Should you know better?
Sometimes in life the wisdom we have accumulated over many years, appears to vanish in one flash of madness. Our actions absolutely don't match what is, or should be, in our hearts and minds. We mess, up, we get crazy, we fail to meet the expectations we place upon ourselves. We act real, real, stupid.

Here you might find yourself asking why it is you managed to know not better. Because surely you should... Surely.

Or not...

Wisdom is magical like that. Sometimes she ducks out of the way so that you can make a great fat foul up of a situation. But the great thing about wisdom (and why she knows best) is that she can be relearned. And with each steaming mess you make, you are granted a chance to add to your accumulated wisdom, to change with it and to grow in unexpected ways. 

For life never grants us a cure, not to anything, pain, mistakes or worry. Rather, it allows you to open yourself to holding all these things in new ways, so that they become a part of you. Mistakes and whoopsies are not to shoved out, but rather, to be painted into your picture. So that you might better understand yourself. 

This week I published a rather personal and painful article on an aspect of my life, one that is prevalent in the book Dirty & Divine. It was easier to post about it, as the situation is healing. But still, it made me nervous, and a little sad, to revisit that time of my life, which was not so long ago. And that felt, at the time, like a whole bunch of mistakes. But that was brought to the fore by the Dirty & Divine journey, and as a result, opened us to a place of mending, opening and holding of a bad situation... Read it here at this link. 

The Other Half of Addiction

Did you know I am designing my own pack of tarot cards? Well, I should say 'have designed'. They are all painted up and subject to a few tweaks, are ready to go. Next I have to negotiate the world of design and printing, but after that, I hope, they can be in your hands! 

Check out glimpses of them on my Instagram and Facebook pages.

I am still offering a discount on prescription and guidance readings! So please do go order yours to help you negotiate your wisdom and mistakes! BUY HERE.

Here is one thing I firmly believe. The power to craft your life, is in your own hands. It always has been. This weekend, I was contemplating the times I have made empowering changes in my life, done things, that I perhaps, thought I couldn't. But with a lot of perseverance, inspiration and a belief in a little 'something more' that connects all things, I have set to impossible tasks and made them happen. This is true of my personal life as much as my working one. It has been an enlightenment.

You have that same power. All you need to know lays within. It always has. Utterly and totally. 

Take this as your Monday medicine. It may not be that you solve your problems or change your life overnight. But it can and will happen. And all you need do is commit to the voice of your inner world. Follow it to the ends of the earth. Know that your ambitions * passions are not a foolhardy dead end, but rather, a clue to the direction you absolutely should and can be heading in. 

One thing I have always used to connect the dots in my life plan is Tarot. Not because it gives me answers, but because it guides me gently back to purpose and path. I see it in my life, and the lives of those who read Dirty & Divine and who have a reading from me. It is not my business to tell you what to do, but rather, to let the cards speak to your soul, through me, and get things back on track.

I have reduced my prices so you can do just that... 

BUY YOUR READING HERE

Lots of Love, Alice 

"Alice Grist is absolutely amazing with her gift. I got my tarot reading done by her and it has relieved much stress! Everything about my past and present was correct, and to read about my awesome future has made me feel very satisfied. If you want a real reading I suggest you go to her. You won't regret it!" Judi Jai (Reality TV personality - Bad Girls Club & Battle of The Ex Besties) June 2015

"Both were so amazing. The reading was breathtaking & I'm reading Dirty & Divine daily and I love, love, Love it!" Lucy, Rock & Raw Jewellery.

OPENING THE BOX... 

There is something sacred within you that requires your attention. It is undulating beneath your flesh, asking you to look, pleading with you to see, to feel, to be. You might journey to Bali, take up yoga, or chant your way towards it. You could breathe deeply and determine the edges of it shifting somewhere just below your ribs. On occasion you may feel it tickling your third eye or hear it stirring somewhere around your heart. It may pop up in the corner of your eye, in the lilt of a child’s voice calling your name, in the love you make, in the strategies you employ just to survive.
 
There is something sacred within you, in all that you are and all that you do. In the mix of you that is both dirty, and equally divine, there are sacred bones, sacred desires, sacred flesh. Welcome to your journey home. To your sacred, dirty, divine passage back to you.
 
This journey happens through cards. Tarot cards.

Are tarot your dirty little secret? Or divine slivers of card that you refer to when life gets difficult or decisions loom? Do you take pleasure in reading them yourself or have you preferred, until now, to keep the cards at arms’ length, safely in the hands of another: a professional, a bearded lady in a booth by the sea? Or perhaps you have been curious, but too scared by their reputation, to explore tarot. Maybe this is the first time you are daring to take them into your own hands.

Wherever you are, whether beginner or seasoned tarot practitioner, Dirty & Divine is written for you, to accompany you on a powerful personal intuitive journey to plumb the depths of your existence and encompass the spectrum of wisdom that the cards can offer.

Take your cards into your hands, sniff them long and hard, take their scent inside. Shuffle them religiously, hold them to your heart. Ask them, as if they were the middleman to your soul, if they’d like to take a journey with you. A journey past the purposes of divination, a quest deeper than a simple spread. Ask them if they want to travel with you, on a mission beyond the shallows of daily divination, a trip to unfold and reframe your life? Turn over several cards, one, two, three… Let these speak to you. What do the images tell you? What is your first thought, what answer or question, or adventures are illustrated? What do the cards gift to you? Are they keen? Are you?
​
For, tarot are not just a set of cards full of lofty predictions and hope for a future husband or career. Tarot are a fast track to proper, hard-core self-knowledge and self-love. They are a tool for self-empowerment and inner understanding that is vastly misunderstood and underrated. They hold you in high esteem, recognising that you, the life you live, are worthy of sacred understanding, especially the dirty bits. In fact, it is in the dirty, filthy, human aspects, that you will find your juiciest divinity and most soulful education.
 
Tarot can lift you high above the grounded, earthly version of you and help you to hear the voices of ancestors, understand the spirits of the universe and maintain some personal power in a world in which that can be very challenging.
 
The power that tarot possess does not come from the cards, which are really just bits of paper with pretty pictures, but rather from the faith you learn to have in yourself as a conductor of life’s magic. With tarot in your hands, and a good honest intent, faith in something ‘more’ and a smile on your face, you can become the Magician or High Priestess of your life. And it is from this point that this book will progress.
 
Dirty & Divine is a trip to your soul. It asks you to ponder and plunder your life for evidence of all that you are. The spectrum of you, from dirt accumulating under your nails, to the divine lurking in the flash of your glimmering gaze. This journey is the path of all women. The Dirty & Divine journey will elucidate your understanding of you, it will be an intimate illumination of life and an expansion of your world view.
 
All of this can be garnered from a pack of cards, should you invoke and intend it. These are kindle to your sorceress’ fire as you burn through the version of self prescribed from without, and embrace a potent stirring within. This first half of Dirty & Divine pokes at that, burrowing into your intent and shuffling it closer to the surface. Scratching gently at the potential expansion the cards can offer.
 
Everything goes in this journey: you are utterly empowered to feel and experience whatever you like and to interpret it within your own realm of being. Your dirty and your divine heights and depths will be engaged in new powerful ways. We will vanquish all your constructs and get fat with self-love, sacred femininity and intuitive knowing. You will be challenged too. Don’t expect this to be all angels and unicorns. It may well be hard. You may see things about yourself, about others, that you had hidden or managed to ignore. The tarot are a mirror, remember. They show utter truth. Be ready for that. Be ready for rainbows… and rain.
 
My journey as recorded within these pages, is some company for you. It keeps things real and acts as just one example. My life is that I am married, I live in middle England, I have two daughters and numerous pets. I’m an author, I read tarot, my husband is a musician. Besides our creative endeavours, we currently have day jobs. We used to be wild. Not so much these days, not so much at all. For some this may be very different to your knowing, your living. For others it may reflect your situation somewhat. It doesn’t matter. You don’t need to look or feel or be like me in any way whatsoever for this journey to be meaningful. My example is just one in a million. If nothing else I hope it will help you to see your own humanity reflected through mine. Your journey, whatever that looks like, that is where your Dirty & Divine lies.
 
I have no interest in teaching you to be psychic. What I do intend is to show you how tarot are a lovely tool of your already spiritual, already intuitive, already powerful higher self. And when you connect to your higher self, the path you take will forever be changed and blessed by something higher than a pack of beautiful cardboard. Blessed by your own forevermore, your own illusive, etheric, cosmic, everlasting wisdom and power.
 
What you are goes beyond words. If you could shine a light through your soul it would burst into a rhythm of sound, starlit answers, thunderous questions, arcing rainbows and a downpour of feelings. You are lightning and a bud bursting forth with blossom. That is why you are called to undertake this Dirty & Divine spiritual journey. So that you can marinate within it, soak alongside me and journey like a warrior fighting for her right to be what she is, to discover who she is and to spend no more time raging against what she is not and what she has become. This journey is a path back to you. Dirty you. Divine you.

How Tarot Cards Changed My Life: Read more here....
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Dirty & Divine Tarot Tips and Tarot Spreads
 
Have you ever wanted to read the cards, but where unsure where to start? This little gift from me to you will enable you to start reading and understanding the tarot cards really easily. Use it to practice your readings, to get to know tarot and to gradually progress in your understanding of your own intuition. This can be used by beginners, or by experienced readers who simply want a fresh take on their usual habits.

Use this as a quick reference, and print it out to use as a template to scribble your thoughts on for the suggested readings below.
 
Starting...

To do your own reading (or do swaps with a friend), simply set your intent to get the most positive, highest answers at this moment. Light a candle, undertake a brief meditation, set an intent, make a wish, take a deep breath and draw your attention to the moment.
 
Shuffle and split the cards, as feels natural and right for you. Then choose whichever cards you are drawn to, be they from the top, bottom or middle of the pile.
 
Top Tips on how to read the cards…
 
Trust your intuition. If a certain card makes you feel a certain way, raises a particular emotion, then write that response down. The tarot are a mirror to your inner world. Make this personal. Let each card speak to you and your experiences. If you worry about getting the ‘right’ answer from the book then you will always be second-guessing yourself. Let the cards speak to you, your life, and your experience.
 
Note down any particular color or symbol that attracts you with each card. Think about what this means to you, right now. Why did you pick up on it? If nothing springs to mind, contemplate it over the next few days. Sometimes a message will rise up right when you aren’t expecting it.
 
Know that the tarot simply reflect life, they do not cause it. As such the cards have a wealth of meaning. Seemingly ‘dark’ cards such as death or the hanged man actually have very positive meanings. For example: Death = New Life and New Beginnings. Look for the learning in each card. Do not see this as a predictive exercise, but an educational one that will help expand your understanding of self and any current situation!
 
If you become stuck and are unsure of what a card is saying then keep it out. Set up a little altar and revisit it daily. Let the card/s slowly seep into your consciousness. Keep a sharp eye on any signs that may arise in tandem that reflect the meaning of the cards. You may also notice a theme to your dreams or conversations. It is magical how tarot can almost step out from the paper and arise through many little synchronicities. Allow for that magic to happen and have faith that it is for the best and your highest purpose when it does.
 
DIY Guidance Reading
 
This reading gives you a beautiful overview of your life and all it’s facets. Pick one card for each section. Tip: print this out to make notes and to meditate upon and revisit in the future.
 
Past – one card to represent a theme or situation the past wants you to acknowledge right now.
 
 
 
 
 
Present – one card to reflect your current situation and an objective view of it.
 
 
 
 
 
Future – one card to set an intent for the future. What is the highest outcome right now? And how can you achieve this.
 
 
 
 
 
Ego – this card represents what your fear is trying to make you believe. This is an illusion and represents our worry and anxiety. It is a choice and doesn’t have to be true.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Intuition – The warm loving guidance from the sacred divine. Your own intuition. The advice your highest self wants you to hear right now.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Love life – one card to reflect your current love situation and/or how to make the most of / understand your situation right now.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Career – One card to represent your current working life, advice, guidance etc.
 
 
 

 
Health – One card to show how you can improve health or deal with arising or current health implications.
 
 

 
 
 
Family and friends – advice and guidance relating to your loved ones and your relationship with them.
 
 
 

Final Wildcard –This card will reflect wise, perhaps unexpected divine guidance for your current situation.
 
Dirty & Divine Spread
 
This is an easy to use Dirty & Divine guidance spread. You can use tarot cards, or any other guidance card pack. What matters is the intent and a willingness to focus your perception on what the cards bring about. It is very simple. Maybe do this reading in tandem with a friend so you can feed back to each other! 
 
Set the scene, listen to some soulful tunes, light a candle, burn some incense. Make the moment revelatory and ready. Shuffle your pack, thinking gently on your life and any particular situations and questions. When you feel right pick two cards and lay them face down. The left one is your 'dirty'. The right one is your 'divine'. Then pick a third and place it above. 
 
Turn them over one at a time.
 
Your Dirty... This card represents your humanity, the everyday grit that sits under your nails. The life events that irk you. The emotion of it, the fear, the feelings. All the feelings. It reflects back to you where you are at in your daily existence. 
 
Your Divine... This card is the guidance and sense that is being sent from your highest intuitive self. It reflects spiritual knowing. Perhaps what you already know, deep down. Maybe it mirrors back your own intuition. That voice, the one you keep ignoring, feel her here. 
 
These two cards may sit in opposition to each other, or they may marry and meet quite well, reflecting different aspects of your current position in life. Take some time to really connect to the images, the colors, the details. 
 
Finally. Turn over the third card. This is the card that brings your Dirty and your Divine together. It offers healing and wisdom and beyond that, probably a heap of common sense. This third card shows how you can combine your two aspects, your dirty, your humanity, and your divine, your spirit, together for the highest resolution of your current life situation. 
 
You may wish to set these cards out in a little DIY altar, alongside some crystals or a favorite image that represents your desires, and leave them in your sight line for a week or so. So that you might stew on them and allow their magic and message to infuse and altar as your days go by. Let them restore your energy and sanity as their message permeates your day! 
 
Dirty & Divine Year Ahead Reading
 
This one is easy and fun! Print off this template, make notes on it and keep it on your fridge, in your diary or on your altar for the next 12 months. Use it as an oracle as the year progresses.
 
Pick one card for your ‘Dirty’, and another for your ‘Divine’. Write down a few words that come to you as you choose each card. Then use your tarot, or another guidance card pack, to pick your ‘theme’ of the month.
 
Month 1
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 2
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 3
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 4
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 5
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 6
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 7
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 8
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 9
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 10
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 11
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:
 
Month 12
 
Dirty:
 
Divine:
 
Theme:

Daily Reading / Ask a Question
 
This is the best way to get to know the cards and can be used as frequently as you life. It is so simple.
 
Bring to mind a question or a situation. Close your eyes, gently shuffle the cards, ask for guidance.
 
When the time feels right. Stop shuffling. Cut the cards. Put the bottom stack on the top (or vice versa). Then choose the top card. This is your answer. Let this card sit with you. Place it by your bed or in your pocket. Let it’s message infuse your day. Take it into your heart and let it speak objectively.
 
You can repeat this as a daily exercise, as a simple heads up of how your day might go. And you can use it to help gently guide your thoughts and decision-making.
 
 Getting deeper...
 
I hope you enjoy these free readings and tips. If you are ready to take your journey deeper, dirtier and more divine, then order a signed copy of my new book Dirty & Divine from here...
 
Have you signed up to the Dirty & Divine facebook support page. Come and find this supportive and secret group. Connect with Alice and other Dirty & Divine readers here…

Follow me... I post a whole tonne of tarot magic and spiritual thinkings in bite sized form here...
 
Facebook: @alicebgrist
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