What’s an Anchoress?
Of course, there are cloistered women “of spirit” across time and across all the world’s religions and wisdom traditions. But in medieval Christianity, an anchoress was a woman who chose to withdraw from the world to live a solitary life of prayer and contemplation. Julian of Norwich was one such anchoress whose writings tell of her life and spiritual journey. The word anchoress comes from the Greek anachoreo, meaning to withdraw. The anchoress was walled off within the confines of a stone or brick room – called an anchorhold – attached to a village church. The room had three windows: one open to the inside of the church in order to listen to the mass (given by the male priest, of course) and to receive communion; another also open to the inside of the church, to receive help from her assistant; and a third window open to the outside, which allowed people to come and seek her wisdom, advice, and prayers (as shown in the above page from an illustrated manuscript). This means the anchoress was not cut off from the world. Instead, she was “anchored” IN it.
My Related Personal History
In 1994, when I began my journey as an artist and tarot reader in 1994, I had a studio, The Anchoress, that was small brick room attached to an old, repurposed schoolhouse. I purchased my first deck of tarot cards at that time, and that is the primary deck I still use today, 25 years later. Around the turn of the millennium, I had moved out of that studio, having gone on to teach college.
However, as I grow near retirement from teaching, I find that my vocational interest is waning in institutional occupations and even in having an art practice. Instead, I find myself increasingly withdrawing to study, to observe, to appreciate, to meditate and to reflect on life, which I believe is a natural part of aging and maturing. This also includes a renewed focus on tarot reading.
Thus, this website is the outward-facing window of my own anchorhold, for all who, along with me, seek to access to greater meaning in their lives.
As a tarot reader, I hope that I am using my women’s way of knowing and what some may call the “spiritual gifts” of serving, teaching, giving, and helping, all in service to others. I don’t have all the answers. In fact, the older I get, I realize the less I know. This is good. Not knowing begets endless curiosity and study, doesn’t it?
And as the reader, I do not assume that I know the way forward for anyone, nor what it is that anybody may need to learn. Rather, I try to provide a safe space, and clarity of interpretation of the symbolic meaning of the cards, so the seeker can work out what they need to learn for themselves from the situation they bring to the reading.
Thanks so much for visiting.
