The Gaian Tarot - Interview with Joanna Powell Colbert

The Gaian Tarot website.
Last night as we stepped into the second step of The Path Within we looked at the beautiful new Tarot deck created by visionary artist Joanna Powell Colbert, The Gaian Tarot. I have also begun reading for clients with this beautiful Tarot deck and have already noticed that it's imagery and message of connection to Mother Earth has brought a wonderful new pathway to hope for many. 
Last year I had the pleasure of interviewing Joanna about her creative process:
Well known for her Goddess portraits and mythic art, Joanna Powell Colbert has created a Tarot deck dedicated to Earth Spirituality. Just looking at The Gaian Tarot images makes me feel instantly calm. I am forever inspired by Joanna and her ability to juggle her work as an artist, writer, teacher and deep love of Tarot & the Earth. The Gaian Tarot took Joanna nine years to complete - 9 the number of completion -  and the 9 of Earth features Joanna herself in a field of lavender. Often it's hard for us to keep inspired about our creative projects & so I asked Joanna how she managed to keep up her ‘fire’ during the long and necessary gestation of her Tarot deck. 
What was the first 'seed' of inspiration for your deck? 
Joanna: ‘I was at a festival in late 2000 where a dozen or so people came up to my vending table, looked at my Goddess art, and said:  "Didn't you do a Tarot deck?"  It felt like a divine message to me.  As I went out for a walk one day, trying to choose a theme for the deck, it hit me all of a sudden:  I needed to merge my love for my naturalist studies and my love for Mother Earth with my love for the Tarot.  That was a theme that would interest and sustain me over the long haul.

How did you 'fire' yourself up to create your deck over such a long period of time & what were the benefits of taking your time with it? 
J: ‘Well I never intended to take such a long time with it.  Life just got in the way — earning a living, caretaking my elderly father, etc etc.  Plus I chose a medium (colored pencil) that is extremely time-intensive.   But every time I started a new card, I did get fired up — very excited by the idea behind the card, the symbolism, the color scheme and composition.  I always said that my favorite card is the one I just completed.  I was always a little bit in love with the most recent one.
    I grew into my elderhood during the nine years that I created the deck.  I moved from my 40's into my 50's.  I buried my father and became a grandmother.  I left my beloved island home and moved back to (small) city living. I dealt with some significant health issues. So there were major life transitions that took place during the time I created the deck.  All of my life wisdom up to this point is wrapped up in those cards.  

What beliefs or old patterns did you have to cast into the fire of transformation to embrace such a project? 
The feeling that I was a fraud as a professional artist because I work from photographs; the belief that I wasn't good enough to pull the project off and that it wasn't good enough to be published.  The community of people that followed the evolution of the deck on my blog really helped me to stay focused and excited about the deck, because they were all waiting for it and gave me such great feedback on it.’
     

Thank you again Joanna! 
I look forward to teaching and sharing this deck with you all in our classes, healings and Tarot Readings. May the Gaian Tarot inspire you to have trust in your own heart's dreams and patience as as they take root at the Spring Equinox this Friday. 

Healing Past Lives Weekend Intensive

Once thought of as mysterious, Past Life Regression has now been embraced by counsellors and therapists as a tool to heal and assist clients on the Soul’s journey towards awakening and self-empowerment. By exploring Past Lives, we can bring profound healing and understanding to our current life situations, behaviours and relationships.
    Celtic Star Goddess Arianrhod, will guide us in this 2-day workshop of Past Life exploration & healing. Please read below for the full details, this weekend intensive will be the only one of it's kind this year so let me know as soon as you can if you wish to join us,

Warm Wishes, Julia

to the waters and the wild...

We'd love to see you in the circle at Spring Equinox to help us raise money for the gorgeous koalas at the Southern Ash Wildlife Fund. Please bring along a small bottle or jar to take home your very own healing water and a small strip of cloth or ribbon to create your 'clootie' (wish or prayer ribbon).

Waterfalls of abundance to you all,

Julia and Tony

A Tarot Honeycomb

Full Moon by Flora McLachlan

Last night at the Piscean Full Moon a new Tarot circle came into being. Thank you to all of the beautiful women who stepped into The Path Within together. I hope your journey is one of mystery, magic and healing as you reclaim your own ancient ancestral wisdom and mythic story.

To celebrate the Full Moon we each placed a wish into a candle, placing them into a spiral bowl of natural spring water from the Wombat Forest well. As we connected to our intention we listened to the recording of honeybees within a sacred hive.  I left these candles to burn and in the morning this is what they had a created: a gorgeous Tarot honeycomb of bright wishes.

Blessings and love to the new members of our Tarot circle, may all your wishes be golden.

Forest Well Essences


Before taking a month off in July-August I told everyone that I was going away to 'fill the well' - I had no idea of how prophetic this expression would be. In this time of well-filling Tony and I travelled around Victoria visiting waterfalls, oceans and natural spring healing wells in Victorian forests and you can see some of these beautiful sites here. We will be working with the healing water from these sacred wells and the Celtic healing practice of 'clootie making' in the Spring Equinox Circle - read more about clooties here. 

In these green and wild places I became inspired by the incredible beauty and immense healing power of sacred water sources. This burst of inspiration has led to the creation of Forest Well Essences. Vibrational flower essences that we are blending with natural spring water from the Wombat Forest. 

The first batch has already begun flowing out to our students and we have had some wonderful and confirming feedback of their powerful and grounding effects. I have just 13 bottles left until we venture into the forest to connect and collect from the wells again. We are only making these first essences available to our subscribers. This first essence is 'Energy Protector' dedicated to the strong and protective Scottish goddess Scathach. This blend has been created from elemental flower essences from the sacred gardens of Findhorn in Scotland and healing water from the geothermal springs in the Wombat Forest. 


We have created this essence to help create Sacred Space and Grounding when you need it. It is a beautiful essence to help you ground during difficult times or before meditation and to protect your energy and sacred space when you are experiencing negativity from outside sources. It is also a very helpful companion for anyone working as a healer, counsellor or teacher to create sacred space and cleanse energy in your healing rooms. 

If you would like to purchase one of the remaining bottles of Energy Protector they are $15 on their own or $10 if booked with your healing or reading appointment. Warm Wishes and may you be inspired by the wonderfully intuitive and water-filled Pisces Full Moon this Monday, 

Julia & Tony

Clootie Wells

Sancreed Well IMGP1838 by nighthawkjw
Sancreed Well IMGP1838, a photo by nighthawkjw on Flickr.
You may have noticed, I've become quite obsessed with healing wells and sacred water sources of late. Recently I remembered the beautiful and mysterious Clootie Wells of the British Isles and Celtic lands. Clooties are pieces of cloth that have been dipped into a holy spring or well and are then tied to trees around the well with a prayer or as a dedication to the deities or spirit of the well.  We will be learning more about this ancient tradition and creating our own healing clooties with healing water sourced from the Wombat Forest at the Spring Equinox Circle on Wednesday 21st September. 
We'd love to see you there to help us raise money for the koalas of The Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter. Let me know if you wish to join us and please bring along a small bottle or jar for your collection of natural spring water and a piece of cloth to create your 'clootie'. Here are some images of these beautiful votive offerings at sacred wells - enjoy!
Clooties near Madron Well
St Mary's Well

New Facebook Circle - Llewellyn Tarot Spring Giveaway

The Bride (La Marie) by Isabelle Bryer
Hello Tribe, 

today we are truly feeling the tendrils of spring reaching up from the earth...sun shining and dreams beginning to sprout. In the theme of Spring and growing community, we have created a new Facebook page for Sacred Familiar (simply click here) and would love to catch up with you all there.

Llewellyn Tarot Spring Giveaway: To celebrate the launch of our our page and new forest circle in the Facebook worlde, by simply clicking on the 'Like' button on our page until the Aries Full Moon in October, you will automatically go in the running for one of two Llewellyn Tarot Gift sets.

The Wheel of Fortune - Llewellyn Tarot
Temperance - Llewellyn Tarot

The Fool - Llewellyn Tarot

The Llewellyn Tarot is one of my favourite Tarot decks, blending Welsh Celtic mythology with the structure of the traditional Rider Waite Tarot - very easy to read and the images and stories in the accompanying book are fascinating. To be in the running, come and say hi and 'Like' our page and wishing you all good luck in your Spring dreaming!