recommendations for isolation

I am not doing as much reading as I’d like. This time has been busy with lots of movement. I spent the first few weeks organizing, and now it is classes and working. But I wanted to share some great things I have read, played with, seen, experienced in the privacy of my own home!

I currently reading The Familiars by Stacey Halls. So far there are witch allusions, babyloss, and it is set in the 17th century, so I am so in.

I also blew through Kim Krans’ graphic memoir of her eating disorder while staying at an ashram called Blossoms and Bones. I finished it and then read it again. It is a must-own for your collection if you are into shadow work, art and recovery. She also is the author of the Wild Unknown Tarot, Animal Spirit Deck and Archetypes deck. I cried and laughed, but mostly just resonated deeply with it.

Poetry-wise, I am so digging Post-Colonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz. I randomly opened it to a poem that started with a song that I was right at that moment singing, which to me was a sign that I was on the same wave length as the poet. So amazingly beautiful.

I love Ann Patchett and really enjoyed reading the Dutch House. It is set in Philly suburbs in the 60s. Her voice is magick and unmatchable. I felt like I knew the characters.

Before that book, I had just finished the last book in the post-apocalyptic trilogy called the Chronicles of the One, which is about a virus that wipes out 5/6th of the world, so if you are prone to anxieties and books that mirror life right now, um skip it. But it was good. It has witches, fairies, magick and all kinds of resilience and sex.

On deck is my favorite author Louise Erdrich’s new book the Night Watchmen.

I’ve been having so much fun playing with the Tarot Mood. I don’t think any phrase encapsulates the 5 of Swords better than, “You’re a dick, Gary.”

I am also enjoying the Hedgewitch Botanical Oracle and Crystal Medicine Oracle Deck, which are both such good allies when we get stuck in our head and have no idea what earth medicine is great for right now. Meditating and pulling cards are my jam always, but right now, when I need to be in my intuition more than my head, it helps.

Also, digging the Literary Witches Oracle, because who doesn’t like badass female icons and authors who create magick along with magick and oracle work.

I also ran across this blog post about Purple Dead Nettle, and it turns out to be all over my friggin’ yard, so I am going to try juicing this and let you know how it is.

I also love Allison Felus’s podcast I’ll Follow You and was honored to be a part of her conversation a few weeks ago.

I’d love to hear about what you are reading, watching, pulling, creating and more. So share in the comments, or send me an email at angie@themoonandstone.com

altar creation spread

If you didn't know, one of my passions is altar making. I have an altar 100% of the time on my bookcase in my meditation room. On one side, i always have a crystal grid going, just to raise the vibration of the room and my soul work. On the other side (because the bookcase is long and thin), I place a statue of a goddess or angel, or a picture, or a statue or fetish of the animal medicine I'm working with. Then more crystals, ones that work with the crystal grid or medicine wheel I have on the other side. I change it out depending on the holy day or sabbat, my soul work or journey work, shadow issues that arise, messages I am getting from Spirit, Animal Medicine, health or family crisis...whenever I am facing a new challenge, passion or phase in my life, I look to the altar first. 

I have been facing so many different exciting changes and circumstances. My health journey has been challenging this year. My work life has expanded with hibiscus moon and then my client base in harrisburg is always expanding and changing. My soul work has been on a nice even keel, and then I went to SouLodge Earth Medicine Gathering and uncovered many layers of what I need to do. Where do I even start with all this?

Well, that was my question. Where to start? Where does Spirit want me to start with all that information? Being an intuitive isn't always so clear cut. I get tons of messages. Right now, my dreaming is through the roof (Last night, i dreamed an incredible dream, and then when it was done, I decided to have that dream again, and then reworked it into a new dream with a new ending. Talk about lucid dreaming on steroids!) And sometimes I get that analysis paralysis, or rather information overload!

Because of all this soul work, I have rededicated myself to morning journaling and daily tarot pulls. AND WOWEE! it is awesome. What is awesome is finding a new passion for something I do so often for other people. When you pull tarot for clients, you often don't pull for yourself. Part of it is that i easily dismiss my messages--yeah, yeah, I need to stop being so hard on myself. Okay. Scoop up the cards, and immediately forget the message. So, journaling keeps you accountable, and I decided to play and explore some new decks beyond my beloved Rider-Waite, specifically the Chrysalis deck by Toney Brooks and Holly Sierra as well as Motherpeace by Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble. I've been using the BOOK! (I always joke with my students about getting OFF BOOK! and now I am back ON BOOK [and incidentally loving being on book. I even went on Rachel Pollack's book with the Rider Waite just to keep it going.]) 

All of this is to say, this morning, I tweaked a spread I do for myself for creating altars when I have a short attention span and cannot figure out what to focus on. It incorporates Oracle decks with Tarot; in fact, it incorporated four additional oracle decks--Visions Crystal Oracle, my own oracle deck called Cycles, of which there is only one deck and it is all about ritual, The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit deck and the Ascended Master deck by Doreen Virtue. Then I used the Chrysalis Tarot deck for my main work, which has guides in and of itself. (Such a fantastic deck. I was at first obsessed with the pips, but now, I cannot get enough of the Majors. Ariadne is stalking me, I swear. And Kali for that matter.)

Anyway, here is the spread as I pulled it:

So much of what this reading said to me was that it was time to allow transformation to happen. The shadow work here is around letting go, surrender and joy. I often struggle with joy. Joy is a bugger for me. So, this work with snake centers around this shedding of control and desire to figure it all out. The ritual card here is one I created called Enso, Imperfection. I used to have a fairly steady and daily enso painting practice. I don't paint ensos anymore--life got complicated with my adventurous two year old. But I decided to paint a rock to remind me of this for my altar, using this enso ritual as a jumping off point to explore an imperfect creative practice to funnel some energy.

Here is the altar and grid that arose from this spread:

You also can play with this spread, as I have compiled a little easy Tarot Layout for you to incorporate into your practice. In fact, I created a few of these for Pinterest, since I use SO MANY pinterest layouts these days, having not so recently discovered that they exist. Enjoy and share, if you can. It is great to have a Tarot community to bounce ideas off of. LOVE to YOU!