I’m home. And wow, it feels good. In all my 33 years, I never understood the word ‘homesick’ or the concept of ‘missing’ a thing, a person, a place. Well, I do now. I decided whilst in my little cabin to cut my ta-road trip in half and save part two for later. So much fun, …
Photographs from my window on twenty buses across the USA. Beth MaidenI’m a 30-something writer, artist, tarot reader, and perpetual explorer of the space between thought, feeling, and action. I believe that spirituality and ritual are for everybody. I’m about the journey, in all of its messy, non-linear, chaotic iterations. I am excited by …
Then I thank death for the luxury of change. I know that fire and air won’t leave my life, but that they will exist in a different way - tempered with earth and water.
This card wants me. The building of a safe space, withdrawal, reserve. Safety in solitude, in four walls to protect you and solid ground to stand on, enough food and maybe nothing more.
Some things I have seen whilst on the road A few of these pictures were from a really amazing exhibition at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian art in New York, there was an exhibition on called ‘Irreverent: A cerebration of censorship’. This included work by queer artists from all over the world which …
I set off on a journey and lost my way. (Don’t get me wrong – that’s kinda what I came for.) I came for tarot, and connections, friendships old and new, to see incredible cities and mile upon hundred mile of landscape flying past. I came to find you. And I came to find me. …
When I told people I was going to Durham NC they said ‘Why? What’s there?’ I didn’t know. A party, I said.
I guess I picked the wrong place for some downtime. This town is a non-stop party. It was a party in the taxi that picked me up at the station, a party in the hostel the moment I walked in (on a Tuesday evening). A party in the streets at noon as I wandered the tourist …
GayBiGayGay is a one day queer family reunion that takes place every year in Austin, TX. It’s held on the last day of a monolithic hipster-fest you may have heard of called South by Southwest (scroll right to the bottom for some thoughts on SXSW, consumerism and queer representation at music festivals.) I think these pics can speak …
What do you actually need to do a tarot reading? A tarot deck, nothing more. Perhaps you’d also add a notebook, or laptop if you’re emailing readings or recording stuff digitally, a mobile if you’re giving phone readings. I have all of those things right here in my handbag, so it follows that I can do …
Where do I even begin with Texas? My favourite state, of the few I’ve visited for long enough to really feel. Despite conservatism and restricted access to women’s healthcare, despite ‘everything’s bigger in Texas’, despite Bible Belt fundamentalism, despite so much that I find difficult or downright repulsive about what this state presents to the …
I drew a card for my journey and it was Death. Death. Transformation. Rebirth. The death of the ego. A leaving-behind-so-something-new-can-grow. A letting go. A point of no return. “Kathy I’m lost” I said, though I knew she was sleeping. Leaving behind the deep, familiar-feeling greens of Oregon for Idaho at nightfall, fitful sleep, …
Pulling out of Porland at noon on one of those days that’s both misty and clear-bright at the same time. Feeling similar – kinda dazed, kinda crystalline in my mind, well-rested (for once), just starting to feel like I’m …here. Where? Currently on highway 84 with Mt Hood in clear and beautiful view. The driver …
Um. A lot. Where to start? Last weekend’s Northwest Tarot Symposium – the first of this now-to-be-annual Portland tarot conference – packed a LOT into the two day schedule. From storytelling with tarot to the psychology of the major arcana, consciously living each card to a publishing panel, the NWTS (or Newts) covered such a …
I’m writing this in an airport hotel in Amsterdam. Odd that a trip from the north of England to the US west coast should involve an overnight transfer in The Netherlands…but there you go, and here I am. Something I truly love about travelling alone is that very stark, lonely feeling that comes from moving anonymously …
It’s coming together. (Thanks to you guys!) When I first thought of asking the tarot community for hospitality over a potential three months of travelling around the US, I had no idea what would happen. My fall-back plan was always that I had friends in New York and Vancouver who would put me up if …
So this is happening. In a month. And I haven’t even really told you guys about it yet! So here goes. Last year, I hatched a plan. I’d been (and still am) bowled over by the kindness and warmth of the community that had started to build around this website. I’d been blogging away for years, …