Tuesday, August 28, 2012

8/29/12—Examining Your Story

Today's Draw: The Seven of Holy Water from Robert Place's Vampire Tarot. What tempts you? How often do you make choices that you know are bad for you? Do you still find yourself making bad choices without realizing they're bad choices?


The Seven of Holy Water corresponds to the Seven of Cups. It's a card of choice. In traditional decks, each cup would be filled with a wonderful thing. And your job is to choose among all the options available to you..to make a decision...to take a stand. 

But in this card, it's a little different. There are three doorways, only one of them leading to escape. Do you choose the one with all the money and see where it goes? Do you choose the one with the vampire...maybe he's guarding the exit? Or do you choose the third one?

Life is often like that, isn't it? Full of difficult choices. Heck, the empty doorway could be clearly marked "Exit" and we may still choose the one with the money. Or even the one that promises eternal life. Or maybe we think we can scoop up the money, be given eternal life and still make it out exit!

In one of the questions up top I asked if you still find yourself making bad choices without realizing they're bad choices. I asked that because it seems like there comes a time in our lives where we see the clues to a bad choice and can keep from choosing it. This, of course, isn't 100%. But we do get to a point where we know the earmarks of all the bad choices we've made in the past and we, nonetheless, make them again. We make them consciously. 

I feel like when I make bad choices these days I know when I'm doing it. I mean, I'm not blind to the fact that that piece of chocolate cake is not nutritionally equal to a sprig of broccoli or that smooth talking misunderstood playboy is going to turn out to be genuine and loyal. Obviously there's a shadow side issue at play when we knowingly make bad choices, even if we're only marginally conscious of it. We have to search ourselves and ask, "What story is this keeping me stuck in? And how is that story serving me?"

By story, I mean the stories we tell ourselves, like "I only ever meet the wrong men!" or "All the good men are taken!" or "But his smile was just so irresistible!" Your story can also point to a cycle or pattern. For example, one ex was a drunk, another a womanizer and another a workaholic. They're all different, right? No, they're all the same. They're all unavailable. So why do you keep going for unavailable men? And, more pointedly, what is unavailable about you that you only attract unavailable men?

Shadow Week ain't easy. Oprah once said she had a breakthrough about her weight issues when she realized they weren't about the potato chips. Whatever it is that's recurring in your life...whatever bad or limiting choices you're making, it's not about the potato chips. It's about something far beneath the chips. The good news is that, if you're making the bad choices consciously, you're way ahead of the people who are going through life blindly wondering why bad things always happen to them. 

Other shadow issues with a Seven of Cups might be an inability to make a decision for fear of making the wrong one. Or wanting/needing to have it all. Choosing and regretting. Or worrying you've made the wrong choice and so you take the choice you made for granted. Or not showing gratitude for the options you do have. The Seven of Cups doesn't offer the kind of choices you're meant to regret. It only offers cup after cup of enjoyment. Your job is to choose the ONE that works best for you and be happy with it. 

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