Bard of the Month: Juan the Pilgrim

Welcome to Bard of the Month! In Druidic tradition, some of the deepest truths are found through the art of the arts. To celebrate this ancient means of enlightenment and it's continued importance to the human spirit in the modern world, we will be meeting one esoteric artist each month on the 19th.

This month's artist is Juan, who is a tarot reader with an artistic soul! In addition to performing arts, he is a writer and spiritualist with a background in ancient tribal magic and healing practices, and lives among the beautiful, magical, wild river lands of Columbia. He is exceptionally kind and a very unique person that I very grateful to know and share space with in the esoteric community, who also has some really though provoking and wonderful perspectives, and I am delighted to be able to introduce you all to him today!

Don't forget to check out Juan on social media and YouTube if you like his vibe and are interested in checking out his platforms! He has also recently launched a blog. The links can all be found below.

If you are interested in becoming a part of this project, and are an artist attempting to make a name for yourself with your artistic creations and discoveries, please email me: rabbitandwolfdivination@gmail.com with the subject "Bard of the Month Submission." Include a brief synopsis of your art, and how you use it to deepen your connect to and understanding of spirit, as well as any relevant links you may have in relation to your work, such as social media accounts or articles.

An interview with...

Name: Juan Sánchez

@tarotperegrino on Instagram

El Tarot Peregrino on Facebook and Youtube

tarotperegrino.blogspot.com

Age: 39

Location: San Carlos, Antioquia (Colombia)

Profession: Writer, card reader, and magician.

Spiritual Practice: Magic and ancient medicines.

Type of Art Made: Writing and theater.

Years of Bardic Experience: 19

1. First off, tell us all a little bit about yourself, where you're from and who you are, and your day to day life!

Hello, my name is Juan Camilo. I am a writer, card reader and magician. I was born in Medellín, Colombia, but I live in a town near the city called San Carlos. It is a wonderful territory surrounded by water and nature.

My day to day passes between the streams and my study, where I spend a great deal of time reflecting, studying magic, cartomancy, and writing. Almost always I am accompanied by the ancient medicines of rapé, mambe, and ambil. They accompany and guide me in my creative and spiritual pursuits.

2. What sort of art do you make, how long have you done it, and why or how did you get into it?

Let's say that the art that interests me most is magic (I don't mean illusionism by this). In that field I study Israel Regardie, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, Aleister Crowley, the Golden Dawn postulates and the Astrum Argenteum, Alan Moore, and Damien Echols. Always looking in those sources for what is useful for my own magical work. In magical matters, I am eclectic. The platforms [I use] to express this magical work are writing (fiction), cartomancy, and representation.

I came to magic thanks to the Alan Moore comic Promethea.

3. Have art and spirituality always been interconnected to you? If not, when and why did they become a mutual process?

Here, I follow Alan Moore, when he states that art and magic are two different words to refer to the same thing. Let's say then that sameness has been becoming more conscious over the years.

4. How has your art added depth to your spiritual practice?

Not being two separate things, art and spirituality, development in one has an equivalence in the other. Today, I try not to say or write a single word without first passing it through the tissue of thought and feeling, or in the words of a card reader, by the Sword and the Cup. It is something you learn in the ancestral practice of the mambeo of the aboriginal peoples of the Amazon.

5. How would you describe your personal connection to spirit, and how do you translate that connection into your art? Does it always translate the way you want?

My connection to the spirit consists in trying to perceive it in the physical world around me - the spirit/matter division is a nonsense of the religions of the desert peoples. I try to carry or express that connection through my writing. The magical world is an inexhaustible source of mythical poetic images.

No, it does not always translate as I want, and that seems wonderful to me. I have never expected it to be otherwise. When the surprise is lost, life is extinguished.

6. What has been your most spiritual experience while creating art?

Seeing how what I write with honesty and will begins to transform the world around me.

7. Have you been published or featured before anywhere?

Yes. I have an illustrated play-writing published by a publishing house in my country called "Barbara a la carta. Cocina de autor." I also did theatrical performances for many years in my hometown.

Today, I am writing an illustrated book with an illustrator friend about the Tarot, and I hope to upload it to Kickstarter or Indiegogo in the second semester of this year. I am developing my acting facet as a tarot youtuber on my YouTube channel.

8. You're multi-lingual! What about Spanish makes it the language of choice for your work?

Hehe, because it is my mother tongue, or better, the language that the Spanish colonists imposed in much of South America. But that's fine, I also study ancient languages ​​at the University of Antioquia, and what these languages ​​teach me, greatly, is the reduced worldview that Spanish has.

9. Who are some of your favorite poets, and why?

Pablo Neruda, for the passion that runs through his words. W. B. Yeats, for his mysticism. William Blake, for his magic.

Lately I've been reading Arthur Rimbaud, and wow ...

10. Are there any art styles or spiritual studies that you hope to be able to work with in the future?

I have been very interested in science fiction writing. I would like to write, in a couple of years, a short novel in that [kind of] universe. In the magical world, I would be interested in learning about geomancy, and the oracular reading of coca leaves from the original peoples of the Andes.

See more of Juan's work and living craft by giving him a follow on social media!