Sunday, December 18, 2016

Tarot Dragonflies: Symbol Hunting for Joy on Election Day and January Classes

Artwork by Lisa Rizzo
Election results day, after delivering the children to school and pulling over to listen to Hillary’s concession speech, I walked beside the sea with my husband who took part of the morning off to be with me. In Hillary’s voice, I could hear the woven pain and promise when, near the end of her talk, she addressed women, young women, and little girls:

And to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.

Back at home, overcome with a sense of immoblization, I rested face-down on the floor in a stripe of sunlight. Gradually, the seed-bursting warmth returned me to my body, my now. I sat up and looked out the window. The sun, now blocked perfectly by the spine of a palm tree, gave off a pale silver blue halo that enveloped the spine of a second palm tree just four feet away from the first tree.

Between the two trunks, in twos and threes, dragonflies lazily looped and landed, their wings backlit. A pair flew down into the yard, resting on the dried tips of the Bird of Paradise plant. I thought of my friend Lisa, who I worked with last month as we created our personal cards for Tarot’s suit of air, often depicted as swords in traditional decks. Here was Lisa’s suit of dragonflies, dozens of them—coming in form—so kindly, so gently, as if to say wake up, you are not alone! Lisa’s dragonfly, at the top of this post, lovingly visits here with her blessing.

In addition to the Tarot/art visitation, I am so very grateful for the beautiful newsletters from artists, writers, and healers that came to my inbox last month. Though I lost the path to my own words, I took solace in their words of hope, their grapplings to understand and chart a course to action, and their struggles to consider avenues to bridge-mending and even thriving again.  In that spirit, I’m offering courses in the New Year hoping to give sanctuary to others looking for a way to take up the pen again.

Photo by Robyn Beattie
Responding to the Election: In Election Blues: The Gift of Agency in Poetry, we will look at contemporary election/political climate poetry and write our own poems based on a range of prompts from election night experience to candidate expectations to letter poems to the next generation and more. This is a virtual write-in present-time class that will meet over Zoom starting Friday, January 6. For more information: Visit Election Blues: The Gift of Agency in Poetry.

Photo by Robyn Beattie
Practicing Gratitude: In My Cup Runneth Over: The Tarot Suit of Cups, we will move sequentially through the Cups from Ace to Ten, one card per week, and write personal responses to the card to deepen our relationship to the Tarot and to encourage a sense of heart-based gratitude as we connect the cards to our experiences of joy. This too is a virtual, live, write-in-present-time class that will meet over Zoom starting Thursday, January 5. For more information: Visit My Cup Runneth Over: The Tarot Suit of Cups.

Artwork by Tania Pryputniewicz
Making Your Own Deck: I am continuing the Tarot Dreamers: Make Your Tarot Deck series that I’ve been offering this fall; we pick up with The High Priestess. These classes are designed for soul-seeking women looking to connect artistically with their inner symbol world. We combine writing and art in the service of creating Tarot-inspired vision cards that function as beautiful physical reminders of the joys, dreams, and desires within.

The High Priestess, sometimes known as the card signaling, “the journey homeward” or a “return to oneself,” will be the focal point of our vision card making, along with the four ways we experience the High Priestess as we go about our daily lives: Two of Cups (navigating exchanges of the heart between equals), Two of Wands  (balancing our will before action), Two of Disks (juggling projects and commitments to finance while staying spiritually aligned), and Two of Swords (working to maintain a peaceful and loving set of thoughts in relation to ourselves so we can thrive internally as well as externally). For more information: Visit Tarot Dreamers: The High Priestess

In-Person Monthly Themed Poetry Workshop continues at San Diego Writers, Ink. January's theme is Outer Space. Come out and join us; we are a lovely, intimate circle of poets and welcome a few more bodies for sure. Sign up here:

Tania's First Tuesdays Theme Set Go Class


Additional Links of interest:

Artwork and Photo Credits: As noted by caption: by Lisa Rizzo and Robyn Beattie

A beautiful post my co-blogger at Tarot for Two, Mary Allen: The Lovers and the 2016 Election.

An excerpt from an inspiring interview with Tarot Deck Maker and Jazz Musician Art Lande of the Art Tarot:


We are really talking about your singing self. Let’s sing: something simple, like you would sing when you were two years old. We will sing together and we will listen together. What is honesty? What is innocence? What is resonance? It is something we feel, know in our hearts. Innocence, resonance, and looking at the heart of the matter together—whatever it is—we are all teachers and learners. And all the divisions, right vs. wrong, are heartbreaking. We’re all the same: We all want to be moved to the core.

Read rest of interview here: The Art Tarot.


Monday, October 31, 2016

Tarot Dreaming: Learning from the Deck Makers

Tarot Deck Makers Interview Series

Ever in pursuit of finding the next leaping off edge from which to enrich Tarot play, I am ecstatic to have launched my Tarot Deck Makers Interview Series this month. My goal is to glean insights from deck makers around the globe about their creative process and about the ways in which they personally were changed by engaging with the Tarot at that level of intensity. To commit to making an entire deck is to commit to symbol walking through the Tarot lineage that came before and to be willing to riff and play and enter one's own symbol-scape in search of symbols and patterns of benefit for those of us living here, now. Here are images from two different Tarot Decks and excerpts from my first two interviews.

Rachel Pollack, much revered Tarot scholar, author of 37 fiction and non-fiction books, and author of what is often referred to as the Tarot Bible, 78 Degrees of Wisdom, spoke about some of the results of creating the Shining Tribe deck:

There was a much greater intimacy with the cards, not just my own deck, but others.  I discovered that the Tarot can have a great sense of humor, and play with you through the cards it gives you.  The Shining Tribe deck also led to a major practice of mine I call Wisdom Readings, in which we ask the cards questions beyond personal issues.  The first Wisdom reading was "What is the soul?" I pulled just one card, the Ace of Birds, an owl in darkness staring intently at the reader.  Other people have adopted the practice of Wisdom readings, so creating my own deck has led to a contribution to the history of reading cards.  


Regarding the Poet Tarot Deck, makers Kelli Russell Agodon and Annette Spaulding-Convy of Two Sylvias Press shared:

Our deck follows the traditional Tarot deck with a few variations. As we stated above, the major arcana is made up of poets—Edgar Allan Poe represents the Devil (XV) while Emily Dickinson is the Hermit (IX). E. E. Cummings is a great fit for the Fool (O) and William Butler Yeats, a good symbol of transformational Endings (XIII). The suit cards represent the stages of the creative process: Muses/Inspiration (Cups), Quills/Creation (Wands), Mentors/Revision (Swords), and Letterpresses/Completion (Coins). The guidebook accompanying the deck is 80 pages and includes card explanations, layouts, and ideas for using the cards for specific projects.



While I have a dream list of Tarot deck makers to interview, please don’t hesitate to contact me with suggestions for future interviews.

Tarot Dreamers: Make Your Tarot Deck Course 2, The High Priestess and Her Gifts

I’m pleased to continue to offer Tarot Deck Making classes this fall. The process has been richer than imagined as we explored how to translate the larger ideas behind each card into personal vision cards reflecting our unique histories and future aspirations.

Here’s an example from our first class: my newly drafted Ace of Windmills (Ace for the Suit of Air). It corresponds to the idea that one can stand rooted in all forms of weather, transforming the powerful winds of adversity into alternate forms of energy such as inspiration to create art. Ever since I was a child I have loved standing out in the pre-storm rain and wind and have loved the way wind wakes up the edges of my body.

Want to step in and join us? Our process repeats in seven-week installments; we explore our relationship to the past, present, and future. We do this in a supportive brainstorming community in which we go through a series of writing exercises to help us begin drafting cards in our art form of choice. The assignment of cards--our focus of Major and corresponding minor cards--is what changes. The next seven-week online course starts on November 7 and ends on December 23. By completion of this course, we will have drafted a Major Arcanum vision card for the High Priestess and for her corresponding Minor Mentor cards:

  •      Two of Cups (navigating exchanges of the heart between equals)
  •      Two of Wands  (balancing our will before action)
  •      Two of Disks (juggling projects and commitments to finance while staying spiritually aligned)
  •      Two of Swords (working to maintain a peaceful and loving set of thoughts in relation to ourselves so we can thrive internally as well as externally).


Course Cost is $350(*after student feedback from our first course, I've added an additional week to the course to allow for card completion and closing activities). Course communication will take place over a combination of email, Zoom, and private online discussion forum. Prompts, feedback, forum, and Zoom provided; participants are responsible for materials for the art form they choose to practice for the duration of the course. To sign up, visit Wheel of Archetypal Selves Facebook Page page to message me there or email me through my contact page from this blog.

*I’m sure I will offer the full series more than once, so please don’t worry if you miss a particular seven-week course.

San Diego Writers, Ink: Theme, Set, Go Monthly Poetry Workshop

Join me for my first Tuesday of the month workshop in San Diego—drop-ins welcome. The Human Body is the focus for September. We will read aloud from body poems by a variety of poets including Alleyne, Forche, Komachi, Limon, Mandelshtam, Neruda, and more. Bring a friend and your favorite human body poem, tomorrow, Tuesday, December 1st, at 10 am. We meet at Liberty Station. December’s theme is Nature.

Sign up here:


Wheel of Archetypal Selves Newsletter:

Another way to stay in touch with me is through my newsletter which provides poetry and Tarot related news and tips:



Friday, October 14, 2016

San Diego Poetry Workshop, The High Priestess, and Poetry Prompts

San Diego Writers, Ink Fall for Writing 2016

Fall for Writing! We invite you! Come out for a beautiful selection of weekend writing workshops over at Liberty Station; I’m teaching poetry from 9-10:45 am on Sunday, November 16, 2016. Join me for a lively look at how to keep your poetry practice thriving by using themes and forms to challenge and inspire. You’ll do some writing in class with me and you’ll come away with handouts to use for the coming year.

Here’s the SDWI Fall for Writing 2016 line-up:

SATURDAY:


  • Memoir with Marni Freedman
  • Creating an Unforgettable Core Idea with Carlos de los Rios
  • Social Media and Writing with Cathy Scott
  • Humor with David Coddon
  • Scriviner 101 with Kim Keeline
  • Dialouge with Rich Farrell
  • Exciting Exposition with Jennifer Silva Redmond
  • Can(‘t) Touch this!:Tactile Prompt Writing with Kristen Fogle
  • Blogging 101 for Writers with Kim Keeline
  • Fiction Gone Wrong with Matt Phillips

SUNDAY


  • Poetry with Tania Pryputniewicz
  • Poetry to Visual Prompts with Jill G. Hall
  • Setting with Tim West
  • Poetry Read and Critique with Seretta Martin
  • Fiction Read and Critique with Kirsten Imani Kasai
  • Unblocking Tools Within The Artist’s Way with Kristen Fogle
  • Point of View with Cornelia Feye
  • Full Moon Writing with Lydia Real

Cost is $30 per session or $145 for the weekend. To sign up for the weekend of workshops:



I’m also still teaching my monthly Theme, Set, Go courses on the first Tuesday of the month.  Next up in November: The Human Body.


  • December: Nature
  • January: Outer Space
  • February: Love
  • March: Weather
  • April: Spirituality
Sign up here for:


Tarot Dreamers: Make Your Tarot Deck Course 2: The High Priestess and her Gifts

I’m so proud and pleased to continue to offer Tarot Deck Making classes…we are having a beautiful time delving into our own symbol worlds right now. We are in the midst of making the Magician’s Aces. The process has been richer than I’d imagined as we explore how to translate the larger ideas behind each card into a vision card that works for each one of us given our unique histories and unique set of goals we hold dear for our future. 

Here's my in process Ace of Disks, the self poised mid-tree, learning to connect to sun in sky and the core sun in center of the earth through the internal sun or heartline in order to accept the role of body as a filament of sorts. By that I mean a filament or flame inside of a lantern, giving off light for the self to better see where next to step on the path fully grounded, secure, rooted, learning from the trees.

Want to step in and join us? Our process repeats in each course—exploring our relationship to the past, present, and future in relation to our dreams and the cards. The assignment of Major Arcanum card--our focus of Major and corresponding minor cards--is what changes.

The next six-week online course features the High Priestess. We start on November 7 and end on December 16. By completion of this course, we will have drafted a Major Arcanum vision card for the High Priestess and for her corresponding Minor Mentor cards: the Two of Cups, Two of Disks, Two of Swords, and Two of Wands.

Course Cost is $300. Course communication will take place over a combination of email, Zoom, and private online discussion forum. Prompts, feedback, forum, and Zoom provided; participants are responsible for materials for the art form they choose to practice for the duration of the course. To sign up, contact me through my contact page or visit my Wheel of Archetypal Selves Facebook Page.

*I’m sure I will offer the full series more than once, so please don’t worry if you miss a particular six-week course.

For More Information see the post below:

Tarot Deckmakers Q and A

A note of gratitude:

As I worked on my Ace of Disks card, I listened to a beautiful meditation by Tee Ming of the School of Flow. The name of the meditation is: "Money Tree for Soul Sourced Prosperity." I wanted to thank Tee Ming for the view of her beautiful garden and her words.

November Butterfly Poetry Prompts

In an effort to make November Butterfly useful to both writers of poetry and teachers of poetry, I’ve worked with Saddle Road Press to create writing prompts corresponding to thirteen of the poems in the collection.

We are offering the poetry collection itself as a Kindle for $4.99; when you purchase the Kindle version, I will send  you a free 15 page PDF, Thirteen Writing Prompts Based on the Power and Creativity of Iconic Women Designed to Help You Write New Work from Multiple Points of View. It is packed with visuals from the poetry movies, writing prompts and links to other resources to extend your understanding of persona poetry. For more information, read this post.

Tarot for Two

The Hermit fell for Mary last month; she beautifully connects the Hermit’s lantern to her ongoing work with EMDR. 

Mary writes:

 The face of the Hermit is featureless, turning to the side, and the hand is holding a diamond-shaped crystal lamp that contains a small glowing sun.  It’s that sun inside that little lamp, held by the hand in the rough center of the card, that seems to be the focal point of the card, and it was that lamp that I saw during the vision I had this month.

On my end, I struggled with having pulled the Seven of Swords. So I took a second card and was thrilled to pull The Wheel of Fortune. I write about both of my cards in the context of choosing to raise my children and work from home and the consequences of that decision as reflected in a soberingly low Social Security Statement.

Tania writes:

My poet friend said, “You take a pen to that Social Security statement: Next to all those so-called zeros, you write in what you were doing all those years! All those hours of time with your children! Make up your own Social Security statement. You’ve been investing in creating socially creative and responsible adults.”