Something New

Well, new for this blog anyway.

Shadow Grove is planning a festival for Beltane again. It's the same festival that brought me to that great community a year ago. The festival has expanded to span four days and will include a number of wonderful guests. Like last year, I will be leading a workshop on learning the tarot. Unlike last year, however, I can't be there for the entire festival. We were unable to get the park for our first choice of Beltane weekend, so our festival will be the following weekend, the weekend of Mother's Day. Knowing my mother, she'll want to kayak, and she'll want me to be there. Also, my aunt is visiting from Utah that weekend and it will be nice to see her (not to mention I will be expected to be at my grandmother's home for dinner on whichever day they're having it). This works out ok, as I can hold two workshops on Friday morning and evening, and still have time to experience the opening ritual and spend some time offering my Reiki services at the Healing Garden.

New this year, we will be offering tarot readings. Since I can't be there all weekend, the ministers were able to book a new member of the Grove for the readings. In a recent turn, this person found she was pregnant and ordered on bed rest (best of luck and health to you!) which leaves the position of tarot reader vacant. Perhaps I am the logical choice to fill that position, except that I will only be there the first two days. We still need a reader for Saturday and Sunday.

I am happy to do this, even though I'm a little nervous because I haven't read for others in years. I think it's much like riding a bike; I know the cards and the things they can mean and I know the spreads I am comfortable using. There are just a few snags, all of practicality and logistics. The first is that pesky weekend where I won't be there because of family obligations. The second is the simple fact that no two readers read the same way. The original person we had coming listed a couple spreads that she uses and based pricing for service on those (she is a professional reader, actually, and has more experience in that regard than I). The thing is, I hate the Celtic Cross spread, one of her features. I stopped working with it more than a decade ago. No matter if I read for two days or we find someone else to read for the duration of the festival, the content of what we offer will have to change.

It feels like a small set-back to me, which is a very good thing. The biggest problem is filling Saturday and Sunday. I've been working on an elemental spread. The idea came from my friends at Goldentree Wands, though I admit that I never got a reading from her and didn't really pay attention when she was reading at GoddessFest. The idea came from them, but the actual spread, how I work it and what it means, are my own because of that fact. It needs some refining to bring it to a place where I can work with it for others. I have a few weeks to do this. I could always focus on a pyramid spread as well. I'll find something comparable that works.

I'm excited about doing this, but the truth is that I need to exercise my skills. So, in the spirit of getting myself comfortable in reading for others again, I'm going to work with my deck every day. It will start with one card in the morning that I will define, think about, and reflect on for the course of the day. I will then do a weekly reading of eight cards, one for each day of the week and a card for the week in general. Then the daily cards throughout the week will modify that. On the first day of a new month, I will pull an extra card for that month. Starting next week, I will post my weekly spread, and I will pull them with general purpose: that is, so they will apply to most people instead of a specific question or situation of my own. I have a lot of preparation to do for the festival, for my workshop and possibly taking this over. This feels like a good place to begin.

The card of the day, because I know you are wondering, is the Four of Pentacles Reversed. This is the miser, signifying that I am holding on to something when I should be letting go, when it's ok to let it go. It might be money, or maybe an idea, or maybe something as basic as uncertainty. This is what I have to think about today.