2/18/13—Possessing The Unique Qualifications

Today's Draw: Five of Stones in the Clarification position from the Greenwood Tarot and the Deck of 1000 Spreads. Are you facing a time of challenge or uncertainty right now in your life? What kind of challenges have you faced in the past that apply to your current one? Is it possible life has already uniquely qualified you to handle what lies ahead?

First off, welcome to the new look for the Daily Draw. I re-skinned the blog to work better with my new Deck of 1000 Spreads site, which I'm still building. For the random folks who may access this site by manually typing in the web address or searching for it on Google, please know you can now type in www.tierneysadler.com to get here, if that's easier for you. Or just do what you've always done. And if you have me bookmarked, you don't need to change anything. 

As you can see, I've had an industrious last couple of days. :)

Finally, if any of you were waiting to order your Deck of 1000 Spreads until it was released, it's been released! You can order from Amazon or, if you want a signed edition, message me with your address so I can figure shipping and I'll invoice you. Amazon has better prices on both the kit and shipping, however. They just don't have RARE signed editions...haha. AND if you already have the deck, please put a review up on Amazon or send pics of your spreads to me to put up on the deck's Facebook page and on 1000spreads.com. 

If you're reading this on my personal Facebook page, no new look for you! And if you want to know where to find all these sites I'm talking about, just go to tierneysadler.com, find this post and all the links will be embedded in the post.

Yeesh! Thank god I don't yap about crap like that every day, huh? :D

On to today's draw! The Clarification position represents a card you choose so you can gain more information about a card that is puzzling you. So I think what the Greenwood is saying to us today is, "Just to be clear, you're strong enough and you have the capacity to protect yourself and survive whatever life hands you."

That's what our traumas and challenges teach us...how strong we are, whether it be mentally, emotionally or physically. We're very clear on that soon after someone close to us dies, for example. Or after we reach the other side of a messy divorce. Or survive cancer. Or a physical attack. We manage to make it through. But the more time and distance we put between ourself and our trauma, the more fear starts creeping in once again and we forget what we're capable of. 

It's not just unpleasant things that we learn we can survive, either. There are everyday things. Like I think about the mental and emotional discipline I've acquired from being self employed and having a rollercoaster income, punctuated by two recessions in the past 15 years. It's not just about money management. It's about time management. And mental management—managing your thoughts and fears. It's also about spiritual management and trusting in the universe.

Generally, the older we get, the more of these lessons in inner strength we amass. I imagine there are a lot of moms out there who can remember a time when they were pregnant for the first time and afraid they'd fail as a mother. But then you did all right, didn't you? I can still remember what it was like to start a new job..."what if I can't cut it?" But I always managed. 

If you think back on all the traumas, heartbreaks and triumphs of your lifetime, you'll understand what you're capable of and you might never doubt yourself again. Maybe you haven't faced this EXACT challenge before, but somewhere along the line you've built the skills it takes to finesse what's in front of you. But, we never see that for ourselves, do we? That, my friends, is why God invented the blog. :D

So that's something to think about as you move through this week. What have you had the inner strength to muddle through thus far in your life? And how do those "unique qualifications" prepare you for whatever you're facing moving forward? Chances are good you're comfortably overqualified to face the challenges are causing you anxiety today. 

3/14/12—Double-Helixing With The Guy Upstairs

Today's Draw: Balance from the Greenwood Tarot. What do you do to stay in balance? How connected do you feel to your higher source? What kind of a fingerprint do you think your relationship to God is leaving on the universe?

In the Greenwood, the Balance card equates to Temperance, but it's number 6 in the major arcana, instead of number 14. The Temperance card is all about balance, flow and even alchemy.

In the context of a week in which we've been talking about self discovery and personal responsibility, this card comes to tell us that balance is "absolutely necessary to free the inner self from the fears and self doubts that keep us spiritually deaf, dumb and blind. Once the natural state of balance is achieved, the plateau that will give you access to the higher self will be open before you." That was from the book.

So the fears we have and the things we deny and the stuff that keeps us from being real...these things not only block our power, potential and happiness, they also stand between us and our God. Makes sense. How can we connect to something greater than ourselves if we feel unworthy? If we approach that energy as a pauper or as any less than an integral part of the whole, we cheat ourselves of the connection we want and deserve. 

But that's not the best thing that caught my eye about this card. These two horses are entwined like DNA. And the magic of DNA is that every strand holds a complete volume of information on the whole. So while a particular strand might be working to color your eyes green, it still knows everything there is to know about about every cell in your body. It's got the chapter on how oily your skin will be and the chapter on your height and the chapter on whether or not your second toe will be longer than your big toe. 

Since the Greenwood tarot is a shamanic themed tarot, it's using that DNA as a euphemism for each living thing in the universe. Each of us, like strands of DNA, hold the entire book of knowledge about God and the universe within us. And I'd even go so far as to posit that our human strand is entwined with our God strand to form a complete molecule. At the very least in this scenario, it's entwined with our higher or soul self.

When we're in balance and genuinely connected to the higher source, we intrinsically know what's right. We know how to treat others...how to treat the earth. We can move with the natural rhythms of life. And the DNA molecule made by our strand and the higher source is a molecule that heals and creates balance and beauty. When the two strands are out of sync or are broken, the molecule becomes damaged and can create toxins and pain.

And by "connected to the higher source", I'm not talking about what you've learned from others/scripture and, therefore, believe about the higher power. There's value in that, but I'm talking about direct, soul-to-soul connection. Connection such that you can feel and understand the loving intent behind all of creation, even if only for fleeting moments....but enough that you know nobody's life is an abomination in the eyes of a loving and forgiving God. Fear, hate and judgment—regardless of what you fear, who you hate, what's being judged and what you've always been told to think about it—do not create healthy molecules in my personal opinion.

Anyway, that's the sense I got from this card today. I've always seen me and the universe as intermingling energies. But I kind of like the thought of the entwined DNA strand that creates a certain fingerprint in the universe, don't you? It feels like there's more of a connection, partnership or co-creatorship than what I had previously imagined. Even though ultimately it's just a different way of saying the same thing, it's kind of beautiful and makes me want to co-create something more like the twinkle in an eye than a festering canker on the ass of society. :) 

What kind of a molecule would you like to co-create with the universe?