Tag: life coaching

Book Review: “Soul Vows”, by Janet Conner

by

Posted: November 22, 2019

I occasionally peruse my bookshelves and look for “new” old books that I haven’t thought about in a while. “Soul Vows,” by Jannet Conner is a gem of a book that I did a lot of work with about six or seven years ago, and it’s struck me recently that this is a great book to read if you’re doing shadow work even though it’s technically not about shadow work at all.

Subtitled “Gathering the Presence of the Divine In You, Through You, and As You,” it comes across as a thoroughly spiritual book, not one with a psychological bent. …

Category: blog

Tags: , , , , , ,

Tarot for Teddy: Finding a Mentor

by

Posted: April 17, 2017

Teddy was a bit busy and overwhelmed this month, but at the same time he was feeling kind of antsy with the onset of spring and warmer weather. Starting a new business with his duck friend reminded him of how good it was to take risks and learn new things, and he was wondering where in the rest of his life he might be overlooking the need to shine in some light and learn some new tricks.

I suggested we do a simple reading this time to give him some food for thought. We used the Wild Unknown deck with

…

Category: Tarot Spread

Tags: , ,

Life Coach Question: How Do I Find a Teacher?

by

Posted: April 13, 2017

Finding a teacher isn't hard. Finding the right one is. There's so many choices now of ways to learn and who to learn from, that it's hard to know what's a good enough bet that you want to fork over your money. What do you do if you know you want to start studying something, but you're overwhelmed by the options? How can you tell if something is legitimate?

Here's some tips on finding the right setup for you:

  • Know your learning style - do you need the visual input of a blackboard or demonstrations, or can you learn from
…

Category: Ask the Life Coach

Tags: , , , ,

The Hierophant

The Hierophant

by

Posted: April 6, 2017

The Hierophant is one of the more difficult cards to approach in the tarot. In many decks, it's a straight-laced, old, religious figure -- pretty much the uncoolest-looking pope you can imagine, or an old uncle who comes to Thanksgiving who smells 

like ancient aftershave and the crypts of the undead. In the Rider Waite Smith deck (a standard deck that a lot of people use) he's an aged religious figure in formal vestments raising some religious items over the head of two bald men. Personally, I have a little trouble relating to this. In more modern decks the cards

…

Category: Tarot

Tags: , , , ,

Tarot for Teddy: Uniting the Masculine and Feminine

Be the Balloon Tarot Spread

by

Posted: March 16, 2017

Last month Teddy came to me because he was starting a business with his duck friend Anatra and needed some help navigating that transition. When I checked in with him this month, he was unusually silent, even for a stuffed bear. I hoped things weren't going badly for him. 

"Everything's going just great," he said, ​and started to choke on his coffee.

Once he settled down, I asked him what he wanted to talk about. If everything was going well, what was bothering him?

"Well, that's the issue," he said. "Everything's changing, everything's better. But I don't know what to

…

Category: Tarot Spread

Tags: , , , , ,

Five Ways to Set and Maintaining Healthy Boundaries

by

Posted: March 13, 2017


On the Facebook groups I'm on, I commonly see questions about setting boundaries. Some people, especially empaths, worry about how to keep other people's energy from getting to them. Others just want to know how to keep other people from treating them like crap.

In order to set proper boundaries, we need to know what they are. Then, we need to know when we need one--and after that, how do we set and maintain them?

Boundaries are a really interesting concept that's best understood in terms of the expansion and contraction of the Empress and Emperor. Instead of a fence or a

…

Category: Life Coach Question

Tags: , , ,

Structure vs. Abundance

by

Posted: March 9, 2017



It's been interesting this past month thinking about pure generativity versus form, creating versus forming, yang vs. yin. I was originally just going to write about the male and female aspects of parenting, but went down the rabbit hole and started thinking 

​about expansion and contraction, equal and opposing forces, and the whole idea of boundaries. I'm on a few parenting boards where there's a whole lot of discussion about freedom versus structure, and what people need in order to grow properly.

I'm led to think about how some people, when writing poetry, prefer to write in strict forms like

…

Category: Personal Post

Tags: , , , ,

Faces of Parenthood: The Empress and the Emperor

by

Posted: March 6, 2017



After he meets the High Priestess and the Magician, the Fool moves on to the Empress and Emperor, the more earthly, material faces of the feminine and masculine in the tarot. These are the parents, the queen and the king, the one who creates life and the one who makes sure the kingdom operates precisely.

This is a hard topic to discuss when, in our society, we are trying so hard to figure out gender and sexuality and power in a way that does not marginalize, pigeonhole, or colonize anyone. It's hard to figure out what these roles have to

…

Category: Tarot

Tags: , , , ,

Working with Soul Collage

by

Posted: February 20, 2017



I fell in love with the SoulCollage® process because it combined my interests in art, journaling, and spirituality. SoulCollage® is a process in which you collage found imagery to make a deck of cards with personal meaning and significance. You can use them to access your intuition, serve as journaling prompts, or just to honor the voices within you.

Creating the cards is only part of the process. After we create them we work with them, both in small groups and alone. 

 Journaling and spending time with these cards is a great way to voice and understand the parts of ourselves that

…

Category: SoulCollage®

Tags: , , , ,