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Posted in Matilda's, Tarot Story Exchanges, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Waltz with a Tarot4Health ‘Tilda

Posted on by Heather Blakey

Julia Rajagopalan is a certified nutritionist, yoga teacher, writer, and witch. She has been reading tarot for over 20 years.

Why Tarot for Health

On the surface, tarot and witchcraft don’t seem to have much to do with health and wellness. I don’t need tarot cards to predict a Friday night pizza binge, and I can’t brew a magic potion to lose 40 pounds.

So, why use Tarot and spell work in the wellness world?

A few years ago, I worked at a wellness company that coached people on their nutrition and eating habits. The vast majority of clients were there to lose weight. To help them reach their goals, coaches educated clients on nutrition and healthy behaviors. What I found, however, was that clients already knew what they should do to get healthy. The clients knew they should eat less sugar and more lean protein. They knew they should move more and sit less.

But they weren’t doing it.

The disconnect came when applying that knowledge to everyday habits. As I researched the science of motivation and habit formation, I started hearing words like mindfulness, intuition, awareness, and intention. As a practicing witch, these were terms very familiar. I’ve been reading tarot for twenty years and dabbled in witchcraft for almost as long.

The first thing a witch does when they start a spell is set an intention. Deciding what you want the spell to do is just as important as doing the spell itself. This is similar to finding your WHY for health changes. Finding your WHY allows you to get clear about your goals and motivation. If you’re clear about your WHY, you’re more likely to act.

In 2014, I left my job in the education industry and moved with my husband to New Delhi, India. My husband, who grew up in India, was transferred there for work. While in India, I studied Vinyasa and Yin Yoga, as well as Ayurveda. Before India, my yoga practice had been purely for exercise, but after studying the Vedic philosophies, I realized there’s so much more to it.

Tarot is also more complex than people realize. Many think the tarot is just a tool for predicting the future. However, Tarot is most impactful when used to understand the self. Tarot allows us to access our subconscious mind, to understand our true desires. It helps us process the massive amount of information in our brains to extract insights that impact our lives. Tarot tells us things we already know but don’t understand.

This can be invaluable when identifying health habits that don’t serve us. Why do I plop on the couch every night instead of going for a walk? Why do I skip Friday yoga, even though I love doing it? Why do I automatically reach for that glass of wine after a phone call with my mother? Tarot cards are archetypal thought prompts to help us identify things hidden in our subconscious.

Soon after we returned to the United States, the pandemic hit. During the pandemic, something became abundantly clear. I had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. I’ve been sober for over two and a half years now, and I attribute my sobriety to wonderful organizations like Secular AA, Recovery Dharma, and Y12SR. I also believe tools like tarot and witchcraft helped me in my recovery.

For me, dealing with cravings means delaying and distracting. When feeling a craving, I often read tarot, do yoga, or create a spell. Tarot and witchcraft are excellent distractions that encourage mindfulness and intuition. I believe these practices can help others make healthier choices, too.

Why do I know using tarot and witchcraft for health works? I was 225 pounds at my heaviest, and I was able to use tarot and witchcraft, along with yoga and mindful eating, to get healthy and lose nearly 40 pounds. I’m still a work in progress, but by using these practices, I’ve found lasting success.

Yoga, tarot, and witchcraft offer alternative approaches that empower people to take control of their health journeys in a way that feels authentic and meaningful. Most of us will never become powerlifters, and not everyone wants to throw giant tires around as exercise. People don’t want to eat only grilled chicken breast for the rest of their lives. That’s not a welcoming world, and it’s not even effective in making sustainable health changes. The wellness world should be welcoming to everyone, and I want all people to feel safe and heard in their journeys to health and well-being.

I recently created a Udemy course that uses tarot and witchcraft to get healthy and achieve lasting wellness. I am also completing a grimoire workbook to help people on their health journeys. Check out the course on Udemy.

Tarot4Health on Instagram

Follow Julia on Instagram @tarot4health to benefit from spreads like these.

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Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Tarot Story Exchanges, Women's Health, Women's Stories

How Would You Waltz With A Matilda?

Posted on by Heather Blakey

As the host of this interactive site I am endeavouring to redress the Matilda Effect by waltzing with Australian women, identifying Tarot cards that help tell their stories. However, there is no set way to Waltz with a Matilda. The main object is to redress the Matilda Effect and bring the achievements of diverse women out of the shadows.

 Christina Macpherson’s story is just one example of the Matilda Effect as it applies in a more general sense. Her contribution to the iconic Australian ballad, Waltzing Matilda, was relegated to the shadows. It was Banjo Patterson who got to be immortalised and bask in the associated glory.

Despite the reference to the iconic, unofficial Australian anthem, you do not have to be Australian or profile an Australian woman to engage with this project. There is no requirement to use a Tarot deck if its not your thing. You are simply provided with an opportunity to redress the Matilda Effect by bringing the women’s stories out of the shadows in any way you deem appropriate

If you decide to engage I will link to your work and or feature your profiles on this site.

How will you fight the Matilda Effect and cast a spotlight on extraordinary women? Will you take the opportunity to devise your own dance and be featured here?

Waltzing with Matilda’s

  • The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago is an important icon of 1970s feminist art and a milestone in twentieth-century art. This installation comprises a massive ceremonial banquet, arranged on a triangular table with a total of thirty-nine place settings, each commemorating an important woman from history.
  • It is no secret that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are placed well down on the scale of relevance and importance in Australia. They are invariably the last to be recognised. Perhaps this is because of their tireless pursuit of rights and betterment for their people. This may explain why individual achievements are rarely important and why they are often overlooked and don’t receive credit where credit is due. This Listening Circle provides fourteen places to seat influential First Nations Australian women. This offers an opportunity for deep listening and to redress this lack of acknowledgement.
  • Christine de Pizan (c.1364-1430), France’s first professional woman of letters, confronted the misogynist view that view that female nature is wholly given up to vice.head-on in her seminal work, the City of Ladies. 
  • Waltzing with a Tarot Deck – Heather Blakey, a devotee of the Tarot, waltzes with Tarot decks and matches cards with a life experience or situation faced by an Australian woman. She is also the creator of this site!
  • Follow in the Conversations footsteps. Perhaps, like an archeologist, you will undertake a dig and unearth previously hidden stories about women. You might be inspired to write up a profile and have it published here.
  • Honour Maternal Ancestors: We all have heroines in our own family. They are our mothers, grandmothers, aunts and cousins. They are the women who survived all life’s challenges against all odds to provide for the family or the role models who showed us that family and hard work go hand in hand. Add to the honour role here. Share either a Tarot Profile or do feel free to your own thing.
  • Pacific Matildas: Finding the women in the history of Pacific archaeology, responds to the Matilda Effect. The project aims to investigate the scientific lives of the first women who conducted archaeological work in Oceania from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, and document their hidden contributions to the development of Pacific archaeology, to ensure their stories and legacies become part of broader narratives in the history of science. 
  • Sheila: A Foundation for Women in Visual Art. Known simply as ‘Sheila’, this foundation, honouring the contribution of Lady Sheila Cruthers, was launched in May 2019 and aims “to overturn decades of gender bias by writing Australian women artists back into our art history and ensuring equality for today’s women artists.”
  • More Ways to Waltz with a A Matilda
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Waltzing With The Major Arcana

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Major Arcana are the first twenty-two named cards within a tarot pack, known as the anchors of any tarot reading, with each card carrying a special meaning. As a whole, it is traditionally referred to as the Fool’s Journey, which is symbolic of one’s life experiences and voyage to self-discovery.

Matchmaker matchmaker make me a match. Help me match an Australian women’s life story with each of the Major Arcana cards.

The Fool – Minnie Berrington – Opal Miner
The Magician – Professor Fiona Woods
High Priestess – Barangaroo
The Empress – Catherine Helen Spence
The Emperor – Simone Young
The Hierophant – Sister Mary McKillop
Lovers – Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal)
The Chariot – Fanny Finch
Strength – Robyn Davidson
The Hermit – Terri Ridgway – Girl Robinson Crusoe
The Wheel of Fortune – The Eulo Queen
Justice – Christine Nixon – Former Chief Commissioner of Police
The Hanged Man – Charmaine Clift
Death – Helen Callanan
Temperance – Marie E Kirk
The Devil – Ann Hamilton-Byrne
The Tower – Rosemary Batty
The Star – Fay Catherine Howe
The Moon – Joan Lindsay
The Sun – Lane Beachley
Judgement – Corby and Chamberlain – Trial by Media
The World – The Turbo Charged Matilda’s Football Team

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Waltzing with the Suit of Cups

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The watery cups are closely associated with Jung’s feeling function and the emotional realm. They speak of connection, love, dreams, wishes, and happiness. However they also address sorrow and vulnerability.

Ace of Cups – Zora Cross
Two of Cups – Phyllis Papps and Francesca Curtis
Three of Cups – Sunday Reid
Four of Cups – Ash Barty
Five of Cups – Marjorie Woodrow – Stolen
Six of Cups – Shirley Purdie
Seven of Cups – Seven Australian Philanthropists
Eight of Cups – Libby Gore (Elle McFeast)
Nine of Cups – Dame Nellie Melba
Ten of Cups – Miles Franklin
The Page of Cups – Evonne Goolagong
The Knight of Cups – Kathleen Ann Gorham
The Queen of Cups – Dame Mary Gilmore
King of Cups – Lady Gladys Nicholls

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Posted in Women's Stories

Waltz with the Suit of Pentacles

Posted on by Heather Blakey

associated with the material realm. Physicality, the body, work, environment. Abundance as well as scarcity and greed.

Ace of Pentacles – Lillian Wightman
Two of Pentacles – Keelen Mailman
Three of Pentacles – Edna Walling
Four of Pentacles – Wealth Accumlation – Gina Rineheart
Five of Pentacles – Eliza Donnithorne
Six of Pentacles – Ruby Hunter
Seven of Pentacles – Mary Penfold
Eight of Pentacles – Martha Clendinning
Nine of Pentacles – Lady Sheila Cruthers
Ten of Pentacles – Mary Reiby
The Page of Pentacles – Emily Kame Kngwarreye
The Knight of Pentacles – Isobel McBryde
Queen of Pentacles – Margaret Fulton
King of Pentacles – Nicola Forrest

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Posted in Women's Stories

Waltzing with the Suit of Wands

Posted on by Heather Blakey

associated with gusto and life force. Excitement, exploration, creative pursuits. Passion as well as grandiosity and impulsiveness

Ace of Wands – Tilly Aston – Founder of Victorian Association of Braille Writers
Two of Wands – Shirley Randell
Three of Wands – Isabelle Letham
Four of Wands – Cheryl Salisbury
Five of Wands – Tarenorerer
Six of Wands – Annette Kellerman
Seven of Wands – Lowitja O’Donoghue
Eight of Wands – Clarice Beckett– one of Australia’s leading female artists
Nine of Wands – Stella Young
Ten of Wands – Charlotte Allingham
Page of Wands – Heather Blakey
Knight of Wands – Aretha Brown
Queen of Wands – Margaret Throsby
King of Wands – Margaret Olley

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Posted in Women's Stories

Waltz with the Suit of Swords

Posted on by Heather Blakey

Swords

associated with the mental realm. Rationality, logic, communication. Useful thoughts as well as anxieties and fears.

Ace of Swords – Catherine Hay Thomson
Two of Swords – Julia Gillard
Three of Swords – Gina Chick
Four of Swords – Leigh Sales
Five of Swords - Isabella Mary Kelly – Pioneer Squatter
Six of Swords – Kay Cottee
Seven of Swords – The Matilda Effect
Eight of Swords – Lindy Chamberlain
Nine of Swords – Carolyn Hunt
Ten of Swords – Catherine Folbigg
Page of Swords – Geraldine Doogue
Knight of Swords – Dorothy Drain
Queen of Swords – Mary Gauldron
King of Swords – Vida Goldstein

Posted in Matilda's, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

A Tilda Applies Hermit Energy

Posted on by Heather Blakey

Been waltzing with Lennox Rees, the creator of very beautiful Coastal Curiosities Oracle and Peculiar Pathways Tarot, who tells me that she adopts a typical Hermit style when she works on new projects. She says that she goes inside herself to form something to show on the outside.

Make sure to click the link to read more about our dance.

You can find Lennox’s deck creations at helloivyly.com. To follow her creative process and artwork make sure to follow her on Instagram over at @helloivyly.

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Nine of Wands – Louisa Lawson

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Nine of Wands shows an injured man, clutching a wand. He looks over his shoulder towards the eight wands that loom over him. He seems weary and worn, as though he has already been through a battle and now must face additional challenges with the presence of these eight wands. As a Nine, though, this is his final challenge before reaching his goal; he must endure this last test of his strength and character before reaching the finish line.
Biddy Tarot

Louisa Lawson (1848-1920), mother of Australian writer and poet, Henry Lawson, was born on 17 February 1848 on Edwin Rouse’s station, Guntawang, near Mudgee, New South Wales. She was the second of twelve children of Henry Albury, station-hand, and his wife Harriet, née Winn, needlewoman. She was educated at Mudgee National School but had to stay home, under the eye of a tyrannical mother, and look after her siblings, instead of learning to teach.

To escape her mother, in 1866, she married a Norwegian-born handyman and gold digger. Between 1867 and 1877, Lawson gave birth to five children, but her husband, Peter, was often away at the goldfields or contract building. A long-suffering bush-woman, Lawson’s life was extraordinarily tough and manage with so little money and a husband who was frequently away. After her husband Peter finally left, she worked tirelessly to secure income for the family.

Mortality rates were high at this time. Louisa’s grief over the loss of one of her twin daughters is expressed in this poem.

A Mother’s Answer

You ask me, dear child, why thus sadly I weep
For baby the angels have taken to keep;
Altho’ she is safe, and for ever at rest,
A yearning to see her will rise in my breast.
I pray and endeavour to quell it in vain,
But stronger it comes and yet stronger again,
Till all the bright thoughts of her happier lot
Are lost in this one — my baby is not.
And while I thus yearn so intensely to see
This child that the angels are keeping for me,
I doubt for the time where her spirit has flown —
If the love e’en of angels can fully atone
For the loss of a mother’s, mysterious and deep.
I own that thought sinful, yet owning it — weep.

Louisa Lawson (1848 – 1920)

Lawson eventually moved to Sydney with her children in 1883 and Peter sent money irregularly. In 1888 she started Dawn and in doing so was the first female to establish a radical newspaper for women. She announced that it would publicise women’s wrongs, fight their battles and sue for their suffrage. It offered household advice, fashion, poetry, a short story and extensive reporting of women’s activities both locally and overseas. Perhaps most importantly it employed an all female workforce.

Project Gutenberg has a selection of lead articles that appeared in The Dawn.

Of course none of this fully reveals just how tough journey was that led Louisa to her Opus Magnus, what is widely recognised as a significant publication and which to influenced women’s magazines such as the long running Australian Women’s Weekly.

In her book ‘A Collection of Great Australian Women’, Susanna De Vries leaves in no doubt about just what Louisa endured in her lifetime. Sadly, in her final years, after a debilitating fall from a tram she began to lose her memory and was admitted into a hospital for the insane. She died on August 12, 1920.

When the nine of wands appears upright, it indicates that you have a very strong determination and even during times of adversity, you don’t back down and face the challenge upfront. Even if you are tired and exhausted from the battles of life, your determination and persistence do not fail you and you use them to get what you want. The nine of wands stand as a witness to your struggles and appear when you feel battered and bruised. You are struggling to make progress, but just as you feel you are making it, you come across an obstacle

Posted in Matilda's, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Isabel Letham – Three of Wands

Posted on by Heather Blakey

There is so much magic in manifestation. So much alchemy. The Three of Wands is a reminder of that power. It’s a card for sorcery, witchcraft, spellwork. For calling on higher powers, stating intentions, and most importantly, working with the power of your own will. from Little Red Tarot

Screenshot

Some might be aware that surfing is said to have been introduced to Australia by the Hawaiian swimming champion, Duke Kahanamoku. What is less known is that he was accompanied in some of his momentous surfing demonstrations by a teenaged girl from Sydney’s northern beaches who, by tandem board-riding with Kahanamoku at Freshwater Beach in January 1915, earned the contested distinction of being the first Australian to surf.

That Isabel Letham’s name is little known outside the surfing world no doubt says something about the way the sport’s iconography of chiselled jaws and bare, bronzed pectorals has left little room for images of feisty femininity.

Emboldened by this Australian celebrity, Letham decided to try her luck on the silver screen. The US film industry was taking the world by storm, and Hollywood was the place to be. Leaving school at 16, Letham found employment as a sports mistress at elite girls’ school Kambala, and also worked as a private swimming instructor.

The Three of Wands is the threshold we stand on before we throw ourselves into the unknown, it is our opportunity to really assess what the best way forward is so that we can push on with confidence and self-assuredness. Often this position also comes with hesitation and a fear of doing something completely new, but we have to feel the fear and do it anyway.

By August 1918, she’d saved enough for a fare to California. The war was still raging but that was not enough to deter her. Still only in her teens, Letham set sail on the SS Niagara, the “Queen of the Pacific”. She travelled alone and with only the vaguest outline of a plan.

Joanna Gilmour explores the life of female Australian surfing legend Isabel Letham.

Three of Wands Energy

The Three of Wands urges you to step out of your comfort zone and embrace change. It encourages you to think long-term and be open to new experiences. By doing so, you can expand your horizons and achieve even greater success.

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Minnie Berrington – The Fool’s Leap

Posted on by Heather Blakey

New beginnings, innocence, naiveté, childlike trust, carefree enthusiasm, longing to find one’s heart desire, spontaneity, endless potential, inexperience, excitement, leap of faith, risk, reckless, the unknown

She came to Australia with her younger brother Victor on an early assisted passage scheme. Victor landed an adventurous job travelling the far reaches of SA with a hawker and “getting to see the true Australia”. He inspired Minnie to give up her job and come with him.

This is just the beginning! The Fool is Card Zero of the Major Arcana, representing the point where everything begins and ends and begins again. The Fool tarot card is a sign of unlimited and endless potential. It’s a cosmic invitation from the universe to start your next adventure. The world is your oyster, babe! Release your expectations or any preconceived notions because anything can happen right now, you just need to take a leap of faith and dive into the unknown

In 1925, London typist Minnie Berrington left her commonplace life for one of adventure and travelled to Australia with her brother Victor on an early assisted passage scheme. She went on to becoming the first female opal miner and postmistress in the harsh and unforgiving deserts of South Australia. From 1926, for over 20 years, Minnie was an opal mining pioneer in both Coober Pedy and Andamooka.

People always asked Minnie if she was ever afraid, living out in the desert alone with all those rough and scruffy men. But Minnie Berrington was not the faint-hearted type, and never had been. Being tough came naturally to her, growing up with three brothers and a family that went from riches to ruins. Only a slip of a girl, Minnie could match any man in stamina, perseverance and strength.

“A golden light suffused everything,” she wrote. “The air was so clear it seemed to sparkle and the hills were as sharp-cut as the ones that looked so impossible on the stage… The enchantment of that golden serenity was so complete that I knew I would never willingly live in a city again.”

She arrived in Coober Pedy when camels still brought in essential supplies, and water was so scarce that no-one washed. Together with the other miners, she braved the heat, the flies and the dust. Every day she waited for that special sound the pick made when it cracked opal. 

Minnie was not the first woman to be arrive at the Stuart Range Opal Field. Mary Halliday, the wife of an opal miner, preceded her as the first woman

Taking the Plunge

The Fool is a symbol of potential. He is often shown carrying a small bag which emphasizes his status as a wanderer. He embarks on his journey with nothing but pure faith in a higher power (and usually, a dog).

Spread by @notsomysticaltarot.

The Fool encourages you to take a leap of faith. If you have the right mindset, a fresh start awaits you. Take risks. Trust everything will work out in your favor at the end of the day.

There is beauty in innocence and spontaneity. You don’t always have to know what will happen next. It is okay to move on fearlessly even if you still don’t have the perfect plan.

Keep an open mind and open heart.

They Dared Take the Leap

Germaine Greer – Second Wave Feminist Author

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Five of Swords – Isabella Mary Kelly

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Five of Swords is about a battle in which there are no winners – by the time someone had triumphed, it is over anyway. There may ‘officially’ be winner and a loser… but from over here it kinda looks like everyone lost.

The stories that have circulated about Irishwoman Isabella Mary Kelly are amazingly lurid. As recently as the 1970s and 1980s tabloid articles about her feature headlines such as ‘Female settler was tyrant to assigned lags’, ‘Wild ways of grazier Bella’, ‘Sex-hungry tyrant lived by law of the lash’ and ‘Isabella Kelly — a bitter, sadistic hellcat of a woman’. This forensically researched books dispels these outrageous claims and honours her memory.

Isabella Mary Kelly (no relation to Victorian bushranger Ned Kelly) was born in Dublin, and arrived in Australia in 1835, a wealthy single woman in a man’s world. Kelly was surely the only woman who alone in those wild days took up virgin forest for settlement as a pioneer in Australia. She was the first, or one of the very first, ‘free’ selectorson the land north of the Manning. 

Isabella ran her  property herself, using assigned convict labour.  Isabella was disliked by her male counterparts who lived nearby and was eventually accused and convicted of a crime she did not commit She struggled to prove her innocence and obtain justice.

When this card appears in a reading it calls upon you to think about the areas of conflict in your life. Is the fight still worth it? Was it ever worth it at all? The truth is that old grudges eat up our energy, take up brain space and cause you pain and harm. Sometimes it is better to just walk away – even if that means admitting defeat?

In this case however, Isabella, accused amongst other things of being a gun-toting wildcat. does need to have her name cleared. Stories concerning Miss Kelly’s heart-less doings in those wild days have been many, and particularly outrageous tales have easily been attached to this ‘Pioneer in Skirts,’ for she seems to have had very few friends to advocate her cause.

Read the printed material of the tme and you would be led to believe that she was a masculine, evil-minded, ill-tempered, unnatural sort of individual. For instance, it is alleged that she shot down convicts with the two big old horse pistols, that she carried at her belt; that she murdered her maid servant in her tantrums; and even drove chained convicts 50 miles on foot, to Port Macquarie to be flogged after they had saved her own life in a swollen river. 

Such stories are outrageously libellous to her memory, one even accusing her of flogging men to within an inch of their lives for refusing her favours. Most of these accounts end with Kelly receiving her just desserts by dying as an impoverished beggar living in a cellar in Sydney’s dockland in the 1890s.

The truth is less spectacular. Kelly successfully managed her property herself, becoming a noted breeder of horses. Current thinking about Kelly is that she was greatly resented for the free lifestyle she led as an unmarried woman. Posthumously, The Trials of Isabella Mary Kelly, by Maurice Garland offers a different picture of this spirited individual and provides some justice for Isabella. It reveals the lengths her adversaries went to and shows just what a stoic female pioneer she was.

Isabella died in Sydney in 1872, not wealthy but certainly not a beggar. She is now recognised in the Manning River area as a pioneer woman of great determination and ability.

More Five of Swords Women

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Justice and Truth – Lillian Armfield

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Justice card represents justice, fairness, truth and the law. 

Justice represents the balancing of scales. The payment of dues. The ‘right’ outcome. The serving of justice as we enjoy it in films and literature. Social change, progress. Justice is, in principle and by definition, about fairness, balance, equity.

Image Source

he Alchemical Tarot by Robert Place includes a 22nd card entitled Truth. A friend sent me a link to an article titled Mrs Sherlock Holmes’ and the other real female sleuths who were written out of history. This addresses the women who rivalled male private eyes in a masculine world, who sought truth and justice.

One notable female private investigator of the past included Matilda Mitchell, who left the pantomime stage to become head of Selfridge’s “secret service” on Oxford Street in 1912, and Liverpool’s own “Mrs Sherlock Holmes.

This set me, like others, on the trail to find an equivalent Australian. Turns out that Lillian Armfield was Australia’s first female detective. When she and Maude Rhodes began their work as the first constables in the newly formed Womens Police, part of the NSW Police Force, in 1915, World War I was raging in Europe and the Middle East, and Australian troops experienced warfare on a mass scale for the first time as they went ashore at Gallipoli on 25 April.

Lady detectives seem to have come late to Australia. The concept of them was known throughmost of the Victorian era, as they were subject of some popular novels, including Revelations of a Lady Detective  (1864) which was advertised, widely, for many, many, many years in regional Australian newspapers. Tracing them was also complicated because the distinction between police detective and private detectives isn’t always obvious from the context. Still, they don’t appear until near the end of the century and the earliest mentions are from overseas.

Mistress of the Rough Seas

To say things were stacked against Lillian is an understatement.

For one, Armfield had to sign a waiver agreeing that the New South Wales police department she served was not responsible for her safety and welfare, and that no compensation would be provided for injuries sustained during her duties.

Then there was the fact that she wasn’t given a uniform and had to pay for civilian clothes worn on duty. She couldn’t marry either. To top it all, she had to go about her business unarmed and, er, was not allowed to arrest criminals.

Ah, yes… the spinster policewoman with no uniform, no weapon, with no powers of arrest… All they were short of doing was painting a target on her back, saying ‘Assault me’

By the time Christine Nixon, who headed Victoria police, was in power things had certainly changed, but she makes no secret of the fact that she still struggled with the very masculine world of the force.

Female Private Investigation Today

The history of private investigators in Australia is a lesser-known topic since there are no accurate records about the exact year when the first PI agency commenced its operations in the country. However, newspaper articles and court reports suggest that private investigators in Australia have been working since at least the 1880s.

Sydney based Amy Elliot talks about the breadth of work, and the skills she offers. Many might find what she does daunting but Elliot loves her work. She believes that investigators like herself can effect change more quickly than the court system.

On any day her role can embrace.

• Criminal background checks on candidates for a job vacancy for businesses
• Bad debt recovery and collection
• Investigating suspicious business employees
• Insurance or workers compensation claims
• Conducting interviews for investigating workplace theft or harassment complaints
• Investigation and evidence collection through internet forensics
• Process serving for legal cases
• Background checks on to-be spouse before wedding
• Infidelity investigation
• Data recovery from damaged phone or laptop
• Strengthening your case in child custody matters
• Investigating financial fraud

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Jeannie Little Played the Fool

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Fool is the first card in the tarot deck and represents new beginnings, innocence, and being open to whatever life has in store. The Fool depicts a youth walking joyfully into the world. He is taking his first steps, and he is exuberant, joyful, excited

The Fool balances on the edge of the cloud preparing to take the leap into the unknown. Divine Feminine Tarot.

The Fool is often associated with the Royal Court Jester and there is no doubt that Jeannie Little was a talented jester. Jeanne Mitchell, born 11 May 1938 – died 7 November 2020 professionally became known as Jeannie Little, was an Australian entertainer comedienne and television personality who won the Gold Logie in 1977. She was the larger-than-life personality who made all her own flamboyant clothes and captivated audiences with her unique, down-to-earth humour. Knife throwing, paragliding, singing, dancing and riding an elephant were just some of Little’s hilarious highlights when working on The Mike Walsh Show from 1974 to 1982.

Jeannie’s talents seemed to be inexhaustible. She was not only a TV personality but had a long history of being a madcap dressmaker and cabaret performer. In an upstairs alcove in the Sydney suburb of Paddington, she had established her own dressmaking shop where she designed dresses for wealthy women and retired showgirls.

As a result of her work on television during the 70’s and her charismatic personality she not only won the hearts of an adoring public, but was often characterised as a relatively rare example of a female larrikin – a rough, uncultivated Australian.

The Fool carries enormous potential in her back pack and is always excited about beginning new adventures.

Play Like Jeannie

  • Raid a Charity Store. Begin wearing eccentric, hilarious and madcap clothes.
  • Jeannie was paid peanuts and had to be resourceful. She made jackets out of tin foil and dresses covered with balloons, or pale pink prawn crackers and milk bottle caps. As well as the disposable dresses, Jeanne designed edible hats made of food including pizza, french fries, crumpets, bangers and mash, ice cream cones and frankfurters. Come up with your own crazy design.
  • Jeannie had an inexhaustible array of ideas and adventures. Dream up an adventure and set out.
Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Annette Calder – Six of Cups

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Six of Cups raises themes of family and ancestry and where we each come from, specifically in relation to how it these things inform your own life now. It asks us to explore what it feels like to be ‘rooted’ – that may be physically in a space, or it may be in a culture, tradition or lineage that we are part of.

Annette Calder is a third generation ‘showie’ who has been travelling with her laughing clowns for the past 57 years.

Her family is part of a tight travelling community of stallholders that belong to the Victorian Showmen’s Guild, supplying sideshow alley entertainment to agricultural shows across the state.

The Six of Cups represents innocence, nostalgia, and positive thinking. The card has an overall feel of childhood and nostalgia. It embodies feeling free and pure and allowing your past experiences to guide you down new paths.

The Six of Cups from the Legrande Circus and Sideshow Tarot helps add another dimension to the story of this woman who has spent so many years travelling to Agricultural Shows in regional areas of Victoria, Australia. Annette was, as so many Showies are, born into this business. Her parents and grandparents all worked the shows. Sideshow stall holding is often a long-held, multi-generational family affair with many stallholders being related.

It’s no surprise then that the Six of Cups can often be attributed to our inner child and how we tackle our role as both the parent and the child. Often when the Six of Cups appears in a Tarot reading, we are directed to that inner child and what it’s trying to tell us. Of course, even if you are not into reversals it is prudent to remember that sometimes the things that happened to us as children can manifest in our adult lives in unpleasant ways. It could be trauma from neglect or abuse, a specific event that happened that changed our beliefs about ourselves or changed the way we see the world.

Understanding Wisdom of the Past

Nostalgia, memories, childhood, familiarity, rose-colored glasses, stuck in the past

Go through your decks and find some Six of Cups and all the Pages. Study the various versions! Consider what, from the past, you want to examine. What other selves are to be found there? Take the opportunity to work with your younger self.

It may help to do this spread by Hermits Mirror and then journal. The creator explains that when he made it, it was was geared toward understanding wisdom from any of the past versions of ourselves that live within us.

Memory by Zora Bernice May Cross

Late, late last night, when the whole world slept,
Along to the garden of dreams I crept.
And I pulled the bell of an old, old house
Where the moon dipped down like a little white mouse.
I tapped the door and I tossed my head:
“Are you in, little girl? Are you in?” I said.
And while I waited and shook with cold
Through the door tripped me—-just eight years old.
I looked so sweet with my pigtails down,
Tied up with a ribbon of dusky brown,
With a dimpled chin full of childish charme,
And my old black dolly asleep in my arms.
I sat me down when I saw myself,
And I told little tales of a moonland elf.
I laughed and sang as I used to do
When the world was ruled by Little Boy Blue.
Then I danced with a toss and a twirl
And said: “Now have you been a good, good girl?
Have you had much spanking since you were Me?
And does it feel fine to be twenty-three?”
I kissed me then, and I said farewell,
For I’ve earned more spanks than I dared to tell,
And Eight must never see Twenty-three
As she peeps through the door of Memory.

If this appeals go to the Hermit Mirror’s site for more information about this spread.
Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Ellen (Buzzwinkle) Miles – Five of Pentacles

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Five of Coins, or the Five of Pentacles is not a card that is welcome in a spread. The Rider Waite is particularly bleak. It is one of the toughest cards in the deck. Two people walk through the icy wind and snow; both are destitute and living in poverty. One man is injured and on crutches, while the other is barefoot. When upright means to lose all faith, lose resources, lose a loveror lose both financial and emotional security.

By and large the stories of the female convicts who were transported to Australia have remained hidden and have not featured in the history books. Many prevailed and went on to reinvent themselves and become successful but others, like Ellen Miles lived in continual poverty.

In an article featured in The Conversation she is described as a child convict, goldfields pickpocket and vagrant. She lived until 90 and was constantly in and out of gaol and benevolent asylums, until she was too frail to escape the Ballarat institution where she died in 1916.

Ellen’s first appearance in the press had been in 1839: aged 11, she was charged at the Guildhall with passing a counterfeit half-crown to a shopkeeper in Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London. Mr Field, an inspector at the Mint, said that this child was “one of three sisters, all notorious utterers”.

Her story is filled with characters that could appear in a Charles Dickens novel.

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Tarot Story Exchanges, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Meet Jenn Congilaro – Not So Mystical Tarot

Posted on by Heather Blakey

When people are asked to name their favourite tarot card, the Queen of Swords often comes up. Why? Much of her appeal has to do with the fact that this is a strong, powerful person who has been through a lot. So many people relate to this queen’s story. Here we have a person of tenacity and courage.

When asked to identify a card that really speaks to who she is as a creative, Jenn (JenniferAnn) Congilaro, who so many know as the creator of the Not So Mystical Tarot deck, chose the indefatigable Queen of Swords.

Take the time to check out this tilda’s profile here at Waltzing with a Matilda and learn more about her connection to the Queen of Swords.

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Phyllis Kaberry – Anthropologist

Posted on by Heather Blakey

When you get the Strength card in an upright manner during your tarot reading, it shows that you have inner strength and fortitude during moments of danger and distress. It shows that you have the ability to remain calm and strong even when your life is going through immense struggle. It also shows that you are a compassionate person and you always have time for other people even if it’s at your own expense.

Phyllis Kaberry, unlike Margaret Mead, is not listed as one of the top female anthropologists. No doubt because of gender bias her ethnography did not receive the attention that it deserved when it was first published but her work is every bit as fascinating as Meads.

Kaberry was born in the United States in 1910 and moved with her family to Sydney at the age of ten. Educated in Australia she was the first Australian woman to be recognised as a fully trained and qualified anthropologist. She achieved several other ‘firsts’ along the way: she was the first female Australian anthropologist to complete doctoral work, which she did at the London School of Economics in 1938, and the first who took a particularly woman-focused approach to her field work and theories.

Kaberry was a social anthropologist who dedicated her work to the study of women in various societies. Particularly with her work in both Australia and Africa, she paved the way for a feminist approach in anthropological studies.

She was an outstanding and disciplined fieldworker, to judge from my experience, well and critically apprised of the existing documents, and with a brilliant sympathy for the perplexities and moral dilemmas of chiefs, local political leaders, catechists, conservative lineage-heads, tax-collectors, traders, what you will. Her evident integrity attracted a rich deposit of information on social change in this area which may be of capital importance for the future. Her field-notes have been left to the British Library of Economics and Political Science.

Rai Organisation

Kaberry was encouraged by A. P. Elkinan early figure in Australian anthropology and history to work in the Kimberley. Elkin had noted that there was very little understood by outsiders about Aboriginal women and that only half the Aboriginal story was being told. Her main findings were published in 1939 in Aboriginal Woman Sacred and Profane. During her time in the field, she received an Aboriginal name, Nadjeri, and the memory of her stay “has been recorded into a number of indigenous historical narratives” (Toussaint 2002 ; Williams 1988). She was the first researcher to focus on the lives of Aboriginal women (Williams 1988) and her work garnered considerable public as well as academic attention.

Kaberry spent almost two years in the Kimberley travelling from the west to east. She spent most of her time around Moola Bulla near Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing, Forrest River, Turkey Creek, and some of the Dampier Land communities. She travelled extensively with Aboriginal people, walking or riding a mule, was allocated the sub-section or skin group of ‘Nadjeri’, and took her social incorporation and obligations very seriously. Kaberry was interested in languages and seemed to quickly learn the different languages encountered on her travels. When talking with Aboriginal people who knew Kaberry, Dr Toussaint found that she is remembered with respect and affection. She has recorded a number of stories about Kaberry’s travels with Aboriginal people.

The Strength card is a symbol of inner fortitude, which helps us prevail in the face of life’s challenges. Strength is something that needs to be reinforced every day. Just as muscles need to be continuously used to maintain their power, so too does inner-strength need to be habitually exercised.

Newspapers of the time published a number of articles about Kaberry and her research. 

Newspaper Articles

Note that the kind of tabloid writing at the time would be deemed offensive now. This is not a reflection on Kaberry’s work but does reveal her courage and determination and capacity to patiently complete her work.

Posted in Women's Stories

Rosaleen Norton – Devil or High Priestess?

Posted on by Heather Blakey

Rosaleen Norton rose to infamy in the 1950s in Australia, after a series of lurid public scandals in which she was accused of participating in orgies and satanic rituals. She was prosecuted on charges of obscenity and blamed for the downfall of a world-famous conductor. Demonized by the press, her life became fodder for tabloids. 

As all good readers of Tarot cards know, you cannot typecast a person with just one card. Everyone is complex and each card reveals something about each person. A documentary called “The Witch of Kings Cross” — named for Rosaleen Norton’s bohemian neighborhood in Sydney — explores the life of the artist and self-professed witch and shows that scandal isn’t really the heart of Norton’s story.

The High Priestess is an ancient archetypal energy that embodies wisdom, inner knowledge and guidance. She is associated with Mystery, Sensuality, Desirability, Fertility, Creativity, Subconscious, Thirst for knowledge, High power, Intuition, Inner voice and the Divine feminine

Much of Norton’s published material caused particular controversy in Australia during the 1940s and 50s, when the country “was both socially and politically conservative” with Christianity as the dominant faith and at a time when the government “promoted a harsh stance on censorship.” She was also a journalist and illustrator for Smiths Weekly newspaper and a horror story writer.

She challenged many conservative minds of her time and was often in the newspapers and tabloids for her controversial lifestyle and ideas. The public were fascinated and intrigued by her as well as appalled and disgusted by her audacity to be so different to the norm and to dare to be so public about her “unusual” lifestyle.

Follow the links and watch the Youtube video provided here, examine her art and learn more about this fascinating, complex woman. Then you can decide for yourself which cards best speak of her energetic.

Image taken from Visionary Art
Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Wendy Hansford – Yoga Teacher and Tour Guide

Posted on by Heather Blakey

Traditionally the Three of Cups is a card of celebration. It embraces the energy of good friends, who love each other unconditionally and who are sharing a moment of sheer joy. Times are good when we have each other. The essence of this card is one of genuine friendship, and a feeling that together with our friends, we have all that we need.

Lightseers Tarot

The image on the Lightseers Tarot Three of Cups says it all. Arm in arm three women are dancing, under a star filled night, across a verdent field.

Take a peek at Wendy’s instagram @wendy_hansford_yoga and you find her celebrating her ‘epic women’s tours’ and Yoga Classes at her Awakening Yoga Studio. Examine the photographic evidence before you and you are left in no doubt that that Wendy and the team who join her on one of her overseas excursions to Turkey are having an exhilarating time together.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and there are thousands of words associated with these happy pics.

Check Wendy’s full profile on the Tilda (Not Licorice) Allsorts page to learn more about the life changing Tower moment that set Wendy on the course to become a Yoga Teacher and Tour guide.

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Sarla Devi Chaudhurani – A Pioneering Revolutionary

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Seven of Wands represents standing up for what you believe in and not wavering in those beliefs. When others put you in a position to argue your point, you rise to the occasion. You’re passionate about your morals and desires, and you’re not afraid to defend them.

Sarla Devi Chaudhurani was a prominent freedom fighter working towards the betterment of women’s rights and education, especially in the subcontinent. Her central focus was on woman-power. She was a political activist for the women’s cause. 

Chaudhurani was from Bengal as well as Punjab. She was born in Kolkata in a Bengali family in 1872. Sarla was raised with modern feminist values. The spirit of patriotism was infused in her by her mother Swarn Kumari who worked for the Swadeshi cause.

Growing up under a canopy of privilege, with attendants at her beck and call, Sarala Devi had no reason to learn any housework. She was allowed the special privilege of studying physics at a time when the discipline was not open to women students in Calcutta (now Kolkata). Her brothers sat next to her in class, the sole woman in a sea of male students.

Sarla worked as the editor of the Bengali Journal Bharti. She was a niece of Rabindranath Tagore and had connections with national leaders such as Satyendra Nath Tagore and Chaupekar brothers

Even though she had no need for a job, Sarala Devi took off to Mysore (now Mysuru) in 1892 to work for a while. She opened Laksmi Bhandar to make popular Swadeshi goods. She got married to a popular Arya Samajist Pandit Ram Bhuj Dutt Choudhary of Lahore, in 1905, as a result, her political activities shifted to Lahore. She became an active member of Bharat Stree Mahamandal of Lahore, which was meant to organize women of all colors and creeds for the common cause, and moral and material development of the women of the nation. She toured the whole of Punjab and opened branches of Arya Samaj for women.

Chaudhurani originated the idea of donating one-tenth of ornaments by women to the ‘revenge fund’, made committees for the collection of funds, and united the women folk for the cause of freedom. Her speeches, writings, articles, and poems motivated many men and women to join the freedom struggle. The government kept her activities under surveillance and warned her about her writings.

In 1919, she came under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi and started to follow non-violence methods. She raised her voice against the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar. She became the pivot of the Swadeshi movement in Punjab. She was the first woman in the province who started to wear Khadi Sari. She remained a devoted worker of Congress till her death in 1945.

Gandhi Connection

Not surprisingly, given his stature, there have been many insinuations about the relationship Gandhi had with various people. Sarla Devi Chaudhurani was just one of these. It has been claimed that she was his spiritual wife. Google and you will find salacious snippets pointing to the Mahatma’s lust for her. Check out this article that appeared in Mint Lounge or read the Lost Letters and Feminist History by Geraldine Forbes and draw your own conclusions.

Posted in Matilda's, Women's Health

Celebrate with a Matilda

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Four of Wands, Three of Cups and Six of Wands are all celebration cards. When you draw these cards think of novel ways to celebrate something. One way is to bake some Matilda biscuits with love, pop them in a tin and give them to a Matilda you admire to savour with a cup of tea or coffee.

Australian women used to bake Anzacs and send them in care packages sent to the home front during World War 1. Their recipe evolved from the availability of staple ingredients that would last the journey without spoiling. The essentials are rolled oats and flour. Traditionally the recipe used golden syrup which gives the biscuits their sweet and chewy texture and desiccated coconut was added in some circles for extra calories and flavour.

Matilda biscuits make the perfect treat for a woman who is a positive influence in your life. Celebrate your connection! Gather the ingredients and get baking.

Photos by Pam Hayward
Pam Hayward will tell you that baking is her happy place. How about following @pamela_hayward lead and honour your favourite ’tildas by baking some biscuits as created by Jill Dupleix and gifting them?

MATILDA BISCUITS as appears on Jill Dupleix site

Pam Hayward suggests adding a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon with salt on top of these gems. And she says that for a crisper biscuit add a minute to the baking time.

  • 250 g plain flour
  • 1 tbsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • Half tsp mixed spice
  • Good pinch of sea salt
  • 125 g brown sugar
  • 125 g butter, chopped
  • 3 tbsp golden syrup
  • 1 scant tsp bicarbonate of soda

Heat oven to 180C.

Sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice and sea salt into a bowl and make a well in the middle.

Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan, stirring, until sugar has melted.

Remove from the heat, count 60 seconds, then and add bicarb, stirring as it froths up.

Pour the hot mixture into the flour, and bring it together with a spatula until there are no streaks of flour.

Use a teaspoon to scoop up a portion of dough, and roll into a ball in your hands. Place on a tray lined with baking paper, allowing a little room for spreading.

Press down lightly to flatten (see tip).

Bake for 10 to 11 minutes until golden.

Cool on a wire rack, before storing in an airtight container. Makes 25 (x 20g).

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Strength – Olympias the Deaconess

Posted on by Heather Blakey
A mushroom’s power and strength is not obvious. But it is actually calling lots of the shots.

For a long time, mushrooms have been considered strange and mysterious creatures. They come in all shapes and sizes and can grow in the darkest and dampest corners of the world. In a sense, mushrooms thrive in environments where they may otherwise be destroyed.

Women, like mushrooms, are remarkably varied in their attributes and historically have often been required to suppress their identities and survive in hostile environments. Akin to mushrooms they often must grow below the ground’s surface: hide their talent under a bushel so to speak.

Mushrooms have the power to transform things. They can grow by decomposing organic matter, breaking it down, and creating new life. They can teach us about community, connection and renewal. Likewise there is much to learn from the long hidden women from history. These women can guide us and help transform society by reminding us to challenge and breaking down harmful norms and stereotypes.

Olympias, the Deaconess, (not Alexander the Great’s mother) was a formidable woman who opposed the emperor and fought for her way of life and her faith. Olympias was the daughter of the senator Anicius Secundus, and by her mother she was the granddaughter of the noted eparch Eulalios.

Before her marriage to Anicius Secundus, Olympias’s mother had been married to the Armenian emperor Arsak and became widowed. When Saint Olympias was still very young, her parents betrothed her to a nobleman. The marriage was supposed to take place when Saint Olympias reached the age of maturity. The bridegroom soon died, however, and Saint Olympias did not wish to enter into another marriage, preferring a life of virginity.

After the death of her parents she became the heir to great wealth. A fifth century CE text presents Olympias as a determined young woman who was not afraid to advocate for herself and fight to live her chosen way of life. She chose to live a celibate life and began to distribute her wealth to all the needy: the poor, the orphaned and the widowed. She also gave generously to the churches, monasteries, hospices and shelters for the downtrodden and the homeless.

Olympias was fueled by an inner strength, personal power, strong will and determination. Given that she did not try to control others; but quietly influenced and persuaded, highlights her strength. Her power was not to be underestimated when it may have appeared so ‘invisible’. She proved able to can control a situation without excessive, outward force. No on possibly cottoned on to how she was actually calling the shots.

Journal Ideas

  • Get out in nature and find some mushrooms. Photograph these gentle creatures and spend time interviewing them about the meaning of life.
  • What lesson do you take from Mushrooms, the Strength card and Olympias?


 

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Seven of Cups Fantasies

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Seven of Cups could well be interpreted to be about a boundless imagination. However it is important to give our dreams structure and support. Rachel Pollack puts it best, in Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom:

Emotion and imagination can produce wonderful visions, but without grounding in both action and the outer realities of life these fantastic images remain daydreams, ‘fancies’ without real meaning or value. … They lack meaning because they don’t connect to anything outside of themselves.

It’s all well and good to be imaginative and curious but if ideas, callings, desires etc aren’t acted upon then they remain like the symbols in the card: figments of your mind, or rather, your heart. Of course there are some fantasies that one should be cautious about actually acting upon and Van Life is certainly one of these.

Running away to join a circus, selling up everything and living in a van sounds very appealing, especially if you are suffering from burn out in the work force. Since the pandemic, as people have fled the cities, the internet has been awash with curated stories about how exotic life is when you hit the road live in a camper van. It all sounds very romantic.

Colloquially known as #VanLife the growing movement of people living in vans, often gaining a large social media following while doing it, keeps increasing. Apparently there are four million posts with the hashtag on Instagram alone so it is certainly no longer just the domain of retiring grey nomads.

But some van dwellers are blunt and will tell you that the reality of life on the road is vastly different to the highly curated, picture-perfect and peripatetic lifestyles that social media shows.

Casey Hawkins

Casey Hawkins is one of these honest individuals. She explains that it can feel as though life has no filter when you are on the road. She points out that living in a van is different is very different to living in a tiny home because no matter how hard you try, a van is not a house. It is always in a public space and you can’t comfortably stand up, move around, watch TV, or just dance around the kitchen in your underwear! Perhaps more importantly you really don’t want to get sick or have an injury.

So beware of seven of cups moments like this. If you are dreaming of hitting the road make sure to do some research because there are many more elements to consider. Unless you have a really luxurious motorhome, for example, after a while you will miss your four walls and a hot shower, especially in winter. 

There is unquestionably a dark side to van life and it is prudent to research about some unfortunate truths about van life.

Your ideas may be wonderful, but can you make them real? What can they really mean, here, in your life? The Seven of Cups asks you to ‘make the impossible possible’, to actively manifest your desires, rather than admiring them as daydreams. In order to put in this energy, you may need to let some dreams go. Focus on what really lights you up, and don’t be afraid to leave some of your dreams behind (if only just for now). Let your heart guide you to choose the meaningful over the superficial.

Little Red Tarot
Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Waltzing with Leona Sue Shephard

Posted on by Heather Blakey

When The Tower card appears in a Tarot reading, expect the unexpected – massive change, upheaval, destruction and chaos. It may be a divorce, death of a loved one, financial failure, health problems, natural disaster, job loss or any event that shakes you to your core, affecting you spiritually, mentally and physically. There’s no escaping it. Change is here to tear things up, create chaos and destroy everything in its path (but trust me, it’s for your Highest Good). from Biddy Tarot

Sometimes it is not the Tower card but a Tower moment that changes everything. Leona Sue Shephard had returned to nursing when Covid hit and she witnessed first hand the mayhem and general chaos that impacted on health services all over the world.

One day as she headed to the hospital carpark she thought she witnessed a brick tower collapse before her eyes. In fact it was a vision of how everything was collapsing around her. Rattled she googled Tower and the Tower Card appeared. Unfamiliar with Tarot she went and purchased her first deck.

The chain of events that followed has led to her creating a vibrant High Vibe Tribe group on Instagram. Each month she produces, with the support of a cohost, a word based challenge and in doing so has ended up creating a thriving, growing community.

Leona Sue graciously accepted my offer to Waltz with her and not only put together a piece to remember and honour a female ancestor, but to share how the High Vibe Tribe came into being. She remembers, with great respect and affection her Great Aunt, Lenora Lowery.

Posted in Matilda's, Memoir Writing, Narrative Therapy, Women's Health, Women's Stories

Ace of Wands – Tilly Aston

Posted on by Heather Blakey

Wands are associated with fire energy, and the Ace of Wands is the core representation of fire within the deck. The Ace of Wands is the boldest among the cards in this suit. It is not the kind of creativity that you learn from school or as a hobby. It is bravely finding your own voice, it creates a place where you can develop your own vision. In other words, it is associated with willpower, and creativity in the cosmic sense.
Labyrinthos

One of the most important activists in the history of disability in Australia was Matilda (Tilly) Aston.

Matilda Ann Aston (1873-1947), blind writer and teacher, was born on 11 December 1873 at Carisbrook, Victoria, youngest of the eight children of Edward Aston, bootmaker, and his wife Ann, née Howell. Her parents had migrated from Gloucestershire to Kapunda, South Australia, in 1855 and two years later moved to Carisbrook.

Tilly, as she was commonly known, had defective eyesight from birth but just before her seventh birthday she became totally blind. Born at a time when blind people had very little support or access to education and other opportunities it was only a chance meeting with a blind itinerant missionary that meant that she learnt Braille. A little later, it was a visit to Carisbrook by the Victorian Asylum and School for the Blind choir, and the Principal who insisted she enroll in the school, that changed her life.

Most people have never heard of Miss Tilly Aston (1873 – 1947), an Australian heroine who deserves a brighter spotlight on her life devoted to the service of others. As an advocate for change, a dedicated teacher, eloquent writer with a pioneering spirit, Tilly felt a sense of urgency to help her ‘sightless brethren’ in their mutual constant struggle for equality.

Vision Aware

The challenges Tilly faced in managing life as a woman with blindness became the impetus for her to work to improve the lives of other people who were blind. Aston’s achievements are formidable. In 1894 she founded the Victorian Association of Braille Writers, which became the Victorian Braille Library. In 1895, she co-founded the Association for the Advancement of the Blind, which in became Vision Australia. As well as being the first woman who was blind to be admitted to an Australian university and Australia’s first blind teacher, Tilly was a distinguished and critically acclaimed writer, producing seven books of verse.

As well as these achievements Aston campaigned for vision-impaired people’s right to vote. “The right to vote at elections was often refused to us because we were not able to use pen and ink, and many other grievances added to the difficulties of our handicap,” she wrote in her memoir.

Working with the Ace of Wands

In the case of Tilly Aston it was a visit to Carisbrook by the Victorian Asylum and School for the Blind choir that changed her life. Jolts can come in many forms. One way to activate an idea is to do a spread like this one by Rebecca @leyeweye

There is no doubt that a rich harvest came from Aston’s life changing meeting. Give the cards a spin and see what emerges for you.