your while.
If you have arthritis, there are arthritic scissors you can use, or invest in one of those sliding paper cutter things. And then instead of collaging with magazine cut-outs, do what I did and buy a ton of stickers. All you’ll be doing is collaging with stickers.
Reading Your Critiques
In my head I’ve been mulling over a candid video chat I’ve been wanting to make for some time now, but it’s only these last few weeks of stirrings in our tarot community that concretized my motivation to just go ahead and do it. =)
I’ve only chosen one comment to read as an example of a recurring common critique I get, and the three recurring common critiques I’m chatting about in this video are as follows:
- I’m pretentious and elitist, and also an opportunist,
- My work is imbued with negative, demonic entities and/or I am possessed by or consort with negative, demonic entitles (evil, dark energy, etc., take your pick of descriptive), and
- I say insensitive things at all the wrong times (as interpreted from the writings I’ve put out there).
In the video I also reflect on authenticity, the perception of virtual authenticity, and how true, sincere human authenticity will come back to bite you in the ass online, and the only way to appear authentic is to fabricate and manufacture the illusion of authenticity.
Practice Pays Off: An Etteilla Doodles Update
The above side by side isn’t a fair comparison, but let’s compare anyway. The left was entirely hand-drawn in pen and ink back in 2018 when I first picked up drawing after not having done anything artsy for over 20 years. Well, I did do technical drawings in fashion design, but like creative artsy art. That I hadn’t done in decades.
The above right began as a thumbnail sketch by hand (I still feel better doing it that way, even after going digital), I scan in the rough sketch and then clean it up digitally. Then the illustration is colored digitally as well.
Gradually, I’m doing less and less by hand analog and more and more digitally in software. For example, even near the tail end of completing SKT Revelation art, I was finalizing almost the entire composition of each card by hand, scanning it in, and then digitally coloring, tweaking, etc.
At this point of the Etteilla project, however, there’s less than 1 hour of drawing by hand analog before everything goes digital and I take it to the finish line in Paint Shop Pro.
I will say, though, notwithstanding the boost you get from tech, my actual line drawing by hand has improved a great deal over the last 5 years. Almost every day for the last 5 years, but for a few exceptions, I’ve been practicing my drawing skills. I keep a sketchbook and make sure I draw something every day.
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Kuan Yin art print with Great Compassion Mantra dharani
Click on the above image file to download and use freely (but reverently, please). The image file is in 400 dpi and should print okay at 9.5 inches x 9.5 inches. So don’t go much larger than that, but you can go smaller. Actually 11″ x 11″ should still be fine.
All the extra border is to allow for bleed margins.
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