Monday, March 25, 2013

My favorite versions of "Alice in Wonderland"

While I'm enjoying a fine meritage, absorbing the scents of a heady patchouli incense, and thrilling to Jonathan Miller's exquisitely trippy 60s version of "Alice in Wonderland", I realize that, as a life-long Alice aficionado, it's about time to list my Top Three versions of the story, in order.  Because they all have something to do with my Mid-Century heritage and my penchant for the sense of experimentation inherent in the era:

Number One Version: the one in my head when I read the original text.  The classic Tenniel drawings come to life.  And the voices in my head are, truly, more mystical and vibrant than any other interpretation.



Number Two Version: Hands down, the 1951 Disney animated version.  Because this one has songs and, even more importantly,the incredible artwork of the supreme and sublime Mary Blair.Pay close attention to the film next time you watch: the backgrounds are almost ALL Blair.
Beyond-wonderful Mary Blair concept art for the Disney version.

And, newly realized, as of 8 PM today:

Number Three Version: the 1966 Jonathan Miller BBC TV play.

Sitar music.  Peter Cook as the Mad Hatter.  And an Alice who tumbles through her own world, no animal caricatures in sight, but real adults showing up as the mad, stressed-out caricatures themselves, trying to make sense out of the nonsensical Victorian world they're a part of.  As Miller put it himself, "Once you take the animal heads off, you begin to see what it's all about. A small child, surrounded by hurrying, worried people, thinking 'Is that what being grown up is like?'"

What could possibly hedge out these Top Three?  That would be the much-anticipated tarot version, as interpreted by Baba Studio of Prague, the launch date (hopefully) this autumn.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Monday is Tarot Day: it's interesting what a little stress will produce.

It's rare that I have a dream that actually shakes me up and wakes me up and rattles me, making me wonder, "Whoa. Did this just happen for REAL?"

Last night I had one of those dreams.

Now, it could've stemmed from partaking in the sampler appetizer basket and a Guinness during a St. Pat's celebration with buddies last night. My constitution is not entirely accepting of deep-fried cheese balls and teensy fried flautas filled with a spicy, meat-like substance. But methinks my nocturnal frightfest had more to do with stress, with me worrying about a show I auditioned for. Naughty me; you'd think after all these years I'd let these things just roll off my back, but when it has to do with your most favorite role in your most favorite show, and hoping you're going to work with those you love, well, the stress and worry has a way of seeping into the crevices of your brain and voila! out pops a nightmare.

I don't recall the entire dream, but I do remember this much: I'm in Vegas, it's for a tarot conference, and there's a new casino going up across the street from where I'm standing. It's got Italian theming (perhaps an add-on to the already-built Venetian?) and they've constructed a Vegas-sized Leaning Tower of Pisa. Right next to it, they're in the throes of erecting yet another tower, but this one is leaning toward the Little Pisa. Men are still at work on the structure, scaffolding holding up the highest point of it like a floating top hat. It's at this moment I realize it bears a striking resemblance to the Tower card from the tarot's Major Arcana.


And all at once, the card comes to life. A loud, metallic pop thwacks through the usual Vegas strip busyness, followed by a succession of gut-curdling wooden cracks. The scaffolding gives way around the tower-in-progress, tossing construction workers to their unfortunate doom. Screams riddle the air, smoke and debris rise up from the collapsed tower, now laid low, resembling a pile of ragged, scattered pick-up sticks.

The Tower card is not one I usually take lightly in a reading. I always give credence to the other cards surrounding the Tower; they'll shine a light on the card's meaning, hopefully adding a more positive influence. The Tower, all by itself, is a card of cataclysm, and a quick, often nasty one at that.

I'm in no way saying this dream was prophetic. But I am saying that my mind is under a larger amount of stress than it usually is. And the Tower popped up in my dream to help me release a little of that pressure.  It's all about psychology sometimes.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Monday is Tarot Day: I shall pick a random card!

Okay, kiddies.  Go pour yourself some nice, comforting tea, sit in your cozy chair and get ready.  I'm going to pull a card at random and tell you what I glean from it.  I actually have a specific question in mind, but I will refrain from sharing that (it's a secret).  Still, I think you'll learn something from this little lesson nonetheless.

I find a one-card reading to be very powerful.  the onus of the situation is seated in the interpretation of the one, single card.  It's quite "in your face" and clear. You get no help from neighboring cards and you don't pick an additional card for clarity or anything like that.  It's a tarot highwire act.

The Victorian Romantic Tarot, Second EditionFirst of all, I'm using the Victorian romantic Tarot from Baba Studio, Prague: http://magic-realist.com/victorian-romantic-tarot/  I have the second edition of the deck; Magic Realist Press decks quite often sell out and become collector's items, so I'm very fortunate to own this one, as well as a few other from these groovy Czechs.

Ready for the magic? I know I am, and I'm certainly ready to get inspired and gain a little wisdom about something that's been nagging at me for a bit.  So, I open the beautiful presentation box up, remove the cards, and start to shuffling, all the while focusing on the matter at hand.  Asking my angels and guides to grant me wisdom and clarity.  What energies are surrounding this situation?

(oh, and just so you know - I'm a lousy shuffler, and you'd think I'd have gotten better after doing tarot for about one-third of this lifetime, but I haven't.)

Anyway, I just used my ring finger on my left hand, which seems to be the most psychic and sensitive, to sense which card wishes to jump out and aid me today and ... here goes...

The Three of Cups!

Interesting!  I wrote a recent blog post about this very card, in reference to my wonderful Disney birthday celebration and how I'm looking at this whole year as an extension of that Party Atmosphere.  2013: One Big Party!

Hmmm... very curious, timely, and fitting (and POSITIVE) for the situation I'm inquiring about.

Take a look at these girls!  It's like "Hello Dolly" meets "Can-Can" meets "Phantom of the Opera" (but the light-hearted parts of that show only).  It's about celebration and camaraderie and girl power (although the man pictured in the card seems to have had SO much fun, he's passed out with a bucket of champagne at his side).  Festivity surrounds this situation.  Sharing and goodness and creativity and wonderful emotional connection.

Thanks, Magic Realist Victorian Romantic Tarot for my one-card reading for the day.

In answer to my query: Yes.  I think I will.


Monday, March 4, 2013

My visit to BMSE: the Body, Mind, Spirit Expo

The smell of essential oils greets you, enveloping you upon your arrival.  Gongs brrrrnnnngggg and gemstone bracelets twinkle as you walk through the aisles of vendors.  Healers promise (possible) miracles, psychics sit and await your patronage (wearing a disparate array of kaftans, bindis, and, at times, bored expressions).  You are drawn to tables where people lie horizontally on massage tables while practitioners wave hands over them, ring bells, say chants.  Yes, you've arrived at a BMSE, a Body, Mind, Spirit Expo and you're about to be dazzled, confused, and quite possibly changed forever.  And all in the span of a few hours' worth of your time.  Presto!  And Chango!


No FrameIf it seems like I'm being flippant, I do apologize.  I really do enjoy BMSEs, but sometimes the onslaught of energies can be overpowering, especially to a sensitive type like myself.  My Water Rabbit soul simultaneously wants to throw her whole self in, and hide in the corner.  Let me elaborate on my experience this time around.

I ambled in around 11 AM, smelled the oils, saw the glittery gems, and was drawn to the "rock guy" who had stone upon stone and ...crystal skulls.  My head immediately began to pound and I felt woozy.  Yet I was intrigued to have an audience with these skulls, so I paid a nominal fee to sit with them.  Literally, I sat, with my hands on either side of their crystalline craniums, a trio of glassy noggins waiting to clear my negative energies and let in the good stuff.  I breathed out the ick, breathed in the clarity.  I felt much better.  I thanked each skull by name and continued on my way.

That's when I encountered the psychic who I spent 30 minutes with.  Initially, it was going to be a quick 15-minute reading, but when I sat and we connected and she hit upon every little bit of energetic disturbance I'd been feeling for the past few weeks, and we explored my spiritual journey and she knew more about my energy fields than I'd ever let on, and she confirmed every single change and vibration I'd had, and she gave me tools to help identify my energies, to protect myself, I stayed for a full half-hour. It was some of the best money I've ever spent at a BMSE.

Well, it was time for a lecture, so I studied my BMSE guide and saw that some guy who works to help clear folks of unwanted, attached energies was just beginning his schpeil.  It was after the noon start time for his lecture by now, so I slinked into the back of the room and settled in.  He spoke about how much mental illness and depression can be linked to folks actually being under psychic attack by ghosts, ghoulies, ETs (not the cute ones who played in Drew Barrymore's closet), and an array of uninvited, unwanted spirit "guests".  He related the story of a case where new parents had a baby that would not stop crying - until he was finally summoned and cleared the baby's energy fields of past life "haunts".  Imagine that: a tiny infant, a new life, can be affected by things like that.  Blew my mind.

So, "energies" was the Word of the Day.  And I had no idea how clearly this would be played out until I sat through a presentation from the keynote speaker, Gail Thackray.

Thackray was scheduled to present in the same room, so I moved closer to the front and sat tight, while a cavalcade of BMSEgoers piled in.  A much larger room should've been secured for Thackray, because she was definitely a popular draw.  And what we all experienced was deep, moving, and, possibly, life-changing. 

Petite, tanned, and pretty, Thackray energetically (there's that word again) shared with us how a visit to Brazil to see John of God changed her life, setting her on the course to become a spiritual teacher and healer.  She then had some audience members volunteer to come up and experience healings.  What was interesting was that each person she brought up had some sort of situation that was very similar to one of my own, either in physical form (lower back pain, for example), or spiritually.  She then had all of us place our hands on the body area in question, relating how the physical space correlated with something energetic or spiritual.  She asked us all if we wanted to release this blockage and, if so, to rally a unanimous "Yes!", which we all chorused.  And, by golly, I felt energetic shifts in each affected area.  Moments before she asked if we'd felt anything in our stomachs, a warmth or uneasiness, I had felt a slight tummy upset.  This meant that spirit was, indeed, working through us.

She also led us in a guided meditation to help connect and harness God's energy.  I found the experience profoundly moving; there were moments that were extremely personal which I won't share here.  Suffice to say, it was cathartic and beautiful.

I left the room lighter, lifted, and felt that I was somehow "shifted" in the deepest recesses of my body and spirit.  It's difficult to describe.  I tried to go back to the vendors' area and felt, quite literally, as if my spirit guides or angels pushed me on the back and gently swept me out of the space.  I got the clear, resonant message that I needed to go home, keep warm, drink water, and invest in an evening of spectacular self care.

It was only 2:15.  All that happened in just over three hours' time.  Cleared out, rearranged, vibrant and, quite possibly, healed of a couple pesky physical ailments, as well as some lingering energetic ones.

It's now 27 hours since the healing session.  I've had to throw myself into life full-out, giving a lecture about my book, "The Cotton Candy Road Trip" to an auditorium full of teen-agers, then getting ready for a class I'm taking this evening, and writing this blog post.  Do I feel any different? Yes, relaxed and at ease, but also slightly elevated from the usual earthly energy fields.  I'm curious to see how the effects will last, how things will continue to shift, or if things will fall back into place the way they've always been.  What's curious is that Thackray said once we're part of her email list, she keeps us nearby energetically.

As my slightly cynical, yet always curious mom would say, "Well, we'll see ..."