Daily Practice

My daily practice has been going strong since last Tuesday. I have been able to do it every day since then, even while I was home for break. I found it a lot easier to do in my own room when I was at home. I think that scent had a lot to do with it. Obviously I am the most comfortable at home, but also the familiar smell of the wood furniture in my room mixed with the smell of incense that I've used in the past, reminds me of tarot reading in general. Over last summer I did a reading every night before I went to bed, it is the inspiration behind my daily practice for this semester. Though while I was home this time I did most of my readings during the morning hours, because these hours were the less hectic, and it was the most quiet time in my house (which is important because I have a younger sister and a dog who can both be very noisy, haha). Now that I am back in Syracuse, however, I want to start doing the readings again at night.

Beginning Pics for Project

These are two ideas for part of the cards that I have in mind.

Nowhere from Here

Although I enjoyed reading Jacquelyn Baas's article about art, I am at lost for an example of art that I have enjoyed in this way, or a piece of "relational aesthetic art." The part of her article that I enjoyed the most is the idea of an artist's life being full of art, instead of just when they choose to sit down and create it. I think this is important because as someone who enjoys studying art, I can't help but just enjoy certain moments in my day that I find beautiful, or scenes I see before me. It's a good thing that Duchamp changed the idea of art from just the product into including the process, because it would be a bit absurd to think that art is only just finished, typical pieces. I searched for quite sometime online to try to find a piece that interested me, but I often found myself becoming confused within articles full of art and intellectual jargon instead of finding actual projects. I'm sure that I would enjoy pieces like this in real life, in person, but reading about them only muddles my thought process. In fact, not to sound belligerent, but sometimes when reading about these artistic practices and theories I get a bit angered and frustrated, because I think a lot of artists, even if they really mean all the things they say, sound ridiculously pretentious. This could be frustration coming from not understanding what they are getting at, but you know that there are people out there that talk just to make themselves sound important. Anyways- I apologize, that was sort of a mini-rant. That's what I get for googling half an hour. Any piece of art or design that a viewer enjoys should have a certain aspect of relational aestheticism to it. There has to be something to draw the viewer in and keep them there. In ComDesign when we talk about creating design, our professors often say "seduce the eyes, and challenge the mind," or something along those lines.

Daily Practice

So this week was all about getting back in gear after I was sick for a week. I was eager to do my daily practice every day. In fact, today I did two readings, because I wanted to 'get back into the game.' Especially after we had been talking about our projects in class.

I felt that Friday and Saturday I was right on target. Friday's reading went really smoothly. Although I have to say that this week I have done all of my readings (except for the one I did tonight) during the morning hours. This week I felt that that was when my mind was the clearest, especially since I have still been going to bed really early because I've been wanting to sleep as much as possible to get rid of this cold. It feels really good to be centered, as well as productive, first thing in the morning after I wake up. It would be nice to find some sort of other meditation to do in the mornings if I don't continue this practice after the class.

Sunday I didn't find there to be any troubles really. It was easy to focus, even at night when the room below me was blasting their music, though admittedly, the early morning one was easier to focus during.

Daily Practice

What is the experience of your Daily Practice in your mind/body?

Normally, when I feel that my daily practice is most successful, the experience that I feel is one of centeredness. When I actually can concentrate without getting too side tracked down the thought stream, there is a feeling that what I am doing is right. There is a certain amount of focus and this feeling of intuition. There is a quietness of the mind.

How do you reach the mind/body state of your DP?

Each time I do my reading for my daily practice, I have a mental step process that I go through. This process is tied to the art of tarot reading. It involves calling on/concentrating on the four directions and elements. This would be earth (north), east (air), south (fire) and west (water). Each time I concentrate on making a circle around myself by calling on the four points, and I mentally think about the four points three times each before I start my reading. This is where I mentally focus.

Where do you practice - what is your environment?

I either do the readings on my bed, or on the couch in my apartment.

How do you bring yourself back to the present?

At the end, I have to release the circle. I mentally concentrate going in reverse over the four directions.

When you engage one sense, what are your other sense doing or not doing?

Normally I close my eyes when I concentrate on casting the circle. I actually try to concentrate on focusing, instead of paying attention to my sense of hearing or sight. However, the tarot cards have a certain scent to them that reminds me of incense and that generally helps me concentrate. Also, the shuffling of the cards is very important to the reading.

What formal/physical qualities (texture, color, light, rhythm, pitch, etc...) do you assoociate with the experience of your DP?

Light. The colour purple. Energy. A slightly warm feeling.

Seeing as a Child / Curiosity

For this week I tried to "see/hear with the eyes of a child" in order to gain curiosity in a conversation. In general I really liked this weeks reading because I often think about these sort of things when I'm having a conversation with people. The thing I had the hardest with about curiosity is not that I wasn't curious about people when I was listening to them, but rather that I feel sometimes just saying "ask me more" sounds insincere, and people don't feel as open to sharing. This week I tried to use different things but found myself using mostly "really?" as my continuing question.


In one particular conversation I had with someone I really tried to follow the guidelines from the reading. I found myself getting curious of how the person was choosing the way they phrased things. Also it was someone I wasn't all that familiar with, so I found myself wondering about their past and how they have ended up the way they are today. I found it easy to ask them about why they did certain things, or about things I didn't know about them already. But when it came to the parts in the conversation where they were talking about things that solely relied on the present, it was a lot harder to figure out how to stay immediately curious and focused and to ask them how to go on. Often times in conversations people aren't just telling you their feelings, instead, it's about normal day-to-day things and that's when I get the most stuck in a conversation.

Daily Practice

This week I started getting back into doing the daily practice more easily, at least, to do them easily everyday. However, then halloween came around and I didn't do them for a few days. There are four readings, however. I think that this week's class helped get me back into it after midterms. This is because it was interesting to try to do the practice with other people.

Anyways. At the beginning of the week, October 25th, the reading was a little rushed because I wanted to go to bed, but I didn't have a problem concentrating. I think I Just pushed it too quickly. October 26th, I spent more time on my reading. I really made sure that I was focused and that I cast the circle slowly. I always feel like the reading goes more smoothly when I get into a focused state of mind. Sometimes when my mind feels jumbled, it's almost like you can tell that reading isn't as 'true' or 'pure' as it normally would be. The reading on Friday (the 27th) went well too. I had a lot of time to do it and my mind wasn't stressed out at all.

My most recent reading, the one today, was difficult. I'm very tired from driving back from my friend's school which is three and a half hours away. Also I was trying to catch up on a lot of different things and my computer was close by, which is always distracting. It took me a lot more time than it normally does to do a reading.