Spiritually Speaking With Liz

The Wisdom of The Hummingbird Oracle Deck, Talking to the Creators

• Liz Spiritually Speaking • Season 2 • Episode 6

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In this episode I chat with The Wisdom of The Hummingbird oracle card creators Ellen Valladares and Yasmeen Westwood.
We chat about how the cards came into being, the way each creator received the guidance for their part in the cards as well as how each of them began on their spiritual journey.

Grab a cuppa and join us
Love
Liz x

Ellen can be contacted on instagram:  @valladaresellen 
The books mentioned were:  Crossing the Line, received several awards including a Gold award, JOS teen Books 2019 Coalition of Visionary Resources, the C O V R.
Jonathan's Journey to Mount Miapu, a middle grade novel. 
 Fillabert, the Lonely Flamingo, a childrens book which she co-authored with her brother Steve Wilson. 

Yasmeen can be contacted on instagram: @enchantedsoulart
She has also created the Tarot of Enchanted Dreams, Tarot of the Enchanted Soul, which  could  be  utilized as both a tarot and Oracle deck. 
The  Lenormand of Enchantment deck
Angels of healing & hope oracle deck.

 

You can contact me at the usual details:
  email:  spirituallyspeaking222@gmail.com
  Instagram: spiritually_speaking_222
  Facebook:  spirtuallyspeaking222
  Youtube: LizzyHill222

Liz Hill:

Hi, this is Liz and welcome to my podcast, spiritually Speaking with Liz. I've got a real treat for you today, and I'm not gonna tell you how they're connected to start with, but I'll tell you individually about them first. The first lady I'm going to introduce is Ellen. Ellen, Valladares is an award-winning author, a freelance writer and workshop retreat leader, a native Floridian. She grew up in St. Petersburg and currently lives in South Florida. Ellen believes in the magic of the universe, and over the last 20 years has taught numerous classes about angels, intuition, meditation, and manifestation. Her most recent release, a mystical young adult novel titled Crossing the Line, received several awards including a Gold award, j o s, teen Books from the nine, uh, sorry, from the 2019 Coalition of Visionary Resources, the C O V R. Her Other works include a middle grade novel, which is titled Jonathan's Journey to Mount Mayou Mi. ou, A meditation CD titled Healing and Manifesting with the Arch Angels and a children's book called Fillabert, the Lonely Flamingo, which she co-authored with her brother Steve Wilson. So Ellen, welcome. Thank you. And then now we go onto the lovely Yasmin. Yasmin Westwood is a self-taught photo manipulation artist living in Perthshire in Scotland. Her first deck, the Tarot of Enchanted Dreams, was released in December, 2019. She was a fine list for her artwork for the M Empower. Moms in Business, national Business Awards 2019, and was a runner up in two categories of the International Tarot Foundation, Carter Awards in 2019. For best illustrator of a deck and best self-published tarot deck, wow. In 2020, she won the Coalition of Visionary Resources Bronze Award in the taro deck category for the tarot of Enchanted Dreams. Yasmin welcome. Thank you. So you might wonder why have I got these two ladies together and I will tell you why this little thing I have here. So I was gifted this. Oracle deck for Christmas by a close friend of mine, and because I've got a thing about hummingbirds and I was just, I fell in love with it instantly. I love the imagery, I love the wording, and it just all, and without word of a lie, every day I pull one of these cards. Yeah, yeah. After I finish my meditation, or if my head's a bit all over, then I'll pick one first and then see where it takes me. So. This is why we've got these ladies together. So before we dive into the story of how this was created, I'd like to hear a little bit about your spiritual journeys, because there's a lot going on in your bios that I've just read. So Ellen, could you tell us a little bit about your journey?

Ellen Valladares:

Yeah. And I love that you do this podcast and talk about everybody's journeys, cuz everybody has. Such a unique journey, but everybody kind of has something right. That brings up here. Yeah. Um, yeah, so mine started way back in like 1995, I guess. Um, and like a lot of people, I had a tragedy. I lost both my mother and then I had this stillbirth of my first daughter that was oh, um, born and, uh, it was my first pregnancy. And so at that point I kind of didn't really believe in anything. But then, um, We had this random moment where a friend of ours went to visit a medium, John Edward, who's famous, and, um, brought this very specific message to us, um, with the name of my name I think, and, and about the baby. And anyway, and I knew in my heart like that this was true. And it just, that kind of opened me up to, I just needed to know more. So I, I dove in, um, You know, not only did I kind of on the side, I, I, I got into grief counseling and helping people, you know, overcome pregnancy loss. Um, but also personally just finding healing through my spiritual journey. And so I found, um, angels and meditation and really, um, my intuition, um, so. And then it helped me so much I wanted to share it, right? So I started teaching classes, um, and I, I, that's one of my passions. And just also mentoring people and helping them, you know, um, find alignment and, um, and part of my, you know, spiritual journey because I'm a writer, so I, I kind of skipped that. So I was really born as a writer. Um, so, um, My spiritual journey has been blending the writing with the spiritual, and I think that's what came out in, you know, these Oracle colors. Oracle cards were always a big part of my journey. I think it just, I. You know, it helps to reflect back to you your inner wisdom. And um, yeah, so I've always enjoyed them and wanted to create something and that's kind of how this all started.

Liz Hill:

And were there any particular decks that you liked that you were really drawn to? You

Ellen Valladares:

know, so interesting. I really, um, studied with Doreen Virtue mm-hmm. Years ago, who now has kind

Liz Hill:

of not Oh yeah. Let's not

Ellen Valladares:

go there then. Right, exactly. But, so I really. Got raised on, uh, her Oracle Angel decks, you know, so, and I have to say, even though, you know, whenever I still enjoy those cards, so those cards and some of the medicine cards, um, what else do I have? I have lot, Diana Cooper, angels, a lot of angel things and the animal, a lot of animal cards and things like that. So, um, Yeah. So those have been some of my favorites and not so much the tarot. And I'm gonna apologize. My cat's gonna go right now.

Liz Hill:

Oh, we like a cat coming in. That's good. Zelda. Zelda. Great name. Okay. Yasmin, what about you? How did your journey start?

Um,

Yasmeen Westwood:

I'm trying to remember how it started. Um, sort of years and years ago when I was, um, probably about 14, 15. I used to like spend a lot of time in the library. And I would come across these tarot books and they had pictures and stuff in it. And at that time, you know, I just read the books and I didn't really understand what they were about. And then probably about 2005, 2006 is kind of when I started looking into sort of more about learning tarot And um, I. I started studying reiki and it was, it just made sense. It just felt right. Um, I'm a reiki master, so eventually worked my way up, um, to doing that. I did sac chem. Um, I learned about tarot. I studied, um, I looked at some Oracle Dian virtues cards. I had quite a few of those, um, decks as well. But it was never anything that was really, you know, really into, you know, it was just there, you know, I was exploring it, trying to find different things. And then probably, I think 2016, Um, and can I add that way back in school I wanted to be an artist, but I'd never like, took art at school and ended up being in No, I ended up sort of being told, you know, artists, you know, going to science, become a doctor, do medicine and that sort of stuff. I didn't wanna do medicine cuz I didn't wanna cut up dead bodies. Right. I thought I'm not doing that. Um, so I studied biochemistry, so I got my degrees in biochemistry, in pharmacology. Um, and then in 2016, I had Marie boy, um, who is now six years old, and I had really, really bad post-natal depression, like really severe post-natal depression after I had him and. Whilst I was going through that, I kept getting these image like kept flashing up in my, in my head and I kept thinking like, I don't know how to do art. I don't know how to draw. How am I gonna do this? And then what I did was I taught myself on Photoshop, how to create that image. So I sort of learned. Of a tutorial. So I had my Photoshop open, I had a tutorial open on YouTube, and I was learning like the techniques needed to create that piece of, um, artwork. And that was the very first card I ever did. It's the three of, um, it's the three of Swords in the Terra of Enchanted Dreams. And then after that I, I started seeing other images and I started creating them. But even then, I didn't click and think, you know, it's a taro deck. They were just images. And I would, I found that as I was creating these images, like I would lose all track of time, any sort of depression that I felt just vanished. I was just in that moment and. The artwork just kinda happened. I didn't have to think about it too much. It just flowed. It just created itself. Um, then eventually I twigged. I went, wait a minute. This looks like a taro dick. That could be the Theo Swords. That could be this, that could be that. And then I thought, okay, let's create it and see what happens. And the Terra Enchanted Dreams was born, um, and I self-published about a hundred of them myself. They were instantly sold out. Then Schiffer Publishing offered me a contract, um, and then there was no stopping me. It was almost like I was waiting for Aaron to be born Marie Boy for, to unleash the artist in me. Um, That's amazing. And then I've, you know, so I've never looked back. And then since then I can't stop creating Ask Ellen and Hope was like doing some sort of artwork or the other. But that's kind of how I came into, I don't read tarot professionally. I don't read for others. Like Ellen can read. I can't do that. I can read for myself if I can manipulate the cards to say what I want them to say. Um, but I can't read for anyone, but I can create the artwork. For

Liz Hill:

sure. Boy, can you, yeah, you're a bit good at that. And

Yasmeen Westwood:

so, yeah, that's kind of how I fell into it was an accidental falling into

Liz Hill:

creating tele. Oh, come on. There's no Orix. There's no such thing as accidents is. No, but you know

Yasmeen Westwood:

what I mean?

Liz Hill:

Yeah, I do. I do. Yeah, I do. So you literally had that image in your head. Yeah. And with your Photoshop, with your tutorial, you literally, yeah. Created that on. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's crazy. That's amazing. Thank you. It really is. It really is. So guys, now you've, you've just dropped a bombshell on me just before we started saying that you've never physically met, which I found. So how did you, how did you find one under the, what happened? Ellen, I'll let you

Yasmeen Westwood:

tell. Yeah, because you, you, you found me.

Ellen Valladares:

I found. Yeah. So I'll, I'll start it. Um, Yeah, so I was starting, you know, I had this idea for, um, I had been wanting to do the Oracle cards, um, and then the hummingbird kind of entered into it, and we can talk about that later. But, um, I was, you know, I had, was writing the messages, but I, um, I needed artwork and I was just, actually, Yasin reminded me, she sent me an old email that I sent her and I had this really bad stock art that I was trying to. You know, kind of pawn off and say, this here would be the art for my cards. Oh my gosh. And I knew there was something better out there. So actually I submitted to a publisher and got totally rejected and I was like, I think I needed a, like an artist. But I didn't, I had no idea about how it even went. I had published books, but not I. An Oracle deck. And so I really wasn't sure do, does the publisher provide the artist? Am I supposed to find the artist? So it was, um, everything that really happened with this deck has been so magical and synergy and synchronized. Um, But I had this like, incredible intuition, um, you know, to, I couldn't even stop myself. I had to post a question on, it's actually, we were speaking about the awards on the C E O V R, the Coalition of Visionary Resources. They had like a, a Facebook page and I was like, well, I'll post my question there, somebody will know. Um, and I hesitated, but then I did it. And within moments, um, Yasmine answered on the the Post, you know, so it was crazy. And then from there we kind of started an email thing and I really still didn't think because, um, I, you know, she was kind of doing tarot and I wasn't sure like, you know, and, but we started going back and forth and I sent her, well this is what I'm working on and, you know, here's a sample of um, you know, one of my messages. And she sent me back the picture that's behind her right now. And I almost fainted. There you go. That one it was just like, I hope that's the, that's a cover. Yeah, it was a cover and it was crazy cuz that's the first, um, Image that she ever did. And just as a sample, it was just like the very next day. I mean, I've never been so like one way and I was like, yes, that's exactly like what I want. It was so magical and mystical and that hummingbird, um, and it just had an energy to it. Like she would capture the energy of, and the essence. Of the message. Um, so anyway, so that's kind of how it started on, on our end. And then it was the most. Fun, which should be because hummingbirds are about the joy, right? And the fun. So I can't tell you how fun this project was. It was like every day that I got an image from her was a birthday present. You know? It was like, oh God, what's in today? Oh my God, the cat is just distracting me.

Yasmeen Westwood:

And it was really good because of the time difference, so I would work. Right. Um, and then I knew Ellen would wake up to an of images, you know, and, and I could literally hear her screaming from the other side of the ocean, right? I could, I always knew when you'd seen it.

Liz Hill:

Exactly. So how, how does it work? So Ellen, did you send Yasmin the word in and leave that to Yasmin's interpretation? Or did you have Ellen, did you have some little input of what you would like? No. No. Oh, wow.

Yasmeen Westwood:

No, no, she literally would just send me like, you know, sometimes it's like five, six messages in, in one document. Um, and then I would like, she found out afterwards, I think it was what the begin last year You found out? I didn't even read all the message at times. Right. I would just feel the energy of the message and create art waste on that. Mm-hmm. Um, and then, you know, she found out, it's like I didn't read every single word of it. I just read, skip, read it, and then felt it. What?

Ellen Valladares:

No,

Yasmeen Westwood:

and I couldn't tell you now what any of the message he said, to be honest. Right. But, um, it would just be a feeling. And anything that I create and. The hummingbird, the enchanted dreams, and any of my other decks I've created, I don't create them and, and I have to say this right, I don't create them at all. I never know what that image is going to look like. When I sat, sat at the computer, I have no idea in my head that, you know, I had Ellen's message, but I didn't think that the hummingbird was gonna have this on it. It was gonna have that on it. It just happened itself, you know? It was almost like, The universe was using me cuz I've got hands and I can work Photoshop. Right? I thought, well, let's use her and get this image created and I would know when to stop. You know? I would just know, right? It's done. And then I'd look at it and go, how did I create that? That wasn't really, really, it's Wow. Yeah. All of them.

Ellen Valladares:

The same goes for the messages. I mean, and so this is just right. It was all. Creation coming, you know, through us, you know? Mm-hmm. And so, yeah, the same thing when I read back those messages, I'm like, you know, wow. They speak to me because of course it's the higher wisdom. It's, you know, that's coming through, not my every day Ellen Wisdom.

Liz Hill:

Yeah. So, Ellen, would you say then that you, you channeled the messages? Is that fair to say? Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Ellen Valladares:

Yes. Fair.

Liz Hill:

Yeah. So that's probably what's what I feel with them. Then the energy of the two of, you know, the, the excitement of the two of you and just that channeled energy mm-hmm. That, well you've, you've basically just been the instruments, haven't you? And it's absolutely come through.

Yasmeen Westwood:

Absolutely. Um, we've not created any of this. I see this over and over again. I didn't create the art, the art created itself through me. Um, I'm. Just there for the art to come through. Mm-hmm. Um, for every single one of my decks, um, including this one, this one was so much fun though, wasn't it? We had so much fun and not once, and I'll give Ellen credit, not once did she ever ask me to change any image. Okay. Wow. Um, she never, ever, to this day, I don't think you've ever asked me to change an image. It was like, She would send me the message, I'd send her the image, or maybe little colored tweaks, but never like, oh no, this isn't what I was thinking, or this isn't what I was feeling. Not once, no, but

Liz Hill:

you feel it though, don't you? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ellen Valladares:

Yeah. And yeah, and when I would get them back, it, it was just, yeah, it was so fun. And it is, you know, even now watching it, it's so interesting to watch how. It's come to people. Cuz then I really also know that it was just meant to be, you know, the cards, find the people. Mm-hmm. And um, you know, that's kind of been amazing as well to hear how people and everybody has like a hummingbird, like you said, you have hum you have connections, right, Liz? With Yes.

Liz Hill:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and the friend that bought me these for Christmas, she is, um, an incredible artist and she does my, I have a shop and she does my shop windows and I'll, I'll send you the image that she did of a hummingbird because she knew I was so, it, it, it came to me because, um, I have some shamanic training. Mm-hmm. So I open sacred space, the shamanic way, the, you know, hummingbird being the north. And I for a little while, And I think we don't get hummingbirds in the uk do we? Yasmin? But they, no, we don't. I've never seen one in real. No. I'd looked, but I could hear the, I could hear the flutter, you know, of the wings. Wow. And so, yeah, so there, there was just this real connection. And then she, she gave me the cards and we were going away at Christmas, um, to a, a cottage in a little seaside town near us, and the actual coasters. And the place were hummingbirds. Wow. It was just, yeah. So I was taking these with me, which I had, um, I had opened at that point and yeah. So there, there was hummingbird placement. They were just everywhere. It just seemed to be everywhere. Yes. So what made you pick Hummingbird Ellen?

Ellen Valladares:

Yeah, so, um, yeah, it's funny and when I started the creation process, they were everywhere and not necessarily real ones, but what happened was, um, I guess, you know, I knew that the, um, what I wanted to have, the Oracle card, I knew the deck be about aligning with Doy and wellbeing, and I knew that that was kind of the theme that was coming through, which really was like a new step on my path. It was kind of, I felt the next level. So also, you know, I write about what I need to learn about. So, um mm-hmm. So I love that. It was, it was a tremendous. Expansion process for me. But anyway, what happened was really that, um, A real hummingbird. We, I have been in my house now for 30 years, but say then it had been 25 years. I had never seen a hummingbird here and there's still people in my neighborhood that say they've never seen a hummingbird. But about five or six years ago, whenever it was, we had had a hurricane blown through. And um, I think that might have blown it off track, but I heard something like hit my window and I looked out and I saw this. Little hummingbird. I thought I must be crazy. But anyway, it showed up and um, I kept seeing it, but just rarely rare, like little glimpses. And every time I'd be like, maybe I'm crazy. Maybe it's just a bee or a dragonfly or I don't know. But then I, it did, it kept showing up. And um, and then it was just like, oh, okay, universe, I get it. Like these just was like, okay, the cards were called something else to begin with. But then it was like, okay, hummingbird came in and I just saw, I had the vision of a whole hummingbird deck and I knew I wasn't the only one that. Has a special connection with Heim birds, and I have to tell you, then I started hanging my nectar, and this year it's just like, oh, I expect them. I had so many this year, so it's been like, it's been a reflection of how the whole process has been that there was just this one thing I almost didn't believe in, and then it was just abundant. Mm-hmm. Now it's abundant, honey birds, but even when, like I said, I think we took a trip five years ago to. In Brook, Austria, because my husband and I met there, had met there 30 years ago. Now we're on our 35th anniversary. So, um, I couldn't believe we kept finding pictures of hummingbirds everywhere. You know, it was like, and that's when the deck was kind of, you know, coming into my creation. So yeah, they're so strong at sending the signs, whether they're actual. Hummingbirds, which so many people have wonderful stories about that and I've had some amazing encounters. Um, but, or they can be pictures or, you know, however they show up. I know Yasmin, even you've. Ran

Yasmeen Westwood:

into a few, I've ran into a few of them. Yeah. Flying to London last year in Aberdeen airport and in the cafe, the whole wall is just like full of hummingbird art. I was like, I remember messaging you going, look, they're in Aberdeen. Um, but yeah. And it used to be funny when we were creating this, you would send me videos, wouldn't you? Look what lu what's in my garden? And I'd have these videos of hummingbirds in her garden. It was quite funny.

Liz Hill:

It must be amazing to have them in your garden. I've only seen one once in the flesh and that's when we were in the States and they're just the tiniest of And yeah, and just how they hover and what, what I love in the book, in the booklet, the, is that you talk about several varieties of them, not just the hummingbird, you know, there's all the different ones and you give a little bit of. Like history or nature about, you know, about their flying and that they fly backwards and you're like, whoa, how does this happen? So that's, that's something I really like about the deck as well. Yeah. That you, you sort of, it, that terminology makes you think if that little bird can do that mm-hmm. I can do that. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It just gives you that. Yeah. Something so small has so much power Yeah. Than we

Ellen Valladares:

all do. Yes. And that's what it's all about. It's like, yes, you do have this, you don't feel small, right? Because you do have that power and strength within you. Yeah, cuz and I, so yes, there was some research that I enjoyed doing, you know, finding all that out about the. About the hum birds. But yeah, they fly for hundreds of miles. It's interesting because they come here for a few months. They get here at like in October and they leave like the beginning of March. So they do have like that season. And then from there, who knows they're flying on these long journeys. So I'm glad that I provide them a little nectar and then off on their journeys they go. But that's why I like, like in the summer we also go to um, North Carolina and now I'll see more hum birds cuz they've gone north there.

Liz Hill:

Yeah. Alright. Okay, so

Yasmeen Westwood:

you're following me. So I'm, I'm going to visit in

Ellen Valladares:

October then. Oh yes. Well, November to be sure. Perfect. Yeah. For our birthday,

Yasmeen Westwood:

we, we'll yeah, we'll meet up. Yeah, we could have like a double birthday celebration or something. That'd be quite good.

Liz Hill:

I can't believe that you haven't met, but I suppose over the whole pandemic times then. Yeah,

Yasmeen Westwood:

that was what, 2019 was it when you first contacted me, wasn't it? Yes. And right. And then yeah, that's when we started creating it. Yeah. 2019. We've known each other since, but I

Ellen Valladares:

never met in the flesh, but so close. Like we definitely, um, have been through a lot together and yeah, feel like, you know, we're definitely soul sisters. Definitely. Definitely.

Yasmeen Westwood:

Um, incredible. For sure. I can't wait to meet you. I can't wait to meet you. I know,

Liz Hill:

I know. It's funny cuz my, my best friend we met when I lived in Spain, she was here and it was on, um, have you heard of Michelle Knight? The astrologer? Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So it was on, um, she had like chat rooms then? Yes. This is like 12, uh, must be 13, 14 years ago, something like that. And we, I was learning taro. And so you could go and practice on people and you could go off into these little rooms and we, there was like a group of eight people or something and we were talking, but there was something about her humor that stood out to me. So then we went off into another little break off group and then that's how, how we got chatting and then we, we didn't make, because I was in Spain, so we didn't meet for years. But it, it doesn't matter, does it? It's, it's still, I mean, it's magical when you do meet, but it is, you know, when, when something's there energetically, it's there energetically, isn't it? Whether you are physically together or not. Absolutely. And Ellen's

Yasmeen Westwood:

been there for me in the past few years when I was going through a pretty tough time. She's been there, even though she's been like over the ocean. She's always been around, so, yeah.

Liz Hill:

Yeah. No, that's a little bit special. I would imagine, Ellen, that the, the deck. With you saying that you work, working with people with grief, I would imagine it's a really lovely, gentle way of, of helping people or you know, just giving people that little bit of a lift. Do, do you tend to use it with, with grief? So currently

Ellen Valladares:

I'm not really working with the grief that was before. More I'm working with people to, um, You know, help connect with, you know, their confidence and clarity and intuition and move on to sharing their gifts like I think we all are doing. Um, so they really go well with all that. So I love to use them and mentoring sessions and yeah. Um, and that's what I love. A lot of coaches and mentors I hear are, you know, also using them and what you know, What's very cool about the hummingbird cards, I think is that they've kind of crossed over. Cuz I have a lot of what I would say, not necessarily spiritual friends, right? That just love hummingbirds or just love the art or whatever, and are really, you know, enjoying using them for, you know, for whatever reason. And I think I love that. You know, so, yeah. Well, they, well, yeah. Sorry. Go.

Liz Hill:

No, that's all, that's all. No, as you can say, that's special because it, it bridges the gap then, doesn't it? And it, it, it makes people, oh, well, if I like that, then I might go a little bit or, you know, that's not for me. But I love those. So it, it's a nice, a nice way of, of, of bringing it all together.

Ellen Valladares:

And I have to say, Liz, for me, um, it was. Big coming out of the spiritual closet. So, um, yeah, because even though I've done a, you know, the teaching and the things that's been in my own little world, right. And I kind of have my, my separate worlds or whatever, so yeah, so there was like, okay, well now they're everywhere. So

Yasmeen Westwood:

hate to

Ellen Valladares:

know about whatever, and I'm, I'm very. So proud,

Liz Hill:

you know, to, so you should be both of you. I think it's an amazing feat that you, that you've done together. Do you think you'll consider doing anything else together? Doing another project together? We have

Yasmeen Westwood:

another deck. It's out. Yeah.

Ellen Valladares:

Which one's that? So what happened was, um, during the, as the pandemic started, um, I was getting messages, you know, they were just that from the Angels. I was getting a lot of angel messages and then I was like, you know, these are not just for you. And um, so I wanted to share them and I said, well, Yasmin, you know, we're kind of done with hummingbirds. Like, what do you say? I made a little Facebook group and I said, I'll put, you know, if you make art, and then I'll put the message. It's, I felt people needed that, you know, so in real time we started sharing these. Um, angel messages. So anyway, that turned into a new deck and it's out Angels of Healing and Hope. So that's another one. And ugh, more beautiful art. And, um, it's a, that one is a little bit. More like the healing and hope part of it. I think it's, um, uh, has the uplifting part, um, into it. Um, yeah, so, and that's got some different things with it. I think people, like I put, I, for me, music is a big part of the intuition. Um, so a lot of times I'll hear songs, this happens with Yasmin and I many times. Mm-hmm. Um, but I'll hear a song and, and then it's either telling me something or, you know, Whatever, it just starts playing. It's either the words or it means something to the person. Um, And a lot of times that, so I use that with the card. So each card kind of has a song that kind of deepens the message for the, for the card. And I find other people are kind of, you know, connecting with that too. So that's cool. And I have the whole playlist on Spotify, so that was fun. Um, yeah, that sounds amazing. That was fun. It

Yasmeen Westwood:

wasn't meant to be, it wasn't meant to be an a, a deck that we were creating consciously. Was it? It was just, let's share these messages. I was furloughed, so I was free at that point. So I was able to do the messages, you know, when she would send me the, the message, I was able to create the art. Um, and then, then we were like, wait a minute, this could be our next deck. Um, and then it turned out to be our next deck for sure. Um, so yeah, it was out. When did it come out again? End of last year, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. November something last year

Ellen Valladares:

came out. Yeah. So, and then we gotta find the next one. We have ideas for the next ones. Mm-hmm. Or whatever. And just. Yeah, I got a little sidetracked, but, we'll, I'm

Yasmeen Westwood:

waiting for Ellen because with Ellen it works that Ellen does the messages first, and then I, I do the art. I, I'm collaborating with another person on taro, so I do the art first, and then she does the messages. So we work better that way. But with Ellen, it's always Ellen first, and then I, I create the artwork.

Liz Hill:

Yeah. Isn't that funny? Yeah. I suppose maybe with the tarot, because you know what? The tarot cards. Could be. Yeah,

Yasmeen Westwood:

could be.

Liz Hill:

And maybe that's, yeah. But I bet that's nice though, having that different way of working with somebody. Yeah.

Yasmeen Westwood:

As long as I don't have to write, I hate writing. Okay. I'm not a writer, which is why I've got Ellen here and I'm from Cali, from my other decks. Um, for, for one of my taro decks, I had to write the book. You remember the, the palava that I had. Ellen, I was like, I can't write this. I don't know how to write this book. What do I do? And I was sending over to Ellen to have a look.

Liz Hill:

But then it all happened at, but then it happened

Yasmeen Westwood:

and it worked out really, really well, actually, the way it was written. So yeah, but I'm not doing that again.

Liz Hill:

Never say never. No. I've

Yasmeen Westwood:

told my publishers I ain't writing. I'll do the artwork, but I'm not doing the writing.

Liz Hill:

Yeah. So Yasmin, is it like a full-time job for you now?

Yasmeen Westwood:

No, no, no, no. I have a day job. Oh, right, okay. Um, I have a very sort of different day job to the artwork. Um, so I'm not doing it full-time. No. It's, um, it's my evening job. So once I'm done and the wee one's gone to bed, that's when I switch on my art laptop and sit and create my decks.

Liz Hill:

Wow. There's no stopping you then. Busy girl. No,

Yasmeen Westwood:

there's not. There's

Liz Hill:

not. What would you say. Out of, uh, Yasmin, I'll ask you first. So out of the decks that you've created together mm-hmm. Is there, is there a card that represents a moment to you or is there something that jumps out that you were just like,

Yasmeen Westwood:

oh, there's two cards. There's one in the Hummingbird and there's one for sure. In The Angels of Healing and Hope Lake and Ellen's gonna know which ones they are. Um, so in the Hummingbird Tarper, Turpa is how you pronounce it? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Is, um, it's a, it's a special card cuz it, it does signify a moment in sort of, of time. When in my, sort of, something was happening in my life at that point and where I was tired, where I was wey. And the message of that is just rest your wey wings before you. I love that one. That's my favorite. Yeah. You know, just take some time to yourself, just rest before you move on with your journey. Um, so that one is, is my favorite one out of the whole deck. I mean, they're all beautiful, but that one, an angels of healing and hope resilience. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Is is my, and they're both the same color. Okay. Can you tell what my favorite color is? Oh,

Ellen Valladares:

yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. Let me see if I can find it.

Yasmeen Westwood:

That was created after something happened, um, and I, I kind of lost hope with creating the deck. And Ellen was very patient. She sat and she waited until I was ready to start creating again, and that was the first card that I created. Didn't I?

Ellen Valladares:

Um, I, right. We kind of, it was like a break in the middle. Like we had break. Right. Exactly. Oh, I have chills. Exactly. Yeah. And I have this card. It is. So both of them, I wanna say Torp, that's interesting. Have so much They are that blue, but they have that deep expression of emotion in them, you know? Mm-hmm. That you can feel. Yeah,

Liz Hill:

for sure. What about you, Ellen, which would be your favorites? Oh gosh, I love

Ellen Valladares:

them all. No. Okay, so, um, Well, this one fell out. This is, and sorry, this is in Angels, but Spread your away. One of my Yes. You like that. Oh, wow. I almost feel, I feel like it's me. That's why I'm like, I feel I can step right into that. Mm-hmm. And just feel like, um, and the message, I just love it too. Um, so it's really just about being you. And I guess that's really been my whole journey, you know, to be my authentic self and to show my, my true colors. So that would be, oh wait, here's, oh, that's, I'm looking in that deck. Um, but there's the other one is the, the believe in miracles, cuz that has a hummingbird in it too. Um, but let me look in the, um, I think the one in, um, I have a few in the hummingbirds, but I like lotus jewel. Mm-hmm. And I like, um, iridescence, which again is with the colors. So I guess it's all about me showing my colors. That's, I've

Liz Hill:

forgotten. I've got one. I'll just grab it on my. I put them on my phone as my screens saver. Yeah.

Ellen Valladares:

Here's the, oh, good. Yeah. Here's the iridescence

Liz Hill:

one.

Yasmeen Westwood:

That's a, that's a bird. At the back of the hummingbird is the iridescent iridescence bird at the back of the

Ellen Valladares:

cards. I'm trying to get to focus.

Liz Hill:

There we go. The images are just stunning. I have to say. They're incredible. But

Ellen Valladares:

yeah, I'm on

Liz Hill:

pond at the moment. Oh, I like that one too. Yeah. But you know, it took me a little while to see that in the mirror he's got his crown on. I didn't see that straight away. And, and like you, Ellen, it's, it's that being seen, isn't it? Mm-hmm. Being, being like, oh, here we go. No hiding

Ellen Valladares:

now. I love that and I love that it like, took you a little while to see that, like mm-hmm. You know, and then you finally saw it though,

Liz Hill:

you know? So, but I tell you one, I get all the time, I'm gonna see if I can find it quickly. Epic journey. Yes.

Yasmeen Westwood:

We like that one. That's, oh, I

Ellen Valladares:

love Epic. That is one

Yasmeen Westwood:

of my, but he sit with his re suitcase on the rock looking at the mountain

Liz Hill:

yet. Oh, it's never, it's always, I can't tell you the amount of times. And he is not here now.

Ellen Valladares:

Oh, I had that, that one hilarious in my hand. Ok, there. Yeah. Yeah. We like him. Yes. Oh my god, he's so cute. Yeah. And I love, actually that one I was getting a lot recently cuz I felt like I was in the middle of a very marathon thing and I kept coming up. So it's good to know you're just in the middle. You're, but you've come a long way, kind of. Mm-hmm.

Liz Hill:

Yeah. Yeah. And what I love about them, you know, is. I never, when I get a card deck, I never sit and look through them all. And then, and there are still, I know there are still some in here. That haven't come out for me yet. Mm-hmm. So obviously I'll see them in shuffling sometimes or Yeah, but they, yeah, but they haven't. Oh, that's my other favorite. And the, I love that Lindsay Alo as well.

Ellen Valladares:

I, oh, I almost pulled like him. I love it. Yeah. See, so that's an interesting, he's, I learned about that actually. I think a friend, um, told me, um, About him that, you know, he's the symbol of, kind of like, for me, I'm more familiar with the angels, so Arch Angel, Michael being the protector and the warrior and the, um, and the angel of strength. And, and so he's kind of the, um, comparison to that. And I think he's comes from Inkin or, yeah. Um, so yeah, he's a very strong. Spirited Hummingbird.

Liz Hill:

He's disappeared now. Yeah. He has. I, I love him and he's often, I have him a myta. He comes up quite a bit for me as well. Okay. Yeah. Him and Epic Journey, I would say are the main ones. And then I do get floating stillness quite a bit. I like that one

Yasmeen Westwood:

as well. I, I do like them all. They're

Liz Hill:

all beautiful. They're all, yeah, they are stunning.

Ellen Valladares:

I was gonna say, I love that you don't look at all, all the cards. I had. Somebody else told me that too, that they, like, I think with the Angel deck they told me Yeah. They hadn't seen all the cards and they just pick, you know, it's like reading a book like everybody does it a little differently. Somebody or, or a magazine or flip to this or whatever. But I love that you don't peek.

Liz Hill:

Yeah. It, which, yeah, which is unusual for me, who's somebody who doesn't necessarily like surprises, but Yeah, I, I do. And like, um, the other day I got, is it Sweet Surrender the elephant? Oh yes. And I love elephants, and I was like, oh, there's an elephant in here. I had no idea.

Ellen Valladares:

Yeah, yeah, no. Yeah. So I just picked the other, one of that one's nice is a powerful warrior, and I love the message. Do not feel small. You are stronger, braver, and more valued than you know. It's time to tap into your true sense of power, powerful

Liz Hill:

warrior. So yeah, he was my screensaver for quite a while. Kept. Yeah, I kept it going. That, yeah. Well ladies, thank you so much for joining me. I've really enjoyed it. And like I say, you're with me every morning anyway, but I've really enjoyed meeting you, hearing the story behind the deck. And I'm gonna be ordering the next deck and I'm gonna try get, ive been trying to get these Yasmin and I messaged you, didn't I? I know. So yeah, they're gonna be coming in the shop very soon cuz I'm always telling people about them. And I've gifted them to a few friends as well because I just, I, I really do have that connection with them and I know one of my friends is really enjoying them. It's just been the perfect thing for her. Thank you as well. So ladies, thank you for joining me. I'm so grateful for you taking the time out. And I will be getting the new deck. I will post all of, um, Ellen and Yasmine's details in the show notes about their decks. Um, Ellen, have you got any co, uh, courses currently running or anything coming

Ellen Valladares:

up? Nothing right now. Just personal. Mentoring if anybody wants

Liz Hill:

one-on-one. Yeah, you can. Okay. Well, I'll ask you for the details and I'll put those in the show notes. And, um, Yasmin, anything that you want to add, I'll pop in the, the show notes as well, but links to all, to all your decks and everything. Thank you. So thank you so much for joining me guys. Thanks for joining us, and I will be back again soon with some more fabulous guests. Thank you. Bye. Thank you.

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