Staying Home Sick and Motherpeace Tarot

I decided it is not fair to only write when I'm feeling good, energetic and healthy. But sadly, there's nothing much to report, since I've basically been stuck inside in my pajamas for days on end. One day I did get dressed:

but still felt like this:

SO! I thought I would take this quiet-time opportunity to show you something I am totally in love with lately: the tarot deck that I've been studying. I got the Motherpeace Tarot deck at the used book store where I work (amazingly still in their box in perfect condition) and I found the accompanying book in our goddess section. This is the kind of thing I was totally into at 19 but haven't taken much time for lately. I needed it.

On our recent trip to the hot springs I finally took the time to really begin to read the book and look at the cards. First amazing thing about them: the cards are round! Big round smooth circles with colorful art depicting empowering scenes from tribal and communal feminine life. Alice Walker calls them "a wise and loving oracle." I love holding them in my hands and gazing at them. I am still learning to clumsily shuffle them, but that's okay.

Reading and studying the Motherpeace tarot has reawakened my interest in ancient history, Goddess and tribal cultures, mythology, and natural healing. These are things I am passionate about all along, every day of my life, but I find that sometimes I let them slip into the background of my consciousness. Now, just drawing one card for myself at the end of each day and reading about its meanings and symbols, I feel more connected to a vast body of spiritual women that resonates through time and space.

And just in case you think this is all totally weird...I like the way Vicki Noble puts it: "visionary (or shaman) art lies at the root of human culture and functions as a base for any leap into the future. If we would heal the body, we must first imagine it well. If we would heal the planet, we must first envision peace." I like the way she sees tarot as "visionary art," and the way she describes her own creative process of drawing and designing them in the late 70s. I love thinking of the tarot deck as an imaginative game that I can use to access some place of light and timelessness and healing and creativity inside myself.

As a game it is fun for me, but also I think it is communicative and transformative, entering a space out of the ordinary and into the magical.

Last night I read a fascinating article by the same author: Letting Nature Take its Course. I was inspired and thinking about how I would love to regularly get together my community of women (and men if they were so inclined) to celebrate spiritually in a group for purposes of healing and ritual.

This was the card I drew, the 3 of cups, perfectly illustrating my idea...

And this one, the ten of discs, which I absolutely love, I have drawn twice since starting all this... fertility blessings hmm?! a circle of loving women holding baskets and surrounding a birthing woman as a wisewoman catches the baby...heaven.

On Thanksgiving night I drew the Fool, a card that I identify with easily.

maybe it was saying, don't worry, you'll get your spunk back soon!

The first one I drew, that night that we were in the lodge at the hot springs, was the Empress.

She embodies everything I strive for: the Great Mother. Harmony, Community, Growth.

The ancient sensual nature. Communal life, peace, children, love. Manifestation, positive imagination.

For me, that is what this tarot is all about.

I hope you are all having peaceful journeys of your own. I'd love to hear about them!