the tarot home of jaymi elford: readings, thoughts, and more
Author: innowen
Jaymi Elford lives a tarot inspired life. A deck is always close at hand. She believes tarot is a perfect companion to help explore the world we live in. The author of Tarot Inspired Life and Triple Goddess Tarot continues to study, write, and create tarot innovation from her home in Portland, OR. Find her works in Llewellyn, Lo Scarabeo, The Cartomancer, The Tarosophist, and Megalithica Books. She also co-hosts two podcasts: Tarot Visions with Rose Red Robinson and Cardslingers with Melissa Cynova and Hilary Parry Haggerty. Finally, she’s slightly addicted to teaching techniques at tarot conferences.
Happy post-Imbolc and winter season. The winter blues turned into the winter flus and I’m just now getting over being sick. While I’m recovering, I wanted to tell you all about the two exciting events I’m participating in this month.
THIS SUNDAY, FEB. 10th
Do you wonder what’s in the cards for you this year? Join me at Visible Changes Salon in Vancouver for an afternoon of beauty consultations and tarot. I will be there from 12 to 3 offering free tarot advice to smoothly guide you through 2013. Many of the professional stylists will also be on hand to answer all of your beauty and nail questions as you enjoy free refreshments and a chance to win a $50 gift basket. Visible Changes is located in the Cascade Village 615 SE Chkalov Dr. Suite 2 Vancouver, WA 98683
PRESIDENT’S DAY WEEKEND
PantheaCon 2013 accepted my proposal for Becoming a Tarot Professional. I’ll be teaching this unique workshop circle on Monday, Feb 18th at 1:30 pm in the San Martin room.
Are you ready to become a tarot professional but are afraid? Going Pro presents a safe forum where you can learn how to take the fool’s plunge and start your own tarot business. Jaymi Elford has been laying the foundation for her own business for two years now. While she claims she’s no expert, she’s ready to share her knowledge about what to do, where to go, and how to get those spiffy marketing toys. I hope to see many of you at my workshop!
Happy Yule! Nice to see everyone’s doing okay after the alpacalypse. 🙂 This is the last blog hop of the year. Yule (also the Winter Solstice) brings about the shortest day of the year. This is a time when we’re taught to look within and find the light that can sustain us while the sun grows brighter. We huddle around the fire and share our gifts and stories and presents. This blog hop is wrangled by Alison Cross and I welcome everyone who joined in from Alison Coal’s blog.
Alison Cross asked us to write our thoughts about Christmas Present, in whatever incarnation we think Present means. In my personal winter tradition, I’ve been sick so it’s been hard to figure out what “Christmas Present” means to me. So I decided to see what the tarot had to say for me.
I pulled out my trusty tarot deck and asked the cards, What does Christmas Present mean to me? And wouldn’t you know it, two cards fell out while I shuffled: the Knight of Cups and The Chariot.
Knight of Cups from Rider Waite Smith (Dover edition)
On the traditional Rider Waite Smith card, the Knight of Cups holds out a cup, almost like he’s extending a present to another. When we give of ourselves or give things to others, we are learning to control and deal with emotions. Therefore, Christmas Present for me is showing love towards others as I want to be loved by them or by myself.
The Chariot from the Rider Waite Smith deck (Dover edition)
The Chariot, like the knight, is a fast moving card. Both cards are actively seeking out a perspective of learning or doing. Where the Knight of Cups seeks to master emotions through sharing gifts, The Chariot seeks the greater understanding found in the universe. Therefore, The Chariot represents Christmas Present to me by reminding me of the greater good that comes during this period of darkness. It reminds me that while things seem to be moving rather fast, it’s okay to pause and look around and enjoy what I think the true meaning of the season is.
What is everyone else doing for Yule? What does your Christmas Present mean to you? Please let me know in the comments below. Thank you for visiting my house on this dark Yule morning. To continue on with the Tarot Blog Hpp, please visit Chloe McCracken’s site.
A lot is going on about the Mayan and the end of their calendar. I’ve even had a few friends asking me what the Tarot thinks of it all. Here’s my response:
The Wheel of Fortune from the Shadowscapes Tarot
What should I be aware of for December 21st?
The Wheel of Fortune. The date, just like any other solstice, reminds us of another spinning of the wheel. This turn brings us from Autumn to Winter and the world, will continue passing from season to season.
What will come out of this?
9 of Cups from The Shadowscapes Tarot by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
The Nine of Cups. People will make whatever they want out of it. Some people, those who are spiritually minded, look to this change as if it will bring some deeper change on a metaphysical level. Most will see it as just another day and continue their daily patterns.
Anything else we should know?
Ace of Cups from The Shadowscapes Tarot by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Ace of Cups. No matter what happens on this date, the end of this calendar heralds a new emotional cycle. The Ace designates a beginning of a new cycle, and this is a new era.
The fact that there are two cups cards and one major arcana suggests that this date is an emotionally and somewhat spiritually charged. However, since there are no swords, wands, or coins… I’m confident that this isn’t the end of everything.
Blessed Samhain everyone. This is a holiday of connecting with our ancestors, the ones who have gone before us; of facing our fears and our darker sides; and of divination. It’s a misty, dark autumn morning as I type this. This blog hop is wrangled by Amethyst and I welcome those who have arrived here from the lovely RoseRed Robinson’s blog, one of my favorite tarot peeps.
For this blog hop Amethyst asked us to: “Explore your Shadow side. What aspects of yourself do you feel like you have to keep hidden? Sometimes this takes form of hiding our magical selves from the “normal” world. If Harry Potter taught us anything, it is that we must hide from the Muggles.” This is a pertinent topic for me as I feel like I am riding the waves in my Shadow side. Everyone has a shadow side, whether you recognize it or not. It’s those darker aspects of yourself… the things that make you worry, fear, and just want to hide from everything.
In perfect Samhain tradition, I’m using my Zombie Tarot deck for this post. It’s a great deck for exploring the shadow side without feeling like you’re drowning in it. And I love zombies. For this blog hop, I pulled a few cards that relate to the following questions.
The Chariot from the Zombie Tarot
What mask does my my Shadow side wear right now?
The Chariot. This card shows a 1950s style hearse that has been modified to have a double barrel machine gun. The driver shoots a pistol at an unknown shambler. While his companion fires the guns. A coffin hangs halfway out of the back. Dead zombies lay all around. This is a card of escape! Of running away from the things want to hurt me. The shadow side haunts me, cutting off all my escape routes. I fight back standing still, wasting ammo, and running around without at plan.
The 6 of Hazards from the Zombie Tarot
What message does my Shadow side have for me right now?
Six of Hazards (aka Pentacles). This card shows a human wearing a lab coat, dangling a human brain at the end of handmade fishing pole. A chained zombie pushes a lawnmower towards a plot of grass. This card warns of the price of rewards. My shadow side tells me that while giving myself pats on the back in the forms of gifts, those gifts may be doing more harm to me. They may add weight to my body, or make it so that any progress on my creative works may always require that proverbial carrot. In the end, I need to be a human, not the zombie.
Eight of Swords from the Zombie Tarot
What must be done to move out of the dark and into the light?
Eight of Swords. In this card, we see a ribcage prison holding a heart, lungs, an upside down brain, and a human man crouched at the chicken wire fence holding him in. A sword, his salvation, lies just outside the wire, stopping him from getting free. This is an offering. In order for me to move forward from feeling trapped to my Shadow side, I must first stop combating it. I should sit still, meditate. For only within the stillness can I see that I am not really trapped. That I can lift the wire boundary off the ground and crawl my way to freedom and safety from the zombies.
What are you doing to face the Shadow side of yourself for Samhain? Please let me know in the comments below. Thank you for visiting my house on this dark Samhain eve. To continue on with the Tarot Blog Hpp, please visit Mary’s Harmonic Spirit blog.
Autumn Leaves at the Japanese Gardens (photo from 2007 by me)
Blessed Mabon. I’d like to welcome all the visitors from Donna Faber’s lovely website. Mabon, also known as the Fall Equinox, is a time of rebalancing our energies. We thank the world and summer for giving us a hearty bounty. We also acknowledge the time to rediscover and balance the light and darkness that can be within us. And apparently… it’s a good time to make mead.
Of all the cards in the Tarot, of all the spreads you may use, of all the meanings and significances of relationships between cards, which to you most truly bespeaks the Power of Transformation? What is the crux of your Search for the Hidden God, your Mabon Mystery, that power which makes you able to transform your Self, your circumstances, and produce something better than that with which you began? It is this which I ask of you as a focus for your Blog Hop posting. Show us your Mabon Gift, your Transformation. Make Mead with us, and we will all rejoice!
This year has been a very transformative year for me. Last year, at this time, I was invited into a goddess project. I wrote a little bit about this project for the Ostara blog hop. Last weekend was the culmination of the year long journey with this mask. We made magic during our ritual using song and theater. Afterwords, I reaped the stories attendees told to me. Here I sit, a week later, still processing the festival moments and stories.
Which leads me to this blog hop topic Mead Making (or incense making). Carl Neal held a Incense Making 101 workshop and I got to make two types of incense. And I’m using the components he talked about to frame the idea of making and transformation as my post. He taught us that incense is composed of three ingredients: a base, aromatic, and a binder. Separated these three ingredients don’t look like much, but when combined in just the right amounts, they transform into olefactory heaven.
Will all this said, here’s my recipe for transformation using tarot cards for ingredients.
The Tower from The Shadowscapes Tarot
The Tower: The base is used to assist in burning and it can mellow out strong scents. The Tower is my base because it’s Lilith’s card. As a Goddess, she is ever present, blunt and stands to assist others in their spiritual searches. Goddesses also form the base of many spiritual practices, so this also seemed fitting because I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate her into my own daily tarot/spirituality practices. The Tower is a card of strong and immediate transformations. If you are not living your life with authenticity and integrity, Lilith will invoke the powers of the Tower to strip yourself bare and look deep within.
The Magician from The Shadowscapes Tarot
The Magician: The aromatic part is the stuff you smell when incense is burned. And for my aromatic, I’ve chosen the Magician. This card represents me, who I see myself, and my passion for inspiring magic in everything I do. Magic, and tarot, is the scent of my life. The Magician is the intent, the beginning and the I. Without the I, we cannot work any magic in our life.
Temperance from The Shadowscapes Tarot
Temperance: The binder is the glue that holds this all together. Temperance represents my binder for it’s the card of alchemy, of art, and balance. It’s the act of transformation in motion. Temperance is also the card I associate with the Equinox. Temperance is the key to balancing all the light and shadow aspects around us. When we use the power of this card, we blend the high notes of light, in with the dark, musty notes of our shadow selves to create a blend that is unique and truly our own calling.
In the recipe of my own mead, these are the ingredients that help spur on my transformation. They contain the lighter notes of flowers I enjoy (like daffodils and roses) and the musky shadow scents (like vetivert and patchuli) that get blended together through the power of adding just the right amount of binder (glue or alcohol) to create the person I am at any given moment. Of course, the other 75 cards of tarot blend their scents to occasionally alter the scent when burned but lately… these three cards form the basis of any core transforming I have in my life.
What grapes of the harvest will you pull to make your blend of mead? What light and shadow sides will you include to pour into the pot of transformation? I’d love to know, so please comment below. Thank you for stopping by Tarot Inspired Life. To continue the blog hop, please click here to visit Christiane’s blog.
