Moving into the lusty month of May, I did a one card Tarot reading around the energy of this month, along with the earth medicine allies that came forth for us. Let me know what you think. I am going to be doing readings at the beginning of the month for my readers and subscribers. If you want more check-ins with me via tarot and earth medicine, please subscribe to one of my membership levels for more readings and check-ins.
The Moon + Stone Healing Memberships
In the last few years, as my clientele has grown both at home and online, I have found myself in the precarious position of balancing not just my work life and my home life, but also different aspects of my work. I basically have three jobs—my career at Alta View Wellness Center as a shamanic healer, teacher, tarot reader, and circle leader; I have my own online practice at the Moon + Stone Healing where I write exclusive content and insights on tarot, crystals, energy healing, shamanic healing, soul and shadow work, and spirituality as well as offer distance and online work and teachings; and I am the head of Student Success, Curriculum Specialist, and Crystal Coach at Hibiscus Moon Crystal Academy. I am writing and creating an oracle card deck called Cycles, as well as a few other books.
I find myself in this precarious position often. With all the things I offer--teaching, circles, healing sessions, one-on-one healing, reading tarot, teaching tarot--I often have to make choices on what to focus on at any given time. It means I am often an artist not always arting, a writer not always writing, a tarot reader not always reading. I want to give my readers and subscribers more of me, but my time is so limited.
In the last few years, I have sometimes stepped back from offering Tarot readings, or online sessions here and there, just to catch up with my email. What I sacrifice are things like writing my newsletters, offering informational posts on the blog, offering monthly Tarot readings to the public, journeying for our community, developing new offerings on my website, and deepening my presence online to my friends around the world. One of the reasons I step back from these things first is that they are a huge emotional investment. I pour myself into my work. I have never been good at half-assing things. Writing and putting things out in the world takes an outrageous amount of time and energy.
Because I have children to feed and a practice to support, I often choose those offerings where I can earn a living. Money lives in that unspeakable realm, like shadow work and trauma healing and politics, in our metaphysical community. Friends and colleagues struggle sometimes to make ends meet and never mention it to their students, clients or colleagues. We are asked constantly to offer of ourselves for free, even as we are overdrafting in our checking accounts. I’ve never been one to shy away from hard conversations. I want to offer it all for free, but I simply cannot. I often talk to my students about boundaries with our psychic and healer selves, we cannot just give of ourselves endlessly, because there will be nothing left of us. I suppose the quarantine has given me fuel to try to make the things I am passionate about available in a way that also sustains me financially and spiritually.
So, today, I am here to talk about one of the things I have been toying with for a long time—a monthly Tarot Subscription. I am calling it the Moon + Stone Healing Memberships. The Moon + Stone Healing Memberships is a tiered subscription membership that offers different levels of membership and price points so you can connect with regular readings and insight done by me around the moon cycles. They start in May 2020. These are things I always want to do--pull some cards for the collective on the New Moon, or offer a quick shamanic journey, but simply cannot afford to give away. So, I tried to find a way to sustain me, and offer the things on my to-do list that I never get to. Each collective reading will be offered via audio recording on SoundCloud, which you can access as often or as much as you would like. These membership subscriptions renew every month. You can cancel them at any time, though refunds will not be given after the content is delivered each month. Please read each offering carefully. There are only two levels with PERSONAL readings (the Sun + the World).
The baseline offering is the one that you already belong to simply by being a subscriber to my blog and newsletter. I will make this email mailing list worth your while. I will do a monthly video tarot reading posted on my blog, in which I will pull a card for the month, talk about how it affects us personally and globally, and talk about some earth medicine allies. I will post this on my YouTube page, to my blog, all my social media, and send the link in my newsletter. That is what all of you receive as a subscriber to this newsletter or if you subscribe to my RSS feed, or if you follow me on Instagram or on FB. It is free and part of what you get as a subscriber. If you decide you want more, awesome. There is no obligation to do that. But if you decide to subscribe to one of my membership tiers, my commitment to you is that this tier membership program not only will give you awesome content, but will fund more free offerings on my site as well.
STRENGTH TIER $20
The first tier includes three options you can choose:
1. a monthly full moon collective reading (available a few days before the Full Moon)
2. a monthly new moon collective reading (available a few days before the New Moon)
3. a monthly collective shamanic journey (available in the beginning of the month)
These collective tarot readings will be conducted for the entire group of subscribers. They are not personalized. I talk about the energy I am feeling around this Full or New Moon period. These readings will be about 30 minutes long and I will weave in ritual ideas, earth medicine allies, including stones, animal, and plant medicine allies for this moon cycle. These readings will be offered via audio, and available as a private SoundCloud link, so you can listen on the go. You can listen as often as you would like. They will come in an email that will talk about the energy and have exclusive content for each moon. The Shamanic Journey taps into the energy I am picking up for the month (you can view the free monthly reading available on my website free each month). The Journey takes you deeper into the work, so you can do your own journeywork with the medicine arising for you personally each month.
HERMIT TIER $35
This second tier includes two of the three above options, so you can choose the full + new moon collective readings, which means you will be hearing from me twice a month with insights about the moon cycles and what medicine to work with, or you can choose the shamanic journey and one of the moon readings.
HIGH PRIESTESS TIER $47
This tier includes both the full + New moon collective readings + the monthly guided shamanic journey with an animal guide
SUN TIER $74
In the Sun Tier, you get both the full + new moon collective readings + the monthly guided shamanic journey with an animal guide, plus you get a personal one-card Tarot reading delivered via audio (15-20 minutes) sent to you either the new or full moon.
WORLD TIER $92
In the World Tier, you get it all—both the full + new moon collective readings + the monthly guided shamanic journey with an animal guide, plus you get a personal 30-minute Tarot reading sent to you via a private SoundCloud link before either the new or full moon.
Again these tiers are the starting point for me. I plan to add more incentives and offerings to these, so if you have any ideas or wishes, respond to this email with ideas. My goal is to ensure that no matter what level you choose to subscribe at, you’ll get back more than you give.
I'll Follow You Podcast
Allison Felus, the Queen of Peaches, has a new podcast this year. She posted it on Instagram in the beginning of the year, and I started listening right away. The thing I love about it is Allison has just an easy way of dialogue. She lets people tell their story. She also interviews her people—people from all aspects of her life and her personality. She is a musician who works in publishing. She is an accomplished writer, and she is a psychic. She is also a crystal healer and energy healer. I just adore her. She is thinky and smart and spiritual and interesting. She wants to talk about art and writing and thinking and Spirit, but without all the bullshit. Like I said, she is one of my people too. I did this interview a little bit ago, before the shutdown. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to post this here. Mainly because this is a forgotten spot on my things I like to do. So, I am going to be sharing stuff here more often. As you probably figured out, Allison invited me to talk for an hour or so, and here it is. Please enjoy and check out Allison’s other podcasts too. They are endlessly fascinating!
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
Mother Earth Father Sky Meditation
On Sunday, April 12th, I was invited by the Community for Holistic Integration (CHI) to lead a meditation at 11:11am. This meditation is one I do when I need to ground and open to Spirit. I think of this as a connection to all living beings and to all that is. Connecting with deep roots into Mother Earth and then connecting up with Father Sky, plugging into Spirit. I opened this meditation with the poem, i thank you God by e.e. cummings
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any—lifted from the no
of all nothing—human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Please enjoy this meditation and come back anytime you are needing connection, grounding or more.
This poem was originally published in Xaipe1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1950), reissued in 2004 by Liveright, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company.
Earth Medicine Allies for Changing Times
I was very honored to be asked to join Etheric Connection’s Divine Collaboration Virtual Expo on Saturday, April 11th. I am the first speaker (Hour 1) and shared about the Earth Medicine Allies for Changing Times. As I sat and journeyed with today’s theme, I thought about how this pandemic and the request from our leaders to social distance and shelter in place brings up so many feelings and emotions. In many ways, we are sheltering in place with our Shadow selves. And from the Shamanic point of view, this can feel like the World is being called to a Collective Vision Quest. We are challenged to search deep inside ourselves.In this changing and challenging time, I believe we are asked to admit that we are all connected. Humans hold this myth of separation, that we are separate from one another and separate from nature. This crisis challenges us to admit that if someone gets sick in China, it is also our issue here in Pennsylvania. It illustrates so clearly how interconnected we all are, how global our world is. In this vein, I talk about the Earth Medicine allies to assist with understanding and healing this illusion that we are separate and ways we can connect through the medicine.
nourishing your seed
If you are like me, you follow many healers, psychics, shamanic practitioners, and spiritual leaders on Instagram and FB. I actually find so much wisdom from their words and images, but I also find myself rise up against the carefully curated spiritual life on social media, leading to the idea that you could easily be a psychic if you had the right combination of financial independence, a rustic she-shed, many crystals, exclusive teachers and retreats, and a fully realized understanding of how the universe works.
I love social media, but come on, that is bullshit.
Yes, marketing yourself is part of the job of attracting clients and people who can benefit from your work (and believe me, I love beautiful photographs with esoteric words.) But I think we do a disservice to show only the perfectly coifed part of life, or talk about being "born psychic" and it all coming easily. Being psychic, intuitive, empathic or even shamanic requires a deep nurturing and intention. Most of us don't wake up the Buddha, fully realized in our psychic self. First, we set the intention to open in this way, then tend to our psychic self with daily maintenance and spiritual work. It is so infrequently the perfectly put together vignette of wood, crystal, copper and ancient divination cards, and more frequently, getting up earlier than you want to meditate before work, releasing toxic people and circumstances that become increasingly uncomfortable, feeling confused by the signs and messages being presented to you, and maybe most importantly, loving and trusting yourself fully.
I believe each one of us has a seed within us—a kernel of native intuitive wisdom. Most of us have experienced a moment that makes us feel part of something larger, or maybe it was a deep sense of empathy for another person’s pain or success that sometimes feel like a curse when you are a pre-teen, or a mystical experience that cannot be explained away, or maybe it was a metaphorical or literal precognitive dream, or maybe it was just a moment where we felt there was more than meets the eye. Maybe it was being able to access the wisdom for someone seeking your counsel at just the right moment, and you thought, "Where did that come from?" Think back on your life and remember those moments where you felt connected, in the flow, maybe different, but aware of something bigger than you that you could tap into for guidance, wisdom and healing. Maybe you were told by someone else that you were empathic, psychic, intuitive, a healer or shaman, or gifted and thought, "Well, okay, now what?" Maybe you just felt it.
This is your seed.
Sometimes are seeds start growing because of trauma, or illness, or recovery, or an experience. Most often, we have a little niggling feeling deep within us that this thing needs expression. Are you ready to cultivate it? Nourish it? Are you ready for that gift to grow?
A few years into my work, a few people asked me how I do what I do. And I thought back on some of those wild, mystical experiences I had as a child nurtured and quelled in equal measure by my Catholic childhood. It was then I ran across a Tarot deck and spellbooks that I kept hidden away in my room. Those experiences changed when I became a young woman. It was then, in my late teens, that I sought meditation and began exploring Buddhism. That was enough for a while, learning to sit still with all that psychic information flying at me. My mystical and psychic self deepened when I moved into my 30s, more like a connection to others. There was this persistent urging in me to stop ignoring my intuition. I was drawn, like a moth to the light, to circles and people who understood that seed within me, who talked about being psychic not with shame or embarrassment, but with understanding.
I began to look for my tribe of wise women, healers, mystics, and psychics. I wanted their guidance, their camaraderie, their knowledge. I wanted to know who and what I was. The work, the real work, wasn't learning the tools, the outward appearances of being psychic, (that was the fun, easy stuff) but it came with me doing my own emotional work. There was not one teacher—I had many guides in many areas of my psychic self, but the work came from having a teacher who could hold space for my work. Most of us need teachers and guidance-not to be psychic, but to leave how to deal and protect ourselves as psychics, to deal with our gift, to keep the channel open and flowing. And when the call came for me to mentor and help others sow and cultivate their psychic gifts, I answered it by creating my Psychic and Shamanic Mentoring Circle.
It is a psychic development circle. I call it psychic and shamanic, because I use shamanic journey as the way in each circle. But it is also a place to do your work. I hold a high level of ethics and integrity in the circle and encourage people to explore what stands in the way of their psychic gifts. It is how to live shamanically, psychically, and authentically.
If you are in the Harrisburg area, I begin my nine-month mentoring circle in September. This circle is near and dear to my heart--after all, it captures all I do. I weave earth medicine, shamanic journey, crystal work, angel, ascended master and spirit guide channeling into a curriculum of psychic, spiritual and healing personal work. We take a walk through many topics that help connect you to the psychic realm. In my circles, I do not make people psychic, but I help remove what stands in the way to their gifts. I teach my students how to water the seed, give it sunlight, nourish the soil. I expose my students to lots of tools and ways to connect to help them find their own unique gifts and approaches to their psychic selves and learn how to tend to their own psychic abilities and gifts. This is a circle that helps you answer that question, "I think I am a psychic/empathic/intuitive/a healer/shaman...now what?"
Each circle begins with a check-in about our month. What kind of work arose for us? Mystical experiences? Mundane experiences that kept us from our work? We get surprisingly deep and emotional in this check-in after a few months. Trust deepens and the circle becomes a safe space. Then we talk about a topic—psychic protection, animal medicine, angels and masters, the wheel of the year, energy healing, psychic tools, altar making, past life regression. We discuss, often do hands-on exercises to really get into the topic. Then I lead a guided shamanic journey. I use shamanic journey as a way in for my students to develop a real connection with their spirit and animal guides and know what their gifts are. After our journey, we journal our experiences and then share, ask for feedback and process what we experienced. It is at that time that we really begin to learn our psychic language.
We meet once a month, on the first Thursday of the month, from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm at Alta View Wellness Center in Harrisburg, PA. This Mentoring Circle is a closed circle, so once our year starts, no new people will join. We honor the trust and vulnerability of this work, but asking each person to be present for this work. You can enroll by calling me at 717-770-9109. I am also happy to talk more in-depth about what we do, who it is for and anything else you want to know. I am closing registration on August 30th for our first circle meets on September 5.
Much love,
angie
spring tarot layout
Ah, Spring—-time to clean out the winter cobwebs and let in the light. I created a tarot layout for just that energetic work. Enjoy it!
mercury retrograde tarot layout
I've been in the throes of life and finding my tarot practice waning a bit. I know you all can relate--days when you want to pull a card, but how? When? For what? Sometimes I find myself in a place where I just don't want to know.
Burying my head in the sand never works. It simply wastes time. One of the times I most want to bury my head in the sand is Mercury Retrograde. Being misunderstood, having things go haywire, mixing up my navigational system is a logistical nightmare for a recovering control freak and perfectionist. It's those times when burying my head it in the sand or "not wanting to know" seem like the best idea in the world.
But avoiding tools that actually work for connecting me with Spirit and my deep wells of wisdom keeps me from peace. I need to remind myself that Tarot doesn't punish or judge--our interpretations do that! I do that! Tarot is a navigational guide and a map for moving forward. There are many times, though, that I know I am too tender, judgmental or prone to negativity to objectively read for myself. That is when I connect with another reader and trade. Tarot Share is borne out of that impulse to have a community of Tarot readers who get it.
Speaking of Mercury Retrograde, it is coming up on March 5th. Mercury goes retrograde three times a year. It shouldn't be surprising, and yet we all seem to dread it. I have developed crystals and vibrational support during Mercury Retrograde. I created this Mercury Retrograde preparation Tarot Layout to help you identify and work with issues that might arise during Mercury Retrograde.
i come with the grief
As a writer, poet, and artist, I’ve done a fairly lousy job of sharing my writing on here. I have mostly only shared my work about crystals, tarot and spirituality. Part of my passion is social justice and work of people like me—women of color who wrestle with identity and spirit in the face of social injustice.
I also want to show up more in this space—my voice and my face and my artwork. I have lived a life or two. I am a child of an immigrant. I am Latinx. And so I cannot go through this life without being reminded of that. It informs my artwork and my writing and my spirituality. It is part of the space I hold for people—healing cultural wounding and trauma, ancestral wounding and trauma, societal wounding and trauma. This poem encapsulates that for me. I began this poem in a writing workshop with marybeth bonfiglio.in 2017 and started with a prompt: “What grief do you come here today with?”
This is a piece I have revisited a few times, and found it. I am reading it below. Let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
prayers
Gratitude needs to be the root of all my practice. When I wake in resentment, anger, fear, my entire day feels off. It’s not often that this happens any longer. I have reoriented myself toward gratitude. I start gently with a simple prayer of thanks, as my stiff joints shuffle to the bathroom. I use the beginning of the e.e.cummings poem.
I thank you God for most this amazing day.
I watch the sun come up over the snow. The first blush of dawn highlights the waning moon flanked by Venus and Jupiter in the clear winter sky. The beauty betrays the bitter cold of the morning. 10 degrees. I sip my warm lemon water, snuggled in a blanket.
God, thank you for the warmth of my home, for the ability to build a fire.
The beauty way seeks to find beauty in all the things and also to be the one to bring beauty. I cringe at the toys I can see poking out from under my couches, and the clutter that small children bring, and yet their smiles, the warmth of our home (not just physical warmth, but the warmth of love and acceptance), the laughter, the artwork created by big and little hands hanging everywhere radiates beauty.
Great Spirit, may I walk in beauty. Great Spirit, I offer myself to thee.
I am most thankful that I get to do this work of honoring Spirit and tending to the Spirit of others, helping others live in a way that is harmonious—gentle consumption, stewardship of the Earth, sacred living, self-care, and self-mothering. Through my practice, the work I have offered has evolved. From my first circle of psychic development to now, I can see how much I have deepened in understanding and practice. How each moment is a moment of living in shamanic ways. I continually deepen my practice, so this makes sense to me. I have been blessed with many teachers and mentors who continually teach me how to show up despite adversity and grief and life.
Great Mother, thank you for the women who walk before me, who reach back, hold my hand and show me the way forward.
Last year, I experienced deep loss from the death of my beloved father to both of my animal companions (my dog Jack and my cat Magnus). The tenth anniversary of my daughter’s death amplified the grief. I had physical challenges to my health, and emotional challenges to my worth. I have had all my stories rewritten. I have had friends step away. Institutions shaken up. I have had every solid tower in my life brought down to its stone foundation. Thus is the Tower year, the one that brings it all out. Kali, the Dark Mother, helps destroy and rebuild. I honor her way, though it is hard. I honor her.
Dark Mother, thank you for the destruction of lies, and for the solid foundation to build again. Thank you for steady hand on my back as I move forward.
I am in the process of truth-telling about these incidents, and the process of truth-telling about my past and my history, of seeing things with clear eyes. There are stories that I had come to believe down to my core that just aren’t true. I watch and observe and take notes now about what is true and what isn’t. It is powerful work. Challenging, humbling, but good work. This is what we are asked to do as medicine keepers—continually do the deep work we ask of our students, clients and mentors. 2018 watched the Tower tumble. I used Snake for this work, as my guide. Snake sheds the skin. Releases. Transforms. Transmutes. Heals. Regenerates.
Thank you, Snake, belly on the earth, for showing me the process of shedding my old, torn skin. Thank you for rising from the earth to open a way forward for me.
2019 brings me to this year of the Major Arcana card XVII, the Star. It is a card of hope, of optimism, of healing, of peace. It brings me to watching the early morning sky for the simple beauty of the cycles of our life. Gratitude reorients me due north, the direction of wisdom and patience, the long view only the ancestors can bring. I am reassured of this fact—every part of my journey is used. No part is wasted on the medicine path.
Father Sky, Mother Earth, I thank you for clarity, for the willingness to see the truth no matter how painful. Thank you for bolstering me in the darkness, steering me to my True North.
Gratitude remains the root ball of the strong, powerful tree of me. The one that bends with the wind, but does not blow over. I am grateful for your continued support of my work and mission.
imbolc tarot layout
You know how I love creating tarot layouts for the Wheel of the Year. I have something in the works for those of you who also work with the pagan Wheel of the Year—the equinoxes, solstices and cross-quarter holidays, plus all the moon cycles. I cannot wait to share it with y’all.
Of course, Imbolc is coming up, so I thought I would design a layout for the seeds beginning to stir within you. Imbolc is basically the halfway point between Yule (Winter Solstice) and Ostara (Vernal Equinox). This is the traditional time that candles are made, and the sheep begin birthing lambs (hence the name Imbolc, pronounced Im-olc, meaning ewe’s milk). The gift of the first milk might help sustain a family in the dark winter. Speaking of darkness, we begin to see the sun rising earlier and setting later. I mean, we hear that Yule is when the sun begins coming out earlier, but now is when we can really see it in action.
It is also traditionally the feast day of St. Brigid, or the Goddess Brigid. Her snake would rise from the soil to test the weather and tell us whether the winter would last for another 6 weeks or longer. (Sound familiar?) But the idea here is under the snow, the grass, the soil, the seeds planted deep in the autumn are beginning to stir. It looks calm and serene above, but the seeds are stirring into action and beginning to make their way toward the sun.
And the same for us. What seeds are beginning to make their way towards the light for you? This tarot layout seeks to understand what is happening below your surface. Let me know if you use this tarot layout and what you think of it.
healing relationship tarot layout
How were your holiday gatherings? One of my Tarot friends sent me this hilarious cartoon for Thanksgiving, combining two things I love--laughing and Tarot. I have a great family and enjoy them very much. This was not always the way--my extended family dinners as a child seemed more like a blood sport. People leaving drunk and crying, yelling, dramatics, drinking, accusations. No one seemed to like each other, and I vowed as an adult to not be this way.
Holidays can be fraught with emotions--joy, grief, hurt, expectation, anxiety, sadness, loneliness--then add complicated family and friend relationships, and it is a formula for deep trauma. As I thought about this, I wondered how I would want to help my clients navigate the holiday family gatherings with my clients if they came to me for a Tarot reading. And I thought about how often in relationship disputes, I cannot see the trees through the forest. So, I created a Tarot Layout for Healing Friendships, Relationships & Family Dynamics. I created it so you can go deeper with shifting tension, for seeing a new perspective and for finding a way forward. I focused this layout on the person asking the question, because we can really only change us, right?
I think it would be useful to consider the cards that arise in certain positions. There are some relationships in which there is no path forward--this rift is permanent and important. Pay attention to the people on the card--is it a solitary person, or two people? Are you seeing cards of withdrawal or protection? Remembering that sometimes you are not at fault in the slightest, so how you move forward needs to be considered with that in mind. I'm going to print some of these out for Tarot Share, though it might not lend itself to a great group reading. This is really about our individual work with another person.
going deeper layout
I just naturally do this layout on my daily reads. I always feel like I need some more insight on just past present and future, so I expand to include some Celtic Cross insights in this little six card draw.
Whenever I create a layout for Tarot, I think it is important to ask a question or at least know the area of life you are interested in learning more about. Often, three card layouts are like little selfies of our time period. I think of this three card layout as having been put vertically, so that each row is present, approaching and outcome.
I like to play with those rows--first row is really about all the influences on the present, including the past and some additional insights about what we cannot quite clearly see. This is all the energy around you right now. I often get questions about the card in the past...this card is about what part of your past is influencing the question asked, or the energy that you are bringing into the question you asked. In the Unknown position, you can use this as something influencing now, so it can be another thing from the past, or the obvious thing from the present you are ignoring. The Second Row is about what we are calling in, what is in our approaching influence. This energy is about what are current actions are calling to us. What I mean by that is that our energy attracts or moves us toward the next phase. This approaching are really helps us to understand where our energy is spiraling toward, and what situation we are setting up for ourselves. Of course, this approaching energy is really about how we get to the outcome of our question. So, the outcome stands alone in the third row as the final resting place of our question if nothing changes.
Hope you enjoy this. Love to see how you use this in your own practice!
a Lammas reading for you
New Moon Tarot Layout
New Moon is such a potent time for planting seeds, for setting intention, for taking stock. For me, the dark of the New Moon excites me. It seems so potent and full of potential for me. Plus, that inward reflection for me plays beautifully into my own introversion and need for alone time. I mean, this isn't isolation. It is solitude. It is time to check-in. I often do my most powerful readings during this time period, because I do it ready for release. Hell, the New Moon makes me sleep well, but also finds me cranky. I am not always good with too many personalities, so I pare things down. I connect with the cards, with Spirit, with my own needs.
I often do the Medicine Wheel Layout or even the Solstice layout, but recently, I have been doing this New Moon Layout I've been playing with. This is really potent for those who aren't really sure what energy they are really ready to call in at the New Moon. It is great for the question: Where should my attention be right now?
As always, please let me know how you like this layout and show me your readings. I am offering distance readings again, so please reach out if you are interested at angie@themoonandstone.com
medicine wheel layout
The energy of Summer is upon us--that fire in our belly. In terms of the Medicine Wheel, we are facing South, the direction of Fire, of mystery, of passion and heat and action and creativity and, and, and....there is so much going on the South, it is no wonder we break a sweat. The South moves us from the airy East into the deep fires of the lower chakras--the root, sacral and solar plexus. This is where we ground, we create, we do. Red, Orange, and Yellow combine to create those flames of DOING.
Many tribes use the Horse as their symbol of the South. I certainly use her as my Southern Totem. She is the Great Sojourner, the Carrier of the Warrior and the Maiden, the traveler, the explorer, that fearless movement forward. We call in the energy in the East in Spring, and it flies overhead with the energy of Hawk, Eagle, even hummingbird (hummingbirds have been all over my land this year with her busy, fast dance.) These high fliers have the vision to align you, to see the bigger picture, to see the forest, but what that vision does is move you into South, where we actually do the dang thing we have been visioning. When I am in the South, I find myself creating all day, painting, sketching, playing guitar, singing, doodling. My creativity is awakened. Creativity and action begets more creativity and action. I am ready. I call on fire to burn away that which sit stagnant in my energy field. I call on fire to start me on my wild journey.
I move through the Medicine Wheel constantly--we all do...each day, year, and in the cycle of our life, we move through east, south, west, and north. Each morning, in my prayers, I call in the directions for healing and to guide my days. I use this model for my Tarot readings too. This isn't exactly a new layout, though I didn't "copy" it from another source. This is just how I have always intuitively done reading around the Medicine Wheel. I drew it up in a Tarot Layout that is shareable and useable. I thought we could try it next Tarot Share for our group reading.
beltane tarot spread
I have really enjoyed creating tarot spreads around the seasonal energies this year. It has been such a challenge for me to think about what we need to know at different times of the year around these cycles. I connect with cycles and even created an oracle deck based on the different cycles we tap into through our life. It's not available yet. I just use it for myself. But I think about this so often when I do readings for my clients. First, what cycle of life are they in? What cycle of their year? What universal cycle are they in--what is the astrological or lunar cycle are all of us facing? This seems like such an important part of the work of reading energy to me.
Beltane, May 1st, is one of those important points on the Wheel of the Year. Spring is in full bloom--flowers are blossoming and the world radiates a thousand shades of green in every corner. The lightness seeps into us all. The Solar Horned God earns his name and is ready to mate with the Lunar Goddess. This is where the idea of Lusty May comes in. We certainly understand Spring Fever and we really enjoy a time of fertility and growth. We celebrate the light, the sexuality and creativity that lies within that sacral energy. It is within us. Now, how are you expressing this time?
I create these tarot spreads to help us easily tap into the energetic and magickal work important around these different points on the Wheel of the Year and in our life. It is such a powerful time to check-in with a relationship or partnership you have. And if you are more interested in a creative project, you can also think of that birthing out of the same energy of Beltane. Remember you can do this reading at any time you want to check in with a relationship or project of any kind, not just Beltane. Let me know how you enjoy this layout.
Blue moon tarot spread
So much of this energy of January is about the two full moons that act mark the beginning and ending of the month. The second blue moon on January 31st is super special--it is a blood moon, a full lunar eclipse and then of course the Blue Moon.
Tarot is a perfect way to tap into this energy and use it to manifest your beautiful goals. This Leo Blue Moon is one of bringing in and setting intentions around some long-term goals and dreams. I mean, these are those dreams you dare not speak aloud, the ones that feel too wildly awesome to imagine. I used to be all about magical thinking, and fear of jinxing my good fortune. Pshaw!! Not anymore and not since so many of the dreams I dare not speak aloud have come to be. I am living my wildest dreams (and I'm still uncomfortable sometimes, by the way. The discomfort just stays for so little time, and makes me too curious to suffer for too long!). So, what is that dream for you? Are you so out of touch of your childlike awe and curiosity that you forget?
Tarot is great for uncovering your subconscious and superconscious selves. So, tap into it with this layout, and let me know how it goes!
New Year Visioning Retreat
The winter always stirs me into a creative frenzy. I want to organize and simplify after the holidays. I empty containers, pots, jars, drawers, small boxes...anything I have mindlessly put something into at some point in the hustle and bustle of autumn. I go through things, read the notes I wrote months ago, and to-do lists, then throw them out. (Goddess, that feels so bloody good!) Releasing, organizing and de-cluttering might not sound creative, but right after I am done with that work, the muse fills me, and I must create. Nature abhors a vacuum as we say, and I just want to fill this emptying with artwork and writing.
This is the time I energetically decide what I keep for the new year, and what I am ready to release. What is ready for release? What is ready for more of my energy? The problem with this process is that it is just me in my head, and I have been living with this stuff all year. It is hard to see the tree through the forest. All my stuff seems important or it wouldn't be my stuff! Sometimes you just need another set of eyes, another perspective, to remind you of what is redundant, what is extraneous, what is holding you back from a lightness of being.
The work for me is never about bringing in what I want. I know who I am and what I want. Maybe too much. I'm a leader, and a go-getter. I tend to have big dreams and enjoy projects, work, and offering myself to others. In fact, I often overschedule, over-do, overwork...this isn't always a good thing. I often have this nagging feeling that I am forgetting something, or that there just isn't enough time in this life for everything I want to do. And then in my darkest hours, the statement that haunts me, "I'm not doing enough!" What I do well is surround myself with people who challenge me. Not just friends, but a few strong spiritual advisors, and I also pay for support in the way of therapy, coaching, and healers who help me clarify, simplify, and re-prioritize my life in the most important ways. All this asking for help and direction has also informed what kinds of offerings I supply to others. If I need it, certainly other people need it.
After taking part in a Sankalpa retreat many years ago, I connected and understood my soul path so clearly that everything I envisioned, drew, and journaled that one day more than five years ago has come to pass. I can see how so much of what I visioned in that day clarified what is important to me, and what was standing the way of achieving it. Because of that day and my own struggles with simplifying and distilling what is important to me through other healers and coaches, I began offering New Year Visioning Retreat day at Alta View Wellness Center. This is the fourth year offering this vision board workshop. But it is SO MUCH MORE than just a vision board class.
I combine my studies in crystal healing, earth medicine, shamanic practices, art, tarot, meditation, and circle leading in all I do, but this workshop particularly reflects it. Watching people create vision boards these last three years only strengthened my resolve that setting intention in sacred space intensifies the spiritual work, creates a fertile place to manifest any intention and amplifies the creative fire for others. It creates a higher vibration and higher consciousness so we can achieve our beautiful goals. Most of us don't want to be rock stars, or write the Great American novel, but some of us do. For those with intentions of the peaceful, small-life variety, or those with big, meaty, lofty goals, I created this workshop to help you first figure out what is holding you back and then what you are ready to bring in.
We start the day in meditation and prayer, circle up. I drum and guide you in shamanic journey, and guided visioning through writing. We move here and there to find more creative flow. The energy of the morning is being in a waking trance state, almost, in and out of journey world, to write. I simply ask questions to spark your deepest wants and desires. From that spark, you begin to stoke a fire within you--the one that holds your truths and intentions. As we move through the morning, we journal as simply as possible. (What are you ready to release? What do want for your health, for your friendships, for your romantic life, for your work, for you?) And we uncover and distill what is most important to you and how to achieve it.
After our morning of visioning, we eat clean, homecooked food lovingly prepared by me. I cook vegetarian soups and salads for us. This is a retreat, after all, and I want you to feel cared for and loved. So all my food is created with love and Reiki.
Then we move into our time creating a vision board to hold the visions of the morning. Whether you want a new couch, a new job or a new perspective, we help you find photos, words, and images to hold your intentions and release anything standing in your way of the best you. This process takes most of the day. It is amazing how quickly the time flies. We laugh so much, and talk, and share space with other people also ready to make shifts in their life. If you have more questions, or want to register, just give me a call, 717-770-9109.