Celebrate Bliss with the New Moon in Pisces

This lunar month is perfect for enjoying some much needed Piscean pampering. I'm planning to get an esoteric healing treatment from healing Goddess, Terri at The Pearl - her spa/home is a fairyland filled with art, antiques and healing vibes!

I suggest that some primo relaxation time is in order! Try luxuriating in a hot lavender bath or sleeping with a mugwort filled sachet or a moonstone under your pillow and don't forget to call upon a Piscean mermaid or two to water and bless your dreams.

This Pisces Moon heightens our awareness, our senses, our compassion, and our imagination. How will you apply this peace of mind to the world at large? How can you orient yourself to follow and express your bliss in ways that benefit the planet? Get ready to identify your gifts and let your talents blossom forth as the Spring Equinox fast approaches and we are catapulted into the sign of Aries.

FEELING SPACED OUT LATELY?

I know I have! I just emailed my best friend to apologize for being 2 weeks late in remembering her birthday and I was actually a month early! So what's going on?! If you've been feeling disoriented this past month it could be due to the large number of planets that are currently in the airy and ungrounded sign of Aquarius and this feeling will most likely continue in the month ahead. Aquarius can teach us how to stretch our limits and explore radical ideas but remember, Winter still prevails and encourages us to stay put and contemplate the year that has passed.

Try and stay grounded, tap your spirituality, explore new ideas, and let peace flow naturally into your life and your home as you prepare for the arrival of Spring on March 20th at 4:44 am PDT.

For those of you interested in exploring where the New Moon falls in your astrological chart to better prepare yourself for the month ahead I have created a New Moon Reading.

SPOTLIGHT ON PISCEAN ARTIST - SING:

I discovered Piscean artist, Sing of JustGiveMePeace in the Etsy Forums. I asked her how being a Pisces had influenced her artwork and this is what she told me:

"My drawings have always been a whisper....or a silent scream....a tell~tale story of what lies beneath the obvious. Hidden in the psychedelic colors of chaos I find peace. And in my swirly, twirly fairytale, I believe that under the cold crashing truth of reality the deep, deep water is warm and that in the trail of tornadoes and hurricanes accidental gifts are found and in this everyday thing we call life, if you're not laughing and dreaming you're only treading water. I'd rather be floating.... Much Peace, Sing."

NEW MOON IN PISCES GIVEAWAY CONTEST:

This month's Giveaway is titled "Circle of Mermaids" - an 11 x 14 matted print of my original silk painting featured at the beginning of this newsletter. To enter this drawing you will need to sign up as a fan of my Facebook Page and respond to my Discussion Board posting titled "What is bliss?" I can't wait to hear your inspirations! All my mermaid paintings were inspired by eight years of living in the gorgeous and unforgettable Laguna Beach, California where I befriended my very own red-headed mermaid, Tangerine!

The money issue remains a touchy subject for folks right now, so take a little time to examine your own relationship with money. My question for you, dear readers, is this: "Has money become more important to you than love?"

How To Prepare for Giving an Oracle or Tarot Card Reading

Claudia's Question:

How or what do I do before reading my oracle cards? Do I pray? State an intention? Do I need to go through the ritual of lighting the candles before I read? Is it my religious upbringing that begs for ritual, or is ritual necessary?

My Response:

I firmly believe that whatever feels right will be right for you.

I do follow specific rituals each time I prepare for a reading based upon techniques I have picked up here and there based upon books, classes, circles and gatherings I have participated in, watching others, personal preferences, etc.

I begin with yoga exercises, then I smudge and bless myself and my tools, crystals and oracle cards (all painted by me) with white sage that I have gathered in the wild. I light a candle, play my Native American flute, light incense and then I meditate. I learned how to meditate in Ottawa, Canada, in 1991 from a woman named Om who was a student of Sri Chinmoy. I also make sure to ground and center myself by connecting with Mother Earth and by balancing and clearing all the wonderful rainbow colors of my chakras; being an artist, this is one of my favorite parts. I pray to the Divine/Great Spirit for guidance and I request an open heart and a clear channel so that I can be of service in the best way possible. When the reading is over I make sure to thank the Divine, ground, center and clear my energy. When I blow out the candle I send a healing wish to all who need it and I include specific names as well. This is my personal recipe for oracle card reading. I also offer my readings on Etsy, a large online community of artists and crafters.

Claudia Olivos is the featured artist for today. I met this wonderfully talented woman in the Etsy forums recently and you can find more of her work here:

Claudia's Website
Claudia's Blog
Claudia's Etsy Shop

Do you have any techniques, methods or questions about tarot/oracle card reading?
Tell us more about how you to prepare for a reading. We are all, each one of us, eternal students of the heart.

To read more Psychic Development entries please click here.

Tamara's Fairy Tarot Magick

Meeting Tamara:

I recently met Tamara online in the Etsy Forum in a thread I started called "Calling all witches, psychics and tarot readers” - I have met a ton of wonderful wise women here and our thread is ongoing so come join us, when you get a chance!

Tamara’s Blend of Art and Spirituality:

I'm an eclectic Pagan and practicing herbalist with a creative streak that leads me to draw, paint, sew and build. My spirituality is an important part of my creative process and you'll often find me tucked away in my workspace coming up with my next project!

Tamara’s Fairy Daughter:

My daughter is 13 and she is totally a free spirit. She was really the inspiration behind the costume and photos. I made the costume from scraps of fabric that we had lying around the house. The wings were the most elaborate part of the costume, but the most important part, too. I dyed the nylon material and made the form from copper wire that we pulled out of some old electric wire, then I used glass beads to make the designs on them.

Tamara Creates Her Own Tarot Deck:

The tarot cards were an intense labor of love and the time spent making them was so cathartic for me. It also pushed me outside the boundaries of all that I'd done before. I would encourage anyone who is dabbling with tarot to take the time to make their own set.

No More Doom and Gloom Imagery:

The imagery behind most of the tarot cards in my deck was a random thing, actually. I felt it was necessary to replace the typical doom and gloom imagery of the Death card, for example with something brighter and more in keeping with the 'new beginnings' or 'metamorphic' interpretations that I often see in my readings. Hence ~ sunshine, caterpillar and butterflies.

Tarot Readings:

Often, when doing a reading, I would find myself struggling to make connections. I would go to my books and read the literal meaning of the card and my mind would instantly come up with it's own image for remembering, so I'd make notes of those images. When I created my own deck, I combined or replaced some of the symbols that held no meaning for me with symbols and images that did.

Tamara's Etsy Shop #1 - My Veiled Ego
Tamara's Etsy Shop #2 - Tamara's Herbes
Tamara's Blog

To read more metaphysical and healing stories by featured Guest Writers please click here.

Law of Attraction - A Full Moon Blessing

FULL MOON IN CANCER
01-10-09
7:27 pm PST

Feel yourself nurtured and fed by a Cancerian Full Moon blessing. Can you see her watery, pale face shining down upon you, offering you a glimpse, a mirror, into the very depths of your soul? Seek out a quiet place to bask in her mooney glow and feel her gentle breath upon your brow and then ask yourself: "Who is my family? How can I heal and nurture myself? Who can I turn to for emotional comfort and warmth? Where is my true home, my roots, my foundation? Do I feel safe, loved and protected? Do I feel truly abundant and prosperous? Where is that ol' security blanket of mine anyway?"

THE TRICK TO MONEY IS HAVING SOME:

"The truth is in order to serve people you have to psychologically get underneath them." (from "The Trick to Money is Having Some" by Stuart Wilde)

I have no idea what this means! So I read on as Mr. Wilde explains: "This does not mean that you are less than those you serve, it just means that while you are serving them you have to subjugate your ego and your personality to their needs...Learning to serve is one of the great money-making tricks in life...In serving there is the pleasure of doing things well. You learn humility and make loads of money." (Thank you Stuart Wilde for this paragraph!)

WHAT DOES PROSPERITY AND ABUNDANCE MEAN TO YOU?

I took a quick poll in the Etsy - Forums and this is what I heard:

Thee Green Pea says: "If at the end of the day I can still look in the mirror and know that: I gave it my all, I was kind, I gave even though I didn't have the means, I made someone laugh, I helped someone who was sad, I let someone know that I cared, I have breath in my lungs and a heart of good health, friends and family...with that I am blessed...I am prosperous and abundant with joy!"

Puss Daddy says: "All I really need is my family and friends and enough money so that I am not worrying about paying bills or getting behind and I am happy."

GOING OUT ON A LIMB:

I am going to go out on a limb right now and say to all of you that abundance and prosperity is available to all of us all the time. I would like to relate this posting back to the current Full Moon in Cancer and look at abundance from the framework of how abundance makes us feel - we need to work with the feeling of being abundant so that we can bring abundance into our lives.

FEELING ABUNDANT:

How can we truly feel that abundance, prosperity and unlimited funds are always available to us all the time? Firstly, by removing from our life any kind of negative influences: friends, colleagues, naysayers, and the voices in our head that are holding us back from feeling abundant.

PROBLEMS IN ETSY:

I have found that in the Etsy community I run into many folks that are just squeaking by financially and so they want a deal and many are offering their services for next to nothing or just for fun, and this brings down the whole level and quality of the entire community making it next to impossible to make a living wage for those of us who are professionals and rely on this community in part, to make a decent living. Etsy is a great place to get started selling your handmade work online but it is not the "be all and end all," professionally speaking. I will be investigating other options and keep you all posted. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed!

The artwork above is titled "Moon Glory" and is a part of my Lefty Series of Oracle Cards

If you are interested in receiving a Full Moon Soul Reading you can learn more here.

To read more Full Moon Features please click here.

A Paper Prayer

After speaking with Brett of Van Fleet Street Designs I was curious to learn more about how her spirituality influenced her artwork.

Brett says:
"It seemed as though I was predestined for the unusual from the day I was born, having been born on April Fool's Day and Easter. At age 5 I had a near death experience due to a kidney infection going systemic; that same year my parents and I moved into a house that was almost 100 years old...haunted of course. My mother quickly became interested in things occult, such as having seances, befriending mediums, astrology, numerology, and developing her psychic ability.

Many things have happened in my life that would have scared someone else to death, but to me it's normal. As a result of the way in which I grew up, I have grown to accept my "abilities" and have secured a way to allow them "air time" and I do that through my art. So yes, my work is both spiritual and telling."

A PAPER PRAYER:

For those of you who hike, you may have seen this scene once or twice before. Imagine yourself walking through the autumn trees, life hanging on, a chill fills the air and you breathe in the fresh air of a place you love to be.

This is a "Paper Prayer." It's format is a standard 4 x 10 inches and can be made of anything you desire. The Paper Prayer was originally created by Japanese artists who wanted their art to instill health and well-being to all.

You can find Brett online at:
Her Etsy shop - Van Fleet Street Design
Her blog (for artist tips) - Brett Ward

To read more metaphysical and healing stories by featured Guest Writers please click here.