To everyone who's posted about their methods of daily draws . . . thankyou so much! I can't put my finger on whose "method" I've taken up, as my new approach seems a rather organic cake batter
of everyone's ideas, to a point.
Firstly, I'm doing them at night, now. I'm drawing three cards -
1: Where did I progress today?
2: What do I need to leave behind in today?
3: What do I need to take forward from today into tomorrow?
It took me about two hours to do it last night
!! When I do readings, I handwrite them, like so many of you. I don't exactly enjoy writing (the physical act, that is) although I have nice handwriting so it's not all bad
. But I find myself exploring the minutiae of the card in context, and comparing them at length, and chasing down poor frightened little ideas and shaking them till nothing else falls out! This way of doing a daily reading as opposed to a quickie daily draw is a strain on my time, but I hope it's a bit more productive than my previous approach.
I've journalled on two cards. I know, it's not much. But I suk at the "journalling in a vacuum" thing, and laying cards out for the purpose of looking at them in context
without a reading per se makes no sense to me . . . at this stage. So I'm journalling with cards that "chase" me around. First, it was the 8 of Swords. It haunted me, my thoughts and dreams, from the moment I read the book section on it. So I had to journal it. This morning, I did two pages on the 5 of Cups. Beautiful card. I love the abalone shells - who'd have thought you could paint mother-of-pearl with watercolours!!!??? I found that I had a lot to say about it, so I'm beginning to think that I'll journal the standalone cards when they ask it. I think it might be the Hanged Man next, with his shredded, discarded Emperor's robes . . .
Readings are still erratic. The card meanings are so non-traditional, but also in some cases non-intuitive, that it makes it so hard to get a reading to
flow. I find that a frustrating thing, as I'm so used to being able to read with a deck as soon as I get my hands on it. Even the Universal Fantasy, whose imagery is strange and difficult at times, is easier than this.
And, to my surprise and mild annoyance, I'm finding that I bond better with the cards using modern imagery. It's highlighted a kind of escapism in me - it made me ask myself why I like the "old" images, medieval type ones and fantastical characters. I realised that I didn't want to see magic in my everyday world. But half the deck's point is to help you to see that, and now I'm really connecting with cards like the 8, 9 and 10 of Swords. I just love the three turbines with their three blades each for the nine . . . so cute and clever, and such a beautiful rendering of what is touted as an ugly eyesore. Tell me, if you can, someone - how much worse looking is a vast field of symmetrical, quiet, majestic turbines . . . than a smoke-shrouded coal plant?
Sorry . . . off-topic. On soap-box.
Scion said:
17 (
seventeen!) pages today...
including a 2500 word chapter that's a user-friendly intro to the Ars Memoria. All written this afternooon after I came home from a lunch meeting with producers.
Not really sure
how it happened, but it happened and I just reread them and they're coherent. It's freaky how much weird trivia is stuffed into my head.
Thorhammer: what did you get me into?!
For the record writing expository prose is SO much easier than scripting. I
always forget this, but it's always such a welcome discovery when I remember.
Writing this is even gradually changing how I see the Liber T, because I'm starting to put my finger on what I find so compelling about it.
Good for you! Wow, that's so much to write in one afternoon! I'm so happy that you're getting great results, and I'm pleased and proud to be a small part of the process of writing a book that I'll no doubt get my teeth into at a later date!
\m/ Kat
