The Artist's Way and the Tarot

I have no earlier resource, but the earliest book I heard that talked about the practice of morning pages is Dorothea Brande's Becoming A Writer , published in the 1930s. Brande's instructions are simply to wake up and write on one impulse: no going to the bathroom, no checking cellphones (well, cellphones weren't invented then yet), and simply to write stream-of-consciousness until you write yourself empty. Brande further instructs that if you finish about two pages today, then try to extend the next day's morning's pages to two pages and a half, and so on. Keep writing until you run out of things to say or wake up on the page. Hopefully, you keep writing at a steady output, and never less than yesterday's number of pages. The first time I heard of this practice, though, was at a writing workshop. It was only mentioned in passing, and quoted from Ricky Lee's Trip to Quiapo . The instructions were similar. Write first thing in the morning. I don't have a...

 AstroMatrix  gives us this reading for the Full Moon in Aquarius. The New Moon in Aquarius happened on 11 February this year. What intentions did you send back then? They may be coming into fruition at this time. This Full Moon reveals where we belong and which group is best suited us. This is a good time to release causes, communities, and dreams that no longer serve us or don't feel aligned to us anymore. In the light of the Full Moon, we can see what has and has not worked. We can wipe the slate clean. This is the perfect time to claim our own inner authority, to listen to our inner teacher and innate wisdom. We can find within ourselves a strong resistance to authority. With the Sun in Leo wanting to take center-stage, and the Full Moon in Aquarius wanting to collaborate and cooperate with a team, there is a need for balance in both tensions. Here is a five-card Full Moon in Aquarius spread. How can I balance my needs and those of others? Princess of Disks, reversed. Draw...

Just before midnight of 23rd July (past eleven pm of 22nd July), the Sun returned to its home sign, Leo, this year. As a Leo, this is very exciting for me. A solar return this year, just before my birthday, promises to bring good tidings. I downloaded an app called AstroMatrix. I love it. It uses minimal ads, and the paid version is not too expensive. If I get extra money, I'll be happy to pay for the no ads version. I'm not very literate in the art of Astrology, and so this app is a huge help. I am trying its Sun in Leo spread (yes, it integrates Tarot, too!). Here goes the reading. What are some ways I can connect and live more with my heart? Five of Swords, reversed. At a Zoom meeting with my family last weekend, we followed a Bible study led by my uncle using a guide sent to him by the church I used to attend. One of the discussion questions was "What I must stop doing, start doing, and improve upon?" I turned to my wife and asked her what I must start, and stop, ...

My good friend, Jel Lopez-Flores, has written a screenplay and will direct it. I'm proud of her, and inspired by her. She asked me to help prepare some of her cast by giving them an acting workshop. I agreed. This workshop happened earlier today, 16 July 2021. I will be honest with you. I thought I wouldn't take it too seriously. I thought I'd just share some basic acting exercises, and not the meatier stuff, the juicy, acting theory+practice stuff. But I ended up really wanting to help these young actors. I shared the practice of morning pages with the lead actor. He had lots of questions: How does it work? What's the reason behind it? How does it change you? I said, "I honestly don't know how it works. I just know it does. Frankly, I don't want to find out the science behind it. I like the magic enveloping it, though, so I keep doing it." I have been writing morning pages for close to two decades. I asked the lead actor to keep doing them at least th...

For this week's artist date, I saw the Lord of the Rings trilogy on YouTube movies . The extended versions of all three films! YouTube is the only streaming service I could watch them at in my country. We have a new Google TV and I found myself going to it at nine o'clock in the morning to start with The Fellowship of the Ring  and ended a little after ten o'clock at night. I paused somewhere towards the last hour of The Return of the King to shoot some hoops with my wife at the basketball court. It was too dark to see the ring and there was no moonlight, but we enjoyed it. I am grateful I took this break. I was feeling the "performance anxiety" pangs of: Now you've started this blog. Go and Create Something Big Immediately. I'm glad I didn't. I won't turn this into a review blog post for LOTR, and although there are many inspiring moments in the film that are worthy of note, I'm just resting that faculty at the moment. I came to enjoy the film...

It is 10:36 P.M. as I type this on my computer. I want to make a report of how the day went. I hope to do this for the duration of my Artist's Way + Tarot journey: to meditate on an essay and a Tarot card in the morning, and then to make a report at night. As far as the addictions go, I failed in the area of sugar: I have purchased a bottle of sugared soda and only realized I have sworn off sugar while I was guzzling it. I need to be more alert about impulses to consume sugar, and I know that this alertness, this awareness, is a gift of a consistent meditation practice that has been allowed, via osmosis, to seep into everyday life. An Awareness that is there even when I'm not sitting and observing my breath. Progress, not perfection , I gently remind myself now. I read through the Book of Patch's entry on the Hermit and one paragraph popped out at me. It said: "Take the time to meditate with the intention of going deep into your psyche, and keep traveling deeper! You m...

Week One is about recovering a sense of safety. I become an Initiate in Creative Recovery. It is Tuesday, 13 July 2021, and I glance at the clock as I write this. It is 11:11 A.M. As I parent my own inner child, I shall respond more to his artistic urges with, "Try it and see what happens." For many families, a career in the arts exists outside of their social and economic reality. If this is so, I want to borrow a New Age philosophy and look at this with the lens of Law of Attraction. Certainly, I come from such a family--this is one of the reasons I am taking this course. What can I do to make myself more attractive to the reality of a flourishing creative career that I desire? This, perhaps, is what The Artist's Way will do: trigger the Law of Attraction on my behalf in fulfilling my artistic dreams. Creator God, this essay is painful for me to read. It is painful because I recognize myself in the description of Shadow Artist, and I feel a sense of sorrow and regret fo...

The Artist's Way was born out of Julia Cameron's own journey out of alcoholism to sobriety, as she told in her quietly powerful memoir . Keeping in the same spirit, I commit to daily morning pages, vipassana, and yoga. I commit to sobriety around my spending, sexual expression, sugar intake, and smoking.

Today is Tuesday, 13 July 2021. I am going to blog through my journey through Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way . Thank you for joining me. I understand that this has been done many times already by countless blogs (do people even read or bother with blogs nowadays?) but I intend to make this online journal quite shamelessly for myself. I can be as candid as I want, because netizens have their eyes set on Instagram or Tiktok anyway. Cool. Works for me as an added freedom to say what I want to say. And I trust those who will benefit from these musings will be led here. The Artist's Way is not just a book. It is a twelve-week course on how to play with one's creative energy. It also serves as an oracle for millions of artists in unblocking and reclaiming their creative powers. The Tarot is a pictorial diagram of the Universe and ancient wisdom. I plan to combine both channels of guidance in each entry. If you have a Tarot deck, I would love for you to share your expe...