7 a.m.
Dreams swirl around me as I roll out of bed. My dreams are a pivotal part of my creative life, informing my art, novel writing, coaching. They sink in and come out of my hands or through my voice in mysterious ways. For me, the night time is as rich as anything I do during the day.
7:45 a.m.
At my desk writing my middle grade novel, Maisie Grace. It’s about a girl whose best friend is a tree, a girl who has dreams that come true. Beside me on my desk is one of my 16 tarot decks. I’ve been collecting them for years. I can’t figure out exactly what I want Maisie’s friends Macon and Jack to say in one of the scenes, and pick the tarot cards up. I throw a three-card reading. When I read sometimes words come to me, but it’s more a feeling. It’s my job to translate that feeling into dialogue.
I spend the next three hours writing and using the tarot for prompts, to understand the characters, to hone the theme, to nail the plot points.
11 a.m.
My dogs Atlas and Baby and I go outside to play. We live in rural Oregon and are surrounded by land, trees, and sky. Baby is new to our family, a corgi who belonged to a friend who just passed away. Atlas is a lab/husky mix. The tiny legs of one and long legs of the other make for some hilarious play. The sky is brilliant with clouds. The colors and textures, the two goofy dogs playing, it enters me like music, and I know someday it will all become a painting.
12 p.m.
Vegan lunch of handmade spring rolls (carrots, tofu, rice noodles, peanut sauce). I make every meal by hand from scratch. This has to do with being a sensitive soul — even my lunch has to do with being psychic! Physical problems led me to dramatically overhaul my diet. Empaths like me are particularly sensitive to food. I had to learn this the hard way. After one level of diet change, I learned I couldn’t eat meat. I could feel how the animal had been treated in the factory farms. Ingesting that affected my physical and mental health, and so I became vegan.
With my meal, I drink a kombucha called “Love”.
1-3 p.m.
When I read tarot for clients, I try to back up and stay out of it. I try to let the information come to me and not impose my will upon the client or the cards. I’m Reiki certified, and in all of my coaching I imbue the sessions with healing energy.
Clients. I’m a metaphysical book coach and life coach. Today I’m working with an emerging novelist in another country over Skype, discussing characterization, setting, plot, theme. We’re not sure how to develop one of the lesser characters, and I ask her if it’s all right to use the tarot. She eagerly agrees. We pull cards and come up with possible solutions. Tarot can be used for creative brainstorming. It doesn’t have to be predictive. The information is deep and meaningful, and I know we’ll both need to go away and ponder it before she’s ready to develop this secondary character.
After the book client, I have a tarot client. My focus in all of my roles as coach is to empower women. I give a reading to someone who has been dramatically affected by COVID-19. When I read tarot for clients, I try to back up and stay out of it. I try to let the information come to me and not impose my will upon the client or the cards. I’m Reiki certified, and in all of my coaching I imbue the sessions with healing energy.
3-5 p.m.
Time for the yurt! I have a yurt art studio 300 feet from my house in the woods. It was a gift to myself for my 50th birthday, six years ago. Atlas and I take the path through the woods to the yurt. (I have learned that with her tiny legs, Baby has a hard time walking long distances, so I let her sleep peacefully on her bed in the house.) The cats decide to follow us down to the yurt.
The walk itself is full of pathos. It’s like walking a bridge from the outside world to my deepest authentic self. I do not take the walk lightly. I can’t come here when I have too many clients — it’s just too difficult to return, too difficult to pull myself up and out enough to give to my clients. As I walk toward the yurt, as I leave my old self behind, my shoulders relax.
I open the door to the vibrant colors and textures of hundreds of paintings. This is the real me.
Today, I’m working on a Goddess Journal. I’ll write more about them in a future post. Someone has commissioned me to create a grief journal for a loved one who has died of COVID. I handmake the paper at the house because I need access to a sink, a fridge and a stove, but here I take a painting and adapt it for the front cover. I’ve already turned the painting into a print on handmade paper, and now I just need to paint it, put on the finishing touches, and shellac it. I have a few journals that are already finished, take them out, put them on the altar in the middle of the yurt, beneath the dome, light candles and sage, and bless them. It’s my dearest hope that whoever uses the journals will find deep healing within the pages.
I sit cross legged on the floor and throw a three-card reading for myself. This is my personal time for reflection. I record my thoughts and dreams in my own journal.
Afterward, I take out watercolors and watercolor paper and play. I like to do splashes of color, and see what emerges, draw and paint it in.
I feel so good when I’m in the yurt.
5-6 p.m.
More play time outside with Baby and Atlas.
6 p.m.
Made from scratch vegan dinner — this time I’m having a vegan sausage, carrots, ginger, and seeds stuffed into an acorn squash. Crazy delicious.
7-8 p.m.
Conversation with friend. We break out the tarot cards and do readings for each other.
8-10 p.m.
Vegging, taking care of details. I’m binge watching Medium again, fascinated this time with the daughter Ariel and how she is handling being psychic. I realize as I’m watching it’s informing my middle grade book. While I watch, I answer emails, do billing, communicate with someone who is rebuilding my website, market my recently published novel, WATER, which is a fictionalized look at when I first learned the tarot cards.
I also work on the handmade journals, tearing the pages down to size, fitting the cover artwork, sewing the binding. Two years ago, I gave up drinking wine and smoking weed. I gave up all inebriates. Instead, now, I use my time and my hands creating beauty. I’ve never felt better.
10 p.m.
To bed. To sleep. To dream the dreams of a creative psychic. My favorite time of day is night.
I am a metaphysical coach, novelist, and artist. Read more at carolineallen.com. Contact me if you’d like a reading or book coaching.