Who am I and What am I Doing Here?

A short answer to this can be found in the Ol’ About Page, but I shall attempt to answer this question in more detail. As this is the first blog post, it only seems fitting to introduce myself and explain why I am bringing Mystic Discoveries into existence.
My name is Amanda, and ever since I can remember I have been memorised by the mystical and esoteric. Perhaps it was the amount of Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac my mother listened to when I was a wee lass in the late 80’s/early 90’s. Perhaps it was that we lived for a time opposite a park in which the Gypsy fair would frequent each year and I would spend evenings peeping out my window, watching the band of travellers hanging out in their bohemian wears. Or perhaps it was because ever since I can remember I knew there was more to life and this planet than what my physical senses would have me believe.

What ever it was the fact is that I have developed a slight obsession with anything whimsical and mystic. This lead me to exploring the Tarot. I received my first set from my mother while on a road trip through New Zealand when I was 14/15 (I am 29 now). It was the Guilded Tarot, a popular and beautiful deck that is still with me and gets a lot of use, despite my tarot collection growing (I shall write posts about my experiences with the Tarot in the future).
It was fabulous, and as I got older I read about and explored magic with the help of the ever reliable Silver Raven Wolf. Teen witch was one of my favourite books for years.
This was all well and good, I kept reading the tarot but my spirit was on the hunt for something more.

Skip ahead afew years to my early 20s…..

I decided to go into teaching. Kids are awesome, school holidays are awesome, job stability is also awesome. But, I didn’t want to be a regular state school teacher. I longed to be different, alternative, hip 😉. And I discovered Montessori teaching. ‘That sounds like me!’ I said, to myself and later to my wonderful partner Rhys. He very kindly agreed to move from the city we lived in (Wellington), to Auckland so I could specialise in Montessori education. What a guy!

While there, the Montessori lecturer marked a paper I had written and suggested I look into Steiner education because what I was talking about related to it. I googled Rudolf Steiner and like most people seeing him for the first time thought, yikes! This dude looks a bit weird. Poor guy, the main photo everyone uses of him is the one of him looking old and stern, you should see the one of him when he was a young man. What a dish!

Moving along, I read his lecture ‘The Angels work in Mans Astral Body’. Wowza! I was blown away. EVERYTHING he talked about resonated with me. By this stage I had read a fair amount of spiritual literature and none of it compared to how I felt when I read that. I went onto read more of his lectures and everything I read clicked. He took everything i felt was true about other spiritual paths and squished them into what he called Anthroposphy. Of course since then I have come across some stuff I don’t agree with, and that’s okay. It would be weird if I agreed with every single thing he said.
Suffice to say I totally dug the ethos of Waldorf Education and when the opportunity came to move back to Wellington AND to teach handwork at the local Steiner school (knitting, sewing, crochet) full time we were happy to come home.

The rest is history really. Now Rhys and I live with our cat in Wellington. I am in my 4th year of teaching and am growing a relatively successful doll making business called Silvercap Dolls. I thought this blog could be an extension of what I already do in life. I read heaps of esoteric books, I see the mystical truths appearing in art and pop culture and thought it would be fun to write about them. Every now and then I will have special blog posts about different tarot cards as I deepen my understanding of them. I also want to write about craft stuff, doll making and general life in New Zealand. At the moment I am open for this to move in any direction.

Thank you so much for visiting Mystic Discoveries and taking the time to read this. If you wanted to connect on Instagram you can find me https://www.instagram.com/silvercapdolls/. I really look forward to connecting with you and sharing experiences of all things mystical xoxo