 The leader of the free world just signed an order stopping funding to global reproductive health services. The world quickly, in the strike of a pen, is a lot less free.
Given the marches at the weekend this feels like revenge and a cold show of power... Which coming from the leader of the 'free' world, is terrifying. I mean, just look at all those smug white dudes (see link below). I believe this is about control and returning to the 'great' aspects of the world pre-feminism. As in dudes ruled the world and Women stayed the fuck out, busy with the kids they had to have because they didn't have access to education about options. This is The Emperor (my least favourite tarot card) gone mad. Based on fear, but fuelled by mania, lust for power and a mythological preference for a previous time / gender. Because of this millions of Women, globally, internationally, everywhere, will have less access to family planning options. This isn't politics, this is man against woman. This is a big heavy boot striking with force. This cannot stand. Read this... http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ann-furedi/global-gag-donald-trump-abortion_b_14354162.html?utm_hp_ref=uk Dirty & Divine, a transformational journey through tarot is on resale this week! Preorder to receive a free gift and a personal invite to an online party!
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 These Women's Marches have had me thinking. I am in great awe at the power represented by the unity of Women, and men, against what they perceive as an infringement of their beings...
We have a legacy to create and a world to fix. It's not so simple as a 'decent' life. Many of us in the western world have a decent life. It's more. It's bringing back the intuition, the magic, the innate power of empathy and love and nurture. These things are not just Womens. They are all of ours. And the lack of them leads to this... A place where poverty, violence, addiction and fear thrive, even in the successful. A poverty of spirit. A fear laden understanding of every goddamned day. A violent reproach to those who seem different or lack the fundamentals of what we see as 'us'. And religion won't fix it for that is often too strictly plumbed into the agenda. Politics feeds it for votes. What will help then? Spirit. Unity. Individuals Seeing each other and accepting. Trusting our own spirit as opposed to a holy one. Becoming fraught with our frustrations and acting on them. Seeking peace yet speaking loudly. Trusting a pattern. In our lives. In a bigger picture. In the signs. In connection. Looking beyond the prison of our bodies as society captures them and seeking something 'more' that echoes through synchronicity and luminous gut feeling. Because anyone can ignore you. But you mustn't ignore yourself. Herein lays the answer. And all that anyone can do. Hear your heart. Act on it. Call your goddess home. Love. Trust. Surrender. Be. Image by Alice Grist Dirty & Divine, A Transformational Journey Through Tarot is released in March!  Dirty & Divine, my new book, is a journey. You work your way through a tarot card a day and the result is, well, for me it was explosive, transformational, beautiful, chaotic, difficult and at the same time, much needed. Dirty & Divine is an inclusive and intuitive approach to tarot. Not one based on fortune telling, but on change rendered up by self reflection and the story the cards allow you to live. It makes you see yourself. In ways all new. It is powerful. My example is documented throughout alongside a powerful introductory section that brings you the cards in a new light.
I didn't want to write a tarot book. I resisted it for years. But I am so glad that I did write it. Those 78 slivers of card have taken me on the most tremendous trip. The things that nearly stopped me from writing Dirty & Divine, is the perception of tarot. I don't want to be seen as a fortune teller. It isn't my thing, it is not how I read the cards. The cards for me are a tool towards a spiritual self. They help you connect with your inner world, your spiritual world. They highlight your life in radical ways. They show you who you are, without telling you what to do. That is how I read and approach them. Tarot are my objective best friend. I hope that by the time you have read the book and / or attended the workshop, you will be as adoring of them as I am! There is power in the cards, or rather, in you, and the cards help raise it up. Come to my workshops to find out more... And next it is your turn... Dirty & Divine Workshops now taking bookings, click for more details... 11th March Southwood Stores near Milton Keynes - easy access from London by train and motorway. 18th March Buddhist House, Narborough, Leicestershire. Train, car and bus accessible.  To celebrate the March launch of Dirty & Divine I am currently planning two book launch workshops! Meet with me, learn about tarot, open to your intuition and eat chocolate! Attendees at each event will receive a signed copy of Dirty & Divine!
Southwood Stores Milton Keynes 11th March 10am - 12.30 - A particularly intimate and small group event is planned at this special venue. Meditation, tarot exercises and guidance for undertaking your Dirty & Divine journey will all form part of the session. Of course you also receive a signed copy of the book and there will be chocolate! Any level of tarot understanding is welcome! Click here for more information and to book. Leicestershire Workshop Event - Being planned. Check back soon for details and booking.  Today let's start with The Death Card. Cue dark and forboding music playing in your head... The reason I choose Death to start with is because it is the card that frightens most people off from ever getting involved in the tarot. So I will start by saying this. Tarot reflect life. They do not cause it. You cause it. You make choices. You have free will. You and all of us have little deaths happening every day. From the last time you had a full on hair cut, to the time your beloved Grandma died. It is all a spectrum of death that is real, that happens each moment, and that can be powerful when we align with it. I've been reading cards for 28 years. Never once has the Death card predicted an actual death. I am aware of one instance where it is claimed that a woman pulled the death card, and then, a whole year later, she died. This came to me through third party hearsay. And I call a little bit of bullshit on it. Not because it isn't true. Like I said, the cards reflect life, and death is a part of life. But it is bullshit because it is scaremongering. It doesn't show the truth and it doesn't give hope. And Tarot, in my world, always give hope. Let me say it again. The cards do not make events happen. No slip of paper, no piece of card, no divine ass playing card pack ever made a person die. However. People do die. Get your head around that. It's something we don't often let ourselves think on. So when Death peeks out in a tarot reading we get all angsty and freak. But that's because we are thinking the worst... When in fact, Death, in all it's kaleidescopic meaning, can be a rather wonderful thing. The Death card, is shot through with amazing and positive vibes. Should we choose to engage with them. On a very simple level. Death is an ending. It is the rotten parts of life dropping away. It is leaving shitty situations. It is jacking in that job you hate. It is closing the door upon one verison of you and opening to a better, happier version of you. Death is, nothing to be scared of. Honest it's not. Here are some more reasons why. Death is a gift. Check the card out properly. It's not just a skeleton dude wielding a scythe. There is so much more. There is light and dark. There are jewels and blessings and gifts. Now think on your last big death. Your last big ending. What did it bring? When that job / relationship / friendship ended. Yes it may have been hellish. But what beauty and understanding did it bring to your door? If it hadn't ended, where would you be now? Rotting and groaning under the weight of something that needed to pass you by I imagine! Death will bring you to your knees. But it has its purpose, its victories. It is a metaphor for every ending you have ever experienced. and yes, occassionally it means that an actual death has occurred. And that too, is a gift. Because within the death of those we know and love, we might find wisdom, truth and become closer to our humanity. The cards didn't cause it, life in its effervescent perverseness did. Here is one of the biggest lessons of the tarot. We are mortal. We are divinity sitting within human flesh. We can end, much like the mini events of our lives. But with Tarot in our hand we sit closer to spirit. When we convene with the divine, then we know that perhaps death, actual physical death, is just another transition, like all the others. So that is why I am warm to the death card. Not because it predicts finality and the END. But because it proposes a life beyond each and every death. Be that a life beyond your current circumstance or a life beyond your current skin. When you open to a Dirty & Divine understanding of life, of spirit, of tarot, the death card becomes a beautiful promise rather than a threat... Dirty & Divine is the new book by Alice B Grist and is published in March 2017 by Womancraft Publishing. Sign up to Alice's Newsletter to be the first to know about preordering and to get regular spiritual insight and guidance to your inbox... |