A busy week: interesting manuscripts, Zooms, meet-ups, Space Crones, wild poets, wild dancers, old friends, decompressing last weekend’s workshop on tarot for writers in Hastings, thinking towards the next workshop on revising. Plus library books, libraries, bookshops – and a book barge!

Also very excited to see discussions in the George Saunders Story Club about ‘The Child’, a story I recommended – it’s sooooo wonderful to see so many readers discovering and appreciating the writing of my dearly beloved teacher Bobbie Louise Hawkins.

And now the Equinox has arrived, and I vowed to blog quarterly, so here we are. But what among the many things whirling in my head this week should I blog about?

Easy, really. What I need among all the busy is a good exercise in slowing down and going deep and finding focus.

As a writing experiment: draw a tarot card, and consider what it means for you and your writing. A prompt: This card means … It can really help to get your thoughts down on the page; just ten minutes of writing can bring great clarity.

If you want to get fancy, as I just did, pull three cards from three different decks. (Because you do have more than one deck, right?!) And of course there’s nothing special to read into the fact that two of my cards were the same, right?!

Something I’m contemplating in my interpretation of today’s picks, based on a recent desire to think more about the powers of the numbers rather than specific imagery: adjusting and adapting (Fives) in the world of words (Swords) (times two!). And that centre card: manifesting and getting things in order (Fours) in creative matters (Wands). What does all that amount to? These cards mean …

Also: don’t freak out if you get one of the scary cards. I guess it could mean you’re going to break your wrist or something [insert Scream emoji], but those cards are usually opportunities to think about things we avoid.

I mean, here is one beautiful way to think about one of those scary things from Sherman Alexie on Substack (don’t think he used tarot to write this poem, but).

If you don’t have a deck, try Serennu or randomtarotcard.com (which seems to do only Majors).

If you want a good tarot reference: Joan Bunning’s website lists some of the conventional associations based on the Smith Rider Waite deck; I use her book Learning the Tarot often. Another ebook I carry with me all the time is Tarot For Change – Jessica Doré always comes up with fresh and insightful interpretations, especially in ways that upturn conventional good/bad associations of cards. Because good/bad are often just different ways of looking at the same, and we need to be reminded of that if we are to avoid blame and hurtfulness.

Also, a reminder: that next workshop is running with Words Away at the Phoenix Garden in London’s West End on 14 October 2023: The Four Elements of Revising: Become Your Own Best Editor. My Four Elements practice began with tarot, which might come up in discussion there too. We shall be focusing on craft and practice and ways to empower you to finish your book, and – if desired! – send it out into the world. Yes – let’s become our own best editors.

Also, in case you’re wondering: the decks left to right above are the Marseille by Alexandre Jodorowsky and Philippe Camoin, the Smith Rider Waite, and the Visconti. And the other two photos are taken by my husband.