Imbolc Tarot Reading 2024

IMBOLC TAROT SPREAD

with Forest of Enchantment Tarot

2 

5 1 3

4

1. What seeds am I nurturing?  6 of Visions.

   A dreamy, imaginative child who loves nature and reading. Yes, I was exactly that kind of child!

    A reminder to keep one's child self alive. I'm on track here; have been spending large chunks of time lately reading fantasy. (Where I live, I don't need to seek out the natural world; I'm already surrounded by it, immersed in it.)

    2. In what areas can I expect growth?  Keeper of Spells

    Someone who blasts through obstacles with enchantment; transformational and activating.

    Well, I have been thinking lately that I might do well to add some magic to all the practical things I'm doing – with marked lack of success – to try and market my Pentridge books. I've notice that I've been forgetting who I am and all the wonderful techniques I know. Once upon a time, I wouldn't have thought twice about adding magic to the mix; I'd just have gone right ahead and done it.

    Good news, then, that there's to be growth in this area.

    3. How can I stoke the sparks of inspiration?  7 of Visions

    Hmmm, a message not to keep on seeking guidance. Presumably, not after I've done this particular piece of seeking. So I had better take the advice received this time to heart! Or advice received previously, e.g. about marketing?

    I am also told, 'Wait for clarity. Do not act yet.' In more traditional decks, this is the card of illusions – illusions which are tempting to believe in and try to take hold of – as well as an implied warning to be careful about choosing any of them.

     Perhaps I must wait and let answers / courses of action come to me in their own good time.

    4. What new beginnings do I need to embrace?  The Enchanter

        Usually known as The Magician. A nice match for card 2! And confirmation / extension of that one, saying I do indeed need to put more of my magical practices back in place. 

    It suggests specifically ceremonial magic rather than witchcraft (which I have never really stopped practising anyway). It's very interesting that while looking for something else yesterday I came across my Qabbalistic Cross and Middle Pillar exercises, and fished them out to have more of a look at. They do bring in powerful positive energy. I should definitely start doing them again!

    5. What needs a fresh and energised approach?  4 of Spells

    Celebration, ritual, party time, dancing, a reunion, connecting with family and/or community.  

    This makes me wonder about my recent decision to drop out of the Goddess circle this year. Or rather, only to attend the spin-off, small earth healing and meditation group which meets monthly. Many members of the main group have dropped out due to age (some have died). New people have come in, but it's a smaller group now, getting together in the home of one of the new members; and the meetings are shorter and focused a lot on dance, which I am a bit past these days.

    However, those who don't feel like dancing can sit around the edge of the circle and wave coloured scarves in time to the music. And discussion and meditation do still happen. Also this main group has changed from monthly meetings to just the Solstices and Equinoxes, and now has much more of a witchy focus than it used to.

    It has in fact 'a fresh and energised approach.' I could slot back in quite easily; maybe I should. I guess it wouldn't hurt to give it a go.

In general

    Two cards of Visions (water: emotions) and two cards of Spells (fire: creative energy) plus one Major Arcana card which happens to be The Magician (or Enchanter).  

    No cards with practical or intellectual focus. Hopefully that means that those areas are quite well taken care of at present; in any case it doesn't appear that there's anything much I need to or can do just now to improve those aspects of life.

    The spiritual and emotional are where it's at! Which is quite good news actually, as those are my favourite places to dwell. With an emphasis on the magical – even better.

Death of a Poet and Humanitarian

 

R.I.P.

It takes me an hour after waking

to remember last night’s news. 

In that time I hugged the cat,

had breakfast, read a new chapter

of the current novel, reviewed

my shopping list in my head,

worked out what day of the week this is …

and suddenly, somehow, memory

rises like a sudden spectre – 

oh no, Allan’s dead. 

Last night I cried, sent messages 

to a few people who would want 

(and not want) to know, lit a candle, 

spoke a prayer, removed

his photo from my healing grid …

‘Death is the greatest healer,’

my Reiki Master always said.  

There is nowhere else to go

with this. Perhaps I’ll re-read

his poems – again – or perhaps

not just yet. There's a day to encounter;

ordinary, practical things to be done.

I'd looked forward to showing him 

the two books, so soon to be released,

in which he features. At least 

he knew they were happening. 

‘He wanted to go

swiftly when it was time,’

his friend told me, ‘and he did.’

30/9/23

© Rosemary Nissen-Wade 2023

When I wrote my memoir* about running poetry workshops in Pentridge Prison back in the eighties, I didn’t identify particular prisoners I mentioned, but used labels such as ‘Tallest’ and ‘Youngest’ in order to protect their privacy. (Not that I had anything bad to say about them. My experience of them and with them was one of friendship and respect.)

One man I called ‘Mr Outstanding,’ because the visiting poets agreed that his powerful work was the most outstanding of all the amazing poetry being written there. He was finally freed many years ago, and since then has quietly done much good in the world, e.g. working to help the homeless and the disadvantaged.

One of the visiting poets who formed a friendship with this man, and kept in close touch with him all these years since, emailed me a few days ago to tell me he had just died, in hospital after a fall. He was 68 years old.

So I can tell you now (what readers of my memoir who were involved in those prison visits will easily guess) that he was Allan Eric Martin, whose book, Spitting Out Sixpenny, was published in 1984. He also had poems in various literary magazines, notably Overland. 

A serious poet with a true vocation, he was happy to give me permission to republish his particular poems in a new edition of Blood from Stone, the prison anthology first published in 1982 under my then imprint, Abalone Press. In his private life he was indeed a very private person, but he was happy to be known through his honest and revealing poetry.

We who liked and admired him are sad now.

I had been so looking forward to sending him the new edition of Blood from Stone, as well as my memoir and spin-off chapbook which are to be released simultaneously. I try to console myself with the thought that it would have been painful for him to revisit those difficult times. (A last-minute delay in the printing of the memoir is the only reason he didn't already have the books. The progress of this whole project has seemed blessed by the Universe; perhaps I may trust that this apparent glitch just at this time has been for the best too.)

Despite his earlier problems and mistakes, for most of Allan's life he was a man of great integrity.

* Breaking Into Pentridge Prison: Memories of Darkness and Light, to be launched in November 2023, along with the prison poetry anthology Blood from Stone (2nd ed.) and the chapbook Letters to a Dead Man.

The Vegan Adventure

 I decided to go Vegan a few weeks ago. I've been almost vegetarian, or mostly vegetarian, for years and years. A friend directed me to a YouTube video showing that even vegetarianism can involve cruelty to other creatures, and that did it.

Here is my update on this new adventure:

Update on The Vegan Adventure. 

I’m still in transition. Had some non-vegan food in the house (eggs, cheese …) and I can’t afford to waste food I’ve bought – though I did give some away, which I couldn’t contemplate the thought of any more. 

I’ve been using oat milk and Nuttelex for years (Nuttelex actually for decades) just as a preference, so that’s no problem.

Fake cheese is nearly as awful to my taste as fake meat (which I consider HORRIBLE). I’d rather go without.

Coconut yoghurt, though, is lovely!

So is vegan chocolate.

Vegan biscuits and chips and such are all right too.

I get my honey in big jars from the Bray Park servo. It’s produced by a Euengella couple, not by any of the big commercial companies. Google shows their product listed alongside items from organic growers in the region. So I am telling myself that it’s probably all right and doesn’t involve cruelty to bees.

I’m not mad keen on the taste of the vegan bread which was recommended. Toasted, it’s bearable. But I’ve discovered, to my joy, that Burgen rye bread, a dark rye which has been my favourite bread for decades, is vegan.

My doctor said the diet is liable to make me gassy. Yes, I have noticed! But he also said it’s OK to take charcoal tablets for flatulence, and if I only have a couple a day there won’t be any of the nasty side-effects the internet warns about.

Research tells me that the vegan foods which contain protein also contain iron. Good to know!

I’m surprised to note I’m not missing the animal products.