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Jasper writes about: tarot is a tool for rebellious dreamers

My queer witches. How are your dreams? What do you notice in your body when you check in with your dreamworld? I haven’t been remembering my dreams lately, so I've been asking my tarot deck “what did I dream about last night?” and then journaling the messages that come through. Especially if they seem nonsensical! Cognitive knowing and subconscious understanding are not mutually exclusive, nor are they consistently connected. Sometimes I feel something to be true deep down in my bones but can’t for-the-life-of-me put the truth into words. When this happens during a client session, I risk vulnerability by simply describing how the knowing feels in my body. Maybe it will resonate with them and maybe they’ll think I’m a charlatan. All I can do is relay the messages that come through as best I can and accept the mystery of it all. 

I’ve been attending a course by Nick of In Search of Tarot and it has led me to some surprising yet affirming places.  The idea that tarot came from a secret occultist place with ascended masters never sat well with me. Because of Nick’s class I have followed some rabbit holes and discovered a different version of the tarot’s origin that feels like truth all the way down to my core! 

In essence, playing cards came to be via paper’s journey through the world trade routes of the 15th century. From there, enslaved soldiers known as Mamluk created fifty-two Muslim playing cards featuring coins, cups, wands and swords. Those cards found their way to Europe where gamblers and drunks collectively added 22 more cards featuring images of mystery and morality. Why? They were probably trying to make sense of their own subconscious understandings that conflicted with the authority of church and state! This new deck of 78 cards found their way to the Romani people, self-employed fortune tellers ostracized from the socially acceptable majority, and they added the tarot to their collection of divination tools. That is my kind of tarot! Tarot as a tool created by rebellious dreamers makes more sense to me than Tarot as a tool for elitist secret-keepers. Blessed be the marginalized! Hail!

Journal prompt: What about your dreams feels like rebellious, subconscious understanding?

I’ve had a few requests for tarot tutoring lately and I have really enjoyed that experience! So I am creating a new offering that includes four 1:1 tarot tutoring sessions. During these sessions I will invite clients to take inventory of what they already know about the tarot, create a mind map of how they want tarot to influence their lives, and create a series of lessons curated to those desires. I’m very excited to offer this to my community!

Book of the month:

Missing Witches: Recovering True Histories of Feminist Magic By Risa Dickens and Amy Torok is a must have for your witchy reference needs! I've never read a book like this before. Structured around the eight Sabbats of the Wheel of the Year, this book includes invocations, rituals, and offerings that incorporate the authors' own wisdom, histories, and journeys, as well as an an intersectional, contemporary lens for uncovering and reconnecting with feminist witch history. I had the pleasure of interviewing Risa and Amy on my podcast and it's well worth the listen. These two witches have welcomed me into their communities and lifted me up during some dark times, as they have for many others. You can get 10% off of their book here.

Ava Channeling:

When I tuned in to the channeling for this month, spirit guided me to sit in joy, to amplify it with my vision. To share my vision, to tempt you into sitting in this joy as well. 

It came as no surprise for me to learn the affirmations for this month, as well as the card and rune, were whispering along the same frequency. Does it not smell of pisces season? A celeste haze of dreams and adoration and crying about adoration. 

I was guided to share my own dreams, though not the ones I journey through when my body rests. I am an avid dreamer, in fact I am dreaming right now. It is these waking dreams, this form of romanticizing, that I am asked to share with you. The words piled up on my tongue itching to move through to my fingertips, they speak of the glorious beasts throwing their heads while their bodies hold still. Soaking up the sun, beginning to gift us with pillows of color. Reaching out their hands and provoking you to journey into their world with their intoxicating scent. Do you know them? We build our homes out of their fresh carcasses and fry their offspring over domesticated flames, but they aren't fueled by anger or vengeance.  

They want us to relish this dream. The warmth that lines your stomach after coating your throat, it is your purpose. They want us to feel this, do you feel it? The pinch on your right pinky toe as your foot rocks through wool skin on the stable surface of their removed organs, it is life, it is all creation! 

To dream is to step into living. To step into the rebellion of the galaxy that is your senses, that is your body.  To dream is to be the pool of warm substance that is birthed through the love making of bean and water, and to dream is to be the cotton coated tongue that follows. 

How does it feel to be in your dream?

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PS! I have altered my "office hours" and my cancellation policy! I have decided to reserve weeknights for my family and take weekends off. I have also decided to make rescheduling more flexible for when life just happens.

Blessed BE! MWAH!