6/1/12—Putting Your Mind to Rest

Today's Draw: Four of Swords—Stabilizing Mind—from the Tarot of Transformation. Is your mind playing the same story over and over like a broken record? Do you feel overwhelmed by a cacophony of thoughts, unable to tie them all together? Do you need Calgon to take you away?

This is one of my favorite decks. The artwork is so beautiful. This is the deck I was talking recently about in the entry about Passion the dog and her messages from the other side.

The woman in the image is trying to find her center in the midst of a swirl of emotions and distractions. That's how I feel in the wake of my brother's death and Kizzie's ongoing recovery as well as in the midst of some changes I've been making. In one sense I feel like I'm there and my focused has returned. But I'm not quite stable in light of some personal health changes I've taken on this week. And part of those health changes rely heavily on maintaining a stable mind. It's a Catch 22...I need to be stable to make the changes, but change makes you unstable...haha. 

This card indicates that it's time for a mental retreat. And it relates to some of the stuff we've been talking about this week. Meditation is a good skill to use when examining the things that pollute your spirit. Meditation helps you examine issues as a witness to the situations, thoughts and relationships that drag you down, rather than as a participant in them. From this detached state, you're better able to see how these dynamics work. 

Another way to find focus is to completely remove yourself from the mental chaos, then return to it with a fresh mind and perspective. Remember the fish and their message of adventure and play? That's how you can do that. 

The one thing that doesn't help you find focus is getting stuck in an endless loop of obsessive thought. In one way or another, you have to break out of the story. You may be surprised at what you find.

We can't always break away the way we'd like and plan a whole weekend  or mini vacation around mental rest and retreat. I know summer is always a bad time for that for me because work is usually busy. So I tend to take my days when work hands me a day off, rather than go through all the effort of scheduling a day off. Usually when I tell clients I'm going to be gone for a day or two, they load me down with work before I leave. So sneaking away is more "restful". :) 

It also helps for me to schedule mini-retreats....an evening out, a surprise afternoon of shopping or anything else that shakes up the routine and gets me out of the normal rut. I do, however, have one day a month that's a sacred day off, and another late afternoon that's also sacred. Those are my energy healing sessions I've spoken about from time to time. 

Anyway, if you have a hard time breaking away, schedule in a mini-retreat, and treat it like a real appointment. And use your surprise moments of rest to focus your mind through meditation, rather than get caught up in the mental chaos. I mean, how many times can you think about the same thing without going crazy?

3/22/12—Feeding What's Eating at You

Today's Draw: Four of Sword from the Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell. Are you overly focused on a problem or issue right now? Do you often find yourself playing things over and over again in your mind, even when you have no control over what happens? Do you tend to feed the very thing that's eating at you?

The Four of Swords is usually a card of rest. And that's how it is in this card, too. But there's an added nuance in this card—the contraption holding the swords above the man's head suggests that some inevitability is coming to pass and it's not likely a good one. Circumstances have been set in motion and it's only just a matter of time.

At first glance, it may seem like he's sleeping when he ought to be racking his brain for ways around the issue. But sometimes taking a break from all the stress of a situation is exactly what you need to come up with a brilliant solution. 

You know how it goes when faced with an unpalatable situation. You start imagining worst-case scenarios. Your fears start coming up. And your brain tenses around all of this as you desperately try to figure out a solution. And while chewing it over can often help, the more stress you put behind trying to figure out how everything is going to turn out, the more you close your head to hearing divine inspiration. 

Right now I'm all worried about my boy dog who has to go in for surgery tomorrow. It's a situation in which I'm powerless and imagining all manner of outcomes. But really what is that getting me? What's going to happen is what's going to happen. And any fears I call up are just going to put fearful energy behind the situation. I don't want that. So I may as well just still the mind and go that place where I know everything happens the way it's meant to. Even if there were a problem I could solve in all of this, worrying won't get me anywhere. 

So if you've got a heavy problem to solve or a worry on your mind, take a nap. Meditate. Read a book. Or do any manner of things to take a break from the situation. You may just find that the second you stop thinking about it is when the universe steps in with its wisdom.

3/6/12—Letting Your Energy Flow

Today's Draw: The Four of Pentacles from the Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell. What energy have you inadvertently cut the flow of in your life? What parts of yourself do you cling too tightly to, lest anyone ever see them? And how awesome am I that I already have a deck that's not even slated to be released until May?!?!

One of the world's tarot's goddesses is a woman named Barbara Moore. A quick glance at Amazon lists more than a dozen titles—from books to decks—bearing her name. Beyond that, she's the tarot acquisitions editor for Llewellyn, so whatever she doesn't create herself, she's instrumental in bringing to the world. And then there's at least one deck I know of she authored under a pen name. If you're a tarot reader and don't know who she is, check your bookshelves. 

So how AWESOME must I be to have, in my greedy little hands, her most recent and hotly anticipated deck and book—The Steampunk Tarot?!! This one is all Barbara. She directed the art and wrote book. If I'm not the only person outside her who has the complete kit, I'm one of the very few. I'm not even a reviewer! And she signed my book, too! Gah! No, wait....double gah!

Four of Swords, with a macabre twist.

*catching my breath, letting heartbeat return to normal* 

I would be remiss with all this fawning over the great Ms. Moore if I didn't mention that Babs is also a friend of mine and this was a very sweet and generous offering for my birthday week (the big day is Saturday). For a tarot person, it's like being friends with Oprah. :D

Anyway....

The Four of Pentacles is a card about holding on too tight to resources. The card shows a mechanical contraption that grabs and locks away every coin. A penny saved is a penny earned. Or is it? In the book, Barbara points out that too strict a diet with your resources stops the flow of energy. If that buck stops here and stays here, then how does the flow continue in the universe? Holding on too tightly can cause stagnation. And stagnation leads to rot.

We all want to feel safe and secure. Nobody's suggesting you don't save money. But holding on too tightly does two things: it sets up an energy of not having enough. If you focus on lack, the universe gives more of a feeling of lack. And it also cuts the flow of energy from moving through you to others, then back around to you again. You may accumulate more money. But what is your spirit losing in the process when you're counting every cent?

We've talked about poverty mentality just recently, so I'll move away from the whole money aspect and broaden the conversation to love, creativity, friendship and even God. Anything you hold on to too tightly, cuts off a flow and causes stagnation. We all know when we hold on too tightly to another person, they slip away. We've seen this.

The High Priestess

But the same is true about our ideas and ideals. Locking things inside of the curio cabinets within doesn't make them safer or stronger. They're more vulnerable because there's so much import placed around them...and so much energy of worry and fear of loss. While their hold over you strengthens, they weaken you if they never have the chance to come out and play and be tested in the real world. Even our beliefs need to come out for fresh air now and again to see if they're still viable. 

The parts of ourselves that we lock away from others—whether out of greed, spite or shame—are lost potential. They're areas ripe for growth and healing. And they don't just help us grow and heal when we trot them out, they help others, too. Plus they have the added benefit of facilitating intimacy and depth in relationships. 

Six of Swords

What happens when we routinely lock these things inside is that we become an automaton, like the clever bank in the card. Our monsters thrive in the dark, growing larger in our perception and increase their control over our lives, limiting our full expression. We like to stare and point at the Hoarders we see on the TV show. But it's no less soul sucking when we hoard the valuables within. It's just less visible. Those that appear most perfect are often the ones with the most toxic issues—and genuine gifts—locked within.

I think I've shared this analogy before, but I'll share it again. Picture everything outside you and everything within as a wet bar of soap in the shower. What happens when you hold on too tightly? What happens when you don't hold on tight enough? In both cases, the soap will slip from your hands. The key is to find that range of strength where your grasp is firm, yet fluid enough to keep the soap moving and doing its job.