Hello!
I hope y'all are as excited as I am to have the shop reopen. I am really excited about the two new deck additions, especially the Archeon deck. I'm going to devote some of this post to rambling about my love for that deck. I am also in the midst of adding a couple of new readings to the shop. I don't want to add them all at once, maybe half the new readings added now and another half around the 15th. I know my Etsy Followers get notifications when I list new products & I feel bad just flooding them sometimes. There is also a Spiritual Retreat/Spiritual Reset that I go on every year with my Coven, and that will be discussed in this post as well, so let's dive in!
Archeon Deck
When I began truly diving into tarot, it was June of 2017 & I was living in South Dakota. Shortly after buying the Universal Tarot to learn with, my then-girlfriend & I would break up. This would serve as a catalyst for my growth & ability in tarot. Like most of my clients now, I was absolutely focused on her and getting her back. Spoiler alert, I never got her back (but we're actually really good friends to this day). Later in 2017, I learned my Aunt required surgery to remove a tumor that though benign, if it kept growing, might not be so benign, and my Gram suffered at this time from Dementia. I moved back to Texas from SD the weekend I learned of this news and shortly after getting back into Texas and reconnecting with my family I bought the Archeon deck.
I had at this time built a very solid connection with Universal tarot, and I felt ready to challenge myself with a deck that did not focus on "traditional imagery". The Archeon ignited a rebirth in my life and from late 2017 to late 2018 (possibly early 2019) I experienced a spiritual awakening unlike any prior in my life. I absolutely adore this deck, the box is very beaten, the cards have their scars, they (like me) have gone through the wringer.
The reader y'all know would not be here, would not exist, not without the Archeon Tarot Deck. It allowed me to remember the "traditional imagery" and the stories I had already begun telling with Universal but with a darker spin on them. In some cards, the stories changed completely, still the same major themes but the entire settings, characters, conflicts were different. This truly allowed the intuitive way I read to take off.
I have been hesitant to add a deck so very close to my heart & soul up for public use, but now that I've committed to it I'm actually very excited. I really hope that it will ignite & embolden my clients on their journey as it did me.
Spiritual Retreat (Jan7-13)
Every new year the Coven goes on a "Reset" to help go into the new year completely cleansed with the past year processed and shed. This past year has been rough, possibly more so than 2020 was for me. I've been caught in a divorce since April 1st (no joke, as hilarious as it is though) and I'm really ready for this decade-long marriage to be extinguished. My exhusband and I have been separated for a long time, I didn't expect as much tension as there is because we've been separated for soooo long. I am still not out of the divorce, but it will hopefully be finalized in February if mediation goes well. That said, I definitely need this reset.
!!!You may also notice that in the shop announcement I've added a day to either side of this date, this is just to pack, get ready, etc. I'm still going to be around & taking care of some work things on the 6th and 14th, but I may not be sending orders out, so that's why there's a bit of a discrepancy there. I am leaving the shop open while I am away, which may end up biting me in the bum later on, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.
I plan on filling up my current journal with journaling exercises, tarot, & plans for 2022. Some of the tarot I want to do is figure out a new path of spreads for the shop. I absolutely love helping guide others and helping them understand the other people in their lives, but I want to also dive deep into soul readings and looking at the self. I want a more spiritual side to my shop. I expect that the readings I create at the retreat will be released in February, March, April, and May (or not that many months, it just depends how much I create).
As for the 2022 plans, let's share the ones I know of currently and keep myself accountable to not just myself but the vast internet as well.
I want to go on more walks by myself. Why? I used to do a lot of things alone and I do think that I flourish in my solitude. It's not that I would define myself as a hermit, but I have always identified with the messages of the Hermit & High Priestess cards, the solitude, the reflection, the diving into the subconscious. Walks used to be how I'd just get out and process things. I'd like to return to that.
I want to find a cemetery-home closer to home. Why? I identify as many things, pansexual, demiromantic, and a graveyard witch being in the top three of my 'labels'. I find peace in the silence, and I find the dead will whisper their secrets on the wind if you are keen enough to listen. I have found a cemetery in my city that I feel drawn to (no, it's not the one Oswald's buried in) and now I've just got to find the path that calls me there. I typically will find a 'mentor spirit' in graveyards, a grave I am drawn to that seems to have no other visitors that helps me through the chapter of my life that I am in.
Stop putting off walks & cemetery visits. Why? I'm a workaholic, believe it or not. I take breaks between every 2 spells or every 2 readings, depending on what I'm working on, but most of the time those breaks are used to make new tarot spreads or take care of bodily needs. I need to actually pull away from my PC to pull away from work, otherwise, I will always have it up, and leaving the house for a walk or a cemetery visit would actually require me to take some breaks, and this would possibly prevent burnout which causes my momentum to slow.
The more personal desires for 2022 will be worked out while on the retreat, of course, but I do see a path to help alleviate some of my stress and I want to begin pursuing it. I've never been great at creating or following journaling prompts, to be honest, but I am trying to look for a set of prompts to take with me on the retreat. I may have to make my own, I am going to wait to cross that bridge when I come to it. Journaling in general is just a big part of who I am, I fill up journals upon journals. Each one is basically one part of a giant Book of Shadows, where my tarot readings, my sigils, and spells all get logged as well as my personal thoughts and experiences. Of course, the journal collection has nothing on my Notion, but the Notion is definitely a post for another time.
If you've got any good lists of journaling prompts, feel free to let me know! I'm really interested in trying to do some to see if perhaps my ability to focus on them has changed. Thanks for reading all my rambles!
♥ Mad