Thalia Took
Well, okay then. Here I am.
I did the artwork for the deck I am (provisionally) calling the Goddess Oracle Deck (knowing that there is another of the same name by Hrana Janto and Amy Sophia Marashinsky it is just a working title) about ten years ago now, in a burst of energy caused, I'm afraid, by an extremely unhappy transformational year I was living through (Saturn return, I guess you'd call it: the proof being that Kali was the first Goddess I found myself painting--yikes!)
Since then I've been working on writing the book; but lately I've gotten really, really stuck. I find myself in another transformational year (they seem to come up for me every decade) and so am reevaluating pretty much everything (the Jungians would probably call it individuation): and working on a project I started a good decade ago has not been on the top of my want-to-do list.
So, I guess, what I'm asking for here is some help, advice, or encouragement. Though advice of the kind 'just sit down and do it' is probably not going to be helpful, since that's what I've been telling myself for years, and so far all that's produced in me is rebellion.
So let's see. Here's how I am approaching writing the book. Each of the 81 Goddesses gets a page (I'm keeping it to one single spaced 8 1/2 by 11 12-point type piece of paper, just to keep them all about the same length and not too long, because I can certainly ramble) which tells of Her history, culture, any legends or myths She might have, what She is the Goddess of, the interpretation for the card itself, epithets or alternate names for the Goddess to help round out Her personality a bit, and finally, traditional offerings to that Goddess, as I'm coming at this from the perspective of a Pagan/Wiccan Goddess worshiper, and would want to know how to make use of the cards in a spell and/or approach said Goddess respectfully in ritual.
Each Goddess also gets a story or tale told from Her point of view (inspired in the beginning from Ari Berk's tale of Taliesin in Brian Froud's book The Runes of Elfland--I read that and just HAD to write one from Cerridwen's point of view); I've done quite a few of those already, though not lately. Those, I find, are the ones that really have to be (divinely) inspired for me to write. It's pretty much channelling, I suppose, those stories.
I am also going to include several spreads, of course.
So. Here's the link to the index page for my Goddess Oracle Deck http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/goddesses.html
In the left menu are links to each of the 81 Goddesses; on the right are links to the stories, the tales of the Goddesses I've written so far (I have not put up the information and interpretation pages I've done).
So again I'm looking for encouragement or advice. I would especially appreciate feedback on the stories I've written; I put them up and have pretty much gotten no comments on them and it feels rather like I've dropped them into a black hole. I'm probably not particularly sensitive to criticism (I survived RISD after all) though be warned I am quite stubborn and sure of my ways, so I may not take your advice, either.
Or, if anyone out there would just like to talk about one of the Goddesses I've done for the deck, or has questions about the art or the stories, or why I painted Who, or what is Cerridwen doing, or why 81 of them? that would be good too, and will hopefully get me thinking about them and back into some kind of groove. Also I'm happy to answer questions anyway.
I have been picking a Goddess every week on my blog, to try to help get me thinking about the deck, too. Assuming I can link to that as it is part of the process of writing about this deck, the link is:
http://amusedgrace.blogspot.com/
Feel free to leave comments there, too.
So maybe I should start by asking a question guaranteed to get me some positive and encouraging feedback: do any of you have a favorite Goddess from my deck?
I did the artwork for the deck I am (provisionally) calling the Goddess Oracle Deck (knowing that there is another of the same name by Hrana Janto and Amy Sophia Marashinsky it is just a working title) about ten years ago now, in a burst of energy caused, I'm afraid, by an extremely unhappy transformational year I was living through (Saturn return, I guess you'd call it: the proof being that Kali was the first Goddess I found myself painting--yikes!)
Since then I've been working on writing the book; but lately I've gotten really, really stuck. I find myself in another transformational year (they seem to come up for me every decade) and so am reevaluating pretty much everything (the Jungians would probably call it individuation): and working on a project I started a good decade ago has not been on the top of my want-to-do list.
So, I guess, what I'm asking for here is some help, advice, or encouragement. Though advice of the kind 'just sit down and do it' is probably not going to be helpful, since that's what I've been telling myself for years, and so far all that's produced in me is rebellion.
So let's see. Here's how I am approaching writing the book. Each of the 81 Goddesses gets a page (I'm keeping it to one single spaced 8 1/2 by 11 12-point type piece of paper, just to keep them all about the same length and not too long, because I can certainly ramble) which tells of Her history, culture, any legends or myths She might have, what She is the Goddess of, the interpretation for the card itself, epithets or alternate names for the Goddess to help round out Her personality a bit, and finally, traditional offerings to that Goddess, as I'm coming at this from the perspective of a Pagan/Wiccan Goddess worshiper, and would want to know how to make use of the cards in a spell and/or approach said Goddess respectfully in ritual.
Each Goddess also gets a story or tale told from Her point of view (inspired in the beginning from Ari Berk's tale of Taliesin in Brian Froud's book The Runes of Elfland--I read that and just HAD to write one from Cerridwen's point of view); I've done quite a few of those already, though not lately. Those, I find, are the ones that really have to be (divinely) inspired for me to write. It's pretty much channelling, I suppose, those stories.
I am also going to include several spreads, of course.
So. Here's the link to the index page for my Goddess Oracle Deck http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/goddesses.html
In the left menu are links to each of the 81 Goddesses; on the right are links to the stories, the tales of the Goddesses I've written so far (I have not put up the information and interpretation pages I've done).
So again I'm looking for encouragement or advice. I would especially appreciate feedback on the stories I've written; I put them up and have pretty much gotten no comments on them and it feels rather like I've dropped them into a black hole. I'm probably not particularly sensitive to criticism (I survived RISD after all) though be warned I am quite stubborn and sure of my ways, so I may not take your advice, either.
Or, if anyone out there would just like to talk about one of the Goddesses I've done for the deck, or has questions about the art or the stories, or why I painted Who, or what is Cerridwen doing, or why 81 of them? that would be good too, and will hopefully get me thinking about them and back into some kind of groove. Also I'm happy to answer questions anyway.
I have been picking a Goddess every week on my blog, to try to help get me thinking about the deck, too. Assuming I can link to that as it is part of the process of writing about this deck, the link is:
http://amusedgrace.blogspot.com/
Feel free to leave comments there, too.
So maybe I should start by asking a question guaranteed to get me some positive and encouraging feedback: do any of you have a favorite Goddess from my deck?