Your Creative & Magical Life

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In this episode, we explore The Hierophant with guest Becky Bullard, the creatrix, messenger, and megaphone behind Democrasexy, a project that aims to engage more people in the democratic and civic process by making it easier, more fun, and... sexy!

In our conversation, Becky shares how her disappointment after the 2016 presidential election spurred to do more, and how a workshop on "awakening your highest self" led her to invoke the archetype of the messenger, which she embodies daily in her Democrasexy work.

Our conversation also explores: overcoming the fear of speaking up and raising our voices, committing to a passion project whether it pays the bills or not, embodying our messages, how Becky decides which content to share and when, Becky's witchy work at the graveside of Ann Richards, boobs, costumes, "being from the future" and having to live in the present, and the dilemma of voting in a presidential election during a time of American-backed genocide.

This episode will inspire you to claim your voice, consider what kind of messenger you are and want to be, and how The Hierophant may be inviting you to step into your own powerful voice.

You can support and learn more about Becky's work via Democrasexy on Instagram, Substack, and via the Democrasexy website.

Other resources mentioned in this episode:
Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown

+ Meet Chantal deFelice, our sound designer and episode editor.
+ Meet Ami Plasse, who designed the YC&ML logo.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

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Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

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In this shorter episode, I stay with The Emperor just a moment longer (see previous episode), and invoke his energy to talk about creative space and why Creative Spirits need it — and deserve it!

I talk about The Emperor's relationship to space as a container for his leadership, just like Creative Spirits need containers to move and hold their creative energy.

I also talk about different forms and kinds of creative space, what that can look like, and I share a story about recently giving up creative space, feeling pretty twisted up about it, and how I claimed a new space once again.

Finally, I share simple steps for increasing your creative space, while acknowledging that space is at a premium in late-stage colonial capitalism. But it's worth fighting for!

If you'd like me to speak to a creative challenge you're wrestling with, please use the form below and share your questions! I'd love to bring them on the show.

+ Meet Ami Plasse, who designed the YC&ML logo.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

In this episode, we explore The Emperor with Kelly Marshall, a nonbinary writer and yoga therapist who supports people with nervous system recalibration, embodiment, and trauma-informed approaches to yoga, teaching, and community-building.

Together, we examine the imagery of The Emperor card and the energies and meanings conveyed by the visual composition of the archetype. We question why female and femme-identifying folks might struggle to connect with this card (idk, could be THE PATRIARCHY?!). Kelly also shares how they have personally experienced embodiment with Emperor energy in a way that's been healing for them and others — through presence in academia, community, and kink and BDSM spaces.

We also look at presentations of masculinity through the lens of The Emperor, exploring questions of responsibility and responsiveness. And we can't talk about The Emperor without discussing themes of organization, structure, energy leaks, allocation of resources, and breaking down big visions into smaller steps. We also get into sovereignty and self-determination as trauma-informed perspectives, Daddy issues, The Emperor's relationship to The Empress, and we pull cards to ask The Emperor a question.

You can learn more about Kelly and their work on Instagram at @spectrumwellness or via their website.

Other resources mentioned in this episode:
+ Fight Right by John Gottman
+ The Brady Tarot
+ Fyodor Pavlov Tarot

+ Meet Chantal deFelice, our sound designer and episode editor.
+ Meet Ami Plasse, who designed the YC&ML logo.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

This first shorter episode is for Creative Spirits who've abandoned, ghosted, or otherwise fallen out with a creative project they used to love. What's often standing in the way of a reunion with an abandoned project isn't just time, space, and a long to-do list. Usually, there's FEELINGS involved, and this tends to perpetuate avoidance. But all those feelings are NORMAL, and we're gonna normalize them! I share theories on why this happens, questions you can use to explore what's creating the distance, and how you might reconnect with your project, or determine if you want to!

Here are questions I pose in the episode, should you want to journal or explore:

1. What's the project? Give it a cute name and a little description.
2. What felt good about the project? Why were you interested in it?
3. Are you still interested in those things now? What are you into these days? 
4. What good came from working on this project to the extent you did? What did you learn or gain by starting?
5. What thoughts or stories do you have about not working on the project? Be really honest here. (Write down all the ugly, outlandish things!)
6. Read over what you've written for #5 and see what you notice. Are you sure these thoughts and stories are true?
7. Is there a way to revise your stories around this "separation," and relieve any harsh feelings you're holding towards yourself? What would it be like to be gentle with yourself around all this?
8. Sit and "commune" with the project (whether physically or in your own imagination).  Revisit the experience of getting started on the project... Then imagine yourself working on the project now. Notice how your body and spirit respond to visiting the past and and the future. After reconnecting, what do you think: Do you want to reconnect with this project? Possibly later? Or bring it closure?
9. You could write a letter to your project, sharing your enthusiasm and gratitude, and stating what you'd like to do going forward.

Got a project you're torn about? Reach out to [email protected], and share a little bit about what's going on... Maybe I can answer your question — and pull some cards — to explore your situation on a future quickie-sode!

+ Meet Ami Plasse, who designed the YC&ML logo.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

In this episode, we explore The Empress, the vast creative force that moves through nature and gives us LIFE! Our guest is an Empress herself — Christina Rosales, a journalist-turned-activist who developed a video game about housing justice, which she turned into a stage play. Christina also sews her own clothes, is raising a young son, and has two artistic passions I didn't even know about until late in our conversation!

Christina and I talk about the many faces of The Empress and what she teaches us about creativity, interconnectedness, rest, receiving, biodiversity, and collective action. Christina also shares about her Mexican and Catholic roots in South Texas, her organizing with Power Switch Action, "the how-hard-can-it-be?" bone in her body that keeps her doing incredible things, and her journey toward claiming her own power.

We ask The Great Empress of the Cosmos (by pulling a Tarot card): How can we find peace within our family?

Christina shares a lot of wisdom in this episode, and her words are likely to inspire you to create in a new way, take action for your community, or take a creative stance toward something that challenges you.

Follow Christina's sewing adventure on Instagram. Download Dot's Home in the Apple App Store, or here, where you can also learn more about the game. Hear the NPR Marketplace story about Dot's Home. Learn more about Power Switch Action on Instagram or via their website. Learn more about the Rise-Home Stories Project here. Learn more about A Host of People here. And about Detroit Action here.

+ Meet Chantal deFelice, our sound designer and episode editor.
+ Meet Ami Plasse, the artist who created YC&ML's logo.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

In this episode, we explore The High Priestess with Ebony Isis Booth, a coach who supports primarily Black and Indigenous folks in transformation, leadership, and emotional alchemy. Our conversation explores the second Major Arcana card through the lens of intuition, self-trust, and Spirit, and we talk about internal and external resistance that arises when intuition delivers its wisdom.

Ebony also teaches us about "unclenching our butt cheeks" and takes us through an exercise to experience this act of full-body softening, which helps The High Priestess connect with us.

Ebony also shares about growing up Southern Baptist and finding her way to a personal spirituality that draws on African and other mystic traditions. She also talks about receiving an intuitive hit, and how she wrestled with that knowing before the follow-through. 

We also talk about alcohol (and quitting!); The Matrix, The Color Purple, and Goosebumps; a drunk man in a banana suit who wanted a Tarot reading; taint-hairs and buttholes; being human as a revolutionary act; going outside; and more!

Here's an incomplete list of time codes for this delicious & juicy episode:
+ How Tarot came into Ebony's life (18:30)
+ Who is The High Priestess & where can we find her (31:45)
+ How to unclench your butt cheeks & connect with The High Priestess (1:20:45)
+ Submissions from the community on experiencing intuition (1:49:33)
+ A creative prompt for The High Priestess (1:58:04)

Follow Ebony's work:
+ Check out her website ebonyisisbooth.com.
+ Follow her on Instagram @coachebonysaid.
+ Listen to her podcast What Would It Look Like?
+ Read her Substack newsletter Ebony Imago: A Black Womanist Gaze.

+ Meet Chantal deFelice, our sound designer and episode editor.
+ Meet Ami Plasse, the artist who created YC&ML's logo.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

Since this show is just getting started, and this episode focuses on THE MAGICIAN, I spend a little time explaining what I mean by Your Creative & Magical Life, and I share about my theory of creativity and how magic can how up in different ways and how we can invite it into our lives.

Then I talk with writer, zine-maker, and postmodern witch Jessica Jernigan all about The Magician archetype. Jessica and I co-teach this card and riff off The Magician's energy — how "manifestation mindset" and "create your own reality" thinking can be dangerous, the trickster side of The Magician, different ways of defining magic, and magic within and beyond certain cultural frameworks.

Jessica also shares about the year she went all-in on witch life, her journey towards Tarot (which starts in the 80s with "Mists of Avalon), the witchy zines she creates, and what it's like launching and running her Substack and writing cover copy for Harlequin romance novels.

We also get into the relationship between The Magician, The High Priestess, and The Fool; Tarot's recent expansion into the mainstream; bringing social justice into Tarot readings; offering readings through different formats;  the magic and (anti-magic) of aging; plus labor unions, Starhawk, and more! The episode closes with a creative prompt for working with The Magician.

+ Subscribe to Jessica's Substacks: Postmodern Witch & Croning, buy her zines, and follow her on Instagram.

+ Meet Chantal deFelice, our sound designer and episode editor.
+ Meet Ami Plasse, the artist who created YC&ML's logo.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.

Message the show & share your thoughts!

In this inaugural episode, I kick things off with a little tribute to Mom and Dad, then we dive right in to explore The Fool and the elements and symbols we see in this very first card of the Tarot. 

I talk about what The Fool IS and ISN'T about, and how this podcast reflects a Fool moment, which reflects the very Fool-like origins of Typewriter Tarot. Then, I bring on a member of the Typewriter Tarot coven, Annar Veröld, a writer, filmmaker, publisher, and graphic designer, who shares about her recent experience dancing with The Fool after a period of grieving the loss of a dear friend. The episode closes with a creative prompt for working with The Fool in your life. 

Read Annar's writing on Death and The Fool cards.

+ Meet Chantal deFelice, our sound designer and episode editor.
+ Meet Ami Plasse, the artist who created YC&ML's logo.

This podcast is a production of Typewriter Tarot. 

Learn more & join us:

Subscribe to the newsletter.

Study & practice Tarot, astrology & creativity in Cosmic Garden.

Get a copy of my workbook, Tarot for Creative Spirits.

Book a Tarot or Creative Cosmology reading.

Shop our bookshop.