My First Tarot Bag

  

First tarot bagI recently got the Joie de Vivre tarot deck, and on a whim I decided to make a bag for it. I’m a very beginner sewer, so I watched about three YouTube videos before I found one that seemed like a good fit for me. I’ll post the video tutorial I used at the bottom of this post.

When I first started learning to sew, I had big plans for lots of projects and bought a ton of fabric I never ended up using. (This was the first time I’ve sewed anything in probably a year!) So I went through all of my fabrics and picked some that I thought would be nice for this deck. I watched and followed the tutorial, and voila!

First tarot bag 2

My purdy bag! Lined and everything 🙂

And here is the tutorial I followed:

Meditation Space

  

Altar 2

My new tablecloth for my altar / meditation space came today! I think it’s really beautiful. Here’s my quiet space all set up with the card I’m exploring today laid out. It makes me feel happy and peaceful!

I know I’m serious about this because even when the rest of the apartment is a mess, there is no clutter here. This is my sacred space.

Just Give Me Some Tenderness

  

Every once in while a song I haven’t heard or thought about in a while will just pop into my head, and sometimes these are good lessons if I pay attention. When my grandmother was dying and we were on the road to see her not knowing if she would still be alive when we got there it was “Que Será, Será.” A few years ago when I was overworking myself and not taking time to take care of myself it was Paul Simon’s “Run That Body Down.”

This morning it was Paul Simon’s “Tenderness.”

It occurs to me that this song absolutely relates to the the suit of Swords and my own personal struggles with being air-element heavy. Paul Simon’s got my number here.

“Right and wrong, it never helped us get along
You say you care for me, but there’s no tenderness beneath your honesty
… You don’t have to lie to me, just give me some tenderness”

It’s certainly not that I don’t want to be tender, it just isn’t my default approach much of the time.  I need to continue to consciously practice until it comes naturally.

Altar & Meditation Space

  

I decided to create a more peaceful and pretty space for me to read tarot. Additionally, I’d like to start practicing meditation, so this is a quiet space for that as well.

Altar

My new meditation space

I got almost everything here at a thrift store on Halloween with my mother-in-law, which was a really neat way to spend a morning: digging for treasures to accompany me on my journey. I’ve also ordered a few additional items on etsy (candles, crystals/stones, tablecloth), and when they arrive, my space will be complete. I’m looking forward to taking time each day to read tarot and meditate in order to center and ground myself. I’m hoping to create a ritual that serves a very positive and uplifting role in my life.

Shedding Skin & Opportunity Knocks

  

This fall, I decided to take two classes to assess whether or not I’d like to return to school.  After much thought, I decided that no, I do not wish to return to school.  After having made this decision and taking my mental (and therefore physical) health into consideration, I dropped one of the two classes.

Two days ago as I was walking to my one remaining class, I was thinking about how I felt like such a quitter and that really I should have been able to handle both classes. Suddenly, right ahead of me in the middle of the sidewalk was a snake!  Maybe a foot and a half long water snake.  I am really interested in animal symbolism, and I like to use animal sightings much the same way I hope to use tarot: when I am feeling the need for guidance or for getting out of my own head, I look up what my animal encounters might mean for me.  Snakes can symbolize renewal, rebirth, transformation, and healing.  I immediately felt better about my decision to move in a new direction (or to back out of the direction I thought I needed to go in earlier in the year).

Early-Vintage-Snake-Image-2-GraphicsFairy

Then today, as I was sitting in my living room, I heard a loud knocking sound coming from the office.  I was worried something was wrong with my cat, so I rushed in there and it sounded like it was coming from the other side of the wall above the window.  I went back to the living room and peered through the porch door blinds just in time to see the woodpecker knock out a few more times and then fly away.  Woodpeckers can bring to mind the saying, “When opportunity knocks, answer the door,” and they can also represent finding value where others do not (e.g. in dead trees).  I have the opportunity to choose a new path for myself not based on what others think I ought to do and to value this path (my own path), even when it is not something that is traditionally valued by others.

Downy_Woodpecker_(1)

These animal messengers have left me feeling very optimistic and confident!