The Fool in the Corn: Memoir-in-Poems

Happy Equinox…I am so elated to share one of the harvests of my lifetime: The Fool in the Corn, my memoir-in-poems, forthcoming on Winter Equinox this year. This book has been at least 30 years in the making, and this quiet, sweet blog has given me a sheltered space in which to share for years.

Poems in The Fool in the Corn explore the ways disillusionment with a commune experience in my formative years lead to a rich relationship with tarot, nature, poetry, dreams, and the imagination and helped me face the challenges I’d encounter post-commune in love, graduate school, marriage, motherhood, and withstanding losing my mother to cancer. Here are links to a few interviews in which I talk about the backdrop of this book:

 

Daily Inspiration: Meet Tania Pryputniewicz *(commune background)

Meet Tania Pryputniewicz: Poet, Tarot Muse, Teacher *(creative process)

 

I created the cover art for this book--woman nested inside the corn, corn-silk antennae above her head--using colored pencils. So many various joys went into inspiring the image, including the deep work of creating personal tarot card art to honor ancestors in my tarot ancestry classes I teach at Antioch University. While working through the Suit of Disks, I happened to also be reading the stunning book, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and soaking in her image of each kernel of corn with its own umbilical silk thread reaching for the sun. 

Though The Fool in the Corn walks through some challenging territory, it also reaches for the nourishment to be found in the sunfield of my life. I didn't initially know I'd be placing the face of the woman inside the corn, but as I drew, my eyes came to rest on a beautiful stained glass mermaid hanging in my house (gift of a dear friend). The mermaid's face appears in profile, and I realized I could place a face inside the heart of the corn, in profile, and it just felt right. Coming off some long months of revising the poems, I had a lot of initial resistance to creating the cover. But once I sat down to draw, with the encouragement of my much-loved team at Saddle Road Press, the rest unfolded, and here it is. I hope you enjoy the cover! I'd love to know if you feel it resonates once you read the poems.

 

You can pre-order The Fool in the Corn pretty much anywhere, your favorite bookstore, and all the usual outlets (Bookshop, Amazon, Indiebound, Powells) but only Barnes and Noble so far has the actual cover up: barnesandnoble.com.

 

I am deeply grateful to Ruth Thompson and Don Mitchell of Saddle Road Press for believing in my work. We are grateful for any support you give the small press; to that end, reviews on Amazon and Goodreads or anywhere you wish to leave one would be much appreciated. I do have Advance Review Copies (a few hard copies and of course, unlimited PDF ARCs); please reach out using the contact form on this blog or on any of my social media channels if you would like to help us get the word out ahead of publication on December 21, 2022. 

You can join me in conversation on IG @heartscompasstarot where I am posting my gratitude to the editors of the magazines in which poems were published singly over the years; they are the backbone of the collection for me, the editors and venues that helped me believe in my work along the way. 

Heart's Compass Tarot Readings at Poet's Corner in Duncans Mills

Come find me in the Magic Circle at Poet's Corner Book Shop in Duncans Mills (Russian River area) this Saturday, where I join Rune reader Jessica Superball to read complementary tarot cards with purchase of Heart's Compass Tarot: Discover Tarot Journaling and Create Your Own Cards (Two Fine Crows Books, 2021) on the bookshop patio. We are celebrating Independent Bookstore Day Saturday April 30 from noon to five pm. 

Local authors Toby Neal, John Mark Schnick, John McCarty, Neal Grace and Daniel Dawson will all be reading from their books at Poet's Corner as well. I'll also have copies of November Butterfly (my first poetry collection, Saddle Road Press, 2014) on hand.  Come listen to music with Joanne and Felipe Ferraz  (Brazilian and American duet).

Also taking place on Saturday in the Duncas Mills Shopping Village: At Sophie's Cellars Wine Shop, a reading and book signing with Iris Dunkle, award-winning literary biographer, essayist and poet. At Revolution Vinyl and Vintage, you'll find children's face painting with local children's author Tracy Stanley. And check out the lemonade stand at Alta California Provision!

April Heart's Compass Tarot Poetry Challenge

"Tarot and poetry are two wings of the same bird..." once said Marianela Medrano, Heart's Compass Tarot poetry contributor; her poem about Kali as tarot's Tower card is one of the 30 poems paired with tarot cards and writing prompts you'll receive to your inbox daily when you join my 30-day tarot poetry challenge. We start April 1.

 

Come focus the windmill of your mind and create new work; tarot is potent and you develop not only a deeper relationship to tarot imagery, but your own intuition and writing practice as well as exploring various forms of poetry. We write together on zoom for four Friday 1 pm PST sessions starting April 1 and then at the end of the month, we celebrate with a public reading of work generated in our writing community. You receive:

 

30 tarot-based prompts and poems delivered daily to your inbox

Four zoom sessions on Fridays to write together

An additional public reading from the tarot poetry body of work you create in our writing community 

 

We draw on imagery from a variety of decks including tarot art from Heart’s Compass Tarot: Discover Tarot Journaling & Create Your Own Cards, like the personal Ace of Swords tarot card at the top of this post, traditionally associated with the mind, thoughts, words and dreams. I chose to make my Ace of Swords an Ace of Windmills after realizing the winds of adversity are precisely what writers channel to create work, to grow, and to heal. 

 

And this is my personal Ace of Disks I created after dreaming about the healing power of trees; here the figure floats over a view of the coin of a tree trunk, a tree ring. I hope you'll join us to write your own tarot haiku, tarot affirmations, or even tarot love letters to yourself. 

 

Course cost for the month-long course is $99; here's a post on my main website with links for signing up and links to view the reading of last year's 30-Day Challenge tarot poetry:

 

April 22 Heart's Compass Tarot Poetry Challenge.

Honoring the Inner Valentine: Make Your Ace of Cups

February 14, Noon to 2 pm PST over zoom / $28

 

Heart’s Compass Tarot, my workbook published by Two Fine Crows Book, turns a year old on Valentine's Day! What a beautiful year—the workbook provided a blueprint for classes and wonderful events all year long, a number of which you can enjoy as recorded presentations on the Heart’s Compass You-Tube channel including Tarot for Memoir, Poets of Heart’s Compass, Tarot for Two and more.

 

I invite you to join me this Valentine’s Day for a 2-hour offering, Honoring the Inner Valentine, Make Your Ace of Cups, held over zoom from Noon to 2 pm PST. Feel free to use the contact form on my blog to drop me a line and I’ll send you the zoom and payment links.

While Valentine’s Day often focuses on “lovers love,” I am so very excited to start this new yearly tradition of making a tarot Ace of Cups card alongside other kindred tarot lovers and tarot curious seekers in community in tribute to the inner heart, the Inner Valentine, every February 14. And in tribute to Heart’s Compass Tarot’s birthday!   

If you only make one tarot card from the deck in your lifetime, I say, let it begin with love—the Ace of Cups, card of the heart. Whether you’ve been working your way through the Heart’s Compass Tarot workbook on your own or you are new to tarot and the Ace of Cups, you are welcome to join us for a loving and lively midday exploration.

 

In this 2-hour workshop we will:

 

·      Look at some beautiful examples of Ace of Cups tarot cards from a variety of decks

·      Reflect, write, and share about our own particular heart-joys and future heart-wishes using a tarot journaling method

·      Begin to make our own Ace of Cups card based on personal heart’s desires

 

To register: Use the contact form on my site to drop me a line to let me know you wish to join. You’ll receive instructions for what to bring to class, our zoom invite, and payment options. Honoring the Inner Valentine: Make Your Ace of Cups meets on February 14, Noon PST-2 pm on zoom. Course cost: $28. All level of tarot lover welcome, from the tarot curious to the tarot savvy.

 

Why Make an Ace of Cups?

This is the Ace of Cups I made back in 2016 alongside my students, as they created their own versions of the cards that would go on to grace the pages of the Heart's Compass Tarot workbook (Carrie’s Ace of Depths appears in the graphic at the top of this post; Lisa’s Ace of Cups depicts the set of hands cupping the heart cup; in the middle is an in-process Ace of Cups I started on a roadtrip). I wrote the following Haiku to accompany this birdlike, fiery, sky Ace of Cups:

 

Self-love’s Ace of Cups

Egret lands, folds outstretched wings

Heart rests between flights

 

As I drew the image of the bird, I felt consciously connected to the blues and lavendars, sensing into the heart and the element of water. I live across from the sea; pastel sunrise skies, egrets, seagulls, pelicans, osprey, sandpipers, and hummingbirds all form my dayscapes. I often wake to the cry of the osprey. I often see the setting sun slipping down behind the ocean’s horizon line. It makes sense that birdwings and sunset colors found their way into that original Ace of Cups. 

I also remember being surprised a bit by the reds and yellows, and the angular, jagged lines emanating from the sunlike orb.  But I also remember it just felt right in my heart of hearts. Allowing myself to immerse in color play, to start with the softer colors, allowed me to reach deeper. I love these reds as much as the blues, for the card ends up reflecting back to me a representation of the complexity and richness of emotions from soft love to the core red surges of anger that also call for expression at the heartline. I colored my way to a type of recognition, a permission to feel a full range of feelings, expressed in a few lines from the workbook:

 

I allow my heart the full range of emotions

From volcanic core to seed-bursting as the sun

I invite my heart’s waves from swell

To dissolving into the larger sea

 

I made my Ace as a mirror of my heart at that time. I am eager to drop into the present and see what I find there now, for I have changed, and oh, how the world has changed, for all of us. I look forward to discovering what you find in your heart's mirror. Come color, paint, sketch, collage--you name it--beside me. Tarot blessings!

A Tarot Garden of Verses: A Reading of Tarot Inspired Poetry and Prose

I’m delighted to announce a celebration of the harvest of a year of tarot reflections by students of my Tarot as Inner Teacher courses (offered by Antioch University’s Continuing Education Program). Each of our four featured readers used writing as a bridge to discover insights at the crossroads of tarot imagery, the heart, and the world.  Join us for poetry, prose, and musings based on the Star, Sun, Fool, Temperance, Tower, Empress tarot cards and more. This reading is free and open to the public and held over zoom on Sunday, January 16 from 1-2 pm PST. Pre-registration is required; sign up here to receive the zoom link for A Tarot Garden of Verses.

 

Elizabeth Brennan

 

My name is Elizabeth and I live in Sonoma County, CA. I work full time as a teacher in an alternative high school. My home is in the country and my favorite pastime is taking long walks along the dirt roads that border apple orchards and vineyards – and/or driving out to the coast (Bodega Bay) and taking long walks along the beach with family and friends. Studying the tarot with Tania as a guide has inspired me to pay more attention to my intuition. I feel more open to subtle messages as life unfolds within me. Each card I study speaks like a song, poem or painting. Interacting with the tarot provides me with the sensation of an inner deepening and trust, as well as a guidance that supports me amidst the challenges and surprises that life brings daily.

 

Alley Greymond

I’m Alley Greymond and I live and work in Seattle, Washington on Duwamish Land. I use she/her pronouns. I am driven to learn and at various times have studied Accounting, Psychology, Systems Design, Commercial Real Estate Management, and Creative Non-Fiction. While my current position is administrative support, what I do find value in at work is leading  and working with different Employee Resource Groups towards perspective shifts and workplace equity. I’m not used to using my intuition to a robust capacity and when I first joined Tania’s class I felt as though I’d have nothing to offer. What a welcoming group of women and Tania creates an environment for one to think, feel and share. I appreciate having had an opportunity to explore Tarot with these women.  

 

Valerie Coleman-Palansky

 

I am a 5 number and my archetype is The Hierophant: I am inspired by teaching and learning situations, honoring and valuing the sacred within as well as the unlimited source and resource provided by that inner faith and intuition. I am a psychotherapist, NYU adjunct professor, and and a registered Jin Shin Do acupressurist living in the Bronx, New York. I am married and have two almost adult daughters. I engage in many creative arts including writing. I have been specifically involved with tarot and metaphysical doings from my teen years. I synchronistically found Tania and her Heart's Compass Tarot Journaling group and was hooked via the Aces immersion. My first deck was The Golden Dawn Tarot and my most recent is Daughters of the Moon.

 

Deborah Smith

 

My name is Debby and I live in New Paltz, New York. I have semi-retired this year from a 40 year career practicing and teaching bodywork based in Chinese Medicine. My work with clients includes assisting them in tapping into their inner wisdom and supporting their intuitive connection to their own health and happiness. I have revived my connection to Tarot as a doorway to my own intuition in the last two years and Tania's workshops have been a wonderful part of that. I've done a fair amount of writing related to my profession, but these writing experiences have been very rich and stimulating, both because of my own connections and being privileged to hear from the others in the group. Pulling tarot cards has become like having conversations with a dear and trusted friend: always relevant and always fascinating. 

Heart's Compass Tarot Valentine's Day Book Launch

I'm standing in a lot of joy, a lot of gratitude, for the fortune and blessing of having my book, Heart's Compass Tarot: Discover Tarot Journaling and Create Your Own Cards debut tomorrow, on Valentine's Day, from Two Fine Crows Books. I'd love for you to join us--we are hosting a Facebook Live Event from the Heart's Compass Tarot and Writing Facebook page. If you RSVP, Facebook will let you know when we go live tomorrow (1 pm PST). 

Ruth Thompson will introduce yours truly and three marvelous heart's compass contributors, Carrie, Gillian, and Lisa. We will discuss our path from tarot journaling to tarot card creation, with a special focus on the Fool cards we made together.

I have so many people to thank--first, Ruth Thompson and Don Mitchell of Saddle Road Press and Two Fine Crows Books for believing in the project and for coursing through the permutations of chapters and edits and image wrangling...all worth it, to bring you a gentle and loving roadmap for developing a relationship to the tarot, or deepening the one you have, regardless of the tarot deck you use. Through a method of tarot journaling to look at past, present, and future, you have the opportunity to get clear about your personal symbols for use in meditation or for the creation of your own tarot cards. You can learn more about the book (which has a variety of chapters from tarot haiku to teens and tarot) on my main site Heart's Compass Tarot: Valentine's Day Release.

I also have my two writing groups, the Flamingos, and the Feisty writers, to thank, as well as my two memoir teachers, Marcia Meier and Marni Freedman. I worked on tarot essays and the book's structure in their classes. I thank my three children (all of us together under the pandemic roof) and husband for putting up with my tarot focus as I let myself float down the tarot river and into the tarot sea. I always come back to them, and I thank them for their love and trust.

Heart's Compass Tarot is available for pre-order at Bookshop, Amazon, Indiebound, Barnes and Noble.

New Ways to Play with the Tarot: Tarot for Two Podcast and Tarot Coloring

I feel like a tuning fork lately vibrating to the collective energy of the times, especially here on US Election Day. Tarot coloring is one way I stay connected to love and joy. I find color play soothing for the soul. Focusing on the tarot in this class in order to improvise gives us a way to converse with the decks of tarot across time and connect to our personal symbols that match the energy behind each card. You bring yourself, your art supplies of choice, your tarot deck if you have one (though I provide tarot images), and we create together in community. Here's my Ace of Windmills, my personal take on the Ace of Swords, created with my tarot students in 2016. Since then I have continued to tarot color and I'm so delighted to bring the process forward in class. 

I'll give a brief introduction to the card of the week and we will break in the middle of the hour to share process, and again at the end. Today we color to the Queen of Pentacles. We meet over zoom; use my contact form on this site to email me for the zoom invite and payment information. Here's a link to a longer description of the class on my main website, Tarot Coloring: A Heart's Compass Approach. Tarot coloring moves in sync with my Tarot Journaling class on Mondays, so come write to the card on Mondays, and tarot color to the same card on Tuesdays if you like. 

Or if you want another type of non-election related distraction, check out Tarot for Two's latest podcast, New Ways to Play with the Tarot Daily. I am elated to converse with my long time tarot buddy Mary Allen, breaking our tarot silence after about three years here (podcast silence, that is, and you can read our blogposts about our cards of the month here at Tarot for Two). Our next podcast will feature us talking about both of our specific six-card readings from a particular day so you'll have the chance to see the layout and interpretations in action.