Nine of Wands
Combining the super-close moon energy with the earthy Taurus, and the building energy of wands, this is a time to recharge, re-stock, and re-center to set yourself up for the coming challenges.
Get really grounded into your body and your physical world. It'll give you the foundation to build from and help keep your energy up as you do your very important work. These are all practices you can come back to when you feel like you're heading for a burnout. Remember that you can do all you need to, but you don't need to do it all at once, and you don't need to do it alone.
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-Eat protein and iron-rich foods, and root vegetables
-Spend time with people you love
-Stretch, lift, run, box, dance, sing
-Take 3 deep breaths
-Make something with your hands: knit, draw, sculpt, cook, craft
-Masturbate or have sex with a partner
-Organize your dresser, kitchen, or living room
-Hold a grounding stone or object
-Take care of your plants and animals. Trim old leaves, add new soil. Give your dog a bath and a treat
-Trade massages with a friend or give yourself a foot massage
-Sit quietly and imagine the moon pulling earth energy up into your body
-Go to bed early
-Do one thing at a time
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Pictured are a couple of the ways I'm grounding tonight: knitting, making herbal oils, hanging out with excellent rocks and people.
11/11
I'm feeling lighter and more playful than I have in days. Partially from a run in the wind with a dog, but also, it just IS lighter today. We're starting to move out of grief with purpose, and feeling the joy in having a purpose. Nothing could be more vital than the work ahead of us right now. We have to stand up whenever we see bigotry, and hold people accountable for their words and actions, especially when they think it's no big deal. Call them in. Fellow white people, time for us to listen to what people of color have been saying for years: the system is not serving all of us, and letting it keep going unchecked is not an option. We didn't wake up to a different world this week, we just saw it without our own veils of privilege, and our programming to be complacent. We can learn to speak up. All of us, me included. We have to do better. There is no other option. We can come from a place of love, and still be fierce. There is no compromise on human rights. The lightness I'm feeling, I think, is from recognizing the absolute truth in that. It leaves no room for doubt or fear. I will serve this purpose in every way I can.
Thank you!
Thank you to everyone who came out tonight! 🌟
Couldn't make it and want your own Mortality Impulses Tarot? It's up for pre-order at rebeccasuttonart.com
Post-Election Healing
I have so much love and pride for all of the people in my life who are facing the election fallout with kindness and critical thinking. I wanted to be able to put together some words to help us all find purpose and move forward, but it's not time for that yet. Right now is the time to check in and take care of ourselves and the people around us.
For the next few weeks, I'm offering pay-what-you-wish distance reiki and tarot starting now, and in-person sessions available next week. All proceeds will go to Standing Rock. They're on the front lines, fighting for the rights of all of us. This lets you help others, help yourself and give me an opportunity to be of service. And thank you to all the amazing other people offering sliding scale work and donating proceeds, for inspiration. It's an honor to be on this path with you.
Email, dm, or text me to book.
I love you.
Election Day Survival Tips
-Stay hydrated.
-Vote!
-Before you vote, read the wnyc voter guide (or one from your local equivalent) and figure out which of the local judges, ballot measures, etc seem like they will make life better for your community, esp the people who have less money, space, access, representation.
-Give yourself permission NOT to check the stats all day. Taking in all that info won't affect the outcome or make you feel better.
-Do something physical, like take a walk or draw or cook.
-When you find yourself worrying about who will win, try this: See if you can instead picture what the ideal outcome would look like for the people. Picture us all living kinder, happier, safer, less judgmental, more open lives.
-Do something to make the world better right now, like donating anything you can to Standing Rock.
-Spend time with your friends, family, and neighbors.
-Remember that you will get through this and you will be ok no matter what happens. ❤️
What are your #election2016 survival tips?
Mortality Impulses Tarot Launch Party
Hey NYC, come out next Thursday for the Mortality Impulses Tarot launch party! Ticket proceeds go toward getting this gorgeous deck printed. I mean, how great is this King of Pentacles? ☝🏼️
Event details below. I hope to see you there!
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Mortality Impulses Tarot Launch
🍋
Rebecca Sutton made a tarot deck! Come celebrate esoteric art and help get the Mortality Impulses Tarot printed. 🍋
Berg'n, 899 Bergen St, Brooklyn NY
November 10th, 7:00-11:00pm 🍋
Moriah Simmons, Erin Shipley, Leisa Haddad, Polina Pfliger doing readings 🍋
Aparna Sarkar, Adriana Atema, Rebecca Sutton showing art (art will be for sale) 🍋
Aaron Taber making food 🍋
tickets are $20 and include readings, food, drinks, etc, available at
www.rebeccasuttonart.com/store
New Moon/Samhain/Halloween/All Souls Day
New moon/Samhain/Halloween/All Souls Day reading:
How can we release fear?
Strength.
Deal with the scary things up close and personal. Hold them gently, especially the scary parts of yourself. When you can be soft and close with the things that inspire fear, and with the parts of yourself that experience fear, you'll find that fear naturally has less of a grip on you.
What cycle is closing?
The Moon.
We're moving out of a period of unconscious knowing, deep dreaming, and instinct. It's a weird place, and can be hard to grapple with because its very nature is pre-language. But if we can be present to the lesson of The Moon, even if we don't understand it at the time, we'll come to a place down the road where looking back, it will make perfect sense. We're moving toward that place now.
How can we be more in the flow?
Four of Wands.
Celebrate life, it's a dance. Connect with other people in joy and excitement, and give your energy a creative outlet. By being in the flow, I mean participating and creating, giving and receiving, without trying to control or scheme or explain everything. We can flow more, and more easily when we take time for pleasure and fun. Energy put into pure fun recharges us.
What cycle is opening now?
The Sun.
This is a beautiful counterpoint to The Moon. This is when all of the recent mysterious stuff will start making sense. We're moving into a cycle of expansion, clarity, warmth, energy and joy. So enjoy it! Look back on the last month, times that were dark and hard. Now you'll start to see how they were in fact lessons, and what they meant.
Mortality Impulses Tarot Launch
Rebecca Sutton made a tarot deck! Come celebrate esoteric art and help get the Mortality Impulses Tarot printed. I'm proud to support this project, and I'm excited to see this beautiful deck come to life.
Berg'n, 899 Bergen St, Brooklyn NY
November 10th, 7:00-11:00pm
Moriah Simmons, Erin Shipley, Leisa Haddad, Polina Pfliger doing readings
Aparna Sarkar, Adriana Atema, Rebecca Sutton showing art (art will be for sale)
Aaron Taber making food
Tickets are $20 and include readings, food, drinks, etc, available at
www.rebeccasuttonart.com/store
Dust 2 Onyx Tarot
Dust II Onyx: A Melanated Tarot Deck is the most beautiful and powerful tarot deck I've seen in a long time, and it's less than 33 hours away from its goal on Kickstarter. Congratulations to artist Courtney Alexander @dust2onyxtarot, and everybody else, go pledge and get your deck today! #dust2onyx
Thank you!
Thank you to everyone who stopped by for a reading tonight at Halyards for #naturalunnatural2016, and thanks to @gowanusswimsociety for having me! ✨
I loved meeting everyone, and what a powerful group you were! Lots of big celestial messages of growth and inspiration on this full moon night.
Reading at Natural/Unnatural Party October 15
This Saturday I'll be reading cards from 6-10pm at Natural Unnatural 2016, the Gowanus Open Studios party hosted by Gowanus Swim Society at Halyards. There'll be performances, video showcase, live music, and lots of amazing artists. I can't wait!
Twin Peaks Tarot Cards
The Magician Longs to See
Full 78 card Twin Peaks tarot deck by Benjamin Mackey is now on Indiegogo!
I have a couple of these awesome prints on my wall, and I am so excited to read with this deck
(I'm pretty sure the Venn diagram of tarot nerds and Twin Peaks lovers is a circle.
Congratulations on this awesome project, Ben!
(Image from Welcome to Twin Peaks)
Making Friends with Uncertainty
Learning to love uncertainty. Learning to live in this state without expecting that the answers lie in the future, in other people, in books or travel, as the reward for some quest or penance, or even inside us.
Learning that each question is an infinite unraveling of possibilities, and requires no answer. Learning that the very idea of "answers" or "certainty" is an attempt at control and limitation. Learning to hold all of that uncertainty, and live in the world, making decisions in each moment.
Trusting that uncertainty, allowing it, loving it.
("Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue." -Rainer Maria Rilke)
Autumn Checkin
Little bedside altar, checking in with myself and where I am now, and thinking about the turn of the year.
I drew The Magician as my card for the 2016 on New Year's day, and I like to check in on how I'm moving through that lesson each season as the year progresses. I'm learning so much about manifesting--not the catchy law of attraction "manifest your dreams" stuff, but more about how we do create our world by how we perceive the world, and how we act in the world. The things we imagine are just as real to our brains and bodies as the things we experience.
It's hard for me to put into words, but the important thing is to be in the flow of it. To work with all of the elements, above and below, to realize that our personal power is the power of opening, allowing, channeling. I've been moving through a cycle of dealing with anxiety, and really sitting with it, but not trying to tamp it down or gloss over it with false positivity. Like, yeah, a lot of hard things are happening, but I don't have to identify with them. I know that changes come in cycles and seasons, and that this one is on its way out, making room for new growth.
Goodnight and happy autumn.
Autumn Equinox
Light your own way.
It's time to step away from anything you've been leaning on, because you don't need it. You're using these behaviors, ideas, and things more for comfort than anything else — like training wheels or a security blanket. But you're at the point where any more comfort will start to numb you out. And you did NOT come here to be dull and inert. You came to get shit DONE. You came here to let something bright, pure, and completely unique shine through you. Step forward. It's uncomfortable at first but that's how you grow.
What's the first thought or behavior pattern you retreat to when you're really out of your comfort zone? Do you think, this is out of my league, I have to go home immediately, this is dumb, nobody will care, people will judge me, I'm doing it wrong? Do you get shy, make awkward jokes, get angry, seek reassurance, or shut down? Pay attention to those responses. See what happened to trigger them. It's usually when you're at a point where you can either embrace the discomfort and evolve, or stay hidden and "safe." Next time, all the next times, ride out the discomfort and see what happens. It will surprise you.
All the best things come to life outside that little comfort zone, you just have to step out to meet them.
Harvest Moon
Strength
You are already whole. Always have been. It's just a matter of allowing all parts to embrace each other, recognize their connections.
You are on the right path. When it's hard, and challenges you to grow more than you thought you could, that's how you know it's the right path.
Trust yourself. You have the strength to handle whatever comes your way, and handle it all with gentleness and grace.
Strength is my "everything's going to be ok" card. She shows up when I need to remember that I can handle all of this, that I asked for this. So it feels extra special for her to come up on this harvest moon.
Stop Digging
This is a new thing for me, to learn when to stop digging! I have so much experience replaying the same thoughts and scenarios over and over in my head, that it's become an automatic response. It's taken some work to break the pattern—to stop digging. It's something I've been told how to do, but it's best learned by doing. I'm learning, all the time, to respond rather than react. Once I feel what it's like, that makes it easier to do again.
And then once one stops digging, the second rule is, figure out how to climb OUT of that hole. For me it's been meditation (especially doing it even when it feels like my brain can't shut up), breathing, and writing things out. These are all steps I can build to get out of the hole.
And it fucking works.
Anyone else feeling like they just surfaced into something new this week?
Anyone surprised I stuck with that digging motif the whole way?
(Photo is liner notes from my 9th grade self's beloved Noise Addict cd.)
A Reading About Writing
To be a clear, true communicator, release judgement about what you write, and face your reluctance to do the projects you feel called to do. Trust that you are the exact right person to bring those projects to life, and to share those ideas with the world. Inspiration will come easily, when you're writing from the heart. What will take more effort is overcoming your own assumptions about what a successful writer is or does, and your desire to stay comfortable. The really great stories, the ones that call to you and scare you, are just outside your comfort zone. They are in your reach, but you'll have to drop some of those old assumptions to make room for new ideas.
Remember that in each ending there is a new beginning. In every closing paragraph, there's a new first sentence. And remember what drew you to this practice in the first place: your understanding of yourself, as a communicator, and your ability to get straight to the heart of the matter. (I pulled these for myself, but I thought this might be helpful for anyone else who needed some magic tonight.)
Thank you!
Thank you to the amazing women who came out to talk about tarot tonight! I'm so inspired by the insight, courage, and generosity of all of you. I'm already looking forward to our next meetup!
Surrender
I'm in a nonverbal place right now in my understanding of tarot. Like, I can sense what a card is showing but it's hard to put into words, and none of the words I put together seem quite right. And that doesn't feel great! I want to get "the message" right away from a card or a spread, preferably in an eloquent distilled, dialed-in soundbyte.
With the 4 of Pentacles, I once had an experience where I pulled it in a client reading and the song "How do You Solve a Problem like Maria" from the Sound of Music popped into my head. Because how DO you pin a wave upon the sand? I know that part of the reading was for me, too. What's the problem with letting some things just be as they are, without trying to explain and pin them down? What's behind this desire to structure everything? Why do I place more value on verbal explanations than essential understanding? What makes me think I have to find the right answer, or any answer at all? What makes me think any answer I could reason out would be the right one, anyway? And what will happen if I ease up and stop trying to make a card "make sense" to my brain and allow it to show its message to my heart?
Part of this contraction about not being able to verbalize the cards is a fear that if I can't communicate what I'm getting, how can I read for another person? How can I teach another person to read? How can I do this work full-time and support myself, if I can't do those things? My fear is that I'm not enough, that trusting my channel isn't enough, that I won't be able to make this work really my reality. And that means I'm holding onto my day job and my night job as I move into what I feel is my true calling because I'm not letting myself trust it's really for me, and that I won't make it work. (And of course that "not being able to verbalize" is a self-imposed judgement. How am I "not able" if I'm doing it right now?) Oh, Pentacles, you hit me right in the lack mindset.
All of this is part of my intention for my month, to let my heart take the lead, and surrender to the moment. (In my new moon void reading, The Hanged Man was the result card.) My mind can do all the contracted flailing it wants, but I don't have to accept that as truth. The biggest part of being open and clear is getting out of my own way. If I want to have a clear channel, I have to surrender. So that's my work for this month. Trusting myself, my channel, my work. Seeing these fears and brain static come up, and then letting them go. They get smaller and quieter every time I deal with them, and I identify with them less every time I can surrender and get out of the way.