New Office

I’m so excited … I found a new office to rent, two miles from home, that I can dedicate to tarot reading and writing.

I wasn’t necessarily looking for a new place, because my husband and I already have an office space in Edina, in the swanky Centennial Lakes complex on France Avenue. I’ve done readings there for the last few months, and it’s really very nice: it’s professional, it’s ultra modern, it’s tastefully decorated and fully furnished, and there’s even a full-time receptionist who greets all of my clients.

It’s set up, however, as a "hot desk" arrangement. It’s a shared space. Whenever one of us wants to use the office, we call ahead and reserve it.

Unfortunately, that means I have to set up the room before every reading, and take it all apart when I’m done. That’s not such a big deal … until you learn how much stuff I like to have on hand. I need to have tarot cards, of course, but I like to have several decks to choose from. I like to have a few spreadcloths, too, to suit the mood. A stereo is nice, for soothing background music. I need a clock, so I can keep track of the time, and a tape recorder with blank tapes and extra batteries. Plus, I always have handouts: I’m a print-happy medium, with business cards and brochures flapping all over the place. And in my shameless quest for self-promotion, I like to have copies of my books around, too, just in case I run into someone who wants to learn how to read tarot for themselves. It gets a little cumbersome to carry everything I want in and out of every single reading.

But now — hooray! — I won’t have to. I saw a "for rent" sign on an office building just two miles from my house, called on a whim, and before long, my new landlord was asking what color I wanted him to paint the walls.

I chose a light sage called "Green Tea."

The new office is small — about 9′x8′.  But there’s room for the little round table I like to read cards at, along with its two matching chairs, and the easy chair I like to sit in when I write. I also found this bookshelf online, which has a built-in desk for my laptop.

 

Dan did the AutoCAD drawing of the room for me, to make sure everything will fit. It’ll be cozy, but it should be all the space I need.

I’ll probably move in sometime next month, once it’s painted and ready to go.

Let’s Go!

Dan and I just booked our flight to the Reader’s Studio in New York City. Whoo hoo!

By the way, if you’re thinking that these dates would be a good time to come rob my house, don’t. My parents will be safeguarding the joint. 

Way to ruin the party

This is just not right:

ST. PETERSBURG – A Frank Zappa cover band stood in place of melting clocks. Inside the museum, a tarot reader offered glimpses into the future.

It might not have been exactly surreal, but the DaliFest, the Salvador Dali Museum’s 25th anniversary festival on Saturday, attracted more than 3,000 people interested in taking advantage of the free live music, discounted museum admission and street fair atmosphere.

[Snip] …

Surrounded by images of Dali’s work, Monica H——, a tarot reader, warned one client about a pending bout with cancer, but assured that the illness would quickly pass.

Another person had a sore throat, a direct consequence of dislike of a co-worker, H—— said.

"Dali’s wife, Gala, read the tarot," explained Kathy White, the museum’s marketing director …

I don’t know who this tarot reader was, and in fact, I don’t even know if she was accurately quoted. I actually hope the reporter made a mistake.

All I know is that you can’t see a serious illness like cancer in the cards — not with any certainty — and that a festival-like atmosphere is not the place to be telling someone that they’ve got a tumor. Yikes.

Dance of Particles

Today’s cultural bulletin: In Cincinnati, the Exhale Dance Tribe’s newest production is an archetypal journey based on the tarot cards. The show, "Aren’t We All But a Dance of Particles?" explores the transformation of the Fool. It features a variety of music, from the soundtrack to "Pee Wee’s Big Adventure" to Cameo’s "Word Up."

Stupid Questions

So, as you know if you read my post from earlier today, I’ve been going over the final draft of my fortune-telling manuscript, double-checking my card descriptions, and getting ready to index the whole thing. (It’s a tedious chore that I always put off as long as possible.)

"Now that you’re reading it through," my husband just asked, "do you think it’s a book you would buy for yourself?"

"No," I said, "because I already know everything that’s in it."

I get very literal when I proofread.

Goodbye, Bud

Awww … Calvert DeForest died. He was better known as Larry "Bud" Melman on the David Letterman program.

I actually interviewed him once, back when I was a budding* college reporter and he came to the University of North Dakota for some sort of show. He was an old man even then, and I think he was traveling alone. He asked me for a can of pop.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

*Hah! An hour and a half later, and I just noticed the pun!

Don’t drink and divine

"If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning."

– My mother

You won’t believe what I just did. I was going over the final draft of my fortune telling book, which features three Llewellyn/Lo Scarabeo decks — the Universal Tarot, the Llewellyn Tarot, and the Liber T. I had all of the cards spread out on a big wooden tray, so I could double-check the accuracy of all of my card descriptions. And then … I spilled a Diet Coke over all of them.

Because of the way I had them laid out in the tray, they all got hit, just as if I’d had them sitting in a bathtub. Now they’re warping, and falling apart on the edges, and those that were touching are sticking together. What a mess.

I emailed my forgiving publicists at Llewellyn, and three replacement decks are already on the way.

That doesn’t ease the shame much, though. I am a poor example to tarot readers everywhere.

A Well-Balanced Life

Today is the equinox, one of the days in which light and dark are essentially balanced in length.

Balance is something I struggle with, every day of the year. It’s way too easy for me to get involved in one project at a time, to get obsessive about it, and let everything else fall by the wayside.

I’m not much for multi-tasking. Instead, I cluster. I fritter around with my writing projects, but do most of the work when a deadline draws close. I let all of my laundry pile up, and then spend days and days in ritual subservience to our washer and dryer. I wait until our cupboards are empty and my children are begging for rice in the streets, and then I do the grocery shopping.

It’s a hard way to live.

For the last few months, I’ve been trying to institute a few changes. Ive been demanding more from my teenage daughters, for example. I’ve made it their responsibility to come up with menus and grocery lists, and to do the regular laundry, dishes, and daily chores around the house. So far, the process has only aged me about five years.

I also hired a personal trainer who comes to the house twice a week, in an effort to stave off my perpetual cycle of gaining and losing weight. She’s got experience in cardiac rehab, too, for my husband’s sake — that’s our real "excuse" for getting the extra help.

Dan and I are also dieting, spending some time on the Seattle Sutton plan. Talk about balance. Everything is pre-measured and pre-cooked — kind of like Nutrisystem, but made locally, so it’s fresh. It’s a lot less food than we’re used to eating, but it meets all of those odd-looking nutritional guidelines you see on the side of the cereal box.

So far, the changes have helped. As I write this, my house is only partially trashed. I’ve got six loads of laundry piled up, not 20. (If you have kids, you know that’s nothing.) Dan and I walked — briskly — for almost an hour last night; overall, I’m down five pounds. And my sister has even agreed to step in and help me catch up with my email. If you’ve written to me lately, I’m hoping to write back to you soon!

I’m optimistic about the new spring season. I hope I can get my act cleaned up, and keep it that way.

Illustration credit: The Temperance card from the Gilded Tarot by Ciro Marcetti

Springing Into Action

I’m counting down the hours.

The Rite of Spring

On March 20, 2007, at precisely 8:07 P.M. EDT (March 21, 00:07 Universal Time), the Sun will cross directly over the Earth’s equator. This moment is known as the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. For the Southern Hemisphere, this is the moment of the autumnal equinox.

Equinox Means "Equal Night"

Translated literally, equinox means "equal night."
Because the sun is positioned above the equator, day and night are about equal in length all over the world during the equinoxes. A second equinox occurs each year on September 22 or 23; in 2007, it will be on September 23 at 5:51 A.M. EDT (09:51 UT). This date will mark the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the vernal equinox in the Southern (vernal denotes "spring").

Reasons for the Seasons

These brief but monumental moments owe their significance to the 23.4 degree tilt of the Earth’s axis. Because of the tilt, we receive the Sun’s rays most directly in the summer. In the winter, when we are tilted away from the Sun, the rays pass through the atmosphere at a greater slant, bringing lower temperatures. If the Earth rotated on an axis perpendicular to the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, there would be no variation in day lengths or temperatures throughout the year, and we would not have seasons.

Modern astronomy aside, people have recognized the vernal equinox for thousands of years. There is no shortage of rituals and traditions surrounding the coming of spring. Many early peoples celebrated for the basic reason that their food supplies would soon be restored. The date is significant in Christianity because Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. It is also probably no coincidence that early Egyptians built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising Sun on the day of the vernal equinox.

The first day of spring also marks the beginning of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. The celebration lasts 13 days and is rooted in the 3,000-year-old tradition of Zorastrianism.

"Vernal (Spring) Equinox." Infoplease.
© 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease.
19 Mar. 2007 http://www.infoplease.com/spot/riteofspring1.html.

Nine things you don’t need to worry about

At today’s Tarot Meetup, our Twin Cities tarot group talked about the Nine of Swords card … the card of nightmares, worry, and alarmist thinking.

Yeah. It was quite a party.

After our initial discussion, however, we all did readings with a new spread based on the Nine of Swords — and the readings were pretty amazing.

The premise is simple: just lay out nine cards in the same pattern you see on the Nine of Swords card. Every card in the spread will represent something you don’t need to worry about.

What I didn’t realize when I invented the spread was that it works for good cards and bad cards alike. If the cards that come up bother you in any way, they’re a non-factor. And if the cards are good, they’re a given. You don’t need to worry about any of them!

Here’s a sample Nine of Swords reading, using Crowley’s Thoth tarot deck.

Nine things you don’t need to worry about:

Try it. You’ll never be so happy to get Death or the Tower again.