Chloe McCracken Archives < Arwen, Professional Joy Seeker

SPREAD: Chloe’s Heart’s Desire

She also created a spread based on the fairy tale. I had to try it! Beauty and the Beast is not one of the fairy tales that made it into my Fairy Tale Tarot Spreads e-book.

Yesterday’s blog hop was, as per usual, chock-full of useful spreads and amazing posts. One of my favorite Tarot bloggers offered up the myth of Beauty and the Beast.

She also created a spread based on the fairy tale. I had to try it! Beauty and the Beast is not one of the fairy tales that made it into my Fairy Tale Tarot Spreads e-book.

Chloe’s Heart’s Desire

1) What is my heart’s desire for this turn of the Wheel/at this time?
2) What price will I have to pay for it?
3) What lesson will I learn in the process?

Using Zaheroux’s stark Animalis Os Fortunas deck, here is my reading.

1) What is my heart’s desire for this turn of the Wheel/at this time?

Moon: I want to dive into my fantasy more. My fantasy being the ability to write fantasy. 😀 My writing partner and I have recently started producing again. We had a 2 year dry spell with some writing but nothing that drove towards finish. It’s an illusionary task, the business of writing.

I have to let the moon guide me which can be dark and scary at times because the path isn’t clearly lit.

2) What price will I have to pay for it?

Ace of Pentacles: I may have to give up other business opportunities. There may be growth that I have to avoid in order to focus on the writing.

Sorry. I have to say that this feels like a positive answer. I see it more as income helping me not have to pay for it. I will have opportunity for growth that will support. It may be that my price to pay will be my disbelief that I can ever be a truly successful writer.

Yep, I think I’m standing in my own way again.

3) What lesson will I learn in the process?

Emperor: That I am in charge of my own creativity. that I can take care of business by writing and producing. That the proof really is in the pudding, chickens.

This card is the one who takes care of his/her domain. He rules with a firm hand. I will learn how to keep myself on track. I will learn that small steps every day towards my goal will win the day.

Thanks to Chloe for this insightful spread!

What about you? What is your heart’s desire?

How about this spread as your own journal prompt?

Don’t have a tarot deck? Take advantage of my last week of 15 minute readings for $25 and we can do this one together. Remember that prices are going up 10/1.

Animalis Os Fortuna, Megan Weber aka Zarheroux, self-published

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Will You Join The Fairy Dance?

Another part of the Tarot Blog Hops that is a huge love of mine are all the spreads that turn up. This one was light on spreads but the ones that were there? Spectacular. Inner Whispers is Chloe McCracken’s blog. I adore her blog. She does a card a day from various decks every week. She’s the author behind the upcoming Celtic Lenormand that is being illustrated by Wil Worthington. Can. Not. Wait. And I’m not a Lennie fan. 😀

Anyway, here is her excellent spread. Unnamed, Chloe! (inside joke). So I’m naming it!

Fairy Dance Spread by Chloe McCracken

1) What dance will I be lead on over the time from now until First Harvest?
2) Where will it take me?
3) What offer would I do best to refuse?
4) What will I return with?

Read the full blog here to see how Chloe answered this spread.

Here are my answers using the Wild Unknown Tarot (pretty awesome pre-sale going on this deck right now too.)

1) What dance will I be lead on over the time from now until First Harvest? Four of Swords

I have to admit that this card triggers an ear worm for me. That’s a song I learned in Girl Scouts.

“On a wagon bound for market
There’s a calf with a mournful eye.”

It is, I believe, a Jewish folk song about being taken away from your homeland and not fighting for what you want. And, on doing a bit of research, I learned that it was written for a Yiddish play. The song was recorded by Joan Baez, Donovan and Patty Duke. Here are the words:

Translation by Kevess & Schwartz

On a wagon bound for market
There’s a calf with a mournful eye.
High above him there’s a swallow
Winging swiftly through the sky.

How the winds are laughing
They laugh with all their might
Laugh and laugh the whole day through
And half the summer’s night.

Dona, dona, dona, dona,
Dona, dona, dona, do,
Dona, dona, dona, dona,
Dona, dona, dona, do.

“Stop complaining,” said the farmer,
“Who told you a calf to be?
Why don’t you have wings to fly with
Like the swallow so proud and free?”

How the winds are laughing …

Calves are easily bound and slaughtered
Never knowing the reason why.
But whoever treasures freedom,
Like the swallow has learned to fly.

So what does that mean t me? I think this Four of Swords is a reminder that resting is good but I may not have as much down time as I might like from now til Lammas (First Harvest). And I need to make sure I am doing what I want to do. If I bitch and moan about what is happening, then I must remember that I can be the calf or the swallow. (and yes, I sat here and sang the whole song. 😀 )

2) Where will it take me? Nine of Cups

Well that’s a nice place. 😀 That’s the card of heart’s desire for me. If I make sure I lead in the dance rather than follow (life’s a dance..sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow), then I may find myself in a dream come true.

3) What offer would I do best to refuse? The Magician

If a thing seems to be too good to be true, it is. That comes leaping to mind sans musical accompaniement. I know you’re thrilled about that. 😀 But I see this Magician as offering power with strings firmly attached. I’ll watch for that offer and definitely refuse it. Y’all help me remember that. 😀

4) What will I return with? Three of Cups

Well what a lovely outlook, yes? Heart’s Desire and the card of Seek Joy, y’all. I can live with that. So I need to mind my herd mind and watch for offers with strings. Otherwise I’m good to go.

How about you? Why don’t you give this spread a try! And stop by Chloe’s place. Tell her Arwen sent you.

I Got Fired!

Arwen Lynch, professional joy seeker, shares what getting fired means to her.

In this year’s Imbolc Tarot Blog Hop there were a number of intriguing spreads presented. The one I kept coming back to was from Chloe of Inner Whispers Tarot. She’s a talented reader in the UK. Her original spread with her own reading using this deceptively simply spread is here.

I kept hearing a song by Emerald Rose called “Fire In The Head” which is a reference to a shamanic practice. The chorus runs like this:

Fire in the head…I’m a flame in motion
Fire in the head…I’m a sword that’s sharp
Fire in the head…I’m a drop in the ocean
A shield in battle and a string in a harp.
Fire in the head…I’m an eagle soaring
Fire in the head…I’m a spoken word
Fire in the head…I’m a torrent pouring
A grain of wheat and a cauldron stirred.
Fire in the head!
Found onBending Tradition,Emerald Rose,2000

A side note of excitement! Emerald Rose will be playing at the Oscars party for the Peter Jackson movie, The Hobbit, in just a few weeks. If you like kick-ass music with a Celtic flair, you need their music. Trust me on this one. NEED THEIR MUSIC. 😀

Now on to the spread for me. I got surprised by my cards (big surprise, NOT). The transitioning and absolutely literalness of how they move from one to the next is typical for me with this deck. It is my personal reading deck, the Gaian Tarot. It is not uncommon for this deck to be so literal as to be funny. And I’m not the only reader that finds this to be true of the lovely Gaian.

Fire In The Belly Spread by Chloe McCracken

What is the fire in my belly? Seven of Fire
Click for full

I know you, Woman at the forge. I see you creating something stronger by hammering it out.

I also see her as the ultimate multi-tasker. Still here in this moment, I see her focused on what she is doing. The flame seems important in this reading. It i reaching up like a dancer. Do you see the arms reaching up there? That imitates a drawing I just did in a therapy group. A figure rising up glowing and growing. The blacksmith has intention in every blow, every strike of the hammer. None of them should go astray or it can meen more work. That’s important I think.

I have this sense of urgency about some things that I need to do. Creating a Professional Joy Seeker’s course is one of those. I want to do teleseminars where I gather with like-minded humans who simply want to seek joy. Who understand that negativity exists but we don’t have to feed it by focusing on it.

The fire in my belly is about what I am intentionally creating. Yes.

How can I stoke the fire? Elder of Earth
Click for full

What a great card to follow the blacksmith. Now we move to the calm, confident King of Earth who is using what she has to make something new. I see her as the woman who helped the ewes at lambing, then sheared the wool, carded and cleaned the same wool and is now spinning it into yarn. The shawl she wears is wool she produced and even dyed before crocheting it into something to wear. She understand the value of seeing a project through from start to finish. Not a micromanager, but someone who is involved.

I must be involved. I must make sure my focus is on the project at hand and not rabbitting all over the place. I have a serious case of monkey mind at times. It’s one of the reasons I practice the art of Zentangle to quiet my mind.

But to create this Professional Joy Seeker’s course, I need to understand things from the ground up. I need to investigate the tools that will be necessary for this. I must step into the shoes of the confident and calm Elder of Earth.

What bright flame will spring from it? Explorer of Fire
Click for full

Now how about them apples, y’all? From the hard-at-work, single-focus blacksmith to the productive spinner to the fire dancer. Now do you see what I mean about this spread being deceptively simple? So many three card spreads skim the surface, but this one? No, not this one.

The bright flame that will spring from the fire that I am stoking in my belly is me as a leader of joy seekers. I see me dancing forward just shimmering with energy. Magnetic, visible, follow-me, dance-with-me, joy all around.

But this also tells me that I need to make sure my energy is focused on the right things. I do have a tendency to go off course a bit there. I want to do it all.

But the blacksmith, the weaver and now the fire dancer all know one secret.

Focus on what you are doing. Keep your intentions clear. Don’t get spread out too far.

And look at this… Earth surrounded by fire. Earth warmed and protected by flames. I can certainly live with this.

This is a valuable lesson I learned from the eBusiness Goddess course I took last year. It really made me look at what I do and how I do in a completely different way. What I love about this course is that it doesn’t assume you work an 8-5 traditional business. I guess you could say it freed me of some long-term blocks I had about what “real” business is.

Thanks again to the brilliant Tarotist, Chloe, for this fabulous spread. It’s made a difference in my life today.

Gaian Tarot, Joanna Powell Colbert, Limited Edition (less than 150 left)