It was my pleasure to be interviewed by DJ Martin, herself an author and herbal witchy woman. You’ll also find links to her blogs & books at this post ~
https://everycathasatale.blogspot.com/2019/09/my-interview-with-dj-martin-revisited.html
There is a new blog post @ Every Cat Has a Tale!
https://everycathasatale.blogspot.com/2019/09/journaling-tips-for-beginners.html
I was thinking that an opportune way to make some extra cash, since I’m still unemployed in the great sunny land of Arizona, would be to write, specifically to write magazine articles. So I started looking for magazines that would fit my topics of expertise.
First, I found several very enthusiastic, colorful, glossy even, new-age periodicals that proclaim to prospective contributors… “We don’t pay, but you’ll receive 2 (or 3, or 4, or 5) copies of the magazine; or you’ll receive one PDF; or online copy, etc. etc. Well, shiver me timbers, am I supposed to be all dewy-eyed with the honor of acceptance into an elite (and very underpaid) group of creative enthusiasts?
Some of these periodicals back up this offer to work for no pay with a lucrative (?) offer of free advertising in their periodical. One such magazine cheerfully states, “This is a $30.00 bonus!”
I know, I know, I can hear the happy free-lancers, thrilled to see their names in print, declaring that these small new-age periodicals could not afford to pay writers for the articles they submit. Well, you know what? If they didn’t have your FREE articles to publish in their magazines, they wouldn’t have any magazine to publish… period. And I might add that these magazines can be expensive for the public to purchase. I know of one that charges $16.00 for a single copy.
Would you work at McDonald’s for free? Would you work in retail for free? Would you spend hours doing any job… for free?
Well, writing is a JOB. Writer’s have to pay bills, just like everybody else. Writers need to make a living, and we’re not going to be able to do that when miserly opportunists rip us off.
Book cover reveal… “The Ultimate Tarot Guide for Your Personal Tarot Journey” (release 2018). More info will be coming in the very near future. #writing #books #bookrelease #author #publishing #tarot
Books by Amythyst Raine @ Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Amythyst-Raine/e/B004NMWMX4
The Writer’s Corner/Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/booksbyamythystraine/
#writing #publishing #author #thewriterscorner #amythystraine #books
Book Teaser!!… I’m still plugging away at the chapter on the Court Cards. How well do you really understand the Queen of Cups? Here’s a clip from my book:
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The Dark Side ~
The Queen of cups walks through life in a haze and fog of dreamy unawareness to the physical world, caught up in the ethereal, the unseen, the spirit side of existence. She can often tell you the innermost unspoken true feelings of someone she was conversing with but not remember what they were wearing. When she does plant her feet in the earth, she doesn’t connect with the physical world in the way most people do. She can hear voices within the wind in the trees; she can see the aura of plants; the wisps of magical beings in the garden; the thoughts and emotions of animals. To the mundane world, this Queen may often appear mentally fragile and on the edge. In reality, this is her reality, and sometimes her curse, she can see and hear and feel things that most people can’t.
Not many people will truly understand the Queen of cups, and some may even dislike her, though they may not understand why. There will be those who are disturbed at the nuances and unspoken connections often misunderstood by individuals who lack this sensitivity, and there will be those perhaps frightened by how easily she walks through the spiritual realm, so matter-of-factly, as though it were completely normal, when to most people it is not. She will always be the outsider, viewed with suspicion and sometimes disdain by the community around her, the clubs and cliques of society. At her most extreme, even the people who share her inner knowledge and experiences will find her bewildering, and her place at the outside edge of communal inclusion will be complete.
Her greatest downfall is the ability to lose herself, not being true to herself, in search of love and commitment. Relationships will be difficult for her. She will strive to connect with someone who can connect with her on a myriad of levels and meet her on her turf, as part of her inner world. Her search may prove futile, but it won’t be from lack of trying. She is artistic, creative, and wonderfully fluid, and she will use these abilities to try and transform herself to fit into the mold, to be what her suitor wants her to be, to fit into their life and their mind and their heart perfectly, in fairy tale fashion. In the midst of this hopelessly impossible endeavor, this Queen will often amputate the best parts of herself.
Here you be, sez I. Follow this link, which will magickally transport you to The Witch’s Corner, where you’ll find a whole bunch of correspondences you’ll need to craft your spells successfully. This is “stuff” you’ll want to add to your own Book of Shadows. (You’re welcome!)
https://amythystraine.blogspot.com/p/magickal-correspondences.html
My Personal Book of Shadows ~
My Private Journals, Grimoires, & Notebooks ~
Hello, World!… There’s a NEW VIDEO up at my Youtube Channel. Thank you in advance for LIKING, SHARING, & SUBSCRIBING!
My Google Hangout: Woman Speak
Premiering: FRIDAY, January 9th, 3pm-3:30pm CST
My Google Profile: https://plus.google.com/115470498364726846205/posts?hl=en
Explore the world of women, witches, and pagans on a variety of levels at Woman Speak. Reconnect with The Goddess. Find healing, empowerment, and sisterhood through Matriarchal Divinity. The topics are pagan, occult, new-age, paranormal, and supernatural. The topics will also center around feminism, relationships, family, careers, writing, and books…(Woman Speak– exploring women’s issues.)
*Note: to join me “live” and participate at Woman Speak, you have to be on my Google Friends list.
Magick & Witchcraft
1. People get so upset about the fine line between ‘black’ magick and ‘white’ magick. There really isn’t any line at all. The intensity and direction of our magick depends upon our boundaries and how deeply we will allow someone to encroach upon our territory, our person, our life…when these boundaries are broached, that’s usually when magick begins to take on shades of gray…and in that case, it winds up being about protection and self-preservation.
2. What kind of witch am I?…The ‘me’ that I normally am naturally slips into the witch that already exists. If you are a normally bitchy person, you’re going to be one fine and mighty bitchy witch. If you are a passive individual, so shall you be a passive witch. The witch that you are is so wrapped up with the psyche that is ‘you’ that it is one and the same– indistinguishable from the rest of your humanity.
Writing
1. The best writing that I’ve ever done is writing that I get lost in.
2. Literature Classes…The most idiotic thing– this teacher in a Literature class in high school had us read some prose, and then she had us tell her how we interpreted it. So I read it, and I told her. I don’t remember today exactly what it was I read, but I do remember the intensity of feeling it created and the enthralling layers of personalities and possiblities that unfolded.
When I finished telling this teacher my breathless interpretation of this prose, she quietly and unceremoniously told me that I was wrong.
“Now”, she begins, “this is what it really means…”
I was stunned and crestfallen– had everything that I had experienced during my reading been false?
Moral:
Some people should never teach art or literature…those people who are trapped inside an invisible box they can’t see out; those people who are trapped in small minds and small lives; those people who can only justify their existence by feigned superiority; those people who insist that everyone must view the world through their eyes; those people who color all flowers red and all leaves green; those people who only see the sky as blue.
Age
1. The older I get, the nearer the past seems.
2. Life doesn’t slow down as you get older, it winds itself up tighter so that you have to run faster.
~ Amythyst Raine
*Note: This blog post is an excerpt from the last newsletter I published for The Witch’s Corner (December 2011)
On one evening, my husband called me out of the house and pointed to the sky. He said, “Look up.” And this is what I saw– a huge long cloud bank moving in. It looked ominous– the whole thing, which you don’t see here– like some big monster sneaking in the backdoor. It was really awesome.
I took ths photo while standing in the backyard, looking south. This would have been right in the direction of town where my daughter’s apartment is located. And it wasn’t too much later that a funnel cloud was spotted right over the hospital, only blocks from where she lives. We were on the phone together by that time, comparing notes and watching the sky ‘together’, so to speak.
I took this photo after the storm. What was left when the thunder and lightening and wind had passed were tremendous cloud formations. I know that there is a technical name for these clouds, but my grandmother always called them ‘booby clouds’ (for obvious reasons), and she said that they go with ‘bad weather’, so beware when you see them. But aren’t they gorgeous!
It’s been a strange year, with strange weather everywhere. It started for us in May, when the temperature stayed, more often than not, in the thirties– with a couple days that went the other way and broke heat records, reaching 100 degrees and over. I consider myself lucky if we pull through a storm and I don’t have any water in the basement, and we didn’t this time, so I won’t complain– I’ll just enjoy the show.
I have some new spells up at ‘Enchanted Jewelry’. Although these pieces have been enchanted and are ready to spread their magick just as is, I think it enhances the magick if the person who is going to wear this jewelry adds their own energies to the spell; so I often post things that they can do when they wear the piece for the first time. However, the candle magicks and mojo bags that I’ve suggested to be used with the jewelry can also be used on they’re own. And I’m posting them here.
Eventually I’ll get all the little spells and ‘suggestions’ that I send off with my jewelry typed up this way and posted; but I have so much going on, I won’t be doing it all in one sitting.
To Aide in Spiritual Journeys
Happy Hearth Spell
To Ward Off Troublemakers
Book Updates: I’ve completed “The Gray Witch’s Grimoire” (working title) and recently sent it off to the publisher for consideration. I was working on another book, “The Book of Magick” (also working title), simultaneously, and I finished this book just a couple weeks after sending the first one off. Then I sat down with both manuscripts to re-read and tinker, and it suddenly dawned on me…I think these books could be merged into one nice hefty volume. I contacted the editor with the outline for the second book and my suggestion, and she agreed, so I shipped this manuscript off too. In the meantime, I was going to give myself a break from any ‘big’ writing projects. It gets pretty intense sometimes. I’ll find myself writing from very early morning till noon and suddenly realize that I haven’t eaten anything, so I thought, ‘it’s time for a break’. But things don’t always work out the way we planned, and when I sat down to my typewriter, ideas started rolling and so did my fingers to the keys…I’ve started a fourth book that just came to me out of the blue and seems to be writing itself. I’m going to keep the topic and the title for this one a secret until it’s finished. Everyone loves a surprise! 🙂
This is ‘Baby’. She says,“I don’t want you to talk to me right now.” You know when she wants to be left alone by her ears– she lays them back and gets a snotty look on her face.
I had started a little website ages ago and then kind of forgot about it: The Goddess Grove
This website is for women, though men can certainly sneak in and take a peek, but it’s basically a woman’s site. If anyone thinks this is sexist, well, yep– it is, and that’s the way the old ball rolls. You won’t be hearing any apologies here. Women like to get together, plain and simple. We have lots of things to talk about– spirituality, periods, pregnancy, husbands, relationships, babies, parents, breast cancer, pap smears, boyfriends, education, magick, the goddess, and lots and lots of other issues to examine. We also have about two thousand years of religious sexism and persecution to work through– so we have hen parties, we huddle together…laugh, cry, cuss, and shoot the breeze.
It’s fun to be a woman. 🙂
I was working this morning on the links page– and this is the page you’ll be taken to if you click on the link above. I want to add links to this site that will help women deal with everyday mundane issues: both social issues and health issues. I feel that The Goddess Grove could be built to be a very inspirational and useful site for women. This site is a shoot-off from a similar page that I had on Myspace, with over 900 women on the friends list. When Myspace evolved, I deleted the page. It takes a lot of work to build something like this back up, but I’m just going to have to make the time to do it.
Where are you from? I was born in Gardena California on September 24, 1957. My parents went back to Mitchell, South Dakota, three months after I was born, for my grandfather’s funeral. They stayed, and this is where I was raised. I’ve spent the last twenty-two years here in Fremont, Nebraska, about forty miles northwest of Omaha, raising a family of seven children.
Tell us your latest news? I’ll be at Next Millennium in Omaha, Nebraska, in April, May, and June for book signings. I’ll also be giving tarot readings. I’ll be posting more information on this, including dates/times at my Facebook author page. You can also find this information at my website, The Witch’s Corner: ladyamythyst.webs.com
When and why did you begin writing? I’ve been writing since I started my first journal when I was 12-years-old. I was inspired by Anne Frank, and I wanted to record my life and times in order to relish everything and to forget nothing.
When did you first consider yourself a writer? It finally dawned on me that I was a writer when I stood in the middle of my kitchen staring at a check in my hand that I had received for a short story I submitted to a magazine in Colorado. This was in the early/mid 1990s, when I was still in the process of having babies and running a very busy household. The idea that someone would actually pay me for something that I had written was mind-blowing.
What inspired you to write your first book? I believe that it was the enlightenment and love of my spiritual path that inspired me to write my first book. The path of the pagan is so inspiring and so misunderstood by so many. I decided to write this book after a very dear high school friend, someone I thought I would be friends with the rest of my life, ended our friendship when I finally revealed to her that I collect tarot cards.
There was dead silence on the other end of the phone, and then in a very small voice she said, “That’s very dark.”
Well, no, divination and the tarot are not dark at all. The tarot is such an inspiring tool, not only for divination, but to venture into your psyche through meditation and magick. I wanted people to know this. I wanted people to understand the process of divination, how it works, when it can actually be useful in unexpected ways, and how enlightening life’s journey can be with it.
I realized that the way to do this was through a book.
Do you have a specific writing style? I’ve been told by readers that my style is very ‘chatty and natural’. Basically, I write pretty much the way I speak– well, for the most part. The formality of style depends on who I’m writing for, what the subject needs in order to be understood; and how entranced, inspired, or magickal I feel.
How did you come up with the title? For my last book, “Tarot: A Witch’s Journey”, it was really pretty easy…I’m a professional tarot reader, it’s been a long round-a-bout route getting to where I am today, and I’m a witch. There ya’ go!
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life? The experiences in my book are all real events from my life and the people/circumstances that I’ve encountered over years of professionally reading the tarot for the public. You meet all different kinds of people seeking answers to life’s questions, and their expectations of the tarot reader and a psychic reading are very diverse and sometimes unexpected.
In my book I’ve actually included real tarot readings I’ve done for clients, publishing them anonymously of course, to give an idea of exactly how this process works and what the end results will be like.
What books have most influenced your life most? When I was a teen-ager, the book that most touched me and influenced me was, “The Diary of Anne Frank”. I was twelve years old the first time I read it, and I just naturally assumed it would have a happy ending…it didn’t. I was stunned. I re-read it then without the haze of innocence to shade the harsh reality.
Years later I discovered another ‘Anne’…Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her series of diaries and letters. Again, there was a tragedy included in the author’s life and these books, the kidnapping and murder of her infant son in 1932. But this time I got to read past the tragedy to see how the author learned to live with her sorrow and to rebuild her life. Anne’s books contained very poignant insights on life and how we cope so as to be able to live.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?Definitely Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I lent a friend one of Anne’s books once, and when my friend had finished reading it, her amazed response was, “This lady is pure thought.” I also greatly admire Ann Moura, as well as Ly de Angeles and her beautiful literary style.
What book are you reading now? I’m doing research now for my third book, “The Book of Magick” (working title), so my reading consists of books on topics relating to my research; books on crystals, stones, correspondences, animals, herbs, and such.
What are your current projects? I recently finished my second book, “The Gray Witch’s Grimoire”, and have it under submission with a publisher at this time. This book deals exclusively with magick from the perspective of the gray witch, which might rattle a few chains. I believe the modern witch of today, greatly influenced by a mostly Christian society, has lost site of the true wise-woman of ancient times. This book includes information on not only magick that falls in the shady area of witchcraft, taking advantage of a darker and often misunderstood energy, but it also deals with touchy Wiccan subjects, such as self-initiation.
I intend to write a companion book to “The Gray Witch’s Grimoire” sometime in the very near future, most likely a study guide..
Right now, as I’ve said, I’m working on “The Book of Magick”, which attempts to gather correspondences for all types of magick, from a variety of paths, to make it easier for the magickal practitioner to coordinate their spell work and gather the items they need to make their magick a reality.
Name one entity that you feel supported you outside of family members. The Mother Goddess…it’s the strength, resolution, and peace I find as a practicing witch and member of my coven that inspires me.
Do you see writing as a career? I have a feeling that very few writers, except those who’s novels are destined for movies, can depend on a writing career as their sole income. As a free-lance writer, with no other source of income, you will also run into issues and concerns such as health insurance and retirement plans.
If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book? Overall– no. I think my editor, Starr Price, did an amazing job at creating a wonderful book from my piles and piles of manuscript pages, coordinating all the information I presented into a magickal experience. I think an artist or writer would never stop tweaking their work if someone didn’t gently take it from their hands and say, “Okay, it’s done now.”
Who designed the cover? The cover for “Tarot: A Witch’s Journey” was designed by Starr Price. I had no idea what she was going to do. She phoned me one day, saying that the cover was finished and she wanted me on the line when I looked at it for the first time for feedback– it blew me away! My girls were behind me squealing in delight. I can’t tell you how many comments and compliments I’ve received about the cover to this book. I tell these people I take no credit for this, it was all Starr Price’s artistic talent and magickal muse.
What advice would you give aspiring writers? I’d tell them to keep writing, keep writing, keep writing. It’s so easy to come up with a million ideas that you never put down on paper. Don’t just dream about being a writer, but actually do it. This requires determination, discipline, and perseverance, but the rewards are worth it in the end.
