In Memory of Louisa Matson Poole

This post marks the end of the year and the shortest day of 2014. I wish to remember a great teacher and artist who shared her blessings with many students over the years.

Louisa Matson Poole was a gifted psychic and teacher of the arts of numerology, Tarot, and Shadow Dance. These were the things I remember most vividly. Our lives intersected when I was about 9 years old and we drifted apart some 10 years later.


Louisa was a Master Craftsman of many Occult arts and the lead image is one of the more beautiful cards in her Merry Day Tarot deck. The man's cloak is rimmed with her system of symbols for winter, spring, summer and fall.

From Louisa, I learned numerology--to calculate, read and interpret charts about people's names or names of things using a system of 78 images (ideas) as expressed through 78 corresponding Tarot cards. For any of the Occult arts she taught, she encouraged their use only as tools for helping people in need of guidance and insight. She instilled in me a fascination with numerology and Tarot. Other factors also added astrology into the complex batter that was my childhood. I still use some of those tools today as a lens for understanding people.

Louisa was also a guardian of nature and its invisible life. Her art gave human shape and form to the unseen beings that live in forests, lakes, and oceans. Her drawings of spirits and sprites over the years embodied the elements of earth, air, fire and water. Much of what she taught was similar to Native American culture and belief. Most importantly, she helped students be more deeply aware of and in tune with the natural world. Nature is not passive and consumable for humans. There is a balance that must be struck. I remember she used to say:  Energy is never lost or gained, it only changes shape.

Our culture, especially now more than ever, can't handle many of the concepts she taught. Channeling her, I would comment, "give it time." Another couple of thousand years perhaps ;)

Here are some of her ideas that I wish to commemorate:

Tolerance and kindness.

Listen to the cues of nature and the messages around you. Unless you are sensitive to it already, it's hard to describe in words the powerful feel this place has. I only wish it had been something Louisa could have enjoyed:

Notice the small things. Louisa would have loved so many of California's wild and enchanted places. This "California poppy" mushroom I found locally, birthed from the tremendous rains we've had. 

Louisa always said that the little people found shelter in mushrooms.

Harm none and walk toe to heel so the animals will not be disturbed by the vibrations of your footsteps. Louisa loved her many dogs over the years. This photo is a portrait of a walk in winter and seems as if it could be her (it's not):

Photo by Janet Ramsden. Used under the Creative Commons license v 2.0.

Feel the embrace of the seasons and don't let go of the magic of the old ways (the seasons and the earth religions that were the forerunners of the major belief systems in use today).

This was taken in one of the forests Louisa loved, cherished and introduced us to years ago: 

In whatever form she is now, I wish her spirit peace.

Another obituary of Louisa was recently posted by the Gloucester Times.