bookmark_borderVideo: Dark Smokey Quartz

From my personal collection, and also the model for this digital illustration.

Smoky or Smokey Quartz is associated with the root chakra. It is a grounding stone, meaning it can assist with keeping us from being scattered. Our thoughts and emotions tend to be all over the place but when you hold or are near a smokey quartz, it can help you to be more present. For me, I always keep a grounding stone when I’m driving.

This is the same Smoky Quartz, the first one I ever acquired from the Tucson Gem & Mineral show.

bookmark_border5/6/2022 + 5/6/2026 Synchronicity

This is an old photo of cards I pulled for Friday, May 6th…it may have been from 2022. Yet while searching for something else today (Wednesday May 6th 2026), this photo somehow came up. Time is wild, I can’t stress this enough. I’ll be back to add the message I’m getting from these cards 4 years later.

You have the power to become anything you want. Set your expectations for yourself, and know that you will become whatever you think about.

How do I read cards for myself? I will start with the tarot pulls since those are harder to interpret:

I read from one of my many tarot books that instead of looking at the cards, step inside the scene itself. What is going on inside each card?

Card 1: X of Wands – the doggie is carrying too many wands = you’re doing too much and overwhelming yourself.

Card 2: IV of Cups – are you meditating or procrastinating? Maybe you’re avoiding something or someone.

Card 3: VIII of Wands – no people just wands moving fast in the air. Perhaps you’ll need to act or create something fast or a creative opportunity is coming your way (sometimes they say within 8 days).

Card 4: V of Cups – the figure is upset because there are 3 cups that spilled, even though there are 2 still left standing. Disappointment, grief, not seeing the positive side.

For the oracle cards, they’re easier to read because there’s words on them:

Card 1: Power – you have power available to you at all times. What kind of power would you like; is it self serving or does it help others?

Card 2: Talisman – stones, crystals, keys, rings, necklaces or any object that has magical powers can be useful in enhancing the energy of your magical requests and manifestations.

Card 3: Focus – focus on what you want. But make sure it’s in service to your highest and best good.

By the way, when I ask questions during readings for myself – believe it or not, I am not there to judge (this takes A LOT of practice btw). The tarot and oracle cards help us to “see” and “hear” different aspects of ourselves. A lot of the times it can be contradictory but if you learn that everything in life is contradictory, you’ll eventually learn to make sense out of the cards.

bookmark_borderMetaphysical Vibes Sketchbook Project 2020


My work comes out the best when I’m doing it for something or someone…in this case one of my best friends gifted me a sketchbook to fill up and mail out by a certain time. Of course whenever I have deadlines, it motivates me to create.

bookmark_borderFair and Balanced Discourse = Don’t Be a Coward

 

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A post shared by Elle Stanger, CSE (@stripperwriter)


Elle Stanger has been educating people while actively in the sex work industry for years. If you want to learn how to act around sex workers (online and irl), you should follow her. Because damn, a lot of you act like this EVEN around non sex workers…like idk, when a woman is just simply existing online, speaking up for herself or has an opinion you disagree with? It gets so exhausting which is why I disappear for weeks just to get people’s shitty energy off of me…

bookmark_borderUntitled from 8/2/2023

This is one of those visually stunning, surreal, trippy, abstract, spiritual movies that you don’t really understand what it’s about until you watch it time and time again as you get older. I watched this movie way before I started learning tarot, before I started working with crystals and stones, before I became witchy, occult-y and metaphysical.

The movie is called The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky

The tarot will teach you how to create a soul.

Each stone has a soul, formed by the work of millions of years.

bookmark_borderTarot and Oracle Card Pulls // Sunday May 3rd 2026

Edit 05/04/26 – I went out with friends yesterday and took a pic of the sky and palm trees. I wanted to add it to the plain background.
Thoth deck and Sacred Symbols Oracle with a Carnelian heart.

In order to make magic happen, we HAVE to act. We can’t just sit around and wish for shit to happen. Today is a good day to be around friends, and to be truthful when something doesn’t feel right. As we age over time, lying to make yourself or others feel comfortable is more exhausting. It’s just better to be truthful and honest, even if the truth hurts. It’s better to be yourself. Yes it’s uncomfortable but not telling the truth becomes a burden on your mind, body, soul and spirit after a while.

Lots of wands action today; wands = fire, creativity, passion, action.

Go forth and make magic with your friends. If you have no friends, then be a friend to yourself – especially the parts you don’t like. People in your life will come and go, but the only person you’re going to be with for the rest of your life is YOU. So learn to love yourself each and every day and ALL parts of you.

bookmark_borderGif Art: Ride the Lightning

05/09/2026 – Have you ever missed someone so much but at the same time don’t want nothing to do with them anymore because the pain is greater than the pleasure? Like, you’re attracted to fire but you know playing with it will only get you burned. If both of you are fire/air signs – the compatibility is off the charts but at the same time there will be lots of mental sparring & sexual tension as both tend to be headstrong – one wants to control (top from the bottom) while the other doesn’t want to submit nor take control and then it keeps going back and forth in a toxic dynamic loop.

It was fun until it wasn’t. Getting hurt repeatedly from someone’s energy takes a toll on you after a while. Being publicly degraded, insulted and disrespected while secretly worshipped can be really taxing on one’s spirit. Giving yourself to someone who is too insecure & controlling to give back is also exhausting. It’s just not worth it anymore, and I’d rather be alone and not interact with this person ever again.

I hope you meet yourself in someone else and see how it really feels.


Edit 031426 – here is the song that inspired the title – Metallica / Ride the Lightning


July 8, 2015

Hand drawn & digital from 2011, turned animated gif art.

Image description: voluptuous lady with a dragon head. Her breasts are exposed, there’s lightning bolts on each side. I signed it with my old graffiti name, SHERM.

bookmark_borderMixed Media Drawings * Smile Now Cry Later * Lost in Time * 2008

Title: Smile Now, Cry Later
Description: Framed 11″x14″ black & white, mixed media drawing

Saturday, May 2nd 2026: I dug up a photo of this old, framed drawing I did. I feel that it pairs well with the Raiders chola girl; as a matter of fact I think I did these two based on a black and white themed art show. Anyways, “Smile Now, Cry Later” is an oldies song, inspired by gang culture in Los Angeles in the 90’s. I have to admit, as a young artist I romanticized it a bit, even the graffiti writers took part in the subculture of tagbanging around that time. I was just the outsider looking in, observing everything around me.

Oh btw, I just realized I edited this post exactly 10 years later! OMG. Time is wild and synchronicity never ceases to amaze me.


May 2, 2016

Title: Lost in Time
Description: Framed 11″x14″ black & white, mixed media drawing

If you grew up sometime between the 1980’s and 1990’s, were influenced by gang culture and watched Mi Vida Loca, then this mixed media drawing would be the end result. This is pretty much a throwback to those times.

Echo Park wasn’t a safe place back then. I’m sort of amazed at how much the city of Los Angeles has changed, for better or for worse.

Please inquire to: shermgrafik@gmail.com