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Showing posts with label tarot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tarot. Show all posts

Passing of Oracle Artist C.J. Freeman


dislike for paint brushes
C.J. Freeman 1941-2010


A quick message to fill in for my recent absence from the blog. My father, Oracle artist C.J. Freeman passed away on June 6th. His passing was sudden although his health had been declining for some time.
He will be missed by many. If ever there was an original, it was my father.
I am handling his affairs which has been quite a task and so my absence from the blog...
My commitment to the work of the ORACLES continues, deepened and strengthened by my father's passing.


To those I love
Be assured when I fly with the angels
I dream of you.

Preparation for 2012 and Your Card Reading Practice.


When speaking about preparation for 2012 I get interesting responses from different people. For some, no preparation is required at all. It is just another trip to the movies. For others, it is about stock piling food and supplies for some kind of apocalyptic scenario. And yet what is at the heart of this looming date?
2012 was calculated by the Mayan and other ancient civilizations and prophets as a time of great shift: The end of an old world and the beginning of a new. Chaos is foretold as familiar societal and planetary structures crumble, giving way to new, higher frequencies.
Whether you believe the prophecies or not, we can at least concede these are strange times, indeed. Global events are accelerating and intensifying as we enter a period of climate change, gigantic solar storms, and societal destabilization. What the new form of things will be as we become acclimatized to this vibratory makeover has yet to be seen and creates a feeling of unrest as we anticipate the unknown. Never before has such a transition as this been seen on our dear planet.
So back to the question of preparation.... And why oh why am I talking about this on a blog dedicated to the infinitely more simple (seemingly!) topic of Card Reading????
As we transition into a time of what Mayan Shamans are referring to as "the Fifth Age," the best and truly only preparation is one of frequency preparation. Once you give yourself the rub-down energetically, you will also be in tune with your own guidance, intuition, and natural, God-given GPS system. You will know what to do and when to do it.
What is your practice for energy alignment? Do you do it every day?
I have a number of my own practices (which I discuss periodically on the Astarte and Inanna Show on youtube), but what I want to talk about now is how to incorporate your Card Reading Practice.
The Playing Cards were created in accordance with natural and powerful energetic codes. The same energetics that the Mayans understood and used to create their calendar and calculate the year 2012.
I plan to make some sort of comparison chart to map this all out, but here are a few of the basics: The Mayan Calendar wheel is based on 52 year cycles and it is on these cycles that the year 2012 was predicted. 52 is the total number of cards in the playing deck and has been for as far back as we can trace it (before Tarot, which was an alteration of the original deck.)
There were 13 months to the Mayan (logical when you remember there are 13 lunar cycles in one solar cycle) and also 13 number Gods or "13 bearers of numbers." Accordingly, there are exactly 13 cards or numbers in each suit of the playing cards (Ace thru King.) 13 cards in each of 4 suits = 52, the same as 13 lunar cycles each of 4 weeks and 4 seasons each of 13 weeks = 52 weeks in the year. Now we begin to understand why the numbers 52, 13, and 4 were sacred.
To the Mayan, the world was conceived as a great square with four directions, four "bearers of the year," or four Gods. The playing deck too, is a "great square," divided evenly into four suits that also correspond to the four directions, the four seasons of the year, and the four elements of nature. The Mayan were Masters of observation and conceived the nature of time as manifold circles, all meshing together perfectly as intricate cogs in some sort of mind-blowing clock.
I am not saying the deck is Mayan. I am not saying it is the same as the Mayan Calendar. It is, however; like the Mayan calendar in that it is a work of art based upon the observation of the natural world and the rhythms within it. And it is this that we must return to.
In the pursuit of true spirituality and our own personal destiny, we must eventually shake the dust off of the knowledge of who we are. Try as we might, we will never be able to make ourselves into what we are not. The only thing awaiting us is The Return.
So this is how the study of your Playing Deck can become a part of your own sacred preparation for the accelerated frequencies making their way to planet Earth. It is a practice in alignment, a sacred study of natural frequency codes that the moon, sun, and seasons must dance to, and so must we. In this practice, we undertake nothing less than the reintegration and healing of our collectively scattered soul, a sacred meditation on crystalline structures put into card form. Now is the Time.
As I mentioned in my related video, hang out with your Playing Cards and look at them as if you've never seen them before - as if you knew they were a book of knowledge, and watch the secrets unfold :-)
P.S. Get the book! What are you waiting for? (The Playing Card Oracles)

2012, Energy Shift, and Your Card Reading Practice

This video is part 1 of 5. The remaining portions can be found in the 52cardmagic channel on youtube.

Kahlil Gibran, The Tides of Breath

You are not enclosed within your bodies,
nor confined to houses or fields.
That which is you dwells above the mountain
and roves with the wind.

It is not a thing that crawls into the sun for warmth
or digs holes into darkness for safety.
But a thing free,
a spirit that envelopes the Earth
and moves in the ether...
This would I have you remember
in remembering me.

That which seems most feeble
and bewildered in you
is the strongest and most determined.

Is it not your breath that has erected and hardened
the structure of your bones?
And is it not a dream
which none of you remember having dreamt,
that builded your city and fashioned
all there is in it?

Could you but see the tides of breath
you would cease to see all else,
and if you could hear the whispering of the dream
you would hear no other sound.

- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet



One of my favorite quotes of all time... it is works like this that inspire me to write, when I feel the power of words to send me like this. Maybe I love this poem so dearly because I am a Gemini, an Air sign. That being what it is, I am also strongly aligned with the Club suit in the deck of cards, the suit symbolizing Air. I used this quote from Gibran in my introduction to the Club suit in The Playing Card Oracles, because I feel it so aptly and eloquently describes the spirit of these cards. In these trying times, most especially, how valuable it is to recall our eternal nature, our oneness with "the ethers..."
If you would like more information on the Elements and the Card Suits, see my youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7rOxWYAIHc
All blessings,
--Ana

PLAYING CARD ORACLE LESSONS NOW ONLINE!


It has long been my dream to bring The Playing Card Oracles to more and more people, in a very practical sense. I would love to see The Playing Cards recognized and being USED by people everywhere in the way they were originally intended. This is the return to our personal power through our alignment with the natural and powerful rhythms of Creation.
SO.....
This is the plan....
Videos will be posted on youtube and accessible through the video bar on this site under the user account 52cardmagic. My goal is to post a new video once a week. The first teaching video is there now, in 3 parts, called Card Reading Mastery. This is what you are learning as you master the playing deck. It will include things from the book, The Playing Card Oracles, although it will include things that are not in the book, as well.
ALSO.....
I AM AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE, ONLINE INSTRUCTION. This is through SKYPE or via email. Please email me at ana@anacortez.org for appointments and rates.
Thank you especially to all the very devoted fans of The Playing Card Oracles over these years since the book was published. Your support has kept me going.
Love,
-- Ana

Asking the Question, part 2

"...When people want to know if they can ask a general question, I ask if they want a general answer. Like begets like with the cards. Similarly, it is interesting to notice where the person's inquiry is coming from. Is it from their gut or their head? A burning question is a world away from one asked out of mild curiosity. Surface questions get surface answers. Real questions invite the cards to speak."
(from The Playing Card Oracles, A Source Book for Divination, p. 109)

Asking the Question, part 1


This is the beginning of a short series quoted from my book, The Playing Card Oracles, A Source Book for Divination. The information could as easily be applied to any type of divination: Tarot, Playing Cards, I Ching, Runes, etc... I take a breath, open the book, and give to you, dear reader, this passage for today:

(From the sub-chapter, Asking the Question, p.109) "...One of the best ways to be of service (with the cards) is to help people phrase their concerns in a way that works in harmony with the nature of the cards. The Playing Deck, and oracles in general, function with profound, childlike simplicity and will reflect the inquiry in just such a manner. Complicated or ambiguously stated questions do not evoke the magic of the cards. Make sure the wording you choose is clear, simple, and direct, and the answer you receive will be the same. Beware of two-part questions disguised as a single inquiry. Break multi-faceted concerns down into components in order to get a clear response. If you're doing smaller readings, it's better to do separate layouts for each aspect of the question than to glob issues together."
(to be continued next week..)

--Ana Cortez, The Playing Card Oracles - Painting by Remedios Varo

Card Reading and Synchronicity

The other day I gave an Oracle Reading that was very illuminating of the expansive nature of the art of divination. I touched on this in my first book (The Playing Card Oracles) in the sub-chapter called The Reflective World (p.181). To quote myself, "We are electric, magnetic, and dynamic beings, and we attract as well as affect our surroundings... The cards are just one part of what I am paying attention to (in a reading)."
In the particular session I am referring to, we came to a point in the reading when the client asked about her Spirit Helpers. As she was verbalizing the question to me (it was a telephone reading) I saw a shadow pass by the window of my house through the curtains. My two dogs started barking. They saw it too. Continuing with the reading, I fanned the Playing Card Oracle deck in front of me, face down, and drew three cards - they all turned up Court Cards (representing people or personalities), a very slim probability. Three Spirit Helpers.
Well the dogs quit barking and there was never any trace of anyone coming past my house - no knock at the door, nothing left outside. Just a confirmation of a spirit for the reading.
When I am doing a reading, I am in a state of receiving information and guidance. This is not limited to the cards on the table. I believe that nothing is random. If I did not embody a firm conviction of this then all kinds of doubt could enter in each time I lay out the cards.
Divination is the sacred art of connecting to all things and receiving that wisdom on behalf of another. I am honored to be a part of that tradition.

Unstoppable Expansive Nature of Healing

Energy of Reconnective Healing captured with my cell phone camera,
although since the time of this photo
it is appearing in lavendar hue.


So great. I get to experience the healing, the zing, and uplift of transformation every time I meet with a client. Maximum healing sessions for me! Healing is not a solitary experience. True healing is born of love and the nature of love is expansion.
Just like when you give someone a gift from your heart. The giver and the receiver are blessed. Then it is all ripple effect from there, touching people, places, events never imagined and yet perfectly flowing naturally from a true experience of love.
YES!!! A card reading can do all this. Combined with energy healing work (Reconnective Healing is my practice) it is EXPONENTIAL. Zing-a-ding ding!!!
La la la la la la la la la
See you la la later.....

REAL CARD READING MAGIC


In seeking to deepen the connection to my clients, my art, and to the healing I am able to offer, I have come upon a new realization in regard to my work as a card reader, or as I have come to call myself, an Oracle Reader.

As I stated in my book, The Playing Card Oracles, A Source Book for Divination, "without you the cards are meaningless pieces of paper. The magic is in you." It is interesting how many layers I have discovered for myself in this truth.

I have come to see the magic of the reading as the ability to gain access to the secret, sacred parts of a person. The person allows you in - to parts where they have confusion or pain, parts that are private and hidden... sometimes from every other person in their life. As a reader you are given a key.

Tip toeing through kingdoms that cry out for healing and understanding, I traverse. I use my cards as cues on how to approach these delicate areas, and also open myself to any other means or method gained from my own personal challenges in healing as appropriate. The cards are one of my tools. They open a conversation. Without my own healing experience to back them I have nothing to give.

This is incredible for myself as a reader because it means I have the opportunity to step into the shoes of healer in the broadest sense. I am more that just a peek into the future, a psychic predictor of events to come... I am that and much much more. I allow the HEALING of the future. I HEAL the past (yes! that's right!) - all by healing with my client, one-on-one, in the present moment.

WOW.

Keeper of Secrets


There is a time and place for all things. Including the dissemination of truth.

Recently I have been asked to keep a secret. No, I’m not telling.

Now I recognize that I actually keep a number of secrets on a regular basis. It is a greater part of my occupation as a card reader.

“Keeper of Secrets” might be a better job title.

Complete strangers take a seat across the table from me and within moments we are addressing their innermost concerns, the secrets held in their heart.

Very little small talk.

How refreshing.

Then the person leaves my table and so with them leaves my memory of our conversation. No ties to anything.

Having a safe place to divulge a secret provides great relief in itself.

In service only do I seek the loving response from a place of non-investment in your personal situation.

Such a place of honor.

Thank you,

--Ana Cortez

anacortezreadings.blogspot.com

Ana Cortez Newsletter


Excerpt from the Ana Cortez June 2009 Newsletter

The Five of Hearts

Choosing the card for the subject of The Ana Cortez Newsletter has become part of my practice of listening to the world and receiving its messages. Finding the perfection in that which is given provides me a great feeling of peace. Last month’s selection, the King of Spades, was not chosen by me, but rather brought to my attention – likewise with this month’s choice, The Five of Hearts. This is a card I have personally grappled with since the beginning of my time as a reader of playing cards, ‘round about 1982. This undoubtedly corresponds to the complexity and layers of dream like experience this card represents. (To read the remainder of this article please email me at ana@anacortez.org and I will reply with the full newsletter attached) Image © C.J. Freeman, The Playing Card Oracles