Originally, I obtained this URL back in 2009, but then took one look at the WordPress set up back then & balked.  I couldn’t figure out anything so I left confused, dismayed, and pretty upset until I began to use Blogger.  However, over the past 3 years I have been hearing the same thing – WordPress blogs receive more traffic because they place better in the search engines.  Well, being a businesswoman this got me to thinking, perhaps I should give WordPress another go.

I did and am pleased to say it didn’t take me long to more or less figure things out.  I still can’t figure out how to increase the size of the font for posts. I do apologize for that to those of you who wear bifocals as I do.  You can always go to your tools in your browser and use the zoom function you will find there.  I do that for many blogs and it works out just fine.

NEWS:  I am in the process of developing a sister site to my main site, Magickal-Musings.com. The most popular page at my site currently is my article on how to contact spirit guides.  If you use “contact spirit guides” as your Google search terms you will see that my article comes up as Number 1.  How that ever happened, I have no idea, but I sure am thankful!  Due to the popularity of that article and all the questions I receive in email about spirit guides (an average of 15 a week), I decided to create a sister site focusing only on the topic of spirit guides.  Currently, my article on spirit guides from Magickal-Musings.com serves as the home page of my new site, but if you scroll to the bottom of the home page you’ll see a link to a second page, which is all about the tremendous importance of asking for some type of spiritual protection before every session – even after you have successfully & repeatedly establish contact.  So please, when you visit, scroll on down & click on the link to go to the second page.  You can find my Contact Spirit Guides site here.  I don’t have any services listed there yet, but have been already dong some Spirit Guide Portraits, that also include channeled information about your spirit guide and any message(s) they may have for you.  The image above is a Spirit Guide Portrait I created for Nilda.  It is done on 11 X 14″ bristol vellum cardstock in a mix of colored pencils, watercolor pencils, and acrylic paint for the nighttime sky background.

OTHER NEWS:  Also of an artsy nature, I am very pleased & proud to announce that I have just completed two Manifestation Mandalas for tarot artist, Lisa Hunt.  Lisa is not only my favorite tarot artist of all time, but her artwork has always been a personal inspiration to me and she is the reason I am now creating my own deck, The Magickal Musings Tarot.  I friended Lisa on Facebook and since then have discovered that not only is she an incredibly talented artist (something I have known since 1999), but she is also a lovely person with a lovely family.  She and I recently made an arrangement for me to create a Manifestation Mandala for her. I can’t tell you how high the intimidation factor ran for me.  I’m not sure any machine could measure that high.  My palms literally sweated as I sat down to create the initial sketches!

Manifestation Mandalas are just like my other spiritual art of Spirit Guide Portraits and Soul Portraits.  Images come to me in distinct waves.  At first, I will see one, maybe two symbols. Once I draw what I see (my guides are nice enough to wait on me as I draw), I will receive one or two additional symbols. I then use my artist’s eye to place the images together in a pleasing composition, then work toward creating the final sketch before adding color.  Also, the symbols I receive, I usually see them in full color.  Therefore, I am sure to keep a box of colored pencils next to me so I can add swatches of color to my initial sketch so I can remember what colors to use in the final composition.

Lisa’s Manifestation Mandala proved to be much more intricate than the others I had created up until now.  I use a 12 X 12″ canvas for my Manifestation Mandalas.  I quickly realized that in order to have enough room for all the detail I would need to create two pieces for her.  The first piece is of the central image, which I received first of the hand with various symbols.  The second piece are the secondary symbols. If they were all on the same Manifestation Mandala, Lisa’s would have a secondary outer ring containing the symbols of her second Manifestation Mandala.  This is how it works sometimes. Symbols do their own thing and the hand really wanted a canvas all to itself. Who am I to argue with a symbol, never mind my own spirit guides who were also telling me to create two Manifestation Mandalas for Lisa.  This also once occurred with a client’s Soul Portrait. She received so many symbols, that I couldn’t fit them all onto a single sheet of bristol cardstock, so I created two for her.  When this occurs, I do not charge additional money.  I figure since my guides are telling me to create two & are providing enough symbols for two, then this person was meant to have two pieces of art & that’s all there is to it.  Lizzy’s two Soul Portraits hang framed side by side in her office & I can’t tell you how totally thrilled she was to receive both of them.  I was happy to create them for her.

I love creating art.  I have held some type of artistic tool in my hand since I was 2.  My portrait of “The Potato People” I created when I was 2 1/2 graced my parents dining room wall until they sold the house 37 years later. Never mind that I actually drew it directly onto the wall.  During the ensuing years my dad painted the dining room twice, but he was always careful to paint around my Potato People.  His simple consideration for his daughter’s feelings taught me a valuable lesson:  art has value & art touches the soul.

I am currently working on a Top Secret artistic project.  Not even my family knows.  No one has seen these images except for Sheila, and I.  Oh, Sheila?  Just who is this Sheila person?  She’s the family dog, and a very strict art critic, I might add.  When I unveil these new pieces they will first be viewable to the public at my Facebook Business Page, and then in my two art groups on Facebook:  The Magickal Musings Tarot and Manifestation Mandalas. So, please be sure you have liked my business page on Facebook if you want to be among the very first to see the images when I start to make them public.

Well, I hope this post turns out okay. I don’t see a button I can use to preview it before publishing it.  That makes me nervous, but oh, well.  As I said in the title, Trial and Error.  They happen to be my two middle names.

Until next time (which won’t be long as I have a tarot deck review to write), I wish you all Many Blessings!

~ Nefer Khepri, Ph. D., R. M-T.