9/1/9/13—Shutting Down Our Traps

Today's Draw: Seven of Feathers in the House of Coffin from the Margarete Petersen tarot and the Deck of Lenormand Houses. Do you set up traps for yourself in the way you think and act? Are you even consciously aware of all the ways we do stuff like that? Is it possible that "working through" an issue is the slowest path to healing?

The coffin signifies endings and the Seven of Feathers is a good thing to end. It's all about the self-fulfilling prophesies and traps we make for ourselves. So today's combo is about ending:

• The desire to be like others or have what others have
• The use of the phrases like, "I can't", "that's impossible", "I have to" and "it won't work anyway", along with negative self-talk
• Predicting and/or attaching to outcomes
• Comparing yourself to others
• Thinking in absolutes, such as something is either good or bad and no in-between
• Thinking you have to do or be anything other than what you naturally do and be

I'm sure there are some things I've left off the list. But think about all the things you do that send the wrong messages out into the universe or put you in a position where you feel obligated. Even feeling obligated to do anything (other than the obligation parents have to their children and following the laws of the land, imo) is a trap. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. But I'll bet you do tons of stuff you don't want to every day. We all do. Partly because we prefer the doing to the consequences of not doing. But also partly because we've trapped ourselves. 

Imagine that there's a big accountant in the sky whose job it is to record everything you place your focus on and give you more of it. So the things you like, you get more of! But you also get more of the stuff you don't like, too. Because we tend to focus on the things we don't like.  

The tricky thing about this accounting systems is that accepting and embracing something sends up a "she likes" flare. But resisting things you don't want also places attention on them, sending up more "she likes" flares. The only way to release things you don't want is to get past the anger, resistance, etc. to a more dispassionate letting go. 

Because I'm a meditator, I liken it to the way thoughts flow through your head in meditation...you don't attach to them, nor do you resist or judge them. You note their presence and just let them flow through, "mindlessly". The same Zen principles can be applied to life in general. 

I happen to be someone who feels a need to work things through and feel and bleed everything that happens in my life...haha. But thinking I HAVE to because it's the only way to heal is one of these traps. Placing attention on things just causes more of those things to appear. It's possible the best way to heal is to just let them slip through mindlessly until the big accountant in the sky removes them altogether. Something to consider.