Tag Archives: women artists

Tarot and Art Forecast for Week of Oct. 11, 2020

Kinuko Craft
Kinuko Craft

This is spooky month but with spook comes fantasy.  This week I will be reading from the Tarot of the Divine who uses fairy tales and myths from around the world for the imagery.  Fairy tales and myths have similar qualities.  They usually convey a moral or a lesson.  The characters may vary but there is usually a hero, villain, and a friend/mentor. There is some magical or otherworld element.  And the heroine/hero usually has some task or problem they need to solve to overcome evil.  These stories were told to not only impart knowledge but for the readers to contemplate their own story.  So this week ponderings are:  What is your story, how have you vanquished your monsters, what tasks do you still need to accomplish to reach your “happily ever after” and please remember for a full life story you need sequels and multiple happy endings.

This week’s artist Kinuko Craft pulls from the realm of the fantastical.  Her art is meticulous and highly detailed.  Since the 90’s she focuses on illustrating fantasy book covers, opera posters, and her amazing fairy tale books.  Each piece shows her love for art history and fine art itself.   I recommend going to her site to see these up close the detail and layering is amazing.

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

Nina

P.S. Signs with an * it is a big week for you.  Libra this is a perfect time to get an Astrological Tarot Reading for your coming year.  And Aries 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

*Chariot – Time to harness your emotions and start creating momentum.  The places that you have once floundered are no longer a hindrance, for you have learned from your mistakes.  What lays before you is the known. Now you have the experience to avoid the potholes on your path.  So get a move on this week.  Use this Mars energy to your advantage and get a head start on 2021.  Your tale:  The Three Princess of Whiteland, Norway.

 

Taurus
Kinuko Craft
Kinuko Craft

Knight of Cups –The energy this week resonates with love, kindness and standing up for who and what you believe in.  The challenge is that you might need to befriend a dragon or put others needs ahead of your own.  However, these challenges and sacrifices do work in your favor in the long run.   Your tale:  Halibu the Hunter; Mongolia.

 

Gemini
Kinuko Craft
Kinuko Craft

Nine of Wands – This week ‘s energy is a bit of a battle.  The key to navigate these trials is to be vigilant while maintaining hope.  Your tasks are honing your resilience and being prepared.  This can look as simple as carrying snacks and water with you this week to sustain your energy.  Your tale:  Vasilisa the Beautiful, Russia.

 

Cancer
Kinuko Craft
Kinuko Craft

Knight of Coins– Last week was about keeping hope alive and spending time to heal.  This week’s energy is about action.  This is a great week to slowly and steady do what needs to be done.  Persistence is key.  Your tale:  Heitsi-Eibib, Khoikhoi, South Africa

 

Leo
Kinuko Craft
Kinuko Craft

*Fool – Last week’s energy surrounded the concept of insightful exposure of what is driving you crazy or blocking you.  However, this was to be done with a new perspective.  If you did your work, you are ready to take the next step into the unknown.   If not, then you can fall into the doldrums and feel the path is hopeless.   So the key now is to take the step knowing that even if you fail you will not fall.  Your tale:  The Little Mermaid, Denmark

 

Virgo
Kinuko Craft
Kinuko Craft

Page of Wands – Last week’s energy was about creating the divine on to the material plane.  This energy bleeds into this week but with a focus more about the playful energy of creation.  If you are not having fun creating the world you are in – why are you doing it?  And if you are stuck in a world you have not totally created you can still pull out crayons and color outside the lines.  Your tale:  Mwindo, Republic of Congo.

 

Libra
Kinuko Craft
Kinuko Craft

*World – This is your first big energy card to start off your birth year.  This is the card of happily ever after endings following a difficult journey.  You have gone through the trials, and now it is time to wrap up the old story so you can start anew.  This year brings it endings as well as beginnings.  Spend this week writing a list of what needs to be finished.  And then start building a vision board for what you want next.   Your tale:  Hinemoa and Tutannekai, Maori, New Zealand. 

 

 

Scorpio
Kinuko Craft

Three of Coins – Where last week people may have gotten on your nerves, this week they are vital to your success.  Collaboration and recognizing other’s gifts are part of finding solutions and ease.  The challenge is you may need to come at projects and problems with humbleness not hubris.    Your tale:  Banjhakri and Banjhakrini, Nepal.

 

Sagittarius

*Tower – This is the second time you got the Tower this year.  What have you not dealt with that is not working in your life?  If this is the same thing that was not right back in May, get it fixed now because the third time around tends destroy to create movement.  If you dealt with the May issue, then look for small cracks in your foundations. These usually have to do with the material plane, like not having a solid exercise regime, not liking your job, not have 6 months of savings or still in debt. You might need to make some sacrifices to mortar up the holes, but it is worth it in the end.  Your tale:  Rapunzel, Germany.

 

Capricorn
Kinuko Craft

Four of Cups – There is something in plain sight that needs your attention.   You are not seeing because it is not being the squeaky wheel or bursting fireworks.  This week look for simple solutions, and basic pleasures.  What is most “mundane” may be the most useful.  No reason for extravagance.  Your tale:  The Nightingale, Denmark.

 

Aquarius
Kinuko Craft

King of Coins – This energy is about digging in deep and holding steady.  You can help others with their hopes and dreams this week.  However, the challenge is acknowledging when you need to pull in your energy.  Conservation is key for preservation.   Do not worry, if you are honest, the people around you will support you as much as you support them.  Your tale:  Hah-nu-nah, The world Turtle, North American Iroquois.

 

Pisces
Kinuko Craft

Two of Cups – Last week the energy of creation for comfort was key. You needed some positive mothering energy to sustain yourself.  The energy this week resonates with this sense of comfort and love.  Though the focus is more on equality and partnership.  Your inner circle must fill your cup as well as challenge you in your growth.  Take time to connect to those that you love and separate from those that only take or hurt.  Your tale:  Enkidu and Gilgamesh, Iraq, Sumerian.

Tarot and Art Forecast for Week of Sept. 20, 2020

Ute Milotich
Ute Milotich

The artist this week is Ute Milotich.  Milotich’s paintings are the collision of the real and the existential.  There is a boldness to her color choices and subjects that invigorates and yet firmly grounds the viewer.  There lies a duality of solidity and motion in almost all her paintings.  As she says I paint to explore what it means to be human now. Everything is in motion, everything changes over time, sometimes quietly, sometimes dramatically. In my paintings, I strive to capture a glimpse of a person or a fleeting moment in the richness of human experience.

It makes sense Milotich nods to Anne Dillard as inspiration.  Dillard also uses the technique of deeply seeing through the real finding the spiritual. Dillard does this to an exception in her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  Deep seeing or deep listening is about staying in the moment passing through the uncomfortable to a place of new understanding.  Often when doing this we find a connection or new meaning.   It is interesting that Milotich pulls this quote from the Dillard’s book I cannot cause light; the most I can do is try to put myself in the path of its beam. This is what painters do they see the light bouncing off the object and then try to replicate it on the canvas, like an artistic prism.  So, we as the viewer/reader ponder what to I take in and how does it beam back into the world?

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

 

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

Nina

 

Aries
Ute Milotich
Ute Milotich

*World – The muses keep pushing energy at you to finish projects.   This week is a great time to end cycles.  Success and completion are at hand.  But just as vital as checking off your to-do lists is celebrating that you have.  You are on the verge of new things, but old baggage needs to be dealt with to move on.  Do it and raise a glass to your accomplishments and the future.

 

Taurus
Ute Milotich
Ute Milotich

Queen of Cups – The energy this week ask you to find places of joy.  This can be dancing to music in your living room, have a stich and bitch session with friends, get rowdy and watch sports with your crew or having a pillow fight with your kids. (of course safely distancing or virtually)  This energy is about in-joying your life.  That place of fun that rises you above self-thought with a hint of blissful abandon at the same time connecting you to your core.

 

Gemini
Ute Milotich

*Priestess – Ancient ancestor wisdom is waiting on the other side of the door. This week is about working in the realm of the subtle.  Use your intuition as your compass to navigate its mists.  Look for cycles and synchronicities to leading you to find gems of wisdom laying behind the curtain, under your sofa, out your window or out of the mouth of strangers as you pass by.

 

Cancer
Ute Milotich

Nine of Wands – The muse this week advises to shore up your boundaries.  You have work to do and the outside world may try to intrude.  Follow through, finish up loose ends, these are the activities that are supported by the universe.  Your job is to stand firm and make yourself your first priority.

 

Leo
Ute Milotich
Ute Milotich

*Judgement – Your muse this week is here to help your awakening.  To help move you to your next step.  To do so you must accept your flaws are rooted in your humanness.  Find ways to incorporate them as positive influences instead of distractions.  This Muse reminds you that only being honest about your blunders of the past can you use them to burst out of the cocoon of inertia and self-doubt.

 

Virgo
Ute Milotich
Ute Milotich

Nine of Swords – Virgo now finishing your birth month you discover this coming year a field of passionate beginnings, clearer paths, and strategies, and muses that will frolic and co-create with you a space of safety.  This coming year energy is about rebirth, regeneration, and metamorphosis.  But before you start your journey you need to befriend the muse of fear and doubts.  This energy is not a tiger in wait but a scared kitten needing your consolation.

 

Libra
Ute Milotich

Eight of Swords – The energy this week can feel claustrophobic from within and without.  Many of these swarming thoughts and duties when looked at closely are not yours.  You have accepted them, but they are not yours to hold.  It is time to let negative thought patterns go.   However, part of the problem is also your need to control situations and outcomes, but you are creating codependent behavior with those around you.  Let go of the control so others can learn their own power.

Scorpio
Ute Milotich
Ute Milotich

Two of Wands – The energy this week highlights being in the present.  The energy feels on the onset like torpor but when looking closely  and deeply you can study the subtle moments of the small.  Exercises like eating a rasin, watching rain fall on a window pane for 30 minutes, watch ants going in and out of a hill or feel the subtle aspects of wash your hands for two minutes. Finding the moments between the breath in and out is to find a place of peace within the actions of life.

 

Sagittarius
Ute Milotich

Queen of Coins – The energy this week is still vibrating on the material plane.  This muse wants you to work hard and play harder.  She reminds you that the reason you work is to create.  She asks are you indulging in the finer aspects of your creation.  All work and no play makes Jill/Jack a dull human.

 

Capricorn
Ute Milotich
Ute Milotich

*Magician – The Muse of Manifestation walks with you this week.  She facilitates calling down your energy and to create on the material plane.  The challenge is realizing you have all you need to conjure up the divine.  You have collected the material and tools you need.  Use your imagination to work with what you have.  It is enough and so are you.

 

Aquarius
Ute Milotich
Ute Milotich

*Emperor and Five of Wands – So you have two energies to work with this week.  The first is about work and building upon your empire.  This is a great week for projects, getting things off your to do list, working with your hands.  However, the other energy is chaos and competition, which can distract you.  So, you can put on your blinders and get to your work, or you can practice your skills of charm and cajoling to get what you want done.  The latter route will find you more allies in the coming weeks, and the former, you will get more done.  Your choice.

 

Pisces
Ute Milotich

Six of Wands – Last week’s energy hopefully implanted the clarity of self-compassion and self-forgiveness for a past transgression.  Opening yourself to a lighter and enlighten future that is more in tune with your divine nature.  This week shines a light on you.  The challenge is can you except the limelight.  This is not a week to hide in the shadows but step out into the light.

Tarot and Art Forecast for Week of Sept. 13, 2020

Meghann Riepenhoff
Meghann Riepenhoff two waves and salt scattered and poured

The artist this week is Meghann Riepenhoff.  Her process is cyanotype.   Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces a cyan-blue print.  Engineers used the process well into the 20th century as a simple and low-cost way to produce copies of drawings, referred to as blueprints.  She is not the first person to use it for art. Anna Atkins would be the first, using it to “photograph” seaweed.  (Atkins will be highlighted soon.)  Riepenhoff has taken Atkin’s process of creating static images to creating a dynamic photograph of an action or interaction.  She collaborates with the elements of rain, snow, ocean, salt, and sediment.  She drapes her “canvas” over objects in the environment which adds the aspect of the terrain that then collides with these elements.  These interactions are recorded on the cyanotype.

The two series represented here and below are Ectone and Littoral Drift .  Ectone is a region of transition between two biological communities. Litoral Drift is a geological term describing the action of wind-driven waves transporting sand and gravel.  Riepenhoff is illuminating that these edges of water, air, and land blur in their interaction, becoming something new and occupy an everchanging space.  Thus, having us as the viewer pondering where, when or if we begin or end.

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

Nina

P.S. Signs with an * it is a big week for you.  Virgo this is a perfect time to get an Astrological Tarot Reading for your coming year.  And Pisces 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
Meghann Riepenhoff
Meghann Riepenhoff water poured and silt scattered

Ten of Coins – Last week’s energy was cluing you into something being off in your life and you needed to gain perspective to find solutions.  This week the energy shifts from contemplative to active.  So, if you found solutions, now is the time to use them.  If you found that everything is balanced and moving smoothly then do not dally, for now is the time to move things into the done box.  This is a great week to finish projects and bask in your success.

Taurus
Meghann Riepenhoff two waves poured dawn to dusk
Meghann Riepenhoff two waves poured dawn to dusk

Three of Coins – Last week the energy was asking you to look for cycles that need to be readjusted, and synchronicities to help move you forward, enlightening situations of inertia or chaos.  This week wants you to take those enlightenments and utilize them in the world.  The challenge is you need the help of others to lift what you are doing to a new level.  Time to get your besties on the phone and brainstorm.

Gemini
Meghann Riepenhoff
Meghann Riepenhoff 23 minutes in a tidal stream

Ten of Cups – Last week’s energy wanted you to reignite optimism and hope in your being.  Luckily, you get another week to find moments that give you the curative perspective that after each period of chaos comes a time for healing.  You need to heal and bask in love, so this week engage in activities and people that fill your cups. Joy is key.  Find or create it.

Cancer
Meghann Riepenhoff.
tidal pools dipped and buried

Ace of Swords – The energy this week is great for planning, research, philosophy, and problem solving.  Your mind is your best tool.  Your emotions can play with the radio, but your mind must do the driving.

Leo
Meghann Riepenhoff.
Meghann Riepenhoff snow, salt draped against a window

Page of Coins – You got another active energy card.  So, if you still need another week to finish up old projects do that.  But if you did that work last week this is a great week to start a new project.  The challenge is taking tiny steps, because big leaps will have you in a tangle of minutiae or chasing your own tail.

Virgo
Meghann Riepenhoff
Meghann Riepenhoff three waves buried and flooded

*Death – Your first big energy card for your coming birth year.  This energy is about rebirth, regeneration, and metamorphosis.  The energy this year is about rising from the ashes of old.  The challenge is making sure that you are not holding on to dreams you have outgrown.  This Muse has come to aid you in seeing the parts of you and your life that have been decaying and need to be buried.  That the seeds of change are just below the surface being feed by the aspects you are now laying to rest.  When you step back you will see that this burial ground is also a place of planting and future growth.

Libra
Meghann Riepenhoff. rainstorm one hour and 47 minutes

Knight of Swords – This is not a week to rush anything.  Though you may feel antsy or anxious do not jump without thoroughly looking both ways and figuring out your plan before you step onto your path.  This card can also mean to be careful of injuring your extremities.  So cut your vegetables with care and watch where you step.

Scorpio
Meghann Riepenhoff
rain through a tree canopy

Queen of Swords – Last week’s muse asks you to dive into your subconscious, listen to your intuition, emotions, and dreams.   The challenge was that emotions could run high.  And you had to decipher which emotions were yours and what were others.  Emotions are still riding high this week.  To combat this, this muse suggests only taking in the logical details to see the correct channel through these emotional waters.  Your motto:  head over heart.

Sagittarius
Meghann Riepenhoff
Meghann Riepenhoff rain sleet snow draped on a log

Knight of Coins – The last two weeks had you deep diving into your shadow side to find your vulnerabilities, strengths and testing your character and will.  You can use this insight now to really dig into your work.  The key is your pace.  You are now less likely to be distracted and will find that slow and steady wins the race.

Capricorn
Meghann Riepenhoff
Meghann Riepenhoff two waves dipped

Queen of Coins – Last week’s energy was about building upon your empire.  This week you can continue your construction, but you must add indulging in the finer aspects of your physical environment.  This muse knows how to work hard but also can fully indulge in her bounty she has created.  Your challenge is to follow her lead and realize play, comfort and pleasures are as important as work.

Aquarius
Meghann Riepenhoff
Meghann Riepenhoff five waves

Seven of Coins – Last week’s muse wanted you to adjust your material and spirit goals, blending the need to survive with the need to enjoy life.  This energy bleeds into the beginning of this week.  The first few days are best used as a pause between the past and future.  This is a moment where rethinking, reestablishing, and redirecting is need before you push forward.  By the end of the week you will be in full nose to grindstone mode, but the challenge is a plan and adjustment is needed before going ahead.

Pisces
Meghann Riepenhoff
Meghann Riepenhoff

*Judgment – The muse this week is pulling you above the clouds to a personal clarity.  A reckoning is needed.  You have made a mistake from the past which you have not forgiven yourself for.  This week’s energy is implanting the clarity of self-compassion and forgiveness into your sight for self.  This muse ask you to truly forgive yourself for this past transgression, so you can open yourself to a lighter and enlighten future that is more in tune with your divine nature.

Tarot and Art Forecast for Week of Sept. 6, 2020

The artist this week is Marina Vargas.   Vargas often uses the motif of guns and the color red.  Her work can be very jarring which it is supposed to be, but it is also, as art is, very enlightening for the viewer.  With all art we as viewers bring our perspective. Of late we have been dealing with a lot of  violence and unrest.  How do we deal with it is the inquiry in highlighting her art this week.

When asked what her favorite color was, Vargas said it was difficult to pick one, but she uses red often.  As she said in a South Mag article: Although there is no doubt that in my work the most predominant (color) of them all is red. I suppose that in some way it is the color that mediates me with the rest of the colors. Red is a wake-up call, it is alertness and it is also the color that represents blood, wound, vulnerability and violence.  I suppose that to be in relation with this color is to enter fully into the control that there must be to manage between the instinctive and the rational.

These images of Vargas’ correlate with Mars going into retrograde September 9th through November 13th.  Mars is the planet of activity, sex, energy, confrontations, and war.  During this time, you should be wary of starting new businesses, projects, or litigation.  They may be exceedingly difficult to gain momentum and in the areas of law those that start “the war” may fail.  Also, be aware this time can lower sex drive and increase a feeling of malaise.  However, this period  is great to work on projects already started, organization, and planning.  It is made for crossing off old to-do lists, cleaning up your inbox, creating relaxing activities with loved ones, etc…

So, the big lessons with Mars are being aware of what irritates, frustrates and angers you.  Take note but not action.  And when you feel low energy, it is a wake up call for self-care.  This time will be filled with more uncertainty and feelings of vulnerability.  Use this alertness to enlighten and enhance your skills at how you are managing between instinctive actions based on fear and rational actions based on love and hope.

Let love and hope win.

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

Nina

P.S. Signs with an * it is a big week for you.  Virgo this is a perfect time to get an Astrological Tarot Reading for your coming year.  And Pisces 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
Marina Vargas
Marina Vargas

*Hermit – Time to gain some perspective on your life and environment.    Something is off and you need to step back from your everyday life to do some contemplation on what it is and how to fix it.  The challenge will be finding time for yourself while also equally find time for others.  This week is about finding the balance of quiet contemplation and socialization.

Taurus
Marina Vargas
Marina Vargas

*High Priestess – The energy is asking you to tap into your intuition this week.  Look for cycles that need to be readjusted, and synchronicities to help move you forward and enlighten situations of inertia or chaos.  Your instincts are powerful guides this week.  The challenge is keeping your ears and logical mind open to your inner voice.  And have a broad enough perspective to see that fear is an emotion not reality.

Gemini
Marina Vargas

*Star – This energy comes when you need to do some healing.   You need to reignite optimism and hope in your being.  This week find time to relax in moonbeams, feel the wind on your face, watch the sunlight flicker from your windows, and acknowledge the kindness of a smile.  Finding these moments will give you the curative perspective that after each period of chaos comes a time for healing.  That everything has its season and overall, the arc is towards wholeness, healing, and love.

Cancer
Marina Vargas
Marina Vargas

Four of Cups –Well either extroverted or introverted crustaceans this week is meant for quiet contemplation.  Which for you introverted crabs is celebratory; however, this pulling in must be productive for both types of crabs.  If you find yourself getting lethargic, melancholy, or bored you will be required to step out and reconnect with society until that feeling subsides.  Then you can crawl back into your shell until the end of the week.

Leo
Marina Vargas

*World – This energy comes pushing you to complete something.  To energize your leonic procrastination that has lulled you to laze on your sunny rock this summer.  That was fine for the summer, but summer is moving into fall.  This can be as simple as crossing off the oldest thing on your to-do list.  You might even find it does not need to be done anymore. This energy wants you to do that final push, so your muse can open new doors for you.

Virgo
Marina Vargas

King of Swords – This week’s energy lends itself to long term planning. Time to pull out a blank page and write all your wishes and intentions of what you would like to accomplish in your coming birth year.  A great week to make an inspiration board, a bucket list, a brain dump page of all that you can imagine.  Then take the rest of your birth month planning on how to reach these goals.  The challenge this week is not to do but to think.

Libra
Marina Vargas
Marina Vargas

Ten of Wands – The energy this week warns that you are taking on too much responsibility.  Time to lighten your load by one or two duties, jobs, chores etc.… The challenge is not to worry or pick them back up.  The goal is to see, by next week, if someone else picks it up or you find it really did not need to be done.

Scorpio
Marina Vargas

*Moon – More internalizing with this week’s energy.   This muse asks you to dive into your subconscious, listen to your intuition, emotions, and dreams.   The challenge is that your emotions can run high this week.  Many times, this might be due to your emotional pores being open and susceptible to absorbing others’ emotions.   Therefore, your task is clarifying what are your emotions and what are others.

Sagittarius
Marina Vargas

*Devil – Last week your emotional waters were tested by aspects being hidden from you.   And you were given the option to dive deep into your shadow side to find your vulnerabilities and strengths or skip it.  This week brings with it all sorts of diversions and tests of your character and drive.  If you did last week’s work, then this week will go by with ease.  You are brushing off the devil’s diversions and strengthening your resolve.  If you did not do the work, this week might be tough.  Either way think of this week as a test of your character and will.

Capricorn
Marina Vargas

*Emperor – The energy this week is about building upon your empire.  This is a great week to do construction around how you make your money, your physical environment, and/or any hands-on work.  The challenge with this energy is to be bolder, build bigger however, be careful of hubris.   If you build for the good of many, then your work will prosper in the long run.

Aquarius
Marina Vargas

*Temperance – Balance is key this week.  An alchemy of your material and spirit goals are the subjects to adjust.  This is a good week to blend the need to survive with the need to enjoy life.  So, this muse asks are you enjoying your life?  Does the way you make money give you time and resources to enjoy your life?  Or does your work bring you joy but does not provide for you?  Your challenge is making fine-tuned adjustments to equal out your material plan with your spiritual one.

Pisces
Marina Vargas
Marina Vargas

Ace of Swords – Last week the energy was about deconstructing your environment or systems and then creating new paradigms.  The strategy being pulling everything apart to see its working and non-working components, fix, and then reassemble.  Luck for you all, you have another week to do this with this week’s energy of new beginnings and ways of thinking.  This muse hones your intellect to a sharp blade.  Allowing you to see, decipher, and reorganize with clarity.  However, your challenge is allowing your intellect to do the work and keep your heart in the passenger’s seat.

Tarot and Art Forecast for Week of August 30, 2020

Aida Muluneh
Aida Muluneh The more loving one – part one

The artist this week is Aida Muluneh.  I usually pull art from the artist’s entire work but today I am homing in on one series, The World is 9.  It centers around a phrase her grandmother would say, “The world is 9, it is never complete and it’s never perfect.”  The concept in Muluneh’s words:  In this world, we are idealists seeking perfection but living in a reality which does not afford us that balance. Life is unpredictable and imperfect – we must conquer these challenges with strength and endurance because the world within us and the world knocking on our door, bears the unknown future.

So far, this year has felt like that – unpredictable and showing all its imperfections.  And dang we have been challenged personally and socially.  But that is the beauty of grokking the world is 9.  By seeing the world’s and our imperfection, we can continue to strive – creating a better world, and at the same time let our growth be infinite.  Thus, not binding us or our world to and ending, a completion nor perfection.

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

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

Nina

 

Aries
Aida Muluneh
Aida Muluneh

Page of Swords – The key to this week’s energy is to use your mind like a sharp tool.    Information is available for you, but it is either hidden or lock away by sphinx-like energy.  Pieces of information will be given if you ask the right questions to decipher the riddles in front of you this week.

 

Taurus
Aida Muleneh
Aida Muluneh

Eight of Swords – Last week the devil was in the details and details had the potential to be your biggest foe.  This energy seeps into this week as well with a “bonus” feeling of an overwhelming or a closing in.   Thus, you feel choices/decisions are demanded of you.  The key to this is again is either committing to a choice and see how it goes or saying f#$% it and go with the flow.  The goal is to stop thinking you have no choice in the matter, or there is only one right path.  This leads to circular thinking and a sense of inescapable inertia.

 

Gemini
Aida Muluneh
Aida Muluneh

King of Cups – The intensity of the energies finally recedes for you this week.  Though the themes stay the same.  The last two weeks were challenging you to follow the breadcrumbs of synchronicities and reimagining yourself as the beautiful spark of inspiration with flaws exposed making you shine more brightly.  This week’s energy helps guide you in an alchemization of your all your feelings happy, sad, anger, lonely etc… You need to see that all your emotions make you who you are.  Your motto the Rumi poem The Guest House.

 

Cancer
Aida Muluneh

Six of Swords – The energy surrounding you might feel a bit muddy and unclear but also has a sense of lightness.   This week is full of small transitions helped by small miracles.  Following the willow wisps will not lead you to danger but safely to a new shore.  Your motto: Follow hope.

 

Leo
Aida Muluneh
Aida Muluneh

Knight of Wands – The energy this week is wanting you to answer what truly inspires you in nature?  The sand between your toes, staring at fire, smelling a storm on the way, or watching the power of a lion/cat on the hunt…  Now replicate these feelings/inspirations by doing something artistic, experiencing an art form that resonates it, or mediate on it.  Embed that inspiration into your life.

 

Virgo
Aida Muluneh
Aida Muluneh

Nine of Pentacles – The energy this week wants you to sift your successes and see their worth as a collection.  Find contentment in the positive things you have done.  You have just one more chapter to complete this cycle.  You are on the verge of a transition.  Spend this week in moments of solitude and contemplation of your past and the last steps for this birth years conclusion.  By doing this exercise you will be prepared to move forward with solider foundation.

 

Libra
Aida Muluneh

King of Wands – Last week’s energy wanted you to pull away from society as much as possible, grounding and gaining some perspective.  Hopefully, you got to do this, can put this insight into action.  If not, luckily this energy still allows time for gaining perspective.   For this week is full of visionary thoughts and advises to look at the bigger picture for solutions.

 

Scorpio
Aida Muluneh

Two of Wands – Last week’s energy was highly active and best used in building what is already started. However, this week wants you to turn your gaze to the future.  This is a great week to let your imagination ponder where and what you will be wanting to do in 2021.  Imagining now will set the universe working behind the scenes to prep some of the roads ahead.

 

Sagittarius
Aida Muluneh
Aida Muluneh

*Moon – This is a perfect time to dive into your fears and emotions.  Yep the energy this week would like to test your emotional waters.   In practical matters aspects are hidden from you.  You can wait until this phase passes by the weekend (Tuesday is a Full Moon in Pisces so things will start to clear up after that).  Or you can dive into your shadow side.  The latter is harder but more productive.

 

Capricorn
Aida Muluneh
Aida Muluneh

Queen of Wands – This energy is best used in the act of creation and self-expression.  This muse comes to embolden you to see your courage and power.  You are the creator of your life.  Are you creating your desires or societies?  If so, this is a great week to set intentions.    If not, then time to do some heavy mirror gazing and reconnecting to your power source and intuition.

 

Aquarius
Aida Muluneh

Eight of Wands – Last week was about balancing multiple elements into a cohesive path of ease.  Hopefully, you worked on your balancing act, for this week the energy level is still busy.  So, going in with a balanced mind-set will help you navigate all the information coming at you.   This energy also recommends a game plan, while keeping your eyes and mind open as better paths come quickly into your foreground.  If you are good at racing video games, then this week you will do great.  If not, peripheral vision is vital.

 

Pisces
Aida Muluneh

*Hierophant – The energy this week is about deconstructing your environment or systems and then creating new paradigms.  This can look as simple as pulling everything out of your closet and reorganizing.  Or as complicated as doing this with a work project or relationships.  The strategy is pulling everything apart to see its working and non-working parts, fix and then reassemble.

 

Tarot and Art Forecast for Week of August 9, 2020

Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

The artist this week is Njideka Akunyili Crosby.  Her work is about occupying two worlds both her native Nigeria and America.  Njideka does this though a weaving of her photographs, family photos and pages from popular Nigerian magazines creating a fabric like pattern throughout her work.  Her process is a layering of collage, photo transfer, fabric, acrylic paint, charcoal, and colored pencil.  This give her pieces a duality of “busy” with the patterns and serene with her choice of compositions of models and motifs.   

This complexity and layering of culture are mimicked in her native land of Nigeria and the place she now lives, America.  Both are multicultural nations trying to find a cohesion to create a country.   Nigeria is a multinational state that is inhabited by 250 ethnic groups with over 500 distinct languages all identifying with a wide variety of cultures.  The composition of American population is also is represented by almost every country in the world.  So, in her work she takes the viewer into layered landscape exploring her personal journey in inhabiting and defining what is it to be a Nigerian who lives in America.    

Are we a melting pot or a tossed salad?  This has been a debate since the 1960’s.  The melting pot metaphor used by Emerson was the concept of the fusing process of the European immigrant to melt down their heritage and reforming into a new American.  The con to this outlook is the lose of the immigrant’s individuality.  Then in the 1960’s the idea of multiculturism took hold.  This is the concept that we are a tossed salad holding on to our individual cultures with the law and the market being the dressing that binds us.  The con for this approach is that America as a whole loses its culture of what defines us as an American citizen and what we as a country represent.  This debate rings even truer today.  Maybe we need to re-examine our metaphor like Crosby does with her art.  Maybe we are a collage of cultures layered to form a single motif.  So as with Crosby’s work, when we step into look at America closely, we can see each detail and as we step back, we see us a cohesive and magnificent work of art. 

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

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

Nina

 

Aries

Njideka Akunyili CrosbyNjideka Akunyili CrosbyFour of Wands – Home is where the flow is this week.  Time to give your house some loving, and you will get it back four-fold.  Things like deep clean that bathroom, lawn maintenance, adding plants, feng shui your house, decluttering your drawers or any activity to your home that creates more comfort and ease.  This homey attention will make the rest of your life flow better. 

 

Taurus
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Ten of Swords – This week is about hurt from outside sources and learning how to deal with them.  First lesson is you learning to stop listening to your ego over your intuition and internal integrity.  A possible reason for outside sources sharp vibes is that you have played either martyr or savior instead of seeing yourself as one of them.  Second lesson, these outside people are having problems of their own.  And yes, their ugliness may squirt on you, but the challenge is not let muscle memory set in with this illusion of rejection or hurt.  Take this time to close the laceration(s) and either prepare to start anew with these outside people or forces, or if need be walk away as long as you do not do it from the place of the wounded.   

 

Gemini
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Nine of Cups – Last week the forces where calling you to make choices.  You get more time do so with this energy’s help.  This muse reminds you that you do not need to be totally “there” to know that you are worthy of this change.  So, it asks you are you dreaming big enough?  Would the theme of these choices illuminate you if the journey got dark?  Do these choices create a sense of ease in your life?  And the first choice should be that you accept contentment over ecstasy because your gifts are on their way.    

 

Cancer
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

*Emperor – The vibe this week is about building your material plane, protecting and feeding your goals.  This is a great week to implement ideas into your workflow, to bring your business or work to the next level.  The challenge is to not only promote and uplift yourself but also to uplift others in the process.  Look to benefiting the whole not just the individual.  Be a steward of good.   

 

Leo
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Four of Swords – The energy this week mid-birthday month is exploring your realms of relaxation.  The duality of Leo is you have lots of energy, but also like a lion enjoy laying around soaking in the “act” of inertia.  Your challenge is exploring all the ways you relax, either active or sloth like, and then how are you going to consistently incorporate this in your life.  Your goal is to find time to unwind at the very least four times a month at the best four times a week in the coming year.   

 

Virgo

Njideka Akunyili CrosbyNjideka Akunyili Crosby*Strength – Ok, time for some beast training this week.  What are your monsters?  This energy advises to tame these demons you must work with them.  There is a mediation that embodies this practice :  Feeding your Demons.  Another way is to personify your monster into someone or thing you would not normally listen to but can be entertaining at times.  (I see my anxiety as Harlequin from Batman.)  The challenge is not fighting with your monster or killing it but accepting it and seeing when it is trying to be an ally. 

 

Libra
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Ten of Cups – The energy this week is about finding activities that bring you bliss.  Connection and love are the keys to finding ways to open your heart.  So, this can be simple extended hugs, deep conversations with friends, or having a socially distance beverage with your close ones.  However, these are hard times to connect with others.  If you are solo, this energy can be tapped into by hugging yourself, holding your own hand or dancing with your favorite YouTube/TikTok video.  It sounds strange but since we do not often do it, it tricks the mind that we are connecting with another and turns on our endorphins. So, let the loving commence.

 

Scorpio
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Two of Swords – This is your second two so quick check in with the numerology.  Two means balance.  Last week was about finding balance from the reality of your present with the plans of where you want to be in the future.  This week the challenge is making balanced choices with your head and your heart. 

 

Sagittarius
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Ace of Swords – The energy this week is all about learning something new to help you expand your understanding or perspective.    The best way to use this energy is in deep conversation, your head in a book, or ears tuned into a new podcast.  Your mind needs to be fed new ideas expanding its data and bringing enlightenment for the coming weeks.   

 

Capricorn
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

*Tower – Every sign is having its turn with the Tower, change that occurs outside of your control.  Now is your time to make sure you are contemplating how you are going to rebuild your structure after 2020.  Take this week to look at the “cracks” that 2020 has brought on in your life.  The important aspect with this inspection is that you do not rebuild with the same fault lines in your foundation.  So even though the structures you imagine and are creating look different, make sure you are not building on the same defective footing.  This can look as simple as you have become vegetarian but not getting enough protein or you are creating a slower lifestyle but then fill in your schedule.

 

Aquarius
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Ace of Wands – Inspiration continues this week, but this energy has potential for new beginnings to sprout.  This is a great week to start any project or go exploring.  Your soul is craving passion and newness.  Feed the fire.

 

 
Pisces
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Njideka Akunyili Crosby

*Wheel – The energy this week is about taking chances to move forward.  This year has had its ups and downs, but you must continue to spin the wheel to create fortitudinous change.  For the kernels of synchronicity wait undeveloped until they are sought after.  Now is the time to move ahead for each step this week leads you to a new era of luck and destiny.

 

 

 

Tarot and Art Forecast for Week of July 26, 2020

Agnes_Goodsir_The-Parisienne_
Agnes Goodsir The Parisienne

The artist this week is Agnus Noyes Goodsir.  After World War I an art and cultural explosion was happening in Paris and London and many Australian artists flocked there.  Agnus was among this migration.  There she met “Cherry” who became her model and lover.  Though her sexuality and painting style at the time were not publicized in Australia, she was held in high esteem by the French.  She was invited and became a member of Salon Nationale des Beaux-Arts.  An annual exhibition of French artists (and now foreign artists) since 1909.  Sadly, she was largely forgotten until in the 1990’s. Goodsir was reintroduced to Australia and the world by the director of Victoria’s Bendigo Art Gallery.

Above, The Parisienne, is a perfect example of the start of the movement of the “modern women”.  The model clothed in masculine attire, short hair, and a cigarette in her hand accentuated the lifestyle that Goodsir had fled to Paris to find.  The face is shadowed adding to the ambiguity of gender but also intrigues and pulls the viewer into the character and life of this kind of person.

At the same time does it hint that Goodsir’s true self and work was still in the shadows?  Was the choice of the flat tonal background in contrast to the bold contours of the clothing emphasizing stepping out of the banal norm into a stronger cheekier life of a modern woman?  Does it suggest that what a woman wears on the outside still defines her?  Or is this Agnus just being a realistic painter.  This is an amazing thing about art, we as a viewer can find as much insight to ourselves as the artist does in making the piece.

 

 

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

 

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

Nina

 

Aries

Agnus Noyes Goodsir
Agnus Noyes Goodsir

Three of Wands – Your to-do list is long to get from here to there, and this week you are advised to be very conscious of the concept of contingences. There is a domino effect where you do not have totally control of all the pieces.  The challenge is having faith that the Universe is working with you behind the scenes while you plan.

 

Taurus

Agnus Noyes Goodsir
Agnus Noyes Goodsir

Eight of Pentacles – This is a great week to get your hands dirty.  You have the energy to persist and preserve through the most challenging projects.  The challenge with this energy is that it can only be directed at things and ventures already in motion, that you love the work, or it needs your unique talents.  This is not a week to start new projects or do something outside of your skillset.  Unless you want to invite in strain and resistance.

 

Gemini

Agnus Noyes Goodsir

Ace of Wands – Last week’s energy was about the creative act of bring an idea down and materialize it.  Asking you about your intentions and the steps to manifest them.  This week’s energy flow has less intensity but with the same focus of creation.   So, continue to manifest whether big or small acts, and do so with the highest intention and integrity.  However, if you feel blocked the key is to immerse yourself in what inspires you.  This will re-lit your fires.

 

Cancer

Agnus Noyes Goodsir
Agnus Noyes Goodsir

*Death – The energy this week is about letting go of the old and sloughing of the things that no longer work for you.  This releasing generates the fodder for new beginnings.  The challenge is seeing the past is in the past and the present and future is in you.  Remember a burial ground and a planting ground look the same and the processes are intertwined.

 

Leo

Agnus Noyes Goodsir
Agnus Noyes Goodsir

Nine of Wands – The last two weeks beamed the energies assigned to Leos.  Let us review.  They wanted you to allow three paradoxes into your personal constructs.  1) Your strength comes from dealing with your weakness.  2) Your self-doubt comes from trying to control things that cannot be tamed.  3) Your insecurity is also the root of your compassion.  And once these constructs are in place, work on harnessing your power and applying outward to the correct degree where you sustain growth – not burn it all down.  This week the energy has you setting up some borders so you can finish up loose ends of the past two weeks, so you can begin focusing on the future.  Be aware, this might be the last week to finish off the past year before next year’s energies start pushing you forward.

 

Virgo

Agnus Noyes Goodsir
Agnus Noyes Goodsir

Two of Cups – Last week’s energy was hard, but this week has a lower intensity and is filled with love.  Last week asked what needs to shift externally and internally to make a major outer-life change happen?  Remember this is a process of a modernization of self, but you must do it a brick at a time.  This week’s energy prompts you that first brick is love.  What are the qualities that you want in a partner, and what do you need to adjust to become a partner to that kind of person?  If you are in a relationship,  reconnect with your chosen loved ones. Making sure you are open to the love they give you, as well as, showing the love you have for them.  True partnership is long termed balanced acts of giving and receiving.

 

Libra

Agnus Noyes Goodsir

Five of Cups – Chaos of emotions float around you this week.  The challenge with this energy is keeping positive while processing the negative with compassion.  This energy reminds you not to run away from joy or sorrow; both are part of life.  And it also reminds that only by truly feeling and processing your emotions can you use them for good in the future.

 

Scorpio

Agnus Noyes Goodsir

Ten of Cups – Yeah, this week should feel a lot lighter than last week.  The clouds have parted.  This energy is pushing you to seek your community, bathe in love and connection.  You are the water signs most social and need contact.  Even if you cannot do it physically.  Time to spread and receive some love in any way you can.

 

Sagittarius

Agnus Noyes Goodsir
Agnus Noyes Goodsir

King of Coins – Last week’s energy endorsed you enacting the usefulness of inertia.  Using or creating moments of pause for reflection, letting go of old patterns, and making way for the new ideas that only arises from silence.  This week the energy is about grounding yourself.  Where last week action happened in the ether and the mind and was great for inspiration.  This week you need to burrow down into the earth hashing out those inspirations into actual labor-intensive work.

 

Capricorn

Agnus Noyes Goodsir
Agnus Noyes Goodsir

Ace of Swords – This week’s energy bolsters logic and reasoning.  Divine inspiration comes if you focus on looking at the details in a variety of configurations.  It is not that this shuffling of pieces finds the answer, but the process helps you find solutions even in to hardest of puzzles.  Like fitting a square peg into a circular hole.

 

Aquarius

Agnus Noyes Goodsir

Four of Pentacles – Last week your goal was setting aside time to process what this past month or six have been about.  Processing your experiences helps you gather your experiential knowledge.  Hopefully, you had time to do this, for this process of standing back helps you see your authentic path and how to walk it.  The energy this week focuses on your first step – looking at your relationship with money.  The challenge is seeing your feeling of safety and having a financial back-up are interconnected.  Do you have the resources set aside to feel secure?  If not save this week, and if so, you can let go of your purse strings and give yourself a gift for taking care of you.

 

Pisces

Agnus Noyes Goodsir
Agnus Noyes Goodsir

*Strength – The energy this week focuses on your inner strength.  Take time to ground and deepen your connection to how strong you really are.  You are courageous, strong, and fierce.   In the face of these uncertainty times, see that you are resilient.  This week’s events show you that whether life flows to you calm waters or gale force storms, you got this.  The challenge is seeing the tiger’s eye in the mirror no matter the circumstance.