A message from the Honored Dead

Previous blog/ MasterList/ Next blog in hop

I will admit that the theme of this Tarot Blog Hop, Walking Into Life With The Dead, left me at a loss of what to do with it, so I am just going to use the prompt as the basis of a quick Tarot reading.

My message from the Honored Dead.

1. What is the most important thing the spirits of your beloved dead have been attempting to show or teach you this year?

For this question, I pulled the King of Swords, which because the figure is not on a horse, I am going to read more like the Prince of Swords instead. [In Golden Dawn, the Kings are mounted on horses while the Princes are seating down--basically, the Kings on horseback are considered to be more active than their seated counterparts.] One of the things I have been struggling with lately is "pre-judgement"--judging my current bit of writing in the light of "You can't write it that way--you will offend all your readers and ensure that you will never sell another book ever again." I have always had this problem which is why I have a metric ton of started, yet never finished projects. This ties into the fact that my mother-in-law (who died last summer) wanted to see me actually complete an entire science fiction novel. 

2. What is your personal connection to Spirit, as you define it, whether that be Gods and Goddesses, the Powers of the Land, the Souls of the Dead (or the Living), or in any other way you define this word. How does Spirit connect with you and at the end of this year, what is the primary energy of Spirit that is showing itself to you?

For the second question, I pulled Death. Over the last two months, I have actually managed top remain (mostly) focused on a single project--I have managed to rack up 25K words on a single story (that's half of a small novel). This is real first for me; I have never gotten that far on any fiction project before. Interestingly, this is all being done under a brand new pen-name because I decided that I wanted a fresh start as a writer. I guess that is a form of death and change, right?

3. What will be your personal Gift to Spirit, whether this is an offering made to Deity, something you will do because of what Spirit has taught you, or some other way of acknowledging the influence of the Living Dead on your own life.

For the third question, I pulled the Four of Swords. Several of the characters that I have created are based on dead relatives, and some of the action involves me exploring my feelings about my childhood and how my mom so did not want me to become a witch, or a writer for that matter. There is my (dead) dad and my (dead) aunt who live again as other characters. I am still debating whether it is polite to use the name of one of my ancestors as my new pen-name.

One of the themes in the book is PTSD (which I have been told online that I don't understand...despite the fact that I suffer from it personally). It is kinda love offering, the pouring out of my soul.  This is almost like going to therapy--which I associate with the Four of Swords--in fact, the book starts off with my main character, Homer Milton Dante, telling his therapist what he thinks of her latest suggestion to foster his recovery. 

I love this artwork...despite the fact that I shouldn't use it.

As an illustration of all this energy, consider the artwork that I really, really want to use for the book cover, despite the fact that "no writer should make their own cover artwork" and "everyone that you are going to be competing with, they are using a different style of artwork--and abstract covers did not help sales from the Big Six--so you really should not use it!" On the other hand, my mother-in-law encouraged my occasional foray into art, and I know my father would have done the same. And I want to do some interior illustrations too--which is something else that goes against what is currently selling on the market. My research says "not to do something different than what customers currently expect"...and I violating the rules nine ways to Sunday, so this project (based on the current market wisdom) is probably going to be dead on arrival (if the experts are right). Still sooner or later, I have to actually complete a project, and I am halfway there (with enough ideas to get to the 50K mark). I might as well finish it up--complete with the inclusion of artwork that reminds me of the science fiction magazines I grew up reading.

[In many ways, I feel like a grave robber here. This book grew out of a comment that I said out loud at one point while working on another story set in the same fictional universe. At one point, I realized that international space meant "more than just Americans in space" and that meant research. I might be able to fake the British, but most other countries will require lots of research. Then I said, "Why can't I give the Ancient Egyptians rockets and be done with it?" Suddenly I had New Egyptians everywhere in the universe--opps! I am not sure how the Honored Dead of Egypt feel about this, but they were a little star-crazy--so maybe they will not mind.] 

Happy Samhain! Thanks for reading.

Previous blog/ MasterList/ Next blog in hop