I have been wanted to do a 2018-year reflection post. There was a lot to reflect on. I'm going to keep this to the personal rather than the political. Otherwise, we'd be here all day.

I've had some ups and downs this year. More ups really, so that's good. Since I am a professional Joy Seeker, I will focus on the ups. 

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The biggest thing is moving into my role as the owner of

The Cartomancer. After doing a seven-year stint as the American Tarot Association president (2007-2014), I thought just being my Tarot counseling self would be enough. Then, in May of 2017, the chance to become an editor of a magazine I loved fell into my lap. Well, okay, so I bombarded the former owner with a dozen emails detailing my thoughts on how to make the magazine even better. Since she'd done a bang-up job, I was pretty full of myself. Still, she did agree to sell me the magazine. My first solo edition was Winter 2017. I have just mailed out my fifth issue (Winter 18) and have most of the first issue for 2019 in the bag. 

Since that time, I’ve been doing my best to promote The Cartomancer via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) as well as being active on the festival route. Last year I was at NWTS in Oregon, then at the Tarot and Oracle Expo in Texas, ending with the Readers Studio in New York City. I got to meet one of my Tarot heroes when USGames invited me plus two other authors to their offices. Add to that a sister trip that started in Louisiana then went to New York City (in July, y’all. HOT) plus my yearly retreat with Joanna Powell Colbert? I had a blast but realized that was a great deal of time away from my family. Time apart is super healthy for any relationship, but I may have overdone that just a bit. Oh, I also drove up to Denver where I had a blast being part of the US Games Systems, Inc team at INATS. My 2017 Secrets of the Mystic Grove (art by Mary Alayne Thomas) also won silver in its category. (picture s (L)of me at INATS (r) me with the amazing and charming Stuart Kaplan)

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I learned a lot about myself in the past year. A big one? I operate in crisis mode a lot. It’s something I’ve done to myself for a long time. From taking tests in school forward, my modus operandi has been “OMG!! What is today.” So many things fell through the proverbial cracks. I did two back-to-back issues of The Cartomancer due to my being that way. Thank the Gods for Serena Fox who is my assistant editor, design goddess, and so much more. She’s been the “Okay, Arwen. Here’s what needs to happen” voice of reason in my head.

 

I wrote down some goals in my planner (by Benebell Wen). When I  looked at them, I thought, “Hey! I didn’t do so bad.”

And that was so telling. Instead of saying, “Hey! I nailed some important goals”, I  diminished it. That’s a thing I am going to work on. Here are some of my goals and how I did. I’m celebrating all of them—especially the ones I didn’t make. Why? Because they give me new targets.

 

1.       Professional Goals

  • 100% growth increase for The Cartomancer.
    •  I hit 137.33%

 

  •  Secure more advertisers
    •  Did that. The Winter 2018 issue nearly paid for printing on ads alone. Postage and printing are the goal this year.

 

4.       Produce two courses

a.       NAILED IT! 30 Days To Joy and Trust Your Gut: 9 Weeks To Intuitive Tarot both launched.

5.       Health  Goals

a.       Lose 50#. Okay, so  I lost 5. But I did go down not up.

b.       Walk 3000k or more per day. Not even close. More like 1892 a day. So that’s a goal I’m going to redo.

6.       Gratitude Practice

a.       Oh, hell yeah! My #3DailyJoys brought me a lot of joys. I missed days, but on Instagram, that hashtag hit 2001 by 12/31/2018. I wanted 2000. Thanks to others who posted their daily joys, we got that number. Pssst, everyone is welcome to join!

b.       Self-Care was also nailed. I got my massages (not monthly but close) as well  as took time to get mani/pedis because I love them. I also did a lot of meditation as well as used the Calm app for sleep. My husband, a champion napper, finally wooed me over into the art of napping.

7.       My spiritual goals were a bit more…esoterically inclined.

a.       Listen—I did this. I really got better at listening while doing my Matron/Patron readings and my Word of the Year readings.

b.       Altar—While I did set it up, I didn’t keep it up. So that’s a goal for 2019

c.       Connect—My mediumship skills got a work out this year. I had a lot more folks from the  other side show up for their loved ones.

So, all in all, I’m very pleased with 2018 results. I also deeply nourished some of my professional relationships. That’s going to be big for this year too. I allowed myself to let go of decks and books. I am still in the process of that. Organizing my collection will make that simpler. I am going to be very choosy about decks I buy for my own use. Review decks will still be accepted with the caveat that I may give them away later or even sell them.

Tarot practices this year went well too. I moved my weekly individual Tarotscopes over to Patreon which  was a hard decision, but in the end,  it’s been much better. I am toying with the idea of ditching YouTube altogether due to my dislike of the way they monetize (or don’t) various videos. We shall see.

An unspoken goal was to launch a project with my witchy sister, Ember HoneyRaven. After a lot of heart talks, I am proud to say AwYea is here. We are a bit off schedule due to some curveballs the Universe pitched at us (Ember moved, got engaged, got a new job and I am in the process of moving and managed to get hit by an illness that knocked me down for a good two weeks. I’m still coughing a bit!) But the site is live.

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My personal word of the year is RELEASE. I put it on my MDP cover to remind me what I am doing this year. Last year’s word was TENACITY. I believe that was a very good word for me. I used my own Secrets of the Mystic Grove to pull my word. Speaking of decks, I  had two decks come out. One I co-wrote—The Bianco  Nero Tarot. The other is my work—The Practical Tarot Wisdom deck (shown above). I’ve got two more in production for this year. One features some amazingly powerful women while the other  is a precious-cute (I’m Southern, y’all) dragon deck. I don’t want to say much more until we have release dates. I’m also working with an artist I dearly love to create another oracle.

 

I will be launching a new offering in the next 90 days. I hope you will join my newsletter, so you can learn about it. Other things in the works are a book of spreads as well as a new class for Ethony’s Tarot Readers Academy Summer School. I forgot I did that in 2018 as well. If you use that link, it will show you all the classes still available.

How was your 2018? I'd love to hear about it.