Of shadows and corners

It’s day number I’m not sure when everything closed down, I’ve always worked from home but now it’s with my partner and child present, which makes for interesting work times. While home, and separated from regular weekend adventures with others and at the beach, we’ve been taking mostly daily walks around our neighborhood. Which has become its own sort of medicine for the things that circulate around me, us, my thoughts, and everything that’s currently happening on the “world stage.”

During these walks, I’ve run some in empty parking lots with my son, climbed over tree roots and sat down by their shade to watch the clouds moving and the birds flying about and chattering away. I’ve made petitions to hidden spirits by certain spots, admired the Cathedral that sits just outside my front door, saddened by its closed doors in a way that can’t be put into words. Maybe it’s more melancholy at the quietude of it all. Everything stands still, and people drive by covered in their masks and wearing their gloves, apart.

I’ve lived and breathed and done all right during this time, with my morning rituals of prayer, keeping the candle lit, regularly fumigating the house with fragrant vapors, shuffling and reading the cards, playing with my son, talking and touching my partner, cooking, meditating, stretching and standing before the sun to let its rays prepare me for the day ahead. During all this living I’ve been reconnecting with that persistent notion of mine that magic/enchantment (whatever you want to call it, awakening to the animate world around us) begins with the self immersed in land, in the landscape, with locality and relation, with perception and awareness. I can brazenly admit that all this “isolation” time has brought all these notions home. I live them, have lived them, and continue to do so.

I was recently inspired by Gordon White’s podcast where he interviewed Darragh Mason Field, professional photographer and author. I felt moved to more purposefully engage with the beauty of the everyday, the elegance of the quotidian. A form of this everyday engaging turned into spontaneous photographs. The excellent interview can be enjoyed here: Talking Place, Travel, and Photography with Darragh Mason Field. 

Because of this inspiration, I’m sharing some of the spontaneous shots taken during my daily walks, as well as in my house. Keep in mind I’m no photographer, just a person that enjoys looking and appreciates beauty. These are all local, some edited but most are raw. These images form a part of my thinking, those notions circling around me and our home at the moment. There are shadowed corners, green leaves, blue skies, crossed lines, winding ways, the juxtaposition of empty and full.

This experience has shown me that there is always beauty, there is continuance and endurance wherever I look. I am beginning to understand that hope and joy is a thing we bring into our life, a choice, we embrace and play with daily, in our habitual doings and seeings.

On another note, it would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are a few sore spots in all this, one is that my face to face divination readings have been reduced to null, and my house gatherings, misas and veladas have ceased to happen. My spiritual house has gone on pause while we all learn to fall into the rhythm of what this moment demands of our bodies.

With the walking and thinking I’ve been participating in, I’ve arrived at the resolution that I want to re-open my virtual tarot shop. I’ve done just that about a week or so ago. Much has remained the same, I offer the same reading spreads, the perennial Magic Square or 3×3, and the handful of cards option. The first is more involved, and the latter is straight to the point no nonsense. I’ve added my take on Crossed Cartomancy, or Cyprianic Cartomancy, which is a cross spread read with playing playing cards in a specific way. It’s a lot of fun and the good Saint approves. On the pricing front, I’ve lowered the prices from what I normally charge, thinking that I’d rather have the readings be accessible when a person comes searching. I’ve also added a video reading option which is quite new around here. I’ve even gone so far as to make an introductory video, which, I must admit, could be better but it’s a good staring point. I invite you to take a look.

With all these words shared, I do hope you’ve been keeping your self, your home, and  your loved ones, safe, sane, loved, and nurtured. And remember, this moment is also good for awareness and enchantment in the quietude.

~~~

PS. I’ve also “snuck” in a couple beach trips, because I miss the salt water and the waves too much.