Close-up of some of the art you will see on the new site.
Head over to RandiMinerva.com and look around the new site!
XOXO,
Randi
New Site is ALIVE!
Category Archives: Women
NEW BLOG LAUNCH TOMORROW!
The new site will be live tomorrow. If you visit this site, you’ll be automatically re-directed to the new one.
It’s been fun but it is time to move on.
XOXO,
Randi
Tarot Reading Sample & Valentine’s Day Offer
From now until March, I’ll be offering Valentine’s themed tarot readings at the shop. This reading will answer such valuable questions as:
Does he like me?
But does he like like me?
Who of my many suitors should I take to the Valentine’s Ball?
And also serious questions like:
Why don’t I have a girlfriend?
Is this chick I dig bad news?
When am I going to meet somebody who doesn’t smell/live with their parents/reference Frida Kahlo every 5 minutes….
(Frida Kahlo is the bees knees.)
You get the idea. So head over to the shop and ask me questions about your love life before you annoy your friends with them.
Also…
You can now view the TarotReadingSample and see what my clients are talking about. This sample is a preview of the PDF document you’ll receive, complete with sample photos and information about what you’ll learn in each section of your reading. The content, however, is a secret that can only be revealed in your personal reading.
XOXO,
Happy New Year!
I hope you stayed up late, said your good-byes and welcomed 2013 with open arms.
In the spirit of newness, I am embracing a new online home. The launch date of the new blog is officially Saturday January 26th, 2013, the first full moon of 2013 and an auspicious date for Pisceans like me. So, when you look up at the full moon that night, with your drunk/sleepy eyes, know that both our lives are moving forward in directions only the stars could fathom.
If you find yourself in need of direction, tarot is always illuminating, like the stars themselves.
XOXO,
Happy Birthday, Emily
Yesterday, December 10th, was Emily Dickinson’s 182nd birthday.
Of all the women who have existed on this planet, she is one of my favorites.
Emily-inspired Reading
This article is superb
I wrote this post awhile back.
The Dickinson Museum site
Emily’s personal letters
Happy Birthday, Miss Dickinson!
XO,
Happy Dia de los Muertos!
Today is the Mexican Day of the Dead. Technically, this observance goes from midnight October 31st to the night of November 2nd. The fist day honors children who have passed on and is called Dia de los Inocentes. The second day, Dia de los Muertos honors the adults who have passed.
Dia de los Muertos is a mixture of the ancient Aztec celebration for the goddess Mictecacihuatl, the Lady of the Dead, and Catholic holy days, All Souls Day and All Saints Day.
Read more about it here.
Here‘s a really beautiful gallery of Dia de los Muertos photographs. (It’s the really fast-loading, easy to flip through kind, not the reload a new page for every image kind. Because I love you.)
Maybe you’d like to incorporate this holiday into your life?
You can light a candle and pour a shot of liquor for your relative/ancestor/hero to enjoy. Leave both on the windowsill overnight for any wandering souls to enjoy. I like to pour a shot of tequila for Frida Kahlo. If the person you choose to honor didn’t drink alcohol, you could leave an offering of coffee, tobacco, perfume or candy. Traditionally, spirits tend to like those things.
You could also build an altar or decorate a mantle for the dead. Like this one for Frida:
Or, go to the cemetery where your ancestor is buried, light candles and place flowers on their grave:
Baking is another component of Dia de los Muertos celebrations. Pain de los Muertos is baked and sugar skulls are sculpted out of marzipan or fondant:
31 Days of Halloween – Day 25: Tudor Ghosts
The Tudors are one of my many obsessions. The wives of Henry VIII seem particularly tragic:
Poor Catherine of Aragon was traded in for a newer model because she couldn’t force her body to become pregnant with a male heir.
Anne Boleyn was rejected for the same reason, except she lost her head.
Jane Seymour gave Henry the heir he always wanted and then promptly died of sepsis.
Anne of Cleves was rejected for not being pretty enough, but at least she got out alive.
Katherine Howard was only a teenager, but that didn’t stop Henry from beheading her, just as he had her cousin, Anne Boleyn.
Lucky Catherine Parr married Henry a few short years before his death, outliving him.
The rhyme used to remember all of Henry’s marriages goes:
King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded. One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded.
Henry was kind of a dick.
It’s ironic, he was so concerned with having an heir, yet he had the greatest heir of any king in history: Elizabeth I, who reigned for 45 years and had an entire era named after her. He just couldn’t see it because, you know, she had a vagina.
Obviously, Henry’s queens are pissed. Their ghosts are still looking for him, haunting the halls of his castles, hoping they’ll get the last word.
The ghosts of Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour and Katherine Howard have been repeatedly spotted in Hampton Court Palace. I like to think they’ve formed a coven and meet every Tuesday to stick pins in a Henry-shaped voodoo doll.
Anne’s ghost has also been seen in Windsor Castle. Elizabeth I haunts Windsor as well. Let’s hope they found each other in the afterlife. I picture them sitting in a window seat with the drapes closed around them, comparing facial features. They totally have the same eyes.
XOXO
31 Days of Halloween – Day 20: Witch Movies
I love witches in all their forms, but especially in the movies. My favorite witch-related movies, for your viewing pleasure:
- The Craft – light as a feather, stiff as a board
- Blair Witch Project – there’s nothing scarier than the woods in autumn
- Witches of Eastwick – bohemian Cher
- Practical Magic – The Aunts
- The Witches – sexy Angelica Houston
- Suspiria – lots of bloody ballerinas
- Hocus Pocus – yabos
- Mists of Avalon – Angelica strikes again
- The Crucible – Winona Forever!
- Beastly – Mary Kate Olsen as the gothed out Enchantress
- Sleepy Hollow – who’s got a kiss for the pickety witch?
31 Days of Halloween – Day 19: Vampira
Image via Tumblr.com
Vampira was the sexy hostess of the late-night horror movies aired on Los Angeles television during the 1950′s. She was created and portrayed by Maila Nurmi, a Finnish actress and model.
Nurmi was a character of the highest order. Pre-Vampira, she was the model for some of Alberto Vargas’ pinups and she even worked with Marilyn Monroe. She portrayed Vampira in Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space (widely considered the worst film ever made) and later in life she claimed to contact James Dean from “beyond the veil.”
Nurmi passed away at the age of 85 in 2008. She’s buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Find out more about Vampira and Nurmi here.
Vampire teeth are often left by Nurmi’s grave. (Image via Wikipedia)
31 Days of Halloween – Day 18: Spooky L.A.
Los Angeles is a city comprised of mansions, Rodeo Drive and the tears of failed actresses, or so people think. I’ve always been fascinated with L.A. because of its dark side. It’s a city with hundreds of ghost stories and urban legends. Full of creepy history, L.A. is Mecca for weirdos, lunatics and lost souls. The city seems to be built for ghostly happenings. The Santa Anas winds sweep through every fall, raising crime rates and the canyons are known for their ability to distort sound. It is said that you can hear a door slamming from ten miles away but you can’t hear the screams of your neighbor being murdered next door. How’s that for creepy?
The spookiest of Los Angeles, according to me:
The L.A. Coroner’s Office has a gift shop.
Hollywood Forever Cemetery is the resting place of Rudolph Valentino and hosts Dia de los Muertos celebrations and movie nights, where the film is projected on a cemetery wall.
The legend of Peg Entwistle, who jumped off the Hollywood at age 24. Peg was depressed due to her failed acting career,so she climbed up to the Hollywood sign in her Sunday best and jumped to her death. The next morning, a letter from a famous director arrived in the mail, offering her an important role in his movie. She is said to be the Lady in White who haunts the trails leading up to the sign.
Sharon Tate’s murder is beyond horrifying.
The many ghost and ghouls of Griffith Park.
And this quote by writer Raymond Chandler:
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen.
XOXO
