Coming up in September I’ll offer my “Learning to Read the Symbols of the Tarot” class. We’ll meet in Buckhead on five consecutive Thursdays from 7 to 9 PM, starting September 8, 2016. The course will culminate in a four-hour Saturday session, from noon to 4 PM on October 8, 2016, which will include lunch, readings, and graduation. The cost is $200. You’ll need the “Complete Guide to the Tarot” by Eden Gray, and the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck.   Interested? Sign up now! Please note that space is limited. Paying via PayPal reserves your spot immediately. If you’d like to pay by check, Karen will contact you to confirm your spot once your payment has been received. We're sorry, but registration has now closed. If you'd like to be notified when another class is scheduled, please contact Karen....

A psychic reader using the Tarot for nearly 40 years and a yoga teacher for 41 years, Karen Moore Thomson, Ph.D., RYT 200, has been selected by Wesleyan College as the 2015 “Distinguished Alumna in a Profession,” a designation which honors the multi-faceted nature of her life’s work. Holding a Ph.D. in English, Karen left a 20-year career in the academic world as a tenured full professor in order to work full-time in the field of spiritual awareness. Karen has taught yoga to hundreds of students and is certified as an Advanced Yoga Teacher. In addition, Karen is a healer, minister, and pianist and is the founder and director of The Center for Healing and Spiritual Awareness and the Buckhead Yoga Room. Attend Karen’s workshop at 1:15 on Saturday, April 25: “Living Your Dream with the Benefits of Yoga and the Tarot” – participate in an experiential workshop that will give you tools and techniques from both yoga and the Tarot to empower your journey in living your dreams. Have fun, enjoy learning, and leave the workshop feeling freer, lighter, better, and truly inspired on your path from experiencing the time-honored benefits physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually of yoga and the Tarot. About Launch Your Vision Launch Your Vision is a 2-Day Symposium featuring Michael Bernard Beckwith and including health and wellness speakers, workshops, vendors, practitioners, food, fellowship, and fun. The event will take place on April 24 & 25, 2015, at Atlanta Unity Church in Norcross,...

I discovered aerial yoga on our family vacation at Carillon in Panama City Beach, Florida to the delight of  several members of our family. The “Yoga Train” picture, taken by my husband, was created in class one morning, also the summer of 2014, in my studio “The Buckhead Yoga...

Thanks to my fantastic website designer and developer Teresa Rosche Ott of the simpler web and to my exceptional copy editor Dede Yow, Ph.D., RYT 500, PYT, my website was launched early morning of April 1, 2014. Besides my gratitude to Teresa and to Dede for their extraordinary expertise, I also want to thank portrait photographer Aryc W. Mosher for the 2 formal photographs he made of me in 2010,  Laura T. Sievers for taking many of the yoga pictures in 2103 that appear on my website, and my husband and members of my family for taking the aerial yoga pictures and “yoga train” in 2014. Finally, I extend heartfelt gratitude to my students, teachers, clients, colleagues, and friends for their support and encouragement over the many months of the website’s creation, and my gratitude, too, to those who have so kindly and generously written...

Stress relief: Take time to relax during holiday rush Dani R. Bellflower Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer Published: December 12, 2000 The kids are home from school. The Christmas presents need to be wrapped. The in-laws are bored and hungry. Don’t forget the 500 other chores that need to be done to keep the household from falling apart this holiday season. Feeling a little stressed? With so many things to do this holiday season, some forget to stop, take a deep breath and just relax. If that is easier said than done, Karen Thomson of Kennesaw may be able to help. Through deep breathing exercises and stretching, relaxation is not out of reach. Ms. Thomson, a teacher of yoga and meditation, said breathing in the first step. “Slow, deep breathing is the heart of yoga. When we become stressed or busy, our breathing becomes shallow. The message it gives our body is that we’re in crisis,” she explained. “When we become aware of our [shallow] breathing, all we have to do is take a deep breath.” The message the deep breath sends to the mind and body is to slow down, she said. Yoga, an ancient system of exercise, incorporates breathing with a series of stretches that affect the entire body and mind. “It’s not just physical. It’s emotional and spiritual, too,” Ms. Thomson said. “The immune system is strengthened. You become more flexible. You tone muscles, sleep better and basically feel better.” According to Dr. Chris Winzer of Powder Springs WellStar Health Systems, the symptoms of stress are increased irritability, inability to concentrate, anxiety and sleeplessness, which can have a negative effect on the body. Stretching everyday for 15 to 20 minutes and maybe a yoga or mediation class once a week, according to Ms. Thomson, is just what the body needs for relaxation and a general feeling of well being. “All of us are very busy and can find other ways to spend our time. The truth is if you take the time to do yoga and meditation, then the rest of life goes a bit better.” Waking up 20 minutes earlier to watch a yoga video or investing a good instructional book will help, but she said those who are stressed out can benefit from a yoga group. “We are blessed with tapes and lots of books out there. And a lot of people start that way,” she said. “What’s wonderful about a group is the energy. You’ll work together for an hour and a half towards healing.” Ms. Thomson teaches yoga and mediation at several locations around Cobb. In her classes, rather than balls, or straps, to aid in stretching, the class often uses human...

Di Chapman writes for, among others, CBS Local Atlanta. A recent “Best Fortune Tellers in Atlanta” feature article profiled Karen and four other psychics. Chapman’s fuller experience included a Tarot reading with Karen. Her write-up about it is included below, with her permission. The craft of Tarot Card reading goes back thousands of years, used by Dante and acknowledged by Jung, who said Tarot had its origins in profound patterns of the collective unconscious with access to potentials of increased awareness. Even W.B Yeats and T.S. Elliot were fluent in it. I met Karen at a “psychic fair” in October 2013 sponsored by Carl Woodall’s Atlanta Metaphysical Center. Karen left a 20-year tenure as a university professor to become a full-time reader, spiritual teacher, and metaphysical healer who has taught courses since the 1980’s in Tarot Card reading. “It takes time and practice for those who feel called to learn this tool for helping others,” Karen says. “Tarot students must develop their own reading skills in their own respective ways while memorizing and, more importantly, learning to use their own intuitions in deciphering the meaning of the cards.” Karen is also an intuitive psychic and healer, which is one of the things that drew her to the Tarot. As she reads my cards, she explains to me how they are meant to pull out of my mind what I already know about myself and my life, and what I have failed to admit or recognize. They hold valid messages, but I must couple them with my own intuition. “As a receiver of a Tarot Card reading, you must recognize your own free will and power. Readings only provide more insight and increased ability to make choices.” Karen uses a card formation called the Celtic Cross to do my reading. As she lays down the cards, she interprets my “present, past, future, fears, hopes, expectations and the potential outcome of all of these.” I see her face respond to the cards she places in front of me, often times showing surprise or nodding knowingly, all the while explaining to me what the cards show. “The cards show that you are on the verge of making a leap toward what you believe you’re here to do,” she tells me. “You just need to clear out stuff that is getting in your way, wrap up, and move on.” She is right on the money. I know exactly what she’s talking about. Finally, out of the blue Karen looks at me and says, “May I ask you a question?” I assure her she can ask me anything. She proceeds to ask me directly about whether I have a specific health condition that she...

Karen was chosen for an October 2013 CBS Atlanta feature: “Best Fortune Tellers in Atlanta.” Writer Di Chapman profiled Karen and four other psychics, highlighting areas in which they work. Chapman focused on Karen’s Tarot reading and teaching abilities.

One of the more fascinating myths about the Tarot is that when the great library at Alexandrea was destroyed, the city of Fez (now in Morocco) became the world’s intellectual center.

The slow, deep breathing, a foundation of yoga, provides much oxygen to the blood, benefitting the circulatory system and, hence, all parts of the body.

Despite the joys of gardening, any kind of gardening requires repetitive and tiring positions which strain the body. The constant reaching, kneeling, and bending in one’s garden puts stress on the neck, shoulders, arms, hands, back, and legs. Thus, it is not unusual for a gardener to have pain and stiffness in these parts of the body.