Ruth Renate

Background

There's three things there's nearly always time for, sass, sparkle, and smellin' roses. My name is Ruth Renate Davidson, aka: Lady of Radiant Joy

I am bi/queer, married with one child, been a single mom for two years, wanted more children (but that wasn't in the cards, though my cats are my fur babies), and I'm in a mixed faith marriage. I grew up Mormon and my faith crisis eventually gave way to a faith expansion. I have worked a lot of retail and customer service. As a substitute teacher I have literally taught every grade level, preschool to post high school. I volunteered my time to be president of a school parent board and other school activities. I also used to be the president and editor of a national science fiction and fantasy club.

I know what it is to need professional mental health services - to need to rely on modern medicine right along with energy healing and spirituality. I know what it is to have an invisible disability that impacts your professional and family life. I know what it means to feel like you are made up of only sorrows. "I am Sorrow," I used to say, but through a lot of shadow work, I l was able to become a Lady of Radiant Joy instead - a woman able to allow the entire breadth of the human experience into my life. The real deal of life is all of life, the beauty, the ugly, the plain.

Hobbies and other things I do.
Powerlifting, reading (especially sci-fi and fantasy), listening to music of all sorts - anywhere from classic to techno to rap to rock to metal (I do everything better with music). Writing - stories, poetry, blog posts/articles, composing music etc. And art, and games. I just find so many neat things to do. I talk to trees, collect crystals, and believe in doing all I can to make the world a better place for everyone. I am anti-racist, anti-fascist, and an intersectional feminist.

Experience

In being a preschool and elementary school teacher, I had to learn not only how children learn, but also how to help them learn, how to accommodate learning differences and strengths, how to talk to children as well as their parents so both parent and child got the support they needed. I learned about ethics and safety, and a bit of risk assessment to go along with that.

While studying education at the Critical Research Academy at San Jose State University, I learned to look for the silences, for what's not being said, and it really got me to understand social justice issues in a compassionate way.

Also, I took a couple of grief classes by Shauna Janz. Those classes, along with practicing mindfulness and meditation for over a decade, and doing personal shadow work in therapy, helped me learn more about myself and how to be able to hold space for others in a way that is safe, confidential, inclusive, and compassionate.

Methods

I choose Tarot because I have found that using the cards can be very grounding for both the reader (me) and the readee (you). I love to ask the cards follow up questions, even when it's email only. I often have inquisitive thoughts that look something like "Hm, well, if this, then what about this?" and so a short reading can easily become a longer reading as I follow the clues.

I like to give you something "to do" an "action step" so you can be as empowered as possible at then end of it, even if a reading looks a bit bleak or overwhelming, because there's always something we can do to make it better, even if it's small.

Tarot often becomes a jumping off point for other psychic hits, such as finding cords that need to be cut, and then I cut them, or giving Reiki during a reading, or learning someone's spirit animal guide even when there are no animals in the cards. To me when that stuff shows up and it's something I can do right then and there, it's part of the reading and so I do it.

Sometimes numbers, colors, Western chakras, and other things I have picked up during my learning path will pop up and suddenly be important in a reading, and so I use those too.

Please only leave a comment if you've had a consultancy from Ruth Renate