Haunted Open House

Join me at Nancy Gideon’s Haunted Open House online. She’s giving things away.

Chrysalis_3EmpressFirst, I wanted to let y’all know about an interview I did. Author Nancy Gideon has an annual Haunted Open House blog that she does. She interviewed me for this. The results are up today…complete with a contest!

[Tweet “Interview about #Tarot + writing + #contest http://bit.ly/1szFIIg #amwriting #NaNoWriMo”]

http://hauntedopenhouse.blogspot.com/2014/10/its-in-cards-with-vip-guest-arwen-lynch.html

I talk about how I use Tarot for writing.

I hope you will stop by to say hello.

Today’s affirmation is:

I understand my unique heart and mind. I follow my honest self joyfully. I imagine all people filled with joy. I seek fellow dreamers who hold their lives in joy-filled hands and hearts. I define myself by my own definitions remembering that others have their own paths. Today is about living, loving and being joy-filled. Loved and loving, I love each of you.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on!

Thanks so much for sharing this post! I’ll see you over at the Haunted Open House.

Empress, Chrysalis Tarot, U.S. Games Systems, INC

TarotsCopes for September 28 – October 4, 2014

TarotsCopes for September 28 – October 4, 2014

[Tweet “Whoa! Check out your TarotsCope this week. What did it say?”]

World Spirit Tarot Empress
World Spirit Tarot

CARD OF THE WEEK: SAGE OF CUPS Hold on to your emotional control. Don’t let others rock you. Time to be your own captain, darlings!

AQUARIUS NINE OF PENTACLES Success! Take a moment to compare you now to you five years ago. Count your blessings. You may need a bigger sheet of paper.

PISCES JUDGMENT Level up. This is about understanding how you’ve grown. Open up to your new place on this spiral of life.

ARIES MAGICIAN What can you do? Why anything you set your will to, that’s what. Unusual tools make themselves known this week. Use them.

TAURUS DEVIL Sometimes you have to give in to the temptations to relax. Physical pleasures are okay but do not overindulge. That’s a bad habit.

GEMINI SIX OF PENTACLES Generosity can transform a life. Reach out to others to help them see how they can expand their life.

CANCER SEEKER OF SWORDS Careful. The battles you choose this week could turn into epic wars–long ones. Try to be less ready to fight.

LEO FOUR OF PENTACLES Money may not be as available this week. That’s okay. You know how to make a budget and stick to it. Please do that.

VIRGO SEVEN OF CUPS Let yourself do a little daydreaming. Look to the future you want to have. Start making choices to get yourself there.

LIBRA TEN OF SWORDS When you feel at your lowest, look to your friends to help out. One person may be trying to undermine you. Avoid them.

SCORPIO SIX OF CUPS Old friends renew ties. Memories may bring pain, but look for the best parts to ease that.

SAGITTARIUS EMPRESS Creativity blossoms for you. Take up a new craft or go back to one that brought you joy. Sink into self-care this week.

CAPRICORN SIBYL OF WANDS So much needs to be done this week. You need to remember one word to survive. DELEGATE Hire a personal assistant!

World Spirit Tarot, U.S. Games Systems Inc. (OOP)

NaNoWriMo with me! I’m TarotByArwen there. I’ll be using my own eCourse to succeed! You can join me there too.

Revisiting: Empress + Bread

Revisiting: Empress + Bread

rw_empressThis week I am on my wedding trip. Therefore, I’ve set up repeats of some of my personal favorite posts from my Tarot&Food series.

First up: Why I associate the Empress with baking bread.

So, it’s time to visit the kitchen again. Yesterday I indulged in one of my favorite past times. Y’all know I love to cook. Well one of the most indulgent, decadent things I do is bread. I know–you were expecting chocolate silk pie, right? It’s funny. For as much of a sweet tooth as I have, I don’t bake very many desserts. But I love bread….(read more)

Remember that this is the last month to get a free three card reading. Just buy any downloadable version of this workbook to qualify. Then send me an email to set up your reading.

Yes, you can buy a workbook as a gift and use the free reading for yourself.

Expires 1/30/2013.

January 2014 Tarotscopes

I bless what didn’t work for the lessons I learned. I bless what did work for the blessings that came. I ….

Cat's Eye, Empress
Cat’s Eye

Welcome to 2014, y’all. It’s going to be an amazing year! Are you ready? You may make resolutions…you may not. For me, I use the 2014 Create Your Amazing Year Workbook+Planner to set and achieve goals.

Goals achieved in 2013?

  1. Newsletter grew over 400%
  2. eCourse released
  3. Fairy Tales Tarot Spreads ebook illustrated by Lisa Hunt released
  4. Relationship strengthened (actually getting married this January) (unexpected goal)
  5. Income increased 150%/
  6. New car (unexpected goal)
  7. Asked to guest blog for Leonie Dawson’s website in January (unexpected goal)
  8. Asked to be a conversation leader at
    Toni Gilbert’s Northwest Astrology and Tarot Salon
    (unexpected goal)
  9. Signed up for retreat with Joanna Powell Colbert

Just a stellar year all the way around. And here are your 2014 January Tarotscopes!

My affirmation for the last day of 2013 was this

Today I’m focused on 2013. I bless what didn’t work for the lessons I learned. I bless what did work for the blessings that came. I acknowledge those who left my world. I give thanks to those that stayed. I’m a happy woman. Loved and loving, I love each of you. Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

So what is your focus for 2014?

Empress, Cat’s Eye Tarot, U.S. Games

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

[Tweet “Check out your January Tarotscopes. Let’s compare notes. What card did you get?”]

Image, Reality + Promises

Now put yourself in that chair in that same pose. Yes down to what she is and isn’t wearing. Do a run down on yourself.

Now put your most loved friend there.

empressToday’s card reminds me to celebrate my body in all of its flaws and glories. I put flaws first because when I do, I am reminded that sometimes seeking joy is hard. Sometimes it’s a helluva lot easier to see what’s wrong than to acknowledge what’s right.

Look at this Empress from the World Spirit Tarot. Her legs are so fat she’s got knee wrinkles. Her stomach has Dunlap’s disease (her belly dun lapped her belt). The only reason her nipples are perky is because she’s leaning back. Her eyes are too close together. Her hair looks like she used two and a half bottles of Aqua Net.

Ouch, right?

Here is a fine-assed woman lounging on her throne. She’s got so much good going on but I chose to focus on the bad.

Now put yourself in that chair in that same pose. Yes down to what she is and isn’t wearing. Do a run down on yourself.

Now put your most loved friend there. Betcha can’t do the same harsh inventory.

Why?

[Tweet “Well the truth is simple but it’s harsh. Are you sure you are ready for it?”]

You love her more.

I’ll wait while you process that one.

tick tock
tick tock

So yeah. About that? Here’s an image made by the fabulous Linda Ursin. Maybe you want to pin it for yourself or print it for your bathroom mirror.

sassysayings162

Can you make me a promise that just for today you won’t be negative about yourself? Maybe tell a friend about the promise and have them help you honor it.

You are worth the work.

Journal prompt today is “What gift am I overlooking? How can I better celebrate my own worth?”

Empress, World Spirit Tarot, Llwellyn

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on!

Cats, Birth + Creativity

MedievalCat_3EmpressToday’s card is from a 2004 deck. It’s not a deck I thought I would enjoy, but it has surprised me. It’s got a very whimsical feel to it even couched in the trappings of the medieval times.

Here is the Papess of the Medieval Cat Tarot. She represents the sacred feminine and is the Empress in most decks.

The Empress is a card that I truly love. The idea of being pregnant with possibility appeals to me. Yes, she is often a card associated with motherhood, but we often overlook the idea that giving birth can be to more than children.

As a writer, I give birth to my books. As a Tarot conversationalist, I give birth to new spreads.

There are so many things that we give birth to–even in small, every day ways when we have an idea that will help us do something better.

Acknowledge your own creative self. Celebrate the fecundity of your life.

Journal prompt is: “What have I given birth to in my life. What do I want to give birth to in my life? How can the energy of the Empress help me?”

Papess, Medieval Cat Tarot, US Games, aff

Whom Do You Impersonate?

Lowbrow_3EmpressToday’s card reminds me that I need to tell y’all one of my guilty secrets. I see this card as a invitation to indulge in that secret. You want to know what the secret is?

I don’t know if I can tell you.

Let’s talk about this card instead. It’s from a 2012 Schiffer deck called the Lowbrow Tarot. It was a compilation of artists who each worked on one of the twenty two major arcana. I am not a huge fan of Majors only Tarot but have been given some great advice recently on how I might turn that around.

This deck runs the gamut from super dark to almost whimsical art. It truly is a miniature art gallery. Here is the Empress from this deck. She’s an unusual Empress to my way of thinking. More High Priestess with her cool gaze and chaste colors, this Empress seems to be challenging the onlooker.

I expect a few things from an Empress. This one doesn’t deliver on all things. She’s so subtle you almost miss that full belly. That’s pretty much a must for me. She must be fertile and show it. She holds something in her hand. Is it heart? A jewelry box?

No. It’s a very traditional symbol for the Empress–a pomegranate. But I have to wonder how she can hold that juicy fruit and not get a drop on her!

Her hair is braided to look like wheat which is a terrific touch. Her breasts are definitely full and her chair could be a throne. She’s portrayed outside which is another thing I like my Empresses to be.

At her feet are the thing that reminds me of that guilty secret.

Poppies, my pretty. Poppies.

Yes, it’s true. I have a fair-to-middlin’ impersonation of the Wicked Witch of the West.

SHOCKER!

I’ve also read every, I think, Frank L. Baum book in that series. I was seriously hooked on Oz as a young girl. I think TickTock of Oz is my personal favorite with Glinda’s book coming in at number two.

So what about you? Do you do any impersonations?

Oh! I can also do a Jimmy Cagney “you dirty rat” in sign language.

Yeah, I’m a special type of talented.

Your 180 second challenge today? For three minutes practice impersonations in the mirror. You have to do it until you laugh–hard. This is one I suggest doing with a pal because you can get them to do theirs as well.

This isn’t about doing it well.

It’s about doing it until you laugh.

Are you with me? You dirty rats!

Empress, Lowbrow Tarot: An Artistic Collaborative Effort in Honor of Tarot,Schiffer Books, 2012

Seek Joy, Y’all. Pass it on.

P. to the S.  Want to become a radiant human being? Check out this online course (aff). I did it and loved it!

Who Will You Nurture?

The curtain is drawn back slightly to show the wall behind. I see this as an allegory for the softness of a woman’s outer self but the sheer mass of her internal “no, I am not a pushover.”

Chinese_3EmpresssmToday’s card is from an older deck that I truly love. It’s being re-released this year which makes me happy. This card reminds me that it is okay to pamper myself. It is okay to choose to live in beauty. I am to remind myself that I live in abundance.

Here the lovely Empress from the Chinese Tarot by Jui Guoliang (U.S. Games 1988) strikes a classic pose to indicate the fragility and strength of a woman. She holds a lotus blossom for enlightenment while her head is decorated in an Imperial style. I believe that the headpiece is a dragon for luck.

The curtain is drawn back slightly to show the wall behind. I see this as an allegory for the softness of a woman’s outer self but the sheer mass of her internal “no, I am not a pushover.”

I’ve long been fascinated with ancient Chinese history. Well any of the Asian cultures but China most of all. I devoured the Pearl S. Buck books. Weirdly, they felt familiar to me when I read them. Past life? I don’t know. Perhaps.

What I do know is that the bird on the curtain is the Chinese Golden Pheasant which is representative of the phoenix.

Take this woman down if you will.
Destroy her.
Strip her of everything she has.

She.
Will.
Rise.
Again.

It’s that simple. Nothing can keep you down. You are strong even if you feel fragile. Nurture yourself. Pamper yourself. Surround yourself with beauty. Invite only loving, supportive friends to your world. (Remember that sometimes love and support comes in the form of a gentle boot to the butt.)

Just for today, make three minutes about pampering you. Can you commit to 180 seconds of nurturing you? What will that look like?

You may know that I am in a contest. I don’t know where I stand. I was in 4th place last time I looked. I want to win this.

So, I am offering you a free reading if you buy this workbook by 12pm Pacific Standard tonight. Here are the details.

Empress, Chinese Tarot, US Games

Seek Joy, Y’all! Pass it on.

Bras, Queens & Fairy Godmothers

I’ve said that I would use this blog for my whole life rather than just Tarot. Of late, I’ve been primarily back to Tarot. In a way, it’s a challenge for me to try to loop everything back to Tarot somehow. It’s easy to do that with food, but what about foundation garments.

Foundation garments? Continue reading “Bras, Queens & Fairy Godmothers”

Tarot & Food: Baking Bread With The Empress

Empress (World Spirit Tarot)
Empress (World Spirit Tarot)

So, it’s time to visit the kitchen again. Yesterday I indulged in one of my favorite past times. Y’all know I love to cook. Well one of the most indulgent, decadent things I do is bread. I know–you were expecting chocolate silk pie, right? It’s funny. For as much of a sweet tooth as I have, I don’t bake very many desserts. But I love Continue reading “Tarot & Food: Baking Bread With The Empress”