Lisa Lochhead is an artist and writer with a studio and gallery in Shropshire where she also runs powerful creative courses as a spiritual practice. She has just self-published an oracle deck and companion book called
Art of the Sacred Wheel based on restoring the ancient arts of the feminine through engaging the cyclical. Written for women, it is based on the cyclical movement of the seasons, the eight holy days of the Wheel of the Year, the rhythm of the 12/13 full moons through the yearly lunar cycle and the reclaiming of feminine essence back from the mind made worlds of linear progression. We talked to Lisa about the creative origins of the deck, and how we can find spiritual empowerment through it.
What was the inspiration behind the Art of the Sacred Wheel deck?
The Oracle Deck came in very naturally as an expression of an online program I had been running with the same name. This year long program for women was centred around engaging the seasons, the holy days of the Wheel of the Year and the rhythm of the yearly lunar cycle to get deeper into feminine essence and your creative power. While running the program it came in so clear to create a deck centred around the natural structure of the online program as a system for empowering and enabling the knowing of the frequencies of the cyclical in daily life.
How did you begin your journey into connecting with the ancient arts of the feminine?
My journey started in my early thirties with a spontaneous spiritual awakening at the darkest point in my life. A series of awakenings took place that I had no explanation for or could understand with my mind. Phenomena happened regularly with people I met or when I was alone while at the same time my life was falling apart. I was a single mum living in a beautiful part of North Wales, and I took to walking the ancient land daily. As an anchor of sanity and as a practised worship to the mystery through the land - and a connection to something I couldn’t name but knew as Mother.
Since the initial awakenings life took me on a journey around the world. From living in a spiritual community around a self-realised being, to founding two centres for conscious growth, one in Amsterdam and one in Bristol whilst teaching transformative meditative practices internationally. Then another initiation took place into the feminine that took me deeper into the feminine essence through the power of creativity. I found by combining the depth of understanding from the transformative practices that I had been teaching with creativity that there were sacred arts of the feminine that had been lost from our way of being in our modern-day culture.
Could you tell us about your first experience with engaging the cyclical?
My first experience, or perhaps more apt to say an initiation into the cyclical was at the time of the initial awakening I spoke about in the previous question. While life as I knew it was rapidly breaking down and I was in the conscious practice of walking the land as an act of worship to the Great Mother – many spiritual experiences were taking place including being given a very clear vision. That vision was of an ouroboros, not that I knew what that was at the time, that came much later. The ouroboros I now know as an ancient symbol depicted as a snake or dragon eating its own tail. This ouroboros that filled my inner sight had a serpent like form with its tail in its mouth and was in a movement, cyclical movement, as it continually consumed itself yet remained renewed.
Now I know that symbol to be an ancient symbol of the Great Mother and her cyclical nature of creation and destruction. The cycle of all, and of nothing. Of all creation and the empty womb, or void of preconception. Of all life rising from nothing and returning back into nothing.
How can your oracle deck help individuals connect with the Feminine Essence?
The deck and book are created specifically for woman to have a deeper reflection of her intuitive knowing and bring forward her connection to the subtle and the sacred feminine as a living reality. It does this through the system of the oracle being based on the seasons, the eight holy days of the Wheel of the Year, the yearly lunar cycle of the 12/13 full moons and the unplugging from the linear progressional mindset of modern-day living. Each cards message is attuned to these cyclical frequencies, so you get intimate with how they move in your daily life as the microcosm and the macrocosm. They support you to trust and move into your inner knowing whilst opening you to a wider perspective on what is moving or opening in your life. In the book there are also reflection ritual and ritual creativity that act to either go deeper into a card or to bring alive a card through action. This also gives you the opportunity to bring form to your knowing so that the connection to feminine essence becomes a lived reality.
Tarot and oracle decks have seen an apparent explosion in popularity in recent years. Why do you think the practice is attracting so many newcomers?
I didn’t know there was but maybe people are looking for answers to the questions that arise in life in our complex modern lives. Tarot and oracle decks as divination tools allow a practitioner to tap into this, to reflect and to look behind the day to day. They have a sense of the mystery, the unknown and they open the door to knowing there is more to life than what you can see and offer a practitioner an empowering way to develop their own intuitive knowing with confidence and ease.
Do you think there are still misconceptions about these decks, and how would you respond to them?
I am sure there are many viewpoints on decks. In my experience the only one I have come across is people not knowing what they are and what the potential is. Divination tools have been used throughout ages in many forms as a way to connect and engage with an intuitive language just outside your conscious awareness. Our mind and perceptions are limited by the known and decks open the possibility to see something more. To open the mind to the mysterious forces of creation and that life is not fixed, solid and static. A good deck, or the right deck for you would be a tool of empowerment, a place of solace and in gathering, an unseen hand guiding your way when pressure is on or when the heart is heavy to a guiding light of inspiration and an advocate of your unfolding potential.
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What does spiritual empowerment mean to you, and how can we ensure we encourage and foster it in our lives?
Spiritual empowerment to me means getting to know and trust your intuitive nature and your sacred essence as reality. In our mind made worlds and the pressures of modern-day life we must consciously unplug from the relentless movement of the world and find ways to nurture the unseen levels of our being. So often that subtle voice of inner knowing is overshadowed by the louder voices either from the outside or from the inside from our inner critic and self-judgements. So, we must find ways to nurture that inner connection and the subtle realities of our being whilst navigating modern day life. One of the main things to do is to give ourselves the space to listen, rest and reflect. It must be consciously claimed as being important as it will not be given. Schedule it in your diary if you need to make sure it happens but creating the space to listen, reflect and rest can change the trajectory life is moving in. You can move forward in clarity, with purpose and knowing the direction sings in your soul.
Which of the cards in the Sacred Wheel deck have you found yourself most strongly resonating with on this journey?
That’s a tough question… each one has played a deep part in the unfolding of the deck inside of me. Reflecting on it though I would say the card ‘Turning Wheel’ has had many ripple effects. She was the most challenging to paint intuitively – the eight faces of the solar goddess of the Wheel of the Year on a large canvas took me way over my edges as an artist. And she continued to share her medicine through the creation process of the deck right up to the end as we went to print – she appeared. Representing a culmination point, the totality of a cycle, the goldenness earned and the move forward into the net phase of life. She has been a defining card in many ways at points along this journey.
Art of the Sacred Wheel Oracle deck and book serve you as an oracle of living aspirational seeds of feminine consciousness that speak directly to your soul. Each of the 38 cards represent a frequency of natural unfolding with the pulse of the sacred feminine within you. The aspirational messages of each card are received as seeds deep in the unconscious, supporting you to align with the depths of your soul, to trust its voice and to rest into moving with the unseen beauty of the heart.
38-card Oracle Deck and an A5 size book in full colour with 194 pages
