Julie's Tarot blog

Real Sky Astrology Forecast for Winter Solstice-imbolc

2011-12-23T07:33:00.000-08:00

The waning crescent moon in Libra at winter solstice allowed us to linger on our own shadow for a moment before releasing the past and allowing our hearts to lighten moving forward and reaching into the void for something exciting fresh and new.
On Saturday December 24th the New Moon will be in real sky Sagittarius the sign of the two headed hero/ villain wearing both the head of Horus the savior god and Set his vilified uncle meaning the ridiculousness of politics will continue on with it's strange polarized cartoon characters of the past year or so. The new moon's merge with Pluto the planet that reminds us about what HAS to happen let's us know that all this theater is happening for a reason. We the people can not stand by idly anymore this is our moment to make real change in the way things are run. This activity is squaring Uranus and yes it is taking up our free time . But these Pluto square Uranus moments are always present when fascist regimes try to take power. The last time this happened Hitler tried to take over Europe and yes it is that big now.
You folks born between 1963 and 1971 with Uranus and Pluto conjunct this is your moment, you are the generation whose "will" is being tested you may have never taken a stand before you may have kept the peace and never been a "cause" person but if you don't act you will not like the taste of the future.
Jupiter in real sky Aries is trining this new moon/Pluto conjunction, the new beginning that has to happen... we are expressing and defining who we are in a big way and it is going to feel good to finally take a stand. This is what they talk about when they say fighting for your freedom.
All this defining of the self you've been ruminating over inside is about to come to the surface as Jupiter in Aries goes direct on December 25th. Perhaps for the first time ever families may see eye to eye on politics during this holiday season.

As Mercury moves from Ophuichus/Serpentarius the healer to Sagittarius the warrior sometime in the night between January 7th and January 8th our thoughts move from healing and transformation to how to fight for that healing and transformation. We are suddenly thinking about action plans this is boosted by the energy of the full moon in Gemini on the 9th. As we think about all the great people we are partnered with and find the strength for standing up for ourselves.

The full moon in Gemini opposes the Sagittarius sun and this means solidarity will face off with the crazy asshats in power.

As Venus moves into Aquarius on late Friday the 13th of January we get a lucky sneak peek at the beauty of the Aquarian Age. We will know what is beautiful .

As the sun moves into Capricorn later in January we will see we've won a battle in a larger war and the uphill climb will stretch out before us we will use what we learned and who we've aligned with in the past year to move upward in the work that is ahead.
As people expand their ideas about who they are. We can expect the joy to come from doing hard work that is self motivated. Expect inspiration from miraculous new ideas and innovation as creative minds meet creative minds in the months ahead.

Real Sky Astrology New Moon September 26th, 2011

2011-09-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

The first day of the four days of New moon starts today in Leo. By tomorrow the moon will conjunct the sun in Virgo. This new moon as well as this month's full moon in Pisces will intensify the hard aspects of Pluto in Sagittarius and Uranus in Pisces. In case you were wondering where all the fascist political polarities were coming from this is the culprit. Repeatedly in history when Pluto and Uranus are squared you have trouble with Hitler types. The last time Pluto and Uranus squared this was the result. However these aspects are in different signs this time and will play out differently. Pluto the stuff that has to happen is in Sagittarius the sign of the hero/villain when you have villains like Scott Walker/Rick Perry/Michele Bachman /the Koch Bros and other the big corporations, Big Religion and Wall Street who have revealed the shadow government that seemed unprovable during the time between 1963-1971 when Pluto and Uranus were in conjunction in Leo. This was a time when these guys were able to "work their will". If your old enough you remember the kind of BS people swallowed the magic bullet that killed Kennedy found intact on a gurney and all the rest. The Warren Commissions findings... no coincidence that Gerald Ford was on that commission and later became president. So the kids born with the aspect of Uranus and Pluto conjunct in Leo between 1963-1971 will have the hardest time during our current aspect. They were young impressionable kids, too young to remember the fight to get out of Vietnam and too young to remember the Kennedy assassinations. They were impacted by and probably inspired by the Reagan years being a child in those years was likely better that being a young adult. They were likely impacted negatively by the first Gulf war maybe even suffering their first loses of loved ones here, thus stimulating a natural hatred and fear of middle eastern types this was a well placed "theater war".
So now this thing will play out. We can see there was a plan we can see the players...Uranus the planet of freedom and eccentricity is in Pisces and wants to play out the theme of the Piscean Age. If you look back over the last 2000 years you see a lot of big establishment controlling the masses with fear and controlled information. Looking at the symbol of Pisces from the ceiling of Denderah you see the symbolism of this very phenomenon, the symbol is illustrated as a man with two fish on two lines the fish are at right angles to each other. The fisherman is holding these fish square to each other and in the end he's the one who will benefit from this catch. The fisherman has baited his hook and he has two polarized fish on his line. In ancient Egypt the fish is the symbol of the physical body it's the non-spiritual self the part that rots Sethian in nature. In the ancient Egyptian after life the first test of the soul was to escape baboons with fishing nets because they would catch the souls who were only physical beings, the souls who were spiritually asleep and who were not savvy enough to realize they could trick and convince the baboons that they too were fishermen and move on to the next test.
So from this we can see the game at play. The folks who got rich selling a better mouse trap see the masses as fools/ fish.( The saying
like shooting fish in a barrel comes to mind ) We made them rich and now they don't want to pay their fair share of the taxes to keep our country viable. We the people mean nothing to them we are only there as consumers to fill their pockets with gold ...that's the game. And in the end they likely know they should pay ...they are the ones who are always on the wrong side of history they don't care they will try to get away with whatever they can it's just a game to them.
So now it's up to the good people born between 1963-1971 with Pluto and Uranus conjunct in Leo to play this thing out to work their will, to see clearer, to see what they believe. Its going to be the hardest on these folks because they missed the summer of love they, missed the fight for woman's rights and racial equality. They got pumped full of rhetoric about dirty hippies and the dangers of all that free love and HIV and pretty much missed all the progress. They were raised on the 70's disaster movies with unhappy endings and some were pumped full of revelations and self hate from church. At a time when schools were changing into everyone is gifted and talented and being dumbed down, they were handed the threats of Y2K and those threats were right on time and the Twin Towers soon followed to prove bad stuff happens.

And now we've hit this strange moment when it seems like the whole system has gone crazy. But the thing is this the people who have taken power are the very ones who are most afraid most damaged and who are the least creative. They've hoarded all the wealth because they think this is what is valuable. Gold and diamonds and numbers in a bank, patents and oil and all. They've sold us a culture of convenience and gluttony, from fast food to throw away dishes to plastic grass but none of this has been very satisfying because it's based on the ideals of a small mentally damaged few. This generation has the chance to begin again to rethink, research, reclaim and redo live in harmony with nature explore the multiverse that is unfolding before our eyes. We get to decide we get to change the future we get to throw away the parts we don't like the parts that come from fear and not from love. We each have a dream inside of us each of us know what our passion was before life got us running in another direction. I ask this question to people a lot and I'm going to ask you now. If you could do whatever you wanted what would it be?
.....
It's new moon!!! NOW IS the time to start something that makes your heart sing. Get to it.

Ruminating on Lammas and the Fundamentalist Attacks on the Goddess Columbia

2011-08-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

I woke this morning from a dream about being chased by a tall dark haired ex-husband who was a cop. I was being accused of murder. When he caught me he tried to pull me down between heavy slabs of ever diminishing stone. At the last minute I kicked him and ran. He would not follow me down the hills but would pursue me on up hill climbs. Running down hill was easier so I ran down hill as much as possible. I came to a group of people having a parade and tried to lose him by blending in with the crowd. I saw a group of women lining up against a wall for a meeting they were nuns and catholic lay women I sat quietly blending in with them. Suddenly the man showed up I slid under the table and whispered to the nun who had been sitting next to me..." he's my abusive ex husband don't let him find me." As she whispered to the other women in this line to protect me the farther down the line the message went the less likely it seemed these women would keep me safe. Just as my position was compromised I woke up.

Sitting with my husband Peter we analyzed the dream together picking apart it's symbolism. I felt strongly that the dream had to do with the fundamentalist Christians holding prayer vigils against the goddess Columbia. He asked me what my ex husband represented and I told him, mainstream America NASCAR and fundamentalist Lutherans who were forbidden to belong to lodges. This fit my suspicions about the dream being about the goddess Columbia.

The goddess Columbia was the goddess of the illuminati I didn't know this until just yesterday when I looked her up. I thought it was strange that these fundamentalists would be going after a goddess of the illuminati since the Bush family was rumored to have ties to this group... So in my mind they seemed to be infighting against their own elite. They were also exposing proof that the founding fathers were not creating a so called "Christian Nation" but were in fact creating a well thought out democracy based on the principles of the constructs of their fraternal secret societies of Europe as well as the governing rules of local indigenous peoples. Blending the ideals of these nations was a lovely combination in it's purest sense if you can disregard Europe's misogyny and slavery.

So I saw the assault on Columbia and the statue of Liberty not so much an attack on paganism but on fraternal orders and constitutional America because as a practicing pagan they had not attacked or even scratched the surface of my core beliefs, as I saw it secret societies and fraternal orders had always missed the core ideas of the divine feminine and as long as women were barred from these orders their symbols and so called secrets would remain hollow, lifeless, mysterious and without practicality or reality.

As we analyzed the dream more the idea that this ex-husband would not follow me if I ran down hill reminded me of the distain and fear these fundamentalists have for the underworld this their hell to be feared as the place of the condemned and damned...this is clearly the place where we as pagans can seek refuge and protection.

I saw the row of nuns as a symbol of my own Catholic roots after I left Catholicism I could see that the goddess of ancient times had been kept safe within this religion although like the dream as the message was passed down the line her safety became less assured.

It was my ex-husband's religion that taught me what parts of the oldest pagan religions had been saved thru Catholicism because the parts that the Protestants had stripped away were the parts that faintly held onto this light. And now it would seem the extreme right was waging another holy war against sacred geometry, natural order and any form of goddess.

This all seems timely as we pagans celebrate Lammas first harvest of three harvest festivals. First harvest marks the harvest of the grain. It is a cross quarter day which means this holiday marks the day between summer solstice (the longest day) and Autumnal Equinox(second harvest) Their are 8 of these solar holidays that celebrate the seasonal changes in the pagan calendar. At Lammas also known as Lughnasad the days begin to show signs of becoming shorter and the wheat fields are cut down. The first new grain is ground into the first fresh flour of the season bread is baked and shared with community. This holiday is also known as the "least", this would have been the time of having the least in a time when communities were dependent on their own crops to sustain them throughout the entire year. This rings true especially because grains were actually a last resort food for the our most ancient ancestors. Dietary experts who study diseases like celiac disease and allergies to glutton will tell you the human stomach was never made to eat grasses. Bread was the ancient world's processed food and was eaten in times of famine and strife. 8000 year old grinding stones found in the shrinking savannas of what is now the western deserts of Egypt will attest to this fact. This is what brought a fully developed black culture to the shores of the Nile thousands of years earlier than mainstream keepers of history would like us to believe mainly just to maintain a biblical reality that supports certain ethnicities over others. But science and genetics supports a black African beginning. Perhaps this also explains the desperate power grab of this GOP political movement against reelecting our first black president, the assault on worker's rights, education, science and an obscure little goddess holding a torch named Columbia.

All I can say to these people is Dudes black magic returns 3 fold...just sayin'

Some personal thoughts on Synarchy, the hysteria of Apocalypse and the right Wing Agenda

2011-05-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

Last month I started painting the High Priestess after having a dream that told me I needed to use the sleeping goddess again as well as Nut (Egyptian sky goddess) and that somehow Nut was connected to the zodiac sign from the 10 sign zodiac. In this 10 sign zodiac Virgo Libra and Scorpio/Serpentarius were all combined into one long goddess ...this felt right but I needed more info so I did a Google search. In the search I found a site called watch.pair.com I found the reference I needed regarding the zodiac sign and started pouring over the writings on this page which were full of accurate occult references and yet steeped with an anti gay anti matriarch, pro patriarch fundamentalist Christian bias. I shared the site with my husband Peter and at first was having a hard time finding who had written this. We searched and found the name Barbara Aho. Peter thought he read about her before. I mentioned her to my friend Angie because she is a member of the Parliament of World Religions and is well connected to leadership in this area if Barbara Aho was someone in a position of leadership Angie would know her..Angie thought she was connected to the guy who wrote the Left Behind series off the top of her head at the spur of the moment. I kept searching for a bio for this woman as well as any credentials and or affiliations but found nothing about her personally, no pictures only that she was some how part of a group working on synarchy a World Religion...that was somehow connected with a world bank ideology. She was clearly using occult sources to promote her fundamentalist agenda. Barbara Aho even quoted Blavatsky ,Crowley and the golden dawn to make her point. And always referencing back to the bible chapter and verse. Other articles she had written included articles on the John Birch society and she named names and criticized people involved in government siting agendas from the 1950's thru present day including bloodlines and other minutia. She is clearly pro patriarch pro Christian anti-matriarch anti-gay...chapter and verse gal who is well researched.

Then exactly a month ago more pieces of a puzzle started to emerge... I had a dream about my college professor John Boatman who died last June...it was the day after his birthday so I was not surprised to see him in my dream... He was the one who was responsible for cracking my mind open and getting me to trust my dreams and abilities more than 30 years ago...Anyway...in the dream he was teaching at my husband Peter's school. I was bringing him a TV to use in his class room. As I walked into his room I saw a painting there. The painting was shaped like a megis shell. And in the painting there was a woman with a walking stick facing away from the viewer looking toward a bright sun within the sun was a megis shell. I knew right away this was part of the story of the Anishnabe people who were led to WI by the megis shell. I thought the message was for Peggy since Peter and I knew the story. So I searched for a site who had the old story on it. I found this http://www.thinkaboutit.com/native/seven_fires_prophecies_of_the_an.htm I read it out loud to Peter and then the 7th prophecy started to talk about Mackinaw. This triggered me to remember that a fundamentalist group from Mackinaw calling themselves Mackinaw were the people who were requesting the emails of UW-Madison professors (John Boatman was a UW professor intersting dream symbol)...These (Mackinaw) people wanted any and all private emails that contained the name (rogue governor Scott) Walker and/or(Rachel) Maddow in there emails. And wondered if the message from the dream was trying to get me to see a connection between the people attacking professors and requesting their emails were perhaps somehow connected to this faceless Barbara Aho and her world religion. Were these people utilizing and co-opting sacred power sites...like in the dark ages when people built churches on top of Pagan Temples sites. Somehow connecting the un-American policies being inflicted on key campaign swing states Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and others where Republican governors were elected who on issues of creating jobs are now attacking worker's rights and the waging economic war with the middle class. It would seem a bigger agenda was unfolding but I could and still can not wrap my mind around what their objective is besides purely wanting to get rid of Barack Obama in 2012 and covet power.

Barbara Aho was the first fundamentalist I had run across who was ever willing to use occult sources and science to further a very conservative right wing religious agenda. Until The Horizon Project was brought to my attention. I started watching it with an open mind but the first thing that bothered me was the narrator pronounced the "Big Picture" as the Big 'Pitcher' and then he didn't name any of the world experts who gathered to answer the big questions of why we are here and why there are big gaps in our history.

But I listened on...In episode 2&3 I found some really bad science warning that our gaps in history are because of a magnetic shifts and implying that the shifting coastlines were due to polar reversals and not because oceans rose and fell due to the ice age...their reasoning doesn't speak at all about global temperature changes and periods of glaciation when large amounts of ocean water were encased in the ice caps allowing for populations to build near the now submerged coastal lines.

In another quick Google search it's easy to find that according to the real paleomagnetists, the most recent magnetic pole reversal appears to have occurred some 730,000 years ago blowing their theory of a 10,000 BC a pole shift out of the water...

The narrator on the video continues in a whispering voice like he's letting you in on a secret...as he describes the effects of the polar reversal... weakened gravity...sloshing oceans and the whole earth spinning and physically turning upside down in space...giving the impression that people could float right off the surface of the earth...(sounding like that "ascension into heaven as predicted in Revelations yet?)

Finally In Episode 5 we meet our expert Dr. Agnew Dr (Brooks) Agnew...no first name this given until much later..A quick Google search informs me that Dr. Brooks Agnew is a BlogTalk Radio host who had a talk show called Exotica Radio which was changed to "Off Planet Radio" April 17, 2011. I start to smell the Rapture agenda. Agnew giving his scientific rhetoric... starts talking about our solar system"...cycling around the galactic equinox"...??? Around...? This doesn't sound like the proper wording to me. Maybe they should have said the Mayan calendar shows when we will cross the "galactic elliptic" maybe and start a new age.the Mayan dates "August 11 3011BC-December 21,2011". seem to coincide with the timing of the patriarchal era and if this ends and considering the politics of the extreme right wing I think we are hearing the death rattle...And I'm cheering on the sidelines for it.

The last 3 episodes are all Brooks Agnew...he's the only named "expert" in the entire series. They go on to how known prophets have been predicting a cataclysm for this year, Revelations, Nostradamus, Edgar Casey and the Mayan Calendar...But never once mentions the second coming...he doesn't have to he knows the indoctrinated will automatically imply it and not saying it keeps him pseudo-credible...(but not really.)

But wait it gets better according to The Horizon Project the beginning of the Aquarian Age also starts on December 21st,2011...This is off by about 3 degrees from perfect alignments...the precession moves about one degree every 72 years ...the midheaven line between Ophuichus and Sagitarius is December 18th. Perfect solstice is Dec 21st. The zodiac will still take another 200 years or so to make this perfect alignment but it will continue to precess and will only hold that perfection for 72 years before Ophuichus (Serpentarius) will end on December 22nd a day after winter solstice...the zodiac was meant to be lunar...it's a wheel on it's own...the solstices and equinoxes change dates every appox. 30,000 or 40,000 years or so...but the seasons stay in line with solar wheel. The very ancient people kept track of millennia using precession. The Egyptians allowed the star calendar to slide out of sync with the seasonal calendar. They could have reconciled the solar and lunar calendar but chose not to for the reason of keeping track of long stretches of time.

I guess what bothers me so much is they are using hard won ideas to promote a shallow right wing fundamentalist mono culture agenda and just like the Nazi Agenda who used the cross quarter days and old pagan holidays to peek interest and rally it's people... The teachings became tainted by their association with them... My work which is all inclusive and based on good science, permaculture and green philosophies is also using the ideas of precession and lost history...I feel they are soiling this information and co-opting it... And I am damned angry about it!!!... so instead of running away from my power which is, standing for nature, balance and truth I've decided to speak up! ;)

The journey to the Journey into Egypt Tarot

2011-01-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

In light of the recent upheaval over precession in astrology I thought it was time to tell my own experiences on this matter. Since I am right in the middle of creating a tarot deck based on just this subject. It would seem that 1/13/11 will be known as the day people stopped talking about the controversy of politics and started freaking out about the fact they are no longer the sun sign they thought they were.

My day started innocently enough designing the Moon card for my new deck I started looking up information on Ophiuchus the thirteenth sign. A few minutes later my friend Jade sent me a link,Recent Renewed Interest in the Zodiac by Bill Duvendack on Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 10:02am. Synchronicity! It was exactly what I needed when I needed it. I was thrilled but this is fairly common in my life and it doesn't freak me out.

The truth is this sort of thing happens to me quite a bit and it made me decide to post the events that led up to my discovery of precession and my decision to create a new tarot deck based on this phenomenon. And here are the details leading up to the Journey into Egypt Tarot a work in progress...

The most important thing about this new deck is the archetype in relationship to the placement on the wheel of the year, the relationship to placement colors, changes or deepens the usual meaning of the card.
The goal is to try to experience the spirit of ancient Egyptian that still exists today. Keeping in mind the people of ancient Egypt viewed the external world as a reflection of the internal world. By this premise if we change our state of mind we change our environment.
I can’t help but wonder if in this time of great change if we couldn’t benefit from reconnecting to the earth and each other. And if a unique look back at a mysterious nature religion may help us get to know ourselves a little better.

My journey back to Egypt and toward this new deck began with the completion of my third tarot deck a controversial deck based on full moon signs and cross-quarter days instead of the usual linear ordering MAAT was circular and cyclical in nature and it changed the ordering of the major arcana. The premier of this deck took me on a trip to Los Angeles, California in 2006 to present The MAAT Tarot at LATS (The Los Angeles Tarot Symposium). It was there that Mary Greer first mentioned to me a possible “Tarot Tour” to Egypt. I was interested and knew this would be the dream trip of a lifetime. My favorite author Normandi Ellis would be one of the co-facilitators and I had always wanted to meet her.
It eventually turned out that the dates of this trip coincided with my 49th birthday, this was a Saturn aspect for me and I knew everything I have done so far that is tarot related coincides with Saturn aspects. It seems to be part of my “karma” or at least is turning out to be my life’s work.
The first trip was just the beginning, as my tarot journeys would lead me to another tarot symposium and yet another serendipitous trip to Egypt. The second Egypt trip came about in an amazingly serendipitous way and it all started at BATS 2008 (Bay Area Tarot Symposium) when a woman named Norma came up to me after the panel discussion on the last day of the conference and said, "I have something to tell you and you have something to tell me but I don't know what it is..." My response was," well let's figure it out" Turned out she needed to know something about cross-quarter-days and full moons for the labyrinth she was creating and she told me I needed to read The Egypt Code by Robert Bauval... My thoughts were “if I ever see this book sometime I hope I remember to pick it up,” frankly I doubted I would find it anytime soon...
Since my husband Peter had never been to San Francisco we made plans to take a ride with Ferol Humphrey and a woman named Darlene both women had been on my first trip to Egypt. By the time I had finished talking to Norma, Ferol and Darlene missed us and left with Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone to see Wald’s old haunts in Berkley. So Tracey Hoover (author of the companion book to my first deck Ancestral Path Tarot), Peter and I decided to go walking, we ended up at Field's book because Tracey said she saw my MAAT deck and book there and she wanted to show me. So just 20 minutes after Norma had told me about Bauval's book there I was at Fields Book Store and Bauval’s book was the first thing I saw. I purchased it right away. I looked through it that night and thought, “wow its pretty complicated,” and set it aside. A little over a month later I started reading it and really connected, I also realized this was the same guy who connected the three great pyramids of Giza to the stars in Orion’s belt way back in 1990’s. This idea really influenced my thinking about Orion and Osiris and later the Fool and Orion for the MAAT Tarot. Anyway part way through the book I had a bunch of questions and wondered if Robert was on Facebook. And he was!! And better still I could write him a message so I did. I introduced myself and told him about my work and asked him if he was ever going to be covering the Egyptian’s spiritual views about the moon as clearly the Egypt Code was singularly focused on alignments of Sirius, the Sun and other stars. I was surprised to hear back from him that very night and he responded that he would be doing an entire book on Egypt and the Moon at some later date. I joined his fan club and left it there a few days later he friended me. Being Robert’s friend now I could see his posts and I was one of the first people to see his invitation for 10 guest/visitors to see the 8000 year old stone circle in Egypt’s western desert an ancient site with possible ties to Egypt’s pharaonic culture...before I could think about it I responded asking about dates and prices. Thinking to myself “Can I do this?”
As it turned out yes I could and my second trip to Egypt would the door to tarot deck project #4. My diary post gives my full emotional reaction to the idea of precession...

Day Nine
Tuesday April 14th, 2009
Card of the Day
King of Wands
Leisurely day didn’t go to the Nubian Village and swam in the pool, got some sun, rested, read, and attended a lecture on star alignments and temples. The lecture turned out to be more of an ambush than a lecture. Robert Bauval made a point of letting us all know that “modern astrology was rubbish” knowing full well that I used astrology in my work he insisted I explain to him why astrologers still used the sky of 4th century. He went through each of our natal skies by plugging our birthdays into the computer program and showed us that clearly the sky had moved back a full 30 degrees a full sign, each of us had sun signs that had precessed to the previous sign. All the planets were in the same alignments with the same houses as our charts everything was just in the previous sign. I couldn’t tell him why I insisted that astrologers knew this but he would have none of it. I was angry and frustrated and I ended up walking out of the lecture rather than be subjected to more of his condescending abuse. I felt humiliated and sabotaged he could have presented his case in more sensitive less rude manner. It was a full day before I would speak to him and he set me aside and told me that the real time astrology works, that I should write about it that the world needed to know about this and that I would be at the cutting edge of something new if I was to speak up about it. I told him he was right but that he had a lousy way of presenting his material. I had to agree I was pretty upset with myself for not figuring this out on my own for not knowing or considering precession. My first thoughts were mainly how annoyed I was that MAAT Tarot is wrong based on this antiquated inaccurate sky...my second thoughts were I’m NOT doing another deck...
I was clearly angry but perhaps I was really angry at myself for not already knowing this.

A week after my return from Egypt I was back on a plane again and on my way to the Reader’s Studio "09 a huge tarot conference held in NJ. My nose was stuffy and by Friday of the conference I had laryngitis so bad I couldn’t talk. Sales were down due to the bad economy and due to the fact most people in attendance already had my deck. I was feeling run down and felt I needed to do something else for a while just paint about Egypt and forget about tarot...by the end of the trip my leg was seriously hurt out of no where. I thought I maybe pulled something coughing and lugging an 80-pound suitcase full of inventory around. Friends pulled a few cards for a quick diagnosis. The Ace of Coins, the 8 of Coins...their take was...”There are more important things than money...take ONE day off...” I knew I needed more days off than that. In the MAAT Tarot the Ace is all summer. By the time I got home I was forced to go on bed rest to stay off my leg that got much worse. I stayed home stayed in bed and finished writing The MAAT Book of Court cards, and started MAAT Book of Days 2010 all the while I had a niggling feeling in the back of my mind that haunted me...the sky I was using was wrong...it felt like a lie now.
By the week of Summer Solstice my husband Peter and I were on the road to PSG ( a Pagan Spirit Gathering in Missouri) where I would be doing a class and vending tarot decks. I met a woman named Lori Mann who came to my class she was a reader as well and we ended up swapping readings... Lori's reading for me ended up being a download about a Tarot deck that was like a puzzle...a two-hour download from psychic medium Lori Manns...I still didn’t realize it was a new deck she was talking about until I went to get a massage from my friend Jude Christiansen. It was the day before the solar eclipse in July 2009. I thought perhaps a massage would help to heal my bad leg it was also the first massage I had gotten in probably 6 years. That night after getting the massage I went to sleep and the floodgates opened. I saw an entire Egyptian tarot in the form of MAAT Tarot’s wheel of the year in all its full glory big paintings like a giant mural all fitting together all telling a story and all based on the real sky astrology Robert talked about. I woke up inspired but not sure I would do it. I talked about it on Facebook everyone was supportive and excited wanting me to do it. The face of the High Priest standing in front of Karnak temple was the clearest card from my dream. He seemed to beckon me on. Suddenly I was kind of inspired and later that day Peter said to me...”You’re going to do another deck...” my response was....”no I’m not.” The next day I started waking up with ideas I found myself thinking about correspondences again...I was going to do another deck.
By the time The Minnesota Area Tarot Symposium came at the end of July 2009 I was ready to announce the decision to make a new deck. And after Nancy Antenucci performed her journey of the Fool tarot interpretive dance I knew right away that I wanted her to dance this new tarot and that we would have a gallery show that would travel to different cities. I knew where I wanted to start. I felt the joy again I was excited I had a project that I could finally sink my teeth into.
Just before Mercury went retrograde in September. I got a call out of the blue from Kassandra Murray Niagara Ontario owner of the Mide Bistro. I was scheduled to do classes and show pictures we made plans the summer of 08 but I never had enough paintings to make it worth the trip. I saw her name come up on the cell. Her words where that she had a waking vision about doing something with the sabbats (cross quarter days) with paintings I had done...I laughed and told her what I was working on...Her vision was about the journey of the god through the underworld and the goddess joining him at Samhain. I knew right away this was the journey of Osiris and the trials of Isis bleeding through for all my cross quarter day cards. Kassandra had given me another big piece of the puzzle. The tarot puzzle Lori Mann had hinted about in her reading at Summer Solstice.
If my dream, the reading from Lori and the waking vision from Kassandra was not enough. My neighbor Laura Zastrow also came knocking on my door the last week of September. Her words, “Julie I had a dream about you and I need to know what is going on...I dreamed you did all these paintings and I was being shown all of them one after the other but so fast that I couldn’t get enough time to look at any of them closely...What are you working on?” I think my eyes got pretty big and we sat down for a visit and I told her the whole story....
And there you have it the whole introduction to the chain of events that brought me to creating yet another tarot deck. Does the world need another tarot deck? I guess it does.

Politics and Spirituality in Watertown Wisconsin

2010-04-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

Well the aldermanic ballots are counted Peter lost. Not surprising really. Watertown is a red island within a blue state. He got 25% of the vote the exact ratio of progressive to conservative in the populous. He's a science teacher in a population whose fringes pull their kids out of class for bible studies and would prefer creationism to physics. And well we don't belong to a church, which is really frightening to some locals. Yes we have a stone circle in our backyard where local firemen came and put out our Yule fire while Peter stepped in the house for 5 minutes to get bells. The frightened neighbors from across the yards called. I mean seriously a fire no bigger than a BBQ in an enclosed stone fire pit surrounded by a sea of snow away from buildings by a half a football field. Later we heard the gold sun mask that we had hanging on a tree freaked out the fireman . The sun mask represented the sun since we never actually get to see the sunrise from the divot in the yard where the circle resides. Seriously folks we just ring bells to wake up the newborn sun and welcome the returning light. It's ritual it's ancient and people have been doing it since they started keeping track of the seasons nothing evil about it. Ignorance and fear go hand in hand around here and perhaps it's time to quit minding our own business and start educating about what pagans do.

Our good friends Peggy and Kathleen came out last night to watch the returns we went down to Lyons pub and hung out. Jim the owner gave us a tour of the upper floors of the building he bought for a dollar with the promise of doing the reparations. The building was built a hundred fifty years ago when Watertown was at its height...a cultural Mecca and very nearly the state capital. In it's day the building had a functioning ballroom in the upper most 3rd floor. It had been a gathering place for a fraternity called the brotherhood of Pythia. I'm thinking Pythia as on the oracle of Delphi. Maybe? Early Watertown history is so fascinating to me. There is a Masonic temple here too just a few blocks away in another defunct department store from my childhood. The early history of Watertown is one sided and fuzzy at best trying to get to the heart of the initial contact and evolution of Watertown and the reality of the first contact between the original settlement of 1000 Ho Chunk and Potowatomi and the first German settlers who were religious reformers and the influx of rich Yankee lawyers from New York who made Watertown their cultural playground, well the information is limited. There seems to be no documentation of the details of the Native history here. But I remember spending my childhood immersed in a wash of strong bleed through from that era. Spending much of my early years before grade 5 dressed in clothes from the period whenever we played. I had that same feeling when viewing the remains of the ballroom last night. Water damage in the 80's left this vital building in ruin the ceilings buckled plaster and wallpaper dripping hardware stripped by the previous out of state owners.
Just 30 years ago Lyon's was a JCPenney's department store 3 stories of clothing and a catalog department in the rear. The rest of the building housed a Kressege's 5 and dime. My grandmother and aunt worked there and my friends and I shopped there every Saturday stopping at the classic soda fountain lunch counter for French fries and Club sandwiches for lunch...back in the day when McDonalds was only a special treat and could only be found in Milwaukee or Madison. To look at the ruins of this once vibrant place was a shock I mean Egypt itself had faired better. The influx of franchised businesses like McDonalds, Shopko, Ace Hardware and JoAnne Fabrics had truly sucked the life out of the once vital downtown. The businesses once owned by citizens had been squeezed out by large chains owned by absentee owners who took their profits out of the city leaving it a burned out shell if it's former self. The locals still high on big discount stores never make the connection of job loss and low incomes to the chain stores instead they will blame the new populations of Hispanic people in town.
Just like the Yankee's blamed the Irish and the Italians when they first arrived back in the day.
Jim the owner also opposes the idea of a light rail that would connect Watertown to Milwaukee, Madison, Chicago and Minneapolis because it would raise the taxes. Never thinking about the possibilities and job opportunism and visitors with money who might like an adventure to someplace new small and quant. There would be job opportunities in other public transportation like shuttles or even buggy rides if people were creative and smart using the historic value and playing on it. Young and old people could really use an option for getting around without the expense of a car. Right now there is no public transportation not even a bus to connect Watertown directly to the big cities or the major airports if you don't have your own car here you're screwed.

Anyway this is where my head is this morning after the lost election. Peggy and Kathleen imagined an event in the ballroom with the new tarot paintings I'm working on it would be an ideal spot. I imagined a time when local people owned their own businesses again when the banks loaned money to local small businesses and the money circulated locally and the abundance of life came from trade, artisans and craftsman who took pride in their work instead of dependence on the war machine and oppositional political theater. Where opposing points of view and fear fills the coffers of both sided of any partisan issue. Where each side plays the other for capital gain and neighbors fear the other will fill their children's minds with godlessness. Where my daughter’s high school friends sign up for the military because it seems like an easy option. And I know what the emotional repercussions will be to the generations to come with fathers and now mothers too who come back emotionally damaged from yet another war. We all need better options there is work to be done there are workers who need work and yet our historic American treasures lay in ruin waiting for funding...The ballroom like my small hometown is no more finished than my next deck of tarot cards and there is a lot of work ahead of us...we have long way to go till we all see better days ahead.

The Egypt Trip 2009

2009-04-22T14:15:00.001-07:00

My Egypt trip came about in an amazing serendipitous way and it all started at BATS when a woman named Norma came up to me after the panel discussion on the last day of the conference and said, "I have something to tell you and you have something to tell me but I don't know what it is..." My response was," well let's figure it out" Turned out she needed to know something about cross-quarter-days and full moons for the labyrinth she was creating and she told me I needed to read The Egypt Code by Robert Bauval... My thoughts were “if I ever see this book sometime I hope I remember to pick it up,” frankly I doubted I would find it anytime soon.
Since my husband Peter had never been to San Francisco we made plans to take a ride with Ferol Humphrey and a woman named Darlene both women had been on my last trip to Egypt November 2007. By the time I had finished talking to Norma, Ferol and Darlene missed us and had left with Ruth Ann and Wald Amberstone to see Wald’s old haunts in Berkley. So Tracey Hoover, Peter and I decided to go walking, we ended up at Field's book because Tracey said she saw my MAAT deck and book there and she wanted to show me. So just 20 minutes after Norma had told me about Bauval's book there I was at Fields and the book was the first thing I saw. I purchased it right away. I looked through it that night and thought, “wow its pretty complicated,” and set it aside. A little over a month later I started reading it and really connected, I also realized this was the same guy who connected the three great pyramids of Giza to the stars in Orion’s belt way back in 1990’s. This idea really influenced my thinking about Orion and Osiris and later the Fool and Orion for the MAAT Tarot. Anyway part way through the book I had a bunch of questions and wondered if Robert was on Facebook. And he was!! And better still I could write him a message so I did. I introduced myself and told him about my work and asked him if he was ever going to be covering the Egyptian’s spiritual views about the moon as clearly the Egypt Code was singularly focused on alignments of Sirius, the Sun and other stars. I was surprised to hear back from him that very night and he responded that he would be doing an entire book on Egypt and the Moon in another book. I joined his fan club and left it there a few days later he friended me. Being Robert’s friend now I could see his posts and I was one of the first people to see his invitation for 10 guest/visitors to see the 8000 year old stone circle in Egypt’s western desert an ancient site with possible ties to Egypt’s pharonic culture...before I could think about it I responded asking about dates and prices. Thinking to myself “Can I do this?”. And also thinking what about Gina? As I scrolled down Robert’s page I noticed Gina Thies my roommate in Egypt also friended him that day. My first thoughts were, you’re going and so is Gina. In the end we were both picked to go but it wasn’t as easy as that. There were many pitfalls before the trip took place and much to consider before the trip was settled we would all have to face our own shadows.

When the dates were announced I was struck that we would be there during the holiday of Easter in fact we were there for both Christian Easter and Coptic Easter the week later we were also there for the Egyptian holiday of Sham El Nessim “The Spring Day” meaning smelling the breeze which falls on the first Monday after Coptic Easter. Sham El Nessim is an agricultural holiday that dates from about 4500 years ago. Sham El Nessim is celebrated by eating special salted fish and colored boiled eggs, green onions, green lettuce, Lupine beans and grey mullet a meal with ancient pharonic roots and symbolism of new life. To add to the mix in 2009 Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday April 8 and ends at nightfall on Thursday April 16 in the Diaspora (Wednesday April 15 in Israel).

For me personally it marked the 28th year since my vision of the girl on the cliff at Hatshepsut’s Temple. This was clearly a Saturn return for my vision. I wondered what it would mean to be back in Egypt again at this time and was only slightly disappointed that the trip would only be a desert tour. But having seen the Nile and the other temples I was content to just be in the country on this anniversary and that would have to be good enough.

For those of you who have never heard about the day I woke up at Dier El Bahari this is what happened, the experience changed my life, it changed my reality, my world view and the way I look at time and space.

Late March in 1981 during an emotionally dark point in my life I was gifted with what I would view now as a shamanic experience and one of the biggest reasons I felt that 'someday' I would need to go to Egypt.

I was home from UW-Whitewater staying at my mom and dad's house for Easter break, sleeping on the couch, I had the most tremendous astral journey. Some time in the night I woke up but instead of being in the living room where I had fallen asleep I was lying on a woven linen mattress seated upon a stone slab. I stood up and saw white curtains billowing between 2 or possibly 3 pillars. I looked beyond the curtains and saw water that seemed to go on forever. To my left was complete darkness. To my right I saw brilliant red cliffs against the most beautiful bright red sky, and below on the shore, there was a three-tiered temple with flickering torch lights inside. Between the cliff and the temple there were thick bushes growing. The cliffs behind me were green and lush with ferns and delicate plants of all types I could see their roots co-mingled with stones, and there were square white buildings nestled into the vegetation up above from where I was. There were also stone stairs to my right that led down to a sandy beach below where the Temple was.

I thought to myself, "Where the hell am I?" I was thinking with my own mind, and thought perhaps it was the Mediterranean Sea, Greece or Italy based on the small white buildings behind me. And even though in my mind I was Julie when I looked down at my body, it was not in my body. I was shorter and smaller in stature and my hair was black and wavy really long, trailing past my knees, my skin was a beautiful light brown. In the distance I could see lightning flashing in the south and I could hear the low rumble of thunder. There was a large black cat with a small head accompanying me. The cat jumped up in my arms, I crossed my arms around the cat’s body and flew out over the water. When suddenly, I was back on my mother's couch, a black cat was sitting on my chest meowing loudly and I was completely paralyzed and I realized I couldn't speak. The sound and the flashing light from the thunderstorm was all around me. Then I seemed to 'wake up' again, and the cat was gone, and I could move, but the thunderstorm was still clashing fiercely outside.

The very next day while still at my mom's house I was paging through old encyclopedias because there was nothing else to do. Suddenly in one of the books there it was!... the Temple from my dream it was in ruins, the uppermost tier was without a ceiling and vegetation was all gone but it was very recognizable, it was unmistakably Hatshepsut's temple in Egypt, a necropolis (City of the Dead) on the west bank of the Nile across the river from the city of Luxor (ancient Thebes). The temple is situated just east of the Valley of Kings separated by the cliffs that are actually a beautiful golden color. It took me ten years to find out any information as to whether there actually were actually cliffs to the north of this temple… the cliff that had been my vantage point… or if the Nile had ever risen that close to the temple in the past.
Since that vision Hatchepsut's temple has been the subject of many of my paintings, the Star picture in the Blue Moon, in the Ten of Staves in the Ancestral Path, and in the Two of Wands as well the most resent painting which I did just before this trip came up. This was the most intense astral journey I had ever experienced. The memory is still so strong and so powerful.

What I have discovered about Hatshepsut since my vision?

Hatshepsut was the only female “pharaoh”. Her name had been scratched out sometime after her death and all the evidence of her reign was deposited in one location. I have been following the archaeological finds about her. My main question at twenty-two, since I was divorced, and raising a child alone was "Why is there so much prejudice against women?" I struggled with how hard it was to be a woman raising a child alone back in 1981. I found that after Hatshepsut laws were created so that women could never be pharaohs, women could never be kings, and women could never be priests. I really think that Hatshepsut may have been the pharaoh from the Bible story who released the Hebrews. Her stepson, who she took power from, was about nine years old when he was supposed to be king. Her husband Thut'moses' II, who had been appointed by her father Thut'moses' I, was a weak ruler, so she had the responsibility of running the country during his lifetime. Her stepson Thut'moses' III, was the son of her husband’s consort, was supposed to take her place. Even though the dating by Biblical scholars doesn't correlate, there are some archaeological studies that name her as the pharaoh from the story of Moses. According to the story after the Hebrews had been set free Moses led them to the “promised land” but here is a thought, promised by who? Hatshepsut had the power to promise him lower Egypt and since pharaoh was considered a ‘god-king’ there is plenty of room for error as far as translating what god promised lower Egypt to “Moses”. In the biblical story Moses also disappears from the story after his people reach the ‘promised land’ and doesn’t stay with his people. No one knew until recently what happened to Hatshepsut; Her death was not recorded. We know that Thutmoses took over and stayed in power for about forty years. He also suddenly removed Hatshepsut from the public record some years after he was in power, and her temple at by the cliff was destroyed within 100 years after it was built laid to ruin until it was rediscovered in the late 19th century and reconstruction has been on going since around the 1950’s.

During my first short visit to Hatshepsut’s Temple our guide announced casually that the daughter of Hatshepsut was buried up on the cliff where my vision originated. I felt certain that this was the girl whose body I had occupied.
I nearly came out of my skin with excitement. With more research I was able to find that her name was Neferure and she served as “god’s wife” for her pharaoh mother. That Thutmoses III was supposed to marry her to legitimize his claim to the throne because he was not born from a queen but from a lesser wife of Hatshepsut’s brother/husband Thutmoses II. There were also some amazing environmental upheavals during this time that could have thrown a shadow on the reign of Hatshepsut, things that were beyond the control of this otherwise successful pharaoh. There is now evidence of ash from the eruption of the island of Thera (Santorini, Greece) during this time. The catastrophic effects of this volcanic eruption would have thrown dust and ash into the atmosphere blocking out the sun causing the red sky from my vision and inducing thunderstorms as well as tidal waves causing the Nile to flood with sea water and could easily account for the plagues of Egypt. Since the pharaoh was responsible for maat (universal balance and order) poor Hatshepsut was to blame. Neferure who would have been pharaoh’s first born died young she may or may not have ever been married to Thutmoses III there is not a lot written about her life.
For many years I thought this girl had something to tell me. In a recent reading by Nancy Antenucci I was told that Neferure is looking to me to find her story. This may or may not be true but it would seem that the story does seem to have started to bleed through. My questions have only increased as time goes by.

Since my out-of-body experience happened at Easter and Passover, so that suggests to me there is a correlation. This was a wild time travel journey and nothing similar has ever happened to me again. It makes me think there is so much more to this universe than I could possibly understand. Was it the timing of the holiday weekend? Was it my question? Was it the power of the thunderstorm? Were the ions just right? While visiting Abydos temple just a short distance from Dier el Bahari we were shown hieroglyphs of what looks unmistakably like modern modes of transportation, a helicopter, a jet, a tank and a possible submarine are carved into a stone beam high up near the ceiling at Abydos. This makes me wonder what the ancient Egyptians had tapped into. It is apparent that the temples of stone resonate and hold energy, the obelisks carved of singular pieces of stone hum like tuning forks when struck. What did the Egyptians know that we have forgotten?
***
As the deadline for the down payment neared Gina was wavering on going, she was in the process of buying a new house and overwhelmed. She sent in her money on the last day of the deadline and then when it seemed as if everything was settled she backed out. She had gotten a reading from her friend and mentor Beatrice who told her to wait for the better trip, that she would not enjoy this trip in the desert. Suddenly I was back to going on the desert trip alone. At first I was panicked but then remembered I signed on way before knowing Gina would go and settled into the idea shortly after. Booked all my flights and hotel rooms for my return.
So here I was about to go back to Egypt for a tour of the western desert or so I thought…when the Saturday before we left the whole itinerary changed suddenly as if by magic…

I was out at Bullthistle Farm for shearing day when the phone call arrived from Robert Bauval that the permits for seeing the cave paintings at Gilf Kabir had been denied and because of this he would now be adding Abu Simbel, Philae, Aswan and a cruise to Luxor to the trip. My head was swimming with excitement. I knew that if Gina knew the trip had changed she would now want to go. And so it was, in one single day Gina managed to coordinate and book her flights to come along we were going on a whirlwind trip back to Egypt together and Luxor was on the table as well.

The timing and the itinerary are still mulling over in my mind by the time it was over not only would we have stood before the only living statue of Sekemet again but we would journey through the eastern desert to the Red Sea before heading back to Cairo and we would also be seeing Alexandria as well.

I picked a card for each day’s journey and in 3 to 6 months I will review these picks again for more insights since when dealing with spirit and trying to understand one must blur your eyes and view the negative space as well as the objects before you to really see what is being presented.

Day One
Monday April 6th, 2009
Card of the Day
The MOON
After a nervous day and threats of a snowstorm the weather parted like the Red Sea my flight though delayed for 3o minutes left without a hitch. However the weather that missed me had Gina stuck in Chicago and she missed the Egypt Air flight by 45 minutes. For whatever reason we were meant to journey separately to Cairo. I spent my 10.5 hours to Cairo with 3 seats to myself reading and thinking and trying to sleep. Gina would reschedule for the same flight the next day and arrive on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.

Day Two
Tuesday April 7th, 2009
Card of the day
No entry
I arrived at the Cairo airport a young man named Mohamad stood there waiting with my name on printed on a card he whisked me through customs and boarded me into a private luxury van that brought me to the Cataract Hotel. I got checked in and joined Robert by the pool where we chatted with a man who was from England he had brought his young son to Egypt and Rome for his birthday because the boy was obsessed with all things Egyptian and Roman. To look at their faces I could see they were both revisiting…past lives.
I also was introduced to Joanne Cunningham a New Zealander who had been living in Cairo for 5 years and worked as a graphic artist for the UN she was old friends with Robert and would be his guest on this trip.

Day Three
Wednesday April 8th, 2009
Jewish Passover begins at sundown
Card of the Day
No entry
Gina arrived around noon after a morning of watching Pallo Productions filming Robert at the Sun Temple for a documentary about his next book Black Genesis. After Gina was fed and settled our 8 fellow travelers loaded into the 2 4x4 vans with the desert expedition guides from called Red Sea. The group consisted of a married couple from Palermo Maria and Nicholi, Joanne and Robert, Gina and myself and the Italian filmmakers Johnny and Antony who would later be affectionately known to Gina and I as the Roman Guard.

Day Four
Thursday April 9th, 2009
Christian Holy Thursday
Card of the Day
The Fool
Full moon in Libra this was our first day of seeing the oasis at Bahariya Robert
brought us to see the water and then we drove to a high cliff where an English major built a stone house of slate overlooking a Roman tomb we spent the day on the road driving through the Black desert and then the White Desert where we were served a lunch of Egyptian fare on woven rugs. By sunset we found ourselves in the Sahara. The guides helped us set up our tents cooked us dinner and we watched as the full moon rise orange and full over what looked like a wall to wall carpet of sand nearly the color of golden cornmeal… perfect tiny pebbles of golden rock. We were visited by desert mice and saw fox scat but didn’t see any fox. This was by far the most beautiful place I had ever seen, so pure and so perfect the air was light and dry and pleasant.

Day Five
Friday April 10th, 2009
Christian Good Friday
Card of the Day
The Chariot
We woke to the sun rising in the Sahara the sea of sand. The sun rose where the moon had risen the night before. We had breakfast served and broke camp. Our first stop was a Ptolemy Temple outside of Bagawat. Where we had clouds and a rare sprinkle of rain. Our next stop was an 11th century Moslem City Bagawat. The city was now empty and served as a sort of museum. I took lots of pictures of this ancient place. Our next stop was the oldest Christian necropolis. I thought it was very ironic to be here on Good Friday. We set up camp in a nondescript desert site and we were served dinner again chicken and potatoes, soup and various Egyptian salads.

Day Six
Saturday April 11th, 2009
Christian Holy Saturday
Card of the Day
7 of Cups
As we broke camp had breakfast of eggs and crepes, fruit, cheeses and jam. Then drove through to the old caravan trails we stopped so the filmmakers could shoot some footage and when we were done. Robert pointed out the red and yellow ochre pigments found just below the surface of the ground. It was easy to find it where the tires of the 4x4’s made their tracks. I scooped up two plastic bags full of the pigment and cried a little realizing this was a gift from Manitou who wanted to give Peter back his pigments. Peter had emptied his ochre supplies at Manitou’s grave the week before. This was the place of death as there were literally hundreds of ancient camel skeletons littered all around us. I also had to be quick about collecting the ochre as it was not long before I could hear it was time to load into the 4x4’s and go.

That eventing as the sun began to set we got to see the oldest stone circle in the world with alignments to Sirius and the Summer Solstice at Napta Playa. The Black culture that lived here left suddenly leaving behind their grinding stones and their stone circles. Not far from this 8000 year old site we saw the ruins of ancient Roman outposts and giant round stones that no one seems to understand.

Day Seven
Sunday April 12th, 2009
Christian Easter Sunday
Card of the Day
8 of Swords
We were the first to arrive at Abu Simbel that morning. It was just Gina, Robert and myself. Robert suggested that we not look at the temple until he told us so we could get the full impact of just how grand it is. We walked down the stone walkway and though it was tempting to look we did wait the monument was awesome tall and imposing. Robert told us the story about the guy who found it and that some local people tipped him off that there was a temple there.

Day Eight
Monday April 13th, 2009
Card of the Day
Prince of Wands
In the morning we went to the Temple of Isis at Philae ( built 200BC and closed 514AD when it was turned into a church)
I was disappointed that I did not get the shot of the view looking west from where the island used to be before it was moved…So near and yet so far. The boat drivers are not allowed over there by police orders.
I did get a photograph of the hieroglyph of the Nile that I used in my MAAT book, this may eventually become a painting.
Later we visited the island of Elephantine stood in the ruins of the Jewish settlement where Jesus was supposed to have lived when he was in Egypt. This island is no bigger than a few city blocks Egyptian and Jewish cultures blend. This place was a potter’s colony there are layers and layers of pottery shards. There is a temple to the Egyptian moon god Khnum who created people on a potter’s wheel just a stones throw from the synagogue where the Hebrew god formed Adam Lilith and Eve out of dust.

Day Nine
Tuesday April 14th, 2009
Card of the Day
King of Wands
Leisurely day didn’t go to the Nubian Village and swam in the pool, got some sun, rested, read, and attended a lecture on star alignments and temples.

Day Ten
Wednesday April 15th, 2009
Card of the Day
King of Cups
We had another unusual Wisconsin sky today. I was up early much to Gina’s dismay I went to the upper deck to watch as we sailed on to Luxor. I saw shores filled with palm trees and distant dry hills to the east and to the west.

Day Eleven
Thursday April 16th, 2009
Coptic Holy Thurday ( 2009 Jewish Passover ends)
Card of the Day
10 of Wands
We finally arrived in Luxor this morning we went to the temple of Rameses III
we got pictures of parts of the temple we missed before.
Then we went to Hatshepsuts’s temple the temple site has gone through many improvements including a new entrance building. New tombs on the walk in seemed to be recently excavated. We noticed many more lion and snake symbols than we saw the last time we were here and I took more shots that will lend themselves well to painting.
Later after the heat of the day had passed Gina and I went with the guide to Karnak Temple by the time we got there the ticket booth had closed I thought we would miss out on going in. The guide told us to wait by the avenue of sphinx and I took a bunch of good pictures thinking I would be satisfied with the shots I got this time. We both decided that if Sekhemet wanted to see us she would and we would just let it be whatever it was going to be. Low and behold after a few phone calls we were allowed in. Gina and I went looking for the red chapel but didn’t find it. There was a little old man who showed us some special walls that were in really good shape. And then we told him we wanted to go see Sekhemet at the temple of Ptah. He took us there and they unlocked the door for us. We went in and it was as always a powerful moment out of the darkness you see the eyes of Sekhemet and they seem to glow in a soft blue green. The little old man began to weep openly and it brought us all to tears. We stood before her and I thanked her for seeing us again and for other things as well. I felt the journey was complete at this point and whatever else happened would be more than I expected.

Day Twelve
Friday April 17th, 2009
Coptic Good Friday
Card of the Day
9 of Cups
We traveled by van from Luxor to Cairo via the eastern desert following the footsteps of the Exodus. But before we left we went to Dendera and got some great shots of the temple of Hathor which has got some of the best preserved paint that I have ever seen.
The day was long we journeyed from 5AM until 10PM stopping at the Red Sea for lunch and to put our toes in the water. The water of the Red Sea is perfectly clear and clean and is the most beautiful blue green.

Day Thirteen
Saturday April 18th, 2009
Coptic Holy Saturday
Card of the Day
6 of Coins
We were up early to go to Sakara and Giza stopped at a friend of Robert’s an old man who used to be a guard at the Sakara pyramid complex. The filmmakers were trying to get in to shoot the pyramid complex. We got a close up of the reality of life in Egypt. The man and his wife and 10 children lived in a brightly colored house in close proximity was a cow and a goat with 2 babies, there were 2 dogs and 3 puppies running around. The wife was not too happy about the camera filming her. There was a teenage girl who served us tea and a little boy who spoke pretty good English. Johnny Pallo the film producer asked me if I noticed the bruise on the oldest daughter’s face. I hadn’t but from what Joanne had been telling me earlier the women of Egypt have really got it tough.

When we got back for lunch I was just in time to meet up with Gina and Emil Shaker our tour guide from my first trip to Egypt. He took us to see Mohamad Nassmy at Quest Travels and we had a good time catching up. Then Emil treated us to a fabulous lunch and a trip to old Cairo were we visited the oldest Christian church that had special healing water running through it in small canals, then we went to the oldest shops in Cairo that were once the shops of all the Jews. We got back to the hotel just around sunset. Upon returning to the hotel we decided to hire a van and go see Alexandria just 2.5 hours away.

Day Fourteen
Sunday April 19th, 2009
Coptic Easter
Card of the Day
6 of Swords
The Quest Travel van arrived at 7AM sharp and we were on our way to Alexandria. We arrived a couple hours later and stopped at the Alexandrian Museum first it was surprisingly small in my opinion but it had some pretty amazing mosaics. This made me think back to the reoccurring dreams I had about a mosaic floor with two dolphins just off the coast of the delta to the east of Alexandria. The city itself had touches of mosaic something that was not in other parts of Egypt. After the museum we had the driver take us to the Theatre of Alexandria Gina and I took turns standing at the sweet spot and hearing the effect of the perfect acoustics it was amazing how the size of the theatre seemed to be reduced almost as if by magic. The stage still showed places there were still mosaic tiles on the floors. The full city block also had remnants of the old city around it.
After the theatre Gina and I were hungry and we did the unthinkable and ate at McDonalds…yes I broke my 30 year record but somehow I think I needed the American food just to ground myself in 2009.
The last thing we did was visit the harbor our driver dropped us off in front of the little shops and we walked watching the blue water crash up on the shore, again the water was the most beautiful blue. After a quick cruise past the new library our driver bought us an Egyptian ice-cream and drove us back to the hotel.

Day Fifteen
Monday April 20th, 2009
Sham El Nessim (pharonic agricultural holiday of new life and new beginning)
Card of the Day
Princess of Swords
The last day in Egypt the driver picked us up at 6AM for our 9:15AM Egypt Air flight back to JFK. We stopped for coffee and something quick to eat and then headed off to our gate. The 11 hour flight back seemed to go fairly fast there was a lot to process and I was ready to go home…

Day Sixteen
Tuesday April 21st, 2009
Card of the Day
High Priestess
Gina and I parted ways and I took the early shuttle to LaGuardia to catch my Midwest flight back to Milwaukee. The 2-hour flight seemed like nothing and I could see Peter’s smiling face waiting at the end of the ramp a chai latte in hand.
It was good to be home again…

Post Script-
Friday April 24th, 2009
I received an email from Tracey Hoover she sent me the information that Friday’s… on this day in history…Thutmoses III is crowned the 6th pharaoh of the 18th dynasty on this day in 1479 BC
She read about this just before she found and read this blog post…the serendipity continues.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-11-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

Well what does one blog about as one turns 50? From what I am hearing this is when the fun begins and I must agree. I was surprised by my husband, family and friends this weekend with a surprise 50th birthday party. I wanted to share here the funniest gift I received from my friend Lisa who also lives here in Watertown. She created the “Julie nativity scene”. It made me laugh so hard I nearly lost bladder control. You will note the tiny photo of grown up Julie pasted over the baby face and all the wise men and and other figures have witch hats, (not 3 dimensional witch hats but flat cut out witch hats)LOL! The gifts from the "magi" are labradorite and kianite also notable is my actual birth chart being held by a wise man with the most hilarious look on his face. There is a Bast among the wise men and golden goddesses and stone cats arranged around the manger, in the ivy surrounding the display you see hidden MAAT Tarot and Ancestral Path boxes. There is also various MAAT cards spread under foot if anyone wants to take a stab at reading the cards for me. I just wanted to share this so everyone could laugh along. Anyone interested in giving the gift of nativity can write to me and I will forward your interest to Lisa who may have just started something.
Julie~
Be sure to click on the picture for a closer look!

Egypt November 2007-what I learned

2008-10-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

As Mercury goes direct today I woke up with a “download” of memories and the ability to finally put my Egypt experience into words. As I close in on the year anniversary of my first trip to Egypt I am finally able to synthesis and realize what I got from this trip.

The Tigris and Euphrates may be considered the cradle of civilization but I feel the Nile Valley is truly the source of all Western Cultures’ religions. This was never so apparent to me as it was in Egypt.

The first thing a person notices in Egypt is the sun. Even in November the sun is high and prominent, you can feel its heat and it is bright and golden. There is a sense of geometry and perfect direction in Egypt. The great river is a huge feature through out Egypt running predominantly south to north dividing the land into eastern and western parts. The great sun’s path runs east to west and crosses the great river at midday. Giving greater practical meaning to the symbolism inherent in the structure of the Great Pyramids at Giza. This element is punctuated by the Moslem call to prayers at dawn, noon and sunset. This practice gave me a sense of the unity of their community but also hinted at some other more ancient time when the stations of the sun god were venerated. Suddenly I was struck with the importance of the conjunction of the path of the sun in the sky with the intersecting river on earth. This relationship between sun and river was just like the action of warp and weft offering clues inherent the ancient shuttle of the goddess Neith and Egypt’s connection to the use of “as above and so below”. It was the sun and the river that brought life and abundance to Egypt.

One of the earliest known religious practices of Egypt involved the rising of the star Sirius. On my trip we visited the Temple of Isis at Philae the southern most temple in Egypt, here you can see a large viewing plaza were the rising of the star could have been viewed. It was at Philae where the highest points of the annual flood were measured by the elite priesthood to help pharaoh predict what the annual harvest would be. Because Egypt only gets about one half inch of rain each year it is dependant on the Nile for all of its water drinking as well as agricultural. Without water from the annual flood of the Nile Egypt would be a desert. The annual flooding occurred every year when the star Sirius merged with the sun. Coincidently this all happens during the month when the full moon is in Aquarius. The hieroglyph for the Nile and the symbol used in the sign of Aquarius is so similar. Even today we still talk about the “Dog days of Summer”. In ancient times it was thought that the sun grew hotter when the large star merged with the sun. Sirius or Sothis “dogs” the constellation of Orion. Orion is a prominent constellation known for his belt of three stars. (These three stars have been linked to the three pyramids at Giza. Again there is a sense of “as above so below” here.)

Orion also disappears during the summer months this is the time of the year when he is thought to be murdered by his brother similar to the Cain and Able story in Christianity and Judaism. After his death Osiris is then personified by the grain as it rises out of the mud left as the floodwater recedes, thought as being resurrected by the magic of Isis. The star Sirius was sometimes thought of as the tear of Isis and when her tear disappeared from the sky it flooded the Nile. Orion was associated with Osiris god of the grain, the sun at midnight and the judge of the dead. Osiris was died annually killed by his jealous brother the personification of the desert. These Osirian Mysteries were similar to the Dionysian Mysteries in which the gods were dismembered, symbolism of bread (Osiris) and wine (Dionysis) rites have their origins in these very similar rituals. I knew about the similarities between these two gods before my trip to Egypt. It was the connection to Sekhmet that I saw that was new to me.

While sitting at Philae author Normandi Ellis told the story of Sekhmet. This was the story about when Sekhmet was sent out by her father Ra to avenge his honor. Her killing spree was so intense that all the gods thought she would wipe mankind off the face of the earth so Thoth was sent out in the form of a baboon to try to stop her. His trick was to replace the blood she was devouring with wine (or in some versions of the story ochre colored beer) She drank the alcohol went to sleep and became dossal. I think what I was struck with was the whole blood changing into wine (beer) verses the modern wine turning to blood of modern Christianity. I always felt there was a female connection to the idea of the “body and blood” being connected to woman’s menstrual cycles some how. Here we also see that the domesticated Sekhmet turns into Hathor and becomes the wife of Horus savior god and son of Isis and Osiris. So to sum it up the revelries and drunken parties would serve to subdue the angry vengeful blood soaked Sekhmet into the lactating, gestating dossal Cow goddess Hathor. Symbolically and in the progression of general life cycle of the female I can see how this connection could be made by male observers. I still hold to the personal idea that women once ran these blood rites and rituals for themselves in secret without the judgment of men. The ancient Moon Lodge of western culture that has no written record but can only be mythologized and speculated about.

At Elephantine my roommate Gina and I opted not to visit the temple of the Ram headed Khnum. The idea of a male moon god insulted our sensibilities. The agenda for the group was to participate in a ritual where Khnum would remake us on his potter’s wheel. We found this out when people came back and decided Gina had given me a “makeover” on the train the night before and that seemed to cover it. (Gina being a makeup artist for Chanel by trade.) Fellow traveler Tammy got a lot from her experience at Elephantine felt a big connection with Moses in the rushes and the stories of Isis and Horus.

Upon returning to the US and connecting with the book “ The Jesus Papers” by Michael Baigent who spoke about the Hebrew settlement that had once been there. Baigent writes that Mary and Joseph may have settled there to raise the young Jesus. On Elephantine the synagogue and the Temple of Khnum are right next to each other. Stories and cultures commingle like kids at summer camp.

I could see this settlement has Old Testament connections to the making of Adam from clay or dust. This island of Elephantine seems to hold a key to the male creation mythos. And it just happens to be not too far down stream from the Isis temple. It is not too hard to see how male creation stories evolved. Rejected from the blood mysteries…and somewhere not too far away. Khnum like Khepera begins his creation story; Khnum is lonely and masturbates into the dust from there a great mound of land appears creates all the gods on his potters wheel and there you have it. It is interesting because the consequence of no rain in Egypt makes it a very dusty place, piles of fine dirt or dust piles up on street corners and cars like a Midwest snowfall. Making it abundant for all kinds of creative uses.

My biggest personal connection was with Luxor ancient Thebes. This is the part of Egypt where the river changes course and creates a bow in the river returning to its northward course at Dendera. At the beginning of the bow is Luxor on the east bank is Karnak and Luxor temples they are connected by an avenue of sphinxes.

During the inundation those avenues would fill with water and the barque or barge or sacred ark of Min would go down this avenue. The statue would go from one temple to the next and during Hatshepsut’s time revelries would be held all night at the her mortuary temple the statue of the god Min would be allowed to visit with the statue of Hathor the revelers would drink until dawn and when the sun would rise their torches would be dowsed in buckets of milk. Then the god would be returned to his own temple. I was also amazed to find that there is a storyboard panel that lights up at winter solstice sunrise and that the ramp at Hatshepsut’s temple aligns not only with this sunrise but also with the farthest southern wall of Karnak temple. If a tunnel existed thru the cliff wall behind this temple it would have shown light through to Hatshepsut’s tomb on the other side of the cliff in the Valley of the Kings.

When traveling through the Valley of the Kings which is only about 4.5 miles from Karnak running a straight line through the mountain cliff. My first impression was “I thought this was Jerusalem but it’s the Valley of the Kings…and then the middle stanza of the 23rd psalm rang through my head… The 23rd Psalm -

“ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.”

As the river curves around and creates a loop its farthest northern point on the west side of the river we find the temple at Dendera the temple consists of a Temple to Hathor and various birthing temples, it is where queens gave birth and seems to be the doorway to rebirth. As the River finishes its big curve and aligns with Luxor again we find Nag Hammadi the place where jars containing the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed in 1945.
Not far from Nag Hammadi is the Temple of Abydos built by Seti but now some geologist think it was much older at least the part called the Osiris Temple in the back which is much lower than Seti's structure. In abydos there is a grouping of hieroglyphs with clear carvings of a helicopter, jet and submarine? The carvings can be found on a lintel close to the ceiling some 20 feet off the floor. Seeing this left us all stunned and with tour guides began bickering over whether they are or not modern vehicles. They are, I know because I traveled to ancient Thebes in my dreams and if I can go there they could have certainly come here. They had to be doing something with those big obelisks that rang like giant tuning forks…

My interest and relationship to the culture of ancient Egypt seems to be an ever-unfolding onionskin. I thought I would find closure there I thought I would see it and be sad that it is gone and over. I have to say to my surprise Egypt is not dead not gone the doorway to the other world is still there and open. Beckoning us on to common ground.

Sarah who???

2008-08-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

Really? Is McCain kidding us? Is she supposed to serve as a Hilary substitute?
This could be laughable if it wasn’t so frightening. Talk about having inexperience
a heart beat away from the presidency and little too close to the button. I admit to having a hard time choosing between Hilary and Barack in the primaries. But only because they were both such good choices. My choice never had anything to do with race or gender though seeing something other than a white male on the ballot was refreshing. I find McCain’s choice to be really irresponsible. How stupid does he think the American woman voters are? We may want to see a woman in the white house but not just any random woman. What a strategy! This election is not about the package its about the product. I am not going sit by and be politically correct here.We have lived with "stupid" for 8 long years and if Diebold steals another election and we could get an aging John McCain and this “inexperienced, gun toting, ex beauty queen”. This will really be ridiculous. There I said it, somebody had to.

Deviant Moon Review

2008-06-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

The Deviant Moon
By Patrick Valenza
Published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc
78-2.75” x 5.25” glossy cards

The Deviant Moon Tarot arrived today from U.S. Games for my review. The new deck is due out in stores on June 30th. The Deviant Moon is one of USG’s new Premier Edition 78-card decks, which means it comes in a sliding box with a little white book and a poster with a spread on it. At first glance I thought oooow! U.S. Games is making decks bigger and shinier! I was fooled by the packaging. The Deviant Moon is the usual slim and easily shuffled deck the publisher is known for.
For me the first impression of the artwork was startling. The images seemed somewhat mechanical and not very organic. But as I began to flip through the cards the little characters began to grow on me. They are sort of gothic and whimsical at the same time and as I looked even closer I saw some interesting symbolism coming through as well. I loved how the characters on the cards had lunar faces- the bright half of the face, which I took as being the conscious self, has an open eye while the dark half, the possible subconscious of the face, has the eye closed. All the cards have titles except Death and the numbered cards. I found this interesting and mysterious it made me want to find out why.

Then my almost 16 year old daughter came in the door and she fell in love with the images; they were just her style. She loves the whole Corpse Bride/Goth scene and this deck was made for her. She is also a budding photographer and loved the idea that the pictures in this deck are made from manipulated photographs.

Then as I continued to flip through the cards I laughed out loud at the 10 of Swords.
It’s the typical 10 of Swords image but the little creature is biting on his own hand while a little demon is biting on his shoulder. Somehow this scene just cracked me up. The cat made me laugh too just because it didn’t look very healthy (not that an unhealthy cat is humorous but you have to see this card to get my meaning.) I was starting to really like this little deck with its endearing dark little characters. Then I saw Patrick’s 6 of Cups and knew the Deviant Moon Tarot creator and I had found common ground. There was a puppet show the same idea I had for my MAAT Tarot 6 of Cups.

In my opinion I think other people will come to find Deviant Moon to be a sweet little deck. Congratulations Patrick. I’m looking forward to shaking your hand at some Tarot event soon.

If you haven't seen this video Watch it

2008-04-21T15:31:00.000-07:00

What it's like to have a stroke
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke.

As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

More about this from another angle:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/304.html

Orion/Osiris the Fool and Egypt

2008-03-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

Good morning,
In the months since my return from Egypt I have been haunted by my trip.
There is not a day that goes by that I don't find my mind drifting back to Luxor, the Isis Temple and Hatshepsut's Morturary Temple.
I knew that in ancient times Philae(original spot for the Isis temple) was thought to be the source of the flood as it was the southern most border of Egypt and I think I must have known that water levels were recorded into the rocks there, though during our visit we did not see that. What I did NOT know was that the carving of the hieroglyph for of the Nile was there. The one that clued me into the connection between the Star card/ and the sign of Aquarius being connected to the Full moon in Aquarius which occurs in July during the flooding of the Nile. The carving is there on the western wall which we never got to see.
Anyway the other morning I am reminded that we were told that the original island just south of the temple island is where the thigh of Osiris was hidden.That morning finally I start to think about how this might be related to the old positioning of the temple. Seeing as the entire temple of Isis was moved stone by stone from the island of Philae in 1970 due to the flooding caused by the building of the Aswan dam. The original placement of the Temple would have been due east of the much higher rocky island(Biga Island) where Osiris's thigh was hidden. Which got me thinking about the constellation of Orion and its connection to Osiris and its disappearance just before the annual flood which begins around July 18. Now I needed to find a star finder to see if and when the last part of the Orion/Osiris constellation to disappear at the horizon at sunset would be his leg what date that would happen and if
so I am thinking there may have been a major ritual there to find the thigh of Osiris journey to the duat overnight watch the sunrise with Sirius in conjunction and Pharaoh or perhaps "the god's wife" would pour water from vessels as the flood waters would rise. The annual flood and the rising of the dog Star Sirius was so predictable that it was more accurate than counting the 365 days in the year. I am thinking now the alignment of the sunrise
on these dates would have shot down through the doorways in that side temple where we all danced and would have intersected right in front of the courtyard where the pharaoh would have stood to address the masses.

Intersections of east and west and north and south were sacred. As I was waking that day I realized why the Egyptian day began at noon. It was the time when the sun would come in conjunction with the Nile and the crossing would have been deemed as sacred the meeting of the ad blending of the opposites. Picture the perfect south to north flow of the Nile and the perfect east to west journey of the Sun/Ra. at noon these two paths cross as they would again when the sun reached midnight. This "sun at midnight" is referred to in what little is written about initiation of the priests of Egypt.
Again this is referred to in the journey to the duat as warp and weft. Nearly where ever you are in Egypt there is a distinct sense of direction, the Nile running south to north and the sun going east to west some with exceptions of course like the area of Abydos and Denderah.

In my quest to find the perfect starfinder I came across Google Earth I was able to see in great detail the area of Biga Island and even the submerged island of Philae perfectly due east of Biga. When I looked at Google Earths'
detail of Orion there was a big surprise waiting there for me, not only would it appear from the original Philae that Orion would go leg first into Biga island but the word for Rigel (Orions' left foot)in Arabic is FOOL.

I am thinking there is a painting in all of this stay tuned.
Julie

Journey to the Far World

2008-02-20T12:02:00.000-08:00

February 10th I held my "Egypt Day" intensive study for some MAAT Tarot students in the Chicago area. The group got to see a movie I created from a blending of collected Egypt pictures and images of paintings. Then we delved into the idea that the Egyptian Funerary texts were not just for the dead pharaoh but were also useful to the living. The funerary texts may well have been used by the living pharaoh as well as the priesthoods to journey to the "far world" This premise is the feature of a fairly new book by Jeremy Nadler called Shamanic Wisdom in the Pyramid Texts. This is the book Michael Baigent quoted in the Jesus Papers. Here is what was in my handout for my class. I was up till midnight the night before I left for the weekend it all came out at the very last minute.
----
Understanding the Egyptian concept of Time.

The Egyptian view of time and eternity was not like the view we have today. They did not view time as people in the 21st century do, the future stretching infinitely in front of us and the past infinitely behind us. They did not have a heaven above and hell below them.

Time was seen as a blending commingled phenomenon. There was neheh cyclical physical time the seasons, the cycle of stars in the sky, which was infinite and there was djet a world where time was suspended a place where there was no time this was an eternal place. The worlds of djet and neheh were commingled though one did not see djet it was always there. I think the best way to think of djet and neheh is to think of neheh as the physical atoms and djet as the space in between the atoms. Djet and neheh were all part of the perfection and state of eternal harmony of the universe known as maat.

Part of the perfect harmony of the universe was the rising and setting of the sun. The place on the horizon where the sun rose in the morning as well as the place where the sun set at night were considered sacred like a doorway to the 'far world' this doorway was called akhet meaning 'horizon'. This doorway led to the place called the Duat the' far world'. Everyone in Egypt was responsible for working toward maintaining maat. However it was the responsibility of the pharaoh to maintain maat. Temples built in Egypt aided the pharaoh in maintaining maat and served as a gateway to the 'far world' as temples served as a link between the earth and the sky.

The Duat or the 'far world' was the place where one went at death it coexisted with the physical world, it was not seen as separate but a world that existed simultaneously with the physical world. In effect the Egyptians had a rather shamanic world view and funerary texts once thought to aid only the dead may have in fact been meant for the living as well. And may have been used in rites by priests and priestesses to journey to the far world.
--------
Then we used a spread I created based on the 12 hours.Doing the spread before we knew what the questions were was fun and surprising.
Journey Through the Dwat- Tarot Spread
12 hours of the Journey of the Sun (pharaoh)
We found the best way to do this is to shuffle and pick 12 cards place the cards in an arch starting from the right side and going left dipping down and around like the bottom half of a circle.

Now here are the spread correspondences to complete your reading:
The actual funerary texts are found in the tomb of Thutmoses III in the valley of the Kings. There is a movie of these funerary texts filmed by Chance Gardener in Magical Egypt a symbolist tour episode 5 navigating the afterlife what to do in the Duat. available on line.

The First Hour Shows a barge with a scarab floating on the water and it is about the preoccupation with separation symbolized by three snakes, the snake as a larval form of life separates the waters. The symbol of the boat on the water represents the consciousness being led through the mysterious interaction with the flow of time. Time is the river. What I need to separate from.

The Second Hour Shows the barge with Amon in his shrine on the bow two cobras Isis and Nepthyus the personification of Magic. She who guides the boat -Magic guides the boat. What magic guides my boat?

The Third Hour Shows Anubis and Osiris. She who cuts up souls the prototype for
The Christian hell-the annihilation of the shadow. Those who obstructed others are
forgotten. In other words the identity of people who stand in the way of other peoples' enlightenment are sentenced to oblivion and lose their identity. What is my shadow?

The Fourth Hour The coffin descends into the earth. How deep can I go?

The Fifth Hour Physical to divine. The Power of the Earth to rebirth. Life bursting through the egg of Saqar. Creates a bridge to heaven. What am I creating?

The Sixth Hour The solar barge rests on the water faced with Set. Apep must be cut into pieces. The enemy is cutup and overcome. Opposition is just as immortal as divinity itself. Who is my immortal opposition?

The Seventh Hour Symbols of transformation. Symbols of weaving and metamorphosis the four states of matter in the form of un-sheared rams. Going from lower to higher consciousness. What is my transformation?

The Eighth Hour Deities seated weft and warp more weaving What must I contemplate?

The Ninth Hour The boat contains the scarab rolling the egg with its own future symbol of the Great Work. Symbols of the rising sun may be the kundolini. What is my Great Work?

The Tenth Hour Harmonious solar and lunar, right and left-brains rising sun is at the third eye. Harmony and balance. What will bring me into harmony?

The Eleventh Hour Process is almost complete solar and lunar fused together. The enveloper riding across time on the serpent. Intellect made divine duality reconciled Mastery over time.
What do I need to know from the timeless place?

The Twelfth Hour Process is complete barge is rolled through the large snake compared to the kundulini energy released. Ba and Ka unite the new sun rises. Who am I?

After doing this spread it dawned on me that the initiates may have been weaving their own white robes of ascension.
Love Julie
©2008 Julie Cuccia-Watts

From the twins to the mother and child...

2007-12-27T09:58:00.000-08:00

There have been a number of really interesting articles regarding the Winter Solstice this year.

Dreaming the New Vision

http://www.lilithsophia.com/events/winter.htm

and

The Winter Solstice: The Backbone of World Religious Celebrations
Saqqara Aleister

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=44601

The Article below with all new information I found it to be very thought provoking...

Italian expert links first Christmas celebration to pagan shrine in Rome

The Associated Press
Saturday, December 22, 2007

ROME: A recently discovered pagan shrine dedicated to Rome's legendary founder Romulus and his brother Remus is being linked by a scholar to the first celebration of Christmas held on the date that still marks the festivity today.

Last month Italian archaeologists unveiled an underground grotto which they believe ancient Romans worshipped as the place where a wolf nursed the legendary twins.

Now, a top Italian scholar says that because of that shrine, 4th century Emperor Constantine chose the site to build the church where Christmas was first marked on Dec. 25. The choice was part of efforts in the early days of Christianity to link pagan practices to Christian celebrations.

"This is very probably the church where the first Christmas was celebrated," Andrea Carandini, a professor of archaeology at Rome's La Sapienza University, told reporters Friday. "Now we know why."

Carandini said while it was known among scholars that the first Christmas service was held at the Basilica of St. Anastasia, it was not known that the grotto of Romulus and Remus — the "Lupercale" — was possibly so close.

The discovery helps explain the transition from paganism to Christianity, scholars said.

"The church was built to christianize these pagan places of worship," Carandini said. "It was normal to put a church near these places to try to 'save' them."

Rome's archaeological superintendent Angelo Bottini, who did not take part in the research, said Carandini's hypothesis was "evocative and coherent" and "helps us understand the mechanisms of the passage from paganism to Christianity."

Bottini and Carandini both said future digs would be able to prove the link between the shrine and the church if structures belonging to the "Lupercale" were found directly below the basilica.

The Basilica St. Anastasia was the first church to rise not on the ancient city's outskirts, but on the Palatine Hill, the palatial center of power and religion in imperial Rome, Carandini said. Though little known today, at the time of Constantine it was one of the most important basilicas for Christians in Rome, he said.

Constantine, who ended the frequent waves of anti-Christian persecutions in the Roman empire by making Christianity a lawful religion in 313, played a key role in unifying the beliefs and practices of the early followers of Jesus.

In one defining moment, he presided over the Council of Nicaea in 325, which among other things homogenized the dates of important Christian festivals. The council opted to mark Christmas, at that point celebrated at different dates throughout Christianity, on Dec. 25 to coincide with the Roman festival celebrating the birth of the sun god, Carandini said.

Sometime after the council, St. Anastasia was built on the Palatine, possibly as early as 326, Carandini said.

The "Lupercale" shrine — named after the "lupa," Latin for she-wolf — is buried 16 meters (52 feet) underground. So far archaeologists have only been able to see it by inserting probes and cameras that have revealed a vaulted ceiling decorated with colored marble and a white imperial eagle.

Though some experts have expressed doubts on the identification of the "Lupercale," most archaeologists believe the shrine fits the descriptions found in ancient texts, and plans are being drawn up to excavate the structure further.

Green Smoothie Nation

2007-10-23T05:24:00.001-07:00

There has been a bit of banter in the past couple months between a few of us tarot artists, authors and friends about the benefits of the Green Smoothie. Yes I am now an addict. Big Grin! It started with Joanna Powell Colbert and it has become a wild fire changing everyone who has tried it. 60% fruit 40% green leafy vegetable blended with cold water and consumed in the morning for an amazing blast of energy that will last for the whole day. Who would have thought eating whole foods could feel this good?
Of course this makes sense when you really think about it. But we come from a generation that has been programed to believe what we are told by the advertisers bent on selling us "great"things. Now as we baby boomers are beginning to age it starts to come to our attention that maybe all that 'cool' food isn't really that good for us.
Here's an article from http://www.hemuz.org/Health/Very-interesting-facts-on-MSG
on MSG that is both startling and informative.
As a mother who has a child who is allergic to dyes like red 40 in his food it has made me a label reader for a long time now. MSG and high fructose corn syrup is also on my "poison" food list. This article on MSG is so good I thought I would pass it on.

MSG Hides Behind 25+ Names, Such As 'Natural Flavoring.'

MSG Is Also In Your Favorite Coffee Shops And Drive-Ups (9-12-5 ).

I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic, so did a friend of mine, John Erb.

He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada and spent years working for the government.

He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called "The Slow Poisoning of America ".

In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies. No strain of rat or mice are naturally obese, so the scientists have to create them. They make these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with MSG when they are first born. The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates; causing rats (and humans?) to become obese. They even have a title for the fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats".

I was shocked too. I went to my kitchen, checking the cupboards and the fridge. MSG was in everything: The Campbell's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavored potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the 'healthy low fat' ones.

The items that didn't have MSG marked on the product label had something called ''Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein'', which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate.

It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff. They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who carefully read the ingredient list, so they don't catch on. (Other names for MSG: 'Accent', 'Aginomoto', 'Natural Meat Tenderizer', etc) But it didn't stop there. When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the restaurants what menu items had MSG.

Many employees, even the managers, swore they didn't use MSG. But when we ask for the ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided, sure enough MSG and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were everywhere:

Burger King McDonalds Wendy's Taco Bell

And every restaurant like: TIFF, Chili's, Applebee's and Denny's use MSG in abundance.

Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG was in EVERY chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. No wonder I loved to eat that coating on the skin, their secret spice was MSG.

So, why is MSG in so may of the foods we eat?

Is it a preservative or a vitamin?? Not according to my friend John. In the book he wrote, an expose of the food additive industry called "The Slow Poisoning of America " he said that MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it has on the human body. http://www.spofamerica.com

Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby group supporting MSG at: http://www.msgfactscom/facts/msgfact12.html explains that the reason they add it to food is to make people EAT MORE OF THEIR PRODUCTS.

A study of the elderly showed that people eat more of the foods when MSG is added. The Glutamate Association lobby group says eating more benefits the elderly, but what does it do to the rest of us? 'Betcha can't eat just one', takes on a whole new meaning where MSG is concerned! And we wonder why the nation is overweight?

The MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to their products. It makes people choose their product over others, and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't added.

Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance! Since its introduction into the American food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to the pre-packaged meals, soups, snacks and fast foods we are tempted to eat everyday. The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food. They claim it's safe to eat in any amount. How can they claim it safe when there are hundreds of scientific studies with titles like these?

'The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the study of exercise in obesity'. GobattoCA, Mello MA, Souza CT , Ribeiro IA.Res Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002.

'Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic serotonin release in both normal and monosodium glutamate-obese rats'. Guimaraes RB, Telles MM, Coelho VB, Mori C, Nascimento CM, Ribeiro Brain Res Bull. 2002 Aug.

'Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment in spontaneously hypertensive rats: an animal model of multiple risk factors'. Iwase M, Yamamoto M, Iino K, IchikawaK, Shinohara N, Yoshinari Fujishima Hypertens Res. 1998 Mar.

'Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of monosodium glutamate in suckling period and subsequent development of obesity'. Tanaka K, Shimada M, Nakao K, Kusunoki Exp Neurol. 1978 Oct.

Yes, that last study was not a typo, it WAS written in 1978. Both the "medical research community" and "food manufacturers" have known about MSG's side effects for decades! Many more studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to Diabetes, Migraines and headaches, Autism, ADHD and even Alzheimer's. But what can we do to stop the food manufactures from dumping fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the obesity epidemic we now see?

Even as you read this, G. W. Bush and his corporate supporters are pushing a Bill through Congress called the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" also known as the "Cheeseburger Bill", this sweeping law bans anyone from suing food manufacturers, sellers and distributors. Even if it comes out that they purposely added an addictive chemical to their foods. Read about it for yourself at: http://www.yahoo.com. The Bill has already been rushed through the House of Representatives, and is due for the same rubber stamp at Senate level. It is important that Bush and his corporate supporters get it through before the media lets everyone know about 'MSG, the intentional Nicotine for food'.

Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to one of the highest government health officials in Canada. While sitting in the Government office, the official told him "Sure, I know how bad MSG is, I wouldn't touch the stuff." But this top-level government official refused to tell the public what he knew.

The big media doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing legal issues with their advertisers. It seems that the fallout on fast food industry may hurt their profit margin. The food producers and restaurants have been addicting us to their products for years, and now we are paying the price for it. Our children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive food additive. But what can I do about it? I'm just one voice.

What can I do to stop the poisoning of our children, while our governments are insuring financial protection for the industry that is poisoning us.

This e-mail is going out to everyone I know in an attempt to tell you the truth that the corporate owned politicians and media won't tell you. The best way you can help to save yourself and your children from this drug-induced epidemic, is to forward this email to everyone. With any luck, it will circle the globe before politicians can pass the legislation protecting those who are poisoning us. The food industry learned a lot from the tobacco industry. Imagine if big tobacco had a bill like this in place before someone blew the whistle on Nicotine?

If you are one of the few who can still believe that MSG is good for us, and you don't believe what John Erb has to say, see for yourself. Go to the National Library of Medicine, at http://www.pubmed.com. Type in the words "MSG Obese" and read a few of the 115 medical studies that appear.

We the public, do not want to be rats in one giant experiment and we do not approve of food that makes us into a nation of obese, lethargic, addicted sheep, feeding the food industry's bottom line, while waiting for the heart transplant, diabetic induced amputation, blindness or other obesity induced, life threatening disorders. With your help we can put an end to this poison. Do your part in sending this message out by word of mouth, e-mail or by distribution of this print out to all your friends all over the world and stop this 'Slow Poisoning of Mankind' by the packaged food industry.

Blowing the whistle on MSG is our responsibility, get the word out.

Now that it has become vogue again to eat organic and eat locally maybe we will see a shift in our health as a nation. This could also shift our priorities and get us all back in the mode of making and even growing our own food. I feel personally there is nothing chic and glamorous about not knowing how to cook. This is not only basic to human survival it fulfills something primal in our psyche.
Julie

Soggy but not damaged!!

2007-08-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all the people who phoned or emailed to see if
we were okay here in Watertown. These shots show that we are just fine. The river is high the ground is soggy, the basement is wet, but we have suffered no damage here at all. The folks in Wisconsin closer to the Mississippi River in La Crosse and Vernon counties and to Lake Michigan in Kenosha county are not fairing as well.

Julie & Peter

First Harvest Recipes

2007-08-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

We have now entered the time of the year when the summer garden is coming in strong.
Around here it can even be a bit overwhelming. Here are some fast and easy ways to save the harvest and you won't have to spend hours in a hot kitchen boiling jars.
-------
Quick and easy no boil tomatoes.
Here is the best way I have found to save my garden tomatoes. When it's 90+° the last thing a person feels like doing is making tomato sauce. So here is my solution. Things you will need;
tomatoes
gallon freezer bags,
sharp knife.
Simply cut the green core out of your fresh tomatoes toss them into the freezer bags and suck the air out of the bag and freeze. You don't have to blanch tomatoes to take the skin off the skins will fall off all by themselves when they thaw out. Add to your favorite recipes all winter. I can process a large bushel of tomatoes in about 30 minutes.
-------
Fast and easy Refrigerator Pickle Recipe

This recipe is great for cucumbers, hot peppers, green beans, asparagus and brussel sprouts.

Pack your clean quart jars with 6 heads of fresh dill and 6 or more cloves of fresh garlic cut in half pack your clean produce tightly into mason jars.

Bring to a boil in a non reactive pot( glass, enamel or stainless steel-non aluminum)
12c. water
4c. vinegar
1c. kosher( or canning) salt

After this mixture comes to a rolling boil remove from heat and add 1t.(teaspoon) Alum. Stir
Pour hot liquid into your filled jars until it covers all your vegetables and comes up to 1/2 inch from the top. Seal and let cool. After the jars are cooled
place into the fridge after 3 days your pickles are ready. Your pickles will last until they are eaten.

-------
Garden Fresh Salsa
3 to 4 good sized tomatoes
1 onion
1 green pepper
1-2 jalapeno peppers (depending on the heat you want)
juice of 1 lemon and 1 lime
fresh cilantro (to taste)
1-2 cloves of minced fresh garlic
(a little organic sugar if you want a sweeter taste)

Eat immediately with your favorite corn chips or save in freezer containers
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Fresh Pesto
2c.packed fresh basil leaves
1/4c. pine nuts(or walnuts or macadamia nuts)
1/4c. parmesan cheese
1/4 -1/2c. virgin olive oil
6 cloves of garlic

Place all ingredients one by one into a blender or food processor(better choice) until it forms a paste place in a mason jar and freeze or use right away. Great on bread, pasta and pizza as a sauce substitute.
--------

Class of '77

2007-08-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to have gone to my 30-year class reunion this past weekend and had the best time. Funny how 30 years can melt away when you get together with people you grew up with. Looking back I remember how pretentious we all were at the 10 year looking to see who had become "successful". Everyone boasting of homes, careers, spouses, children being proud they were not still "townies". (people who never moved away from our small Midwest town) However even at the 10 year I had my first sense of the reality of time. Thinking 10 years ago I was in high school and 10 years from now I could be a grandmother. Suddenly and for the first time life seemed short because high school didn't seem like such a very long time ago.

I didn't go to the 15 year it was 4 weeks after my daughter had been born and felt like a cow at 33 my body just wasn't springing back like I thought it should and I didn't want to go back looking like I was 5 months pregnant. My ego and vanity kept me from going that year.

By the 20-year we were all just very happy to see each other and we noticed that some classmates had really changed really aged it was shocking. We were all a lot more relaxed about our successes although some just couldn't resist flashing the cash. At the 20 we did have one or two grandmothers in the bunch. Mostly the ones who had started motherhood early and some who had step grandchildren from new husbands.

I think the 30-year reunion was our best reunion ever. My spouse did not want to come with me and this year I didn't mind, I think I would have been horrified to go without him 10, 15 or even 20 years ago, but this year it was just what I needed. Many of my old friends were there by themselves as well. Now it is my opinion that no spouse should ever be dragged to a class reunion unless they are also from that class. How often do we get a chance to step back in time and be a teenager again? I was surprised by emotional response to the gathering of these friends and how much love still existed between our core group of classmates. How we were able to just pick up where we left off and joke and kid around as if no time had passed. And even sing karaoke you can not have any ego to get up and do that. We stayed up too late and we got up too early making the 2-day event into a 3-day marathon of fun. I don't think we really knew how much we missed each other.

When you grow up in a small town like I did you have the same small class in grade school. 33 kids in a classroom everyday for 6 years can get pretty close maybe even closer than siblings, the junior high just added more kids to that core group and the bonds just expanded. High School was the same thing one junior high one high school the same kids every year. I don't think we realized what we had then but I think we do now.

I don't think everyone gets this especially today when families tend to move every 3 years on average. Making what my class had even more profoundly special. It seems sad now when I think about how abruptly life just dispersed us into the world and we all leapt out of the safety of the group into the world, striving and gaining never looking back. Last weekend I think we discovered how important friendships are especially the earliest ones. Who knows you better than the people who shared your secrets when you were 12? We need no ID checks on these folks. Here’s to the graduating class of ’77 at WHS.

New Goddess Oracle by Kris Waldherr

2007-07-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

Marissa Pederson at Llewellyn recently asked me if I would have a
look at the new Goddess Inspiration Oracle By Kris Waldherr due
out this September. If you remember Kris did the Goddess Tarot
which was based on her previous work The Book of Goddesses.
I was delighted to have a sneak peek. Today the box from Llewellyn
arrived and I was excited to jump right in and have a look. The
deck comes in a very nice little box with the book and it's own
golden organza drawstring bag for the cards. The little soft cover
book fits neatly inside the box it all seems very much like something
that could be taken along in a purse.

One may wonder why a deck creator would be interesting in reviewing
someone else's deck. I wouldn't exactly call myself a deck collector
either but I am curious about other people's work and I find there is
always something new to learn. Kris's new deck did not disappoint me
it was full of goddesses that I recognized but it also had goddesses
I had not even heard of too. The Goddess Inspiration Oracle is very
multicultural which I always like and it was also something very user
friendly. It is perfect for a one card pull. This deck is something
that I would use as there are times when I don't want to use my own
decks especially for my own personal readings, cuz let's face it using
my own deck can get to be, just too much "me"sometimes.

I think even though there are some cards that have grown up themes I
would still highly recommend this deck for teens. My daughter just
turned 15 and I think she would enjoy the 'girl power' energy of
this all goddess oracle with the meanings printed right on the card.
I found the Goddess Inspiration Oracle to be both educational and
inspirational.

People who like a deck that is a traditional deck size will
appreciate this approximately 2.5"x4.5"shuffling size. The
card stock is strong but flexible. However people who like borderless
wordless cards will not appreciate this deck. But then when you are
in the card business you can never please everyone.

I give the Goddess Inspiration Oracle a thumbs up for content,
multicultural,the feminine divine and art.

Julie Cuccia-Watts

Tarot Journaling

2007-07-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

Now that the Wisconsin Area Tri-state Tarot Symposium is over I finally have some time to get back to my life.
At the conference Corrine gave me a copy of her book Tarot Journaling. Friday no one was home so I decided to start reading this new book. I didn't get past the first chapter before I already started having thoughts regarding my own MAAT Tarot that I hadn't thought of before and felt compelled to start recording them. I rarely keep a journal though I had purchased a beautiful blank book thinking it would inspire me to write.
This is what I found inspiring in Corrine's book, Corrine writes; "The Major Arcana 'Cosmic Forces' ..."and my mind thinks straight away to the Maat Tarot majors.
Corrine-"The Major Arcana which is Latin for the Greater Secrets"...the greater secrets are the big mysteries of Life."
Her words make me think of the 12 cards from the majors that I used for the 12 lunar cycles. My mind starts to wonder comparing
the cardinal, fixed and mutable cards. And my Tarot Journaling begins.

The zodiac signs are divided into three categories with all 4 elements represented in each, there are 4 signs which are cardinal 4 fixed signs and 4 mutable signs. The 4 cardinal signs begin the season, the 4 fixed signs are always in the middle of the season where the season is in full swing without any traits from the season before and the mutable signs bring closure to the season. Both Cardinal and Mutable signs can have traits that more blended. For example the end of the season can have characteristics from the season to come. And the beginning of a season can have characteristics from the season before.

For some reason I began thinking about the Fixed cards first all these cards had strong fixed symbolism;

Death(full moon in Taurus) What could be more fixed than Death? You go to the doorway and if you really die you don't walk back in the same person, even if you are revived. Judgment(cross quarter day Samhain/Halloween) the day when the veil between the two worlds in thinnest.

The Empress(full moon in Scorpio) The mother, once you are pregnant even if you don't go to term you are changed and cannot go back you are always a mother. The Lovers (cross quarter day Beltaine ) a holiday of fertility and no rules when it was traditional to partner with your choice of lover without consequence.

The Chariot (full moon in Leo) the two wheels of the chariot the sun and the moon always traveling in a forward motion and never in retrograde. The Wheel of Fortune(cross quarter day Candlemas/ Oimelc Imbolc) the day lambs are born and the first milk of ewes is available.

The Star (full moon in Aquarius) the symbol whose disappearance signals the flood of the Nile each year. The star known as the dog star that always follows Orion, loyal and unwavering. The Hanged One( Lammas/Lughnasad) first harvest (grain).

The Cardinal cards whose zodiac signs always begin the season.

The Emperor(full moon cycle of Aries) and the Tower( autumnal equinox) begins autumn- The Leader

The Magician(full moon cycle of Cancer) and the Devil(winter solstice) begins winter- All forms of magic that which is viewed and that which is hidden

Justice(full moon cycle of Libra) and the Fool(vernal equinox) begins spring- The Law

The Hermit(full moon cycle of Capricorn) and the Sun(summer solstice) begins summer- The Sun in the sky the begins each day

The Mutable cards whose zodiac sign always brings closure to a season contain no cross quarter days

Strength(full moon cycle of Gemini)- the end of fall and the end of the last days of increasing darkness. merges into the Devil and the Magician

The High Priestess (full moon in Virgo) the last month of winter merges into the Fool and Justice

The High Priest (full moon in Sagittarius) the last month of spring merges into the Sun and the Hermit

Temperance(full moon in Pisces)the last month of summer merges into The Tower and The Emperor

---------------------------------

Mummy of Hatshepsut Found!

2007-06-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

Mummy Of Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut Found!

Science – It's being called the most important discovery in the Valley of the Kings since King Tutankhamun. Today Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt,announced the Identification of Hatshepsut's mummy.

How synchronistic and cool is that?
Julie

The WATTS conference is coming up very soon

2007-06-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

create & buy custom products at Zazzle
ARE you ready?

On Beltane...

2007-05-10T06:10:00.000-07:00

Beltane
By Heather Shaw

Spring is here! For many of us, this means a relief from the cold, dark days and snows of winter. As the days lengthen and get warmer, we are greeted by the rebirth of the earth itself: bulbs come up and bloom, filling the air with their heady, tempting fragrance; birds chirp and sing as they return from their winter migrations to build their nests; cats yowl out their urgent readiness for motherhood. All around us are symbols of fertility, growth, warmth and light. It is the perfect time to throw a May Day party or Beltane Festival, to celebrate the end of winter hibernation and to reconnect with your friends and loved ones.

Historic Beltane

Beltane is an old Celtic Fire Ritual which celebrates, at the most fundamental level, the end of winter and the beginning of the warmer, lighter half of the year. It is the counterpart to Samhain, which marks the Pagan New Year and celebrates ancestors and the death of the crops (harvest). Beltane celebrates life. For the Celts, it was a festival that insured fertility and growth.

Beltane is one of the four major Sabbats in the Celtic tradition, the other three being Lammas, Samhain and Imbolc. Beltane's traditional date, May 1st, was chosen as the midway point between the vernal equinox and summer solstice (two of the four minor Sabbats). Due to the change in the earth's axis of rotation over time, this point is now closer to May 5th, and some pagans observe May 5th as "Old Beltane," but the traditional date is still favored.

Beltane, much like Samhain, has changed over the years. Some traditions existed only in a single village, while others were found throughout the culture. It is believed that Beltane is a Celtic reinvention of an even older Roman festival, Floralia, which celebrated the goddess Flora and the flowering of spring. Most major religions have a holiday that marks the coming of spring. The Christian religion celebrates rebirth (or resurrection) on Easter; Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, chicks, and lilies are all pagan symbols of fertility associated with spring, adapted to the Christian tradition. The Hindu religion celebrates Holi, a carnival-like spring festival, dedicated to Krishna or Kama, the God of Pleasure. This festival resembles Beltane, with bonfires being a main focus of the holiday.

A maiden gathers wood
for the Beltane fire.

Traditionally, Beltane festivities began days before May 1st or "May Day," when villagers traveled into the woods to gather the nine sacred woods needed to build the Beltane bonfires. The tradition of "May Boughing" or "May Birching" involved young men fastening garlands of greens and flowers on the windows and doors of their prospective ladyloves before the fires are lit Beltane night. As with many Celtic customs, the type of flowers or branches used carried symbolic meaning, and much negotiating and courting could be worked out ahead of time.

Many communities elected a virgin as their "May Queen" to lead marches or songs. To the Celts, she represented the virgin goddess on the eve of her transition from Maiden to Mother. Depending on the time and place, the consort might be named "Jack-in-the-Green" or "Green Man," "May Groom" or "May King." The union of the Queen and her consort symbolized the fertility and rebirth of the world.

The tradition of choosing a symbolic goddess and god as official participants in the Beltane ritual captured Marion Zimmer Bradley's imagination in her novel The Mists of Avalon. In Bradley's retelling of the King Arthur legend, the Beltane celebration is a sacred ritual involving a high-ranking male and female virgin to represent the God and Goddess. The god in this case is called the "King Stag"; he must run through the woods with a pack of deer, followed by his own huntsmen, and only after he has successfully locked antlers with and killed a stag that he can return to the festival and claim his right as consort to the Goddess. Other couples also celebrate in this way, but it is only these two who become the God and Goddess incarnate.

Because the Celtic day started and ended at sundown, the Beltane celebration would begin at sundown on April 30th. After extinguishing all hearth fires in the village, two Beltane fires were lit on hilltops. The villagers would drive their livestock between the fires three times, to cleanse them and insure their fertility in the coming summer, and then put them to summer pasture. Then the human part of the fertility ritual would begin.

As dancing around the bonfires continued through the night, customary standards of social behavior were relaxed. It was expected that young couples would sneak off into a ditch, the woods or, better yet, a recently plowed field for a little testing of the fertility waters. Even after hand-fasting was replaced by the Christian tradition of monogamous marriage, the Beltane ritual continued with a new tradition: all marriage vows were temporarily suspended for the festival of Beltane. Many a priest would lament the number of virgins despoiled on this one night, but the tradition persevered. Babies born from a Beltane union were thought to be blessed by the Goddess herself.

Another use of the Beltane fires was for a purification ritual using a scapegoat or Fool. Special cakes made out of egg, milk and oatmeal, called bannocks, were passed around in a bonnet. One piece of bannock was charred, and whoever chose this piece was the Fool for that year's Beltane; it was believed that any misfortune would fall on the Fool, sparing the rest of the people. It is now generally believed to be a myth that the Fool was ever burned as a human sacrifice; this seems to have stemmed from Christian priests and their attempts to condemn Beltane festivities. Later customs called for the Fool to leap three times through the Beltane fire, and according to earlier customs the Fool was banned from all Beltane activity.

Beltane, like Samhain, is a time when the veil between the worlds is thought to be thin, a time when magic is possible. Whereas Samhain revelers must look out for wandering souls of the dead, Beltane merrymakers must watch for Fairies. Beltane is the night when the queen of the fairies will ride out on her white steed to entice humans away to Faeryland. If you hear the bells of the Fairy Queen's horse, you are advised to look away, so she will pass you by; look at the Queen and your sense alone will not hold you back! Bannocks were also sometimes left for the Fairies, in hopes of winning their favor on this night.

The maypole, which was either a permanent feature or cut in a ceremony during the gathering of the nine sacred woods, was a symbolic union of the God and Goddess. The maypole itself represented the male, a phallus thrust into mother earth, while the ribbons that were wound around it represent the enveloping nature of the woman and her womb. The maypole was usually danced after sunrise, when disheveled men and women would stagger back into town carrying flowers they picked in the forests or fields. The area around the maypole was decorated with the flowers, and then the winding of the ribbons would begin. Sometimes the flowers were put into baskets and left on the doorsteps of people who were too ill or old to attend the Beltane celebrations. In this way, the entire town could participate in the joys of the coming spring.

Beltane Today

Neopagans already are well familiar with Beltane and its accompanying rituals. Some pagan groups have land on which they can host huge Beltane fires, with all-night dancing and frolicking outdoors. A quick look at the current events on Witches Voice around April or May will show many Beltane celebrations throughout the country. Among the offerings this year are Beltaine 2001: A Pagan Odyssey in Oxford, CT; the Mid-Atlantic Beltane Festival in Stanardsville, VA; Edinburgh Beltane in Edinburgh, Scotland; and FPG -- The Rites Of Spring (St. Petersburg, FL). All of these festivals includes a bonfire and a maypole. Most of them are multi-day events, with camping and workshops and general merriment and fun. The outdoor setting of these events makes nature and her flowering in springtime a more central focus to the May Day celebration.

Beltane Morn: Heather and
Holly Shaw in Thunder Dome at
Lothlorien in Needmore, Indiana

One such festival I attended several years ago at Lothlorien in Southern Indiana began with the rattle of chainsaws several days in advance, as the fire-tender prepared his surprises. Many of us were annoyed by this disruption in the lovely woods that covered the land on which we were camped. It was too modern, too technological for our tastes.

When we saw the reason for the chainsaws, most of us forgave the noise. The festival began with the usual smudging at the door of the dome (where each participant is circled by a burning sage stick to cleanse them before they enter the ritual space). On one side of the fire pit was a wide log with a yoni cut out of its middle; the other side held a delicately carved phallus. The fire was struck from flint, and once the kindling had caught more yoni-shaped logs were brought in. We danced around the fire as yoni was stacked upon yoni. Soon a long, narrow piece of wood was brought in, and when it was thrust into the stack of yonis, our dancing reached a fevered pitch. The night went on like this, stack and thrust, and the fire became huge, with towers and castles created out of burning embers. Some chemicals were thrown on the fire, and different colors would streak up from the flames, hovering near the top of the dome. We danced (with some sneaking off to use their own yonis and phalluses) until dawn. As the sun came up, the fire tender picked up the finely carved phallus and lit the spinning firework on the tip. The fire tender held the phallus to his hips as sparks flew off of it and the drums pounded out an irresistible rhythm. As the sparks died down he thrust the carving into the yoni on the fire. Daylight broke over the dome, and the dancers collapsed in spent heaps around the dome, cuddling together for warmth in the morning dew.

Speaking of morning dew, it is traditional to wash your face in the dew of Beltane morning. It is thought that it brings health and luck, and, in the case of young women, guarantees against fading beauty.

Celebrating Beltane

Maypole dancing at
Mary Anne Mohanraj's house
in Oakland, California.

You don't have to be a Neopagan or have large acres of land to frolic in to celebrate Beltane. In fact, you may have already been a part of a Beltane celebration if you've ever attended a May Day party. Throwing your own Beltane or May Day party is a great way to celebrate the coming spring. These days, a celebration of fertility does not necessarily mean your goals are human reproduction. Perhaps you have a garden that you would like to grow well this season; if you have a private enough yard (and a lover), making love in the garden is a way of honoring and insuring the fertility of the seeds you have planted. Make a wreath of flowers or fragrant herbs -- rosemary is a nice smelling one that tends to grow in abundance -- and weave a wreath for someone you'd like to know better. Or maybe there are projects you'd like to complete, goals you need to reach for, dreams you'd like to see realized. All of these things can benefit from the Beltane celebration of growth and fertility.

Any Beltane party should have as many flowers as you can afford. If you have a garden, or a deck or porch with container gardens, you should include this as part of the party space and make sure you've planted your spring flowers in time for May 1st. Six-packs of spring flowers at your local garden store should run you no more than several dollars (and often less than two), and can add color and life to your Beltane atmosphere. You can even freeze flowers in the ice cubes for your punch. Edible flowers can add a fairy-like feel to your food table at a Beltane party. This site not only lists the types and tastes of edible flowers, but includes a delicious-sounding recipe for a Day-Lily Sorbet.

Any fruit is appropriate for a Beltane spread, especially cherries, figs, mangos, peaches, pomegranates, and apricots, which have all been long associated with sensuality and/or fertility. Spring greens are another healthy way to imply fertility and celebrate springtime. Chocolate and other sweets are always a good means of tempting your guests at any Beltane party.

Temple of Nine Wells-ATC's Maypole
at Derby Wharf, Salem Massachusetts
Dancing a maypole is the most traditional way of celebrating May Day. Go to your local hardware store and buy a 20-foot wood pole (more rural folk can cut it themselves, but be sure to take a moment to honor the tree that gives the sacrifice). Ask your guests to bring their own ribbons, 20 feet in length and about two inches wide, in any color (and be sure to have several extras on hand anyway). At the party, tie all the ribbons to the top of the pole (you may want to buy an eye hook to make this easier) and plant the other end of the pole several feet into the ground. Have everyone form a circle, and count off in twos; have the "ones" face clockwise and the "twos" face counterclockwise. Have everyone grasp their partner's right hand, then pass them by on the right. Now, grasp left hands and pass by on the left. Then right, then left, and so on. Once you've made it once around the circle, pick up your ribbons and begin again, this time weaving your ribbons as you go.

You'll want to have music once you start the actual weaving of the maypole. If you have talented friends who don't mind sitting out the maypole dancing itself (and certainly that's an option, especially if you're superstitious about pregnancy at this time of year), live music is the nicest way to go. This website has some songs that might be appropriate. Singing is good, too; if you choose to sing, you might want to consider sending out lyrics with the invitations, and sing the tune to your friends over the phone. This might be a good way to find out how much you can count on singing to carry the music 'round the maypole, too.

Even if you don't have live music, the technological age makes sure nobody has to sing or miss out in order to have some music. A CD or tape of any Celtic music will do, but I also suggest searching out bands with specific May songs. You can sing along, or just listen and enjoy as you skip around the maypole. "Welcome in the May," by Annwn, is a fun, bouncy song that would be appropriate. It describes a typical old Beltane night:

We were there last night when the dark drew down:
we set the bonfires leaping.
Then we vanished in the heather
and we couldn't be found until the dawn came creeping.

Seduction in the meadows;
"The Hireling Shepherd" by William Holman Hunt.
If you have the space and the zoning, have a Beltane fire after sundown. It should be lit from flint or friction, but matches can count as friction too. Again, drumming or singing around the Beltane fire is a traditional way to celebrate Beltane. Go around and talk about things in your life that you want to have grow in the following season. It might be your life's dream of becoming a painter, or your physical activity, or your relationship with a loved one. It might even be a baby you're trying to have; there's no better time than Beltane to ask the gods for fertility!

Later, if people sneak off, make sure that the fire is not left unattended. If this is likely to happen at your party, you may think about researching different ways to handle that kind of party. Or, perhaps, you can wait until after the party, when you can frolic naked with your loved one(s) in private. This is certainly my favorite, and probably the most appropriate, way to end Beltane. And you may find, with the leaping fire and the well-wrapped maypole urging you on, it is inevitable; as the Annwn chorus goes:

Did it get a little warm around the fire last night?
Were the flames a little higher than they had the right?
Was your breath a little heavy and your dress a little tight
and the moon too bright for sleeping?

Heather Shaw is the Bookstore Manager for Strange Horizons.

Bashing 'The SECRET'

2007-04-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

Maintaining my blog has been a difficult task. I write about my cards on Aeclectic Tarot and Meet-up but when it comes to my blog I run out of commentary. So I decided I would think about what I admire about other people's blogs. The ones I find interesting like Corrine Kenner's blog. What I like about Corrine's blog though it has a theme of tarot current events it also has unexpected commentary that I find useful. I noticed she will write how she feels about things that come up with humor and candor.

In light of topics for blog commentary I have heard much discussion on the new best selling book The Secret. Having just returned from the Reader's Studio in New York where I noticed The Secret coming up in conversation through out the weekend. When you go to events like tarot conferences you will hear discussion on issues of metaphysics and spirituality. Tarot is part of the trapping of the New Age movement, which I feel represents the movement toward embracing our spiritual selves, acknowledgment of our Oneness with the Universe and each other. Though I find there is a "dark side" to all the LOVE and LIGHT to the point where it gets impractical and unrealistic.

To me The Secret has that over the edge hollow vibe. I saw What the Bleep when it first came out and now there is a sequel The Secret. I enjoyed the connections What the Bleep made in regard to physics and metaphysics even though it had such shallow examples of the idea. I guess I have always had trouble with anyone channeling "named entities from other planets" who can make my life instantly better just because of some awareness or wisdom they can impart. And then there is the white middle class "creating their reality" folks I have trouble with that reality as well. I get into heated debates with these people all the time on this subject. Due to the fact that most people who adhere to this mentality are people who can afford to create their reality. I don't like it when I hear them equate worldly success with their own spiritual evolution. As if by virtue of their own spiritual success they have created their wealth and good fortune. In other words if you life sucks and you are suffering it is simply your own fault. Born poor? it's was you choice. Sorry but I don't think it is that simple. In my opinion some folks are just standing in the path of other people folks "creating their reality "and then they end up having a life that sucks.

Though I feel we all have free will and can make our own choices sometimes the randomness of the cards life hands us can be pretty big and overwhelming at times. I find The Secret to be the over simplification of the old idea that Words are Magic. As if words and thoughts can make things manifest the old "God said let there be light and there was Light mindset". If thoughts and words were as The Secret would have us believe then Iraq would be at peace and Global Warming would be well on its way to being resolved. Words and thoughts can get the ball rolling but actions carried out in toil and sweat are what make the real changes. It is the opposable thumb that made us not our index finger or spontanious generation.

The thing that triggered this blog entry was a review I read in the May issue of The Progressive by Barbara Ehrenriech. In her review she writes: "...check out the credentials of the "teachers" enlisted in The Secret. Most are well-known motivational speakers who claim to instruct such business heavy weights as financial advisers, developers, and a "master marketeer." One of The Secrets' teachers Denis Waitley, includes on his website testimonials from Merrill Lynch, WorldCom, 3M, Dell, and IBM, among others.... When the leaders of a major economy lapse into mysticism and come to believe they can accomplish things through their mental vibrations, without lifting a finger, then it is time to start thinking about going into subsistence farming on a remote compound in Idaho."

Perhaps this kind of thinking is why Louisiana is still in the state it is in?

This also makes me think about what Michael Moore said about big corporations wanting us to believe if we all work really hard we can all get rich. This mind set created the American Dream work ethic of the 20th century. The truth is the system is set up in a way that All of us can never get rich no matter how hard we work. Today in our modern two income house holds where everyone is spread too thin most of us work many more hours than our parents did. Yet our parents and grandparent who worked 40 hours a week and lived on one income factory jobs were able to pay off homes while their children were still children. Is The Secret just the same old guilt in a new guise backed by the same old karma chameleons who need to control the masses to keep their power?

I don't know I'm just asking...

Justice

2007-04-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

Justice
Full moon Cycle of Libra (March 21-April 19)

The full moon cycle of Libra is the first full moon cycle after the Vernal Equinox. The full moon signals the week of Passover for Jews and the first Sunday after this full moon is Easter for the Christians.

For Wiccans and pagans, Ostara/Eostar- the Vernal Equinox signals the rebirth of the earth just as the Winter Solstice signals the rebirth of the sun. During this the time of earth rebirth when the increasing sunlight has awakened the earth, trees begin to show buds, flowers begin to emerge from the dormant ground of winter. The name for the Christian holy day known as Easter has its roots in the pagan holiday Eostar. Eostar the spring equinox was named after the Germanic goddess Ostara, Eostre or Eostar. Eostar's sacred animal is the hare. The hare is associated with fertility and magic. The goddess Eostar whose name means the dawn is also similar to the goddess Ishtar, Babylonian goddess of morning and evening star.

Even today the modern Easter bunny that hides eggs shows the lingering remnants of the goddess Eostar. The egg and the rabbit or hare symbolize the mystery of life that returns from a seemingly dead earth.

The tomb, which becomes the womb, is symbolized by archeological evidence of tombs found throughout ancient Europe in the shape of goddesses. See Habitations of the Great Goddess by Cristina Briaggi published by Knowledge Ideas and Trends Inc. Manchester CT.1994. The idea of shaping a tomb like a woman gives rise to the ancient idea of Earth as mother and the dead being reborn like plant life that reemerges from the dead winter ground in the spring. Life rising from death. Like the egg with emerging chick that symbolizes life rising from a small rock like object.

The symbol of the scales in the zodiac sign of Libra is found in the ancient Egyptian stories of the judgment of souls. In these stories it is Maat the Goddess of Truth and Justice who weighs men's souls against a feather before they can pass on into the next world.

The great hall where the Judgment takes place is called The Hall of the Two Truths. At one end of the hall sits green skinned Osiris, behind him are his wife Isis to his right and Nepthyus to his left with their arms around his shoulders. Before him perched on a lotus stand the four sons of Horus; Mesta (guardian of the liver), Hapy (guardian of the lungs), Tuamutef (guardian of the stomach), and Qebehsenuf (guardian of the intestines).(the 4 elements sit respectively Along the sides of the wall each on separate thrones, are; sun-god Ra/Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut lady of the sky, Horus, Hathor lady of the West, Hu and Saa.

A great Balance stands in the center of the hall, surmounted by Thoth, lord of wisdom, karma and magic, inventor of hieroglyphic writing and Anubis guardian of the tomb and guide of souls. The deceased was given a barrage of questions to judge his innocence. With each question his heart would be weighed against Maat's Feather of Truth and Justice. If the heart weighed equal with TRUTH then, all was well, but if his heart were to weigh heavy it would betray him and he would meet his doom. This fate was to be devoured by Ammut, a monster, her body part hippopotamus, and part lion with the face of a crocodile.

This threat would certainly keep one true to one's heart. In spite of this impressive display of divine Justice, the deceased was found innocent in every case and admitted to the Afterlife without issue.

The Libra moon represents a time for balance between winter and summer. It is the time when Light overtakes Darkness and the winter surrenders to springs warm days. The Libra moon has the attributes of life awakening from death and the weak and oppressed finding liberty and justice from the forces that oppress them. This theme is reflected in the story of Passover, when Hebrew slaves were released from bondage and set free by the pharaoh god-king of Egypt.

As a small child going to Catholic school and attending Catholic mass every morning the words of the Apostles creed and consecration of bread and wine into body and blood were etched into my mind. As an adult woman who has studied ancient Egyptian religious practices I see the world though different eyes. The words "descended into hell and ascended into heaven" * of the apostle's creed pop out at me because of their similarity to the secret initiation rites of ancient Egyptian priests. The Egyptian priests descended into hell and ascended into heaven as well. During their descent into hell the initiate priests faced the horrors known to the goddess Isis who reassembled her dismembered husband Osiris. If the initiate could handle the initiation he was anointed as a priest of Isis with all of its rank and privilege. There is very little known about these initiations as they were veiled in secrecy.

*I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
On the third day He arose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.
Although Christian legend has it that the Apostles wrote this creed on the tenth day after Christ's ascension into heaven, this is not the case. The Symbolum Apostolorum was developed between the second and ninth centuries. This particular verse is the most popular creed used in worship by Western Christians. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator.

My personal view of the passion of the Christ is that the Jews had become so oppressed by the Romans that they waged a rebellion. The public death and resurrection was necessary to gain political support of the masses during this age of 'god-kings'.

In the Old Testament God was hidden after a veil, and the man was behind the veil... but that "veil" was torn the day of the crucifixion, in Mat.27: 51, and now we can enter into the presence of God at any time, because Christ has laid the way to us. It is Final Judgment (Rom.2:5-11, Mat.25:31-46, Rev.20:11-15).

It seems apparent to me that the timing of a rebellion was critical to the Jews for reasons of sympathetic magic established for them by their history. Although a favorable outcome could not be guaranteed this was the optimum time based on past success commemorated by the Passover holiday to stage such an act. Any rebellion that may have occurred against Rome did not make it into the historical record, however. This rebellion may have been squelched by the Romans as there is not much evidence handed down to the 21st century to prove there even was a rebellion. Only trace evidence like the crucifixion itself, a political act, sending the public a form of warning against political rebellion. There is evidence of a rebellion waged approximately 30 years later that speaks of the continued unrest. The new religion 'of women and slaves' born of this cause was not so easily squelched. This religion became so powerful that the only way for Rome to control it was to adopt it as the state religion some three centuries later. This is when Rome was able to gain back full control over the hearts and minds of the Christian people. As the state religion of Rome, Christianity was given the attributes of the previous state religion Mithraism. 'Jesus the Savior', rebel against Rome, has been put to death every year and will be for as long as the religion exists. One of the most telling and peculiar attributes of the Christian religion is its need for conversion and constant and vigilant quest for members. I feel this behavior is a remnant of the recruitment for the cause and the need for large numbers of rebels to wage a rebellion against Rome.

As a pagan woman I can not help but see the similarity between the ancient scene of Osiris judging souls before the scales of Justice and the Judeo/Christian father god who also judges the dead and to whose right hand Jesus ascended to after he spoke to Mary Magdalene in the garden. Jesus did not let Mary touch him. Is there a connection between the celibacy rules for initiates of ancient rites and the current practice of the priesthood? At this point we can only guess.

Other names: Maat; Mayet; Truth

Attributes: time for initiations; Puberty rites; Tests of Soul and self; Rites of passage; Death and resurrection ceremonies; Divine comedy; harmony; balance; the Law is Love; honesty; light heartedness

Symbols: scales; ostrich feather; hearts; wombs and tombs; life and death; eggs; rabbits; hares

Full Moon in Libra key phrase: "I balance"

MAAT Tarot card of the week New Moon in Pisces

2007-03-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

MAAT Tarot card of the week
New Moon in Pisces
"I believe"

“The new moon phase symbolizes always being at the beginning and end, seeing life as an ever opening bud. The intuition rather than logic rules here, the projection of self on other's motivations. Very powerful for beginnings and endings ."
4 of Wands
Planetary ruler Neptune
The image for the four of wands is a late winter garden patch; the snow has begun to melt exposing the brown mud beneath. Remnants of last year’s garden markers protrude through the shrinking ice reminding us it is time to start planning for the growing season. Winter and summer merge in the gardener’s fertile imagination, as he plots out his summer garden. Sunny window ledges begin to fill with small soil filled containers and seeds from last year's harvest. Seeds planted at the new moon use the extra bonus of waxing energy from the moon and sun to grow. This is the last new moon of winter and there is a sense of life awakening, the air itself seems energized.
This is the very best moon for starting spring garden plants indoors at least here at 44° latitude. So for all of you gardeners this is it! Get those seed trays out and get started.

Traditional tarot meaning: a celebration, coming of age, the harvest

In a Reading: This is a card that represents planning for an event. The timing is right to initiate the drafting of a plan for some important future activity or construction.

On Sunday the new moon in Pisces is eclipsed.

Other Pisces Moon cards
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first quarter moon in Pisces (Nov.21-Dec.20)Dreams become the connection with the Other World. Prophetic dreams, spirit contact and things that go bump in the night.

Now is the time when the creative power of the waxing moon is visiting the realms the deepest subconscious. The dark month before the winter solstice is the month when we tap into the collective subconscious. Our days are filled with memories of holidays gone by...cultural traditions as well as old family traditions and the memories of loved ones who have passed away fill our minds. We prepare gatherings to celebrate life and the power and mercy of the mysteries of the universe. The power of the sun continues to wane until the winter solstice all the while the moon's light remains the same and as the nights grow longer sleeping and dreaming become paramount. Become aware of your dreams if you keep a dream diary this will help you to record your dreams. Take note of long lost relations that pop into your head as well as your dreams as you prepare for the celebrations ahead. Listen for the wisdom of familiar voices as you continue the traditions they began... they are all gathered around you... the ones you know who have passed and the ones who you will know who are coming into being ...embrace the mystery.

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full moon in Pisces (Aug 23-Sept 21)

The Princess of coins has come to represent for me the peri-menopausal and menopausal woman. She still feels young and yet she is getting all the signs that the change is coming and that she needs to adjust to her changing self. She is at the peak of her life many of her hard fought dreams are manifested all around her. She is a metaphor for the time of the year that is the full moon in Pisces. Fulfillment also means completion and then it is time to move on. The garden now full will need to be harvested its beauty cut down and stored away. It is sad to say good-bye to the summer's sweet fertility but there is joy in the activity of the harvest. Then when the work is done and there is time to rest again and remember firm in the knowledge that spring will be indeed be coming again.

She also personifies the goddess Hecate woman at the cross-roads‚'she who works her will‚' or‚'with the bright headband' was said to have witnessed the abduction of Persephone. She is the patron of all those who stand at the border of life and death; especially the midwives, witches and healers. She rules dark intuitive wisdom.

Traditional tarot meaning: a child with dark hair and eyes, and the element earth

In a Reading: This card represents the mature woman who has reached many of her goals she is apprehensive about what growing older will bring and yet she realizes she is the happiest and she has more freedom than ever before. She knows who she is.

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last quarter moon in Pisces (May 21-June 20)

Building a healthy emotional life together understanding and dealing with the ups and downs of love relationships. Realizing discourse is a natural part of partnership. This couple is successful because they have learned to weather any storm. The rainbow in the sky symbolizes the ability to let the sun shine through the rain. A reflection of the rainbow in the sky is seen in the puddle on the sidewalk reminding us that the people of earth are expected to complete the circle of that rainbow.

Traditional tarot meaning: the happy family, success, a new house.

In a Reading: This card represents the successful family. Both partners have worked hard to create a happy home. They have learned live in peace with each other to trust each other. They do not keep score on each other's behavior nor do they feel the need to teach the other a lesson for momentary bad behavior. They have learned to live with each other's little annoying characteristics and have become each other's sunshine through the rain. Love and loyalty through thick and thin.

*****************

Full Moon Cycle of Pisces-TEMPERANCE(Aug 23- Sept 21)

The magical alchemical connection between the opposites. Reconsiling and recognizing the connection between the opposites. The legends of the dark goddesses Isis and Lilith, of Isis and Ra in which Isis tricks her father Ra into telling her his secret name. And of Lilith the first wife of Adam who calls out the secret name of YHVH and flies away after refusing to be Adam's subordinate. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are also found within the Temperance image to rivers that start out coming from opposite directions and then merge as one in to the Gulf sea. The Tigris and Euphrates River valley is also an ancient flood plane like the Nile as well as another cradle of early civilization. The Full moon cycle of Pisces is the last month of Summer. The month before The Autumnal Equinox.

The legend of Ra and Isis-MAAT Tarot book page 246-247

Have a great week,

Julie

MAAT Card of the Week

2007-03-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

MAAT Card of the Week
Full Moon in Virgo
"I analyze"

The Princess of Wands

Planetary Ruler Neptune

The image for the Princess of Wands is a pre-contact Native American girl who stands unabashedly naked next to a dormant oak tree. She is a metaphor for the Virgin Earth of late winter, a time when the snow begins to melt yet it is still too early for any real plant growth.
She represents a person, place or thing that is full of potential which is as of yet a hidden or untouched, resource. Within that potential resides hope, endless possibilities and dreams still fully intact, unrealized. The future seems endless and yet there is awareness of the future and getting ready for something important. She is also symbolic of the mystery and importance of the feminine. She is the unleashed hidden talents and dreams that connect with greater realities, the sleeping seeds in the ground waiting to be stimulated by the Sun's warmth. She is all dormant power. She is like a knock at the door and the anticipation and musing that occurs just before the door is opened.

The Virgo moons seem to be able to get us to look at basic issues. To bring us back to singular moments just before everything shifts, before we lost our innocence. I received this card during a Samhain ritual last fall and realized I had been given back my "voice". I was brought back to the moment when I had stopped singing with others in public. The moment when I was about eight years old at morning mass with other classmates, there was a girl near me who was trying to out sing me. I noticed myself trying to sing louder to hear my own voice and also so I couldn't hear her. As I sang louder she would sing louder to drown me out again. My inner voice said "This is not praying" and it was at that moment that I decided I would never sing in church again and I didn't. I would sing when I was alone or with my babies but never with other people.

That moment had changed me forever until this year while blind folded at a Samhain ritual I sang out loud with the others for the first time in 40 years, it was difficult at first and then it was fine it felt good. Later I was given this card and at first I didn't get it. The suddenly I looked into her face and saw my own angry little face. The one who had decided based on one incident that I do not sing in public. What a stubborn little Scorpio child!

Traditional tarot meaning: a blond child, and the element fire

In a Reading: This card represents the discovery of hidden talents. It also signifies the joy of trying something new without the ego's fear of failure. This is a powerful card for sticking to your own plans and doing something you have always wanted to do without any guilt holding you back from unbridled selfish fun. When seeking information about timing this card would represent the beginning or just before.

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Other Virgo Moon Cards...

new moon in Virgo (Aug.23-Sept.21)
The miser. The farmer and his wife at harvest time save for the lean months of winter

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first quarter moon in Virgo (May 19-June 20)

The wish card. The power and responsibility that comes with the potential of dreams.

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last quarter moon in Virgo (Nov. 22-Dec.20)

Betrayal and backstabbing as the result of creating reality for others.

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The High Priestess

Full Moon Cycle of Virgo

(Feb. 21-March 20)

The earth of late winter lies sleeping and dreaming waiting for a warm kiss from the sun. which will awaken her potential.

This year the shadow of the Earth falls on the full Virgo moon and she is eclipsed. This means the Earth will align perfectly between the Sun and the Moon causing the Earth to cast a shadow on the Moon. For some people this means things will flow just right for a change for others it is "fruit basket upset".

Hope you have a great week,
Julie

Week of the First Quarter Moon in Gemini

2007-02-26T06:45:00.000-08:00

"The first quarter moon phase symbolizes the power of reconstruction. After foundations are destroyed rethinking and reconstruction of a situation is brought to the forefront."
3 of Wands
Planetary ruler Neptune

The image for three of wands is 18th century students and scholars taking notes on a model of the heliocentric solar system. This card suggests the use of tools and materials to grasp a progressive knowledge of the universe. Passing knowledge from one generation to the next by use of the written word, mathematics, art, music and oral instruction. The card symbolizes greater awareness through education and innovation. This card also reflects the student who learns from his teacher, the teacher who learns from his student. Expanding on what you know through experimentation that leads to a profound discovery. Being at the edge of discovery use of the microcosm to understand the macrocosm. Inspiration and understanding comes from the use of scale models, math formulas, blue prints, preliminary sketches, and the rough draft, a few notes jotted on paper.

I think the most important thing about this card is the sense of discovery. Once you have learned the 'information' indicated by this card it is one of those "eureka" moments that you are forever changed by. Much like when people first realized the planets were orbiting the sun and not spinning around the earth. Or that the earth was round and not flat. This card is all about explaining new information that you can build on... note in the Gemini moon cards below the phases show how the differing phases impact the idea of learning new information. Looking to the opposite moon phases is also interesting. The first quarter moon in Sagittarius is the 3 of coins it is all about manifesting new ideas as opposed to just explaining.

Traditional tarot meaning: turning away from the past with hope for the future

In a reading: This card represents the understanding of complex systems by the use of scale models. Technology used in the process of teaching.

Other Gemini moon cards...

new moon in Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Embarking on a journey or quest, with the lesson learned a relationship ends.
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full moon in Gemini (Nov.22-Dec.20)

The Widow
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last quarter moon in Gemini(Aug 23-Sept 22)

Deja' vu

This is the time of the year when the sun crosses back over its path and begins its journey toward shorter and shorter days.
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Full Moon Cycle of Gemini

(Nov22-Dec 20)

The Ancient Egyptian myth of Shu and Tefnut twin lions.

Have a great week,
Julie

5 of Wands

2007-02-08T10:10:00.000-08:00

MAAT Card of the Week
Last Quarter Moon in Scorpio
Planetary ruler Uranus

An old man and a boy play chess on a small table by a window. It is one of those gloomy spring days. The buds on the trees let us know that it has been warm enough recently to make us think spring had arrived, but the snow and clouds are moving in and it would seem that winter is still in play.

While I was out in California last September for LATS Dr. Art Rosengarten sat down with me while I was showing some folks the new MAAT Tarot cards. He asked me which card of this new deck was my least favorite. I had not really thought about that but had an answer right away. It was the 5 of Wands.
He went on to ask me why I didn't like this card. I really had to think to pin point why I didn't like it.
I admitted that it could be because I don't enjoy playing board games in general.
So we went through the details of the card. I liked the window, I liked the boy and the board, I loved the gloomy overcast lighting. I guessed it was really just the old man that I didn't like. Dr. Art encouraged me to go deeper into the card. "Who is winning?" he asked me. And I didn't really know. I knew the boy who represented spring would eventually win out over the old man who represented winter. Art said, "Now if we had a chess master here they would know just by looking at the chess pieces who was going to win this game." Now I hadn't even thought of that. This is one of the best things about hearing what other people see in a card there is so much more in it than I know about. I looked at Art and confessed, "Art you are making me like this card!" And now I think of that conversation everytime I see it.

Seeing this card here today also made me think of something my best friend and I were laughing about a couple days ago about unconscious competitions like who has the longest hair or who can be the skinniest. Real adolescent stuff we still do to ourselves without realizing. We both had cut our hair pretty drastically quite out of character. When she mentioned how liberating it felt not to be in the who as the "longest hair contest" anymore. I just started laughing because she was right.

For deeper understanding of the Scorpio moon check out the meanings of the other Scorpio moon phase cards:

New- 5 of Swords- (Oct.22-Nov.21)This card puts you on notice that mischief is afoot. There is some kind of deception taking place. Something is not what it seems to be. When seeking information about timing this card would represent just when you think something is over it is not or just when you think you have just begun something you will find you are done with it.

First Quarter- 6 of Coins-(July 23-Aug 22)This card represents a gift. It represents giving a gift or receiving a gift. There are many kinds of gifts. The little girl is the gift of a child but she also is the gift of future fertility.What is it about a gift that is so pleasurable or not? Is it the mystery of the unknown, the unexpected abundance or the knowledge that you are focus of someone else?Äôs affection. Some may find a gift an uncomfortable prospect some may suspect strings are attached to gifts and not be able to enjoy them. Which are you? And why?

Full Moon- Queen of Cups (April 20-May 20)She is the newly pregnant wife. She is idealistic and dreamy about her new baby and hasn't got a clue what she has gotten herself into. She can be a bit of an emotional drama queen due to hormonal changes. This is can be the warm and fuzzy period of pregnancy. This pregnancy of course in most readings is meant to be symbolic, it represents something that we are emotionally committed to manifesting. It is the excitement and infatuation we have with the idea of what it is we are about to embark on, without any of the hardships of reality creeping in.

Full Moon Cycle of Scorpio: The Empress(April 20-May 20)
http://www.newmoontradingco.com/moon/fullmoonscorpio.htm
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To see all of the cards for this month's Full Moon Cycle of Leo(January 19-February 18)visit:
http://www.newmoontradingco.com/moon/fullmoonleo.htm

Have a great week !
Julie

Oimelc-February 2nd

2007-02-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

The full moon in Leo falls on the Cross-Quarter Day Oimelc this year. Oimelc or Candlemas is
the halfway point between Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Oimelc means ewe's milk. Few urban
dwellers today would know or even care that it is lambing season, the time of the year that lambs are born.
But to our ancestors the birth of lambs would be the first signs of spring approaching and the abundance of life
returning. The lambs meant there would be meat, milk and wool and that autonomy could be maintained.

Most Christians will say "Lions lay down with lambs". Yet no where in Scripture is that ever mentioned.
It is the wolf that lays down with the lamb, not the lion. The New Testament always contrasts lamb with
wolves, not lions. This interesting phrase came from somewhere... perhaps it came from some old folk
knowledge that Ewe's lay down to lamb when in the month the moon is full in Leo. The constellation of the Lion
is clear and prominent in the late January and February sky. The whole point of Isaiah 11:6 is to foretell a time
of peace.

The weather in the north can be brutally cold and yet on a snowy day even the sound of cars going by
is softly muffled. There is a peace that we feel while watching the snow fall covering the landscape with white softness.
The freshly fallen snow reminds us of when we were children playing in the snow.

For deeper understanding of the Leo moon check out the meanings of the other Leo moon phase cards:

New-7 of Coins-(July 23-Aug 22) Represents the Native American concept of the 7 sacred directions, east, south,west, north, above, below and as important within. The self as a part of the divine. As the centered being we recognize our role in the great whole we learn patience and hard work before rewards. It is symbolized by peasants toiling in a field but could just as well be someone at the gym working out for better health. Simply it is the benefits received from working hard.

First Quarter- 6 of Cups-(April 20-May 20)The influence of childhood on personality and relationships with others, feelings of nostalgia. A sense of "here we go again" for positive or negative

Full-King of Wands- (Jan.20-Feb.19) The poet, the wordsmith, the politician, the writer, the lodge member. The genius of the common man.

Last Quarter- 7 of Swords-(Oct.22-Nov.21) The thief- being aware and protecting yourself when others use your energy and time without compensation. Death and time as the only real thief.

Major Cards of the Month:
Moon Cycle of Leo: The Chariot
http://www.newmoontra...

Cross-Quarter Day-February 2- Oimelc: The Wheel of Fortune
http://www.newmoontra...

Have a great week,
Julie

First quarter moon in Taurus

2007-01-25T10:41:00.000-08:00

MAAT Tarot card of the week
First Quarter Moon in Taurus

6 of Wands
Planetary ruler Uranus
This snow white owl is perfectly camouflaged against the stark white winter landscape. This camouflage helps him/her to hunt nearly undetected by its prey. The owl has been a symbol of wisdom in some cultures while it has meant death in others.

In the Medicine cards by Jamie Sams and David Carson the owl's key word is deception. This is because if you have owl power you will NOT be deceived.

The owl is able to hear the nearly inaudible sounds of mice beneath the snow. The owl can see perfectly in darkness. To have the skills of an owl is to have great abilities to detect and capture that which we seek. In the MAAT Tarot this owl also represents a healthy immune system in the body it could also represent other systems that protect and detect trouble.

Traditionally this card represents victory in war. For MAAT it is a victory over dis-ease of all types. The waxing moon symbolizes the creative power of death(Taurus). When you receive this card it should let you know that due to close attention the healing of a situation is close at hand.

Taurus key phrase-
"I have"

Immortality and transformation of self is the main feature in all Taurus cards.

Other Taurus cards to think about...

-5 of Cups-
new moon in Taurus (April 20-May20)
Death in the midst of life. We will never find happiness if we focus only on the negative.

-Princess of Swords-
full moon in Taurus (Oct.23-Nov 21)
The Huntress.

-5 of Coins-
last quarter moon in Taurus (July 23-Aug 22)
The suppression of death, healing from the holy springs, fresh food and warm sunshine.

-Death-
Full moon cycle of Taurus
Death and immortality the rhythm of silence and sound. The time of the year when the the veil between the worlds is thin.

Have a great week!
Julie

New Moon in Capricorn on Thursday January 18th

2007-01-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

Other Capricorn cards to think about...

First Quarter- 3 of Swords

Full-The Queen of Coins(June 21-July 22)

Last Quarter- 4 of Cups (March 21-April 19)

Full Moon Cycle of Capricorn-The Hermit(June 21-July 22)

Have a great week!
Julie

MAAT Tarot card of the Week- Last Quarter Moon in Libra

2007-01-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

MAAT Card of the Week

The 8 of Wands

Planetary Ruler Saturn
The 8 of Wands represents messages of all types. The best way to let others know what is on our minds and our hearts is to communicate. Today this comes in many forms so pick your medium! The waning moon signals that communication will bring some kind of resolution to a situation which will open the way for a new beginning.

For deeper understanding of the Libra moon check out the meanings of the other Libra moon phase cards:
New-( Sept 21-Oct 22) 2 of Swords- the balance of live and death, traditionally a truce or stalemate

First Quarter- 9 of Coins-(June 21-July 22) The 3 fates/ Mother, Maid and Crone- The celebration of the turning of the wheel, the love between women, women working together on a cherished project.

Full - Princess of Cups-(March.21-April.22) The Bride. Virginal but committed she is on her way to unity with her hearts desire.

Justice- Full Moon Cycle of Libra-(March.21-April.22) Laws of all types, man-made as well as natural laws.
The greatest of all natural law is LOVE. This full moon cycle always contains the holidays of Easter and Passover. as well as Eostar (the Vernal Equinox). This is the month when the increasing light overtakes darkness.

Have a great week,
Julie

Full moon in Cancer -The Queen of Wands

2007-01-03T06:04:00.000-08:00

MAAT Card of the Week

The Queen of Wands

Planetary Ruler Saturn
The Queen of Wands represents the beginning of the sun's return, the return of hope and inspiration. The sun which had stopped death in the sky of disappeared completely for a number of days is visibly on the move again. It would appear as if a universe which had stopped spinning had begun to spin again.

The MAAT Tarot Queen of Wands is a spinner like the tradition of spinners that came before her she is a skilled visionary and artisan. She has a wealth of knowledge that will keep her family alive and well.

In the background of this card resting on her fireplace mantle is an image of the ancient bird goddess. The bird goddess stands with arms raised up in a gesture of prayer which also looks a lot like a posture of a spinning woman. The art of spinning and weaving, predated by felt making was key to the survival of humans.

This card of the week should remind us to begin slowly and take care of the details of life as the details of life make up the greater portions of life. The whole is only as great as the sum of its parts. Making sure all those little parts have integrity insures integrity in the greater project or goal. These are the slower days of January
when weather can force us indoors this is the perfect time to spin a yarn or two. There is no better time to focus on that long term project.

For deeper understanding of the Cancer moon check out the meanings of the other Cancer moon phase cards:
New-( June 21-July 22) 10 of Coins- Inheritance

First Quarter- 3 of Cups-(March 21-April 22) The 3 fates/ Mother, Maid and Crone- The celebration of the turning of the wheel, the love between women, women working together on a cherished project.

Last Quarter- 4 of Swords-(Sept.21-Oct.22) The Ice man. Knowledge discovered through forensic science, anthropology, and history. The connection of one generation to another. Learning from the past.

Have a great week,
Julie

MAAT Tarot card of the week- First quarter moon in Aries- 9 of Wands

2006-12-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

MAAT Tarot card of the week
First Quarter Moon in Aries

9 of Wands
Planetary ruler Saturn

The 9 of Wands is traditionally a rest between battles. The image in the MAAT Tarot 9 of wands depicts the archetypical hero god being
raised in secret for his own protection. Traditional archetypes, who fit into this role, the Egyptian god Horus who was raised on the marshes in secret to protect him from his uncle Set( the god of desert and destruction). King Arthur who was taken from Uther and Igraine by Merlin and raised by common farmers his identity kept secret. Moses who was floated down the Nile in a basket to be raised by Egyptian royalty. Jesus whose parents fled into Egypt to protect him from Herod. All of these hero/god archetypes were raised in secret and when they matured became the saviors of their country/people.

The first quarter moon is of the waxing/ creative power of the moon. Aries is the beginning of the zodiac cycle. Together the message seems to say in order to get the job done right we must pace ourselves and delay self gratification. This signifies the beginning of an important long term project.
This is not a quick project that is just for fun that can be completed in a couple of hours. This project will take careful planning and meticulous and steady work over time. You will also need to take time away from this project for contemplation and renewed inspiration. In the end however all the time and effort will be worth it. This is the project or event of a lifetime and how you begin now is very important. Do not rush take your time be thorough in your plan and execution.

Other Aries cards to think about:
New Moon(March 21-April 19)- 2 of Cups- partnerships of all types create an ending and a new beginning for the self. Marriage especially marriage with children creates the beginning of new mortality.

Full Moon- (Sept.22-Oct)-King of Swords- The Archetypical hero/god, the annual king, savior/hero of people and country. Faces mortality and
realizes one has a duty to act.

Last Quarter Moon-(June 21-July 22)- 8 of Coins-The apprentice- trying new things learning from the master craftsman and becoming the master
with the obligation to pass on the knowledge to the next generation.

Have a Happy New Year!
Julie

New Moon in Sagittarius Today...

2006-12-20T05:57:00.000-08:00

Well folks we have made it through the entire suit of Swords. The new moon in Sagittarius is Today around 9AM EST.(8 of Swords)In just a few hours the moon moves into Capricorn this may mean we have some influence from the 10 of Wands(new moon in Capricorn) as well.
Any thoughts on the blending of the energies between the 8 of Swords and the 10 of Wands? Funny that in traditional tarot the 10 of wands is known to not be able to 'see' what lies ahead because of the burdens he or she carries. I guess the difference between the 8 and the 10 seems to be, movement and struggle for the 10 and paralysing fear to move for the 8. They both can't see what is going on.
This seems somewhat appropriate for the darkest days of winter. The 8 is afraid to look or move. And the10 can't see but is maybe trying to see and muscling on regardless, with the need to keep moving forward to a place where his/her burdens can be released. My husband has a Capricorn moon and he is like that, he seems to need to keep moving. Sometimes I think he only stops when he is asleep.

The Winter Solstice on Friday morning officially opens the suit of Wands. This year the dark moon coupled with the dark sun signals an ending followed by a new beginning. This is an interesting opportunity to have the dark sun so close to the dark moon. Could this be a signal for a whole year of new beginnings? We should note that this is special and does not happen every year.
Julie

MAAT Tarot card of the Week- Last Quarter Moon in Virgo

2006-12-10T08:32:00.000-08:00

10 of Swords

The 10 of Swords is no doubt one of the most graphic images in this deck. One should know that this card should be taken symbolically and not literally. It is a card of burning emotions as are many of the sword cards. This image should be taken as how we feel on the inside when we are betrayed and backstabbed. This card puts us on notice to watch our need for perfection, domination or control of others BEFORE it comes to this... Overkill. This card which traditionally means overkill or being backstabbed by friends or co-workers can and should be taken as a warning to ease up a little.

Sometimes in the quest to create our reality we may overstep our bounds and start to create the reality of others. This can lead to conflict if other people don't see things your way. Be sure your dreams stay your own and don't infringe on the dreams of others.

This week we find ourselves in the midst of the holiday season. There is a lot of pressure to make the holiday perfect, making sure that all the traditional tasks get done while every year it seems we MUST improve as well somehow make it even better than the year before. This pressure realized or unrealized can have our nerves as tight as a bow string. Take a moment and take a breath if the kids put all the ornaments in the same three lower branches its okay. No one will care. Enjoy the moment forget what you were expecting the holiday to be and allow it to be what it is. If some of the traditional cookies don't get baked this year that's okay too.

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For a deeper look at the Virgo moon check out the other Virgo moon cards;

Virgo symbolized as ~ Our Dreams for ourself, single minded and inner knowing through the phases of the moon...

New-(Aug 23 - Sep 22)-4 of Coins-Traditionally 'the miser' this card depicts a farmer and his wife in their root cellar storing away their harvest for use through the winter. A card that reminds us to save some of the abundance of the now for the future.

First Quarter(May 21 - Jun 20)-9 of Coins Traditionally the 'wish' card reminds us to be careful what we wish for as the person in the card blows dandelion seeds(wishes) into the air we see the results as a field of dandelions.

Full-(Feb 19 - Mar 20)-Princess of Wands- an unabashedly naked pre-European contact native American girl stands in defiance. She is symbolic of the infertile earth of late winter. Her prepubescent body symbolizes un-awakened potential. Her body, her talents, her hopes and dreams are all on the edge of awakening. She is innocence.

Full Moon Cycle(Feb 19 - Mar 20)-The High Priestess-The sleeping goddess, The dormant virginal earth on the verge of awakening. She is the dream within, inspiration, the muse, the wisdom that comes from within.

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Have a stress-free week,

Julie

*This article may be reproduced for personal use and educational purposes.

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Free upgrade to overnight express delivery or 2-3 day global airmail from now until Dec.21st on all MAAT Tarot orders. Happy Holidays!

MAAT Tarot card of the Week- Full Moon in Gemini

2006-12-04T05:39:00.000-08:00

The Queen of Swords

Planetary ruler Jupiter

The Queen of Swords represents the light in the darkest of times, as the sunlight in the northern hemisphere continues to wane we experience the darkest longest nights of the season. Yet the full moon's light remains with its brilliant light unchanged.
This moon is symbolic of the archetypical widow/ or sister of the historical/mythical male hero archetype. They are forever linked as a duo long after his death. There is usually some mystery to which only she knows the truth. Some classic Queen of Sword female archetypes, Mary Magdalen, Cleopatra. Morgana Le Fey, Hatchepsut, in modern times Jackie O. They all know the 'truth' yet the 'stories' spun about them and reported to the mainstream population lacks 'something' we all 'know' there is more to their stories yet we are not privilege to this information.
Just as we know woman's role historically has been down played simply because She was way too busy or tired to record her own story. Her work is often passed off as the work of Santa Claus, the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy, often goes without notice unless it is left undone. However the minute we grow up we learn the 'truth' behind the 'magic'. She is the archetypical mother of heresy(her-say) with little influence in classical history(his-story). The established male power systems of the past developed safeguards to ensure her power would be kept in check.
Her spark of knowledge still lies dormant within the collective unconscious it is during the darkest quietest nights of winter that it is easy to see her ancient truth shining through.

For deeper understanding of the Gemini moon check out the meanings of the other Gemini moon phase cards:

New-8 of Cups (occurring between May 21 - Jun 20)
with emotional lessons learned it is time to move on, a journey. The eight of cups can represent the short-lived romance this is the short but sweet relationship that teaches something and then after the lesson is learned the beloved moves on. The eight cups also seems to suggest an understanding of the cycle or journey of the sun with a cup for each one of the eight cross-quarter days we see that the sun like the moon has a cycle of waxing and waning light.

First Quarter- 3 of Wands (occurring between Feb.19-March 20)
Shows one type of tool we can use in order to convey a message or idea to others, the use of scale models is one way to help others to understand your ideas. Learning something new can enlighten us and raise our consciousness causing us to turn away from the past with hope for the future This card represents the understanding of complex systems by the use of scale models. Technology used in the process of teaching.

Last Quarter in Gemini- 2 of Coins ( occurring between Aug 23-Sept 22)
Deja'vu
The 2 of Coins represents the blending of the two worlds, the world of the physical and the world of the spiritual. This card represents the ability to understand the physical and spiritual worlds and the ability to live with both worlds simultaneously. Once you become one with the two worlds you can never go back and live as if there is just one world. The two worlds coexist much like the to lobes of the analemma.** Our contact with the spiritual realm is only as clear as our ability to understand 'their' symbolic language or understand how the other world communicates with us. Our cultural fears of 'evil' and the pressure of a prevailing cultural bias's that a world just as real as the physical world does not exist only limit us.
**The analemma (seen in the 2 of Coins, Strength and The Magician) can be captured with the help of time-lapse photography. If you take a picture of the sun from the same spot at the same time of day the analemma(figure eight of suns) is formed. The figure eight is also the symbol known as infinity. Interestingly enough the crossing over point that forms the top loop shape of the figure eight occurs around August 30th every year. The analemma in the 2 of Coins card floats an image of the ancient Egyptian Ra in his sun boat symbolizing the sun's journey.

MAAT Tarot card of the Week- First quarter moon in Pisces 9 of Swords

2006-11-27T06:54:00.000-08:00

MAAT Tarot card of the Week
9 of Swords
Planetary ruler Jupiter
Full Moon Gemini cycle (November 22-December 20) major card-Strength

First Quarter Moon in Pisces-Prophetic dreams, spirit contact and things that go bump in the night.

Now is the time when the creative power of the waxing moon is visiting the realms the deepest subconscious. The dark month before the winter solstice is the month when we tap into the collective subconscious. Our days are filled with memories of holidays gone by...cultural traditions as well as old family traditions and the memories of loved ones who have passed away fill our minds. We prepare gatherings to celebrate life and the power and mercy of the mysteries of the universe. The power of the sun continues to wane until the winter solstice all the while the moon's light remains the same and as the nights grow longer sleeping and dreaming become paramount. Become aware of your dreams if you keep a dream diary this will help you to record your dreams. Take note of long lost relations that pop into your head as well as your dreams as you prepare for the celebrations ahead. Listen for the wisdom of familiar voices as you continue the traditions they began... they are all gathered around you... the ones you know who have passed and the ones who you will know who are coming into being ...embrace the mystery.

Traditional tarot meaning nightmares, loss of sleep from stress

In a Reading: this card represents a significant dream, spiritual encounter or a dream that changes your view of reality. When seeking information about timing this card would represent the eternal, time overlapping into the timeless spiritual realm leaving an accessible doorway.

For a deeper understanding of Pisces Moon check out the other pisces moon phases,

The 4 of Wands (new moon) This new moon is the best time for planning and planting the seeds for the summer's garden. It is still winter yet our imaginations have merged with summer. The energy of the waxing moon is perfect for germinating seeds.

The 10 of cups(last quarter moon) This card represents a couples ability to weather any emotion. It represents dreams coming true and sunshine through the rain.

The Princess of Coins(full moon) This card represents the peri-menopausal woman her body is going through changes yet she still feels young. She is the woman at the cross-roads.

Temperance (Full Moon Cycle August 23-September 22)
The point where the summer is coming to a close and the
harvest has begun. She tells the story of the Legend of Ra and Isis.

MAAT Tarot Full Moon cycle of Gemini Nov 22 - Dec 21

2006-11-24T06:52:00.000-08:00

Wednesday marked our entry into the full moon cycle of Gemini. Ruled by the planet Jupiter the planet of expansion, luck and even indulgence. The key phrase for Gemini is "I think". This is all very appropriate as we move into the darker shorter days before the Winter Solstice. Imagine for a moment how concerned our ancestors must have been as the daylight became shorter and shorter and in some latitudes disappeared entirely. This is when Strength would be essential as well as a good sense of how the cycles of nature progress. And here is where the twin symbolism comes into focus.

Early astronomers observed the heavens and watched as the morning stars would disappear into the sun and then a 'twin' star would appear in the early evening sky. The moon would also do this as day by day it became thinner and thinner in the early morning hours just before dawn and then would disappear into the sun in the eastern sky only for its 'twin' to appear in the early western sky during sunset. During the full moon cycle of Gemini it is the waning sun itself that disappears into the body of the Great Mother with the promise of a new waxing sun which would be born at Winter Solstice.

In the image of the Strength card we see the Egyptian twins (usually twin lions) Shu and Tufnut with the sky goddess Nut. Shu (the Egyptian Atlas) who often took the form of a man holds up the sky goddess Nut. The Sun was thought to have been devoured each night by Shu's twin sister Tufnut who took the form of a lion. In the image of Strength we see the sun being devoured by Tufnut as it heads toward point of Winter Solstice on the analemma (figure eight). In the story of Shu and Tufnut it is Shu that also takes the sun back from his sister each morning and places it back in the sky. This is really a beautiful metiphor for the relationship of these twins. the female twin in the darkest month takes the 'light' into her body (to protect it?) and her brother returns it to the sky (when the time is right?). I couldn't help but see images of the traditional images ofthe Herculean Strength in this Egyptian myth. Coupling this image with full moon cycle of Gemini seemed to be good fit with the idea of twins. As well as the use of lucky,expanding and indulgent Jupiter energies to get us through the darkest month of the year by focusing on preparations for the pending celebration of the sun's return.

This card also explores the 'Oneness' of all things, eternity, and being a part of another, soulmates, twinsouls and relationships that continue beyond time and space. All very appropriate for a month full of many cross cultural holiday traditions. Remembering the source for all family traditions whether great or small begins with single couples in love who combined their family traditions into their own.

Julie

New Moon in Scorpio Monday November 20th

2006-11-19T12:29:00.000-08:00

This year the last moon phase for the month of the Full moon in Taurus cycle is the new moon phase. This sets a tone for the need to tie up loose ends before moving forward to something new. The new moon phase symbolizes the point where something is ending and something new is just beginning, the moon literally becomes completely dark from our point of view as it merges with the sun and then slowly becomes visible again as it moves past the sun and begins to catch more and more light.

The month of Full moon of Gemini cycle begins on Wednesday. For more information visit:
http://www.newmoontradingco.com/moon/fullmoongemini.htm

The Five of Swords is a tricky card that tells us, looks can be deceiving and sometimes people, places or things we trust can end up being unpredictable. This is a good card for warning us to keep our eyes open not everyone is playing by the rules. This is the time of the year when weather can also be unpredictable being unseasonably warm or cold. The surrounding landscape can do strange things too. For example our forsythia decided to bloom.

The moon in Scorpio beckons us to look into the unknown a little further... to connect with what we are attracted to. To do what we have always wanted to do. Sometimes what we are attracted to can be more than we bargained for, provoking us into new and greater awareness as well as personal growth.

For deeper insights into the lessons of Scorpio moon check into:

5 of Wands- last quarter moon in Scorpio with unraveling and resolving energies- The mock battle

Queen of Cups- full moon in Scorpio with complete and giving energies -the newly married wife

6 of Coins First -quarter moon in Scorpio with creative and developing energies- the gift

Have a great week,
Julie

MAAT Tarot-Cards of the Week- 7 of Swords

2006-11-09T09:18:00.000-08:00

Week of the last quarter moon in Leo

"The last quarter moon phase symbolizes the power of an acute awareness of ideals and high standards and the implementation of these standards into daily life. Disappointment can occur if these standards are not met."

7 of Swords

The 7 of swords shows us the many layers of being human. There is the self image and the image that the world perceives, the masks we wear to hide or protect ourselves from being hurt, or the masks we wear to project an image we would like the world to see. The mask of age that hides who we were in our youth. We have emotional layers and intellectual layers and there is the physical layer/body that is the container for our immortal soul, the physical body that is our vehicle so we can fulfill the tasks we choose to fulfill in a material world.

This card often warns against theft and speaks of protecting against theft. But if we are strong in the understanding of our self and what our needs are then death is the only real thief and even in death we find we are part of the greater whole. However, there are those who would steal our energy and time to fill their own emptiness. Their emptiness is due to the fact that they are themselves leaking energy and are not whole within themselves. They would seek your energy to fill themselves with, but of course this will not keep them full. As long as they are still leaking energy thus wasting your energy and more of theirs. It is up to you to have good boundaries and recognize a situation when you are encountering an energy vampire. Knowing what you are willing and not willing to give or do, will keep your energy and your self intact. You were not put here to work someone else's 'will'.

The 7 swords in this card represent the 7 main chakras of the human system which align with points on the body. Chakra means Wheel in Sanskrit. For more information on Chakras visit:

http://www.sacredcenters.com/chakras.html

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To go deeper into a better understanding of the Leo moon energies in MAAT Tarot. We can look to other Leo cards which are The Chariot full moon cycle of Leo. The King of Wands full moon in Leo. The 6 of Cups first quarter moon in Leo. And the 7 of Coins new moon in Leo.

The Chariot- speaks of polarity and the recognition of opposites; solar and lunar, male and female, yin and yang, right brained and left brained, even republican and democrat. It symbolizes polarity within the 'system'. Whether the system is a government, a community, a family, a mechanism or the greater universe itself. It is the polarity that keeps the system/the chariot moving.

King of Wands(full moon)-represents the politician, the fraternity brother, the poet, the statesmen, the writer. The man who with his words and his comrades creates change.

6 of Cups(first quarter moon)-represents emotional patterns we learn from our parents, our community, our environment, our childhood relationships and our traditions. These patterns for better or worse color our behavior flavor our expectations of self and others. These memories of emotional imprints can play a huge unconscious role in our adult life.

7 of Coins(new moon in Leo)-represents the sacred as we find it within ourselves and within others. This card helps us to understand that we are each a part of the divine and our work is sacred. It teaches about the seven sacred directions; east, south, west, north, above, below, and equally important the within.

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Other cards still in play this week...

Ace of Swords

The season of Autumn, the element of Fire, deconstruction, the harvest, the increasing darkness, and the journey within. It is with intense heat of Fire and great effort and patience that metal is extracted from the rock. The suit of Swords symbolizes this transformation. With heat, strength and skill the smith creates the tools that transform the lives of his people. These powerful tools are then used to transform life or destroy it. The suit of Swords in MAAT Tarot faces living with the bittersweet reality of our mortality. It is Love that gives us the pain of loss and Love that moves us to go beyond and face the fire of our own transformation. What is it that inspires us to look with in the rock for the prize within?

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Full Moon Cycle of Taurus

Death

Planetary ruler Pluto

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Tuesday October 31st

Samhain/Halloween

Judgment

to purchase the 7 of Swords original painting

http://www.newmoontradingco.com/pips.htm

This article may be reproduced for the purpose of personal or group study of the MAAT Tarot.

Post election day Blues...two steps forward one step back

2006-11-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

Well I read a very good article from one of my yahoo lists and thought I would share it here.
At least some people are speaking up!! Thanks Sam Harris keep up the good work!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15566391/site/newsweek/

A Dissent: The Case Against Faith

By Sam Harris
Newsweek
Nov. 13, 2006 issue - Despite a full century of scientific insights attesting to the antiquity of life and the greater antiquity of the Earth, more than half the American population believes that the entire cosmos was created 6,000 years ago. This is, incidentally, about a thousand years after the Sumerians invented glue. Those with the power to elect presidents and congressmen-and many who themselves get elected-believe that dinosaurs lived two by two upon Noah's Ark, that light from distant galaxies was created en route to the Earth and that the first members of our species were fashioned out of dirt and divine breath, in a garden with a talking snake, by the hand of an invisible God.

This is embarrassing. But add to this comedy of false certainties the fact that 44 percent of Americans are confident that Jesus will return to Earth sometime in the next 50 years, and you will glimpse the terrible liability of this sort of thinking. Given the most common interpretation of Biblical prophecy, it is not an exaggeration to say that nearly half the American population is eagerly anticipating the end of the world. It should be clear that this faith-based nihilism provides its adherents with absolutely no incentive to build a sustainable civilization-economically, environmentally or geopolitically. Some of these people are lunatics, of course, but they are not the lunatic fringe. We are talking about the explicit views of Christian ministers who have congregations numbering in the tens of thousands. These are some of the most influential, politically connected and well-funded people in our society.

It is, of course, taboo to criticize a person's religious beliefs. The problem, however, is that much of what people believe in the name of religion is intrinsically divisive, unreasonable and incompatible with genuine morality. One of the worst things about religion is that it tends to separate questions of right and wrong from the living reality of human and animal suffering. Consequently, religious people will devote immense energy to so-called moral problems-such as gay marriage-where no real suffering is at issue, and they will happily contribute to the surplus of human misery if it serves their religious beliefs.

A case in point: embryonic-stem-cell research is one of the most promising developments in the last century of medicine. It could offer therapeutic breakthroughs for every human ailment (for the simple reason that stem cells can become any tissue in the human body), including diabetes, Parkinson's disease, severe burns, etc. In July, President George W. Bush used his first veto to deny federal funding to this research. He did this on the basis of his religious faith. Like millions of other Americans, President Bush believes that "human life starts at the moment of conception." Specifically, he believes that there is a soul in every 3-day-old human embryo, and the interests of one soul-the soul of a little girl with burns over 75 percent of her body, for instance-cannot trump the interests of another soul, even if that soul happens to live inside a petri dish. Here, as ever, religious dogmatism impedes genuine wisdom and compassion.

A 3-day-old human embryo is a collection of 150 cells called a blastocyst. There are, for the sake of comparison, more than 100,000 cells in the brain of a fly. The embryos that are destroyed in stem-cell research do not have brains, or even neurons. Consequently, there is no reason to believe they can suffer their destruction in any way at all. The truth is that President Bush's unjustified religious beliefs about the human soul are, at this very moment, prolonging the scarcely endurable misery of tens of millions of human beings.

Given our status as a superpower, our material wealth and the continuous advancements in our technology, it seems safe to say that the president of the United States has more power and responsibility than any person in history. It is worth noting, therefore, that we have elected a president who seems to imagine that whenever he closes his eyes in the Oval Office-wondering whether to go to war or not to go to war, for instance-his intuitions have been vetted by the Creator of the universe. Speaking to a small group of supporters in 1999, Bush reportedly said, "I believe God wants me to be president." Believing that God has delivered you unto the presidency really seems to entail the belief that you cannot make any catastrophic mistakes while in office. One question we might want to collectively ponder in the future: do we really want to hand the tiller of civilization to a person who thinks this way?

© 2006 MSNBC.com

Card of the Week -Princess of Swords

2006-11-03T14:43:00.000-08:00

Week of the Full Moon in Taurus
"The full moon phase indicates generosity and the need to give to others. There is an intuitive objective understanding of the self and others."

Princess of Swords
Planetary ruler Pluto(the now defunct ruler of the underworld too?;-))

The full moon known in these parts as the Hunter's Moon. It is the time of the year when the white tail deer goes into the 'rut'. They are active at night with the light of the moon and then become hungry during the middle of the day which causes them to come into the sights of the hunter.
Before there were hunting regulations... and you have to go way back almost to hunter gather societies for this sort of freedom. You would be hunting for your food and you would pretty much be living on what you were skilled enough to catch and kill. There would be a bit of mystery to the hunt as you never would know what was going to offer itself to you. You might leave a bit of bait out to lure in hungry prey. You would have to be very in tune with the behaviors of the animals. What skills or senses you lacked may have been enhanced with the use of hunting animals like dogs or falcons.
When the Princess of Swords comes up in your spread you may want to ask yourself. What am I on the hunt for? Does my hunt stem from an actual need?
What skills do I have to assist me on my hunt. What friends can I bring along to assist me. Will I show gratitude for what I am given. What is my bait to draw in what I need? How will I preserve my quarry and who will I share my prize with?
Have a good week,
Julie

for more information visit:
http://www.newmoontradingco.com/moon/fullmoontaurus.htm

See vintage Julie 30 years of painting evolution 1976-2006
a project for Mercury retrograde...
http://www.newmoontradingco.com/new/vintagejulieindex.htm

Card of the Week -6 of Swords

2006-10-30T06:39:00.000-08:00

First Quarter Moon in Aquarius
6 of Swords

Planetary ruler Pluto

The First Quarter moon in Aquarius has a humanitarian quality as it suggests helping someone who is going through an emotionally turbulent time get to a place of peace. This week is also the week of Samhain when the veil between the two worlds is thinnest. This is a good week for doing rituals honoring loved ones who have passed. As we approach the doorway between summer and winter when the laws of time are suspended this is a good time for doing readings as well. Mercury retrograde also invites us to redo, revisit and generally catch up with projects and other things we have fallen behind on.

The 6 of Swords for me it is a personal card. The first quarter moon in Aquarius is my natal card. I am a Scorpio with an Aquarius moon. So this card is a birth card and its symbol has played out in my life.

One thing that I think is important for people to do is take notice of all the Aquarian moon cards(The Star, the King of Coins, the 7 of Cups, and the 7 of Wands all have a river prominent in the image... see the star for the deeper meaning of the river)

The original colors for this image came from a cheap abstract hotel print in a hotel room my husband and my kids and I were staying in the color combination caught my eye and I drew it out as patches of color with the name of the color penciled in. I took that piece of paper home with me and used it.
The basic layout is from a painting by Mary Cassatt called The Boating Party(1893-94). The color for the water and the water itself was influenced by Benjamin West(1778) a painting called The Battle of La Hogue as well as John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark (also 1778).

The island is supposed to look like a woman's body( Mother Earth) but is also meant to represent the island of Avalon( Summerland or Appleland)
The island where Arthur was taken by the 3 queens at his death. It also represents the land of the dead. The sun was intended to be setting and my original intension was that the boatman was taking her and her son to this mythical island like the famed Charon who ferried the dead across the Styx.

This card as a mirror of my own life, illustrates my spiritual journey as a young adult(at age 21) I was spiritually reawakened by a man(my teacher in college who taught Native American Studies) whose last name was actually Boatman, during a time when I was a newly divorced and a single mom on my own with my young (18 month old) son. This encounter started me on my spiritual path and rekindled my interests in all things metaphysical.

My husband Peter's comment which shattered my original intention was that the man was rowing away from the island and not to the island as I had intended. This which was not apparent to me while creating this image also had meaning.

And these are the secrets of the 6 of Swords.
Julie

Visit Aeclectic Tarot for the MAAT Tarot Study Group, join in the discussion
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=909192#post909192

MAAT Tarot is HERE!!!!

2006-09-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

The truck just dropped off my new decks and books. I opened the boxes
and claimed a deck and book for myself. THEY ARE AWESOME!!! Big
and shiny and GREAT. Just what I wanted. BETTER even!!! I am going to sit with them for
a while and then start signing and packing them getting them ready to ship!!!

Julie doing a happy dance....
finally!!!!

Breaking News on MAAT Tarot

2006-09-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

The MAAT Tarot will finally be in my hands on
Monday September 18th!!! I will start shipping
immediatelyon Tuesday September 19th (2 to
3 day priority mail in the states and global
priority everyone else!!) The timing should
allow people who pre-ordered to jump into this
calendar deck right at the beginning which is
The full moon cycle of Aries which starts
Sept 23rd( next weekend) on the Autumnal Equinox.

So this is your absolute last chance to get a
"signed and numbered" deck and book at the
pre-order price. All signed and numbered
deck sets will increase in price starting Tuesday.

Julie :-)

Peace

2006-08-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

Spent the day quietly at home alone. This is rare during the rush of Summer.
Everyone was gone busy doing something. My plans to join the activity disolved
and I embraced the idea of staying home and working on an unfinished project. I sat and enjoyed
some classic old movies as a blue silk bodice for my colonial gown took shape.
My mind wondered to days gone by and to future events and back to what my hands were
doing. Handsewing can be like the shaman's drum.

The Big Wheel

2006-08-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

I've been having a splendid dialog with a nice Druid from Wales this morning and he sent me a diagram of the Fire Festivals of the Druids(cross-quarter-days) The chart is set up with Yule at the top and the Summer Solstice on the bottom the Equinoxes are balanced on the left and right sides. Like compass points, Yule is north and Summer Solstice is south. The vernal Equinox is in the east(right) and Autumnal in the west(left). This makes good sense and is drawn out opposite of my chart for MAAT.

The same thing with the same meanings just drawn out opposite. My chart takes on the likeness of an astrological chart where the 'night' is on the bottom half of the wheel and the 'day' is on the top half. The rising (sign) is to the left and the descendant is at the right. We are on the same page here though.

MAAT Tarot goes to press

2006-08-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Didn't write in yesterday due to the crazy busy-ness of the day. All final corrections for MAAT Tarot were completed and I had
to give them all one last look though and approval. The box and book dimensions were finalized and I had to re-adjust my designs for both. I finally finished everything this morning after burning the midnight oil until after 1:30am. I have not seen
the whole completed product yet but have seen how the box will be in the form of a blank box with blank shrink wrapped cards.
The cards are BIG like the first edition Blue Moon Tarot, but not so big that they are uncomfortable to handle and shuffle.
The cardstock is the same as the 2nd edition Blue Moon cards but having more cards makes the deck feel so much better.
The book looked great all the corrections were made after having been proof read and reread 5 times. There still may be something I missed but I am pretty sure every detail is what I intended now.

My first day with a blog!

2006-08-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

Well this is the first day for my blog I am not sure if a waning moon in my opposing sign is a good time to start something.
But here goes anyway...
I am just days away from seeing the final proofs for the MAAT Tarot cards. The book is done being proofed and I am happy with the results I have seen so far. I am anxious to see the cover completed and the box.
I worked on a powerpoint presentation that I may or may not be able to use at LATS. But I think it is a good idea to have it.
The last minute split decisions I have had to make on the publication of MAAT has been nerve racking. I am always worried i will make some tremendous mistake and blow the whole project. But my guides have been very good to me and let me know my worst mistakes which I caught in the Nick of time, like having new moon in Capricorn for the 10 of coins instead of new moon in Cancer. That could have ruined the whole deck for me. But it was caught and I can breath easy for now. There are so many details and so many things that have to be just right. when its all perfect it looks easy and when there is a stupid mistake somewhere, well it all seems to say, if she was wrong about this then what else is she wrong about...?
Julie