4/15/13—Being the Magician

Today's Draw Classic*: The Magician from the Infinite Visions tarot by Gloria Jean. Are you aware of your own power? What if you were divinely encoded with capabilities—or even perhaps a mission—and you just don't know it? What if we, as a race, all had that gift but vowed to forget it millennia ago because of the irresponsible way we were using it?

The question I chose for today's draw to answer was "What You Can't Change". See, I wasn't in the mood to be all uplifting tonight and I thought we'd get something...well, I don't know what I thought. But two things happened that I didn't expect. The message we got was TOTALLY uplifting. And the card I chose ended up looking INCREDIBLY STUNNING against the backdrop of the Deck of 1000 Spreads...haha. 

The Magician embodies the spark of creation. He can manifest things in the real world through nothing more than will and desire. Earth, air, fire and water are at hand to do his bidding, and he uses his sharp mind, flowing heart, fiery energy and grounded physical presence to alchemize their forces. 

I was recently listening to a lecture by Gregg Braden entitled Unleashing The Power of The God Code.  I can't tell you all the details here...it's a 4-CD set...haha. But he systematically goes through his proof points...some strong, some hard to tell...of why we're an intentionally created race, encoded with this "Magician" power in our DNA. And by Magician power, I mean this power to access god-like powers of creation. He says we're not god, but part god, part animal, with characteristics of each. 

Some of what I heard on that CD completely aligns with what I feel deep in my soul that we are. Some of it is stuff I'm not on board with. But overall, it was fascinating to me. And somewhere along the line, for some reason or another, our conscious knowledge of the Magician within has become lost or forgotten. And it's no surprise. 

For thousands of years we've been told god is separate from us, a force to be feared. And that anyone who claims to have god-like powers is tainted, an enemy of the lord, and their soul will be struck down for countless eternities. And, for many of those years, if you weren't on board with the plan, you'd be slaughtered by your god-fearing brethren. But what if we started believing god was separate from us because our gifts are so fearsome that we could annihilate each other with a force that would make a nuclear bomb blush? Gregg Braden posits that theory and interprets ancient, pre-Biblical, text in an interesting way that supports it. 

People who practice energy healing, psychic arts, manifestation or other methodologies know human beings are capable of more than science is currently able to prove. It's not a hope or wish or dream. We've seen it work too many times and too consistently to believe anything else. But imagine that even what we know and have witnessed is just the tip of our potential. 

That's the Magician. And it's what today's draw tells us we can't change about ourselves. If Gregg Braden is right and if extrasensory/paranormal/whatever powers are encoded in our DNA, then we're on a collision course with our own divinity and there's nothing we can do about it. Cool, huh?

*Taken from a post on 1/18/13

4/10/13—Shedding Our Antlers

Today's Draw: Son of Pentacles from the Wild Unknown in the Present Hopes and Fears position from the Deck of 1000 Spreads. Are at one hopeful and afraid of a change you want to make in your life? Are you ready to throw caution to the wind? And what if you left this life without doing it...would you be ok with that?

Sons, or Knights as they're usually called, are the crusaders of the tarot. They're on a quest. They're old enough to carry out that quest and make their own decisions, and young enough to take chances without fearing loss. 

There's a magic to that time in life when we have so few responsibilities that we can just throw caution to the wind. It is the Knight's greatest strength, but one that can lead to his downfall. I like that this Knight or Son is a young buck, because bucks carry that magic in my mind. I have a special relationship with bucks, going so far as to having shared a mystical experience with one a number of years back. 

It always amazes me that deer shed their antlers every year. So you see these 8 point bucks and all of that was grown within a year. You'd think forests and woods would be littered with shed antlers, but have you ever seen one? I haven't. I guess it's all part of the magic. 

The suit of Pentacles is an odd duck. It covers money, career and material concerns. But it's also about health. And family life. And so when we talk about "present hopes and fears" with the Knight, we could be talking about new quests in any of those areas. ("Present" is superfluous in this card combo, btw. In tarot everything is read to cover the present, unless specifically deemed otherwise with a Past or Future card.)

So I hope to branch out in a new career as an author. I mean, I already am one, but I hope to make it my career one day. But it also scares me because it's unknown. Best-selling authors in the mainstream media earn big chunks of cash. And I'd like to write spiritual books that are more mainstream. But what if I fail? What if I can't cut it? 

If I were a Knight, I'd sell my home and live off the equity I have and spend all my time writing. It's certainly something that's occurred to me. And I've been known to take risks. But that's one I think I fear too much. 

On the other hand, I also fear NOT doing it. I really do enjoy my present career. I have plenty of opportunity to be creative and I write every day. But I really like having something that I can "own" as my own thing, like the Deck of 1000 Spreads. 

So that's how the Hopes and Fears card works. It's a little of both things...hopes and fears. And with the Son of Pentacles, it could be about a health initiative you're undertaking or a family change you're thinking of making, too. 

I often think that we can spend all our time in thinking and debating the hopes and fears that we never end up moving forward. I know I've spent a lot of time doing that myself. I've always imagined it like skydiving or bungee jumping...that you'd sit up there and noodle it until some second of time comes when you throw caution to the wind and just jump. Although I'd be too scared to do EITHER of those things...haha...you get the drift. 

But I also think that if I went all the way up in the air to skydive and then chickened out, I'd never quite forgive myself, you know? So I think there comes a time when we just have to throw caution to the wind and shed those antlers we've been carrying around all these years. Or forever wish we'd had. 

We all know what wishing and hoping feels like. Are we prepared to do that for the rest of our lives? I don't think I am. Because then I'd never know if this thing inside that tells me I MUST do this...I'm destined to do this...was right. I mean, what if we never managed to do something we came here to do? That's why we all have to eventually. Just. Jump. 

4/4/13—Being Lucky Like a Fox

Today's Draw: Eight of Swords from the Phantasmagoric Theater Tarot in the What's Crossing Positive Influences in My Life position from the Deck of 1000 Spreads. Have not been able to manifest what you want in life? Is it possible you've given up too soon? Or could it be that you just tried too hard?

A "crossing" card is usually a card that is placed on top of another card in a tarot spread, crossing it, like a plus sign. (This is different from a "covering" card, which is placed square on top of another card in a spread, thereby covering it.) The crossing card can either help or hinder the card it crosses, depending on the context (whereas a covering card is always hindering or getting in the way of the card beneath).

In this case, the crossing card is what's getting in the way of positive influences in our lives. And the Eight of Swords from the Phantasmagoric Theater is about not making decisions, having a lack of patience or giving up too soon. So consider if leaving things up in the air or backing out too soon might be blocking the positive influences in your life.

One of my friends calls me "lucky like a fox", because I set myself up for success without even trying. It's not like I stumble into luck or luck just happens to me. At some level it's by design, but I'm usually not conscious of it or "trying".

Here's an example. When I first joined Facebook, I decided to friend some tarot people, because it's my hobby. At this point, I had no intention of ever writing a tarot book or creating a product or anything like that. In fact, it was the furthest thing from my mind. I did know I wanted to one day write a spiritual book one day, though. But I certainly didn't think anything on Facebook would help that. 

So anyway, while chatting with the tarot people I friended on Facebook, I noticed a really friendly woman named Barbara that everyone seemed to know. She and I got along really well, so I friended her. A couple of months after friending her, I realized that the Barbara I friended was a big-time tarot author. And I thought, "oh cool I have a famous friend". Then, after time, I learned she was also mucky muck at Llewellyn, the big publisher in the space. But what did I care? I wasn't ever going to write a book. I was just happy that my friend that I liked was part of the tarot glitterati...haha.

Then a year or more passes and I get the idea for the Deck of 1000 Spreads and I need to know how to approach a publisher. So I ask my friend Barbara, figuring I'd send the proposal to her and a few others. Then, as it turned out, my friend liked my idea and Llewellyn made me an offer. Lucky like a fox.

Since then I've learned what it takes to get a spiritual book published. It's one of those Catch-22 situations. They want to know you're worth taking a risk on. So having a published work that's doing well in its space doesn't hurt. Having a following on my blog (that I started for no conscionable reason other than I felt drawn to do it) and having this now huge cache of content and spiritual thought, also doesn't hurt. Nor does the discipline it takes to do this every day. Nor does the fact that I have a loyal following. 

None of this was planned to fall into place like this. But the end result of writing a spiritual book was. Now, that part hasn't manifested yet, but after attending a seminar on publishing spiritual books not that long ago, I learned that I'm WAY better positioned than most others. I've somehow already done all the work that looks like such a huge obstacle for them to traverse. Lucky like a fox. 

Now, the reason I've told you all of this is because I think a lot of people set an intention, sprinkle some seeds, then sit and watch. And wait. And poke the ground. And stay on course. And spend their energy completely on point. Then get disappointed when nothing bears fruit....or when it bears little fruit.

"Lucky like a fox" plants seeds and goes on with their life, sprinkling seeds everywhere they go. And they get caught up in the wind like a leaf, floating here and there, doing loop-de-loops and never quite landing. Never having any concrete expectations from the seeds they plant, never making a specific planting with the intention of it growing. Just knowing their ultimate intention, then going on with their lives. In Buddhism, it's called detachment...detaching from the outcome. 

When you go after something pointedly with intention, the temptation to manipulate outcomes is huge. And this sort of desperate energy is felt all around. It's constricting. It narrows the flow of positive influences, because your definition of what is "positive" is something entirely dependent on its ability to bring an outcome. So maybe you make connections with people solely for the purpose of reaching your intention. And that is felt. Or maybe you don't "waste time" on writing a tarot book when what you really want to do is write spirituality books. So you don't get a good track record with a publisher, or a following from people who like your work, because you didn't anticipate you'd need all that.

When you detach from an outcome and just float in the wind like the leaf...always moving forward but not attached to any single action producing an outcome...you float in a field of greater possibilities where pathways offer themselves to you through weird little whispers in your ear—"friend that chick Barbara", "write a tarot book", "start a blog". And you follow these voices and some bear fruit and some don't. And you may plant 1000 seeds, but you're not keeping count, because you're not outcome driven. Your intention, like everything else along the path, is a seed you've planted in the universe. And as long as you keep moving forward, you trust it's getting water and sun and food. And because you're not so constricted by having to watch the earth, positive influences have a much greater pipeline through which to reach you.

So that's what I think today's Eight of Swords is trying to say. The little guy has a turkey baster with which he's conceived his idea. But he's otherwise trapped in the dark, not knowing where to move...instead of just moving anyway. He's waiting for a red carpet to roll out and guide him through all the thoughts (swords) in his head. And he's even giving some of those ideas "the hand". He's thinking too hard...trying too hard...and making it all too hard. Some of those ideas he's refusing might be positive influences in disguise...or routes to positive influences. But he's not free wheeling and open enough to even consider that. 

People who have what you want didn't get there because they never failed, made a wrong turn or tried something that led to nowhere. They got there because they kept on moving forward despite all of that. And they probably kept on failing, too. But they were on a journey, not running errands, you know? And they probably found success in a way they never could have imagined or set up through conscious thought. 

They were lucky, yes. But they set the luck up for themselves through the seeds they planted, the perseverance they had and the wide channel they created to allow positive influences to flow in through. Lucky like a fox. 

2/15/12—Reaching for Life's Brass Ring

Today's Draw: Moon in the House of Fish from the Vintage Lenormand by Jera Babylon Rootweaver and the Deck of Lenormand Houses by Me. So what else might be keeping you from making that change you're considering? Are you waiting for the money to make the change? Or is it possible that, if the change came first, the money would follow? 

Today's draw predicts that fame brings money. But because my Deck of 1000 Spreads is all over the bestseller list for the fortunetelling category, it's clear that reading is for me and not for you. 

*folds fortune neatly into a square and shoves it in her pocket as she delights in the deflated dreams of those around her*

Actually, what really happened with today's draw is that there is a tarot card called The Moon. It means confusion and sort of cloudy thoughts. Things aren't clear. So when I first saw today's draw and started thinking of it in the context of this week's theme of making changes, I was thinking we'd talk about how many changes are stalled because of the money factor...because of a lack of clear sight of where the money is going to come from for our changes. 

My bad. 

*locating the REAL fortune in my pocket to make sure it's still there and nobody lifted it while I was explaining myself*

*regaining dignity*

There are a lot of dreams and changes that don't require money to make it happen. But that's the #1 thing I hear people say they're waiting on. It's certainly the #1 thing I worry about when I think about leaving it all behind me, moving to Maine, living full-time as an author and traveling the country in an RV full of dogs to greet my adoring fans. 

The good thing is that I have some perspective on this, because 15 years ago I walked away from my job to become a freelancer and never had to worry about money in making that change. Now, I did have some savings as a backup. But from the first month as a freelancer, I was making more money than I did when I was employed. The money was irrelevant. The money followed closely behind my pursuit of my dream. 

The thing about waiting for the money is that it's just an excuse. Because it's a problem that rarely ever gets solved sufficiently enough to make us overcome our fears. So we stay in loveless marriages, remain in thankless jobs and continue with careers and lives that were someone else's dreams for us, rather than our own. 

One of the many pics I took of my bestseller rankings yesterday. 

It's not about the money. It seems like it is, but that's just what we tell ourselves to remain trapped by our fears. I know the economy is bad and not mending fast enough. But, bolstered by the positive energy of chasing a dream, we always find a way. You know if you want it enough, you will find a way. It may mean your lifestyle is not as cushy as the one you have now for a while. But you KNOW you will find a way. 

My personal belief is that change happens when the fear of keeping things the way they are becomes greater than the fear of changing. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but part of my issue is that I still find my day job compelling. Even after 25 years. When I leave, I'll be leaving something I love. So it would seem like my plan of attack has been to have feet in both worlds (like we talked about yesterday) and build up enough momentum to knock me entirely into the other world...haha. 

I worry I'm wasting too much time, though. *fingering fortune in my pocket and thinking deeply*

I think that, if we're using money as an excuse, we might do ourselves a favor by being honest. "I'm staying with him because I'm afraid I can't make it on my own." "I'm putting up with this job because I'm afraid I'm not competitive enough for the marketplace." "I'm living someone else's dream because I'm afraid I'm not worthy of my dream." Or "I'm inching toward my dreams because I'm afraid (and too lazy) to go balls to the wall and risk utter ruin."

If we started using REAL excuses, I think we'd hate admitting it so much that we'd shame ourselves into changing...haha. Or something like that. But I do think we need to be honest. At least with ourselves. Because then we could put the energy we waste on wondering about money toward dissecting our real fears and seeing that they're not good enough to keep us from reaching for life's brass ring. 

1/18/12—Being the Magician

Today's Draw: The Magician from the Infinite Visions tarot by Gloria Jean. Are you aware of your own power? What if you were divinely encoded with capabilities—or even perhaps a mission—and you just don't know it? What if we, as a race, all had that gift but vowed to forget it millennia ago because of the irresponsible way we were using it?

So I thought I'd be all clever today and choose my tarot card in conjunction with a card from my soon-to-be-released Deck of 1000 Spreads. I did this for a couple reasons. One is because I like to promote this product that has been a project in my hopper for two years now. They're going to be released in less than two months time by America's largest tarot publisher and I'm getting excited. The other reason is that I've just added a new tab to my blog with information about this deck and purchasing information about another cartomancy tool I've created, The Deck of Lenormand Houses. In a month or two, a third product will hit that page (but I'm going to keep that on the downlow for now.) If you need a link to my blog, it's at http://thedailytarotdraw.blogspot.com/ 

So on to the day's draw. The question I chose for today's draw to answer was "What You Can't Change". See, I wasn't in the mood to be all uplifting tonight and I thought we'd get something...well, I don't know what I thought. But two things happened that I didn't expect. The message we got was TOTALLY uplifting. And the card I chose ended up looking INCREDIBLY STUNNING against the backdrop of my hotly-anticipated new deck...haha. 

The Magician embodies the spark of creation. He can manifest things in the real world through nothing more than will and desire. Earth, air, fire and water are at hand to do his bidding, and he uses his sharp mind, flowing heart, fiery energy and grounded physical presence to alchemize their forces. 

I was recently listening to a lecture by Gregg Braden entitled Unleashing The Power of The God Code.  I can't tell you all the details here...it's a 4-CD set...haha. But he systematically goes through his proof points...some strong, some hard to tell...of why we're an intentionally created race, encoded with this "Magician" power in our DNA. And by Magician power, I mean this power to access god-like powers of creation. He says we're not god, but part god, part animal, with characteristics of each. 

Some of what I heard on that CD completely aligns with what I feel deep in my soul that we are. Some of it is stuff I'm not on board with. But overall, it was fascinating to me. And somewhere along the line, for some reason or another, our conscious knowledge of the Magician within has become lost or forgotten. And it's no surprise. 

For thousands of years we've been told god is separate from us, a force to be feared. And that anyone who claims to have god-like powers is tainted, an enemy of the lord, and their soul will be struck down for countless eternities. And, for many of those years, if you weren't on board with the plan, you'd be slaughtered by your god-fearing brethren. But what if we started believing god was separate from us because our gifts are so fearsome that we could annihilate each other with a force that would make a nuclear bomb blush? Gregg Braden posits that theory and interprets ancient, pre-Biblical, text in an interesting way that supports it. 

People who practice energy healing, psychic arts, manifestation or other methodologies know human beings are capable of more than science is currently able to prove. It's not a hope or wish or dream. We've seen it work too many times and too consistently to believe anything else. But imagine that even what we know and have witnessed is just the tip of our potential. 

That's the Magician. And it's what today's draw tells us we can't change about ourselves. If Gregg Braden is right and if extrasensory/paranormal/whatever powers are encoded in our DNA, then we're on a collision course with our own divinity and there's nothing we can do about it. Cool, huh?