4/13/13-4/14/14—Coming Back to Neutral

Weekend Reading: Temperance from the Peaceful Path Tarot in the Goal position from the Deck of 1000 Spreads. This weekend those of us in the Northern hemisphere will be likely doing yard work or spring cleaning. In the US, many will be finishing up their taxes. And I'm sure all my readers from Down Under have plenty on their plate as they head toward winter. Regardless of where we live, weekends are usually the time we get our home lives in order so we're ready to face the week. I know that often my weekends can be as exhausting—if not more so—than my weekdays. So Temperance comes to tell us that of all the goals we have set for the 60 hours or so before we begin another work week, our #1 goal should be balance. After all, when else will you get around to THAT? It's crucial to our health and emotional wellbeing to reset on a regular basis and come back to neutral. So if you have to put sweeping the patio off for another week in order to make balance happen, do it. The hamster wheel has to stop sometime. 

12/21/12—Seeing The Other Side

Today's Draw: Temperance from the Gaian. What views or beliefs are "extreme" about? On what topics do you fall more toward the center? Are you able to see the other side of the topics you're on the far right or left of?

I don't have a lot of time tonight, so I just chose a quick card asking what, if anything, 12/21/12 is about. Because if you haven't noticed, it's already Armageddon somewhere in the world. :D

Temperance is about balance. It's about finding the middle way. So I think what it's saying is that it's time for us to move closer to center in the way we move through this world. To see more of the "other side". To not be so extreme in our opinions and views. 

You may be very balanced in certain areas of your life and thinking, but there other places where you've taken a definitive stand somewhere to the right or left of center and dug a hole. This card just asks you to consider a more balanced view. It's not asking us all to think and be alike. It's asking us to soften our grip and allow more possibilities in. 

Wars and fights and hatred all break out between the folks at either side of extremes. Compromise is hard to come by at extremes. The closer people are to center, the less there is to have conflict over...the more opportunity for compromise. 

Temperance is a card of alchemy, of blending opposites. We have opposites within ourselves, too. Now is the time for us to begin to see all sides as having merit. We can still have our opinions and our stand, but when we can really listen to the other guy and understand where he's coming from—when we put our passion and need to be right aside—we can begin to see that point at which their side and our side meets. And from there we may be able to build more peace, cooperation and understanding within ourselves and within the world. 

12/7/12—Getting Out of The Rut

Today's Draw: The Swamp (Trump XIV) from the Surrealist Tarot by Ari Bach. Do you feel stuck in a rut? Has some area of your life gone stagnant? Want to know how to get back on track?

This deck has been out a couple of years, but I've just discovered it. The weirdest thing...the deck arrived all curved up like a deck that had been shuffled poker-style for a long time. You know what I mean? They get all curved in the middle? Anyway, it's a nice little deck. Playing card size. The art is "dark" and non-traditional. 

The meanings are non-traditional, too. This card takes the place of Temperance in the major arcana, but it means pretty much the opposite (according to the e-lwb). This is a card of stagnation and blockage. As the book says, "The elements and life move around it, grow from it, decay upon it, but it goes nowhere." 

Ever felt that way? Or ever felt that way in one area of your life? Like maybe you have particularly bad love life. Or a crappy job. Or a bad social life. Yeah, me too. 

Sometimes you just give up and sit down a little while, intending to get back up and try again. And then you never do. And before you know it, there's moss growing on your north side. 

Sometimes you decide (or convince yourself) that you don't even want the part of your life that's gone stagnant back. "I'm too old to change careers now." "People my age have no time for a social life."  "What would I do with a virile stud in my life, anyway?"

If this resonates with any of you, it's time to seek help...haha. 

You know, yesterday's post talked about aspen trees and how if you want to build something strong and enduring, it takes time. This one aspen colony in Utah is older than mankind. Literally. It didn't get that way by stressing itself, making dramatic moves or running itself into the ground. It just did what comes naturally for it. It grew slowly and steadily in its own time. Shed its unhealthy parts when it was time. Pushed up new shoots when needed.

If you feel stuck right now, you can do the same. You can start by changing just one small thing. Google that career you were interested in and read the latest news in that field, for example. Then think up some other small move you can make. Then another. You don't have to do it all at once. And you don't always have to be productive. And you get to screw up along the way. It's a marathon, not a sprint. 

When you're stuck in a rut, that's the most important thing to know. There's no deadline. You don't have to make any broad strokes. You don't even need a defined goal. Just turn your head ever so slightly toward the light. And that's enough for today.

10/27/12-10/28/12—Keeping Your Balance

Weekend Reading: Temperance from the Rider Waite Smith Tarot. This is traditionally known as a card of balance, but it's really more than that. It's about making subtle shifts (rather than significant ones) to bring yourself into alignment. And it's also about alchemy. So if you have too much on your plate this weekend, but have obligated yourself to do it all, make some subtle shifts. Leave one place early. Save the major grocery shopping for next week and just grab enough stuff to get you through the weekend (and the express lane). Vacuum and let the dusting wait for next weekend. The art of alchemy is knowing just how much of each element you need in order to make the perfect blend. Sometimes it's not our obligations that stress us out so much as the lack of boundaries we place around them. So reconsider your schedule this weekend and do enough to meet obligations, but not enough to lose your balance. 

10/5/12—Building the Life Force

Today's Draw: Umiarkowanie (Temperance) from the Tarot Maroon. Is there someone or some situation in your life that drains you of your life force? What unfinished business keeps that situation in your life? What do you suppose it is healing within you?

I pulled this EXACT card just a little over a month ago. And in that entry I spoke about how my dog, Magick Moonbeam, comes to me to heal her hiccups with my reiki energy. And I spoke about my other dog, Kizzie, is a healing source for me...instantly calming me when I dig into his abundant fur. 

But today I officially became the mommy of a third dog, Mystic, aka Manic Mystic, aka Buckshot Annie. And I wonder which way this will go...will I be healing for her? Or will she be healing for me. 

The truth is, it will probably be a little bit of both. Because that's what Temperance is...a balance. A give and take. The hummingbird in the picture nourishes itself on the nectar of the flower, then flies off with the flower's pollen to pollinate another flower. Both receive life force from the other in one way or another. 

While it's easy to see how a doggie and mommy receive life force from each other, sometimes it's hard to see this at work with the humans in our lives. I mean, it's easy when the relationship is good and healing. And with relationships that aren't, we can easily see how they suck the life force out of us. What we don't easily see is how, even when a relationship is draining, it's pulling us forward and ultimately aiding in our healing. 

It's all in how you look at it. The hummingbird is taking from the flower, draining it of the nectar it has spent a lot of its energy accumulating. But it accumulated the nectar to attract the bird so the bird could spread its seed. We often do that with others. We have them in our lives to serve a certain purpose, even if we can't always see it. Sometimes it's a human, ego-driven purpose and sometimes it's a soul-based spiritual purpose. Then, when the exchange has completed its value, like the flower, it will wither. But it will have created something new in us in the process.

Whether it's a human or a job or some other situation, it's not just there to drain you. It's there to heal you. Viewed through a spiritual lens, EVERYTHING in life is there to nourish or heal you. The mistake we make is standing in its way by whining about it all the time and making it more painful than it needs to be...haha. 

I mean, look back on your life and you'll see where everything has all been a process of growth and renewal that you, eventually, became grateful for. Whatever person or situation you're facing now will be the same. 

8/23/12—Knowing Where to Seek Healing

Today's Draw: Umiarkowanie (Temperance) from the Tarot Maroon. Is there someone, someplace or something in the natural world that is undeniably healing for you? Are you the source of anyone's or anything's healing? What stories do you have of natural energetic exchanges that resulted in physical or emotional healing?

I've been dying to tell you the story about Magick Moonbeam, my dog, all week of Energy Week. And, at first blush, this card doesn't *technically* allow me to do it, but I'm going to do it anyway, darnit! I'm going to bend the meaning to suit my purposes! This is my blog! MINE, I say!!!! *collapsing under the stress of holding a good story in too long*

OK. So Temperance is about balance. But it's also the card of alchemy...the blending of one thing into another to create a third thing. When we temper steel, we harden it. As a diabetic, when I temper a measured enjoyment of carbs with high fiber and protein, I sort of stabilize the impact having, say, an ear of corn, will have on my blood sugar. So that, in itself, is an energy exchange...between the fiber and protein and the sugars. 

Anyway, this stabilizing effect is the window through which I'm going to walk to tell the story about my baby girl dog. And it also occurs to me my boy Kizzie plays a role, too. More on that later. 

I know reiki, which is a form of energy medicine. Energy medicine is becoming more and more mainstream as doctors like Dr. Oz speak of it benefits. Basically, a trained practitioner uses their energy to help heal you, either physically or emotionally. I've heard stories over the years of broken bones snapping back into place, cancers being healed and the healing of issues that modern medicine has failed to heal. Personally, I don't think anyone should rely on energy medicine alone. Or modern medicine alone. I think tempering one with the other is your best bet. 

Magick knows where to look for healing.

I'm not a good reiki person. I never practice or try to develop it. But once you have been "attuned" to the energy, it's inside you. Anywho, there is one situation in which I occasionally whip out my reiki skills...when Magick Moonbeam has hiccups. I cure them for her immediately simply by putting my hand on her belly and calling up my reiki energy. She's always very cooperative, but up until the other day, she has always allowed the healing to come to her. 

So the other morning I'm laying in bed, half awake, half asleep. One arm is cuddling Magick while the other is just flopped to the side, palm up. And Magick gets hiccups. Without missing a beat, she stands up, walks to my other hand, positions herself above my palm and squats down so her belly is touching my hand! I couldn't believe it! Like the hummingbird in the card, she knew where her source of sustenance came from and went to it—instead of waiting for it to come to her!

She knows my energy "heals" her. She knows which hand I use. She knows what part of her body I send the energy to. Her ENERGY seeks my ENERGY to heal her. She knows both intellectually and energetically that there is a tempering effect that passes between us. 

Kizzie's healing energy just radiates from his body. 

So that's my story. And now the Kizzie thing. Kizzie is the big furry one. And he has amazing healing energy. I'm sure if you hooked me up to monitors, you'd see many energetic systems in my body—beyond just blood pressure—change significantly for the better when he's in my arms. 

My motto with Kizzie is "a cuddle a day keeps the doctor away". So we schedule the snuggle time. But I also seek it out whenever I'm upset. I can't even describe it, but the effect is instant and entirely energetic. He has an amazing tempering effect on me. And just like Magick knows where to go to heal those hiccups, I know where to go when I'm feeling stressed. 

Someone once gave me a really good example of how living beings, especially humans, are programmed to heal ourselves and others. She said "when you bump yourself or get a scratch, what is your first instinct?" Well, our first instinct is to place our hand on the boo boo until the initial pain goes away. As children, our mother's kiss on a scratch would somehow make it feel better. We are instinctually programmed to use our energy to heal...to heal with touch. 

So what about you? What tempers you? What energy do you seek out as a guaranteed source of healing? If you're not really sure, start observing. It may be an energy exchange between you and nature or the ions in a hot bath with salts. And what are you a source of healing for for others? These energetic connections, while not widely recognized in the mainstream, are nonetheless real and integral to our health. 

8/17/12—Stopping Your World

Today's Draw: Healing (Temperance) from the Threefold Oracle by Tara Cochrane. What do you do each month that is ONLY for you? Do you have a regular healing ritual you do for yourself? Or do you find that there just never seems to be time for stuff like that in your busy life?

First a word about this oracle because it's unique. What Tara Cochrane has done here is interpret the major arcana three different ways for a total of 66 cards. She's used three different mediums: mixed media with watercolor, block printing with watercolor, and pen and watercolor, which is what this card is. But it's not just the mediums that are different. It's also the imagery, her interpretations and the card names. The lwb is a pdf you can request for free from the artist or you can buy in print form. 

That said, the final day Self Care Week is pretty logical. Do something *special* to support your emotional, physical, spiritual healing on a regular basis. Make it an event. One that happens at least once a month. That can be a massage, a healing session, a meditation class, *gentle* yoga, a spa day, sitting silently in a church....whatever. This isn't about going to the mall and, while you're there, buying something for your daughter. It's also not about meeting the girls for drinks and listening to all their problems. This all about you. 

Take time off of work to do it, if you can. And if you can't do that, then let your spouse order Chinese while you're treating yourself. I say this because it makes it more special, imo. It's the difference between finding time in your busy schedule of caring for others and making your schedule of caring for others accommodate you, you know? A final tip—make it an *appointment* that is *non-negotiable*. Like the dentist. Or a mammogram. 

I take the first (sometimes second) Tuesday of every month off. I go to a healing session in the morning, then on the way home, I stop and take myself out for a nice lunch along the river. I buy myself Godivas and maybe even a trinket, if I'm in the mood. The entire day is mine. It happens while everyone else is working. That makes it more sweet. And it's always scheduled a month ahead of time, so I can work around it. I also leave work two hours early one or two Fridays a month, also for healing sessions. Call it a mental health day. 

In the past I also used to have something called Night of Beauty. I did it every Sunday. It would start around 7pm with a candlelit bath and deep conditioning. Then it would lead to chocolate and journaling. I probably kept this appointment with myself regularly for five or six years. It was non-negotiable. All my friends knew better than to try to get me on a Sunday. I also had a couple of years of twice-monthly massages. See how it works?

This is time that is ALL about you. Nobody else. And it's not second or third or when-you-can-get-to-it priority, it's first priority. Once you "make the date" you'll see. Life flows around it. It's not as big a deal as you think it is. And if anyone tries to make you feel guilty about it, don't buckle to their manipulation. 

Clearly it's not an issue for me anymore, but I know there are some of you out there full of reasons why you can't spare the time. I used to have those reasons myself...I've got to be there for my clients when they need me, it's not fair to leave the dogs all day when they're used to having me around, there's so much other stuff I could be doing with that time, it's selfish, blah, blah, blah. 

Trust me Atlas, the world won't stop spinning if you take a couple of hours a month for yourself. Your kids/spouse/boss/parakeet will adjust. And instead of modeling self-sacrifice for them, you'll be modeling self care. The harder it is to break away for something like this, the more you need it. It's time for other things to wait. Your self kindness and care have been waiting long enough. 

Living in the Spirit of WWJD and WWBD

Today's Draw: Forgiveness from the William Blake Tarot. Do you think Christ's/Buddha's lessons are a good ideal for us to live up to? Are they ideals you consciously pursue in your own life? How good of a job do you think you do at it?

Any tarot reader will tell you that the tarot can seem to take on a personality of its own. It can be funny, stubborn, frank, kind...you name it. So I go to choose lesson five of Five Lessons to Learn Before You DIE!!! and I come up with Forgiveness, which we discussed on Tuesday. Traditionally that card is Temperance in the tarot, which is about balance, which hearkens back to Wednesday's lesson. So I throw it back into the deck, shuffle again and get the 10 of Music which basically says to raise your life to that of a sublime art. Which is pretty much what we discussed yesterday. It also speaks of peace, which was our entire last week!

*throws hands up in exasperation*

So I grab the Forgiveness card back and give it another look. And from that look, I came up with today's lesson, which is living in the spirit of Christ. Yeah, I know. Not what some of you would expect from me. But the thing is, whether or not you take Bible stories literally or have a Christian, Semitic or non-Christian take on Jesus, the lessons attached to his name hold value. In fact, if it makes you more comfortable, consider instead what Buddha would do. Or Allah. Or whatever ideal of love and acceptance you believe in.

So, Christ embodies forgiveness, which we've already discussed. That lesson, by the way, stirred up a lot in people and resulted in a great conversation on my Facebook page. But here are few other things Christ would do that we seem to lose sight of:

     •  Live in acceptance and non-judgment

     •  Love your enemies

     •  Heal with/through your heart

     •  Give to those less fortunate

     •  Be humble

     •  Walk in faith and grace

     •  Live genuinely and not in hypocrisy

In essence, living as Christ would requires living in love. If you had to boil it down to one thing, love would be it. So that brings yesterday's message of service and living life as a sacred act to mind. Love is how you do it. Did you just drive to work in love? Did you cook dinner in love? Did you interact with that stranger in love? 

This is the second card I chose for today.

Chances are, somewhere in word, thought or deed, you fell short of the mark somewhere along the line. We all do. But the more we try, the closer we get to another part of Monday's lesson of the Hermit. (Bet you were wondering how Monday escaped being covered by this card.) Part of the Hermit's pursuit is to find a way align and blend with source...to evolve into a divine state of consciousness known as Christ Consciousness. 

You don't have to believe in Christ to live your life in Christ Consciousness. It's just a term for that place that everyone on a spiritual path journeys to reach....the state of enlightenment that Buddha found...a union of oneness with your god...ultimate surrender. 

Let's face it. Many of us will never achieve this state permanently here on earth. But we can all catch glimpses of it in our own lives. And we can make those glimpses last longer and longer, along with the joy and freedom they bring. So while the WWJD thing has long become trite and eye-roll worthy, the spirit behind it is really the ultimate lesson we should all learn before we die—a master lesson that encompasses all others. Best thing is, you can start today.

PS: For those who are only marginally familiar with tarot, this week's draws give a good idea of how tarot can examine and answer a question. I think all five draws revealed lessons that any spiritual teacher would agree are not just worthy of learning in this lifetime, but also key to our spiritual evolution.So while many consider tarot to be woo-woo or fortune telling, it's more of way of gaining unique and revealing insights into our personal situations—insights we and our friends are too close to the situation to see ourselves.

3/18/12—Considering an Evolving God

Today's Draw Classic*: Temperance from the Fire Tarot. Have you ever considered that one day mankind may believe in a different god? Do you think ancient man ever considered there was any god/s other than the one/s they believed in? Do you see god as a cyclical concept or do you think we've lit on the one and only possible iteration of god there will ever be moving forward?

I drew again from the Fire Tarot because I'm digging the fire myths. (I'm also enjoying going completely off-road as to what the card's real meaning might be in my entries.) Today's myth about how, when the world was dark, the Finnish God of the Gods, Ukko, flicked his sword against his fingernail, creating a spark that he gave to a virgin to carry down to earth. But she lost it along the way and it was eaten by a trout who was, in turn, eaten by a pike. The pike is then caught and the spark is freed, setting off fires throughout the land. Eventually the fire is contained and man has light. 

I've read this myth from a bunch of different sources and it's very complicated and very different depending on the source and none of the myths allude to the traditional meaning of Temperance, which is about balance and flow. And they only abstractly refer to the meaning that came with the deck's book, which is that "fire represents the soul that is being guarded before being renewed." 

What really struck me about this card, though, was how people's vision of God is modeled around their lifestyle and their times. Fishing is big in Finland, so the myth involves fish and a fisherman. Finland has no daylight in the midst of winter, so light and the need for fire is more prominent than it would be here. And the acquisition of fire by man was hard earned, first stolen by an evil force (up in the heavens), then getting lost in the fish for a while, then ravaging the earth before it was finally contained. This is probably indicative of the difficult nature of the times...nothing came easy or smoothly. And this is common among ancient cultures who all seem to have a god who creates lightning or light. It was a key element of survival and hard to come by and maintain at one time. 

Most ancient cultures also feature polytheism or multiple gods, as well as a pagan, earth-centered bent. This may be because of the importance of community at the time and the fact that each person in a village or clan had a defined role, critical to the whole. In Greek and Roman cultures, gods were indeed specialists and dozens of them were needed to cover all aspects of life. Because the people lived in mountainous regions, the gods lived on high mountains and wore robes, the same as the people in their culture. The Gods were all part of a legacy of families, just like the Emperors were.

Throughout time, God or the gods were always to be feared. The God of the Old Testament, for example, ruled with a firm hand and was vengeful, obliterating entire populations of the earth for not obeying his word. Jesus came along in time to soften the corners with compassion and kindness and preach about his father's love. He arrived a few hundred years after another god-like man hit the religious scene—Buddha. Their stories are very similar in some ways, but hundreds of years apart at an era in history when people were not warming up to such a fearful god. 

It's interesting how many iterations of religion there have been over time. And also interesting as to how persistent the Judeo-Christian iteration has been. Perhaps not as long-lasting as a thunder god who existed in some form up until monotheism hit the scene, but persistent nonetheless. Yet nowadays, many Christians speak of Jesus as if he's the God and his father seems to have been downgraded in some way. So that seems to be changing, too.

If history is any indication, if it truly repeats itself, sooner or later the tide will turn in yet another direction and it's interesting to consider where that turn might take us. After all, there is no culture on earth that didn't absolutely and "religiously" believe in their god/s the same way modern cultures believe in theirs. So it's not like society goes shopping for a new God en masse. In fact, a lot of non-believers had be killed and persecuted for the god of the Old and New Testaments to take hold. While we live in a predominantly Christian country, we don't live in as predominantly a Christian world. It's a very small minority who is able to keep their mind open enough to consider that their way might not be THE way, or the ONLY way. 

Personally I think we all believe in the same god and just call it different names and see it in different ways to match our different personalities. But I also know that to say that is heresy for some people. If you're open to thinking about the evolution of God and how he/it follows humanity's changing nature, however, it's interesting to imagine how it might change in the future...or to even consider that it won't always be what it is today. Change happens slowly. The trend now is away from organized religion. Who knows if that will continue, but if it does, then what does that mean for God, Allah, Buddha, Jesus, etc.? And is a more metaphysical god the way of the future or just another mirror of modern tastes? Will we ever know for sure whether there is or is not a god...beyond our individual beliefs?

*Today's entry is a reprise of the one posted on 7/27/11.

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?