Photo by Robyn Beattie

Everywhere in nature I see invitations to go the distance as a writer and artist. Take this rose, bid by the sun to unfurl from center out, leaving in its spiral form and spectrum of petal reds and golds a reminder to obey the heat and hold nothing back, much like the photographer, Robyn Beattie, my poetry movie collaborator. Here are three ways we can write together this July:

TAROT

Tarot Journaling to Know Yourself, A Tour Through the Majors (meets Tuesdays starting July 9 on-line). Do you love to mine your inner and outer worlds? Love to journal? In this class, you have the chance to come to know the card under study as well as link your lived experiences to the colors and symbols and figures in the card. We will start with the joyful birthright energies of the four Aces (earth, air, fire, and water). We initially respond to three basic questions:

• How have we encountered the energy of the Ace or Major under study in the past?
• How is that energy working in our lives today?
• In which area of our lives would we like to welcome the energy as we vision forward to achieving our life goals with love, joy, and harmony?

The tarot cards give us images and symbols we can use as focal points to help us understand how we move in relation to our sense of agency when we come up against obstacles in our lives. Which part can we change? Where is our perspective unmoving? What stands to be re-ordered, digested, understood, forgiven? Tarot journaling gives you a chance to make a truce with the past, freeing up your energy to create new oppourtunities for yourself.

This is a show up, write, and share class (after a brief overview of the card itself). We meet every Tuesday at 11 am over video call. All class participants are provided with additional questions and worksheets specific to the card of the week. This process, based on the Heart’s Compass Tarot Workbook (forthcoming from Saddle Road Press), introduces you to the journaling/writing aspect of tarot pilgrimage. This class lays the groundwork for classes coming this fall (which will include the next step in tarot pilgrimage and exercises towards creation of one’s own tarot cards using personal symbols we discover as we work together).

Related link: 

Leaning on Your Beloveds: Breaking Through Writer’s Block with Tarot Centos, up at The Feisty Writer, about how to use tarot principles to write poetry in the cento form.

Photo by Robyn Beattie

POETRY

Monday Mantarays: Poetry Read and Critique (meets weekly on Mondays starting July 1 in-person). Are you craving a supportive group in which to create new poems, receive feedback, and become inspired to send your work out for publication? We’ll dive deep with power and grace like our underwater butterfly namesakes. In addition to themed poetry worksheets, craft lessons and submission target suggestions, this class also promises the opportunity to work on rolling publishing projects as defined and arrived at by the group (for example, working to publish a collective folio of poems). We will go through the group process of writing, revising, editing, and pitching our project/s for publication. This is an addition to the read and critique portion of class for which you bring in your own poems each week. This class is held at San Diego Writers, Ink in Liberty Station.

Second Saturdays: Poetry Read and Critique (meets monthly, next class meets July 13 in-person). Writing regularly and sharing that writing in a community offers us the chance to grow as writers and readers of poetry. Over time, we become familiar with one another’s gifts and turn of phrase. We also become trusted enough to give and receive feedback regarding our thresholds, our habits, and places in our work we could stand to challenge ourselves to explore. I invite you to join our heart-centered but unflinching group of writers. We write together briefly at the outset of class (the no-critique portion of our time together), give one another feedback on the poems you bring in for us, discuss potential publication targets for polished work, and gently hold one another accountable for accessing our bravest and truest writing potential. You’ll come away from class with worksheets to use during our time apart each month; worksheets provide you with a group of themed poems, a lesson on an aspect of the craft of writing, and a list of current potential submission targets. This class is held at San Diego Writers, Ink in Liberty Station.