My Business Deva has been working overtime lately, flooding me with all kinds of new creative ideas (I’ll be writing more about my Business Deva soon).
One of those ideas is to hold a monthly gathering here on the blog, where I post a Gaian Tarot card, and we all practice the art of mindful writing, using the card as a spark.
We’ll start on each New Moon, although we are starting a bit late this month.
Here’s How it Works:
I’ll choose the card for the lunation and post it here, along with writing prompts and questions.
You respond with mindful writing, in any form you like.
You can post your writing in the comments below, and also on your own blog, if you like. If you do post on your own blog, please link back to this post: http://www.gaiansoul.com/2012/11/an-invitation-to-mindful-tarot-musings
Not Divination, but Contemplation:
The intention of this exercise is not necessarily to use the cards as a tool of divination, but instead as a creative spark. So don’t get bogged down in wondering “but what does this card mean?” And don’t go look up the meaning in a book. Just relax.
We’re not writing to discover divinatory meanings here (although that might be a side benefit). Instead, we’re writing as a meditation, a musing, a contemplative practice to stay centered in the present moment.
Ideas for Mindful Writing:
Choose one or more of the following techniques:
- Breathe deeply. Allow your eyes to travel over the image, until your gaze is caught by one detail. Write about it.
- Free-write for 3 minutes. Set a timer, then write quickly without editing or censoring yourself. Afterwards, you can edit and shape your writing if you like.
- Imagine meeting one of the figures or elements in the card (human or non-human). Enter into a dialogue with him, her or it. Let the conversation unfold. Write it down.
- Step into the “skin” of one of the figures or elements in the card (human or non-human). Write with her, his, or its voice.
- Write about any personal associations you have with the card, or a memory that comes up because of it.
- Write in a poetic form like a haiku (3 lines of 5 syllables / 7 syllables / 5 syllables).
Card for the Scorpio lunation (Nov 13th – Dec 12th): Temperance
You could also try answering some of these journaling questions that are specific to the Temperance card. I wrote these for the companion book to the Gaian Tarot.
- What am I tempering?
- How can I balance opposites?
- How can I find the middle way?
- What can I create that is new and unique from two polarities?
Here’s Mine
Exercise: write about one detail in the card.
I have a star on my forehead
that spins and pulsates
when I close my eyes.
Can anyone else see it?
Or is it my secret alone?
Spinning
pulsing
star.
(See how simple and imperfect that is?)
Now it’s your turn!
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
There is a fire in the palm of my hand.
Sending signals of creative potential up into the sky.
It’s caught my other hand and creates a sand stream rainbow.
The right and left feeding off of each other.
Sharing potential and wisdom.
Where Yin and Yang meeting.
Where logic and imagination collide in delight.
I hold this balance in my hands.
- Jennifer, http://www.embodiedtarot.com
O so beautiful, Jennifer! Thank you!
Layers of light,
the shadow allows the light to shine,
embrace the shadow as you embrace the light.
No more like or dislike of one over the other,
only the awareness of the layers of consciousness.
Lovely, Valerie!
I am building a rainbow. It is my life. Will anyone remember the colors?
Lovely!
what must it be like
to use rainbows
as the paints
for creating?
to move
wingbeat by wingbeat
over the rolling canvas
what must it be like
to illuminate?
Love that, Tracie. Mmmmm.
STILL INSPIRED BY YOUR INVITATION JOANNA….
Every time we give ourselves the opportunity to admire the Beauty, often hidden, we access actually our own beauty and increase it proportionally to the intensity of our inner gaze.
The rainbow makes the link of love visible to others. Look at the colours of the rainbow; they entail everything that is essential in a relation filled with Love:
- the passion of red
- the energy of orange
- the light of yellow
- the nature of green
- the stillness of blue
- the deepness of indigo
- the spirituality of purple
When in touch with our inner child we may glimpse at the rainbow that unites us all here and now. We may want to keep wide open our mind eyes. We may want to glide in the mysteries of the rainbow and bathe in the invisible harmony of the web of Love that unites us all beyond will and power into the eternity of our being.
Beautiful, Valerie. Thank you!
Hi~I did the three minute free association writing…I decided to leave it unedited:
Floating, misty rainbow bridge Angel of the between balance supreme Halo bright through the night of our souls darkest hour fear transforms freeing our souls light to be bright to shine all the time. Dawn brings rays of joy, Dusk brings calm and sleep so we may dive deep into the waters of Dreams that lead us to ourselves.
I’ll post the psuedo-poem I did last night on my blog later today…this is such a wonderful idea-Thank you Joanna and all.
I enjoy this process very much. Thank you all co-deep listeners
.
You are so welcome!
So glad you had fun with it Lisa. I love the images and associations that came up for you in the free writing.
What does mindful writing mean?
Jean, it means to use writing as a tool to help you stay centered in the present moment. Basically: notice something, and write it down. There’s a lovely book I’ve been reading that inspired this practice: The Pen and the Bell by Brenda Miller & a co-author whose name escapes me at the moment. A tool to help you slow down.
Thanks, Joanna.
Haven’t made time to sit with Temperance yet, but I saw a pretty sight this morning. My camera is broken, wrote about it, and then posted it in my blog without waiting for the re-writes.
Hot, morning sunlight
Pouring into my kitchen
Framing the stove in bands of light
Filling a glass measuring cup
The word “pint”
Inscribed in sugar
Love the moment you’ve captured, Jean.
I loved the thought of this process and although my efforts are not poetic, I post them because they are meaningful to me and deserved to be shared.
A flame is being fed by a myriad of colors, falling from a hand. (The rainbow of life). This feeding enables wings to grow allowing a person to become divine – to know the divine will. This in turns flows down to enhance the earth, causing flowers to grow in unlikely places. To achieve this one must keep their eye on the feeding process and enjoy the process.
Beautiful, Maureen.
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