Charmed, I'm sure.....not

When it comes to tv, it's been a long time.  I have never paid for cable and years ago I got rid of my antenna.  I don't even know how to get tv nowadays.  Until recently I had never even paid money for a television, but also until recently I'd never been married and husbands and televisions seem to go hand-in-hand. I do pay for Netflix though.

So I had never seen the tv show "Charmed."  I've been wanting to see it, but I don't want to put the discs in my Netflix cue because we only get two at a time and it seemed like a waste.  I have been waiting and waiting for Netflix to stream it and now it does!

I was so excited when I saw that one evening and couldn't wait until the next day when I had the house to myself to watch some of it.  After my husband left for work I went into the studio to do some work and watch me some Charmed.  Finally.

It was stupid.

I was so disappointed in how formulaic and stupid I found the show. I didn't even think the actresses were very attractive or stylish.  I'd been looking forward to what? eight seasons of shows about witches.  Strong female lead witches at that.

That is the one thing about the one show I watched;  those girls got out of their predicament on their own--no male rescuers.

My husband tells me that Season One is the least stupid season of that show, but then he reminded me that Rose McGowan joined the cast a few seasons down the road so maybe I will give it another show sometime.

The Great Thing about The Wild Hunt and Christopher Walken

This is one of the reasons I read and love The Wild Hunt blog.  I learn the best stuff from that blog, like Christopher Walken is going to play Zeus in a movie adaptation of the book "Gods Behaving Badly" by Marie Phillips.

I don't know how this book never made it onto my radar let alone onto my bookshelf.  But y'know, I think that I will wait for the movie and read the book after.  At least, I am going to try to wait until after the movie.  It really looks like my exact cup o'tea, with lots of honey in it.

Here is a cute video of an interview with the author of the book.  She does name some actors she thinks would fit the bill for a movie version, but she doesn't mention Christopher Walken.



Here is another awesome clip.  This is from the movie The Prophecy where Christopher Walken plays the archangel Gabriel, the bad guy.  He's really great in this movie which I recommend if you can handle a bit of deep dark humor in a movie.

Interesting reading outcome

In my last post I talked a little bit about the spread I read for my New Pagan Group Meeting.  My interpretation turned out to be pretty much on, I think.

To recap, I got a bunch of aces and twos and a couplea majors.  It was very low key and passive.  I figured only one person besides myself would show up.  I had one confirmation so I knew she would come, but I didn't know if others would show up or not, and the spread indicated that only that one person would show up.

And, indeed, one person showed up.  She was very down to earth and had a lot of ideas and feelings about paganism that I have, so we had much in common.  There were also a couple of important diverging opinions and ideas.

She also had an interesting background and experiences that I had not considered about where she is from and where she was on her journey.

A very interesting exercise, indeed.  I like this spread, but I think I am going to change the spread a little to look like this:

1. Past
2. Present
3. Possible Future
4. Self
(these are all the same as the original as you can probably tell)
5. Situation
6. Challenge
7. Next Action

Seven Sisters Spread for Organizational Meeting

What a dull post title!  Oh well, it was still an exciting thing to me at least.  I have been attempting to organize a pagan group here in my hometown.  Attitudes are open and liberal here in lovely downtown Vermont, but it's difficult to find people to be paganesque with.  I have been part of various pagan or witchy groups and classes, of different longevity but for the last year plus, I have been solitary.

So I put a listing up on Witchvox and Facebook and e-mailed back and forth with a few people and finally got something set up for Thursday evening.  I had no idea how many or who would show up or anything, and I was very nervous.  So I threw a tarot spread before I left.  I used the Seven Sisters Spread, which is a good, basic spread, but if I use it again I may tweak the positions a little bit.

The issue at hand:  What to expect from Pagan Meeting.

I think I like to read ina  more overall manner than card by card, at least at the outset of a reading.

I have  3 Aces--beginning on many levels but not very much groundedness (not the Ace of Pents).  But we have the World for that.

At either end I have cards of stasis; the 2 of Swords and the Devil. Not moving forwards.  In fact, there is very little movement in these cards except for the World.

I guess I like the Ace of Swords in the Self spot.  I am spearheading this whole thing; I am the on "on fire with it."

The only thing that bothers me is all the passivity here.

More later, as they say!

Don't test my Powers!

I was tooling around on the web this hot n' humid afternoon, scanning the tarot and witchy blogs that are hanging around and found a great post by Ginny Hunt at 78 Notes to Self.  She lays out everything tarot readers wish they could tell their querents but probably never do.  I am just going to hit the high points below.  She goes into a lot more detail on her blog.

1.  I don't know whether the reading I will give you will be helpful or not.  

2.  I don't always get psychic information. 

3.  I am not a mind reader.

4.  I want you to ask questions about your reading. 

5.  You can't do what I do. 

6.  I hate when people ask for free readings. 

7.  Unless I advertise other services, don't assume I provide them. 

8.  I sometimes miss things. 

9.  I'm not going to snoop on your friends. 

10.  Don't lean on me, I'm not your crutch.  

Anyway, this post inspired me to form a new motto and it goes like this:  "Don't test my Powers; I don't have any."

Daily Draw, June 8, 2011

Today I used the Jonathan Dee deck. It's not well known, but it is colorful and energetic.  The pips are non-scenic and I have been using it lately because I have one or two face-to-face readings lined up and I find that many seekers have some familiarity with the cards, specifically the Rider Waite deck.  Just enough knowledge to be dangerous, and often a seeker will put a simplistic meaning on a card that has a much more complex meaning in the context.  So I dug out this nice little deck and I am practicing with it so that I can get the pips meanings down without the visual clues that other decks offer.

Today's draw is a little unusual.  I dropped the cards as I was shuffling and once I got it together, I had two jumpers.  So I used those two and pulled the third one.

The High Priest (5);  King of Wands;  Justice (11)

Be honest and weigh carefully any lessons or advice received from men.

The first two were the jumpers and I pulled Justice.  Very interesting!

I often go with my first thoughts when looking at a few cards like this.  Often, this comes out a little tongue in cheek, a little smart-ass sounding.  On a closer inspection here, the King of Wands is in the middle so it is the central card.  The main man--person, really--in my life is my husband.  He is even more central to my daily life these days because I am unemployed so I don't see others on a regular basis.

So the central card is the King of Wands and in this case, it represents the Oaf.  He has a strong personality, and a healthy sexual appetite.  We love to discuss various ideas and issues and go back and forth on stuff.  Sometimes he can be a bit like the High Priest--more often called the Hierophant--and I do a lot of listening.  I read the Justice card to indicate someone who is, or needs to be, fair and absolutely honest with herself, and others.  

If I were reading this spread for someone else, I would advise them to listen to advice and lessons carefully, weigh everything and be honest about what makes sense, what could work, and what might not.  To be objective.

Tarot Reader to the Stars!

I wanted to sit down and read with the cards yesterday afternoon.  It was so sunny and beautiful outside--scarcely above 70 degrees--but nonetheless, I was in a cranky, stressful mood.  It's a bad habit (in my not so humble opinion) to throw the cards for oneself on a particularly bad day because it's difficult to be objective.

Listening to the Tarot-to-Go podcast (I am making my way through its back episodes) someone talked about doing spreads for people in the news or in fiction.  That sounds like fun.  So I trolled Google News and what do you think I learned?  Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn Split!  I didn’t even know they were together!

Cruising around the internet a little more I found a nice little 5-card spread on the Angel Paths website.  I call it the Five Squared spread because it is laid out in an even-armed cross.  If I ever use it again, and I'm sure I shall, I'll probably re-name the positions a little bit to suit my reading style.

1. Present or General Theme:    5 of Wands

2.  Past Influences:                     3 of Wands

3.  Future:                                  8 of Pents

4.  Reason:                                 9 of Pents

5.  Potential outcome:                The Devil (15)

I'm gonna say that this relationship was full of petty bickering and contention.  Not big blowouts, just lots of silly arguments. 

In the past she would always deal with stuff by taking stock of her options, surveying what she had.  This time she is going to throw herself in her work, perhjaps by churning out a bunch of formulaic movies and projects that are little more than vehicles for her or other stars.  Why?  She needs, or thinks she needs, the money.  

She should be careful how she spends her energy however, or she could find herself stuck in some unfavorable deals and contracts that  take advantage of her vulnerabilities and that she can’t easily get out of.

Well, that was fun!  Not to mention, easy as pie.  And who's to say it's wrong?  Of course, if Scarlett Johansson wants me to read her cards for real entertainment-purposes-only I would certainly oblige.

That's all for now.  More stuff later!