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Tag: updates

Aquarius Witch: I have an article getting published in July!

I wrote an article about a year ago (haha, publishing is a super fast industry), and it's being published in an upcoming book from Llewellyn: Aquarius Witch, which is being released on July 8th!  It's a biography of Pamela "Pixie" Colman Smith, the artist behind the ubiquitous Rider-Waite-Smith tarot. She was herself an Aquarian Sun, a queer woman, and a very talented artist but she died penniless, her belongings being auctioned off after her death to pay her debts.  My article isn't very long, but if you want to read a longer biography (and look at pages and pages and pages of her artwork), check out Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story from US Games, Inc. It was probably my favorite and the most exhaustive of the sources I used to write my article. (Finally had a chance to use that history degree of mine, lol.)

I don't get royalties (because they already paid me, and it's suuuuper short), but the best way to support the main authors on this one is to go stick it on a wishlist on amazon... and then preorder it from your local bookstore!  If Aquarius is one of your Big Three, there will be plenty of useful witchy insight in this book for you.

Also...

I know I said I was BACK and then posted two weeks in a row and promptly disappeared again. Sorry.  Consider this a restart Take Two. I am going to attempt to blog every other week from here on out, because I'm still having a little trouble keeping my head above water.  Next weekend I'll be teaching a couple of classes at an online conference called Shining Hearth, so after that I might do a little recap, but also the following Monday is the first of the new schedule for Freyja's Falcon Flights. I'll be doing those on/around full moons this year, so I might get that out next weekend if I can manage it, otherwise it'll be posted later in the week.

Thanks for all your patience. I appreciate all my readers.

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Coming Back from An Accidental Hiatus!

Hello all and happy Chocolate Discount Sale Days to all those who celebrate (lol)!

I seem to have taken an accidental hiatus from blogging due to some Life Nonsense that happened, including but not limited to: getting somewhat stranded in airports, dealing with health issues, and the unexpected illness and sudden death of one of my rabbits.  Also I almost always get "eaten" by December and January; I often joke that I am somewhat powered by photosynthesis because the lack of light makes my normal chronic fatigue much worse.

But. I'm going to try to go back to blogging weekly now that we're past Imbolc and the light and warmth are returning!

And I have a sale going on in my webshop that I had the foresight to let run through the end of the month: up to 25% off all love and relationship divination spreads!  And yes that includes my spread for three or four people, if you have a triad or polycule you would like to get a reading for, and it also includes any custom requests for multi-person spreads. (And if you select via deck and number of cards instead, but the question is related to love or a relationship, I'm more than happy to refund you the percentage!)

That's my update for now - hopefully I'll be back to normal blogging next week!  Thanks for all your patience and support.

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A New Toy!

This has been a rough week in Casa Serendipities, so I don’t have a long and thoughtful post for you, but I thought perhaps I could show you a new toy I got recently!

Check this out! It’s a portable light box mini photo studio thing!

And that means better photos of jewelry coming soon to an Etsy shop near you, as soon as I have enough time to fiddle with that camera on a tripod and figure out the best settings.

Hopefully soon – as long as we stop having revolving door colds, ugh. For now, this lil witch is enchanting her herbal tea and taking elderberry syrup…

It’s Sacred Space Time Again!

This is going to be a really fast little update, because it’s time for Sacred Space Conference again and we’re in a flurry of activity preparing for it, over here!  It’s always a great time and a great chance to stretch what we know and what we do to even greater heights.  The conference itself is held in Hunt Valley, MD, every March and is hosted by the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, a group of local Wiccan covens.  They aren’t the only group represented at Sacred Space, however: ADF druids and Troth Heathen Kindreds are well represented, and there are always quite a few solitaries of various paths amongst the attendees.

Sacred Space is also the place that the dream of Serendipities first started to become a reality, so it’s our own little new year in some ways.  Last year, I gave a short overview of all the workshops and rituals I attended and I’m planning on doing the same again this year, so look for that next week after we get back!

The Etsy shop will briefly be on hiatus while we’re away – I’m not shutting it down, but I will be putting up a notice that normal turn around times will be extended.  One more quick Etsy teaser: I’ve acquired a new tarot deck!  And it’s a beauty… stay tuned for a new listing some time this month!

Updates!

Well, the shop tumblog is now up and running!  So if you’re on tumblr, please be a dear and give us a follow!  Right now it’s mostly posting Etsy shop listings and updates, but no more than 3 posts a day, we don’t want to spam anyone.  In the future that will probably be the fastest place to learn about anything new going on in the shop besides Etsy itself!

Speaking of Etsy, our seasonal coupon went live this past weekend!  Use coupon code YULETIDE2016 for 10% off anything and everything in the shop!  Code is valid through the 2nd of January.

Also coming up soon (hopefully by Yule): rune readings are FINALLY going to be in the shop, at approx $2/rune.  These are going to be pulls, not casts, but I’ve gotten some good feedback on my free rune readings on tumblr, so I think I’m now confident enough to offer them for sale.  I use the Elder Futhark, on slices of wood, and I’ll be included pictures in those readings, just like with the cards.

On the reiki side of things, we’re finally more or less open for business (though we may get a zero gravity chair to replace the one we’ve been using, for additional comfort) and I’ve updated the Facebook Page with the street name – when you book an appointment I’ll be more than happy to give you the entire address and parking directions, but we’re working out of our home and I don’t really want our home address plastered all over the interwebs.  I’ve also added “Services” to the FB page, with approximate prices so you have an idea, though divination and jewelry are still primarily sold through the Etsy Shop.

In the realm of upcoming things, Glasreo and I will be attending a Soul Retrieval workshop in January which is very exciting and should meld well with our reiki practice, so stay tuned to hear about that (and maybe book a reiki session for the spring to get some of your lost soul pieces back, *winkwink*) and hopefully I’ll be blogging weekly again from here on, now that we’re all moved into our new place!

Brief Updates…

Everything is now listed in the shop!  I repeat, everything is now listed in the shop!  😀

Also, I’ve figured out a better way to ship physical items, so shipping is now down to $6 instead of $8 (mostly, I’ve figured out how to use Etsy’s postage thing).

Glasreo and I have been doing a lot of in-person reiki recently, so if you are in the DC/MD/VA area and would like that thing, send us an email, please!  We can travel nights and weekends traffic permitting, but there’s no travel charge if you come to us (obviously).

 

Things in the works:

  • Probably more blogs on reiki adventures.  There are so many I could type up!
  • More tarot spreads in the shop for specific themes, like Spirit Communication, Deity Identification, etc (if you have a suggestion, please leave a comment below!)
  • Probably a Celtic Cross Spread because people seem to expect it
  • I’m getting pretty damn good with runes and as soon as I finish my current course of study, rune pulls will probably be up in the shop…
  • I’m starting to learn Ogham and Lenormand, because one can never learn too many forms of divination, right?  (Right!)
  • Glasreo is working on a lithomancy system of His Very Own, which is exciting, but may take a while…
  • Other stuff!  Probably!  Maybe we’ll vend a Pagan Pride Day in the fall!

A Basket Full of Updates

First, good news!  I’ve had a few Etsy sales (goodness it’s hard to start out in a crowded market), and the first three sales were people we didn’t know, yay, and also, they all left reviews, yay, and ALL THOSE REVIEWS ARE FIVE STARS, YAY!!!  Plus I have a couple more in the works, from both friends and acquaintances.  I’ve been running a tumblr coupon sale for 10% off, but so far I’ve only had one bite on that, and none of my promotion posts have gotten many notes.  I’ve got about 125 followers, but it really takes a few reblogs before a post takes off, and that hasn’t happened.  Probably I’d have better luck trying to circulate a layout post with my shop info on it, but I’ve not yet tried that.  (Also, for any blog readers who want the coupon, it’s “TUMBLWEEN”, and it’s good through November 5th.

Second, less-good news: we have not been accepted into the Gryphon’s Grove classes we applied to.  However, that was one path of many, and we are not discouraged.  Caroline Kenner did divination to select her students, and this class is not meant to have us in it.  Perhaps that’s for the better, though, as I still have a mental block about the term “shamanism” and I may not have been ready for the work (under that heading, I mean – I’m more than ready to meet and work with new guides).  There are other methods of working with spirits for healing, however, and Gwdihŵ will continue to learn from his guides as we do reiki, and will perhaps discover more guides in the process.

Third, I’ve used some of my proceeds from the Etsy shop to purchase an Oracle Deck, which will eventually end up in the shop as well.  It’s “The Wild Wisdom of the Fairy Oracle Deck”, by Lucy Cavendish (art by Selina Fenech).  I’m going to do daily pulls for a while until I get to know it better – probably 30 days or so – before I list it, though.  So far it seems to be pretty straightforward, talkative, and encouraging!  Here are some pictures:

faery oracle faery oracle 3

Fourth, I’ve been looking at threads and cord for the beads I posted about ages ago, and I’ve finally found one I like.  I ordered it and it arrived a week or so ago.  I’ve been playing with single strand or double strand, and different kinds of knotting between the beads, and I think I’ve found a knotting style I like… which means now all I need are some findings, and I can start putting beaded devotional jewelry in my shop!  I’ve been working a little bit on design, too, and as I finish items I will likely be posting them here.  But here’s a picture with all the different kind of knots, made with some loose beads (the knots I like best are the ones on that bottom strand, double overhand):

bead knotting

Fifth, I’m leading my first group ritual on October 25th!  It’s a Kemetic execration rite, honoring Bast and Sekhmet as the Eyes of Ra.  I’ve written up most of the prayers and outline, and I’ll post it here when finished.  I’m a little nervous, but I’ve got some good people as part of the ritual team, and I think the work we’re doing is really necessary for this time of year. Hopefully everything will go as planned, or as close to that as possible!

And that’s it for your pile of updates!

~Réaltán