My mind is buzzing, buzzing, buzzing. I'm so glad I bought that Aladdin DVD. I enjoyed the extra features almost as much as the movie. Through out the years, I've collected quite a few Disney soundtracks, and didn't know Alan Menken was behind so many of them. Menkin, and Hans Zimmer, that's another movie music magician. Heroes, to me! And the artists, too. It was so interesting getting a picture of just how this movie evolved. They'd sketch all sorts of scenes and characters, each in a variety of ways, until they settled on the most effective. Aladdin started out rather boyish, and changed to slightly older. They didn't want too small, too buff, he had to have just the right spirit.

It all gives an idea of how I might proceed on that tarot deck. I could sketch different ideas for a card, get different views. Some artists have a total consistency of style. I don't know as I have that. I seem to have a whole lot of different moods, particularily based on what medium I am doing. Perhaps something else would be the holding together element amongst them all. Anyway, it's a great dream, and I hope it comes together. And of course I'm nervous that it won't, that it will be a fizzled project. There's always that possibility. But I hope it won't.

This is my view of 'darkness'. It's the great unknown Potential. Magic is that sense of hopeful expectancy, that something truly marvelous MIGHT happen. If we have that hope, we can transform the icky elements of our life with a motivating push that can get us over them. It's gotta be that, always that hope and sense of wonder. One can label this technique or that particular branch, but it's all gotta be about that sense of hope and wonder that we CAN transform our lives and be more than we were.

Just listen to the hopefulness within this song:

[Aladdin:]. . . A whole new world, [Jasmine:] Every turn a surprise, [Aladdin:] With new horizons to pursue, [Jasmine:] Every moment red-letter, [Both:] I'll chase them anywhere! There's time to spare, Let me share this whole new world with you . . .

Oh, may we often feel like that, "every turn a surprise, with new horizons to pursue"!

That's where I want to leave my thoughts tonight. I have a deep gratitude to those who have left their magic via music, via art, through these moving pictures which move our emotions. Truly, to enter the realm of creativity is the most Divine place that we can be. I thank all those many people who have done so.

scarab, sacred symbol of evolution, regeneration and transformation . . .

© Joan Lansberry
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