One Minute Writer and Robert M. Place

First off, the OMW:
Today's Writing Prompt: Energy

With fossil fuels dwindling, create a plan (realistic or fantasy) for ensuring there is enough energy for generations to come.
I like the idea of running off of our own energy. If wristwatches are capable of working just from one's own body heat (from Hamao Takanori, OHM Techno-Guidance. (62). Wrist Watch Generating Power Using Body Temperature Heat)surely we can develop thermoelectric devices to work from the energy the human body can release! We'd definitely think more about conservation, literally because it could kill us otherwise! Then again, people could easily enough buy bicycles and walk instead of use vehicles...

I've always thought the idea of using the dead (meaning fossil fuels) as a means of fueling our travels was a bit perverse. Does that also mean wearing diamonds ignores animal rights? After all, if the animals should have the rights as humans, shouldn't we respect the dead? This is ridiculous, of course, in the same way that eating plants is simply indirectly consuming animal life (which some argue is "bad"), but it is a thought.

Robert M. Place wrote on the occult in his book The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination which covers my specific deck, the Rider-Waite or Waite-Smith deck commissioned within the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The author has designed his own tarot such as The Alchemical Tarot and the Buddha Tarot, (the Locana shown in the picture).

I would greatly suggest his book for someone interested in learning of the major influences on tarot divination that began after the Italian card game. If you haevn't heard of Cornelius Agrippa, the Chinese and Egyptian decks, the Sola-Busca, or the Book of Thoth (all of which excite my imagination GREATLY)then this comprehensive guide will surely educate and entertain.

The cards of the Waite-Smith deck strongly resemble stages and backdrops, which makes sense due to the artist Pamela Smith's background as a theatre designer. In this way the cards present the information in both an entertaining and didactic form.


There is so much to explain! I'm learning that I may need to branch out into other styles of decks to satisfy my curiousity. I've now seen three others that were used- the Crowley deck (whom I believe to have been insane), a faery deck, and a modern surrealist deck designed by an artist also commissioned for Sandman art (I'm not sure who).

I have only seen listed some decks made in America labeled as, ahem, "Cartoon Network tarot", "Buffy TVS tarot", and, a deck which I wish to collect for pure nerd joy, the "Cthulhu Tarot" by Hite. Someday I may even make my own as many others have done. The most I can hope for is to remain vigilant and reasonable. I am not so blissfully unaware of the self-fulfilling and self-empowering nonsense that is attached to the practice of "New Age" divination. In this way the practice can be seen as the negative side to Romanticism, as in the narcissistic side. What the hell- Rousseau may have been a wanker, but he at least found happiness in simpler things. It's the free spirit in me.

Tarot Misinterpretation

This past fall I practiced some tarot divination, and after some bumbling around I put it on hiatus. I pondered questions like, "Is college right for me?" and "Will I get through this?" or "Will Evan and I stay together?", and throughout all the responses I kept getting negative messages of death, despair, miscarriage, fighting, unpreparedness, and etc.

Many of the cards can be taken as negative in certain situations or it may only include some connotation that makes sense only to the reader, so I let slide some of the unanswerable "variables" that came out. One message plainly came as "losing support of a motherly figure," or rather "a supportive female will no longer be available." This I figured to be either my own mom or my future mother-in-law, which made little sense to me at the time. Occasionally I got cards (especially when I did a reading for this future mother-in-law) that represented a domineering husband or man-of-the-house, which I related to my own father but which also seemed to represent this woman's own husband. I should have concentrated more on the matter even though whatever happened was likely to happen regardless of my intuition.

Not to go into detail, but this loss of a supportive female figure has occurred after an inevitable conflict. Afterwards, this being the new year of 2009, I finally did another reading. With the memory of these past revelations (that I could not have heeded with any more wisdom had I known the exact details), I found that this outcome was the reason I kept getting the Death card- a necessary "evil," an inevitable end to a volatile and uncomfortable relationship. I always assumed this card represented my college ambition or the relationship with my own family, as the Christmas break was soon upon me and I usually fret about the holidays anyway. What I should have realized were the warning signs of this real downfall instead of the imagined problems I make for myself during the season. Granted, it was very insightful, but I should know by now that the cards can and will represent more in layers than I may assume.

What happened has happened, I know that for sure, yet the tarot readings were vastly incomplete. I obviously have more studying to do.

The New Year (so far)

This year has started with a sucker-punch. In nearly all areas of my life I have dealt with the stress, loneliness, bitterness, anger, and injustice of the failing systems of all social and practical spheres. Families dividing, friendships breaking, finances dwindling, jobs disappearing, energy dissipating, beliefs crushed, lack of self-control, and to top it off: GRUDGES have filled my days since the end of my fall semester.

Ok, so the positive light is a bit dimmed. What are the things that are consistent?

1. Evan and me
2. Mom and me
3. A form of income
4. Funding for tuition (after some hiccups)
5. Social exercises

Well now, it's not so bad then! I'm still attending classes, which is the major point in staying in this damned town anyway, and I still have people I can call to hang out with (though that list is getting shorter). I try to give people something in return for favors or acts of kindness, like presents or help with cleaning or moving their stuff. Those are things I can do to help someone out, right? I don't have to feel bad for eating their food if they offer it, right? If I'm stressed out I don't have to sulk alone all the time, right?

My drawing and reading could be more frequent, even if I think it is poorly done. All I've got to do is keep doing something.

No More Koreans

As some may know, I was tutoring a young Korean girl during the fall. She attended a private school, the very one which I attended years ago, and her mother had her stay at close friend's home until the girl went back to Korea. She was bright, energetic, thoughtful, creative, spunky, and childish- and I got sacked by her mom.

I'll never know exactly why she didn't want the lessons anymore. It couldn't have been the girl's opinion, for she really enjoyed the 1 hour sessions, and I don't think it was the woman's opinion who she was staying with. While on the phone the girl's guardian couldn't explain in English why I couldn't go back anymore, but at the end of the conversation she said,

"It's not my opinion."

I felt terrible. I really enjoyed the whole experience and my time with her, for she was literally the brightest part of my day. Unfortunately, as I have been told many times now, the Korean culture doesn't appreciate anything outside of rigorous, soul-killing doctrine. It doesn't help when the girl you are trying to tutor is not too cooperative or focused everyday, yet I never felt that was insurmountable. I let her talk to me about anything she wanted to, provided she use enough English words to make me understand. The biggest problem this girl had was having the confidence to speak and think in English amongst those who would criticize her greatly, like her schoolteachers, her mother, and her guardian.

The reason I am even bothered by the whole situation is that the entire time I felt like I was failing her when she didn't remember words or sentence structure. The books she was given to work in were meant for a 1st grader, not an 11 year old Korean girl. I wasn't associated with the ESL, so I didn't have an open source to get better suited materials, yet I did go to the library to find books for her she would like. However, each week was the same. She didn't focus, she pouted, she wanted to play all the time, etc. Just as I was going to go back to tutoring her, to pick up on something we left off, I get the call that her mother doesn't want lessons anymore. I taught her songs, nouns, grammar, verb tenses, and had to explain why she shouldn't write or say the word "fuck." She had confidence with me, damnit, and that's really important when you've got a clusterfuck of education thrown at you.

Oh well. Maybe I really was too lax and all those lessons had nothing to show for it. I really hoped I could make something of the experience, but now all I've got is the reminder that I fail even at simple stuff that I really enjoy.

Delayed

2009 finally, and Watchmen is still going to be delayed. Thanks, Fox.