This Artisan Life

Some say magic isn't something you do, it's something you are. Others say that their entire life is magical. While this might be correct for them, I would respectfully disagree that this doesn't work for me. I want my magic to be magical; I don't want to have to bring leaky faucets and flat tires into my magical realm. Having said that, there is a chance every moment to do something mystical, to connect with the nature spirits and the ancestors, to honor the old ways, and to walk the crooked path. This blog is about my journey, and how I celebrate the magic in the mundane.

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Charlie Rainbow Wolf

Charlie Rainbow Wolf

Charlie Rainbow Wolf is an author, artist, alchemist and astrologer. She is happiest when she is creating something, especially if it can be made from items that others have cast aside. Pottery, writing, knitting, gardening, and tarot are her deepest interests, but she happily confesses that she’s easily distracted, because life offers so many wonderful things to explore. Charlie has been doing readings and writing about divination for nearly three decades, so much so that it has become a way of life. She is a keen astroherbologist, an advocate of organic gardening and cooking, and lives in the Midwest with her husband and beloved Great Danes.

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

So, remember a few weeks ago when I started using the Tarot to give me a hint on what my body might need from me in the upcoming day? That has actually proved to be quite an interesting exercise (if you will pardon the pun). Not only am I finding that the cards give me clues as to what to expect, but I've actually started to broaden this to different aspects of chores around the house. 

Is it crazy to 'predict' what to do? Well, yes. Tarot--like astrology or any other oracle--can give us insights, but it doesn't control us. However, I have found on days when I draw a high energy card, I do tend to get a lot more done in the house as far as mundane chores go, than if I drew something more relaxed. 

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

Okay, well, maybe it is not particularly high-tech to some of you, but for an old crone like me who seems to have an aversion to modern electronics, it seems that way. I don't pay for my apps, I hardly know how to use my smartphone, but this is something that I discovered awhile ago, and now would not be without. 

Yes, I still like the feel of the cards and yes, I still adore my Tarot of the Cloisters deck, but with the Galaxy Tarot app on my phone, if I have my phone, I have my Tarot. What's more, I can do readings, and email the screenshot right to my client. I can share specific cards, I can add my own notes, I can refer to the different aspects of the symbolism or different correlations; in short, there's not a lot I can't do with this. 

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  • Janet Boyer
    Janet Boyer says #
    Galaxy Tone is a great app on Kindle Fire! Wish they had a better deck selection, though. (Btw, was gifted a Cloisters Tarot last

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

My friend and I were talking about fitness the other day. She's been wearing a 'FitBit,' and another friend of mine has been wearing  Nike FuelBand. I was contemplating investing in such a gizmo, as I'll be the first to admit I could take better care of myself than I do. These things are neat little gadgets and I'm sure they work for tracking, motivation, and encouragement . Mulling it over before sleep that night though, I started thinking about the tools that I already have. I've got a food tracker on my smartphone, I've got a pedometer, and I've got my Tarot. 

"How on Earth does the Tarot fit in with a keep fit plan," you might well ask? Before you chalk me up to being completely crazy (as opposed to just the 'way-out-there-crazy-but still-functional' type of crazy that I'll readily admit to being), hear me out. I thought I might be off my rocker, but I've played around with this for a few days now, and I've been very surprised by how well it works. 

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  • Charlie Rainbow Wolf
    Charlie Rainbow Wolf says #
    It's fun, yes? Today I drew the Devil. Wasn't sure how it fit at all... till my husband appeared with potato chips! I know it may
  • Meg Pauken
    Meg Pauken says #
    Can I just tell you how much I love this? I'm going to try it tomorrow!

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

Often when we think about the Empress card, we think of things pertaining to the springtime and fertility. The Empress can inspire fertility year round, though, through creativity. She is a very potent symbol of abundance and plenty. 

When I'm stuck for inspiration, I call upon Empress energy. This season, she's been working with me to help me very creatively make seasonal gifts for friends and family. That's the thing I've found with Empress energy; it works best when the creativity is infused with love.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

The holidays are just around the corner, and while I was surfing I came across these wonderful Tarot Tile pendants made by Gaea (http://gaea.cc/gaea_tarot.html) I particularly liked the 'blue moon' in teal.

Being a potter myself, these have given me some inspiration, not so much for making the Tarot tile pendants, but for doing a line of Tarot inspired plaques and masks. The runes are talking to me fairly loudly at the moment, too. I feel some sculpting approaching...

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As a Tarot card reader, I get a lot of people asking me when they are going to be happy. My first response to them is always that they have to choose to be happy if they truly want to experience joy. We are all presented with challenges in our lives. It is how we face those situations, not what actually happens, that determines our level of happiness. 
 
Have you ever noticed that the people who are the happiest are the ones that complain the least? That's not a magical formula. Those people have simply decided that they are going to focus on what is going right, and spread that positive energy, rather than focusing on what is going wrong, and complaining about it. Very often we don't have a problem, we just need to see things from a different angle. We need to find another plan. 
 
Many of history's great discoveries happened purely by chance. The chocolate chip would never have been invented had Ruth Graves understood the melting behavior of chocolate! It all comes down to working with the current reality, rather than what we wanted to occur. 
 
I was always told that if you can conceive it, and believe it, then you can achieve it. I've contemplated that a lot through the years. To me, this phrase is a good start, yes, but I've found that it is the point where believing turns into knowing that is the catalyst for true change. We draw to us what we believe to be right, but we become what we know to be right.
 
The inner work happens when we start training ourselves to know things. Altering our perceptions about the way we approach our lives puts us more in harmony with the unfolding world around us. Some might call this 'going with the flow.' It's simply physics: like energy attracts like energy. 
 
The quote that I use to demonstrate this is, "Don't cry because it ended, smile because it happened." We can spend our lives complaining about our circumstances or we can focus on the good things that have happened to us and that are happening to us, and rejoice in them. Every coin has two sides. The key to true joy is always look for the happy side. We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or we can rejoice because thorn bushes have roses. The bush is the same in both instances, you see?
 
Science takes this a step further, too. When we make a habit of looking for the positive side of all situations, the neuroreceptors in our brains start changing the way that they feed us information. We actually start to see the good more often than the alternative, and the world becomes a more joyful place.
 
Is it easy? Not at first, no, but then, what great thing worth having ever is? We can apply this change of outlook to anything. Sprained your wrist? Be grateful that you didn't break your arm. Diagnosed with IBS? Be grateful it wasn't something more serious.  It gets harder when the situations lie closer to your heart, but it is possible. Did you have to have your beloved cat put down because of a terminal condition? Think how lucky you were to have had all those years with such a wonderful companion. There's always a kernel of joy in any situation, I promise. We just have to train ourselves to look for it. 
 
The road of appreciation is our key to manifesting an abundant life. When we focus on what we are missing, that is what creates longing and a sense of scarcity. When we count our blessings, things start to take on a new energy, and a more positive one. It puts a whole new slant on the saying, "When life throws you lemons, make lemonade," doesn't it?
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  • Charlie Rainbow Wolf
    Charlie Rainbow Wolf says #
    If you knew me, you would know that I do not believe in getting 'over' something, I believe in getting through it, learning from t
  • Maria Corey
    Maria Corey says #
    I agree with you about the practice of gratitude. It doesn't change your life so much as it changes your experience of it -- and

Posted by on in Culture Blogs

I recently did a reading for a repeat client. "I looked up the cards after I left here the last time I visited you," she said, " and the meanings that you told me were not the meanings I found when I looked up the cards online." 

One of the reasons that people go to a reader -- and often pay good money to do so -- is because of the reader's experience. Anyone can get a deck of cards and do the readings themselves from the little white book that comes with the deck. How accurate is that going to be, though? Is the novice experienced enough to be able to intuit what the cards are saying? Is a beginner going to examine all aspects of the messages from the cards, or will they jump to the nearest conclusion and run with it?

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