I rarely recommend fanfiction

but I have to recommend this. Short, but entirely worth it. It's all about the heart of flesh vs. the heart of stone. And the title is from Dickens, which warms me to it even more. I'll be friending this person on strength of this fic alone.

The Hero of His Own Life by cesario. A condensed biography of Albus Dumbledore, and a wonderful character study.

Thanks to thistlerose for the pointer.

Pleasures for the convalescent

Thanks again to carbonel, who out of the goodness of her heart arranged a little get together with friends last night so that Peg could escape the confines of her house for one evening. We went over to Lois McMaster Bujold's where we were joined by 1crowdedhour and Pat Wrede. A happy evening was spent eating nibbles and discussing books and summer plans. I was noble and had only a thimbleful of the raspberry wine, even though it was OMIGOD the best stuff ever and I would have loved to have swilled an embarrassing amount. You were teasing me by bringing it, carbonel, but my surgeon would have certainly have looked askance if I had mixed it with the Vicodin.

I received my copy of the Tarot of Jane Austen today, which I received with a gift certificate someone gave me, and I am happily perusing it. I love it: it has a Love and Friendship (should that be "Freindship"?) spread and a Sense and Sensibility spread, among others, in the accompanying book.

I got your package, madlori! Thanks! No, I don't have a copy and am definitely looking forward to reading it.

This afternoon, we are heading out to my sister's in Minnetonka for a high school graduation open house for my nephew. I plan to obtain a plate of my sister's highly edible munchibles, find a chair, and not move for the entire time we are there. I am feeling a little shaky this afternoon, but I definitely don't want to miss Steven's celebration.

Enjoy the weekend, all.

My very first tarot reading

I bought my Druidcraft tarot deck about a month ago and I got my Jane Austen tarot deck today, but I've never used either one of them. I've been reading the companion books and just mulling over the cards. Today I decided to get started.

I performed a simple little ritual to bless the decks, and then I spread out a scarf with a holy tree on it (not silk, but I still like it) on the table. I had given much thought to what I should choose as my first question and finally came up with this:

"What do I need to know about beginning to study and use the tarot?"

1. Queen of cups
2. Prince of Cups
3. Seven of Pentacles
4. Princess of Cups
5. Ten of Cups
6. Six of Pentacles
7. Nine of Cups
8. Seven of Wands (reversed)
9. Six of Wands (reversed)
10. Eight of Cups
11. Five of Wands (reversed)

( I did the Celtic Cross Spread )

I note the total lack of major arcana, or any swords (air/intellect/thought). I don't know about major arcana, but the preponderance of cups vs. swords makes sense: I've wanted to study tarot because I want to develop my intuitive rather than intellectual side. On the one hand, I feel sure I have strong intuition, probably developed by becoming the best mother I can be (I am the Queen of Cups, after all) but on the other, I don't have much confidence in my ability to use or control it yet, hence my desire to study the tarot. Note that I have a heavy preponderance of cups, including all the court cards except the king. All the wands, interestingly, are reversed. Note, too, that the general tendency is for the suit to go down numerically: we start from the Queen and go down until we end at the five of wands, reversed.

Well, I have only a rather tentative idea of what I'm doing, but that was fun.