What happens at a conference like this anyway?

Do you ever wonder about an event and think is it for me? What are they doing there? Here is the first of a series of You Tube presentations about the Kingston Tarot Lenormand Conference in Kingston Ontario Canada November 17 to 19 2017. In this video we chat about the Sunday morning workshop Carrie Paris is presenting. You will find a link that will help you figure out your birth cards and you will receive two questions and a technique on the question of Ancestral Love right at the end of the video. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb_mXyJgn8M

We are all seeking something. Often that is found when we join with fellow seekers. See you in November.

Let me know if you have any more questions. And watch this site for more videos. 

Kingston Tarot Lenormand Conference November 17 to 19 2017 Join Us!

Have you ever wanted to work with Joanna Powell Colbert creatrix of the Gaian Tarot and the Pentimento Tarot? But getting in to one of her retreats is difficult and its all on the west coast! We have a solution for you. Joanna Powell Colbert is coming to Kingston Ontario Canada and will be teaching Tarot, Nature, Spirit from the heart all day November 18th.  We will each be making our own elemental necklace. We can each wear home our personal treasure from the conference.

Have you been mesmerized by the Lenormand and maybe who you are when it comes to Tarot? How does it all fit? Another west coaster is joining us in Kingston for the conference. Carrie Paris will share her magical intuitive way of meeting your ancestors and yourself in Tarot and Lenormand. Carrie shares this with us all day Sunday November 19th. You will receive the award winning Sirens' Song Lenormand deck and the Relative Tarot both by Carrie Paris as part of your registration.

We have a magical intuitive weekend lined up for you. Here are all the details and the links to sign up. http://www.kingstonpsychic.net/  There is even a monthly payment plan to help you get here. We are very excited that Carrie Paris and Joanna Powell Colbert are visiting us in Eastern Ontario. We invite you to sign up today.

Wondering what we do at a conference? Here is a link to an interview with Carrie Paris where we chat about her Sunday morning workshop:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb_mXyJgn8M&t=2s

On days with soft mist and gray light, listen to the quiet. Listen to your soul and let the mind release to the gentle whisper of air about you all that is not you. 

Ostara:Paint a journey with new life

Welcome to this version of TarotBlogHop. If you are joining me from Carolyn Cushing's blog at http://artofchangetarot.wordpress.com/ welcome.

Ostara: Paint a journey with new life

It is spring here in Eastern Ontario, Canada.  The passion of the season is evident everywhere. For without passion the journey of new life does not begin. The colour that originally came to mind for this paint job was yellow. It soon became evident that yellow wasn’t enough. At this time of year we need the passion of oranges, reds and yellows and all the combinations in between. Even my fingers feel the tingle of passion colours this week as Spring arrives.  As the cardinals sing romance and the ducks and geese pair up the type of passion is evident everywhere.

These colours are found in the Strength card of the Gaian Tarot. Passion of the heart tames the passion of the wild. The passion of the wild ignites the passion of the heart. The energy flows continuously as seen in the lemniscate. And that feels like these early days of spring. This is when we let the heat of the sun warm us. This is when we long to feel the warm soil in our hands. This is when we let the seeds that have lain dormant all winter ignite. Every single living thing in this part of the world is coming alive with the colours of new life. Those colours this week are the reds, oranges and yellows of passion, creativity and power. Later they will give way to softer colours of greens but not until the passion is spent and the birthing is done.

There is a call now. A call for a new journey painted with our passion. For women and the men who love us this is crucial. My Mother fought for women’s rights long before it was a popular endeavor. Women before her fought long and hard. And yet, for all that passion we are being told yet again that we do not have rights. We are seeing men in legislatures withdrawing those rights. Last spring we saw great revolts around the globe. This spring the journey needs to be painted with even greater courage and strength. We need to fight for the equalization of goods, resources and rights as those who hold the reins fear the loss of their power.  Leaving it to someone else is not good enough. Our journey to a new life this Ostara and Easter needs to be filled with love that is not blind, ignorant or blasé.  Softly but firmly we must each take our feminine magic and use it to create Strength for all.

Oddly, the words 'entrenched' and 'dug in' come to mind. As women we create and bring life into this world. We have won some battles and have rights about how and when we reproduce. We have the right to care for our own health. In Canada, we are not yet facing the same battles as our neighbours in the USA. These battles will come if we don’t raise our voice and express our expectations clearly to our members of parliament and other leaders abroad. We must be passionate as the very roots of our wellbeing are at risk. Painting this spring in the colours of passion to overcome fear, creativity to solve problems and power to know when to speak out. This Ostara painting the journey of new life means raising our voices and being heard, yet again. I am so tired of watching the abuse of women rise worldwide and in our own backyard. Join me won’t you in raising your voice to paint a wonderful world of love?

Are you ready to hop on over to the next blog? Thank you for visiting me here. Here is the link to Hilary at http://www.tarotbyhilary.com/blog/ 

Kingfisher and The Seven of Cups

Kingfishers and The Seven of Cups
August 17, 2011 with awareness to December 2011


The magnificent Kingfisher is a bird that I have always found fascinating and fun. Greek Mythology states that Ceyx felt the great need to visit the Oracle at Delphi and against his wife’s better judgment, set off on the ill-fated voyage. Halcyone dreamt of his death and rushed to the sea where she found her husband’s body washing ashore. Before she succeeded in killing herself the God’s turned her into a kingfisher. So great was the love between these two that her husband too became a kingfisher. Kingfishers represent great love to this day. I knew this story as I sat on the beach listening to two families of kingfishers whizzing back and forth across the channel between the two islands. I wondered, what message about love am I receiving here? Like many of the messages I received on this trip it has taken quiet time and deep reflection to fully understand. As a matter of fact this message had been coming to me in bits and pieces for some time. The card for what does Kingfisher want me to know was the Seven of Water (or Cups) in the Gaian Tarot. It shows a man drinking deeply from one goblet as six others sit unused. The colours are blue and white in this card, much like the striking Kingfisher. The affirmation for this card is “I open my whole heart to the dream”. What then is my dream, I ask? What am I leaving in the other cups? What does ‘Love got to do with it’ as the song goes? And then there was the light bulb moment with the full glory hallelujah chorus! I realize that my great fear about trying to love again is clouded by the marriages that influenced me the most. Those were the marriages of: my parents, my in laws and my own marriage of thirty years. All three of those marriages had a great deal of bickering, imbalance, and yes fear. Fear to speak your truth, fear of going it alone, and fear to own your power. That is what I think of when I think of marriage and no, it’s not very nice!





Majesty of Nature: Sitting in awe of all that Nature offers! A Minke whale is blowing in the distance. North is Alaska. And I am witness to it all.



This awareness began at the Readers Studio Conference in April of 2011 at a class by the Amberstones on Love in the Tarot. The card that came to me representing how I feel about love was the Five of Pentacles card. My partner in the exercise said, “That’s not very good now is it?” in a very kindly way. I thought that the card was speaking to my feelings of loss and fear resulting from being a widow. As the year has unfolded, I realize that the fear of loneliness and loss goes right to my childhood. I felt that this was the fear, grief and anger that I was releasing to the roots of the 1100 year old Red Cedar the day before. Perhaps by finally releasing those feelings so deeply, I opened the portal to see the next choice, the next cup for me to drink from.

Seven of Water from the Gaian Tarot: What is your dream? How can you choose it now?



On this quest I witnessed many relationships. What I saw was the deep understanding it takes to feel secure and loved in a relationship. I knew on an intellectual level that this type of love comes from feeling secure in your own self. Bearing witness to partnerships that grew from strength rather than fear was illuminating. I realized that up until now, I had relied too much on my perception and personal experience of how to love. I did not know how to love fearlessly. The chosen cup must be one of loving from a place deep inside my own well of contentment, self-love, joy, and courage. I left behind the fear of love that comes from a Five of Pentacles mindset to fly free like the wild dare devil Kingfishers. What was learned must be unlearned. Opening my heart by opening to the dream is something I never thought possible. Better late than never I guess!


From the bow of a kayak an Orca looks like an amazing creature, don't you think? We can realize any dream if we let go of our past misconceptions.







She Who Watches and Western Red Cedar Healing

She Who Watches and Western Red Cedar


To say that each day out was full of surprises really does not do justice. The second morning we awoke to Brian owner of Pacific Northwest Expeditions calling us before breakfast “Orcas”. Rushing down to the water’s edge we could see them coming down the strait. They swam past right under our feet. One young whale rubbed itself all along the small rocks as it swam past. We heard them singing and chatting to each other when the hydrophone was lowered into the water. Spectacular!

This day was perhaps my favorite day of all. The weather was perfect. Whales were plentiful. Everyone was relaxed and playful in the kayaks. At noon we hiked up through the rainforest to see an 1100 year old Western Red Cedar. This tree is a stalwart to the native cultures here. Its bark strips off easily and can be woven into water proof hats and clothes. Those tall trees stand true and do not warp or rot. These are the trees that totems are carved into. These trees provided homes, canoes and protection. They have powerful medicine.

A rainforest is an interesting place to hike when you are the eldest of the group to say nothing of being the shortest. Slinging a leg over a downed tree that is higher than your head took great ingenuity and strategizing. Though it took me a little longer than the others, I made it.         

 

This 1100 year old Western Red Cedar dwarves all around it, especially us!

I don’t know where the top of that tree really was. I could not see it. I stood in awe of nature’s magnificent old wisdom. I love trees. When they widened the road where I grew up they took down all kinds of trees and blasted rock. I cried for days. I asked permission of this great tree to leave my pain in its care. I felt the reason for me being here was to leave pain behind. I stood on the other side of the tree as the others chatted and performed my ceremony, gave thanks and offered what I could. The offering turned out to be a teaching. One of the young engineers on the trip came around to see if I was okay. When I explained what I was up to he said let’s do it. He was solemn and respectful and seemed appreciative of the effort. Somehow, it feels like I was there to offer this young man a few words about honoring Gaia and keeping her well. For an engineer in Calgary inventing new ways of extracting resources from the earth it felt like an important teaching from my perspective. 

 

This card turned up when I asked "What does Red Cedar want me to know?"

When I pulled my Gaian Tarot card for the day I was moved beyond words really and cried a few tears. To me it appeared that the woman deep in grief is hugging a tree. Apparently, she is leaning on a standing stone to release her grief into the compassionate healing of Gaia. The petroglyph of She Who Watches appears in the clouds above her. We are never alone in our grief and must not lose sight of that even as we weep our tears. People often say to me, I have done all the work. I have let that all go. Why is it coming up again? It is because we are human and afraid; because we are human and rarely weep and feel grief to the deepest releasing level. Because we feel emotions that remind us of what is gone and we miss those people and feelings of joy. We need to release, express and feel our grief so that it evolves into something softer that does not keep us locked in fear and pain. And so on this day with this 1100 year old Western Red Cedar I let go of another layer of grief and pain. The young engineer offered a healing of his own, by being compassionate enough to check on me and join me in part of the ceremony. We really do not know when or who is there for us until we let compassion into our life. And from the Gaian Tarot text “I allow the Mother to heal my sorrow as I open my heart in compassion to others”. And I would add receive the compassion of others, something I found very difficult to do for far too long.

 

An old stump full of life! Death giving way to life and renewal as always.

The Dolphin and The Salmon

The Dolphin and The Salmon:
Every day after kayaking and before supper I sat down and wrote about the day and the symbolism of what we experienced on my six day kayaking with killer whales adventure August 2011. These blogs are about my quest, tarot cards and symbolism in cards and nature. Enjoy!
After paddling out and setting up camp we went out for a paddle to see what we could see. What we saw was of course stunning. Salmon were jumping. Of all the things I witnessed this week the jumping salmon were to me the most amazing. All day all night these fish jumped and skipped like stones across the water. In the early evening they shimmered like silver. Nothing stopped them. They seemed to be jumping for the sheer joy of it all. And I guess they do! Picture the silver water and sky, quiet and silver fish jumping and splashing across the still water. It is silver you see here not gray. The whole scene shimmers. I can see it in my mind’s eye still and feel the peace of it all. Feel the deep inner knowing of these fish doing what they know inside them. What a message to me on my own quest.
Earlier in the day we met our first big fish! Dolphins swam around us and journeyed on. While dolphins often play in the bow wake of larger motor boats the guides told us that they avoid the kayaks. Theory is that the white bottomed kayaks resemble the deadly orcas and are avoided by the wise dolphin. Erin, our guide asked if I had called them to us…well who can resist! At that very moment though, I was not at all sure that I wanted to see these critters. I was afraid. I became aware of making little (hopefully, they were little) yelps as they circled us. When I heard a big dragon breath behind me I almost jumped out of the kayak and asked “What was that?” Their breath I am told! Breath! Lordy! I much prefer the safety of Anna’s Dolphin breathing or Susan’s Huna breathing when they are doing energy work thank you! And you just don’t twist sharply around to see what is behind you in a single kayak on the ocean so there I was, terrified! Of course, as with all the creatures who graced us with their presence these dolphins wanted to be on their way safe and sound too.
Shortly after this the lads finally landed a nice sized salmon that they planned to enjoy for supper. My question that day for the Gaian Tarot: What does dolphin want me to know? I pulled the Ace of Water. Which of course is a salmon, salmon eggs and salmon babies. New life. Ace of Water often means new love. The dolphins today told me to play. Have fun! And pay attention to your breath. All these messages about breath lately. How do they all relate to my life now? When I joined the group for supper there in front of me was the salmon now cleaned and cut in steaks. Across the top of the steaks were her eggs. I felt sad that we had caught a female so full of eggs and denied them their chance to live.(I took the picture above because it rather stunned me. I realized that eggs were the real message here). Personally, though the message from salmon became what are you about to birth? What new love do you need to birth? From Dolphin, I was asked: What is there about love that you need to birth? What in your life needs grace, kindness, contentment and a chance? Dolphin is called a fish but is a mammal. It swims in the sea (our subconscious) and breathes air just as we do. It represents existing in two worlds really. For me, I am accepting more and more that my life exists in two worlds. I wonder where I am to journey more often now: with spirit or with humans? Of course, the answer is balancing the two. Dolphin can not survive in either world exclusively. And I believe that I am waiting again for new directions on my spiritual and mortal path. Dolphin thrives with company; salmon’s journey of return is private and compelling. Fortunately I need both in my life right now. The affirmation for the Ace of Water is “I seek my heart’s desire”. I have returned home to find it. I also plan to play more!

Why am I here?

That seems like a very huge question as I look at it today. When I asked it I was in Port MacNeill British Columbia on the eve of my big kayaking adventure. Each day during the adventure, using the beautiful Gaian Tarot created in the Pacific Northwest, I asked the Tarot a question. So the question that day was specifically about Why am I here on this trip today? Looking at it a few weeks later, the card and the trip actually answered the question on a much larger scale. Today, I see that this whole adventure somehow answered the proverbial question "Why am I here?"
I laughed out loud when the Nine of Water turned up! I happen to know this is a picture of Joanna Powell Colbert the creatrix of this amazing deck fulfilling a dream of her own. The picture is full of light and mystery and magic. Exactly what was filling me on the eve of the great adventure! The affirmation that goes with the Nine of Water is "True happiness is my connection to Spirit". Indeed! Sitting in my hotel room that night watching torrential rain sluice down the streets I was full of wonder at what was to come. Continuing to chuckle at the Gaian Tarot's very concrete realism my pen and soul flowed. I am here:
Because I want to be!
Because it is a dream of mine!
Because I manifested it!
Because I wished it!
To Be in Awe!
To Pray!
To see the light!
To go with the flow!
All of this was true on Saturday August 13 about the trip and my life in that moment. As I sat down to write this today, it occurred to me that this also answers why I am here period! Each and every day I am here to experience the awe and wonder of life. It is up to me to manifest, wish, pray and see the wonder of life before me in each day and moment! Essentially, we are all here because we have chosen to be. We choose each day how we see what is before us. At any moment in the day we choose to see it with potential or loss. Even better as the rain pouring down showed me that Saturday night, we can choose to believe that all is as it should be and enjoy it! I chose not to let the weather forecast or torrential rains that evening dampen the wonder of what I was feeling. On this trip I was introduced to so many new things, creatures, people and experiences that it is still difficult to take it all in. That is what the trip and life itself is all about isn't it? From the very lovely book that accompanies the Gaian Tarot specifically for the Nine of Water card: "When you get this card in a reading: This is a time of emotional fulfillment, of dreams manifested, of mystical experience and connection to Spirit. What song of praise fills your heart at this time? You are overflowing with joy and peace. All is well." No wonder I have always loved and trusted Tarot as a tool to guide me in times of awe or fear.
Today's pictures: Nine of Water from the Gaian Tarot; Me at my own waterfall after a more than rugged trek through the rainforest on Vancouver Island!
Your homework should you choose to accept it: In what ever manner that is meaningful to you, be it Tarot, Oracle, Crystals or silence: sit with the question "What am I here for?" Start with what you are doing now and see over the weeks what that answer reveals to you.
Next blog: Day one of paddling:What does dolphin want me to know?