New Directions and Change...

This past week or so has been eventful for me. I've had two migraines, which stinks. I was able to get over them fairly quickly, which is excellent. I think I've figured out the regimen that works for me to get rid of my migraines when they happen. Hopefully they won't happen that often. Two in a week is fairly unusual for me since I know and can generally avoid my primary triggers (certain foods, hormonal changes, some bug bites). I think these were triggered by bug bites.

Anyway... Personally and spiritually this has been a big week for me. I had a brainstorm that is pretty momentous for me. I have been struggling for a long time with how to work with my two seemingly disparate passions, dog training/animals and Tarot/spirituality stuff. I had an idea this week that brings things together in a way I'd never thought of before. I'm actually quite excited about this, more so than I've been in a long time. I had the idea to do Tarot and healing work for our pets and animal companions, including shamanic communication and healing and healing with crystals and stones. Many years ago, I had planned on going to veterinary school. I was, and still am, very passionate about animals. My life took a different turn when I had chronic illness issues come up. No vet school for me. Since then I have become very frustrated with conventional veterinary and human medicine. Oh, it has it's place, absolutely. But there's so much that it doesn't do, so many perspectives that just don't make sense. Since becoming sick and since having pets on my own, I have been lead in directions I might not ever have been lead if I wasn't dealing with chronic illness. I have become very aware of holistic and alternative healing modalities. I've changed and grown into new spiritual perspectives. What if this is part of the purpose of my chronic illness? What if I would have gone to vet school and been dissatisfied? With my experiences with veterinary technician training, horseback riding, dog training, as well as owning a wide variety of critters over the years and working with many others, I feel that I could be a great help with utilizing alternative healing for pets.

So I am looking into working with Tarot, shamanic communication and healing, and energetic healing with crystals and stones for helping pets and animal companions. I truly believe in these modalities, though they are not a substitute for conventional medicine. I believe they can be of great use alongside conventional medicine in healing. I'm an evidence based person with a degree in Biology. The science based, rational side of me is rolling its eyes at the spiritual side of me right now. But I have personal experience with these modalities helping people and pets. I know others who have experience with these modalities helping their pets and animal companions. I've had personal experiences that serve as evidence for me that these modalities are valid and work. While the placebo affect can be argued for their effectiveness in humans, there is no placebo affect in animals. Something either works or doesn't with our pets and animal companions.

I saw our failing guinea pig revitalize and gain back lost weight with Reiki. I watched this guinea pig who was absolutely terrified of being handled come from the far back corner of her cage to sit under the Reiki practitioner's hand placed on the top of the cage to receive treatment. I watched as this sweet piggie regained vitality for several weeks after the Reiki treatment before deteriorating again. We went through this 3 times with Reiki helping her each time before she finally passed away due to old age.

A friend had an animal communicator pinpoint the exact spot on her horse's hoof under which was the cause of an intermittent and recurring lameness that the farrier and vet had failed to pinpoint. This allowed for direct veterinary and farrier treatment which eliminated the issue and the lameness.

And quite a few other stories all similar... While some may still discount these stories, they have validated my personal experiences and belief in alternative healing modalities.

So this is the direction I'll be pursuing. I'm not sure how to go about this or how to talk about these services without sounding like a nut. I'm just trusting that this is the path I'm supposed to follow for now. I'm trusting that I'll be lead to the resources I need for doing this.

If you have stories about how holistic/alternative treatments helped your pets and animal companions, please share them in the comments below. If you'd like to learn more about how these modalities might help your animal companions, please email me. Please understand that these modalities are NOT a substitute for qualified veterinary care. I will NOT give diagnoses and I STRONGLY recommend first seeing a qualified veterinarian to have your pet's health issue diagnosed and treated by appropriate medical means before and while pursuing alternative treatment modalities.

Deck Interview Spread with The Halloween Tarot

In the spirit of the upcoming Halloween holiday, this post I interview The Halloween Tarot. It's a quirky, Halloween themed Tarot deck, as implied by the name. Though it uses whimsical Halloween imagery, make no mistake, this is a nice and functional deck. This deck is a standard 78 card Tarot deck, with the "traditional" Major and Minor Arcana. In the theme of Halloween, the images are all related through Halloween characters. The Minor Arcana has been altered in that Pentacles becomes Pumpkins, Cups become Ghosts, Swords become Bats, and Wands become Imps. The imagery does tend to follow the "traditional" imagery, with a Halloween twist. It comes with a little white book, though a more expanded full book is available. The full book has expanded descriptions and meanings for the cards and a more in depth section in the introduction on the history of Halloween. The LWB (little white book) does a more than adequate job of explaining the cards. I also just found out that this deck comes in a slightly smaller version packaged in a tin. I have the standard version.

Here is a picture of the deck interview spread with The Halloween Tarot.

My deck interview spread is fairly simple. I ask four questions. What should I know about your personality and characteristics as a deck? What are your strengths as a deck? What are your weaknesses as a deck? What types of readings do you prefer to do/answer?  I also recently added a fifth question. What else should I know about working with you as a deck?

What should I know about your personality and characteristics as a deck?
Hanged Man, Chariot, Queen of Bats
     This is a deck that likes to look at things from a different perspective. It emphasizes movement and taking control as you nurture thoughts, perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs.

What are your strengths as a deck?
2 of Bats, 10 of Imps, 4 of Pumpkins
     This deck excels at taking indecisiveness and feeling overburdened and turning it into planting seeds for future stability and prosperity.

What are your weaknesses as a deck?
The Moon, 8 of Bats, 10 of Ghosts
     This deck has limitations with not seeing things for what they are and indecision with emotions and relationships

What types of readings do you prefer?
5 of Bats, 7 of Bats, High Priestess
      This deck prefers readings that help in leaving behind conflicting thoughts, perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs and helping you to use and trust your intuition.

What else should I know about working with you as a deck?
The Emperor, 8 of Ghosts, 9 of Pumpkins
     Working with this deck can be about taking control and stabilizing your life by leaving behind, walking away from, and not focusing on your emotions as much so you can have appreciation for a good life or the good in your life.


Also available is an adorable Halloween Playing Cards deck that has similar imagery. This is a full playing card deck with Ace-King of each of the 4 suits of hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs, and two jokers. In the center of each card is a small image that can be seen in an expanded version in The Halloween Tarot. This playing card deck can be used for divination (if you use playing cards for divination) or as a simple Oracle deck using the small central image on each card, in addition to being used as a regular playing card deck.

Left-The back of the cards of The Halloween Tarot
Right-The Halloween Playing Card deck

I hope you've enjoyed this deck interview spread with The Halloween Tarot. Please join me for more deck interview spreads in the future.

Deck Interview Spread for The Halloween Oracle

This week is my first time using The Halloween Oracle. I was saving it for October, as we draw nearer to Halloween. This deck has 36 cards that are based on aspects of the Halloween tradition. It includes themes of "black cats, vampires, zombies, witches, werewolves, jack-o-lanterns, skeletons, mummies, and characters from the Mexican Day of the Dead tradition." After working with this deck this week, I have found it to be very subtle and introspective. I got relatively immediate intuitive hits, but needed to read the book descriptions to fully understand what the cards meant. It sometimes took a little while for me to fully understand a reading. I do think the messages were very applicable to me.

Here is the picture of the deck interview spread for The Halloween Oracle.

My deck interview spread is fairly simple. I ask four questions. What should I know about your personality and characteristics as a deck? What are your strengths as a deck? What are your weaknesses as a deck? What types of readings do you prefer to do/answer?

What should I know about your personallity and characteristics as a deck?
Eternal love-Love is love is love and it transcends physical death
         This deck is about love, reminding us what we love about ourselves. It also wants to work with us to help us open up to new experiences.

What are your strengths as a deck?
Midnight-The most magical hour of all
     Helping us through transitions and transformations. Helping us to maintain hope during difficult and dark times. Helping us to acknoweldge, accept, and balance both the darkness and light within ourselves.

What are your weaknesses as a deck?
Spider-Community and web-weaving
     Discernment between the internal and the external. How we balance between self and others. Discerning the support of others vs. others controlling us. How we communicate with others.

What types of readings do you prefer?
Ghost-Regret
     Helping us to let go of regret and the past. Helping us to take actions to free ourselves from old burdens, so that we may live again more fully. Helping us to let go of what was and step into new possibilities.


I hope you enjoyed this deck interview spread with The Halloween Oracle. Please join me for more deck interview spreads in the future.

Bittersweet Changes...

I'm working through some changes in my life right now. I realized that my current favorite working Tarot deck just isn't right for helping me to work through these necessary changes. So I'm changing my focus and my primary working deck for now. It feels a bit bittersweet. The Sun and Moon Tarot has been my primary working deck for several years now. It is the very first deck that I was ever able to read intuitively. It was the deck that I learned to read the Tarot with. It was the first deck I used in reading Tarot for others. For some reason I feel like I'm moving away from an old friend. For now, I've come to realize that this deck tends to reflect back the situation or how I'm feeling about the situation. I need to work with a deck that is good at helping me see new perspectives and how to move forward.

I was drawn to three decks from my collection. The Wild Unknown, the Joie de Vivre, and The Tarot of the Magical Forest. I was having a hard time trying to decide which to use. I started by doing a 5 card reading from each deck on what I need to know right now. Then I asked each deck how it might best help me move forward and drew 6 cards. I ended up choosing 2 decks, the Joie de Vivre and the Tarot of the Magical Forest. I'm looking forward to working with these two decks, though it's a bit bittersweet.

I've placed these two decks in my "working deck" bag. My beloved Sun and Moon Tarot will be moved into the storage ottoman at the foot of the bed, with all the rest of the decks in my collection. I couldn't help but say a few kind words to this wonderful deck that has been with me every step of the way on my Tarot journey so far. I know it's an inanimate object, but this deck has helped me learn and guided me for several years. I've developed a relationship with it that can never be replaced. Rest well beloved deck. I look forward to working with you again in the future.

I've already done a deck interview spread for the Joie de Vivre deck. I will do a deck interview spread for the Tarot of the Magical Forest here shortly. My attention feels divided with this change and moving into the Halloween season and wanting to do deck interview spreads for my Halloween type decks. I'll get around to doing all of them. I'm really looking forward to this next month as we draw closer to Halloween.



https://www.llewellyn.com/product.php?ean=9780738714127
http://www.paulina.ws/joiedevivre/
http://www.thewildunknown.com/products/tarot-deck