Tag Archives: black history

Tarot and Art Forecast for Week of Feb 16, 2020

Gwendolyn BennettPoetry has its own way of inspiring visuals.  This week I am adding to your sign’s forecast a line from the poem To a Dark Girl (1927) by Gwendolyn Bennett.  To read the whole poem just read the first line in bold for each sign.

Bennett was an influential person and contributor in the Harlem Renaissance Movement.  She was a painter, poet, and writer in a variety of journals and anthologies such as NAACP’s The Crisis and Caroling Dusk, and she published a monthly column called The Ebony Flute. For more on her history and work read Heroine of the Harlem Renaissance and Beyond

The Harlem Renaissance was centered in Harlem New York during the decade of the 1920s. It was an intellectual, social, and artistic eruption. This era was a turning point in American black cultural history. This congregation and congruence of African American writers and artists created the momentum to gain control over their representation of black culture and experience and was the beginning of these artists and thinkers to be recognized in Western Art world.

P.S. Remember signs with an * it a big week for you.  Aquarius this is a perfect time to get an Astrological Tarot Reading for your coming year.  And Leo it is your halfway mark for your birth year, so if you need a Planetary Reading for a check in now is the time.

 

Aries

I love you for your brownness,

*Hierophant – What structures in your life are holding you back?  The energy this week helps you destroy the edifices that bind you, and it strengthens your resolve to create new structures (time, space and how use your energy) that will sustain the work that needs to be done.  This can look as simple as waking up earlier to eat breakfast, or as complex as getting your job to let you work from home once a week.

 

Taurus

And the rounded darkness of your breast,

Nine of Cups – Last week’s energy wanted you to bring the divine down into the world. Tapping into your spirit and calling it into action. The energy this week continues this theme of the divine, but it asks you is your work ethic getting in the way of your spirit and joy?  Your contentment? Don’t forget the divine has you here to work your purpose, but following your joy sustains you.

 

Gemini

I love you for the breaking sadness in your voice

Seven of Wands – Last week’s energy was best used in building on what already is existing.  This week you will have to defend your boundaries to get anything done.  Work still needs to happen, so put up you do not disturb sign and get back into your groove.

 

Cancer

And shadows where your wayward eyelids rest.

Six of Coins – Karma is the key energy this week.  Take heed in your actions and reactions.  For all the positive you give, positive will return; however, this energy flow happens with negative forces too.  The trick with this card is that the return energy does not always come back directly from the intended source.  So watch for curve balls, lower expectations and be nice.

 

Leo

Something of old forgotten queens

Six of Swords – You need a bit of distance to gain some perspective this week.  So, when meeting a challenge, step back, dissect the issue, simplify and go back in.  The main take away to handling this week is physical space even if its just an extra 5 minutes in the bathroom.

 

Virgo

Lurks in the lithe abandon of your walk

Three of Wands – Last week the energy was about organic change.  Asking you to start on your spring cleaning, getting rid of things that are dead weight in your life.  And, it asked you to plant some seeds by tasking you to write down 50 things you wish for, big or small.  Lucky you, you get another week to do this prep work.  The only challenge this energy is thinking bigger and broader horizons in your wishing.

 

Libra

And something of the shackled slave

Ace of Swords – With all that heart work last week the energy has done a 180 degree turn from your heart to your mind and ways of thought.   Hopefully, now that you have reconnected with your emotions you can clearly see the direction you need to take this week with problems and their solutions.  

 

Scorpio

Sobs in the rhythm of your talk.

Queen of Cups – Last week’s energy was rough and hopefully you got to dodge most of it.  But you might find yourself a bit tender and vulnerable.   However, this is not to week to hide in the shadows.  Go out find solace in your friends and people who love you.  Refill your cup.

 

Sagittarius

Oh, little brown girl, born for sorrow’s mate,

*Judgment – Last week the energy circled around freedom and newness.  Reminding you that exploring the world is part of what drives your soul.  Discovery is key to bringing new ideas and stimulating your sensualities.  If you did well with that task last week, you are ready to deal with this week’s energy of metamorphosis.  If you didn’t investigate new avenues you might find this week has growing pains with your evolution.  This can be as simple as you found a new route to work which gives you 10 more minutes in the morning to eat breakfast.  Or it can be as complex as not finding that new avenue which stops you dead in your tracks, and you hang upside down spinning a large cocoon around yourself until you solve your challenges and changes.

 

Capricorn

Keep all you have of queenliness,

*World – The energy this week is about expanding your horizons by integrating your inner and outer worlds.  Dive into the energy and concept of interconnectedness.  You have just completed a major work and/or turned a significant corner in your life and now you need time integrating this accomplishment into your consciousness.  You are building on the old world and creating a new paradigm.   So, to move to this new music you must let the composition enter into you, let your body and soul find the new rhythm, and then dance.

 

Aquarius

Forgetting that you once were slave,

*Magician – Ok this is your last birth month card and the Magician has shown up to add to the energy of the Aces, new beginnings.  So, let’s review, 2020 ignites new passions and new ways of being on the physical plane.  Then the Magician steps in adding its big energy of bringing the divine down into reality.  This energy begs for you to start new projects/jobs, create, imagine, and experiment in the coming year. The big challenge is that these creations must have an aspect of the divine.  The definition of divine is of, from or like God, excellent or delightful.  So, 2020 will be a year where new not only grows, prospers but lifts others with delight.

 

Pisces

And let your full lips laugh at Fate!

Ten of Coins – The energy this Ten brings is satisfaction from the work you have completed. This week is a transition of completion and new beginnings. This week spend time just enjoying the gifts that you have worked so hard to get.  Set your gratefulness into your bones to strengthen positive reverberations for the next cycle to ride.

 

May light be on you, around you, and within you,

Nina

 

Tarotcast for Week of February 3, 2019

Happy birthday Aquarius!

The above piece, a nod to you all, is called The Waterbearer by Lorna Simpson. She explained this piece was a contemplation of memories related to her father’s family tendency of relating family history, they would stop short or not fill in the blanks. In most of her pieces she makes the audience do some of that work.  I like that she is not only aware of her self in a piece but also her audience’s experience.

Simpson is a contemporary artist that is as versatile as you can get.  Her works range from paintings, collages, photography, sculptures and films.  One of the things she strives for is to have the images convey her experience not only as black woman but also as part of the collective experience of being American.  She has an expectation that her audience has to come with me, and that there is a universalism that I assume in what I am doing.

Her art explores the notion of identity is self-constructed and equally created by our imposed cultural dogma.  So self-construction becomes at times complex and contradictory.  In doing this exercise with her, her art becomes a place where we all can meet and empathize.  These concepts of who are we as individuals and as a collective is very Aquarian.

P.S.  Remember signs with an * it a big week for you.  If you do a beginning of a year Astrological Reading.

 

Aries

Lorna Simpson

Knight of Cups – This week your theme is tending to things of the heart.  Your challenge is allowing yourself to be vulnerable.  What makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful.  Brene Brown.

 

 

 

Taurus

Lorna SimpsonFour of Pentacles – The Four of Pentacles brings a week where you do not have enough cash, time and/or space.  This can make you hold these things even closer and causing you to feel resentful, frazzled or ungenerous.  The challenge for this card is to learn that less can be more.
Continue reading Tarotcast for Week of February 3, 2019

Tarotcast for week of May 7, 2017

There are many hidden heroes in our history and lives. Nurses are one of them. Nurses are the backbone, heart and hands of medical institutions.

Mary Mahoney is one of the heroes hidden in history. She was born May 7, 1845, and in 1879 became the first African American to graduate from nursing. She was one of the first African American nurses accepted into the national nursing association in 1896; however, by the early 1900’s they had stopped admitting minorities. So Mary co-founded National Association of Colored Graduated Nurses, which accepted all nurses no matter skin tone into their ranks. She believed that in order to challenge discrimination against minorities one must be the best in their field. Mary became so respected in the white community that she had received private-duty nursing requests from patients all along the eastern coast. She not only raised awareness that healing can be given and received regardless of skin color, but she exalted the position of nurses in general.

I find that most nurses are amazingly caring people, in spite of having one of the hardest jobs. Nurses see just as many patients as doctors and see them more often while the patient is in care, are more hands-on than doctors, and bring daily comfort. One personal example: I was crying in a hallway after a doctor had just informed me that I might have ovarian cancer and I would have to wait days to get an ultrasound. The nurse hugged me, snuck me into her office and got me an ultrasound appointment that day. Seeing my anxiety she went the extra mile for me. I never saw again but she still will always have my gratitude.

May 12th is International Nursing Day. Acknowledge a nurse this week.

P.S. Remember, signs with * it’s a big week for you.

Aries – King of Swords – This week, the focus is still your mind. The past two weeks have been about changing your perspective/mind. This week the King of Swords advises that it is time to make decisions. The challenge with this card is now that you are more certain of your goals, you have to be vigilant about being too bossy to obtain them. Remember, you do know a lot – but you can always learn more.

Taurus – Six of Wands – There will be powerful insights, accomplishments, and good news this week. The Six of Wands challenges you to acknowledge your hard work. Just take a second and look at all you have accomplished so far. Pretty impressive, right? That contemplation should give you enough energy to continue for the next 4 months. Keep it up.
Continue reading Tarotcast for week of May 7, 2017

Tarotcast week of February 21,2016

coexist 2

“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”  MLK Jr

February is Black History month. When I was a teacher, I had to decide how to represent black history month to my students. Personally, I wish we would just incorporated Black, Hispanic, Asian, Islamic, Native American etc… in with “regular” history. This stems from my belief that history as a whole has more to teach us then its parts. To me history is not just a singular event, person or place but a series of cause and effects that are linked globally. However, I don’t want to dismiss the fact that for now we need these focused studies of groups of peoples’ history. We need not only to honor and understand a peoples’ history but to fill in the very big blank spaces in America’s history classes. So in honor of Black History month I added some amazing black people in history, one male and one female. They do not represent all of Black history and they are not all the most famous, but they are some that resonate with me.

P.S. Remember signs that have * it’s a big week for you.

Aries- Six of Rods – Last week the Five of Rods challenged you before you to step back and assess the energy around the situation or person. This week you move on to the Six of Rods. Because of your considerate behavior last week, you have more people looking to you for guidance. Your assignment is to continue on assessing energies and responding with grace and kindness. With the Six, the good energy you put out will come back to you three fold.  Amazing People: Phillis Wheatley, James W. Johnson

Taurus – Five of Rods- This week with the Five of Rods you will find many distractions when you try to create any movement with your projects or your life. The challenge with the Five of Rods is not to fight or push through every distraction. They are, surprisingly, here to help you prioritize. If you find yourself distract from a project step back look at the distraction. It might be more important than the project.  Amazing People: Virginia Hamilton, Langston Hughes
Continue reading Tarotcast week of February 21,2016