Welcome to This Is Me Thursdays! To read other posts in this series, click here. If you want to be involved, please email me for more details! Today, learn more about Minerva Siegel, someone I’m so glad I connected with on Instagram a few months ago!
I got the chance to review her book, Tarot for Self-Care: How to Use Tarot to Manifest Your Best Self, a few months ago, and I’ve been following her on Instagram ever since. I loved her book, and you can check out my review here. She lives in a beautiful Victorian home with her husband and pets, and it’s so fun to see peeks into her life on social media. She posts about a variety of things, including her life as a disabled writer, her dogs, tarot cards, books, house updates, etc. Plus, she has such killer style and makeup looks! I genuinely really enjoy her and how she chooses to use her platform for educating people, especially during this difficult time in our world.
This Is Me: Minerva Siegel
Share a little about yourself and what you’re up to these days.
I’m a childfree, disabled writer, an author with Simon and Schuster, and I’m currently working on top-secret projects for another major publishing house.
What does life purpose mean to you? Does it really exist for you/all of us, or is it just some pipe dream?
Believing in the concept of a life’s purpose puts a lot of needless pressure on oneself. Follow your passions and stay true to your convictions, sure, but it doesn’t seem healthy or balanced to pursue anything with such single-mindedness that it becomes the whole purpose of your life.
What motivates and inspires you in your life?
My Capricorn moon motivates me. I’m a very ambitious person, but not competitive. I want to be the best version of myself, and reach as high as I can professionally, without comparing my journey to anyone else’s. I’m inspired by Dadaism, absurdist humor, outer space, subatomic particle physics, historical architecture, Louise Bourgeois, Man Ray, Georges Méliès, and acts of selfless compassion.
Is what you do now what you always imagined doing? Why or why not, and what have you learned because of that?
Since I was very young, all I’ve ever wanted to be is a writer. I fell in love with Dickens, Austen, and Verne at a young age, and, subsequently, with language and the power of the written word. Everyone in my life told me I had to pursue higher education to be taken seriously in the literary world. Due to my learning disabilities, however, I wasn’t confident I’d be successful in college. So, I became a dog groomer, much to everyone’s disappointment. When an unforeseen diagnosis ended that career, I found myself myself healing from a major operation with lots of time on my hands, so I started writing. This unexpectedly snowballed into a career.
What’s something you desperately want other people to know or realize that may help them in their lives?
I want other people to know that authenticity and unbridled sincerity will get them further in life and be more fulfilling than imitation and people-pleasing. I got where I am today because I don’t let fear get in the way of anything, and because I’m frank about what I want. Politesse is lovely until it hampers honest communication- then, it’s garbage. Be real, and direct.
What’s something you make sure to do every day/week/month that helps you practice self-care and self-love?
I practice self-care and self-love by reading tarot. Check out my book, Tarot for Self-Care: How to Use Tarot to Manifest Your Best Self for more on that.
How do you define success in your life and/or business?
I define success by how fulfilled I feel, and I do feel quite fulfilled indeed.
Photo courtesy of Minerva Siegel
