We recently sat down with Vanessa Bartlett on her amazing podcast The Aquarean.

Vanessa invited us on to talk allllll about tarot, our practice, what brought us to this work, the Golden Dawn, shadow work and even our relationship, which is...something we don't discuss often. At least not in this depth!

Did you know that one of the most potent ways to work with the cards, to truly understand their essence beyond the books, is to sit in contemplation/meditation with them? Not only does this open a portal or gateway into the caves of that archetype, it also takes us deeper into ourselves.

A year ago we began producing meditation music to accompany each of the Major Arcana. We publish these on a semi-regular basis on YouTube and are nearing the completion of that series. But, it occurs to me that we haven’t talked much about how one can simply and practically work with that material. Or, how to just meditate with the cards in general!

About 4 weeks ago I stopped drinking my daily brew. And it’s not just coffees and lattes I gave up, but all types of caffeine in all of its forms. I have been drinking coffee solidly for close to 20 years, so to give up my daily cup is kind of a big deal…for me.

I did this for a few reasons mostly related to health and overall wellbeing. For starters, a lot of coffee gives me heartburn. Oddly enough, a Starbucks triple latte goes down super smooth, but it’s painful for my wallet. On top of digestive reasons, I also started to become super aware of the ups and downs that come from it and how sensitive I am to those fluctuations. Leading up to this decision, and on the back of it, I’ve also had a lot of insight come to me around energy and more specifically, where I get mine from and how I use it. And with this insight, I’ve been taking steps to eliminate unhealthy forms of energy acquisition, while focusing on getting it in more sustainable ways.

Infinity is a a strange and interesting concept. It can be difficult to grasp, let alone pin down with words. Regardless, we can intuit it's meaningfulness. Whether you have an interest in the symbol, or its use in tarot, I think it's a universally noteworthy concept. And, regardless of what we know or don't know about the way it works, we sense there's something to it, worthy of exploration.

If you are a reader of the cards, then you’ve definitely noticed the symbol for infinity used a number of times throughout the deck. Far from an arbitrary artistic detail, the infinity symbol serves a purpose. But, what is it? What can the cards teach us about it and what can it teach us about the cards?

On March 17th, doors open to our SEVENTH(!) year of Pull Pen Paint - A 10-month journey of Self-Discovery using signs, symbols, and systems in your spiritual and creative practice. I just sent an email newsletter with all the details, but I know not all our readers are on that so I wanted to make sure I share in this space as well.

The program is open for registration and students are already making handmade journals; organizing binders; and gathering their oracle & tarot decks, crystals, art supplies, woo-woo tools, and other goodies for a dive into learning more about who they are and how they move through the world. They are all connecting to their intuitive voices as they prepare for the opening circle on March 17th. 

When one is identified with one’s ego and the mental narrative that has been constructed around one's experience of life – like pretty much all of us are most of the time – it can be a major challenge to approach one’s esoteric studies from an objective standpoint. Why is that? In this mode of operation, our knowledge becomes a defining part of our self-image, which we are compelled to protect when it becomes threatened. When we are in this space, our enquiries are powered by the Thinker and the Prover, as they are termed by Robert Anton Wilson*:

"I identify with this piece of knowledge, so I must prove its validity – or disprove any other piece of information that challenges its validity."

We just missed Capricorn season with this one! While not totally on schedule, we’re pleased to bring you our 15th musickal meditation, this one designed in the essence and energy of The Devil.

As with all meditations, you may opt to simply enjoy the music on its own, or work with some of the suggestions provided to perform a fuller ritual. We do hope you enjoy the sounds! We will be updating the YouTube page regularly as we add more tracks as well as storing all links on a separate page of this site, so they are easy to find! Keep reading to learn more about connecting with The Devil!

You know we love to play “link the cards” over here (see 78 Connections). The other day we were exploring a reading and we were reminded of a certain little detail that pops up in 4 of the 78 cards, 3 of which are majors. We touched on this briefly in a post we did sometime back exploring the symbolism of The Fool. The detail in question is, of course, the red feather.

The red feather can be seen on the heads of The Fool, Death and the child in The Sun. It can also be seen on the Page of Wands, and likely carries many of the same themes that we’ll be looking at, but for the purpose of this post, we’ll be sticking to just the Majors.

We’re getting this one in right before Sagittarius season comes to a close! This will be our 14th Musickal Meditation, tapping into the essence and energy of our alchemical angel, Temperance.

As with all meditations, you may opt to simply enjoy the music on its own, or work with some of the suggestions provided to perform a fuller ritual. We do hope you enjoy the sounds! We will be updating the YouTube page regularly as we add more tracks as well as storing all links on a separate page of this site, so they are easy to find! Keep reading to learn more about connecting with Temperance!

It’s that time!! 2023 is right around the corner, so it’s the perfect opportunity to examine the numerological shift that is upon us, both collectively and as individuals.

In this post, we’ll discuss the overall vibration of 2023 on a collective level, as well as the Personal Year Number system, including how to calculate your place within it. Keep in mind, while there are some predictive elements to this, we would encourage you to regard this information more as guidance. “What is the energy available?” “How can I best work within it?” “How can I get the most out of it?” This will allow for a much more fluid approach that meets each of us where we are, rather than define where we are headed. In the same way that moon phases help us see our lives within a greater cycle, so too can the the personal year wheel put us in touch with the flow of numbers.

For the entirety of 2022, Death has been a major theme for us. Not only does it continually come up in readings, we’ve also both experienced some major shifts in life this year, providing more evidence of this force in motion. Because it’s been such a thing for us, we’ve been a bit slower with this write up. Turns out though, divine timing wins again as we’re now less than a week away from Scorpio season (associated with Death), so it’s all worked out.

So, we hope this track serves you and on a personal note, we’re hoping it also helps us to properly assimilate these energies and the messages they have for us.

As with all meditations, you may opt to simply enjoy the music on its own, or work with some of the suggestions provided to perform a fuller ritual. We do hope you enjoy the sounds! We will be updating the YouTube page regularly as we add more tracks as well as storing all links on a separate page of this site, so they are easy to find! Keep reading to learn more about connecting with Death!

With Scorpio season quickly approaching, we are reminded of the importance of life, death and letting things come to pass. Associated with the tarot card Death, Scorpio alludes to transience; the need to make space for things to end, transform and move from one state to the next. We give the seasons this grace each year, and so it’s equally as important in our own life that we honour the cycles, and make peace with this powerful force.

Death, change and transformation can be scary, which is why we often see the Death card depicted so bleakly. But, it’s also natural. In fact, when we try to evade death’s inevitability, we often find out how futile it is to cling to something past expiry. In other words, we can't escape the pain of goodbyes by holding on for too long. Everything has a consequence, after all.

Every year around October (for the last few years) we update and enjoy our High Priestess Halloween playlist. It features 55 songs that aren’t the Monster Mash, and while we probably wouldn’t recommend it for parties, it is a vibe and a mood that definitely says “spooky”.

Listen or follow along to get into the season! Full playlist after the cut!

We don't talk a lot about shadow work in this space, though it is an important part of our practice, both personally and professionally. It can be a difficult thing to try to convey, teach on, or talk about though as it’s a very personal and inward affair. Despite that, we’ve wanted to broach it for sometime, we just hadn’t quite figured out how to do that. But, we also think it’s due time we explore it deeper, especially as we head into October; colder nights and darker days.

In light of all this, we have put something together that we hope will serve those looking to immerse themselves in a shadow work journey, with the aid of tarot. It’s formatted a bit like a tarot challenge, but we aren't actually challenging anyone to do this work in a month, or share it for that matter. We’ve structured it in this way because it allows us to offer complex topics in bite-sized packages, mixed with our own musings and brought to life with the aid of prompts for further integration.

This comprehensive overview of the concept of the shadow and shadow work, is meant to serve as a complement to the 30-day immersive we have also developed. You can keep reading this primer, if you haven’t already, and when you’re ready, you may begin your own journey into the deep.

Today, to usher in the beginning of Fall on this side of the world, I’m rehashing an old blog post from 2018! September and October are mine and Tim’s favourite months. They have such a unique feeling, not to mention the weather and natural landscapes are so beautiful.

Around this time, I also engage with my practice a little differently, and as such, tend to use different decks. In this post, I’ll be sharing decks from our personal collection that I love to use this time of year; ones that have a bit of a dark, spooky or shadowy vibe.

We’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to conduct an ethical tarot business/practice. It’s a topic we’ve touched on before, and one in which many other practitioners have lent their perspective. I think it’s important to regularly come back to it though because as with all things, our ideals and principles evolve over time. This way we can reassess how those evolving values impact the work we do, and determine if our conduct is still in alignment, or if some tweaking is required.

During a recent mentoring session, we found ourselves on the topic of elements. This obviously isn’t an uncommon place to travel when discussing the cards, however, after the session ended, the conversation continued. Through that, we began to think of the elements not just as reference points to understanding the cards, but as a framework to becoming more proficient with them.

In other words, what can the elements teach us about becoming effective tarot card readers? How can we use these basic concepts to enhance our practice and ensure we’re approaching things in a balanced and whole way?

We’re back with another track in our Musickal Meditation series. This installment features The Hanged Man. I’m excited to share this one because The Hanged Man has come to be a very special card both personally and within the context of our work here. Its mysteries have captivated us over the last couple of years, and we’ve learned so much from the themes it conveys: surrender, the law of reversal, altered states of consciousness and exchanging the material for the spiritual (while honouring both).

As with all meditations, you may opt to simply enjoy the music on its own, or work with some of the suggestions provided to perform a fuller ritual. We do hope you enjoy the sounds! We will be updating the YouTube page regularly as we add more tracks as well as storing all links on a separate page of this site, so they are easy to find! Keep reading to learn more about connecting with The Hanged Man.

Today (Wednesday the 13th) is the Full Moon in Capricorn and in light of this, we’ve been reflecting on the sign, its ruling planet (Saturn) and the tarot card associated with it (The Devil).

What can those three aspects show us and how can we engage with them to get the most of this full moon?