Welcome to the surreal & magickal world of bluemonday. I’ve been making art and reading tarot cards for nearly four decades and bring to these practices a love of learning and experimentation, trauma-informed insight into individual growth and group dynamics, and extensive experience as an educator, mentor, and counselor. My love of the strange and fantastic in visual art was nurtured from an early age by family encouragement and unique educational experiences, like the time my mother brought a copy of the Time-Life Man, Myth, & Magic, vol. 1 (Aberdeen Witches to Astrology, ed. Richard Cavendish) home from a yard sale and said, “This seems like something that you’d be interested in,” or the time when an observant Sunday School teacher realized that his classroom of adolescents was not engaged by the standard lessons and brought us all copies of Goethe’s Faust to read and discuss over several weeks. I have always loved mythology and been drawn to fantastical art and symbolism, and brought that love to my formal education in painting, film, and art history. In addition, I have long been a student of spiritual and religious traditions and ritual, to the point of earning an M.Div. from Lancaster Theological Seminary, obtaining ordination in the United Church of Christ, and serving in both parish and institutional ministry for thirteen years. I learned to read tarot cards starting in 1986, when I was gifted a reading from the round Motherpeace Tarot and became intrigued by the complex symbolism of tarot. When I began studying tarot and Jungian archetypes, my intention was initially to learn just enough to design my own deck; however, I soon discovered the Crowley/Harris Thoth deck and began a daily practice of drawing and interpreting the cards. Over the years I have used many other decks, and my practice has gone fallow for certain seasons, but my study of tarot symbolism has always had a significant influence on my understanding of spiritual exploration and the uses and meaning of ritual in spiritual development. As a tarot reader with a background in public ministry and hospital chaplaincy, I have found myself uniquely prepared and qualified to provide empathetic readings for those who are becoming aware of and recovering from religious trauma, as well as those who are dealing with issues of grief, life transitions, and neurodivergence (among many other things).