And now for something completely different!

This is the inaugural post of a new category for this site. In an effort to raise spirits and reduce the tedium of lockdowns, people have developed a variety of new skills over the past year. My lifelong friend, Cath Dean and I share a love of things most of our friends think are a little ‘out there.’ We love tarot, oracles cards, crystals, aromatherapy and gin!

I’ve been intrigued and interested in oracle cards for some years and occasionally branched out to tarot. I chose my first deck because I liked the artwork. But somehow I couldn’t make much sense of them. I spent more time delving into the booklet that came with the deck than with the cards themselves. In frustration I put them away at the back of a drawer and forgot about them. 

Meanwhile I was able to make more sense of my oracle cards without a book. I could even see a story unfolding if the draw involved something like past, present and future. As lockdown 1.0 commenced here in the UK, I decided to invest in some online training for myself. But what to study? Something for my career or something for myself. I decided to go with something right out there – a tarot course. What I wanted from the course was to be able to tell the story of whatever cards I drew, without all that tedious mucking around with books.

I found a course, enrolled and bought a basic deck, the Radiant Rider-Waite deck. The artwork isn’t quite as stunning as my Gilded Tarot deck but I was in for a pleasant surprise. Opening the pack and sorting leafing through them for the first time, they felt like my trusty battered oracle deck. Clearly we were meant for each other! Following the on-line courses and doing free readings for practice meant that by the middle of lockdown 2.0 I was ready for my final exams and submitting written work, plus a my code of ethics. I haven’t felt so nervous since I did professional qualifications a few years ago. If you’d seen me hit the send button to submit my final work, you’d think I was pulling the pin on a grenade!!

A couple of weeks passed and so did lockdown 2.0. As we emerged into a tiered system that to all intents and purposes was still lockdown under a different name, I received email confirmation of my results. I passed with flying colours! Celebrations all round and wondering what to do with my new-found skills coincided with Christmas time so naturally I didn’t do anything other than try to put Christmas together in weird circumstances.

It didn’t take a crystal ball to figure out that we’d end up in lockdown 3.0 at the beginning of this year. Any thoughts of doing in-person readings went out the window. In fact, for the foreseeable future I think the safest thing is to stay on line.And here I am! The plan is, with Cath’s permission, to share with you my weekly card draw that I do on a Sunday, when I’m planning my week ahead. My usual question is ‘what is my focus for the week?’ Cath reckons it makes a good subject for weekly blogging as this is about as much time as I have to spare while I’m still deeply entrenched in corporate life.

I’m looking forward to sharing my first weekly draw with you next Monday.

Until then, stay safe and well.

Jules xx