Month: December 2023

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

Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal) Love of Country

Posted on by Heather Blakey

What everyone needs, when traveling around Australia is a copy of Kath Walkers (Oodgeroo Noonuccal) poems and a travel companion like Loving Country, co-authored by Aboriginal Elder Bruce Pascoe and artist Vicky Shukuroglou. At first glance, it is a travel guide to some of Australia’s most beautiful Country but on closer inspection, it reveals honest, riveting yarns about the true stories of Country told by the people who know and love her best: the local Aboriginal people with ancestral connections.

Key Words: Love, relationships, seeking wholeness, commitments, partnerships, decisions, making clear choices, values, balance, romance, unity, harmony

Kath Walker – Aunty Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920 – 1993) was an Aboriginal rights activist, poet, veteran, environmentalist and educator. ‘Oodgeroo’, meaning ‘paperbark tree’ (whose bark is used for drawing), referred to her role as writer and artist. ‘Noonuccal’ is the name of her people, the traditional owners of Minjerribah and adjoining land for more than 20,000 years.

There is no doubt that the Lovers card is all about relationships. However it’s also about so much more than that, because this card represents our choices. It reminds us that we can heal any situation, and free ourselves from suffering whenever we choose to view it through the eyes of authentic love.

Do you have difficulty with truly loving yourself? Are you able to open your heart and be completely honest about who you are, and what you feel? Are you able to look at where you are at in life right now with acceptance and inner-peace? Who are you right now in this very moment, and what do you believe in? What are you aligning yourself and your energy with right now? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to focus your energy on this endeavor?

Through her stories, poetry and activism Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal) expresses a great love for her land and the Australian Aboriginal culture to which she belongs. She is completely honest about who she is, her connection with the land and how she feels about the impact of colonialism

Aunty Oodgeroo Noonccal was a member of the stolen generation. Her mother, Lucy, was removed and placed in an institution in Brisbane at the age of ten. At fourteen years of age, without the skills to read or write, she was consigned to work as a housemaid in rural Queensland.

Aunty Oodgeroo Noonuccal grew up on North Stradbroke Island. She left home for Brisbane to work as a domestic for board and lodging, and less pay than white domestics received. However, armed with the ability to read and a talent for writing she would go on to become a leading Australian poet, writer, political activist, artist and educator.

As a poet Noonuccal identified Aboriginal people as the inspiration for her work, seeing herself as expressing the voices of the community she loved. She saw poetry as the most personal form of written expression and as a natural extension of Aboriginal oral traditions of storytelling and song-making.

In recognition of a lifetime commitment to Indigenous peoples and her outstanding contributions to Australian literature Oodgeroo Noonuccal was awarded three honorary doctorates by Universities within Australia.

Existential Choices

The Lovers card may be understood alongside key ideas from the philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard (May 5, 1813–November 11, 1855). We face an existential choice between two life paths, either one willfully hedonistic or one grounded in our sense of ethical duty.

As Rachael Pollack points out, the 6th Tarot Card was once entitled Choice, suggesting that an individual may have to choose between desires. Equally the choice can refer to a person’s whole life, the decision about where to direct one’s passion.

Imagine Oodgeroo Noonuccal is still alive. You are a journalist who will be given the opportunity to interview this leading activist, poet, environmentalist and educator. You are only allowed to ask her three questions about life choices she made. What will you ask her?

Now change roles. Imagine you are Oodgeroo, and, using the knowledge about her life and personality gleaned from any research you have been inspired to do, write the answers you believe she might have give to the questions you posed. 

Finding and Following Your Bliss

The hero’s journey is one of self-discovery, of finding and following your bliss. No one else knows what makes your eyes light up and your heart leap. Take control of your own life. Reach for the stars.

Joseph Campbell was one of the pioneers in the discussion of bliss, suggesting that people “find their bliss.” He said, “The way to find out what makes you the happiest is to focus on being mindful of your happiest moments—not simply excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy.”

To seek your own personal bliss, you might wish to sit quietly and meditate about a time in your life when you were the happiest. Remain with that moment, as well as the feelings stirring inside you. When you think you’ve figured out at least one thing that makes you feel blissful, then stay with it. Write about that state in your journal. Recording your feelings can help you dig deeper into self-discovery and determine the ways in which you can follow your bliss—always keeping in mind that bliss is a calling that’s calling you.

More Lovers

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

The Hierophant – Carolyn Jones

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Hierophant is the card of traditional values and institutions. The Hierophant can represent a counsellor or mentor who will provide you with wisdom and guidance or a spiritual or religious advisor such as a priest, vicar, preacher, imam, rabbi or a monk. However many decks present a very different interpretation of this card that daunts those who have issues with religious dogma and choose to present others as deserving the title.

It seems limiting to present the Hierophant as a robed religious Popish figure and to imply that such an individual is a receptacle for all wisdom and teaching.

The LeGrande Circus Tarot presents the Pope or Hierophant as the entrepreneurial owner of the outfit. Circus owners were such a varied lot that it is doubtful if this title suits them all. Some were born into circus families. Some, like Al G. Barnes, ran away with the circus as youngsters and worked their way up through the ranks of ticket takers and candy butchers. Others were entrepreneurs and businessmen. And still more saw themselves as creative artists, sometimes even serving as headline performers. 

A hierophant (Ancient Greek: ἱεροφάντης, romanized: hierophantēs) is a person who brings religious congregants into the presence of that which is deemed holy. As such, a hierophant is an interpreter of sacred mysteries and arcane principles.

When I think of a Hierophant I prefer to think of a wise trail blazer, a generous mentor who nurtures, gently guides and encourages others. Read the obituaries for Carolyn Jones, the first Australian female reporter on This Day Tonight and you will be left in no doubt about her stature among female journalists, women who she championed, who acknowledge her amazing contribution to their careers.

This wonderful, gracious, fierce, trail blazing, truth telling woman has left us. She was beyond kind to me and to so many other women in my profession.

In my mind Carolyn, universally loved by all, deserves the title of Hierophant and gets to wear the robs signifying her status.

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

The Hierophant – St Mary MacKillop

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Hierophant is the card of traditional values and institutions. The Hierophant can represent a counsellor or mentor who will provide you with wisdom and guidance or a spiritual or religious advisor such as a priest, vicar, preacher, imam, rabbi or a monk.

It seems limiting to present the Hierophant as a robed religious Popish figure and to imply that such an individual is a receptacle for all wisdom and teaching. By contrast, the figure in the rendition presented in the Tarot of the Sweet Twilight, presents us with a less ostentatious figure, more like a wise, shamanic story teller, one of many guardians of cultural knowing.

In the Tarot of the Sweet Twilight the Hierophant appears to be in a subterranean world, with fish shoaling above him. The Hierophant is sitting on a rock, communing with a young lady and her cat who has all the appearance of a character you would find in an Alice in Wonderland production. Untrimmed strands of the Hierophants vast beard float in the water around him and he is dressed in simple apparel. He is not wearing any of the regalia so many Hierophants wear to signify their religious affiliation.

Rarely is the Hierophant depicted as being female and it is undeniable that the devoted work of women in places of education and community support has not had the acknowledgement it deserves.

15 things you may not have known about St Mary Mackillop

Saint Mary McKillop was an Australian religious figure, educator, and social reformer. MacKillop was born in Australia to poor Scottish immigrants. Her father, a former seminarian whose ill health had caused him to abandon study for the priesthood, stressed the importance of education and homeschooled his eight children. When she was 14, MacKillop began working, and she was often her family’s main source of support. In 1860 she moved to the small rural town of Penola to serve as governess for the children of her aunt and uncle. There MacKillop provided her cousins with a basic education and soon extended this to the poor children of the town. A young priest, Father Julian Tenison Woods, encouraged her to continue this work, assuring her that educating the poor would be an ideal way to serve God.

In 1866 MacKillop and Woods founded Australia’s first order of nuns, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart, and also established St. Joseph’s School in a converted stable in Penola, providing a free education to children from the area. In 1867 MacKillop took vows and became the first mother superior of the sisters. The following year the sisters opened schools in other Australian cities, as well as an orphanage and a refuge for women released from prison.

In June 1995 MacKillop was beatified by Pope John Paul II. In February 2010, after evaluating the testimony of an Australian woman who claimed that her terminal cancer had disappeared after she called upon MacKillop in prayer, Pope Benedict XVI recognized MacKillop as a saint. She was canonized that October.

Working with the Hierophant

  • Seek out the Hierophant in each of the decks you own and compare and contrast the messages that the artists provide in their companion texts.
  • Prepare some questions! Engage in active imagination and dialogue with your favourite Hierophant. Ask those hard questions!
  • Many communities had “memorisers” whose role was to memorise history, witness and memorise current events (including what happened, who attended, even what key figures wore), and identify and train up young people to become memoriser. In your journal carefully memorise the events of recent years making sure to include as much detail as possible.
  • Certain stories, such as Fairy Stories, are much more than mere entertainment – they are used as lessons and provide a moral, through the form of a traditional belief, that will help guide people through their lives. Create a story which you believe needs to be passed on.

More Hierophants

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

Simone Young – Emperor

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Emperor is often read as the archetypal ‘Father’ (with the Empress as ‘Mother’), there are Freudian and Jungian explanations for this that are rooted in father-child (and mother-child) relationships. Beyond ‘Father’, though, the Emperor also represents social structures, norms and codes. The Emperor can represent the rule of law, decision-making by out-of-touch leaders, and so on. The Emperor typically prizes order, conformity, commercial success, strong hierarchical leadership.

The LeGrande Circus and Sideshow Tarot matches prominent figures from the Circus/Carnival world with the Major and Minor Arcana. It depicts the Ringmaster as the Emperor and there is no doubt about the power of this key figure. Like the Captain of a warship he reigns supreme and commands the entire performance. Nobody moves without his instruction.

Similarly, the conductor of an Orchestra holds the baton and controls every aspect of a performance. Simone Young is considered one of the most important conductors of our time. After completing her musical studies in her native Sydney, she began her career on the podium in Germany. This launched her international career, which has taken her to all important opera houses and symphony orchestras around the world. She is regarded as a trail blazer in a male dominated world.

Executive produced by Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett, Knowing The Score gets up close and personal with this celebrated Australian conductor.

Feeling the Qualities of the Emperor

Whoever you are, sooner or later you will meet with the constrains of authority, discipline and power in yourself and in others. From an early age we are influenced by authority figures who have some control over our lives. The ultimate challenge is how we respond, how we balance and harness these qualities.

  • What is your understanding of the correct use of power, authority, control and discipline?
  • How do you utilise power in your life?
  • Consider, dispassionately and without judgement, how you are empowered or disempowered?
  • Be aware of what power means for you? How has controlling or being controlled impacted on your life?

“It’s a very hard thing to learn to know when to release control

Simone Young

More Emperors

This card is suggestive of stability and security in life. You are on top of things and everything in under your control. It is your hard work, discipline and self control that have bought you this far. It means that you are in charge of your life now setting up your own rules and boundaries.

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

The Emperor – Elizabeth Macarthur

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Emperor wants you to know that in order to go out into the big world you need both inner and outer authority. Inner authority allows you to make the best decisions for yourself while outer authority enables you to create your place in the world and be seen and recognized.

The Emperor represents stability, order, and dominion. In the most practical terms, the Emperor Tarot card represents the highest leadership, a head of state, or the most exemplary and powerful person in the realm.When this stern fellow shows up in your reading, issues of power and control may be at play.  However the appearance of this card in a spread, given that it alludes to achievement through hard work and discipline, may also provide an opportunity to ask about the qualities which will successfully support a business venture. 

Within the Tarot community the Emperor is generally believed to represent dealings with male authority figures. However there are many women who have the same qualities. So, be you male or female, when you see this card in a reading it is an opportunity to take a moment and acknowledge your potential for mastery of your personal realm. It is a time to reinforce a sense of sovereignty within yourself, despite any self-limiting beliefs, habits, or appearances to the contrary.

Elizabeth Macarthur (1766-1850), was born on 14 August 1766 in Devon, England, daughter of Richard Veale, farmer, and his wife Grace, who were apparently of some education and affluence. Elizabeth received an education which allowed her to write letters of eighteenth-century style and grace and which equipped her to manage the complicated affairs of her husband’s business in later life. She married John Macarthur in October 1788. In June 1789 he joined the New South Wales Corps and Elizabeth accompanied him when he sailed to take up his position in the colony.

By 1794, the Macarthurs had built Elizabeth Farm, a brick house at Parramatta. They had a beautiful garden and the children received an excellent education. In 1809, her husband was forced to leave the colony and return to England. Business partners administered his mercantile affairs but Elizabeth was responsible for the care of their valuable merino flocks, the Camden Park estate and their convict labourers. She did so successfully for eight years, visiting their estate regularly despite the danger of venturing into the bush.

If the Emperor appears in a Tarot spread as a woman, that means that this person is a figure of authority, control, and discipline. This is someone who exudes an air of command, evident in her carriage, her gaze, and even the space she occupies. You can sense her influence and leadership capabilities, leaving little room for doubt that she’s a person of significant power.

Michelle Scott Tucker lives on a small farm in regional Victoria with her husband and children. Her first book was Elizabeth Macarthur: A Life at the Edge of the World

Michelle Scott Tucker wrote a biography of Elizabeth Macarthur, highlighting that it was her who established the Australian wool industry (although her husband received all the credit).

In the words of historian Clare Wright, Tucker’s bio brings Elizabeth Macarthur out from the long shadow of her infamous, entrepreneurial husband.

The truth is that Elizabeth oversaw every aspect of the management of their flocks and communicated with her husband while he was in England. As a result of their joint interest they were able to sell their wool competitively in the British market and effectively established the reputation of the colony as a centre for this industry. It was Elizabeth’s critical contribution to the establishment of a local fine wool industry that helped set the course of Australian prosperity, and gave the wool trade’s its long-held significance to the national economy.

More Emperors

This card is suggestive of stability and security in life. You are on top of things and everything in under your control. It is your hard work, discipline and self control that have bought you this far. It means that you are in charge of your life now setting up your own rules and boundaries.

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

Cath Jamison – Magician

Posted on by Heather Blakey

The Magician shows us that you are able to master any desired skill through practice, sacrifice and a determined focus on your outcome. He encourages you to invest the time to cultivate your potential abilities.
Patrick Valenza – Deviant Moon Tarot.

When she was just a five year old kid, Cath Jamison got a magic kit, loved it and started putting on magic shows for her family. She used to try to make the dog disappear and she confesses that she had a crack at making a pier vanish as well. But she is not about to divulge any of her secrets. This award winning Australian entertainer has no hesitation in saying that she was a quirky kid and that she still is a quirky person.

Pulling the Magician in a reading is a reminder that you have the necessary tools to manifest your dreams. Just as the man depicted in the Magician card has learned to wield the unseen forces of the universe, so, too, can we learn to master our own skills to get the outcomes we desire.

Today Cath’s mind-blowing and frequently uproarious shows have earned her a reputation as a leader in her field and she’s known as one of Australia’s most unusual women entertainers, wielding her trademark sass and mind illusion. Jamison is an impressive entertainer who delivers a masterful blend of magic, mentalism, and enjoyable audience engagement.

More Magicians

Elizabeth Blackburn – Scientist
Fiona Woods – Scientist

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

Fiona Woods – Magician

Posted on by Heather Blakey

Newton was not the first of the age of reason. He was the last of the magicians…

The Magician is one of the most compelling figures in the Tarot. Standing before an altar laid with the symbols of all four suits, he represents the ability to transform ideas into reality through skill, knowledge, focus and action. The Magician reminds us that the resources we need are often already at hand; the challenge is recognising them and learning how to use them wisely.

In mythology, the Magician finds an early expression in Hermes (Mercury in Roman tradition), the messenger god of Mount Olympus. Hermes carried the Caduceus, a magical staff gifted to him by Apollo. The Caduceus has long been associated with healing and transformation, and is often seen as a symbol of the spinal column, the central conduit through which life force and nerve energy flow throughout the body.

The appearance of the Magician points to the talents, capabilities and resources available to us when we choose to apply them. Magical powers do not emanate from us directly. Rather, they emerge through our creativity and through the tools we place in our hands. Given the right instruments, scientists become magicians. Their wands are microscopes, scalpels, laboratories and technologies that allow them to transform what once seemed impossible into reality.

Few modern Australians embody the spirit of the Magician more completely than Professor Fiona Wood. A plastic and reconstructive surgeon and researcher for almost three decades, she has dedicated her career to improving outcomes for burns patients and advancing the science of wound healing. In 1991 she became Western Australia’s first female plastic surgeon.

Magic is just science that we don’t understand yet – Arthur C Clark

In October 2002, Fiona Wood was thrust into the national spotlight when many survivors of the Bali bombings were transferred to Royal Perth Hospital. She led Western Australia’s burns disaster response, drawing upon years of planning and preparation. Earlier in her career, she had pioneered the revolutionary “spray-on skin” technique, dramatically reducing permanent scarring in burns victims. Patented in 1993, the innovation would later be promoted worldwide through a company she co-founded.

Like the Magician of the Tarot, Fiona Wood demonstrates how knowledge, imagination and the right tools can be combined to create extraordinary change. Her work reminds us that true magic is often found not in enchantment, but in the disciplined application of skill, compassion and vision.

More Magicians

The Magician shows us that you are able to master any desired skill through practice, sacrifice and a determined focus on your outcome. He encourages you to invest the time to cultivate your potential abilities.
Patrick Valenza – Deviant Moon Tarot.

Setting an Intention

The power of setting intentions cannot be overestimated. Intention is the foundation of spellwork and ritual (for the Magician is a witch and a wizard, too). Intention is the foundation of any serious project. Setting an intention means making a declaration that you intend to do a thing. In doing so, you invite in the energy of the world around you. Where the Fool said “I trust you. I will step forwards”, the Magician says “Here is what I want to do. Will you help me?” Little Red Apple

Whereas the Fool is not clear about where he is headed the Magician has set an intention and has the tools needed. It makes all the difference to know your ‘why’, to set an intention and consciously choosing a direction in which to head. This enables you to focus your energy.

Need help setting an intention? Try this daily morning meditation by Sarah Raymond of the Mindful Movement.