I didn’t post last week because I was on retreat at Charney Manor in deepest Oxfordshire with the Scattered Authors Society.
As retreats go, this annual adventure is a very lively one – among this year’s sessions we had comedy improv, yoga, e-publishing, drawing, developing the work-in-progress, searching for the iron-age fort and the traditional Charney Quiz.
One of my offerings was an afternoon workshop on writing the tarot. Tarot is useful, like dreams, because the cards you draw will be synchronistically connected with your current emotions and preoccupations, so the themes and characters they suggest will feel relevant and immediate to explore in your writing.
However, in an introductory workshop it can be easier if everyone’s working on the same image, so I like to start at the beginning with number 0, The Fool. Katherine Roberts has described the session on her lovely blog, Riding the Unicorn, if you’d like to find out more.
I’ll be offering a one-day workshop in Cornwall on writing the tarot in the autumn. In the meantime, check out the workshops page on this blog if you think you might fancy some dreaming-and-writing in Surrey this October, and please spread the word if you know anyone else who might be interested.
Cheers!
Jenny Alexander's blog: Writing in the House of Dreams 
Charney was, as always, great, and you’re session on writing with the tarot was fascinating, Jenny – as was your later session dedicated to finding out what we truly write for. I was surprised by my own motivations! – I hadn’t suspected them of being so pure.
Your pure motivations don’t surprise me at all, Sue!
Wonderful to see these photos, Jenny! And even better to have seen you in person. Thanks so much for your workshops, both of which made me see familiar things in a new way.
In a nutshell Amy, that’s my favourite thing, seeing familiar things in a new way, and I’m delighted you got that from my sessions. It was lovely to see you at Charney – one of the great things about following people’s blogs is you feel you already know them quite well by the time you meet them in person (loved your flowers this week)