Still working on the ‘remembering to post this on Sunday night’ portion of the project (there is now a reminder in my Todoist).
No witchy scheduled events last week
(Medical appointment, yes, and I am still in the annoying and brain-consuming interregum of having some stuff that needs dealing with but it’s not entirely clear what the best route is, plus changing primary care doctors.
My last awesome one left the practice to go back to school in an additional speciality, and I am seeing the person she recommended at the end of the month. This would have been easier if my body hadn’t picked the last couple of months to have some mild but ongoing stuff that is not resolving easily with the first stuff we try.)
In other news
For other projects (namely my sideline writing 1920s romances with magic), the current book in editing is riffing on Tarot cards in multiple ways, and my most excellent editor (also witchy, and a long time good friend, Kiya) made really great solutions that then required me beating on the worldbuilding question “so what kind of Tarot deck imagery are they using then?”
In the process of figuring that out, I discovered that there’s a book about the Sola Busca tarot, the earliest complete surviving deck we have (it was made in Ferrara for someone in Venice and was finished around 1491), but it is a weird deck.
When I poked around for copies, I discovered that there are only about 6 copies in Worldcat (a massive shared catalog many larger libraries contribute to. 6 copies is really small.) I went off and asked my local library if I could get it through interlibrary loan. I got back a cheerful note saying they’d put the request in, it might take anywhere from a week and a half to a month to show up, they’d let me know when it did.
It showed up on Friday. And, on checking it out, I discovered I have it until mid-January (which is an absurdly long time for an interlibrary loan – often the total loan period including transit time is a month or six week.) So I can take my time with it and take lots of notes.
I spent a couple of hours with it between Saturday and Sunday (I have now read the preface, the introduction, and chapters one and two).
It did not directly solve my writing problem (it won’t fit what I need itself) but it did start to give me a model for stuff that would, and I am now rather “I accidentally an entire Tarot” about reframing some symbolism to fit other parts of the worldbuilding and back history, and our history, and I am really rather pleased with it so far. Even if it did require another solid two hours with Holistic Tarot (Benebell Wen) and Tarot Wisdom (Rachel Pollack) last night.
Also yesterday, I figured out what we’re doing for our group full moon ritual on Saturday (complicated by the fact things are still very early in Dedicant training, I’m getting over a cold, and my next week’s schedule involves a dental appointment, possible jury duty, and a much busier than usual Saturday including a work-related presentation.)
I still need to double check teaching notes, but that’s fairly straightforward this time. And I answered a question from one of my Dedicants in email.
In the next week
Thursday: Call for another current class I’m taking (and I need to remember to do my writing earlier.)
Saturday: Full moon ritual and Dedicant class.
Coming up
I have signed up for the 10th anniversary Strategic Sorcery Deep Dive class, from Jason Miller. (Signups open until the 18th)
I’ve been thinking about doing it for a couple of years – not just for the content itself, but the way it’s been percolating through the work of a bunch of other people whose stuff I read and ponder, and the chance to discuss that in community. The Deep Dive has even more of that, so there I go! It’ll keep me cheerfully busy.
