Step Four Begins: Recovering a Sense of Integrity

from the Esocentric Tarot Deck © Shot in the Dark Photography Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what people fear most.— Fyodor Dostoyevsky Today, we begin the fourth step together, Recovering a Sense of Integrity. And frankly, I have a lot of complex feelings about this one. I will warn you, it … Read more

The Neglected Child

It is never too late to have a happy childhood.— Attributed to Tom Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Berke Breathed and probably more As we wind down the third step of our journey of artistic recovery, the emphasis is on being especially kind to ourselves while we continue to gently uncover our past memories. One of the … Read more

Homework Exercises, Part 2

More homework for this weekend as we approach the end of the third step on our road to recovering our Inner Artist self. Yesterday, we worked through the first ten. Today, spend some time completing, in whatever way you wish, the following: 11. I am afraid that if I start dreaming …12. I secretly enjoy … Read more

Blessings of the Taurus New Moon!

Dark of the MoonNew beginningsDark of the MoonPlant a seed tonightDark of the MoonWhat we envisionWill come to be by the Full Moon’s light. How divine! Now, with the New Moon in Taurus, we can connect to a powerful upsurge of magic. Astrologer Lynn Hayes writes of this Moon, “We are flooded with new ideas … Read more

Losing Interest

The Frustrated Artist – © 2007 Bill Shain He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.— Abraham Lincoln We’ve been exploring the wounds of shaming that may have shut down or hampered our inner artist for many years. This is hard to look at sometimes, and if anger, grief, and fear … Read more

Our Friend Anger

© Osho Zen TarotI merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.— Duke Ellington In the Osho Zen Tarot, there is a very instructive card called “Suppression,” or the Ten of Fire. In the more traditional Rider-Waite-Smith Ten of Wands, the card shows a heavily burdened man who is soldiering on, … Read more

Step Three: Recovering A Sense of Power

Blue Anger ©1998, Jamie Alaine HulleyAnger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world. — William Shenstone (1714-1763) This week, we begin the third step of our twelve-step recovery, healing the artist within us. This step focuses on “Recovering a Sense of … Read more