Paint a Journey with New Life
Welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop! An international group of tarotists are all writing on the same topic and then linking to each other so that the reader can hop from one blog to the next, seeing all the permutations…
Joy Vernon
Joy Vernon is widely recognized as an expert tarot teacher and respected community leader. With over twenty-five years’ experience teaching energetic and esoteric modalities, Joy brings expertise and practiced familiarity to her specialty of esoteric tarot, which layers astrological and qabalistic symbolism onto the traditional tarot structure. Under her leadership, the Denver Tarot Meetup grew into one of the largest and most active tarot-specific meetups in the world. Now Joy runs the Greater Seattle Tarot Meetup. Joy works as a tarot reader, astrologer, and teacher in Burien, Washington. To learn more, please visit JoyVernon.com.
Intention-Attention-Connection
It’s time for me to step forward and make my confession. I’m not a huge fan of intention, affirmations, and such. I do use them—don’t get me wrong. They’re fast, simple and effective and sometimes that’s what I need. But…
The Qabalah Tattoo
This ancient mystical tradition of the Hebrews possessed three literatures: the Books of the Law and the Prophets, which are known to us as the Old Testament; the Talmud, or collection of learned commentaries thereon; and the Qabalah, or mystical…
Mystery and Mastery
At this time last year, I decided to join an organization called Shibumi International Reiki Association. This group was developed by Frans and Bronwen Stiene, who run the International House of Reiki and teach Usui Reiki Ryôhô, which is one…
The Teller of Tarot
This is excerpted from my in-progress book, Journey Through Tarot. The first time I taught my tarot class in the early 90s I called it Exploring the Tarot. My marketing materials at the time said you would “become the teller…
Dancing with Ganesha
I have heard that meditating for 20 minutes with someone who has a stronger or different meditative practice than yours can initiate you into their level and style of meditation. I have found this to be true, having experienced a…
Page of Cups
I wrote this July 25, 2011 and didn’t post it because it didn’t have much of a point. But not everything does, does it? I hope this summer memory brightens your winter. Sunday afternoon I went to the Botanic Gardens…
Armature and Art: The Interplay of Intuitive and Knowledge-Based Tarot Reading
Intuitive versus knowledge-based tarot reading seems to be a popular topic for discussion lately. Whenever it comes up, people are quick to jump into a camp and defend their position. Last night, because it is a potential Denver Tarot Meetup…
Tarot and Reiki
A while back I joked to a friend that I was going to develop a new way of reading tarot. I would have the client shuffle the deck and lay out three cards, then I would quietly channel Reiki while…
Nessus and the Hierosgamos: My Journey with the Empyrean Key
The Denver Tarot Geeks I started the Denver Tarot Geeks on May 26, 2007, as a way to share my excitement and passion about the power and inspiration I found in exploring the esoteric aspects of the tarot. I led…
The Reiki Prism
I am extremely lucky to always have brilliant students in my classes. My current Shinpiden (Reiki Level 3) class is no exception and we had a very interesting discussion of the difference between reiju and attunements last night.Reiju means spiritual…
Confronting the Dastardly Stalker Card
I got an email today from a client who’s had a couple readings from me and has decided to teach herself to read tarot. She had two cards that were coming up repeatedly for her recently. Of course, to make…
Foolish Thoughts
In Tarot Geeks we were examining the Fool card and I observed that he was holding his stick in his left hand but laid it across his right shoulder, a very unnatural posture. It makes the character of the card…
The Imperative Precepts
Recently, within a week of each other, I had two new Reiki students ask me the same question about the precepts. The first said, “I really like the sayings you taught us and I’ve been doing them a lot. But…
My Reiki Path
In this post I share the story of my first experience with Reiki, and I tell how Reiki complemented my spiritual path, eventually leading me to discover a lineage of Reiki that emphasized Reiki as a spiritual practice.
Just for Today
I just understood the precepts! I mean, I know I will never understand them and I know that anything I understand is for me only and that you will know them differently, but all that aside, I understand the precepts!…
Symbols and Systems of Collapse
Last night at the Colorado Traditional Reiki Meetup in Northglenn, we were discussing Frans Stiene’s (The Reiki Sourcebook) viewpoint that the symbols in Reiki are “training wheels” to be discarded after one thoroughly understands each symbol’s unique energy. I can agree with that statement, only if one continues on to say that the entire system of Reiki can be discarded...
The Mala and the Middle Pillar: The Role of Receiving in Magic
One of the most powerful benefits of magic is that it gives us the tools to take charge of our life, to step out of the runaway vehicle of chance and onto a more sedate track of conscious intention. As…
The Bamboo Reed
In this essay, I consider two different metaphors for the Reiki practitioner--the overflowing vessel and the hollow reed.
Tarot as a Healing Art
But true soul-level healing can arise when the reader continues on to the layer of highest expression. By giving voice to the unassailable inspiration of these cards, whatever stories they may have already told, we shed the light of Divine Unity on the shards of self, and fractured parts reflect the perfect whole.