Llewellyn Publications's Blog, page 15

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Granddaughter Crow, author of The Wisdom of the Natural World and the new Belief, Being & Beyond.

Approaching life with curiosity can change your experiences. The way that an individual approaches a day, a situation, and life in general has a direct influence on how their day will go, how the situation will unfold, and how they experience life.

Some would classify this statement as optimistic vs. pessimistic approaches. But it is more than that—curiosity opens us up to new experiences. I believe that we are in an ongoing dialogue with spirit. When we pose a question, curiosity opens us up to hearing the answer. When we make a request, curiosity leads us to the gifts. When we give thanks, curiosity shows us a sign of direct connection.

Curiosity opens us up to noticing the little miracles that are all around us. Assumptions are normal—we all have them. However, assumptions can also cut us off from wonderful experiences, too—like blinders on a horse. Curiosity opens the mind.

When I make an assumption within a situation, I am actually placing that energy into that situation, and it has a direct impact on how the situation will go. For example, when I am about to give a speech and have the idea that no one will like what I have to say, my body language will signal to the group that I am not confident in what I am saying, or something is wrong. In turn, I will be placed under a discerning eye, due to my body language alone. However, if I walk in and make eye contact, smile, and share with a sense of curiosity, the outcome is much better for everyone.

Curiosity helps promote mental flexibility. Curiosity places our mind in a position of learning something new, and in such, it keeps our minds active and youthful.

As a female Gen-Xer, I continue to seek out new thoughts, ideas, and concepts. I love learning new things. This helps me to shape and re-shape my thoughts. It is also helpful for the brain to create new neural pathways for future creativity and problem solving.

Here is a fun exercise that you might like. Make a list that looks something like this: a) Find a synchronicity today, b) find something that makes you smile, c) look for the blessing within today. Changing our approach can change our experience.

These concepts and more are in my new book, Belief, Being & Beyond. What we believe causes us to behave the way that we do. However, there is something beyond this and curiosity will lead us there.

Our thanks to Granddaughter Crow for her guest post! For more from Granddaughter Crow, read her article “Three Easy Steps to Open Your Mind to New Thoughts, Ideas, and Beliefs.”

An ENORMOUS thank you to our LlewellynCon presenters today: Lauren Walker, Lisa Wagoner, T. Susan Chang, and Masuda Mohamadi!

Unable to watch their presentations live? Click on their images below to watch the recording! And, be sure to follow our YouTube channel, where we’ll be sharing the recordings of each presentation!

Watch Lauren Walker: Joy Is Your Greatest Ally In Healing—How to Get More of It!

Watch Lisa Wagoner: Toxic Positivity vs. Positive Paganism: What’s the Difference?

 

Watch T. Susan Chang: Planetary Magic and Tarot

 

Watch Masuda Mohamadi: Open Your Heart Chakra with an Attitude of Gratitude

Thank you again to all who presented and attended!! We’ll see you tomorrow!

An ENORMOUS thank you to our LlewellynCon presenters today: Lesley Morrison, Richard Webster, Pamela Chen, and Mawiyah Bomani!

Unable to watch their presentations live? Click on their images below to watch the recording! And, be sure to follow our YouTube channel, where we’ll be sharing the recordings of each presentation!

Watch Lesley Morrison: How to Clear Space and Change Energy Flow in Your Home

Watch Richard Webster: How to Work with Archangels

 

Watch Pamela Chen: 3 Crystal Practices to Amplify Your Abundance

 

Watch Mawiyah Bomani: Sweep That Loser Out and Shampoo the Trauma from My Hair: Ritual Cord Cutting We Seldom Think About

Thank you again to all who presented and attended!! We’ll see you tomorrow!

An ENORMOUS thank you to our LlewellynCon presenters today: Crystal Pomeroy, Lindsay Fauntleroy, Enfys J. Book, and Alise Marie!

Unable to watch their presentations live? Click on their images below to watch the recording! And, be sure to follow our YouTube channel, where we’ll be sharing the recordings of each presentation!

Watch Crystal Pomeroy: 3 Keys to Working with Angels for World Peace

Watch Lindsay Fauntleroy: Flower Spirit: Using Flower Essences for Spiritual and Emotional Wellness

 

Watch Enfys J. Book: Why Qabala Is an Affirming Spiritual Tool for People of All Sexualities and Genders

 

Alise Marie: Creating a Beauty Altar and a Magickal Beauty Ritual

Thank you again to all who presented and attended!! We’ll see you tomorrow!

An ENORMOUS thank you to our LlewellynCon presenters today: Lilith Dorsey, Martha Kirby Capo, Natalie Fowler, and Ian Chambers!

Unable to watch their presentations live? Click on their images below to watch the recording! And, be sure to follow our YouTube channel, where we’ll be sharing the recordings of each presentation!

Watch Lilith Dorsey: Water Goddessses of the World: Exploring the Depths of the Divine Feminine

Watch Martha Kirby Capo: Thrifty Witchery

 

Watch Natalie Fowler: The Difference Between Spirits and Ghosts

 

Watch Ian Chambers: The Witch Compass in Traditional Witchcraft

Thank you again to all who presented and attended!! We’ll see you tomorrow!

2021 Tarot Calendar

Our Tarot Calendar is in its fourth year! It’s not too late to get one for 2021. If you are not familiar with it, this calendar features large card images from 12 different decks as well tips, spreads, short essays, and activities. Get a little tarot fun, education, and beauty each month.

Here is an example of what you can expect.

 

 

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Natalie Fowler, author of the new Spirit’s Way Home.

As we start counting down the days to the impending All Hallow’s Eve, ’tis the season for all things creepy and spooky. It is said to be the time of year where the veil is thinner and those things that go bump in the night…bump a little louder.

While it is fun to be startled and some actively seek the thrill of a good scare, this doesn’t have to be a time of fear. After all, we are the ones with a physical body. Anything existing in the nether is just a sliver of energy, a fraction of what it once was.

In school, our science and health classes taught us how to take care of our human bodies and keep ourselves healthy. But no one ever taught us that we also have an energetic body that we need to keep healthy and safe. And it’s a lot easier to protect our energetic bodies than we might have realized.

The first step is to acknowledge that as the ones with the physical bodies, our energy is infinitely stronger than anything making those bumps in the night. With a full set of energetic centers (our chakras) we are already equipped with everything we need to keep our auras safe and secure.

We just have to intend it be so. In other words, Obi-Wan Kenobi was right when he said to believe in and trust the power of the force. We have to believe in and trust our own ability to keep our energetic field safe.

But how do we do that, exactly?

For me, the answer is a simple visualization. I imagine a bubble of protection locking into place around my energy field. I fill this bubble with light and love and set the intent that only light and love is allowed inside.

While that may sound a little hokey, I’ve seen it work with my own eyes. Once, while up at the notoriously haunted Palmer House Hotel in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, I was working with a group on a paranormal investigation. We were using an SLS camera—a piece of ghost hunting equipment that was modeled after video game technology, in which a grid maps in commonly recognized points on a human body to create the image of a stick figure.

It’s pretty darn cool and a lot of fun evidence when something maps in and we ask it to wave its right hand…and it waves its right hand.

On this particular investigation, we were interacting with a stick figure that had mapped in, floating above our heads. However, this particular figure wasn’t waving at us, but rather, it was doing some rather inappropriate motions on my head.

Not wanting to alarm the others in my group, I kept my voice light and asked the figure to please treat me like a lady. Instead, he continued with his obscene gestures. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and imagined my bubble expanding further around my space.

The stick figure vanished.

So the next time you hear an inexplicable thump or a bump that sends the adrenaline rushing through your veins, bubble up…and THEN reach for your K2 meter.

Our thanks to Natalie for her guest post! For more from Natalie Fowler, read her article, “My House Is Haunted: Now What?.”

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Elliot Adam, author of the new Fearless Tarot.

[image error]For many, the appearance of the Tower is often looked at as a disappointment. However, this card also holds the promise of a major psychological breakthrough. The Tower sweeps away any rationalizations based on artifice. It can remove the protective walls we’ve built around a sensitive vulnerability—which we may have trouble facing.

In this excerpt from my book, Fearless Tarot: How to Give a Positive Reading in Any Situation, I offer a constructive approach to viewing the tarot‘s most volatile card.

The Tower
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The people falling from the Tower were prisoners of their own making. They built walls around themselves that grew taller and taller. These walls separated them from feeling reality. The Tower gained in size and made them numb. Being numb kept them “safe” from being hurt by the past and the present. In the Tower, they could pretend there was no loss, change, or death happening outside. They would say things like, “I’m great! No sad things ever happened; what are you talking about?” The lightning on the card represents the inevitable crisis the Universe always sends to cause those in denial to wake up and to heal what needs healing.

Are there unresolved hurts from the past that you need to heal, surrender, and clear? What would you rather not deal with right now? Do you zone out to deny reality? Is there a fear that, if you open yourself to feeling, it will hurt too much and won’t stop hurting?

Despite the destructive imagery, the Tower is one of the most healing cards in the tarot. The Tower snaps us out of pretending we are not hurting. It is a cathartic card where old pains are finally felt and released for healing. In that way, the old pains no longer keep us a prisoner escaping reality. When you reflect on your life, you’ll realize the moments that made you strongest are often the hard times. Avoiding challenges doesn’t make us strong—dealing with them does.

Denial of truth is unsustainable. The Universe always sends along a proverbial lightning bolt to snap us out of delusion. The breakdown moment is surprisingly a blessing. Lightning bolts symbolize flashes of divine magic and epiphanies at play in your life. Once reality is accepted, it can then be healed. The people falling from the Tower are returning to Earth. Not only are they returning to reality, but they are returning to their true nature as well. The crowned roof of the Tower is also being ejected, symbolizing a need to get out of the rationalizations of your head and get back to reality.

When the Tower appears, it’s time to stop avoiding something that you know needs to be felt. It’s time to be honest with yourself and feel your real feelings. The Tower represents freedom from feeling trapped.

Let go.

Hope is returning.

Our thanks to Elliot for his guest post! For more from Elliot Adam, read his article, “How to Read Scary Tarot Cards without Fear or Despair.”

Are you a professional illustrator or artist? If so, we’d love to connect with you!

Llewellyn is known for our wonderful tarot decks, and great art is part of what makes them so wonderful. Our authors create concepts and card descriptions, and Llewellyn finds the right artists to bring these decks to life. Have you ever considered being a part of a tarot deck project? Or, if not, perhaps now is the time to do so!

Making a tarot deck is a big job, requiring 79 illustrations (78 cards and the card back). Our decks usually require full scenes (rather than portraits or vignettes). It is also a long-term commitment; most artists take 18 – 24 months to complete a deck. But, being the artist of a tarot deck can be an immensely powerful and rewarding experience! (Note that artists retain the copyright to their work.)

We love it when artists have print experience, show consistency in style, and are able to provide high quality digital files (Photoshop files are preferred).

If you are interested in being considered for a tarot project, please send the link to your digital portfolio to [email protected] (please do not send attachments or pictures).

Please note that, while we do review each and every portfolio that we receive, we unfortunately are not able to provide a reply to every portfolio submitted. We also keep all submissions on file to consider for future projects.

We look forward to hearing from you and seeing your portfolios!

So many of us are at home at this time, staying safe by working and teaching our children remotely. But, being at home for long periods of time can result in feelings of cabin fever or even anxiety. Perhaps you’ve invested in updates or improvement projects for your home that you’ve long wished to tackle, or perhaps you’ve created a new cozy nook for your workspace, your children’s learning area, or your reading area.

We’re now entering the season of winter here in the Midwest (as is the norm with our Minnesota seasons, we seemed to have switched from comfortable and beautiful autumn into a six-inch snowfall with little warning). Many of us here in the Midwest spend so much time indoors during this time of year due to the dark, the cold, and the snow (pandemic or no pandemic), and we wanted to share some books, articles, and more to help you make your home the coziest, most wonderful place to spend time, whether alone or with your immediate family and friends (safely, of course! We do ask that you follow all guidelines from the CDC and your state regarding proper mask wearing and social distancing for indoor gatherings).

 

Make cozy your way of life with this inspiring guide on connecting to the positive energy of simple, everyday moments. Known around the world as hygge (hoo-ga), lagom (lay-go-m), and other similar terms, cozy and balanced living helps you improve your health, happiness, and spirituality by understanding and feeling the frequency of people, animals, places, and situations.

The Simplicity of Cozy is a beginner’s guide to self-care that presents a variety of topics relating to and supporting cozy living, including mindfulness, simple ritual, home environment, relationship connections, and being in nature. Easy exercises and practical techniques are featured throughout, helping you make more soulful connections and find appreciation in all you are and all you experience.

Bonus: Check out 5 Ways to Connect with the Simplicity of Cozy to get started!



Create a Haven Anywhere for Relaxation & Self-Renewal

Bring a sense of harmony and balance to your environment so that no matter where you are, you can connect with spirit. This book shares insightful techniques for transforming any space into a haven designed to help you achieve serenity and joy.

By engaging your five senses and working with the power of intention, you can create a sacred space anywhere, no matter what your spiritual background is. Sanctuary of Your Own shows how to carve out your own personal refuge at work, in your car, or even in a hotel room. Author Caroline Dow also shares tips for designing your own altar, getting rid of clutter, and establishing spaces to share with family and friends.

Whether you want to facilitate a meditation practice or express your personal interests and cultural background, this accessible guide shows how to take small steps that get big results. With examples from cultures around the world and practical ideas for incorporating colors, fragrances, botanicals, gemstones, textiles, and even special numbers, Sanctuary of Your Own helps you fashion a perfect space where you can feel safe, relax, and rejuvenate.

Bonus: Check out Create Your Own Personal Haven—Anywhere to get started.



Simple Charms and Practical Tips for Creating a Harmonious Home

Let your home nourish your soul and uplift your spirits. Swirl magical botanicals into your cleaning supplies, call fairies into your garden, ask a spider for advice. Clear clutter for clarity, perform the oatmeal cookie ritual for abundance, or make a sweet dreams charm for a good night’s sleep.

In this delightful book, intuitive counselor Tess Whitehurst reveals how your home can be a powerful catalyst for personal transformation and manifestation. She offers a variety of simple, whimsical ways to create a harmonious home while enhancing your own happiness, intuition, and magical power.

Bonus: Watch Tess Whitehurst’s presentation from our 2020 LlewellynCon, where she discusses living magically in and being appreciative of the home that you have now.



Get to the Heart of Why It’s So Hard to Let Go of Your Stuff

What’s your clutter actually covering up? Once you’re aware of the real issue, letting go is simple and decluttering can happen immediately. Using step-by-step instructions and easy-to-understand explanations, Tisha Morris shows you how to move into a new phase of life by ridding yourself of all that’s holding you back. Everything in your home is an extension of your identity, and when you keep old stuff for too long, you get stuck in the past.

Clutter Intervention teaches you about the psychological, emotional, and energetic components underlying your possessions, making it easier for you to let go and live authentically. Discover ways to clear out items associated with your past relationships, jobs, and unhealed grief. Learn how to handle blind spots, common excuses, and overcompensation. This book isn’t about living with less. It’s about living in alignment with the life you want.

Bonus: Discover 5 Ways to Embrace Your Home as an Archetype of the Divine Feminine.



Immerse Yourself in Healing Waters for Relaxation, Clarity, and Wholeness

Gain inspiration and rejuvenation through the sacred act of bathing. With fifty-two bath recipes, one for every week of the year, The Book of Sacred Baths shows you how to use this relaxing practice to improve your love life, succeed in your career, strengthen your health, and transform your spirit.

Each recipe is tailored to a specific emotional or spiritual need, from stress relief to divine assistance to self-connection for overall well-being. Using essential oils, candles, and color therapy along with visualization and ritual practice, you’ll raise your vibration and release negative energy down the drain.

Bonus: Get started with The Bath of Self-Care.



Clearing All Your Clutter: Physical, Mental, and Spiritual

Discover how to clear clutter in every aspect of your life: physical, mental, and spiritual. Remove junk from your living space with feng shui techniques. Rid yourself of mental clutter and restore balance with meditation exercises. Organize spiritual untidiness and find deeper meaning with tips and guidance from psychic professional Alexandra Chauran.

Clearing Clutter is your perfect guide to letting go of unnecessary attachments and living in peace and tranquility. With simple steps, you can create change and achieve balance in your life. Through easy yet powerful exercises and techniques, clutter can be permanently cleared, making you happier and more productive in all that you do.

Bonus: Discover if your accumulation of clutter is caused by a need for more spirituality.



Creating a Harmonious Space with the Energy of the Earth

Create a deep sense of security, peace, and comfort for yourself and your loved ones by making the energy of your home more harmonious with nature. Featuring simple techniques presented through the lens of a shaman and tradition keeper, this lovely book teaches you how to live gently upon the planet and improve your physical and spiritual wellness.

Discover universal spiritual principles and how to use them to plan, create, and maintain your harmonious space. Explore energetic techniques for finding your center, getting in touch with yourself and your loved ones, attracting benevolent spirits, and connecting to the elements. With this book’s accessible exercises and instructions, you can build a living space that makes you happier, healthier, and more productive.

Of course, these are just a sampling of the number of books and articles that we have available! Browse through our complete selection of feng shui books here, find more articles here, and discover spells and rituals for your home and family.