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.

3/9/12-3/11/12—Falling in Love With Love

Weekend Reading: Knight of Cups from the Steampunk Tarot. The Knight of Cups is on a quest for love and romance. And she suggests you join her. So this weekend, get a babysitter and go out on a date with your mate. Make a romantic dinner. Buy yourself some flowers. Draw a bubble bath. Write a poem to someone or about something you love. Wear something sexy to bed. Even if you don't have mate, you can still get your sensual on. For those with partners, it will remind you of when you fell in love. And for those without, it will bring forth you of that side of yourself you only trot out for suitors. So what are you waiting for? Put on the Barry White and fall in love with love this weekend.

2/13/12—Putting a Barrier Between Ourselves and Happiness

Today's Draw: Eight of Wands from the Steampunk Tarot. Can you see the potential for happiness present in your life right now? Do you ever think you might hold happiness at arm's length? Is it possible you're doing it right now and just don't know it?

The Eight of Wands is a high octane card with the fuel to propel you toward a goal. Often it holds a message of "move quickly" or "strike while the iron is hot". 

A lot of times there's not even a human in this card, but in the Steampunk Tarot there is. The sun is in her eyes and you see just enough of her face to know she's very happy. She has a variety of wands to choose from—umbrellas, a walking stick and a riding crop—but she chooses the parasols, seemingly to shield her from the sun. 

The sun is illuminating and life giving and, in the tarot, can symbolize happiness. But there's a dark side to everything, even the sun. Too much sun can blind us. It can burn us. It can illuminate more than we're ready for.

So why do you suppose this happy woman placing a barrier between herself and this source of happiness? Is she laying low, protecting herself from being seen by the killjoys in her life? Is she afraid of having too much happiness, possibly leading to incurable heartbreak? Downplaying her happiness so as not to make the sad sacks around her sadder? Is there maybe some seedy underbelly to her that she doesn't want illuminated...something that would brand her undeserving of her happiness? Or is she holding happiness at bay, trying to regulate its flow, for some reason?

I'm pretty sure at one point or another I've been guilty of each of those things. And you know what I got out of it? Less happiness. In fact, when you examine all my unhappy times and my "just average" times, most of what was keeping me from being sunnier is myself. I tend to burden my head with thoughts and, when the sun starts trying to peek in the cracks, I hold it back "until I've completed my thought." It's like I want to experience my happiness under ideal conditions. And by the time I arrange those conditions, it's too late!

Sounds crazy, right? But I bet we've all cheated ourselves out of the full spectrum of joy for one reason or another....made it contingent on some person or set of circumstances out of our control.

Happiness, like every emotion, is a temporary state. It comes and goes. So, like the traditional meaning for this card, we've got to strike while the iron is hot. 

If you really think about it, you'll probably see that the potential for happiness is there a good deal of the time. And if we don't fully develop and relish it when we can, then think of the big puddle of this amazing nectar we've cast aside! I mean, if we're going to accept all the blahs and ehs of life, we may as well take all the heehees, too. So if you're feeling kind of eh right now...like you could go either way...what might you be putting between you and the sun?