Coming soon to my yard (Dark Arts and Crafts BBQ and Drumming Parties)

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Hi everyone--welcome to another exciting edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. The theme for this hop is "The Sun Harvest -- What end of summer harvest do you want to bring in before fall?"

*falls on floor laughing*

Hey kids, do you know what time it is?

"Howdy Doody Time?"

"Tool Time?"

"Dinner time?"

"Time for ice cream?"

"Oh, no--he is going to talk about his yard again, isn't he?"

"Again and again and again..."

Yes, that is right. I am going to talk about my yard again.

But first, a slight sidetrack.

Let me tell you about my July. And my original summer harvest goal...

So my wife was out of town for an entire month. She went to Costa Rica for language immersion--she teaches ESL. And I would be left in peace and quiet.

I figured that I would work on my summer goal of having a novel (an entire novel--50,000 words) done by September 1st.

I failed to realize that I was not actually going to get peace and quiet while she was gone. What I got was a bunch of garden remodeling contractors interrupting my schedule--both sleep and work. In the end, I got just a few good writing days out of the month.

Hence, I am not going to have either "Axe Murderer of Titan" or "Heartbreaker" done in time to meet my original goal. Or at least, I am not holding my breath at this point.

And in all honesty, it may have been too optimistic for me to aim for that goal in the first place.

Why did I chose September 1st as a goal for my next release date?

Well, it was the garden remodeling.

"See, I told you that he was going to talk about his garden remodel again. And again. And again."

When my wife decided that she was going to spend her inheritance on remodeling the garden, she thought that it was all going to be done by the first of June.

I laughed.

My father used to do remodeling and construction. I spent many summers and Christmas vacations on various job sites as my father tried to get me interested in the exciting and profitable world of construction and remodeling. I was not interested in that type of construction (don't get me started on the task of Fictional World Building--we will be here all day). [I was also not interested in farming and auto mechanics, just in case you are curious.]

Therefore, I had experience. I knew better. I did not need to pull out my Tarot cards to know that she was wrong. I saw her June first, and raised her a bet of September first.

And given that I am in the midst of a rebranding and relaunch of my career as a writer, what better way to celebrate than to release a book in one of the two new series I was working on?

(Axe Murderer of Titan--science fiction--pilot book of Icarus Above a Dark Earth.)

(Heartbreaker--urban fantasy--book one of Queen's Huntsman.)

But as I said, I don't think that I am going to make it.

I am still going to try.

After all, I still would like to have a book releasing near the date of my first Dark Arts and Crafts BBQ Party With Optional Drumming.

We will just have to see what happens.

The Sun--from the unfinished Monkey Tarot.

So what am I actually going to harvest this summer?

A sidewalk that does not kill people.

I kid you not--the sidewalk that they just dug out was that bad.

And a fence.

Because I like to pretend that I am not that neighbor.

You know--the neighbor that might be an evil Tarot reading witch who meets clients at his house.

Plus my storage sheds and the house trim got repaired and painted.

Basically, it is the yard and garden that I always wanted. The type of yard that one expects to find strange musicians, pot smoking artists, writers of the odd and wonderful, evil witches, and wise Tarot readers in. You know--my type of party.

And yes. it will be a monthly thing with BBQ and drumming. (Well, after my wife finishes her second Master degree work.)

Here is a video showing the current state of the yard...sort of...it devolved into a game of How Many Complaining Cats Can You Count?

[Mad Uncle Morgan shows off his yard.]

{For some reason, Blogger is not letting me embed the video.}

Oh about that September first estimate on mine? Well, we were informed just yesterday that the back gate we want will take a month to get the custom order done.

Damn good fortune telling considering that I never pulled out my Tarot deck for this one.

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New Year Wishes (Tarot Blog Hop)

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Welcome to the Yule 2017 edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. Our wrangler, Ania, asked us to consider what card best represented our past year, and what card best represented our wishes for next year.

Death--sitting on a pile of past decisions and events while looking for a way to move forward. 

2017 was a year of Death for me. Literal death.

Early in the year, the president of the board of Hearthstone Community Church, Alia Denny died. That shook me up. Well, it shook the whole board up--not just me. The most basic of questions, such as "Would Hearthstone continue without Alia?" had already been answered. (Yes, it would--that is why we had a full board for the administration of the church.) Other questions, such as "With Alia gone, does Morgan still get to walk around and act weird?" are still being answered. (Honestly, I used Alia as a safety net--I got to be odd while she held down the respectable community member role--along with the other board members.) I have been considering my role in the local Wiccan/pagan community ever since she has died--"Do I want to take a bigger role in the community? Do I need to? Would the community be better off without me?"

Then my mother-in-law committed suicide, due to health issues, during the summer. Donna was my wife's best friend--her and my wife loved one another very much--shopping together, they went on vacation once together to Yellowstone. My wife and my brother-in-law took her death hard. And I was surprised how much it stirred up my own issues (my ongoing mental illness--depression, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, occasional roller coaster mood swings). I was more deeply affected by these two deaths than the death of my own mother a couple of years ago. As for my wife, some days are better than others--the best I can do is try to be supportive.

It is that "try to be supportive" part that has been the hardest for me. I don't come from a family that taught one to be supportive. Or maybe it was just my place in the family. Basically, my role was to sacrifice everything, including my own desires, for the good of my mother and my siblings. As such, I never feel that I am doing enough for others--and I will sacrifice my own damn good for other people without thinking about it. And it drives my wife insane that I do so. I swear I am trying to help as I run around destroying my own chances for success--and all the while I resent what I think that I am required to do. At some point, I realized that the best I could do to be supportive was to try to act like a normal person--it has not been easy--I have never done so much medical marijuana in my life to keep myself emotionally stable.

Remaining stable has been complicated by the fact that my wife's job hunt was interrupted by her mother's death...which leads to the card that I have chosen for next year.

[Designing the Death card for the Monkey Tarot, I decided to depict the card with a monkey sitting on a pile of skulls wearing a Day of the Dead mask, holding in one hand a bunch of flowers and in the other, a pomegranate. Essentially, we sit on a throne of the bones of our ancestors, making jokes to make sense of the harshness of the universe, watching death be quick and sudden one day, slow and lingering the next, while watching out for those moments that are not the end, but rather a beginning of a new stage of existence.]

Eight of disks--pounding out projects in a systematic approach to build up a body of work.

The card that I think sums up what I hope to happen next year is the Eight of Pentacles. Earlier this year, before all the death and sorrow, I made a plan for my business after much studying of how successful writers were making money as writers.

What I have observed is that successful writers stick to projects until they finish them. Everything else is just a support mechanism for that goal--finishing projects--including selling books to afford to be able to write other books.

I have not been good at finishing projects. The voices in my head, which sound remarkably like my mother's voice, tell me that I need to be successful right out of the gate, and that I am not allowed any resources to accomplish this goal. I have spent a lot of time trying to find that perfect project that will generate a lot of money while costing nothing in resources. So in space of a week, I will have started and abandoned seven projects. This was especially true before I started taking bipolar meds.

Just in case, you do not realize how bad the voices in my head are, consider the following idea: "You are supposed to be making a hundred thousand a year without spending a single dime, or wasting large amounts of time creating product."

Unfortunately, being a writer involves dumping a lot of time and resources into projects that one does not know if they are going to succeed or not. For instance, every successful writer making a living as a writing, if they write series of novels, has at least three books in their series (that's three whole novels!). And they did the three books set routine again and again until they discovered their successful series.

Now, I used to be able to make some money doing short stand-alone stories, but the dubious erotica market has dried up over the last few years as people have screamed, "Children can find erotica when they search for books" and blamed the writers for ebook retailers not having a proper adult filter for their searches. My estimate of how much potential income this has cost me runs thousands of dollars a year. At one point, there were erotica writers making hundreds of thousands per quarter (yes, I said "quarter"). But no, that would make things far too simple. With Barnes and Noble bringing their policies in line with everyone else's, those days were over (please note, I made my plan six months before B&N closed their system to dubious erotica).

Anyways, earlier this year, I broke down and told my wife, in painful detail, what I actually needed to do, if I wanted to start making money as a writer again. One, I had to switch fields; two, literally had to write at least three novels with only a best guess what would get readers to shell out money; three, I had to give up the idea that I could pull this miracle off without burning up resources or sufficient amounts of time; four, never think about returning to minimum wage restaurant work ever again.

And five, I had to continue taking bipolar meds; and for those really bad blind panic days, accept the fact that it was best for everyone concerned that I eat a "magical cookie."

Now, my wife has been amazed at the change in my thought process, thanks to the meds. I am also surprised--it is like I am a different person than I was for the first fifty years of my life.

So when everything went sideways, with death, and more death, and let's call the B&N policy even more death, I have somehow managed to stay on the side of functional. I have also managed to stick to the plan to reinvent myself as a writer. It has been slow going...because I have been placing comforting my wife above hacking out words...but hey, I have managed to keep my eyes on the prize of actually finishing a series (or at least, the first three installments).

The idea for 2018 is to keep on writing and focusing on a single large project (three novels same world!)--to stick to my business plan.

[Designing the Eight of Pentacles for the Monkey Tarot, I decided to use the image of Shakespeare Monkey, combined with a symbol of a factory approach to production. Shakespeare Monkey refers to the idea that if you have an infinite number of monkeys and an infinite amount of time, monkeys randomly typing can produce the exact text of Shakespeare. It is an idea that I encountered as a teenager which periodically crops up in my work. Red typewriter is a symbol of self-promotion--something I need to get better at. Dice are obviously a symbol of randomness--and sometimes success looks exactly like randomness--why do some people succeed and other people fail? And behind the monkey is a logo for the most famous company in the universe--ACME--because building a successful series involves work. Trivia--with the five and three visible on this side of the dice, the opposite side has to be a four and a two...42...yes, I am that nerd.]

The idea of a blog hop is to link to each other's blogs in a giant circle.

Thanks for reading this installment of the Tarot Blog Hop. Feel free to hop backwards to Joanne Sprott's Cosmic Whispers Tarot blog, or forward to Jay Cassel's Metaphysical Musings blog. And if there are any link problems, check out the Master List of all the entries in this edition.

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Tarot Love

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Welcome to this edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. Today's topic is Love. And while there is a part of me that wants to talk about romantic card spreads--it is a really small part and easily beat up by the part of me that loves collecting Tarot cards and pictures of decks that I do not own yet.

One of the things that I really love about Tarot is the sheer amount of artistic creativity that has been poured into the Tarot over the last few decades. In part, this has happened because of technological advances--in fact with the advent of print-on-demand, I expect there to be an explosion of new artistic Tarot decks (some of which will only sell a handful of copies...and so it goes).

So let's take a look at some of the artwork that people have done Tarot-wise.

For the purposes of this post, I am resorting myself to the Sun card--I could have chosen any of the cards to feature today, but I recently saw a version of the Sun card that really made me want to talk about the Sun card. So here goes...

Vampire Tarot.

This version of the Sun card from the Vampire Tarot I find very interesting. Most Tarot decks portray the Sun card in a hopeful positive manner. Not this deck, this version is, well exactly how a vampire would look upon the sun, as a destructive force and quite life threatening.

Now, while the Vampire Tarot version of the Sun made have determined the choice of card today, don't blame that deck completely for my choosing of this Major Arcana for our tour today.

From the Secret Tarot.

The Secret Tarot is my current deck of choice to read with. And it has one of the most creepy Sun cards in it. Now, maybe I am just super-sensitive, but I want to say that there are a lot of creepy Sun cards out there--aka lots of naked children. Is it just me? Or are there a lot of creepy Sun cards out there? (Feel free to answer that one in the comment section.)

From the Sephiroth Tarot.

This one is not as creepy...unless you find naked angels creepy...which some people might. I do like this deck because it has a (faulty) cheat for remembering where the Major Arcana are located on the Tree of Life.

The artwork is quite nice on this version (Un Mei, I believe that it is from); plus there is a small lion cub--you must love lion cubs, especially if you are like me and work with Bast on a regular basis.

This card is from an Oracle deck--the Madame Endora, I think. I like it because of the mix of Egyptian and the art style. Therefore, while Oracle decks are not really Tarot decks (or that is the answer that I am using today), I am including this card in today's tour of Tarot artwork.

This card from the Adflatus deck (?) is a little busy, but cheerful. I am not completely comfortable with the lower half of the card, but it does have its own particular meaning as you probably can quickly grok.

The direction of the zodiac wheel in this version of the Sun card--from the Gilded Tarot--might disturb some people. Especially those people who like to argue about the placement of the zodiac in a Golden Dawn lodge.

It is a mouse-kangaroo...a mouroo...a kanouse...a whatever. I like it--it is whimsical.

Here is another whimsical Sun card. This one is from the rather expensive Hello Kitty Tarot deck. Should kids play with Tarot cards? Maybe, maybe not. But if you own a copy of this deck, the answer is a screaming Nnnnoooooo!!! (This is one of the most expensive decks that I have looked at in recent days.)

What version of the Sun card is my favorite? Oh, that is just a silly question, isn't it? My own version, of course.

After all, what type of artist would I be if I did not like my version the most of all? Of course, I may never finish my Monkey Tarot deck--but darn it, this version of the Sun card is my all time favorite Sun card.

So what version of the Sun card is your favorite?

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My mythology is brand new (more or less)

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Welcome to the Mabon 2013 edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. Today's subject is mythology which I know...well, every little about if we are talking classical mythology. 

Rough draft of the Tower card for the Monkey Tarot.

The fact that I know so little about classical mythology is probably best illustrated by my rough draft for the Lightning Blasted Tower card for the Monkey Tarot...or is it a rough draft for a Mythos Gang Tarot?...maybe a little of both at this stage.

I can't tell you the classical mythology that underlies the Tower card. I know that in Golden Dawn, the Tower is associated with Mars--but that is modern mythology. In fact, most of the mythology that I know is modern mythology.

And I am not sure that I am alone in being ignorant of classical mythology. I know that the class that I was in community college that read the Iliad and Paradise Lost seems blissfully ignorant of classical mythology for the most part (there were maybe three people in the class, other than the professor that is, who seemed to have a passing acquaintance with the subject). When I was growing up, I know that I wasn't exposed to a lot of classical mythology. Since then, I have studied mythology on my own...but I still cannot tell you how it might connect to the Tower card.

Furthermore, the mythologies that I have read the most about are not the classical mythologies that informs Western civilization. Our heritage is Greek and Roman mythology for the most part, plus the Biblical mythology, not the Norse and Ancient Egyptian mythologies that I am fond of.

Now, that does not mean that I am cut off from being to talk about the Tower card in terms of mythology...but the stories I use are really modern stories. Such as Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, and the Cthulhu mythos. Maybe a little Star Wars to boot. I am not sure if any of those stories can be considered mythology, but they would be the stories that I would use to describe this card to someone who was unfamiliar with it. And I am willing to bet that more people are familiar with those stories than the mythic tales from Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire about Zeus and Ares (Jupiter and Mars).

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Gift of monkeys

Ok, this probably will not work for the Hermit card--at least for you, that is.

Welcome to the Litha 2013 edition of the Tarot Blog Hop. There is a chance that you have hopped here from Pepi Valderrama's blog (this is her first time doing the Tarot Blog Hop with us). Or maybe you got here from the master list for this Blog Hop. Or maybe you are one of my regular readers (hey, there are a couple of regular readers). Or maybe you arrived though the good services of Google (or some other fine search engine--keep the love coming). However you found me, welcome to the fun of the Tarot Blog Hop.

Today, on this magical Tarot Blog Hop, we are supposed to be talking about our gifts. When I learned of this theme, I said, "Wait a second. I don't have any gifts." Then I realized that was wrong, and perhaps the voice of my broken-down family (because that is just how my family rolls...basically, if you had a gift, the job of the family was to make sure that it was properly crushed before you left the house).

Turns out I do have a gift--call it insanity (wait--that might also be the voice of my family speaking).

To explain, let me illustrate this whole idea with a card...or rather a failed design attempt for a Tarot card. The card is supposed to be the Hermit card. I know--it looks nothing like the traditional Hermit. The very fact that I think that it could be a successful design for a Hermit card (for the Monkey Tarot) just screams that I do not have both oars in the water.

Yet being slightly around the bend does have its advantages. One, I made an attempt to do something different, something untried--insane people are allowed to fail, and fail BIG. Two, my idea of the Hermit--however wrong--is a wider understanding than the traditional Waite/Rider/Smith version...which by the way is only a hundred years old, steals from the Golden Dawn, and is only traditional in the sense that everyone uses it today--insane people can ignore tradition. Three, I am allowed to be wrong...which is a form of mental illness if you went though the public school system (remember you are only allowed to give the correct answer; all wrong answers will get you a bad grade).

So why the different design for the Hermit card?

Well, the old design (which Golden Dawn borrowed from older, more traditional decks...but they only borrowed the designs that reinforced their ideas) represents a form of Hermit that no longer is present today. Honestly, how many true Hermits are there living out in the wild...two? three? four? Can't be more than a million...because a million is a small city's worth.

No, today's hermits live right among us. There is probably one working in a cubicle just down the hall from you. The goal of the hermit was to isolate themselves from humanity. You do not need to live in the wild to do so. I have been completely alone, isolated from the rest of humanity, while surrounded by people. Ignore Facebook, Twitter and network news long enough and people will think that you are a Hermit. Refose to go to parties...and you are a hermit, or maybe a nun.

(Hmmm, a nun might make a good version of the Hermit card...or maybe not. Feel free to weigh in on the idea in the comment section.)

There is also the little fact that the esoteric version of hermits are trail blazers and explorers. Of course, that little fact isolates them from the rest of humanity quite well. Just question why we do certain things in the esoteric sciences; or worse, just come out and say that certain things work differently for you (and not according to the script that everyone else uses)--and you will know true isolation. Stoning may be out of fashion, but society can still make you a pariah. And even if you are right, the masses won't listen to you; they are too busy watching the buzzing of the insects on television and the internet.

Ok, maybe it is not insanity that I suffer from. Maybe I am just a happy little cynic.

Nevertheless, here is a question for you: What type of hermit actually affects society? Answer: The hermit that actually interacts with society. I imagine that most of them have been told that they need meds or therapy, or are just strange, or are cynics.

Hey, my warp sense of reality is a gift, I tell you.

Next up on the Tarot Blog Hop is Vivianne Kacal's post. And remember if there are any broken links, you can always hop over them using the master list for this Blog Hop. Happy hopping!

My favorite 2012 Tarot Blog Hop post

The start of me drawing lots of monkeys.

As my regular readers know, last year I started to take part in the Tarot Blog Hop. (Basically, a blog hop is a group of bloggers that create a circle of blog posts on a subject, and their readers can go from blog to blog reading various bloggers ideas about a certain subject--more or less). What they might not know is that I am going to be the wrangler for the upcoming Ostaru Tarot Blog Hop.

Exactly what does the wrangler of a blog hop do? Well, they come up with the initial idea for the blog hop and try to get everyone moving in the same direction. They also spend a part of the day of the blog hop making sure that all the links of the blog hop actually work.

As I prepare to deal with the upcoming blog hop, I got to thinking about last year's cycle of blog hops. In hindsight, I must admit that the post that I did that sticks out the most for me is Mooning the Sun.

At the time, I did not realize how significant this post would turn out to be for me. I was talking about how my religion affected my view of the Tarot cards. And for copyright reasons, I chose to create a new version of the Sun card.

Originally, I meant for there to be two cats sitting on the wall; but by the time I was done, they turned into monkeys. Since then I have done several more cards of the "Monkey Tarot," though I must admit that it is a far way from being finished.

But the most important part about the monkey version of the Sun card was the fact that I was later tapped to draw the illustrations of a Wiccan friendly children book series which has lots of monkeys in it (Turtle Monkey). Yes, that is right--a children book author decided that I was the perfect artist to illustrate their series--scary, isn't it?!

Because of that, for me the best (or at least, most memorable) post I did for last year's Tarot Blog Hop was Mooning the Sun.

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]

All materialistic magic is black magic

A spell involving a Jupiter Lightning Glyph and two monkeys.

Happy New Year!

And given that it is the first day of the New Year (2013), it is now time to make certain of my critics happy and issue yet another bloody annual disclosure statement.

This year's complaint--I do materialistic mundane magic.

Now why does this need a disclosure statement?! Well, according to some extreme opinions of some experts, you cannot do magic to affect the physical mundane world while also working on spiritual development. In fact, some of these experts believe that all mundane related magic is black magic...in other words, only spiritual development is white magic.

It won't be so bad, except that some of these so-called experts state that once you do mundane magic, you can never complete the Great Work. Ever. No matter how much time, energy, or lifetimes you spend doing the Work.

Therefore, because I do materialistic magic, and I started off doing material magic, I can never complete the Great Work...therefore, why are you reading this blog?

Now, personally, I believe that not only is this idea extreme, it is also wrong. Yes, I said--wrong. It is based on the idea that the material world is evil, and that the spiritual (heaven) is good. It is an idea that affects our entire culture, thanks to the ideas of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (all of whom inherited it from Zoroastrianism). Therefore, it is understandable hearing this from occultists who come from esoteric groups that require or emphasize one of these religions, such as most Golden Dawn groups.

The really sad part is that I hear this from pagans and Wiccans who are drawing inspiration from other religions that do not have this fatal duality.

And the really annoying part is that Golden Dawn enshrined this idea right into its Outer and Inner Order Oaths. Yes, you can be expelled from GD just for doing a simple money spell. It is better to live under a bridge homeless than do a spell to gather a little rent money in an emergency.

(Please note that in two of the Inner Order courses that I suffered though, I was required to do mundane magic--I am guessing that by the strict classic version, they would not be considered really Golden Dawn.)

Here is a hint for the Wiccans who believe in this duality--read the Charge of the Goddess which states off with: "Whenever you have need of anything, once in the month and better it be when the moon is full, then shall you assemble in some secret place and adore the spirit of me, who am Queen of all witches." How can you start an invocation like that, have no concept of heaven, and still end up with a severe duality that says the material world can never be spiritual?!

And for those of you who are curious, the BIORC does not view all materialistic magic as black magic (it is complicated determining what black magic is...but just because it is aimed at the material world does not automatically make it black magic), and spiritual development is tied to developing the mundane side of one's life at the same time. It is little things like that which will ensure that the BIORC is not considered Golden Dawn by everyone within ten years (if we are not already beyond the point of no return).

Of course, if you are really concerned about my behavior, you better tell Jason Miller that I am misusing one of his Jupiter lightning glyphs to try to promote evil monkeys. (I am quite sure that he has something to say about this subject.) And for the so-called experts, well, they are always right and I am always wrong as far as they are concerned, which is why you are supposed to be reading their blog and forum posts and not mine. Listen to their superior wisdom because I am busy making things up as I go along, and they have the experience of excellent teachers that I didn't have.

Happy New Year!

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]

Working with woodcuts (Tarot)

Woodcut Justice.

As many of my regular readers know, I am currently involved in creating the rough drafts for a Tarot deck where every card has a monkey in it. What you might not know is how long I have been dabbling in Tarot deck creation.

One of my earliest experiments in Tarot deck creation involved the use of woodcuts/blocks. I learned a lot from this particular experiment--including the fact that you will probably never see me produce an entire deck done this way.

This particular card, Justice, was done in 1991 (I think).

The difficulties of this project made the hand-coloring of the Tarot that I needed to do for both BOTA and my Adept Minor studies with GH. Fra. OY look minor in comparsion. Only Hathoor Temple hit this level of insanity (and basically, you just needed to prove to them that you could create an entire Tarot deck from scratch if you really had to).

Last month was my busiest month ever

Last month was my most read month ever on this blog.

And what can we learn from this?

Cat pictures sell.

Of course, some of my readers may wonder why I was doing a round of cat pictures again this year. Last year, I defaulted to posting Halloween Kitties because I was working on passing my capstone course for my bachelors in literary studies (aka literature).

(And yes, I did pass it, as well as the capstone in history in the spring--which is why I now own two bachelor degrees...that I will probably never use...well, not if the writing turns out better than the job hunt.)

This year, the cat pictures were about the fact that this month I am doing the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and next month I am working on Turtle Monkey (I am illustrating a pagan/wiccan friendly set of children books)--so I wanted to rest up for those two projects.

And let's be honest--I really, really like humorous cat pictures.

The most important post to be buried under the cat hair--my drawing of the Devil card for the Monkey Tarot.

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]

The aftermath of Halloween was that the cat ate all the tuna in the house.

Monkey Bottle Trap

Monkey Tarot--Devil card--Monkey Bottle Trap.

Welcome to this edition of the Tarot Blog Hop--Samhain (Halloween) edition. Those of you who are reading the blog hop, you probably arrived here from Amethyst Mahoney's blog. My regular readers have just wandered in from the dark alley that they learn occult lessons in...because no one from a legimate esoteric tradition ever reads my blog--I have that on the best of authorities.

As some of you know, one of the projects that I am doing is creating the rough sketches for a monkey-themed Tarot deck...because one of my friends really likes monkeys. (She likes monkeys so much that she is writing a series of children books starring monkeys, which I will be illustrating in December.)

Now when the idea of a monkey-themed Tarot deck came up, I originally said, "No, you cannot create a Tarot deck that has a monkey in every card." The reason that I said this was the simple fact that there were some cards that I had no clue how you would draw them to be able to make the central figure a monkey.

One of the cards that I could not imagine doing with a monkey was the Major Arcana card of the Devil. Then one morning, I woke up and knew exactly how to draw it.

And the idea behind the artwork made perfect sense to me.

The artwork for the Devil card of the Monkey Tarot shows a monkey with its paw caught in a Bottle Trap. One of the ways that people capture monkeys is to put tasty food in the bottom of a bottle or jar whose neck is just enourgh for a monkey to stick their empty paw down, but not large enourgh for it to be able to remove once it has a fistful of food inside it.

The monkey is trapped simply because it refuses to let go of the food. If it just opened its paw, and let go of the food--it could escape.

Ironically, when it comes to human beings, we are often held back by things that we refuse to let go of. For some, it is money; for others, the need to be loved; for some, it is food.

In my case, it is a bad set of childhood programing commands. I was raised in a very poor household--the oldest of eight kids. At an early age, I started to be told that it was my duty to sacrifice for the sake of my brothers and sisters. By the age of eight, I knew the bitter truth about Santa Claus. Often I would go hungry, so that siblings could have more food. I got into the habit of taking the blame for joint-mischief.

By itself, this would not be bad. But I have allowed this programming to carry forward into my adulthood. I have remained at jobs that I hated...because I was needed. I have sacrificed my goals...because someone else needed the resources more than I did.

I spend a lot of my time trying to guess what other people need me to do, making sacrifices for others, while completely ignoring what is best for my own life. And I have grown to resent the fact that I am expected to sacrifice on the behalf of others without any benefit to myself. Occasionally, this resentment is enourgh to prevent me from doing something stupid, but not often. Odds are that I will trash my own life on the behalf of someone else.

And at the moment, this particular habit is causing me a world of hurt. It is amazing how much difficulty one has starting their own business when they get into the habit of handing over their operating budget to someone else, instead of spending the money that they need to on their own business needs.

It is something that I need to let go of--and I know it. But the monkey part of my brain generally refuses to let go of the habit on most days.

As a Tarot reader, I have noticed that a lot of personal demons show up during readings, and often these demons are simply things, habits and ideas that people are unwilling to let go of. Therefore, the idea of illustrating the Devil as a Bottle Trap makes perfect sense to me.

And at the moment, I am definitely struggling with my own version of the Devil--a Morgan-shaped bottle trap.

Anyways, enourgh about my personal demons. Those of you who are continuing with the Samhain Tarot Blog Hop will now proceed to the blog of Aisling the TarotWitch. My regular readers will do whatever it is that they do...I presume that they worship cats and monkeys--I could be wrong about that one.

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]

And then the monkeys took over the Pentacles

Three of Pentacles--Material Works (Monkey Tarot 2012 MDE)

Welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop for Lammas 2012. These readers who are doing the blog hop probably came from Jera Babylon Rootweaver's Tarot Taxi blog. My regular readers...well, let's just say that the Golden Dawn lounge in the Lunar Insanity Ward is quite lovely this time of year.

The theme of this particular Tarot Blog Hop is Pentacles: The Fruits of Harvest.

Lately for me, the fruits of harvest involves a lot of monkeys. First of all, the Sun card from the last Tarot Blog Hop caused a friend of mine to suggest that every Tarot card needed a monkey in it. Second of all, I am helping to illustrate a set of children stories...with monkeys.

The particular card for this post, the Three of Pentacles (Material Works), sums up some of my thoughts about work. The AE Waite/Pixie Smith version of the card shows a craftsman working while a monk and a hooded man look on. I always felt that they were supervising the craftsman.

One of my on-going questions about the Three of Pentacles is how the craftsman is getting any work done at all.

The invasion of monkeys into the Tarot that I am sketching finally gave me the answer. The bosses are too busy fighting among themselves to supervise the laborer.

This may seem strange to some of you, but it makes sense to me. Then again, I am one of those artistic types. A few years ago, I was a member of a crafter co-op. I remember one meeting where instead of discussing how to get business in the door, the discussion descended into how not to upset the customers. (Some of the artists were considering displaying some racy art.)

Let me be clear--they were worried about upsetting customers that they did not have yet. And that they were not going to get because they were more concerned with matters other than getting people into the craft show.

Let's be honest, there are a lot of people who get upset with artists: business-people, religious and spiritual leaders, lawyers, the poor who believe that artists make too much money, etc. And they all want to censor the artist and creative types...for the good of other people.

(No one ever thinks about what is best for the artist. And everyone always know more about what art is supposed to be like than the artist does. Seriously?!)

Even worse is when the artist starts to censor themselves because they fear that they might upset someone. A form of artist (writer) block occurs when a creative person starts to censor their work before it is even created to please the angry masses. And you cannot please everyone.

In the end, the only person an artist can make happy is themselves. One has to let one's critics fight among themselves on what elements of one's art is the most offensive. One should not censor one's work for the sake of one's critics, who are probably going to be unhappy, no matter what one does. And it goes without saying, do not read what your critics have to say...it will just make you feel bad.

So yeah, monkeys are invading my work and telling me that my critics are just unhappy poo-flingers. Who am I to argue with imaginary monkeys?! Needless to say, it is a rather strange harvest this season.

Next up on the Tarot Blog Hop is Andrew McGregor talking about patience and the suit of Pentacles. If there are any broken links in this blog hop, please click here for the master list.

[Update: July 2013: Due to differences in sales expectations and business philosophy, in early July 2013, I ceased to be involved in the Turtle Monkey project.]

 

Monkey Tarot 8 of Pentacles version 1

Version 1 of the Eight of Pentacles from the Moneky Tarot (MDE 2012).

Last month, many of you saw a version of the Sun card I draw for the Tarot Blog Hop. One of my friends liked the monkeys in the card so much that she wants me to draw a whole Tarot deck with a monkey in every card, a Monkey Tarot if you will.

Here is another card (rough draft) with a monkey in it. There is another picture that I am thinking of using for the Eight of Pentacles, but I thought that I would share this version with my readers...or at least, the uncolored version of it.

I am not sure. Do we really need an entire Tarot deck centered around monkeys?! Feel free to express your desire (or lack thereof) for a Moneky Tarot in the comment section. Remember only YOU can prevent me from inflicting a Monkey Tarot deck on the world.

Mooning the Sun (Tarot Blog Hop)

BIORC Sun Card--copyright 2012 MDE (All Rights Reserved).

Hi everyone! Some of you are my regular readers--and some of you doing the Tarot Blog Hop (here is a link to the masterlist just in case, there are any breaks in the Hop). If you are coming in from the regular readership, then you are pobably coming here through the padded room at the Lunar Restroom for Retired Secret Chiefs (no, you say--what do you mean when you say that I am making stuff up?!). Those from the Tarot Blog Hop, have came here from Jordan Hoggard's Tarot in the Land of Mystereum blog (or from the masterlist if there is a break in the Hop).

Today's Tarot Blog Hop theme is Celebrate the Sunrise.

For me, a lot of my observances and celebrations of the sun and its cycles are colored by the fact that I am a Wiccan. This is something that extends to the other members of the Order and lodge that I belong to (though the correct label for them is pagan).

I tend to think of this blending as "mooning the sun." For a religion that focuses on the moon, Wicca pays a lot of attention to the sun. There are Wiccans who do the annual drumming up of the sun. Four of the eight big Wiccan holidays are directly related to the main turning points of the sun's cycle, the two Equinoxes and two Solistices.

By the way, three of these four are built right into the Golden Dawn system...all Golden Dawn Orders can claim to be involved in the ancient pagan mysteries if they still observe these three events in their annual ritual cycle.

On the other hand, one could argue that the Golden Dawn pays little attention to the moon...unless you count the number of members who are Wiccan and pagan and/or check the phase of the moon before doing any major magical work.

Life as we know it on this planet would not be as it is if it wasn't for the interplay of the sun and the moon. Our planet has been blessed to have a large moon and a solar orbit that places it in a comfortable (or as comfortable as you can get in this universe) zone that supports life.

The best illustration of the play between the sun and the moon comes from Ancient Egyptian mythology. The original calendar in Ancient Egypt was 360 days, which was divided up into ten day periods (the 36 decans). This calendar would rapidly grow out of sync with the actual seasons of the year. The mythology of Anciet Egypt actually records an attempt to correct the calendar and explain "mytholically" what was happening.

According to the myth, the Earth God Geb made love to his sister, the Sky Goddess Nut. This act upset Nut's father so much that he forbid her to give birth during the days of the normal calendar. Nut. being pregnant with quintuplets, called upon Thoth to aid her. Thoth goes to the moon and plays dice with the moon; in this manner, Thoth wins five extra days to allow for the birth of Nut's children (Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis and Nephthys). By this act, Thoth starts to become a moon God.

The interesting thing about this myth, besides the interplay of the solar and lunar calendars, is the fact that the moon, over the course of billions of years, have changed the length of the day on earth, therefore changing the number of days in a earth year. Therefore the myth mirrors a scientific truth.

I was reminded of this story when I was creating the version of the Sun card that illustrates this post. Originally, I meant for there to be two cats sitting on the wall (because I have a problem with Sun cards with creepy children in them)--but by the time I was done, they had morphed into monkeys or baboons, a symbol of Thoth. The baboons of Thoth are said to celebrate the sunrise every morning by giving out loud cries. One can say that the Ancient Egyptians celebrated the sunrise by having monkeys moon the sun.

If you are proceeding with the Blog Hop, your next stop will be The Hermit's Lamp (Andrew McGregor).