Ronda Snow's Blog, page 8
May 13, 2016
From www.heartspeacehealing.com
Last year, my friend Ronda Snow surprised me with a gorgeous wooden mala she’d made, and a copy of Serene Beads: Meditation Made Easy . Meditation has never been easy for me (my mind just goes and goes!), but using the mala gives me focus for a while and has helped.
Recently I received a package in the mail, and there was another set of meditation beads! It’s beautiful, with small black beads, and she wrote in the accompanying card, “This mala is called Shaman, and it wants to be with an energy healer like you. Cooling, yin, and soothing, it wants to bring you calm and restfulness, especially in times of anxiety or tremor.” Isn’t that lovely?
The wooden mala has the traditional Buddhist 108 beads, I’ve not counted the Shaman’s beads, and the smaller rosewood bracelet mala has 27 (go round 4 times and you have 108). Now I really have NO excuse not to meditate.
May 12, 2016
The Niggles: Measurement Edition — Modern Oracle Tarot
I love doing the Menage A Tarot Podcast with David and Kate. Her light and lovely wisdom always reminds me of the better angels of human nature and David can articulate the the most profound ideas with more crystal clearly than anyone I know. Listen to the next episode and you’ll see what I mean, […]
via The Niggles: Measurement Edition — Modern Oracle Tarot
April 20, 2016
Ooooooo – I like
I’m so happy with the new slideshow function on WordPress.com :D
See something you like? Order at Quirk & Flotsam. Don’t wait and visit often. Lots of the items are one-of-a-kind and the inventory is always changing!
Click to view slideshow.
April 18, 2016
The Niggles
Have you ever had the niggles? It seems like a good word to describe that feeling of an idea that crawls into your psyche and sets up housekeeping and keeps poking at you until you do something about it. I wonder if that’s where J.K. Rowling got the idea for nargles, although I think nargles are more like the troll that steals socks from dryers, but that’s another story.
The thing that’s been giving me the niggles lately is the moon card from Ellen Dugan and Mark Evan’s “Witches Tarot”. I love this deck! The feel, colors, and pure artistry of it is exactly what I’ve been looking for in a deck. It is rapidly becoming my far-and-away favorite go-to Tarot deck. The one thing that bugs me about it is how everyone keeps calling the lady on the Moon card a “crone”.
If that chick is a ‘crone’ I’ll eat my support stockings.
I’m not saying old is ugly. Old is beautiful…Helen Mirin. Maggie Smith. ‘Nuff said.
It isn’t fair…and I believe it to be political propaganda driven by a toxic 16th and 17th brew of church and state on a literal witch hunt… but there is a grain of truth to your garden variety “crone” being portrayed as, well, less than fashion plate pretty. Crones have grown beyond caring about society’s idea of physical beauty. At some point, life just gets too short for that nonsense.
Or put it this way: After half a century and several laps around the block, I’m convinced that no self-respecting “crone” would ever wear a corset like that. And that’s platinum blond, not old age white, TRUST me!
The Devil’s detail in all this is simply that life is a finite resource for any individual. At some point you have to prioritize. Even if you are young with nothing but potential in every direction you look, it pays to know what makes it all worth-while. It’s more than ok to show your true self and to put your time and life-energy into the stuff that matters to you. Even if your true self wears sensible shoes and mom-jeans.
When you hit middle age, life may not be as long as it used to be, but it dives deep. Don’t get me wrong, I plan on hitting retirement age like the rocket launcher in the movie R.E.D., but at this point I’d rather invest energy into a good life and beauty by my definition than go shoes-shopping. But that’s just me.
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Experience has other advantages: distance disappears in intuition.
E-mail is as real as it gets. Doesn’t make a bit of difference if you are across the table or across the world (I’m not kidding. I’ve done e-mail readings for people in Australia, and Perth is the exact opposite side of the world from me…it can’t get any farther than that short of space travel!)
E-mail is as private as it gets…no one but you and your computer know you are getting a reading.
E-mail is authentic as it gets...there is no way I can read your body language or ask leading questions like a stage psychic or mentalist. You KNOW the reading is from genuine intuition alone.
E-mail is as convenient as it gets. Have a question? Send it. Right now…no waiting. I’ll get the reading back to you as soon as possible. It is just me, so you might have to wait your turn a bit, especially on weekends, holidays and other family-first time.
E-mail Tarot is green. The reading comes right to your inbox without a single drop of gasoline being burned or paper being used.
April 2, 2016
Zombie Apologetic
No, not the ¨I´m sorry¨ kind of apologetic. This is more of the old-school, rational (ish) argument in favor of something kind of apologetic.
I think Zombies are kind of hilarious, and I´m not sorry about it.
Before you summon a spirit or anything, let me be more specific…I may be may be using the old meaning of apologetic, but I´m definitely talking about the modern viral epidemic version of Zombies. I don´t mean to imply anything about Haitian Mythology, or Voodoo, or anything of the sort. I don´t know a thing about it and would never presume to comment.
I´m talking about modern ¨Night of the Living Dead¨ ¨Dawn of the Dead¨ ¨Walking Dead¨ kind of dead. I live in Western Pennsylvania. We likes us some zombies around here. My first apartment was short shamble from the graveyard where they filmed ¨Night of the Living Dead” (Shout out to Butler and Evans City.) As we speak, I´m sitting 15 miles from the mall where they filmed of ¨Dawn of the Dead.¨ My husband and I have been binge-watching ¨The Walking Dead¨ to get caught up to the current season. You know, THOSE zombies.
That influence, combined with the wonderful, enlightening conversations we have onMenage A Tarot podcast together inspired the original ¨Zombie Cat¨ posts on Modern Oracle .com which in turn led to the whole idea of ¨Zombie Cat´s Crazy Crap Predictions¨ as a Tarot reading.
So why combine zombies, cats, and ¨predicting¨ the future? It´s probably heading for trouble to ask people to see the philosophical side of zombies just like it has been a challenge trying to get some people to realize that Tarot can not predict the future – or if they will get back together with their ex. A prediction that does any real good is as rare and improbable as a zombie cat coming out of Shrodinger´s famous experiment.
Yet, paradoxically, zombies and tongue-in-cheek predictions are a load of fun if you don´t take them too seriously. If zombies can be fun, so can predictions. Thus ¨Zombie Cat´s Crazy Crap Predictions¨ yes-or-no Tarot readings.
I´ve been asked if Zombie Cat is mean or angry. Nope. Not at all. I can see where you could get that idea, especially if you have watched old mummy horror films…zombie mummies always seem seriously cranky and were out to GET you. But when you look at the recent zombie Apocalypse genre, it is less about the zombies and more about the Apocalypse. You could substitute any life-threatening swarm and get the same basic story arc: Aliens, killer bees, land Paranha on steroids….same difference. I kind of feel for the zombies. Especially first thing in the morning before that first cup of coffee. Modern zombies aren´t the minions of evil, but usually the victims of biology. It´s not their fault they woke up one day all dead and hungry for human flesh. Modern zombies have about the same murderous, plotting, evil agenda of a shark who takes a bite out of surfer that shows up in the shark´s living room one morning flopping around and looking like a tasty breakfast seal.
You can get all philosophical about zombies, how they can symbolize our fear of death, or our own mortality. They can be serious art. Or at least serious pop art. Tarot is serious too, and I take the role of ¨healer with words¨ to heart when it comes to Modern Oracle readings. I whole-heartedly believe that Tarot can ease stress, help heal emotional hurts, lift spirits, and show creative ways through complex problems. If you want a Tarot reading elevated in that way, please visit me over at Modern Oracle.
If, on the other hand, you want a different kind of lift, a reading that eases up on the ponderous, gives you a bowl full of fluff with a sprinkle of snark, a swirl of tough love on top and nuggets of advice and wisdom underneath…then it´s time to talk to Zombie Cat.
“Zombie Cat’s Crazy Crap Predictions” are 3 card Tarot readings that answer one yes-or-no question. With a focus on fun but an open door to guidance these readings have a 50% chance of being dead wrong, a 75% chance of bringing a smile, and 100% chance of provoking one thought or another.
entertainment only
If one of my readings can make someone laugh and feel lighter (the way I feel watching this Bad Lip Reading video) then I am one happy Zombie Cat!
March 23, 2016
The Power of Stillness
What do you think of when you hear the word “power”? Electricity? Physical Strength? Control? All of these things are moving and aimed outward. There is power in stillness, too. A spinn…
Source: The Power of Stillness
Revive the Bride
Bridal Revival April 8, 2016 7 – 10 pm At Hotel Monaco, 620 William Penn Place, Pittsburgh PA I’ll be appearing at the event to give daily meditation Tarot readings and custom meditati…
Source: Revive the Bride
March 20, 2016
Springing Into a Reboot
“I write to understand as much as to be understood” – Elie Wiesel
After writing this blog and website for several years, I’ve come to understand that persisting is good – but adapting is better.
It’s spring and the reboot is blooming. The “old” energy of the website sprang from the part of me that was a “health care professional.” In the five years since I finished dissertation, not one person has wanted a Natural Health Consult. Striving to build bridges and reach out to a community entrenched in mainstream medicine has gone nowhere. Enough is enough. Time to adapt. Instead of reaching out it is time to invite in.
The consults and tutorials are in (or soon will be in) a digital, self-study format available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. I stand ready to help those who want to help themselves with a few clicks of the keyboard and a little reading time. Skype exists, and I’m happy to make use of it.
The blog title has changed – again. This time I’m calling it “Lens” simply because it is about life as I see it, no matter what happens to be in my field of vision at the time. The old posts are still here, so feel free to search the archives. The title “Lens” is also a nod to a new point of view. I’m writing as a writer, intuitive, meditator, hobby artist and mala maker. I’m taking some very very wise advice from a very very wise man (and friend)* and connecting what I do to the real spirit of who I am.
Finally.
So nice to meet all of you.
*David Dear of Menage A Tarot and www.myownminister.com fame. Get a reading…you will be very glad that you did! https://www.fiverr.com/myownminister/read-chakra-using-tarot
Meditation in the Media (Pittsburgh)
Take a look at KDKA’s excellent report on mindfulness and meditation! http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/02/25/mindfulness-teaching-people-to-live-in-the-moment/
Harvard Gazette (Harvard, people! Mainstream, respected, reputable…Harvard) “Eight Weeks to a Better Brain” http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/ and “Meditation’s Positive Residual Effects” http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/11/meditations-positive-residual-effects/
BBC “Scans ‘show mindful meditation brain boost’” http://www.bbc.com/news/health-16406814
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Please visit “Quirk & Flotsam” on etsy.com for handcrafted meditation beads, how-to beginner’s meditation book and more…click HERE to enter.
Would you like your own tutorial to get started? click HERE
Meditation in the Media #Pittsburgh
Take a look at KDKA’s excellent report on mindfulness and meditation! http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/02/25/mindfulness-teaching-people-to-live-in-the-moment/
Harvard Gazette (Harvard, people! Mainstream, respected, reputable…Harvard) “Eight Weeks to a Better Brain” http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/ and “Meditation’s Positive Residual Effects” http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/11/meditations-positive-residual-effects/
BBC “Scans ‘show mindful meditation brain boost’” http://www.bbc.com/news/health-16406814
*******
Please visit “Quirk & Flotsam” on etsy.com for handcrafted meditation beads, how-to beginner’s meditation book and more…click HERE to enter.
Would you like your own tutorial to get started? click HERE
