Today’s card reminds me to believe in myself. When I listen to what old me says I can’t do, new me gets shut down. That’s no fun! The 8 of Coins is the card of the craftsman. I see it as the cycle of apprentice/journeyman/master. We are all at some point on that scale. Often it depends on what it is we are doing. For instance, I consider myself to be a master at the craft of Tarot reading but an apprentice when it comes to Astrology. It’s all good too. As long as I’m still learning, I’m succeeding. This is a fun representation of this mix of learner and learned in the Fantastic Menagerie’s Eight of Pentacles. Musicians are another form of artist who have an almost continuous learning curve.
My learning curve this past year is not something I really paid that much attention to until I got this planner for next year. If you’ve been paying attention, you know where I’m heading with this post. I’m going to go on and on about the some more, y’all. There’s so much here. I’m not even a quarter of the way through but already, I’ve had an epiphany. I’ll tell you about that epiphany on Wednesday.
The planner begins with an exercise that states as the very first line:
Here’s the place where we muck it up.
My first reaction? “Well that’s just not very nice, Leonie!” But, I’ve been a member of her site since June so I thought I might want to read on for one more sentence or so. Then I saw phrases like “taking stock” and “celebration + release” and “closing ceremony.” My fears were assuaged.
One of the questions in this closing ceremony was “What dreams came true during 2012?” I came up with four of them right off the bat. The first and second were the most important to me. They were the two that really were the biggest.
1. I created art.
2. I changed people’s lives.
Now those may seem fairly disparate or maybe even super out of balance in terms of importance. I suppose I could have lied to y’all and said that the second was the first and the first was the second, but well, that’s not true. That first one is a doozy for me.
I’ve shared some of my Zentangles here and there. The responses I’ve gotten have fed my soul in a myriad of ways. I get a bit choked up when I try to verbalize those ways. Art is one of those things I always thought wasn’t in the cards for me. I figured I was good to be able to write poetry and stories. My writing partner is an artist. She’s so talented that sometimes I felt a wee bit jealous of her.
Then two things happened. One was the Leonie Dawson Creative Goddess course. The other was Joanna Powell Colbert’s seasonal practice (I took the Lammas one). Both are online courses. Neither forces you to a strict “do it or you suck” time table. Both had these amazingly supportive souls on the same journey with me. Many of them were already visual artists. I was so intimidated when I saw their first pages of THEIR art journals. Mine looked like something a child (a really untalented one) might do. Goddess. It was excruciating to share my pages. But I did.
Then while I was doing that, I heard about, stumbled over, ran across Zentangle. And boom. I took a class (had to set multiple reminders on my phone that basically said “You paid $35 for this. Don’t back out.” And other *ahem* self-motivational admonishments. When that Sunday came, I was still looking for a way out including a mild wish to be hit by a bus. What was I thinking? Me? Doing art. HA to the HELL NO.
But I did. And I did. I mean…I did! I created things that were pretty. I showed my best friend who immediately dove in as well. She’s doing them as well. Zentangles, for me, have been a way to quiet my mind which helps my creativity.
Then there’s that second piece. That big, ballsy phrase about me changing people’s lives. I hesitated before I put that one down. It’s not one of those throwaway statements. But I’m going to talk more about that tomorrow.
Want to join me on this planner journey I’m on? I have a Facebook group (it’s seeeekrit). Let me know you’ve . I’ll give you the Seeeekrit code and, if you join by midnight yesterday, you’ll get the Seeeekrit Decoder Ring and the Super Seeeekrit Ranger Necktie too. (grin).
Seek Joy, Y’all! Pass it on.
8 of Coins, Fantastical Menagerie Tarot, The Magic Realist Press