The Online Course Shedding Light on Your Karma & Dharma in Vedic Astrology is now available and is the first of what I hope to be several Mini-Courses!
In this course, Shedding Light on Your Karma & Dharma in Vedic Astrology we will first cover some of the foundational knowledge needed to read a birth chart, including: The Planets, The Signs, and The Houses. Then we will look at the indicators of Karma & Dharma while asking questions such as:
I am also offering my online tarot course, Exploring the Symbolic Language of the Tarotfor only $11 (usually $88) until May 1st for those who have lots of extra time and a limited budget during these times. Use the coupon code FREETIME at checkout. Learn more here!
More than a few times I’ve been asked, “Is The Medieval Sigils Tarot really Tarot?” and many have asked for a little more information or a key for deciphering the sigils and symbols in Sigilla Mediaevalia, The Medieval Sigils Tarot. This deck was created as an abstract Tarot deck. It does follow the system of Tarot, but it has no words, people, or images…just the sigils and symbols. From the Little White Book:
One day I wondered if I could create a truly abstract tarot deck, one with no words nor with images of people, animals, or nature. One that utilized only symbols, but not just symbols or signs that we could easily intellectually and consciously compute, such as the “?” symbol means a question. Rather my vision was to create a tarot deck of abstract symbols to motivate us to tap into our intuition and into the mysterious depths of our psyches, the subconscious.
I knew from the beginning that this deck would be a challenging one to work with, but I also chose not to put card meanings in the Little White Book (LWB), nor write an extensive guidebook, because that would take away from the experience, the inner exploratory experience, of working with something abstract. However, for those curious about getting The Medieval Sigils Tarot and to help work with the deck, I will share as well as add some helpful links and expand a bit upon what I did explain in the LWB as a Key to The Medieval Sigils Tarot:
The Major Arcana
I also did not want to put words on the cards, including the names of the 22 major arcana, in order to avoid intellectual distraction, though as you work with a card it will be normal for terms and textbook meanings that you have learned and associate with the cards to come to mind. See these as keys to open subconscious doors.
The sigils for the major arcana were created from their astrological rulership, their elemental associations, and the first letters of the essence words with either the Latin or Greek alphabet. The major arcana cards are titled with Roman numerals only.
Here is a talk I gave on Tarot & Its Astrological Associations:
The Minor Arcana
The sigils for the minor arcana pip cards, those numbered 1-10, were created from their astrological correspondences or the astrological decan associations, their elemental associations, and the first letters of the essence words. For the 4 suits of the minor arcana, I chose, or more like was inspired and guided, to use a different script or alphabet for each one. They are as follows:
The Ogham script for the Earth (traditional Pentacles) suit.
The Runes for the Water (Cups) suit.
The Alphabet of the Magi for the Fire (Wands) suit.
The Angelic Script for the Air (Swords) suit.
The Ogham is a Medieval script, usually used to write in Irish, and the letters are associated with trees. Hence I chose Ogham for Earth/Pentacles.
The Runes are said to have been discovered by the Norse god, Odin, while he was hanging from Yggdrasil, The World Tree. The myth of hanging Odin reminds me of the symbolism of the major arcana card, The Hanged Man, which is ruled or associated with Neptune and the water element. Hence I chose the Runes for Water/Cups.
The Alphabet of the Magi is attributed to either Paracelsus or Theseus Ambrosius, and it is said to have come from/been channeled from Archangel Raphael. It is a Hebrew/Semitic-based alphabet. Because Magi are wisemen, who oftened carried staffs (or magician’s wands), I chose this alphabet for Fire/Wands.
The Angelic Script, also called the Celestial Alphabet, was a language and writing system developed by ancient scholars (possibly Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa) to study and communicate with angels or the ethereal, angelic realm. Hence I chose this script for Air/Swords.
The minor arcana cards are titled with Roman numerals and the corresponding alchemical elemental symbol for each suit.
Alchemical Elemental Symbols
The court cards, traditionally the Page, Knight, Queen, and King, were created similarly but with seasonal correlations also used for the Pages and Queens. The Queens are associated with the cardinal signs of the zodiac, the signs that mark the beginning of each season at the solstices and equinoxes. The Page of the same suit as a Queen carries the energy of the preceding cross-quarter point, since Pages are messengers and seeds of something new coming. For example, the Queen of Cups is associated with cardinal water, the sign of Cancer, which begins on the Summer Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, and thus I have assigned the Page of Cups with Beltane, the celebration of early summer.
The court cards are titled with Roman numerals: xi for Pages, xii for Knights, xiii for Queens, xiv for Kings, and the corresponding alchemical elemental symbol for each suit.
Introducing The Vedic Astrology Cards, two sister decks: The Vedic Astrology Oracle and The Vedic Astrology Study Deck. Both decks are based upon Vedic Astrology or Jyotisha, and the cards include the Planets, the Zodiac Signs, the Houses, and the Nakshatras or Lunar Mansions. The Study Deck has 61 cards, and the Vedic Astrology Oracle has 64 cards. The Little White Book that comes with both decks includes suggestions for use, study, and spreads.
The three extra cards in The Vedic Astrology Oracle represent the energies of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, who are not traditionally a part of Vedic Astrology, and so are not in the Study Deck. Here is the excerpt of my interpretation of these energies from the Little White Book:
In addition, The Oracle has 3 cards for the planets: Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto… Here are my interpretations for them in this deck:
• Uranus represents a sudden energy or force, igniting change and shaking things up, bringing in creation. I associate Uranus with Brahma, the creator god’s energy, and the Big Bang.
• Neptune represents nurturing, supportive, and stabilizing energy, like amniotic fluid. It maintains, holds, and preserves, and so I associate Neptune with Vishnu, the preserver god’s energy.
• Pluto represents the end and limit of our solar system. Connected with the Underworld in modern astrology, it also represents the dissolving of that which has run its course, so that it can be turned into, be recycled, into the new. I associate Pluto with the energy of Shiva, the destroyer god.
To purchase The Vedic Astrology Study Deck, click here!
To purchase The Vedic Astrology Oracle, click here!
UPDATE February 18, 2020: I’ve discovered that I could re-submit the files for the book, so the Sun in Capricorn section has been added to the print and the kindle/e-book, as well as a few typos corrected! Hurray for digital self-publishing!
It has come to my attention that in my latest book, Shedding Light on Jyotisha, Vedic Astrology for Beginners, 2nd Expanded Edition, the Sun in Capricorn description in the chapter on the Signs or Rashis was accidentally left out. I want to thank my friend Diane of Indigo Moon Woman for pointing this out. It was in the 1st edition, so a clerical/re-writing/editing error on my part. 🤷🏻♀️
Here is the full section for Capricorn, The Rashi of Makara, with the Sun in Capricorn Addendum:
Capricorn, The Rashi of Makara
Capricorn is the tenth sign of the zodiac. In the West Capricorn is represented by a goat with a fish tail, but Makara actually means crocodile, an animal that is equally comfortable on land and in water. Both symbols speak to the stage of life and of the spiritual path where one is still living in the material world on earth but also submerging consciousness into the watery depths of both the subconscious and the unconscious realm of the sea of the Universe. Under the influence of Capricorn, one may feel disillusioned with material matters and overburdened with responsibilities, but still dutiful.
Ruled by Saturn
Element of Earth
Cardinal Sign
Symbols: Goat-fish & Crocodile
Mars exalted in Capricorn
Jupiter debilitated in Capricorn
Ascendant in Capricorn indicates one who is very hard-working, steady, has a strong sense of duty, and often is rigid in their ways.
Moon in Capricorn indicates one who is emotionally stubborn yet sensitive and loyal. Capricorn Moons can also be self-sacrificing, rebellious of traditions or of change, and at times feel depressed, though this may be their path to connect deeper to their Higher Self.
Sun in Capricorn indicates one who deeply wants to activate and deal with past, accumulated karma. This can evoke many unusual and problematic events and hardships in one’s life, but the soul’s goal is to learn the karmic lessons so it can move quickly towards awareness to shine its inner light upon all the practical matters of physical life.
Shedding Lighton Jyotisha explains the fundamentals for learning astrology in general, Vedic Astrology specifically, and how to read a birth chart for insights and guidance for our lives. The 2nd Expanded Edition has been re-written for greater ease of use as a reference tool, and it now includes informational charts and three sample celebrity birth chart interpretations: Prince, Karen Carpenter, and Marilyn Monroe.
The Introduction from Shedding Light on Jyotisha:
I began studying Jyotisha, or Vedic Astrology, after getting a reading from a friend of mine in 2004, but my interest in astrology began as a young child through reading the horoscopes in the newspaper with my grandmother and with my friends. In college in the 1990’s I often let myself get distracted from studying by browsing through the astrology books in the bookstores and libraries. But this reading in 2004 was my first exposure to the light of Jyotisha, which means the science or study of the heavenly bodies, of the stars, or of light. I was immediately drawn to studying it, immersing myself into the few books I found at the nearby esoteric bookstore.
There were so many new concepts to learn, such as Nakshatras, and gunas, and dashas, and divisional charts, and all the Hindu mythology! Some things I was already familiar with from studying yoga and healing modalities, including some Ayurveda, the traditional medicine of India, and though I also had an academic background in the ancient languages, mythology, and symbolism of the classical Greek, Roman, and Egyptian worlds, the Sanskrit terminology and mythological references made studying Vedic Astrology as a beginner a bit overwhelming at times, to say the least.
Though there are many very good beginning-level Vedic Astrology books out there, I wanted to put together something a little less complicated for the very beginner to astrology and for those coming from a Western Astrology background. In Shedding Light in Jyotisha you will find the basic information and knowledge needed to read a birth or natal chart, which is the foundation needed for further study into Vedic Astrology, if one so chooses.
An Abbreviated Table of Contents:
What Is Vedic Astrology or Jyotisha, including The Sidereal & Lunar Zodiacs
The Nine Planets, The Grahas
The Twelve Zodiac Signs, The Rashis, including The Four Elements & The Three Characteristics
The Twelve Houses, The Bhavas, including The House Types & The Four Motivations
The Twenty-seven Lunar Mansions, The Nakshatras, including The Three Guna Qualities
Announcing my fourth (wow, really?!) deck creation: Sigilla Mediaevalia, The Medieval Sigils Tarot, a hand-painted 78 card Tarot deck!
The tarot is a system of ancient knowledge, wisdom, and archetypes spoken through the language of symbols: of numbers, of elements, of astrology, and of pictures. Symbols, archetypes, and wisdom in essence are abstract, meaning they exist as ideas, thoughts, or concepts, but do not have a physical or concrete existence. Tarot cards, therefore, can be seen as concrete representations of abstract knowledge.
Sigilla Mediaevalia, The Medieval Sigils Tarot, is a hand-painted 78 card Tarot deck, conceived and created as a truly abstract Tarot deck. To work with this deck, we must allow ourselves to read the cards subconsciously to bring what we need to know at a given time to our conscious awareness.
Whenever we speak of [symbols] we move in a world of images that point to something ineffable. We do not know how clear or unclear these images, metaphors, and concepts are in respect of their transcendental object…there is no doubt that there is something behind these images that transcends consciousness.Carl Jung
The Maiden, Mother, Crone Cycle is something I’ve been pondering about lately. Well, not just lately, but much more lately since I recently turned 45, the age where I am officially middle-aged. (See Wikipedia definition – Middle Age). With a not-yet-two-year-old toddler running around, it’s strange to think that I am what many consider in the crone stage in a woman’s life cycle. Yet motherhood in middle age has made me think a lot about that whole Maiden, Mother, Crone Cycle, and if it necessarily is or needs to be or ever is a linear cycle.
Thinking back through my life, even back to childhood, I often, possibly always, expressed aspects of all three stages. I’ve been the Maiden: young, youthful/athletic, child-less. I’ve been the Mother/Nurturer: to countless pets, to my own mother, and now to my own child. I’ve been the Crone: an “adult” child, an old soul, and now in age.
Chronologically and if we follow societal traditions, it does seem like the three stages of a woman’s life cycle (I do believe men have similar stages too.) go in order: 1) our childhood and young adulthood, 2) married life and motherhood, and 3) empty nest, grandkids, and retirement. On the surface many woman follow this cycle because it is after all a natural cycle – a cycle of nature. However, as I’ve looked back over my life and the lives of others, either under the surface or on the surface for the more unconventional personalities, we live all aspects of the Maiden, Mother, Crone Cycle in some way and in different ways throughout our lives.
Dreams of Gaia Tarot
Dreams of Gaia Tarot
Dreams of Gaia Tarot
And what is age? It is the process of going through time, through the ages, changing and growing through time, and as most would say, becoming older. It is interesting how we/modern society have broken down or categorized the life stages by age: 1-20/25 as youth, 20/25-40/45 as adulthood, 40/45-60/65 as middle age (or over-the-hill to some), and then 60/65 and onwards as just plain old. Though there are definitely changes in physiology that occur over time, aka as we age, we do not need to let these numbers define every aspect of our identity and our existence at any age. We can be youthful or playful while being care-takers and bread-winners while connecting to our wisdom developed over time and sharing it with others.
And so I sit with and meditate upon and work with integrating more deeply all the many aspects of the Maiden, Mother, and Crone within myself, and I hope you will too. Life is both too short and oh-so-very long to limit ourselves by a number and a label.
Children’s Tarot, For the Young and the Young at Heart
Children’s Tarot is a modern tarot deck designed to make tarot fun and accessible for children, for young adults, and for those who are young at heart.
It is a major arcana only deck, consisting of all 22 cards, which is both learnable and manageable for both children and adolescents. I have re-named the cards and given simple explanations with keywords in the Guidebook & Coloring Book to help make it fun to learn and relatable to the day-to-day life of children and young adults.
The companion Children’s Tarot Guidebook & Coloring Book provides simple suggestions for using and reading the cards as well as 22 Insights into the Cards and Their Meanings: short card descriptions with keywords and an inspiring or thought-provoking quote that relates to each card. And then, of course, there are coloring pages for each of the cards and a few pages for journaling, notes, and insights.
The Children’s Tarot Guidebook & Coloring Book is a guide and tool for exploring and understanding the Children’s Tarot through both journaling and art.
As many of you know, I originally was working on an online Guided Meditation Course for The Fine Lines, but as I worked on writing the prompts, I felt it would be better to re-write them for a workbook that anyone can purchase and create some free guided meditations that will be posted on my Youtube channel in the coming months. Subscribe and follow my YouTube channel if you are interested in getting notifications of when those are posted.
My intention for these meditation cards is that they inspire us to grow as we contemplate on the subtle, yet profound, differences in ways of thinking, feeling, and being. By spending time meditating, contemplating, and journaling on these fine lines, we embark on a journey of self-discovery that can lead us from conditional living to intentional living.
Traversing The Fine Lines, The Workbook, with meditation & journaling prompts to journey with, through, across, and between The Fine Lines, can be purchased here.
The Fine Lines (blank) Journal can be purchased here.
The Fine Lines Meditation Cards can be purchased here.
I had one of those strange dreams last night, the kind where it seems to be a mishmash of all sorts of experiences, a combination of waking life experiences and dreamworld created experiences. I know from my years of dream journaling and exploring and studying the psyche that this dream was what I call an anxiety dream, dreams which aren’t necessarily part of a deep healing or other process within the subconscious, but one about current stresses and problems. As I journaled and reviewed my dream, I clearly understood what it was about, namely finding balance in waking life:
I’m walking home from the bus station in San Francisco in a hurry. I pass by a shop I remembered (does not exist in waking life) that I used to enjoy browsing through. I briefly think about stopping in, but I don’t. I’m on a mission. I’m home in Santa Barbara, my current home but different. I’ve decided to color my hair and am rushing putting the dye in, so much so, I don’t even protect my skin or clothing. I’m just trying to get it done. It starts burning my skin, and so I get in the shower to wash it all off. I hear people enter the home. It’s two men, robbers. I’m concerned but not scared. One seems to be focused on looking for something and ignores me. The other wants to have a conversation. The “robbers” don’t even seem to care when I call 911. I tell the operator what’s happening, and she asks for my address. I tell her I live on Tamas Lane, though I know it’s something else. Then I tell her Tamas is wrong, and I live on Mission Arajas.
I can’t stop smiling at how clearly my subconscious is pointing out to my conscious mind what it already knows but really needs to pay more attention to: finding balance! In my dream I’m rushing, in a hurry, trying to get stuff done, and ignoring slowing down, enjoying things, and pausing even just to have a nice conversation. The “robbers” are aspects of me, masculine energy: doing, action, “on a mission,” etc. And yet, one of them tries to get me to stop and talk. This completely reflects my very busy life of being a full-time mommy, doing client sessions and readings, working on multiple books and deck projects, and maintaining my YouTube channel with a little social media on the side. But honestly I have so much creative energy flowing through me, I just want to work, work, work, i.e. create, create, create as much as I can.
I am full of “doing energy,” but I have also been aware that I need to make sure I have enough slow, restful, rejuvenating down time, besides my meditation time before bed and the occasional family outing. This is something I’ve been trying to figure out and manage quite a bit lately, and my dream is reminding me that if I try to rush through things, things go wrong, which takes more time, which slows things, which takes away time for more balance.
The most beautiful part of this dream is the street names. They blatantly spoke to me of this need to find more balance between slowing down and busily creating and doing. They are named for two of the three gunas, or constituents of Prakriti: Tamas is the guna quality of inertia, slowness, sluggishness, and rest, and Rajas is the guna quality of action, passion, and energy. In my dream I am rushing away from slowing down for fear of being inert or not getting things done. I don’t (want to) live on Tamas Lane, and though my mission is to be busily doing, my subconscious gave me another message to make it my mission to find more down time when I stated I lived on Mission Arajas: A- (not) Rajas.
This image of the Buddha entangled in the banyan tree roots is what came to mind as I journaled about this dream. It comes from The Chrysalis Tarot – the Three of Spirals (Wands) card. The number three represents creative energy and growth, and the Wands or fire suit represents passion, energy, and action. Yet, the Buddha figure is being devoured by all of this creative action. Roots move slowly, you can call them tamasic, but in time and with time they form a strong, nourishing foundation for the growth and continuous creative production of the tree. Tamas and Rajas in balance.
It has come to my attention that in my latest book, 
Shedding Light on Jyotisha
I had one of those strange dreams last night, the kind where it seems to be a mishmash of all sorts of experiences, a combination of waking life experiences and dreamworld created experiences. I know from my years of dream journaling and exploring and studying the psyche that this dream was what I call an anxiety dream, dreams which aren’t necessarily part of a deep healing or other process within the subconscious, but one about current stresses and problems. As I journaled and reviewed my dream, I clearly understood what it was about, namely finding balance in waking life:
Through the Peacock's Eyes 