Tag: Llewellyn Books

A Daily Mindful Tarot Practice

On By benebellIn Sightsee the Tarot1 Comment

Mindful Tarot: Bring a Peace-Filled, Compassionate Practice to the 78 Cards by Dr. Lisa Freinkel Tishman blends the principles of Zen Buddhist practice with the tarot. The result is a meaningful text that will develop your tarot reading skills at three levels: (1) mindful awareness of yourself and your querent, (2) a deeper relationship with your cards, and (3) a transformed understanding of the tarot system. Mindful Tarot is filled with exercises, reflective journaling prompts, analyses of all 78 cards, and step-by-step examples of Dr. Tishman’s own daily practice.

Tishman is an extensively published and celebrated poetry scholar, Zen Buddhist minister, certified mindfulness educator, and former humanities professor and dean at the University of Oregon (UO). She is also the founding director of UO’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program.

Tishman currently serves as an interfaith chaplain at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield, Oregon. You can find a wealth of free resources and contact Tishman for her tarot reading or counseling services at Calyx Contemplative Care.

In this episode of Sightsee the Tarot, we explore Dr. Tishman’s mindful PULL approach to tarot reading and work through her signature Chariot spread.

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Healing Your Body with the Queen of Pentacles

On By benebellIn personal spirituality, Sightsee the Tarot, tarot2 Comments

Skill Level: All (General)

In today’s installment of Sightsee the Tarot, we’ll be exploring Ethony Dawn’s Your Tarot Court: Read Any Deck with Confidence (Llewellyn Books, 2019) and invoking the Queen of Pentacles to bring you her Gift of Healing. You can read my book review of Your Tarot Court here.

Deck Pictured: Bad Bitches Tarot by Ethony Dawn

This guided tarot reading and journaling session will connect you to the Pillar of Healing power that the Queen of Pentacles rules over. Connecting to the Pillar of Healing through this meditative exercise can help to bring you some relief and calming to the physical aches and pains you’ve been suffering from.

Essentially, you’ll be invoking the Queen of Pentacles for the divine gifts she rules over and using energy healing techniques and guided meditation to help placate any physical pains or discomforts you’ve been feeling.

Continue reading “Healing Your Body with the Queen of Pentacles” →

Your Tarot Court: Read Any Deck with Confidence by Ethony Dawn

On By benebellIn book review3 Comments

Your Tarot Court: Read Any Deck with Confidence (Llewellyn, 2019) by Ethony Dawn is your one-stop comprehensive modern guide to the tarot courts.

This book will transform the way you work with the courts, ignite a genuine excitement for these cards that are otherwise seen as the most difficult cards in the tarot deck to work with. This is your handbook on how to approach the tarot court personalities as your allies.

An ingenious yet simple paradigm for mastering the court card archetypes is presented here. Henceforth, when the Page of Wands appears, think: Peter Pan. When the King of Pentacles appears, think: Manager. King of Swords? Scientist. Queen of Cups? The Mystic.

How do these archetypes play out in specific situations? Your Tarot Court delves into the exact ways a personality like the Knight of Cups, a Romantic, would approach a work and career situation, or in a relationship– how to interpret the Knight of Cups to predict timing in tarot– how to work with astrology and the courts in a reading– and how to spot the Knight of Cups Romantic archetype in pop culture today to further deepen your comprehension of this card.

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Tarot Correspondences by T. Susan Chang

On By benebellIn book review, cartomancy, grimoire, tarot, tarot community, tarot symbolism7 Comments

This book is such a must-have. Those of you who’ve been following along in my orientation video series for Spirit Keeper’s Tarot will have seen that I recommended Tarot Correspondences as the tarot book to get if you want to work with correspondence systems.

Chang’s Tarot Correspondences is tailored to all levels of tarot proficiency, whether you’ve “been reading for decades” or “you just picked up your first deck,” (as noted in the Introduction). “Correspondences,” she writes, “are patterns and connections inherited from esoteric systems. In tarot, correspondences line up with specific cards.”

Working with tarot correspondences is premised on the doctrine of sympathy, a Hermetic principle that the way one system goes with the other is part and parcel to the magic that happens. Correspondences, notes Chang, are the bridge between worlds. And I couldn’t agree with her more.

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Labyrinth: Your Path to Self Discovery by Tony Christie – Book Review

On By benebellIn book review, personal spirituality3 Comments

A year ago from this day, in fact on the anniversary exactly, I posted a review of the Labyrinth Wisdom oracle cards by Tony Christie. That oracle deck remains as one of my favorites. They’re powerful and insightful for personal readings and great as an addendum or clarifying reading to a professional tarot session with a client. Now I get the pleasure of reviewing the companion book to Labyrinth Wisdom— Labryinth: Your Path to Self Discovery.

The first line of the Introduction hooked me instantly: “In life you experience a series of doorways, gateways, and openings to love, light, and wisdom that, if taken, will bring you to a higher state of existence.”

I’ve always been fascinated by the metaphor of the labyrinth and the rich history that it comes with, so I have read many books on the subject that I can compare with Christie’s. In that comparison, Christie’s book comes out on top. The explanatory power that these 267 pages plus an extensive bibliography for further reading is just incredible. If this is a topic that intrigues you the way it does for me, get Labryinth. It will deepen your knowledge and understanding of the subject area.

We begin with clear definitions of what a labyrinth is, types of labyrinths, and its origins. The labyrinth, in short, is a symbol of your journey in life with its twists and turns as you make your way toward your personal center. It can also be used as a form of divination meets walking meditation: journey through a labyrinth with a specific question in mind, and the labyrinth takes on the symbolic meaning of that question.

Continue reading “Labyrinth: Your Path to Self Discovery by Tony Christie – Book Review” →