The Hierophant
1. What doctrine or philosophy guides your life?
In a world that seems to be overwrought by judgement and those more than ready to bestow it upon others, I have developed a philosophy to help deal with it. Judgement should not be made until both sides have been examined, and even then it should be used with the utmost discretion. I personally have gained much better relationships with other people just by following that one belief.
2. Which of your family or religious traditions do you find most meaningful?
This may sound just a bit odd, but for some reason, I find my family tradition of having Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve as well as eating Thanksgiving dinner twice on the same day. Now that I am writing it out, I suddenly realize that I was born into a very impatient and hungry family.
3. At whose feet would you cherish the opportunity to sit and learn?
I would cherish the opportunity to sit and learn at the feet of the one and only Sherlock Holmes. But if I have to be realistic, I would accept the feet of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Either way, I simply desire to learn Sherlock's most powerful weapon: his mind. More than anything, I wish that I had at least half of his power of observation.
4. What is the best advice you ever gave or received?
"Keep your heels, head, and standards high"
5. What beliefs or ideas would you like to transmit to others?
I would want to transmit the idea that money and popularity can only get someone so far in life. One needs to have motivation as well in order to get far in life.
6. What long-held beliefs or values no longer serve you?
I used to believe that striving to obtain the American Dream would make me happy later on in the future. I once thought that having a big ol' house with a nice car parked in the garage, a white picket fence, and a rich husband was going to be the main goal in my life until I found out the hard way that the American Dream is mostly just false advertisement meant to lull people to this land. That is no longer the case as I have rerouted my goal to simply having a life that makes me happy and makes me feel some sense of completion, no matter what form it manifests itself.
The Magician
1. What was your greatest inspiration?
My greatest inspiration off the top of my head would be Tom and Jerry from my childhood cartoon. Yes, they would beat each other up in ways more painful than the last, but you know what? In every episode, both Tom and Jerry get right back up every time no matter how much pain they were in and they often found a way to work together towards a common goal or manage to stay friends. I could not have asked for a better source of inspiration.
2. What would you like to attract and manifest?
I would like to be able to attract success and good fortune, but who wouldn't?
3. What specific skills or abilities would you like to develop?
I would really like to further my ability to empathize with other people instead of merely sympathizing. I want to be the type of person that people feel more comfortable with because they would know that I could connect with them on a deeper level.
4. When have you deliberately redirected your thoughts and achieved new results?
I remember that almost four years ago, I was set on becoming a veterinarian. I had gone on tours of veterinarian schools, I was in the process of an application for a pre-vet camp, and I had even tried to figure out what classes I needed to take in high school in order to make my application more impressive. I was going to be the next Jane Goodall. I have no idea when, but at some point, I started to notice that I would get a feeling of dread whenever I saw all of the required math and science classes.
5. In what area are your powers of focus and concentration strongest?
I am not exactly sure where exactly I stand when it comes to focus and concentration. On the one hand, there are times when I all I can think about is getting a task done and nothing can get in my way. On the other, I sometimes have the mental capacity of a squirrel... what was I talking about again?
6. When have you expressed the shadow aspect of the Magician and overestimated your ability to control or influence a situation?
There was this one time in my senior year of high school where I was working on a final project for my mythology class. I had come up with a few brainstorms of what it might look like depending on who did what or what aspects of mythology we were going to use. Then I made the mistake of overestimating how much time this project was going to take and ended up procrastinating until the very last week before it was due. By then, I was scrambling to get everything done and trying to regain control of my quickly disbanding group before everyone in it decided to go with a different idea. Long story short, I screwed up real bad (even if I did end up with an A in the class).
Monday, September 26, 2016
Friday, September 16, 2016
The Devil is in the Cards
Week 2 (9/14-9/16)
The deck that I have chosen for my First Year Seminar class is Brian Williams' "Renaissance Tarot". This edition features the combination of Tarot and mythological references in the illustrations along with a few real famous historical cities in Italy. So why did I choose this deck? I am a proud lover of both art history and mythology, so the fact that I managed to find a tarot deck that really displays my personal interests was amazing. Not surprisingly, I took a class in general art history as well as The Myth Tradition during my senior year of high school. Go figure. I am used to seeing the more medieval version of tarot cards, thus I found my deck to still adhere to my classical tastes but have a new twist on the art. As you might be able to see, each card features a nicely drawn image on the front with references to mythological deities/symbols in the upper corners. The back of the cards all feature a dizzying array of circles with a man and a woman curled up in a yin-yang position. They are also surrounded by animal symbols of the elements: a bird for air (staves), a fish for water (cups), a salamander for fire (swords), and the turtle for earth (coins).
When I picked a random tarot card from my major arcana deck, of course I was given "Il Diavolo". Only I would get that card on the first try.
The deck that I have chosen for my First Year Seminar class is Brian Williams' "Renaissance Tarot". This edition features the combination of Tarot and mythological references in the illustrations along with a few real famous historical cities in Italy. So why did I choose this deck? I am a proud lover of both art history and mythology, so the fact that I managed to find a tarot deck that really displays my personal interests was amazing. Not surprisingly, I took a class in general art history as well as The Myth Tradition during my senior year of high school. Go figure. I am used to seeing the more medieval version of tarot cards, thus I found my deck to still adhere to my classical tastes but have a new twist on the art. As you might be able to see, each card features a nicely drawn image on the front with references to mythological deities/symbols in the upper corners. The back of the cards all feature a dizzying array of circles with a man and a woman curled up in a yin-yang position. They are also surrounded by animal symbols of the elements: a bird for air (staves), a fish for water (cups), a salamander for fire (swords), and the turtle for earth (coins).
When I picked a random tarot card from my major arcana deck, of course I was given "Il Diavolo". Only I would get that card on the first try.
According to the booklet from the tarot deck, "The Devil, a horned and dragon-winged creature, stands in front of a chained couple. The god Pan and his goat accompany him". The Devil is front and center with the main focus on him and his monstrous appearance, making the card a bit unnerving to look at. In every culture that acknowledges the Devil, he is a figure of temptation, wickedness, and danger, hence, the cards go by the same ideology. The only difference is that Brian Williams wanted to highlight that this card also has a meaning of "[i]mprisonment by baser instincts", and when the card is upside down, it could mean "irresponsible pleasure" or "childish panic". Williams used Pan to emphasize the trickster characteristic that pairs with both the meaning of the card as well as a reference to what the Judeo-Christian version of the Devil is attributed to.
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
About Me
Hello beautiful readers!
My name is Thaisha Belis and I am currently an undergrad at Salem State University. My major is Theatre with a technical concentration, but I plan on maybe adding a double in Communications with a media arts concentration.
I am a former army brat, so I was conceived in South Korea, born in Texas, lived in Germany for a year, and currently residing in the state of Massachusetts. I went to Boston Latin School for six years and graduated with a class of 410 students in my senior grade alone. During my final year, I was one of twenty-five seniors within my school's Capstone program. For those of you who do not know, a Capstone is basically an intensive, year-long project that focuses on a thesis created by yourself. It is very independent and at the end of the year, we all gave a Tedx Talk in front of the school. I chose to focus on the psychological effect of color on an audience with the focus being film culture. Color psychology is a topic near and dear to my heart so always expect me to make a comment when talking about that particular subject. Feel free to check out my website but beware that I am constantly making changes/improvements whenever I have time:
* http://colorpsycho.weebly.com *
Although I plan on joining a local coven, --shouldn't be too difficult to find in Salem-- I am a self-proclaimed eclectic pagan. All that basically means is that a majority of my beliefs stem from basic Wiccan culture with the subcategories: Dianic Wicca (all things feminine), Stregharian Tradition (focus on herbal knowledge), Hellenic (Greek culture/deities) but I also include elements of South/east Asian religion such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Shintoism. So as you can see, I am all over the place. I have such varied beliefs because I find it impossible to be able to say "I like this entire religious philosophy. I am going to stick to this one and only this one for the rest of my life".
Since this blog site is for my First Year Seminar: What's in the Cards, I am obviously going to be posting my responses to the homework assignments as this is the main function of this site. You and I are going to be seeing a lot of each other for the next several months, so don't get too bored along the way.
Blessed be!
My name is Thaisha Belis and I am currently an undergrad at Salem State University. My major is Theatre with a technical concentration, but I plan on maybe adding a double in Communications with a media arts concentration.
I am a former army brat, so I was conceived in South Korea, born in Texas, lived in Germany for a year, and currently residing in the state of Massachusetts. I went to Boston Latin School for six years and graduated with a class of 410 students in my senior grade alone. During my final year, I was one of twenty-five seniors within my school's Capstone program. For those of you who do not know, a Capstone is basically an intensive, year-long project that focuses on a thesis created by yourself. It is very independent and at the end of the year, we all gave a Tedx Talk in front of the school. I chose to focus on the psychological effect of color on an audience with the focus being film culture. Color psychology is a topic near and dear to my heart so always expect me to make a comment when talking about that particular subject. Feel free to check out my website but beware that I am constantly making changes/improvements whenever I have time:
* http://colorpsycho.weebly.com *
Although I plan on joining a local coven, --shouldn't be too difficult to find in Salem-- I am a self-proclaimed eclectic pagan. All that basically means is that a majority of my beliefs stem from basic Wiccan culture with the subcategories: Dianic Wicca (all things feminine), Stregharian Tradition (focus on herbal knowledge), Hellenic (Greek culture/deities) but I also include elements of South/east Asian religion such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Shintoism. So as you can see, I am all over the place. I have such varied beliefs because I find it impossible to be able to say "I like this entire religious philosophy. I am going to stick to this one and only this one for the rest of my life".
Since this blog site is for my First Year Seminar: What's in the Cards, I am obviously going to be posting my responses to the homework assignments as this is the main function of this site. You and I are going to be seeing a lot of each other for the next several months, so don't get too bored along the way.
Blessed be!
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