Here’s the deal folks, The Magical Buffet is moving into shiny new digs. Technically we’ve already moved in. It seemed like a simple task, and a wonderful upgrade that is going to increase my productivity and hopefully at long last lead to global conquest. It started out innocently enough.
See the beautiful office?
However it rapidly became…..
thisand this.
Meep?
So hang in there readers while I get everything sorted out! It will be totally worth it because once I get a little time to write I have got some awesome stuff to share with you! First off, we’ve got a TON of music to discuss. Paul Simon’s “Graceland” turned 25, Metric put out an incredible new album, we absolutely HAVE to talk about Damon Albarn’s “Dr. Dee”, and there’s still more! Not to mention Brad Warner has a new Zen book out and you know how I love that guy. I mean there is A LOT we need to talk about folks, and it is all 100% cool shit.
Now if I can just find what box those CDs ended up in…..
“A Year of Writing Dangerously: 365 Days of Inspiration & Encouragement” by Barbara Abercrombie. I had specifically asked for a review copy of this book because I know many people who read The Magical Buffet are professional writers, looking to become professional writers, or are happily dedicated writers in their spare time. However looking at it now I thought, dangerously? A wee bit pretentious aren’t we? Of course on the other hand I found myself thinking, dangerously? How exciting! I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of inspiration and encouragement one finds in a year of writing dangerously. I also found myself wondering if by chance author Barbara Abercrombie was in anyway related or connected to the Abercrombie & Fitch stores, and if so could she get them to turn their damn music down?
Finally I realized that rather than wonder I could do something crazy like, I don’t know, read the book? I swear, I’m a genius. Someone get me a delicious cupcake! In the meantime, let me tell you what I discovered. “A Year of Writing Dangerously” is an infectious book, which I mean in the best way possible. You cannot help but be inspired by it. Each day has an anecdote or one of Abercrombie’s observations, which for me inspired responses ranging from jaw dropping to cheering, and a related quote from an impressive array of writers, we’re talking Tennessee Williams to Anne Rice and more! For those looking for even more from “A Year of Writing Dangerously”, Abercrombie offers 52 weeks of writing prompts at the back of the book. These are little exercises to help you practice like; write about a time you didn’t show up, write down two or three things you know for sure, or write about a time you had to wing it.
But, dangerously? Abercrombie briefly addresses the “danger” in her introduction, but I think days five and six do it better. As to not go totally spoiler-ific you’ll have to buy the book to get the tasty word tortilla that wraps these spice fillings. (Can you tell I’m typing this while waiting for dinner?)
Writing is dangerous because you might get caught.
Sometimes it feels dangerous to know what I really feel. Because if I acknowledge my feelings outside the boundaries of my own heart and mind, if I open up the latch to my subconscious and let those precious secrets leak out, God knows what will happen. I might have to hold myself accountable to these thoughts and feelings. I might have to act upon them. I might have to change. I might have to stop lying to myself and others about what I need and want. I might have to ask for what I need and want. I might have to be a disappointment; I might have to be disappointed; I will disappoint.
Can you say a whispered wow? That’s what I mean by stuff that can make your jaw drop. Oh yeah, now we’re writing dangerously.
Now I’m totally me-o-centric so I wanted to know what the entry is for my birthday, so my husband Jim stepped up and casually did the math (while making dinner) and figured out what day is mine when it’s not a leap year. So as to give you the full idea as to what a day is like here is mine, day 149, “The DVD in Your Head”.
Maybe the essay you’re writing, or the memoir or novel, has now taken up residence in your inner life, like a DVD playing inside your head. Maybe as you go to sleep at night, you’re working on your story, you dream it. And when you brush your teeth in the morning, you’re thinking about it, seeing flashbacks of your own life or your characters hovering behind you. If it’s a book you’re working on, you imagine what the cover will look like. Articles you read in the newspaper or online, things you observe, hear on radio or TV – everything starts to connect to your work.
Maybe you already have a draft of an essay or short story you’ve written that needs to sit for a while for you to get some perspective on it, and you’re looking for the subject of your next one. What you look for you usually find.
Or maybe not. Maybe you’re stuck. But the only way to become unstuck is to keep showing up, to keep writing. And trust that when you do show up, something will be playing in your unconscious.
“The physical act of sitting at your computer writing down words is important of course but your unconscious mind is also doing a lot of work for you. If you show up. If you hold your characters in you mind, if you constantly look at the world for ideas to go into your book.” – Walter Mosley
And that’s “A Year of Writing Dangerously”; Barbara Abercrombie, with the help of others, does her best to encourage, empathize, and inspire you to take on another day of writing.
Have you lost touch with your dreams? Are your dreams missing you (in the words of one of a new slew of dream-themed TV commercials)? Is your dream recall limited to fragments that are lost completely as you hurry off into the business and traffic of the day?
Relax. Robert Moss, author of “Dreaming the Soul Back Home”, offers the following easy ways to renew and refresh your relationship with your dreams.
1. Set an intention for the night
Before you go to bed, write down an intention for the night. This can be a travel plan (“I would like to go to Hawaii” or “I would like to visit my girlfriend/boyfriend”). It might be a specific request for guidance (“I want to know what will happen if I change my job”). It could be a more general setting of direction (“I ask for healing” or “I open myself to my creative source”). You might simply say, “I want to have fun in my dreams and remember.”
Make sure your intention has some juice. Don’t make dream recall one more chore to fit in with all the others.
Having set your intention, make sure you have the means to honor it. Keep pen and paper (or a tape recorder) next to your bed so you are ready to record something when you wake up.
Record something whenever you wake up, even if it’s at 3 a.m. If you have to go to the bathroom, take your notebook with you and practice doing two things at once. Sometimes the dreams we most need to hear come visiting at rather anti-social hours, from the viewpoint of the little everyday mind.
If you don’t remember a dream when you first wake up, laze in bed for a few minutes and see if something comes back. Wiggle around in the bed. Sometimes returning to the body posture we were in earlier in the night helps to bring back what we were dreaming when our bodies were arranged that way.
If you still don’t have a dream, write something down anyway: whatever is in your awareness, including feelings and physical sensations. You are catching the residue of a dream even if the dream itself is gone. And as you do this, you are saying to the source of your dreams, “I’m listening. Talk to me.”
2. Practice Conscious Entry into the Dreamspace
You don’t need to go to sleep in order to dream. You can enter dreaming from a quiet place of meditation, from the twilight zone between sleep and waking, or through shamanic drumming. You may want to check out my drumming CD, “Wings for the Journey”. You can take a favorite picture and use it as a personal dreamgate. Imagine yourself stepping behind that line of trees in the landscape painting, for example, and having an adventure on the other side. Or take a favorite piece of music and let yourself flow with it into a series of dreamlike scenes.
3. Play with the Dreamlike Symbols of Everyday Life
It’s fun to devote a little time every day to tracking the dreamlike play of symbols in everyday life. It’s also very interesting how, when we give more room to studying coincidence and random messages (in the vanity plate of the car ahead, or what comes on the car radio, for instance) we seem to unlock the nocturnal dreamgates and more comes through.
4. Be Kind to Fragments
Don’t give up on fragments from your night dreams. The wispiest trace of a dream can be exciting to play with, and as you play with it you may find you are pulling back more of the previously forgotten dream.
About Robert Moss: Robert Moss is the author of “Dreaming the Soul Back Home” and numerous other books about dreaming, shamanism, and imagination. His fascination with the dreamworld began in his childhood in Australia, when he had three near-death experiences and first learned the ways of a traditional dreaming people through his friendship with Aborigines. Visit him online at www.mossdreams.com.
Vacuum trains
Leave New York City, be in Europe in an hour. How? With technology first proposed by Goddard (yes, that rocket guy) over 100 years ago: vacuum trains. Evacuate a tube to create an airless vacuum, and then shoot trains through it. The technique, with some modern modifications, is surprisingly effective.
Private Colonization of Mars
There’s this company, Mars One, that plans to put people permanently on Mars in 11 years (2023). They’re going to fund the expedition by making the whole thing into a giant media event, including cameras on the selection of the crew, the feed from their rovers and from the Mars-orbiting satellite.
Over the Weekend, Half of Germany Was Powered by Solar
Apparently the Germans are doing something right. At peak times (mid-day), they’re producing 22 Gigawatt/hours of electricity from their combined solar panels. That’s the equivalent of 20 nuclear power plants.
Alternate Universe Slippage
Scientists postulate that some neutrons are slipping into an alternate universe. Seriously.
Just Print That Organ
Screw transplants, these days people who need replacement organs can just print what they need using their own cells and an “ink-jet printer”. No, not in “5 years”, not in “10 years”, this is today, and it’s new enough that airport security doesn’t really understand it.
Holy Levitating Slinky!
And sometimes, these tidbits just write themselves. Slow-motion shots of what it looks like when you drop an extended slinky. Spoiler: it visually makes no sense.
Vertical Ship Goes into Construction Phase
Two-thirds of this beast stays below water to keep the other 170-feet of it buoyant. Anyone else thinking of a James Bond villain hideout?
Very Neutral
When they say that Switzerland is aggressively neutral, this is what they mean. The article discusses the Swiss redesign of their natural landscape into a country-sized fortress. Bridges designed to blow and take out the railroad beneath it. Artificial landslides which will wipe away important roads. Hidden shelters deep inside their many mountains. Fascinating stuff.
Extreme Planetary Closeness
Astronomers have discovered two planets in a system 1200 light years away that are so close in their solar orbits that they will appear in their respective skies larger than our moon. Scifi authors, start your engines.
Starry Night in Dominoes
Some guy does a pixelated rendition of Van Gogh’s Starry Night using dominoes, and then pushes one over. Time-lapse movie of him setting it up (with some incidental failures along the way) and the final setup. The final collapse visual is amazing.
Brave New Hair
Detailed discussion of how the good folks at Pixar got all that great hair to bounce around in 3D animation the way it does in the movie Brave. Some plot spoilers, though.
[Thanks for the tip, Alex.]
Fanless Heatsink
It’s silent, cools your computer bits and should be here soon. Plus there’s video and Science!
[Thanks for the tip, Alex.]
Human Powered Helicopter
Vertical liftoff has been achieved by an entirely human-powered helicopter. Spoiler: 50 seconds of flight. Still damned amazing.
[Thanks for the tip, Alex.]
New Mineral Found in Meteorite
Not a prelude to a bad scifi movie (that I’m aware of, anyway). A scientist has been probing meteorites for years, and has discovered 9 new minerals as a result. This time, it’s something “primordial”.
About John: John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).
Geek Credentials: RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee. Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993 Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983 His Blog:http://glenandtyler.blogspot.com
I have to say, I think the masterful Mr. Claude Lecouteux himself would be impressed with the amount of work Lisa Hunt put into “Ghosts & Spirits Tarot” because what you have here is a tarot deck where each card depicts a different spirit, ghost, or liaison between the earthly and spiritual realms from folklore and legend. So yes Lecouteux fans, all the subjects of his books that have been reviewed here on The Buffet are represented in this deck: The Wild Hunt (The Chariot), Vampire (The Hanged Man), Revenants (Six of Cups), and yes party people, even the Poltergeists from the last review (Ace of Swords).
Ace of Swords - Poltergeist
I’m not exaggerating in the slightest when I tell you that I would gasp with surprise and glee with each page turn of the booklet as a treasure trove of creatures and characters were revealed. La Llorona! The Flying Dutchman! Headless Horseman! White Ladies! Each entry has a brief description and bit of context along with a divinatory meaning.
The artwork is perfectly suited to the subject matter and despite the obvious darkness implied, Hunt brings beauty to most of the cards despite the specter of death the hangs around ghosts and spirits. I’m a fan of the Day of the Dead and I became quite smitten with Hunt’s rendering of it for the Ten of Cups.
Ten of Cups - Day of the Dead
And I was swept up by The High Priestess, who in the “Ghosts & Spirits Tarot” is an Enchantress/Sibyl. Hunt’s text brings perfect understanding to what we see in the card.
The most famous oracle of Greek/Roman legend, the Sibyl of Cumae (Italy) guided Aeneus through the land of the dead and enabled him to return to the living. The Sibyl interweaves the energies of past lives and future events. She illuminates the scene where dream-like specters mingle with relics of the past. A pathway provides a passage to clarity and higher understanding. The sparkles indicate a divine presence.
The High Priestess - Enchantress/Sibyl
What else can I say to convince you that “Ghosts & Spirits Tarot” by Lisa Hunt is 100% amazing? How about even though I received a free copy to review I went ahead and bought a second copy so I could get it signed by the artist? Did I mention I found this deck incredibly impressive?
Paranormal enthusiasts! Wake up! Over here! Over here! If you consider yourself a paranormal investigator, a ghost hunter, or an armchair paranormal expert I am about to tell you about THE book you need to read if you want to have real game. We’re talking about separating the boys from the men, the Caspers from the, from the, well I can’t think of the name of some adult type ghost but you get the idea. What we’re talking about my friends is Claude Lecouteux.
As I’ve come to expect from Lecouteux, the level of research is astounding. The book opens with a thoughtful discussion of “What is a Poltergeist?” His aptitude with medieval texts means that “Poltergeists” is not only filled with stories you’ve probably never read before, but it also allows Lecouteux to track the evolution of belief in, and explanation of, poltergeists. A particular highlight for me is back in the Appendices where you’ll find the debunking of a 1649 instance of poltergeist activity. Also in the Appendices; Exorcismus domus a daemonio vexatae (Rite for the Exorcism of a House Tormented by a Demon) which is how priests would attempt to rid homes of poltergeists in the Middle Ages when poltergeists were considered to actually be the Devil or demonic activity.
I can’t imagine a more thorough text available on the subject of poltergeists and the homes they haunt. Are they spirits, genies, the dead, the Devil, demons, witchcraft, hoaxes, or from psychokinetic abilities? Lecouteux covers all of that as well as the variety of ways people from all eras would attempt to rid themselves of poltergeists. If you’re anybody who is anybody claiming to know anything about the paranormal, you have to read this book. Also, if you’re anybody looking for an insanely fascinating read about the evolution of poltergeists in human culture, you also really should read this book.
Excuse me while I step on JB Sanders toes and talk a little tech talk today. I assure you that my stuff is awesome, more awesome than the “Geek Month in Review”. (I didn’t mean it JB, please keep doing the “Geek Month in Review! Please?) Anyway…..
Google, with the help of Vizzuality, has put its technology to work to help experts in the field of language preservation like the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and The Institute for Language Information and Technology (The Linguist List) at Eastern Michigan University start the Endangered Languages Project.
Why does such a website need to exist? According to the site, “Experts estimate that only 50% of the languages that are alive today will be spoken by the year 2100. The disappearance of a language means the loss of valuable scientific and cultural information, comparable to the loss of a species. Tools for collaboration between the world communities, scholars, organizations and concerned individuals can make a difference.”
Not to get all website quote crazy but, “The Endangered Languages Project, is an online resource to record, access, and share samples of and research on endangered languages, as well as to share advice and best practices for those working to document or strengthen languages under threat.”
The website is mind blowing, I can’t wait to see what it’s like when it really gets going! The members of the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity that helped the site launch is already an exciting collective. When you explore the site you’re given a map of the world with dots on locations; green means the language there is at risk, yellow, endangered, red, severely endangered, and gray, vitality unknown. I went to Hawaii and had my mind blown to learn that the Endangered Languages Project estimates that there are only 1000 native speakers worldwide of Hawaiian.
Genuine screen shot! Shiny!
The page has video and audio samples of people speaking the language, and although no documentation has been added to the resources section yet, they helpfully show you relevant Google Books search results. Come on, Google did help put this thing together!
Next up, and last up, June 20th was World Refugee Day and apparently the UNHCR (Also called the UN Refugee Agency, but most accurately should be called The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.) put together some real out of the box thinking for the occasion. They have launched the app game “My Life as a Refugee”. This app game recreates the fleeing refugee experience and according to the game’s website is based on the real life experiences reported to the UNHCR by refugees.
From the website, ” Every minute eight people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. If conflict threatened your family, what would you do? Stay and risk your lives? Or try to flee, and risk kidnap, rape or torture? For many refugees the choice is between the horrific or something worse. See if you’ve got what it takes to survive. Download ‘My Life as a Refugee’.”
Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m going to give them credit for some original thinking, and something to recreate the refugee experience is a powerful tool indeed. However, I can’t see myself downloading it. I mean, holy freakin’ downer Batman! I suspect that I’m not its intended audience though. From some of the press I’ve read, I’m getting a classroom vibe intention. And yet again I find myself going, holy schools full of terrified children Batman! (Seriously, you want to know the “holy Batman” thing I say the most in real life? Holy bed hopping hair hoes Batman! I said it once in junior high and apparently it has decided to never leave my brain. Never.)
If you’re interested in learning more about the refugee experience, making a donation to help the UNHCR, or downloading “My Life as a Refugee”, visit their website.
No more circular discussions, no more eleventh hour recriminations. We’re through.
This is not an emotional decision. Actually, it doesn’t feel like a decision at all. We’ve been drifting apart for quite some time now, and more than anything I’m just acknowledging the distance between us. Whatever kept us together just isn’t there anymore.
It won’t do you any good to turn on the charm. Don’t bother trying to fill my head with thoughts about how great we are together or how lost I’ll be without you. You no longer have that kind of power over me. I see right through you now. I look, and there’s nothing there.
It took me a long time to figure you out. Like so many other unhappy couples I know, we drifted into our own little world and for the longest time I mistook it for reality. If you asked me to pinpoint the day this shift occurred, I couldn’t, because it happened so long ago. But I vaguely remember what life was like before I met you. Actually, it’s more a feeling than a memory. A feeling of freedom. Not a “I-have-a-whole-weekend-in-front-of-me-with-no-plans” kind of freedom, but something different altogether. It’s more a sense of spaciousness, the kind children must feel before their heads become filled with worldly nonsense, before their sense of wonder contracts, before they begin to imitate the behavior of the troubled souls around them.
I can feel that sense of spaciousness right now when I close my eyes and forget that I have a body. It’s like I’m not even a person anymore, I’m just this space that goes on forever.
I don’t expect any of this makes sense to you. It never has before. You always have to define things, slot them into categories. But this isn’t something that is easily explained. It’s beyond words– I know, I know, you hate it when I talk like this, when I challenge your black and white view of things. You always get really quiet.
In the old days I would have misinterpreted your silence. I would have felt wrong, even a little crazy, for expressing myself like this. Now that silence suggests something different. It suggests that I threaten you. Am I right? And your silnece tells me something else, something really important. It tells me that I’m perfectly capable of living on my own. When your voice dies away, my voice appears. It’s just there. It’s probably been there the whole the time, but you were always drowning it out. It’s a clear voice. A strong voice. I’m going to be just fine without you.
My friends think I’m crazy. They wonder what I’m going to do without you. They’ve seen what happens when we’re together, the crazy highs and lows, the bizarre behavior, but they still question my decision. This really throws me until I remind myself what it was like to live in an unhealthy relationship. You don’t know it’s unhealthy, and that’s the problem. You talk about happiness but you never never get to touch it. It’s something that’s supposed to happen in the future. Month after month, year after year, you think – it’ll get better, we’ll work this out. But it doesn’t get better. It can’t. Sick relationships like ours don’t get better, they just get sicker.
It’s a small world and no doubt we’ll be running into each other. I guess it’s more “see you around” then it is “goodbye”. At the right distance, we’ll be fine. I need to be far enough away from you to hear the sound of my own voice. I actually wouldn’t mind your company once in a while, like when I’m fixing the sink or packing for a trip. We get along pretty well in those instances. But this time around, you’ll need an invitation. You can’t just come barging in. You don’t live here anymore.
Pack up your things and leave your key on the table. When I come home later, all I want to hear is the sound of you being gone. I to melt into the silence. I want to lose track of where I begin and end, and this time I will do it with my eyes open. You said something once. You said I’m nothing without you. Remember? Well, you were right. I am nothing without you. Thank you for helping me discover this important truth.
Love always.
About John Ptacek: My life has been enriched by the teachings of wise men and women, and my essays attempt to demystify these sometimes cryptic teachings so that more may be exposed to their wisdom. They appear on my website, On Second Thought, www.johnptacek.com. I live in Wisconsin with my wife, Kitty.
Well, this past Saturday I locked Jim in the driver’s seat and we made another trip out to Marlborough, NH. This time it was to attend the Midsummer Faerie Fest at Muse Gifts & Books featuring workshops from Raven and Stephanie Grimassi and Dawn Hunt of Cucina Aurora. At this point Jim and I are familiar enough with Marlborough to know to show up early enough for me to get an awesome, giant muffin and him a sandwich at Zeppelin & Kaleidoscope, and for me to have a little time to browse around Inkubus to see what’s new in stock for clothes and Mexican sugar skulls. However I didn’t have that much time to dilly dally because soon all the action was going to start over at Muse.
As always I was enchanted by Muse. Kevin and Cynthia maintain such a beautiful store that has such a great energy, and trust me, I’m the kind of person that hates it when people say that some place has a “good vibe” or a “great energy”, but seriously, Muse really does have a wonderful energy thanks to the people who run it and many of the people who frequent it. Despite being there for the event I managed to again drop some cash. I bought Jim another big restock of Cucina Aurora Rosemary Olive Oil, another Crystal Journey Candle like I bought the last time I visited, and even though I’m swimming in fantastic looking review copies of books, I couldn’t resist buying a copy of “The Gates of Witchcraft” by Christopher Penczak. Damn you Penczak! Come on Copper Cauldron, can’t you hook a sista’ up with some review copies?
(L to R) Kevin Satoris, Stephanie Grimassi, Dawn Hunt, Raven Grimassi
Let’s get this party started, first up were Raven Grimassi and Stephanie Taylor with their workshop “Journey to the Faerie Grotto”. I had seen Raven speak before at Celebrate Samhain, but never before with Stephanie. I don’t know if it was the subject matter, the more intimate setting, or Stephanie chiming in from time to time, but this was the best Raven Grimassi presentation I’ve ever heard. You may have heard him speak at Celebrate Samhain and thought he was good, but trust me, this was better. So if you weren’t at Muse this past Saturday you…..missed……out. The first part of the workshop was background information, and the second half was a guided meditation. I have done a few guided meditations when attending events and I have to say I had the most success with this one. Raven’s style is very casual and forgiving, which I mean in a complimentary way. He doesn’t let you get too hung up on things and perhaps that’s why it worked well for me. He’s very encouraging and motivating. Did I mention how you missed out in a big way if you weren’t there?
Dawn Hunt making Sunshine Sandwiches
Just in case you weren’t feeling you missed out enough, it’s time to talk about Dawn Hunt’s turn. For those of you who aren’t aware, Dawn Hunt is a Kitchen Witch and the woman behind Cucina Aurora. Cucina Aurora just launched their new website AND moved into a new office/warehouse space! She’s going to be a Witchy Martha Stewart one day, so you should totally get in on the ground floor of this thing. Anyway, Dawn spent time talking about foods associated with fairies and foods found midsummer and where those overlap. Of course being a Kitchen Witch she also discussed the magical associations of those foods as well. As much fun as it is to listen to Dawn speak, it’s WAY more fun to get to eat what she’s talking about and she cooked up a TON of food for us all to try! We got to eat Mushroom Asparagus Risotto, Tomato Caprese (tomato and mozzarella salad), Mixed Berry Salad, Refreshing Watermelon Salad, Peach Shortcake, and Sunshine Sandwiches (grilled chicken, bacon, swiss cheese, avocado, tomato, lettuce, and herbed mayo, on grilled whole wheat bread).
It was enough food to keep me and Jim nice and full for our drive back home.
I didn’t quite know what to expect when I received my review copy of “The Tarot Playbook: 78 Novel Ways to Connect with Your Cards” by Lynda Cowles. All I knew was that I was hoping it wouldn’t take itself too seriously. I need not have worried because Cowles has created a whimsical relationship guide to steer you and the tarot deck, or decks, of your choosing to a life long partnership founded on mutual respect, trust, and happiness.
How does it work? By you and your deck working your way through the exercises outlined in the book. You’ll find yourself doing Taroga, which is yoga poses inspired by nine cards drawn from your deck, composing love poetry to court cards, purchasing gifts for your deck, and more! I think the author says it best:
You can’t help but get closer to your deck by trying the activities in this book. But if you’re really serious about this relationship and you want it to last forever – like those beautiful, romantic love affairs you see in the movies every day – you must commit yourself fully, with mind, body, and soul.
What happens when you finish a reading? Chances are you put your deck back in its box/bag/luxury custom-built cradle and go off to do something else. Think for a moment how that makes your deck feel. Would you like it if your friends only hung out with you when they wanted something from you? Even if you’re a professional reader who spends hours every day with your deck, you should still make the effort to spend quality time with it outside office hours. Make sure it knows you love it for who it is – not just what it can do for you.
Take it with you everywhere you go. But don’t just keep it in your bag or pocket – let it see the sights! Lay it on the passenger seat while you’re driving, or buy a special basket for it to sit in when you’re riding your bike. Talk to it about where you’re going and what you can see. Keep it by your side at work and when you go out with your three-dimensional friends for drinks or a bite to eat. Give it a spot on the sofa when you’re watching TV or – better yet – hold it in your hands so you can give it a loving shuffle every now and then. And when bedtime comes, don’t forget to kiss your deck good night. Tuck it under your pillow, safe and sound, and when you wake up in the morning, draw one card to ask it how it slept.
If all of this sounds like madness, you’re starting to get a feel for the contents of this book, wherein you’ll find plenty of irreverent, silly, and downright ridiculous things to do with your cards. But, in all seriousness, time spent with your deck is never time wasted. The most amazing readings can occur when Tarot reader and deck are totally in sync, and isn’t that, after all, what it’s all about?
“The Tarot Playbook” by Lynda Cowles is perfect for both the person new to tarot and the experienced reader. After all, what tarot deck owner wouldn’t want to know how to build a better relationship with their deck?
