Self Care, Witchy Style
On Sunday, October 29th at East Fork Asheville, tarot reader and herbalist, Sarah Chappell will be offering 25 minute sessions for $35 - which will include a mini-tarot reading, customized flower essence blend + an herbal cocktail.
Email [email protected] to reserve a session.
Self care! If you frequent any of the same corners of the internet as I do, you've probably been encouraged to make it a part of your life, or at least use it as justification to buy lots of face masks. I have to admit that self care hasn't been enough of a priority for me this year, but when I have a moment to check in and intentionally give myself time and space, I find it particularly rejuvenating to break from my routine and try something new - hiking a trail I've never visited, starting a new book, and stopping by a gallery to check out their current show are all things I fall back on when I need to reset my mind and feel grounded again.
East Fork is partnering with Sarah Chappell for a day of self-nurturing through in-store tarot readings, flower essence making, and herbaceous cocktail sippin’. Sarah is an Asheville-based intuitive counselor and herbalist who draws from traditions in tarot, flower and stone essences, herbal medicine, and reiki to work with folks to better understand and heal themselves. At our upcoming event at our store in downtown Asheville, Sarah will dive with you into a personalized tarot spread to uncover what shifts you are being invited to make and use your cards to create a custom flower essence blend you can take home to incorporate into your rituals and life.
I don't know much about tarot, but I'm fascinated by alternative logic systems, mythologies, and healing methods of all sorts - as well as the arguments of skeptics and outsiders. Given the rise in popularity of astrology, tarot, and other aspects of the occult in the past couple of years as well as the strong community of herbalists I've found myself surrounded by since moving to Asheville, I was eager to learn a bit more about both tarot and flower essences in preparation for our event with Sarah.
A few cards from a late 18th century French tarot deck.
The tarot has a long, multifaceted, and contentious history - tarot cards sprung up throughout Europe not long after playing cards became popular; originally used for card games similar to bridge, the earliest known tarot decks came from 1400s Italy and spread throughout Europe. The first known tarot deck released for “occult” use came from the famous French occultist Etteilla in the late eighteenth century. Etteilla was the first to make connections between the tarot, astrology, and other realms of divination and is considered to be the first professional tarot occultist.
Tarot's significance and popularity continue to ebb and flow with cultural tides, and there's lots of disagreement as to whether the tarot holds any sort of transcendent mystic power. Plenty of contemporary tarot practitioners laud the cards for the simple yet enduring power of their static imagery and symbols, concrete touchstones we can consult when we crave a framework for sorting through the chaos in our lives. This is the approach I've settled on - with enough openness and a healthy dose of humor, I've started to playfully explore alternative avenues for self-reflection and am curious to find what tarot might push me to consider.
"The Tarot Reader" New York, 1949 by Irving Penn.Sarah Chappell’s healing practice uses the Tarot as a powerful tool of reflection, approaching the cards through a lens of self-care in pursuit of self-empowerment, and she describes flower essences as the energetic imprint of flowers in water, working on the principle of vibrational resonance to bring parts of our emotional, spiritual, and wider selves back into balance
Bring it on.
