Friday, November 23, 2012

11/24/12-11/25/12—Waiting for Ships to Come In

Weekend Reading:  Three of Wands from the Radiant Rider Waite. This card is sometimes known as the card of "waiting for your ships to come in". A decision has been made or a plan has been put into place. You've done all you can do at this point. And you may be able to see results on the horizon. But it's out of your hands now. You have to be patient and let the results come in their own time. So if you're anxious for something to be over, be here or to otherwise reach its outcome, remember that it's out of your power now. You've done all you can do. So just distract yourself from the situation, if you can. Watched pots take a long time to boil. But if you can detach and trust, the results will be here before you know it. 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

11/22/12-11/23/12—Affirming Your Growth


Thanksgiving/Black Friday Reading: Letter and Stork from Ciro Marchetti's Gilded Reverie Lenormand

Lenormand cards are read in pairs of two. The first card you draw is the noun and the second card is the adjective. This pair says that a message is coming your way. It could be something that changes your life, like finding out you're pregnant or you got the promotion. But what might be more likely is this scenario—you get together with your family and realize how much you've grown since the last time you were together. Or something happens to show you where you've evolved. 

It could even be that your message has been a long time coming. Letters are not email. They take time to arrive. You may not get the news you're hoping for as quickly as you'd hope. But it is coming. 



WARNING! This is where the reading ends and the cartomancy wonk talk starts.

If there's any doubt that the Lenormand oracle has taken the tarot world by storm, this will give you an idea. I ordered this deck two days ago, literally seconds after it was available for order. The first print run is now sold out. Fortunately it's not a limited edition, so he'll probably make another run if there's interest. This deck is typical of what you expect from Ciro Marchetti—luscious satin finish on high quality stock, luxurious hits of varnish on the decorative border, doubles of a few of the key cards so you can choose the ones that speak to you, and four extra cards resulting in a full 40-card deck. 

I'm a total newbie to Lenormand, so I invite my more knowledgeable friends to add to this interpretation if they want. Lenormand is unlike tarot in that you don't read it intuitively the same way you might tarot. There is less room for interpretation, but still plenty enough room to get it wrong. ;) I'll be back Friday evening with the Weekend Reading. Have a great Thanksgiving and Black Friday!




Tuesday, November 20, 2012

11/21/12—Practicing Love and Light


Today's Draw Classic*: The Sun from Margarete Petersen. What parts of yourself do you hide away in the dark? What aspects of yourself do you place boundaries around? What needs to be transformed in your world today?

The Sun card is welcome in any reading, because it traditionally signifies energy, illumination, breaking through and overall happiness. Margarete Petersen goes further to point out the sun illuminates the "boundary of day and night" and transforms everything it touches. Which is to say that everything you bring out into the light transforms. This is a significant lesson, worthy of its place in the major arcana of the tarot. The Sun appears two cards before "completion" in the 22-card journey of life lessons. And its bright yellow glow aligns with the third chakra, which is the energy center in your body having to do with personal power and self esteem. 

Put it all together and it's telling us this: in order for our dark sides to be transformed, we have to illuminate them, bring them out into the light, and embrace them as we embrace the other aspects of our lives. In the poem that accompanies this card, she writes: 

"Illuminating the dark and light parts of the world, none more attractive than the other."

Until we see that all that we are is made of light—that the dark parts are gifts to guide us on our path and challenge our self acceptance and love—we can only move so far along our evolutionary path. Do you see the couple in the tantric pose beneath the sun? Tantra is all about liberation and rebirth, the coming together of Shakti and Shiva...the masculine and feminine parts of our nature. The way I see the two in this instance is the coming together of our dark and light sides, illuminating them both and fusing them together. 

For many years I pursued a path of illuminating my light side and trying to drown my dark side in the light. To be honest, I'm still doing that to a degree. But over the years, I have illuminated different sides of my personality and transformed them. I used to be much quicker to anger. I was far more confrontational. Well, I still am, but now in a more loving way. And for many years the casual observer probably wouldn't have known about my lifelong struggle with depression. I mean, c'mon, I'm such a bright and cheery sort...haha. But it's true. I do believe that much of my life has been lived beneath that veil. 

In the past six months or so, the gift of dramatic mood swings spurred on by menopause has caused me to address this issue medically. To bring it out into the light. The situation became so painful, destructive and disturbing that I had to seek help. I had to admit to myself that I could no longer handle this situation on my own. So now I take a tiny little pill every day and I am, honestly, transformed. Things that used to send me spinning into darkness no longer affect me that way. 

This is who I am without the disease of depression. But I never would have arrived here without bringing my issue out into the light. My pride kept it in the dark for many years. "This is something I can manage on my own." And to be fair, I kind of did. I never had suicidal depression. Just persistent low grade depression. But low grade or high test, pretending it didn't exist was denying the "me" of who I am. 

Yeah, so this is personal stuff that people don't talk about in "polite society". But that's exactly the point. In our efforts to be accepted and liked, we resort to NOT accepting and liking ourselves. Which means that we put up a boundary between who we really are and the public facade. Which means no one can ever really like and accept us as we are. Which keeps us caught in a cycle of self rejection and self hate! The Sun comes to us today to illuminate those areas, so we can truly walk in love and light. 

For those of you on "the path", consider this today. Walking in love and light can only occur if we turn the entirety of our being toward the sun. The moon, the card before this in the major arcana, always has a dark side and a light side. We never see its dark side. But as we travel around the sun, it shows us all sides. There is no dark side. Just light. And the same is true for us as well.

*From a post on 4/27/11.

Monday, November 19, 2012

11/20/12—Finding Your Eternity

Today's Draw: The Fool from the Art of Life Tarot. Do you think it's wise to "launch yourself on every wave"? How many times can you say you've consciously been in touch with "your eternal self"? Have you ever had a totally deep or meaningful thought as you're drifting off to sleep, only to forget it upon waking? And, bonus question, did you actually remember it on waking and, if so, what was the thought?

About a week or so ago, I had a thought as I was drifting off to sleep...or maybe I was dreaming...but I remember thinking, "OMG, the next time I draw the Fool card, I've got to talk about THAT. We've never talked about THAT before and it's the key to EVERYTHING!"

Well, we're not going to talk about that today. Because I can't remember what it was....haha. And I can't tell you how many times I've tried to recall what it is. It's been EATING at me. It's like dreaming about the meaning of your life or the reason why we're all here and not being able to remember. Gah!!!

So whatever it was that I thought or dreamed of, it's not what we're going to talk about today. But the funny thing is that this Fool card comes with a quote from Henry David Thoreau that is pretty close to delivering one of those deep life secrets we're all searching for: 

"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment."

We talk a lot about being fully present in the moment on this blog. That's what living in the present is about...living in this moment. Not a moment that happened five minutes from now, not one that may happen five years from now, but being absorbed fully in this precise moment—a moment without a past or present, a moment where you're not distracted by anything else, a moment that contains only now and the million possibilities that exist within it. 

These are the moments where you lose all sense of time and space...you're impervious to mundane demands...you're totally in the flow. In this moment, you don't have to pay bills, go to the doctor, lose 20 lbs, etc. You're not held to a pattern from the past or obligations in the future. All of that is for other moments. In this moment you and life are exactly right as they should be. 

Launching yourself on every wave is not far off from what we spoke of yesterday in our Being Your Own Hero essay. You grab life as it comes to you, rather than allowing it to grab you and steer your way. Surfers wait for the perfect wave to come. This is asking you to taste of every opportunity that comes your way. Eat the full smorgasbord of life. 

But the last bit of the quote is perhaps the juiciest. Find your eternity in each moment. See, that's the whole POINT of living in the moment. Because when you're in the moment, you're in the groove with the all of what is, you're in union with god and grace. You're walking through life hand-in-hand with your eternal self. Your divine self. Even if, in this moment, you're being arrested. Or insulted. You can be in the moment with it...find your eternity in that moment. 

Imagine, just for a minute, that you KNEW you were an eternal being. Knew it in every cell within your body. How would that change the frustrating or annoying situation you had earlier today? If you knew that nothing could destroy you, nothing could cut you short or cheat you out of anything. If you had the perspective of your soul or higher self, rather than just the perspective of your current incarnation?

On the one hand, we probably need the "deadline" of having, say, 80 years to work on our life's lessons, whatever they may be. Because if we knew we really had eternity to solve all those issues, we might take this lifetime off. But understanding the big ball of eternal grace that each of us is, could be game changing in our lives...in the way we deal with ourselves and others. And it all begins with putting ourselves in the one state that is truly eternal, this very moment. 

What do you see in the Fool's quote?


Sunday, November 18, 2012

11/19/12—Being the Hero of Your Life

Today's Draw: The Chariot from the Daniloff Tarot by Alexander Daniloff. Is there some situation in your life you'd just love to have someone else solve for you? Is there something you're either refusing or neglecting to face? And how is that serving you and your personal development?

The Chariot is read many ways. Some read it as movement, motion, a journey. Some read it as a struggle of some sort...being pulled in opposing directions. And all of this can allude to inner or outer struggles or victories of will, ego or impulse. Like the charioteer himself, we are asked to take the reigns in deciding how to apply it to a reading. We are asked to be our own source. Our own hero.

Being "saved" by someone who swoops in just in time is a popular theme in books and movies. The evening news loves to milk a good hero story. And, if you're a woman, you're socialized into believing a white knight will ride in and rescue you. The theme is so pervasive that, of course, we've come to believe it...and not just believe it, but expect it. So we can sometimes find ourselves acting dormant on looming issues, expecting....hoping...that someone or something will come along to make it all right for us.

I have some bad news. It's probably not going to happen.

Nor do you really want it to. Because, spiritually speaking, if you don't find your way out of it this time, the problem will come around again. 

I can't imagine there's anyone out there who's had anxiety over making a needed life change, or dug themself into a hole they now needed to get out of, or needs to make a critical choice or any other such daunting type of life passage that hasn't once, even in passing, wished something or someone would come along to rescue them. I also can't imagine there are people out there who have never hesitated or procrastinated in the face of unpalatable inner or outer work. It's part of being human.

Today's card is coming along to remind us that, if there's something like this in your life right now (and there are many such things in my own), it's time to stand up and be your own hero. Be the hero of your own story. Make a move. Be the one that saves you from this mess. 

What I know from my own experience in this arena is that the energy it takes to ride in on your white horse and save yourself from whatever it is that's looming over you, is nothing compared to the energy you've spent pretending there isn't an issue...ignoring the issue...fighting the issue, etc. The train is barreling down the tracks and there's no one around to untie you from the tracks. Are you going to succumb to a cruel fate waiting for someone to save you? Or are you going to at least try to loosen the knots that stand between you and ultimate freedom?