The first silver that crossed my palm...

[Alta]

Of course the moment was perfect, because she really needed something.

Yes, and that rings a clear note!

 

[lark]

Oh firemaiden I thought you looked a little different today..do you feel different?

My first time I almost fainted...no kidding,
I got so into it that the room started to spin and everything went black for a minute.
Now I ground, center, breath right, and drink water.
But that's really not as fun as the spinning in the dark

 

[americle]

Victorian Romantic Deck

At first she wasn't much interested, but the Victorian Romantic deck is so beautiful, it intrigues and makes converts out of everyone!

Firemaiden -- I tried to find the Victorian Romantic deck, but what I found wasn't published yet. Is it the same deck? By Alex Ukolov & Karen Mahony?

Thanks! Tamara (novice)

 

[Knight of Wands]

Tamara, yes I'm pretty it's the same one that you found

 

[EnriqueEnriquez]

Firemaiden,

That was another beautiful post!

This was on my web site, but it isn’t here anymore. Since it has to do with your question, I am posting it in here for you:

In 2001, I was enjoying a 15-year long career as a multimedia artist, comedian, and provocateur, when those planes stroke the Twin Towers...

Immediately after the crash I learnt that irony wouldn't be able to fulfill its promise to protect me from pain. It was useless. Shortly after this disaster, while going through my 10th airport security check, I also realized that imagination was always on the bad guys' side.

It was hard for me to understand what to feel or how to react. I was a proud exponent of the post-Simpson cynic era, but cynicism wasn't useful to cope with death, frustration and fear. Besides, living in New York I was far away from my country, starting over again in a city full of characters and stories, and I kept wondering, where do I fit? How can I relate with everybody's story? In which parts of my past could I find the tools to deal with the present?

It took me a long time to understand my personal story. Little by little I realized that I had done many different things in my life, but all of them had one thing in common: I was always telling a story. I could use drawings, paintings, sculptures, books, and even media like the radio, film and TV, but I was always telling stories. I was a storyteller all along. But all these stories were lacking something important, because they had to fit the mainstream and its wrong conception of people: we are all the same and we all want the same. When you force yourself to believe this, people start becoming guinea pigs instead of individuals, and you stop believing your own tales.

I became aware of that concept after a lot of internal struggle, and more importantly, I knew first hand how hard it is for us to apprehend our own lives as stories, that is, to make sense of our own life under the premise that LIVING IS NARRATIVE. It took me a while to assemble my personal story in a way that could be useful for the future, transforming my own tale to change my life, but by doing so I understood that I had the talent to help others to do the same.

In order to help me in this process I turned to five passions that I have been cultivating all my life, almost in secret: magic, mentalism, cartomancy and divination. When we think of divination we imagine some darkness ahead of us, and certain people with mysterious tools who can shade some light over our shadows, making the way clearer for us. But what if we carried that darkness within ourselves, and we didn't even know what we knew or who we are? For me Divination isn't about knowing the future, but about preparing ourselves to create the future we want. I see divination as a process in which we connect with our inner wisdom, fueling our intuition. In the process, we regain our imagination, a very important part of ourselves that has been kidnapped by Hollywood, the media, and all the "dream dealers". We all take imagination for granted but, to be frank, we imagine very little. Divining is a way to stop this. We can't afford to leave imagination in the hands of terrorists.


So, one day, I quite everything and decided to become a diviner. Until then, that was something I did on the side; but at that point I decided to choose, among all the things I liked, the one more capable of making me happy. I believe we all have the right to do that. So, I set up my practice and started charging for something I had always done for pure pleasure. I still love to go once in a while to a coffee shop to do free readings, and I am doing a similar thing now somewhere on the web. But I wonder why we are so troubled by charging money. I am not accusing, nor criticizing, just wondering. When I was working on radio, writing very UnPC jokes and trying to make some damage to all these things I hated about society, I got paid handsomely. So, now that instead of my own neurosis I am giving something beautiful to the world, I should also be paid for it. Curiously, though, in this world you get more money for being a jerk that for being human. That has been the hardest lesson to learn.

Best,

Enrique Enriquez

 

[firemaiden]

Firemaiden -- I tried to find the Victorian Romantic deck, but what I found wasn't published yet. Is it the same deck? By Alex Ukolov & Karen Mahony?

Thanks! Tamara (novice)

Yes!
www.victorianromantic.com = it is published now...

 

[firemaiden]

Firemaiden,

That was another beautiful post!

Thank you!!

In 2001, I was enjoying a 15-year long career as a multimedia artist, comedian, and provocateur, when those planes stroke the Twin Towers...

ooo! I bet you were good! I was in Manhattan on that day too.... and so was another AT-er (in the right place at the wrong time), it turned out to be some kind of rude awakening to say the least!

Immediately after the crash I learnt that irony wouldn't be able to fulfill its promise to protect me from pain. It was useless. Shortly after this disaster, while going through my 10th airport security check, I also realized that imagination was always on the bad guys' side.

Ouch~!! (but interesting!)

It was hard for me to understand what to feel or how to react. I was a proud exponent of the post-Simpson cynic era, but cynicism wasn't useful to cope with death, frustration and fear. Besides, living in New York I was far away from my country, starting over again in a city full of characters and stories, and I kept wondering, where do I fit? How can I relate with everybody's story? In which parts of my past could I find the tools to deal with the present?

Yeah, it was a bad time to be a comic, or a comic writer. Or it seemed to be. (I am fond of saying however, we Jews didn't survive four thousand years of suffering without a sense of humour).

It took me a long time to understand my personal story. Little by little I realized that I had done many different things in my life, but all of them had one thing in common: I was always telling a story. I could use drawings, paintings, sculptures, books, and even media like the radio, film and TV, but I was always telling stories. I was a storyteller all along. But all these stories were lacking something important, because they had to fit the mainstream and its wrong conception of people: we are all the same and we all want the same. When you force yourself to believe this, people start becoming guinea pigs instead of individuals, and you stop believing your own tales.

Scary thoughts! George Orwell's "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" addresses this issue of mainstream-ism, and how it squeezes out the artist. (Really cool story)

I became aware of that concept after a lot of internal struggle, and more importantly, I knew first hand how hard it is for us to apprehend our own lives as stories, that is, to make sense of our own life under the premise that LIVING IS NARRATIVE. It took me a while to assemble my personal story in a way that could be useful for the future, transforming my own tale to change my life, but by doing so I understood that I had the talent to help others to do the same.

Transforming your own tale to change your life... Wow! are you my twin?? Parallel paths. I feel like I"m reading my biography. Living is narrative.. living AS narrative... Joan Didion wrote "we tell ourselves stories in order to live". This paragraph from you stuns me, it was the precise thought I had been having - I have always written my life - first it was the adolescent journal - and then the realisation, if I do something interesting, there will be something to write, - so I became adventursome, purposely getting myself into odd situations in order to write... and the realisation came the reverse could happen, you could write the story first and then live it too. If life is narrative, you might as well write it the way you want it to be...and if life is a Hollywood film with two optional endings, you choose the happy one.

In order to help me in this process I turned to five passions that I have been cultivating all my life, almost in secret: magic, mentalism, cartomancy and divination. When we think of divination we imagine some darkness ahead of us, and certain people with mysterious tools who can shade some light over our shadows, making the way clearer for us. But what if we carried that darkness within ourselves, and we didn't even know what we knew or who we are?

Yes, what if? I learned the hard way -- I must remain respectful of that place within that will always remain unknowable. To deny it, and buy the illusion of complete self-knowledge, self-ownership, and self control, is to ask to be kicked to pieces... And what if we each remained reverant of that silent, untameable last wild patch, that is our part of infinity, our part of God?

For me Divination isn't about knowing the future, but about preparing ourselves to create the future we want. I see divination as a process in which we connect with our inner wisdom, fueling our intuition. In the process, we regain our imagination, a very important part of ourselves that has been kidnapped by Hollywood, the media, and all the "dream dealers". We all take imagination for granted but, to be frank, we imagine very little. Divining is a way to stop this. We can't afford to leave imagination in the hands of terrorists.

This is one of the most interesting paragraphs I have ever read on AT. Divining as a way of rekindling the imagination, yes! That has been its principle role for me! Absolutely!!

So, one day, I quite everything and decided to become a diviner. Until then, that was something I did on the side; but at that point I decided to choose, among all the things I liked, the one more capable of making me happy. I believe we all have the right to do that. So, I set up my practice and started charging for something I had always done for pure pleasure. I still love to go once in a while to a coffee shop to do free readings, and I am doing a similar thing now somewhere on the web. But I wonder why we are so troubled by charging money. I am not accusing, nor criticizing, just wondering. When I was working on radio, writing very UnPC jokes and trying to make some damage to all these things I hated about society, I got paid handsomely. So, now that instead of my own neurosis I am giving something beautiful to the world, I should also be paid for it. Curiously, though, in this world you get more money for being a jerk that for being human. That has been the hardest lesson to learn.

LOL. Perhaps you could do a little bit of both ? hahahahah.

Wow Enrique, what a fascinating post, and you've just gotten started. I'm really really happy you're here. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!!

 

[firemaiden]

Oh firemaiden I thought you looked a little different today..do you feel different?

My first time I almost fainted...no kidding,
I got so into it that the room started to spin and everything went black for a minute.
Now I ground, center, breath right, and drink water.
But that's really not as fun as the spinning in the dark

LOL, does it show on my face ? (do you remember thinking that? gasp). Wow, that room spinning thing that sounds like stage fright. Yes, my frequent friend - sky diving for land-dwellers. Glad you survived

 

[Baroli]

How I lost my virginity? Well, there was this backseat,........OH! you mean with Tarot and money exchange. Well,...(ahem, Baroli readjusts her thinking), I was in college having done some readings on herself and a couple of friends, I went to the student union and sat there and continuously shuffled my rather battered RW, and as I watched people walking in, I would fix on one person and draw a card and start reading it, they would be intrigued and sit down. To my left side I had the good 'ol "tip" glass. So it was shall we say their choice whether or not to pay for a 1-card reading, which they did, anywhere from small change to 1.00. I consider that my first attempt with money exchange, (and I got a lot of dates that way too.)


Baroli ~*Still crazy, after all these years* ~~Paul Simon

 

[Alissa]

Congratulations fire, it is long overdue.

The world needs your light, that woman needed your light. Money just help "seal the deal" - in our mind and in theirs.

Many blessings....