 I’m not sure how to lay this egg, except to just come right out with it. I’ve been working on a really amazing esoteric oracle deck for the last couple of years…. This deck is based on charming images drawn by W. W. Denslow and John R. Neill, which are now in the public domain. These two men illustrated some of the most beloved children’s books in American literature: the fourteen Oz books by L. Frank Baum. Most people have seen the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939), but far fewer know that it was first a book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), and that it was followed by thirteen more. Together, these books were truly the Harry Potter series of their day. The idea first came to me in 2017, though it wasn’t until the original illustrations entered the public domain in 2023 that the project truly came alive. It felt as if the images themselves awoke, ready to be reimagined for a new century. I began this project in earnest in the summer of 2023 by carefully tracing select original illustrations from all fourteen books in pencil on 16×20 archival paper, preserving the style in which they first appeared. After a couple of years of this tedious work on my own, in January of 2025, my brilliant and talented artist friend Cathey Miller began the process of artfully painting them, one by one, into a full deck of brightly colored characters, some of which are in color for the very first time. Some of them we all know and love: Dorothy, the Wizard, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman; but there are dozens more characters waiting to be introduced. Throughout this entire process, I’ve also been reading, studying, writing, and producing the companion book that will accompany the cards with another collaborator and friend - genius graphic designer Melody Tarver. The deck is essentially complete. In fact, I have a gorgeous prototype in my hot little hands! But it’s not quite time for their big debut. Soon, though. Very soon.  In the meantime, I’ve produced a Living Mandala Podcast series called The Living Mandala of Oz, which breaks down the process, the images, their categorization, and their color designations. It’s an esoteric oracle deck incorporating elements, chakras, colors, astrological components, enneagram types, and much, much more. My conversation partner for this podcast series is Dr. G. William Barnard, professor of Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University. Over the course of twelve episodes, we wax on and on about the characters, the symbolism, and the rich esoteric framework woven throughout the deck and the Land of Oz.
Like I said, I’ve been sitting on this egg for a long time, folks. It’s Imbolc, and the stirrings of life are churning just below the surface, even while it’s still winter here on surface Earth. The moon is full in Leo and even though the big world out there seems like a raging dumpster fire right now, it still feels like the right moment to tiptoe out, take a deep breath, and lovingly release this project by gently tapping on the eggshell. Tap, tap, tap. Is this microphone on? May it be so!
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 A very special project I have been diligently working on for over two years will be downloading into the material plane sometime in 2026. Am I excited? Uh, yes! This project has been enormous, way above my initial capacity, and yet somehow the resources and the people have continued to arrive. It's still too soon to say the exact nature of the egg I'm about to lay, but suffice it to say, it's filled with joy, esotericism, wonder and a working knowledge of "the correspondences," the likes of which have never been manifest until now. For now I'm vague. A little bemused. And enjoying the calm before the big release. I can't wait to share when the time is right. For now, I celebrate the turn of the calendar year and am giddy with the fruits of joyous labor!  May it be so.
 I've often joked I'm secretly an eccentric old lady from another century. And so is my little time machine office. This funny little room in the middle of my house was never mine in the 25 years we've been in this 100 year old Craftsman. It was first a guest room. Then some bunk beds for the kids. Then my daughter's room. Then my son's room when she went to college. Then my mother and her husband moved in for a year. Then my son again. This room has always been a mystery to me. But it's the largest room in our home and has its own bathroom and its own front door with a porch!   Now? It's been redone with a coat of fresh paint and scandalous wallpaper in the bathroom with my desk in the power position. I wonder what I'll be manifesting as I sit here day after day. Not sure, but I'm really excited. Even as the world is burning to the ground, I still feel called to learn and create.  May it be so!
 Somehow I keep cranking out podcasts. It's astonishing to me the diligence I have with very large projects. Anyway, this one's awesome. Rudrananda is a treasure and I adored chatting with him over 8 episodes about the Zodiac - from the Vedic astrological stance.
Check it out: The Living Mandala of the Zodiac is an 8-part Living Mandala Podcast series exploring the planets, Zodiacal signs, their relationship to our lives and living environments (mandalas), produced in collaboration with special guest Jared Turner M.Div., aka Rudranandra, Transformational coach, Interfaith Chaplain, Ceremonialist, Vedic astrologer and Kirtan leader (wallah). Enjoy it here or wherever you get your podcasts. May it be so!  Oh my! Another podcast series is about to drop on June 10. In the opening episode of The Living Mandala of the Tarot Stephanie Ansin and I cover the basics - a short history of the Tarot, different types of decks, the Major and Minor Arcana, the schools of knowledge encoded in these cards plus a little more about Stephanie and her journey into this amazing world of art, divination and spiritual growth. Our focus deck as we explore during the series is the classic Rider-Waite deck--the most widely used Tarot deck in existence. The series will run through the end of September 2025 and cover all the Major Arcana cards plus an episode about the Minor Arcana.
It was an absolute joy to record this series with Stephanie a couple of months ago. I'm grateful for her guidance and expertise on this path. Since our time together I've gotten super into my Tarot deck, performing readings for myself almost daily with insight I never could have conjured on my own. Divination is so mysterious like that! Anyway, tune in at Living Mandala Consulting or wherever you get your podcasts! May it be so!  Spring is here! Mercury is now Direct and I'm finally sharing about the latest and greatest podcast series: The Philosopher's House. The series is about halfway out of the gate at this point but since it runs until the end of May, there's still time to get the word out. Not that that's my motivation. Never has been. This podcast is for FUN. I consider it behind the scenes research for another project I'm working on. Perhaps something like my "life's work" - not to be dramatic - but yeah. I'm consistently percolating on a few themes and the podcast is how I soundboard and air things out with trusted professionals.
Which, speaking of. My dear friend John is insanely well-spoken about his passion of philosophy. When we did these recordings back in January, he just sat back and talked. And talked. And could have kept on talking. He knows this material inside out and it was a true joy and honor to listen to him wax on and on about different ways of philosophizing reality and consciousness. He's an old, old friend so it was an easy and light experience somehow at the same time. New episodes in the series drop every two weeks. And a brand new series is in the works! Actually, the next TWO series are in the works. I officially have a roadmap for the next couple of years as it turns out. It's a joy to make these and again, with the motivation being a love of learning, pressure's off to look at stats and stuff. But rest assured I'm on every last platform in the podcast sphere. The Living Mandala Podcast easy to find if you want to indulge your curiosity about chakras, colors, planets, enneagram, philosophy and soon, a couple more exciting topics! May it be so!  In the early days of this new year, I’ve got a new phrase that I mutter to myself as I move through life. If I’m ever lost in the moment or fearful or find my mind wandering off on some bullshit tangent about something completely unimportant and trivial, I will simply say to myself “Four Pillars” and I’m back on track. Back in the seat of my awareness. Present to what I’m doing and what’s next. So what are the Four Pillars? They came into my awareness some months ago when I became obsessed with cutting my hair. I can’t explain the "itch" that occurs when I feel a big chop coming but it must be something similar to what a snake might be feeling. I just know that soon, soon, soon, my hair must be shed! I've done this a few times in my adult life and so it's an oddly familiar feeling at this point. And wow my hair was long this time, gracing my lowest ribs when I let it down. Beautiful, shiny, soft and well cared for. I’d been growing it since 2017, the last time I cut off all my hair. Back then, I was more in tune with the death associated with the cut. With what I was giving up. What I was dying to. Back then, I conducted an elaborate death ritual with some friends, a death photoshoot, a conscious bardo experience that lasted a few days, followed by a three-week trip to Burma with my son to reacclimate to this lifetime and get used to the radical change before I went back into my Default World day job. Things were different then. I wasn’t as clear about what I was "growing into" at that time. I was more clear, like I said, about what I was dying to. This time, I knew a different course of action would be necessary. The “itch” began last fall but not being rash with these things, I waited to see if this old, familiar itch would pass. Alas it did not. On the contrary, the itch increased! My long hair began to drive me batshit crazy. So then the question became: what wants to happen here? I got quiet during the holidays and took notes as the downloads came. I noticed that the first full moon of 2025 was a full moon in Cancer with Mars in Cancer, retrograde. Same as my natal chart. Hmmm. I asked my pendulum many (many!) times and the reading was always the same: Yes this was the optimal date. I tried to get out of it a few times but in the end gave in and settled on Monday, January 13 for the big chop.  here's the last pic of me with long hair this time around... I was clear going into this hair cut to articulate what I’m growing into and I spent many weeks leading up to the cut defining with words what that would be. Sure, cutting off hair off inherently means a massive karmic release but the gift to myself this time was the foresight to clearly state my intentions. Fast forward, through a series of serendipitous events, I was able to secure what is called a “Pujari” to facilitate a traditional fire ceremony after the cut. He encouraged me to invite everyone I knew to the event and be a part of the goodwill of this sort of sacrifice. I like to think I’m a bit more low key than that, and originally only wanted a couple of close people there. In the end, after a few texts, around 30 people showed up! With everyone gathered in my backyard, I began by stating out loud what I was chopping off including the pandemic, anger at my mother and a few other more private things I didn’t say with a ton of detail but that I know in my heart what they are. After that, I stated four intentions out loud:
 It felt good to say these four intentions aloud with many witnesses. With that, I pulled my hair into two long ponytails and began the process of sawing them off with scissors. Not an easy process it turns out! After that, the electric clippers came out. I shaved my head my own darn self with my dear friend Michael finishing the rough edges with his clippers. Everyone clapped and then it was time for the fire ceremony. It was a lovely fire ceremony event, all in all. Ghee, grains, mantra chanting, a fire. After that we all ate a giant vegan feast that my darling Paul cooked and enjoyed some music in the living room. What a night….. one I shan’t forget as long as I live.  Now that I’m a few weeks out, the four intentions have officially become the “Four Pillars” of my reality. A morphing and maturing of a simple idea, really: to state and re-state these four intentions daily and to do my best to grow into them. And they have shifted to “pillars” because I’ve worked with them intently now for almost a month and I have now also simplified them into something I can access instantly. Each pillar is now linked with a Sanskrit word - because I’m a nerd like that:
Easy as that. A simple measuring device to gain quick clarity as I engage with literally any person, activity or situation on a daily basis. All I gotta say in my head now is “Four Pillars” and determine if I’m in alignment with one of them or not. And if I’m not, I shift. Easy as that. Everything else is an illusory distraction to me now. Even if the act of seeing the illusory distractions technically falls under the Jnana pillar. What’s really cool is that I’m able to see how the Four Pillars overlap quite often. For example, when I play my flute, I’m activating all four, easy as that. When I’m buried in a course of book study, I’m activating at least three. When someone pisses me off in traffic, two of the four are definitely in play. And so it goes. Because our world! My goodness, our world is falling apart. Burning to the ground. Utter madness is accessible and available at a moment’s notice. I don’t know why I’m alive on this earth at this time but I am. And this is how I cope perhaps, but it’s also the best and clearest way I can see to make a difference in my reality to serve self and others most effectively. And that’s the Four Pillars! May it be so. The opening conversation to a 9-part podcast series called The Philosopher's House exploring seven philosophers, their associated astrological alignments, and how each philosophy manifests in the house and home is now live! This series is produced in collaboration with special guest Dr. John Macready, a Professor of Philosophy at Collin College. The series is based on his 2022 book A Continental Guide to Philosophy (Edinburgh University Press).
The 9 Episodes:
Thanks for listening! It's going to be a fun series. May it be so.  I'm a day late to the crawl here but a new podcast series started yesterday all about the enneagram! A former coworker, Joanna Douglas and myself had a beautiful day last month conversing about the enneagram and I'll be sharing these conversations between now and January of 2025. This is the only way I can do a podcast people. Record it all at once and eek it out every two weeks. Sorry/not sorry. The podcast remains a project I do for fun. For research. For the joy of it. Period. More updates: Life is a full, rich thing right now. I'm freakishly private and so going into detail on the internet isn't really my style but I will say this: I've initiated two new courses of study this week. Ones that will take me years to complete, if ever. It's daunting. It's terrifying. I know I'll be different after it's all said and done. One is music based. Like, OMG. It's deeply uncomfortable to me and I'm grateful for my musical companions on this journey. I will take my god given musical gifts and my years of Saturnian discipline and make the best of this newly budding and unfurling situation. I will, I will, I will! The other is magical in nature. Truly. Complete with an underutilized actual magic library! It's a new school year. New moon. New podcast journey. Two new courses of study. In addition to all the other things I'm up to in this world. Now that I'm fully out of the public eye I'm relishing the hermit nature of my life right now. The rain pours after a long hot summer and yet things in my office are cookin'! May it be so!   The third interview series in my sweet little podcast continues! The Living Mandala of the Planets series features twelve conversations about the planets with astrologer Rachel Ruth Tate. After an opening episode two weeks ago, the SUN episode drops tomorrow morning. In this series we explore the upper mandala of planets and inspect these celestial bodies one by one to understand how each one relates back to life on earth, our living environments and various correspondences that each planet shares with Runes, metals, days of the week and more. Episodes drop every two weeks and run through the end of July. It was funny. I shared with Rachel at some point in the recording process "I used to have people on my team that did things like this for me" alluding to the recording / editing / uploading / hosting process etc. But that now - because I know just enough to be dangerous from that last day job of mine - I do it all myself. Anyway, I say all this as I ask for patience with the elongated ending on the Sun episode. And the coffee shop sounds on the Saturn, Uranus and Neptune episodes. Oh and sparseness that is my podcast music. That is all. With that -- Enjoy the Living Mandala of the Planets series!  May it be so!
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DescriptionPeriodic updates and observations from Aurah in the Field. Archives
February 2026
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