Friday, July 5, 2013

7/6/13-7/7/13—Enjoying Your Wealth

Weekend Reading: Six of Pentacles from the Wild Unknown in the What You Can't Change position from the Deck of 1000 Spreads. Hey! Good news! Looks like there might be a little extra dough in your pocket this weekend. And you feel a little prosperous. That's a good thing. And, apparently, you can't change it. BUT don't let it go to head so much that you overspend and end up shooting yourself in the foot. Metaphysically speaking, you're better off spending enough to keep your feelings of prosperity alive. That way you'll create some empty space for more money to flow into. AND since the universe gives us more of what we have in our head, having prosperity in your brain will just generate more prosperity. The second you start being stingy or overly spendy, you risk tainting the cycle. So enjoy your wealth this weekend...but not too much. :)

Thursday, July 4, 2013

7/5/13—Bringing Shadows to Light


Today's Draw Classic*: The Moon from Infinite Visions. What thoughts slowly and persistently haunt your mind? And how do they limit the way you live? What is it time to shine the moon's light upon in your life?

We have talked about different ways we resist the flow of what life and the universe brings to us. We resist when we're unhappy with what we're given. We resist when we can't find reverence in everyday things. And The Moon comes to tell us that we also resist when we keep parts of ourselves and our lives in the darkness. 

Often times we carry around questions or worries we don't have the answers to. And we tend to create monsters in place of those answers. An example might be putting off our annual mammograms. The longer we put them off, the more monsters we build in our heads. What if cancer is growing inside of me right now? What if it's too late? What if I have to have a mastectomy? These fears cause further resistance and further fears to the point that the last thing you consider is that the mammogram could actually say you don't have cancer. 

Further, this darkness spills into other areas of your life. Because you don't know how healthy you are, you might be making inappropriate choices. So the reach of your fear widens. And those inappropriate choices may lead to to other things. For example, the weight of your fear could cause you overeat out of nervousness. Then that could lead to insecurity about the way you look, which could lead to isolating yourself socially. 

My god, this is starting to sound like my life! Haha. I'm actually good about the mammogram thing. But I do have issues around weight that create issues elsewhere in my life. But you don't even have to think that big to find something. It could be as easy as worrying when you're driving because you know you need new tires. And that could cause you to be more nervous on the road. Etc. and so on.

Whether it's the end of a relationship, a health issue, a change you need to make or something more mundane, we tend to be more comfortable pushing the answers into the dark—denying, avoiding, ignoring. Which makes no sense because the only certainty that exists is when you bring these things into the light. 

And the crazy thing about all of this is that we NEVER ask ourselves, "what if I DON'T have cancer?" What then? What kind of stuff would we do if our heads were free of all the heaviness and yuk? What would our lives be like if we imagined the best, rather than imagining the worst?

This is what The Moon card has come to teach us today. To look at these worries, fears and concerns that limit us and consider replacing at least one of our worst case scenarios with a best case scenario. To turn our fears around. To know we can handle any eventuality with grace. To be the person we are, regardless.

Because here's the thing. If the worst case scenario comes to pass, you'll have to deal with it anyway. You'll cry over it and learn from it. But why waste time suffering it before it gets here, especially when there's no guarantee it will ever arrive? We're wasting time we could be spending living our lives and basking in the peace and contentment that comes from an un-haunted mind. It's time to shine the moon's gentle light on those fears, pull them from out of the shadows and deal with them, come what may.

*Taken from the entry on 3/28/12. 

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

7/4/13—Celebrating Freedom

Today's Draw: Seven of Wands from the Art of Life tarot. What does freedom mean to you? If you're American, what freedoms will you be honoring tomorrow? What freedoms do you value the most?


For Independence Day in the US, I asked for today's card to give us insight on freedom. And what I got was this Cezanne painting with a Robert Lewis Stevenson quote that says:

"Life not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."

Ironically, the cost of "freedom" in any society is limitation and compromise. To live in this "land of the free", we might have government peeking into our Facebook posts. We might have to pay taxes. We might have to live by laws and limitations. And in exchange for all that, we can mock our president, live where we want, work where we want, and play any bad cards dealt to us any way we want...within the confines of the law. 

The beautiful thing about our country is the sheer number of people who play a poor hand well here...who live quite well within the bounds of our freedoms. But political and personal freedoms are just part of the freedoms we enjoy. 

We also have a spiritual freedom that helps us play any hand well. And this is choice we make within ourselves. To a large degree, it's beyond any limitation imposed by outside forces. Included in this would be freedom of thought—we may or may not live somewhere those thoughts can be voiced, but nothing can keep us from thinking them. Our spiritual beliefs and devotion are also free. You may not be able to express them openly, but nobody can keep you from having them. 

While the freedom to express those things may be bound by politics and geography, limiting some and liberating others, deep within every living soul is an inherent freedom to align with something greater than ourselves. Or not. While we may not like the choices before us, we are also all given the freedom to choose. And every single one of us will be dealt a bad hand now and again in life, but guess what? We all have the freedom to decide how or if it's going to defeat us or make us stronger.

Tomorrow our nation will celebrate the 237th anniversary of our freedom form those meanies, the Brits. :) And this year we also celebrate the 150th anniversary of freedom from the oppression we placed on ourselves when we decided freedom had a skin color. But we might also celebrate the ancient anniversary of man's freedom to rise above whatever cards are dealt and find and comfort within. That's the one freedom that truly is free.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

7/3/13—Taming the Animal Within


Today's Draw: La Force (Strength) from Tarot de Marseilles de Seilonen in the Lesson position from the Deck of 1000 Spreads. Are you more a creature of impulse than will? What's stronger—your animal instinct, human instinct or spiritual instinct? What do you think you've come to earth to accomplish, if anything?

The Strength card is about exerting will over impulse or even instinct—taming the lion within, if you will.

It's a profound concept, because it's integral to what most spiritual seekers try to do. We try to shape ourselves progressively further toward our spirit selves by taming our human or animal selves.

As a spiritual seeker, I struggle with that notion somewhat. While I pursue a path of coming more in alignment with that part of me that is God, I also feel there's a reason why we were put down here to be human. Go too far toward godliness and you lose that part of that IS human, that IS animal and that was expected of you when you plunked yourself down here in the first place.

On one hand, I believe we're here to heal/earn/learn parts of our souls, so that's an argument for spiritual growth. But on the other hand, I think there's a lot of virtue in just comfortably bringing those two "halves" of who and what we are together for a dance on earth.

See, I believe our souls are eternal. And Tierney is temporary. So this body/personality of mine only gets one chance to be a human, whereas my soul gets multiple chances. So I struggle with this. How much time does one devote to rising above our mortal dregs and how much does one devote to wallowing in them?

Another part of this equation is that humans are pretty incredible animals. I believe all of us were created with a two-way communications device between the human plane and the spirit one. I believe pretty much everything on earth was created this way, in fact. So, to me, there's a very definite connection between this incarnation and the eternal incarnation. And, while I talk about taming that animal part of us, I think that two-way radio is part of the animal. So it's all a very difficult thing to sort out.

Regardless, this ability we have to exert will over impulse is key to our spiritual growth. Because so many of the things we discuss here at the Daily Draw—overcoming ego, forgiveness, rising above gossip, unconditional kindness—all those things rely on us breaking "habits"...exerting will over impulse.

In fact any change in life—understanding those who are different than us or creating world peace, for example—relies on re-conditioning our responses to stimuli...or breaking habit. Many of the things idealists like myself want to heal on this planet are entirely about choosing a different response.

Thirsty? Turn on the tap instead of breaking open a plastic bottle of water. Angry? Calm down and collect yourself instead of turning to violence or hateful words. Sad? Do something to lift others up instead of allowing yourself to sink further down. Change the response to the stimuli, change the world. That's the lesson Strength can teach us.

This deck is a limited edition TdM faithfully reproduced in Seilonen style by Beth Seilonen and, like all her decks, I recommend it. There's still time to get one at www.catseyeart.com.  

Monday, July 1, 2013

7/1/13—Seeing Within


Today's Draw Classic*: Two of Swords from the Victorian Romantic Tarot. Are you on the fence about a decision? Is your indecision driving you batty all throughout the noggin? Is it possible that there's something in the big picture you're failing to see?

Last year I did a whole week on the Two of Swords card from the Victorian Romantic. If you're a student or just curious, you might want to go back to the week of 9/9/12-9/16/12 to see all the different ways you can read just one card.  Here was the mid-week post for that series...

For today's look at the Two of Swords, I'm going to use the traditional meaning for the card. Or perhaps I should say one of the traditional meanings for the card. Which means I'm also going to include the traditional image so you can see what I'm talking about. 

Quite different from the one we've looked at the last couple of days, huh? She's blindfolded. And while you would think that would make her more vulnerable, she doesn't seem nearly as vulnerable as she does in the Victorian Romantic's version. For one thing, she's sitting, so she's quite stable. For another, the turbulent skies behind her are gone. And, let's get down to brass tacks. The real reason she looks less vulnerable is because that chick is totally armed to the hilt with those ten-foot-long mammajammas she's holding! :D

Twos in tarot are all about balance and choice. So whatever suit you're in, the twos bring a second thing into the picture that brings balance and a choice. In the cups, it's about meeting your "other half" and choosing love. In pentacles, it's about choosing to balance resources. In wands, it's weighing your options so you can make a balanced decision. And in the swords, it signals two thoughts or ideas, each of which have equal, and sometimes opposing, appeal. 

Victorian Romantic version.
Somewhere inside you, there's a tie that needs to be broken...a split decision that needs to be resolved. Some consider the blindfold to indicate something you're not seeing. Some consider it an aid in objectivity. Either way, my thought about this version of the card is that all your focus and energy is going into the debate in your head. But there is another factor plastered all over the card that you may be missing—your intuition, represented by both the moon and water. Perhaps that's why she wears the blindfold. To see within. 

Swords is one of the most difficult suits of the tarot because it deals with all that noise inside our heads. Sometimes we get so caught up in strategy and thought and fairness and weighing things that we forget to consult our inner muse. Where does your intuition want you to go? Where are the tides you pulling you personally? Forget about what you *think*. What do you KNOW?

The Two of Swords comes along to reassure us that we have what we need to make the right decision. We just need to make it. But it also tells us that, try as we might to make a decision where everyone wins, swords cut both ways. So if you're holding out for a decision without consequences, you'll be suffering at the edge of life's vast saltwater pond for quite some time. Capice?

*Adapted from a post on 9/12/12

Sunday, June 30, 2013

7/1/13—Focusing Your Attention

Today's Draw: Chariot from the Inner Realms Tarot in the What to Use in the Future position from the Deck of 1000 Spreads. What do you want to accomplish that you're not really accomplishing? What lights a fire under your butt to move toward a goal? What works to keep you motivated?

A lot of times what stands between us and what we're trying to achieve is directed, focused action. I know that's the case with me. If I wait until I have the time to do something, it usually won't get done. If I set aside time to do it and focus on it, it gets done.

In a sense that's how I make my living. I get paid to set aside time and focus on things my clients don't have time to focus on. There's some talent to what I do as a freelance writer, I suppose. But most of what I do comes from just focusing all my attention on the project at hand. The people who hire me aren't writers. Their attention is best focused on what they do. So I focus on what they don't have time to.

I admit there are a number of projects around this house waiting for me to find the time to get around to.  The only way anything gets done around here is if it's written in my appointment book or there's a deadline. Sometimes I even try to trick myself. Knowing I tend to leave one thing undone on lists, I'll make up something ridiculous, like "Climb Mt. Everest" and put that on my list. It's goofy, but it works. 

So this card is coming along in this position is for us to remember that, if we really want to get something done, we need to focus on it. Sure, you might complete it working in drips and drabs. But focused, purposeful energy is going to get you there faster and more assuredly. 

So what it is that you'd really like to accomplish? And what's your style for getting things done?