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. 

8/22/12—Discovering The Power of Your Energy

Today's Draw: Three of Wands from Tod's Creatures Tarot by Tod Wills. Are you effectively creating the life you want? How important do you think your energy body is to making things happen in your world? What secret does this precious winking cat know that you don't?

First things first. After my rant about cat decks last week, I know there are a couple of people out there thinking, "nice cat deck, Tierney." So I'd like to say that Tod's Creatures is an equal opportunity deck. There are all sorts of animals in it. This card just happens to be a cat. And while I don't always mention anything much about the deck I'm using, I'll say this deck is whimsical with some interesting artistic deviations from traditional decks (which is something I like). There is no lwb. And it's within my tolerance of cute, but just. You can see samples at: 

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/tod-s-creatures-tarot

Next I wanted to mention that yesterday's post sparked some lively commentary and it would seem a lot of people have either been having their own storms lately or have been the recipient of a storm. A couple of good points were made on my Facebook page that I didn't make yesterday. One was that sometimes the storm is physical...we hold this stuff inside and when it bursts forth, it does so in the guise of illness or festering pustules or whatever. The other point was that, sometimes our storms, depending on how they're received, can result in needed change. They may come out in a loud and unattractive way, but the point is made. 

OK. Now on to today's card. Traditionally this card would show a man from the back, surveying the scenery as his ship is about to come in...both literally and figuratively. It's an initial phase of completion on a creative project and it's a moment of success. It's also a card of foresight and planning for the next phase of the project, because we can't sit on our laurels for long. He doesn't need to act, because he is the divine overseer of the project.

While we see the guy from the back in the traditional card, here we see the cat's face. And he's winking at us. Because he knows something else is aiding his success...something in addition to hard work. He is literally the divine overseer of his fate. His job is to observe and receive while the universe is doing all the strategizing, organizing, scheduling and execution. 

As Mike Dooley says, when it comes to manifestation, "your job is the 'what' and the universe's job is the 'how'." The whole idea behind spontaneous manifestation of desire is that you put the thoughts out into the universe, keep those thoughts consistent, act in alignment with those thoughts and the universe will create the thing you desire. 

I'm not going to go into a whole drawn out thing about manifestation. No, it's not as easy as it sounds. And yes, it is easy as it sounds. It's more of a mindset, discipline and faith you have to acquire...that's the hard part. And, once that's acquired, it's easy. Anyway, the reason I'm not going to yammer and spew about it is because I did a whole week on it here:

http://thedailytarotdraw.blogspot.com/2012_06_03_archive.html

Then there's this excellent post:

http://thedailytarotdraw.blogspot.com/2011/08/81511doing-less-and-believing-more.html

And if you want more, just search the term "manifestation" on my blog and you'll get an entire book's worth of thoughts on the topic. 

The point is, every passing thought, every action, every word you utter is an energy exchange between you and God/the universe/the all of creation. With every neuron that sparks inside you, you're telling the universe what you think, what you want and who you are. And the universe responds to you accordingly. 

There's one other past post that comes to bear on the situation—one of my most popular posts ever. Remember the one where my boy, Kizzie, is standing in the water? It's all about the energetic impact and effect each of us has on everything around us. We are nothing more than senders and receivers of energy...like little Ham radios operating on an infinite array of frequencies, sending and receiving a bazillion impulses or messages a minute, most of which we are completely unaware of. Here you go: 

http://thedailytarotdraw.blogspot.com/2012/02/week-of-21912raising-your-vibration.html

See the cat in today's card is an energetic sensei. See the robes he's wearing? And his wink is telling us that he knows all the secrets I've shared with you in all those post links above. He's so attuned to his connectedness—to God, the natural world, and others—that he can feel the leaves around him rustling before they even begin to twitch. He doesn't have to turn to watch any ships coming in, because he already knows they're there. 

And the cool thing is, the only way he's different from you is that he's aware of his power. He cultivates it, respects it and has complete faith in it. When we talk about energy and vibrations and wavelengths, this is what we're really talking about—the knowledge that each of us is just an energetic impulse away from all that exists and ever has existed. 

8/21/12—Brewing Up a Storm

Today's Draw: Storm Fields from the Enchanted Map Oracle from Collette Baron Reed. Is there a storm a'brewin' within? Do you want to go off about something but are waiting to find a gracious way to do it? Are you mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore?

So this week we're talking about energy and I'm DYING to tell you a story that happened between my and dog, Magick Moonbeam. But the cards aren't cooperating....gaaaahhhh!

However, that little outburst of mine is what today's card is about. We gotta release the energy we hold inside. It's not always pretty, the timing is not always opportune, but we gotta do it. Here's what the book says about this card: 

"Things you've left unattended may be the cause of some conflict. Pent-up energy needs release, just as a storm in nature must break. 

Not all storms are destructive. Rather, they serve nature by bringing rain to the ground and wind to the trees, enabling seeds to be widely distributed and continous growth to be ensured."

So while yesterday was talking about managing the energy between ourselves and the outside world, today we're talking about managing our own energies within. We've all been there. Whether we've been in denial or just bucking up like a like a good little soldier, we sometimes hold things in until our emotional body can no longer contain them. Then all hell breaks loose...haha. 

And THEN, if you're like me, you end up feeling bad about it. "I could have handled that better." Well, no. Really the only way you could have handled it better was to not hold it in in the first place. And sometimes we're just not able to express our pain until it reaches that point. Pain and hurt and anger are awfully hard things to express period, much less graciously. And, c'mon, there's really no way to express those things to the source of those feelings without ruffling some feathers or experiencing some push back. There really are no perfect words or perfect time. 

Ten days ago I sent out an inquiry about a dog. I wasn't 100% sure I was ready to adopt, I just wanted to start the conversation and meet the dog. Well the person never responded to me until I complained that she hadn't responded. And when she did respond, she was all superior "we simply don't have the time to answer every inquiry from people with mild interest." 

Well, I got a little piffy in my reply. Over the course of the ten days, a lot had happened inside me. My interest in the baby grew more, then waned, then grew. My faith in this rescue organization, their mission and their customer relations deteriorated. And when the woman finally responded to me unapologetically about how much I inconvenienced her and how I probably shouldn't get a third dog anyway, I called her a bitch.

I'm not proud of it. I'm usually above that kind of thing. But it wasn't until she got all superior to me that I realized how much I had emotionally invested in this process already. You can't know me and not know how much I love dogs and what a good doggy mommy I am. But I've encountered this martyred attitude from rescue organizations before. Years ago when I WAS a serious customer, a local organization made two separate dates with me, 30 miles from my home, to meet a dog. Then they never showed! When I complained, I got a lecture about how busy they are and how thankless the work is and if they forget a few appointments, I should understand. 

My impression from the only two experiences I've had is that they're focused more on getting dogs and feeling like selfless, overworked heroes than they are about actually adopting the dogs out. After all, today's mild interest is tomorrow's strong desire. It's just stupid business to completely ignore someone who has inquired about a dog. I support the theory behind the work they do and I appreciate that they save animals, but now I understand why people seek other means. They don't allow the prospective dog owners to feel like they're part of the mission. Instead, they treat them like a necessary evil. That's what MY experience has been. 

Personally, my money is going to shelters from here on in. I've always had superior experiences with shelters—and not just from their paid employees, but from their volunteers who never seem to complain about the heroic work they do. At a shelter, you're allowed to meet a dog before you're 100% sure you want to adopt them. And the ones around here are nice to you, whether your interest is mild, strong, growing or whatever. 

All of this is, partly, to vent...haha. But also to say that sometimes we don't even know what we're feeling until we get mad. In a small way, I feel like a lost a baby tonight. Just because I wasn't sure I wanted the baby, doesn't mean I didn't imagine it as my own, daydream about how it would be with my other babies and all of that. His name was Wizard, so that means I'd have a Kizzy, Wizzy and a Magick Moonbeam. It doesn't get much more perfect than that. 

Sometimes our storms cause utter destruction in our lives. Sometimes we just embarrass ourselves. And sometimes they just show us where we stand on a particular topic. It's all about releasing energy and rebalancing to create favorable conditions for future growth. So whatever's building up inside you now, consider letting it out. It may hurt in the short term, but it will end up benefitting you in the end

8/20/12—Feeling the Vibe

Today's Draw: Shaman from the Vision Tarot by Dirk Gillabel. Can you sense the energy of those around you? Do you sometimes walk into a room full of people and feel overwhelmed for some reason you can't explain? Is there a person who, even though they're nice, you just don't like to be around?

This week is going to be Energy Week. But not the kind of energy that fuels your car or runs your TV. The kind of energy that vibrates within us and throughout the universe. 

You've probably experienced it before...when someone is angry, you can feel it. They emit the energy of anger. No words have to be said. The person's face doesn't have to be contorted in an angry look. In fact, you've probably even felt someone's anger when they were doing their best to look normal and deny their anger. 

You can sense someone staring at you. You know when someone is lying to you. You may have felt that someone died before you knew it to be fact. Or maybe you felt creeped out by something you couldn't see, like a ghostly energy. Or you entered a room and it somehow felt peaceful. Some of this can be explained by visual or verbal cues. But some of it can't. Some of it you might call intuition or even instinct. But what really are instinct and intuition if it doesn't involve tuning into the energies around you?

Every day we're interacting with energies you can see and not see. A person is an energy you can see, for example. But there's a whole other energy body within them and around them that you can't see. There are the electrical systems that run our heart and our every thought. There's the caloric energy that fuels our body. The kinetic energy of motion. And, many believe, an energy body made up of chakras. Spiritual energy that's transmitted between us and God. And energy that transmits between us and everything in the universe. 

A shaman is a mediator of those energies. Each day we make countless energetic exchanges with other seen and unseen energies around us. We understand the energy exchange of food, for example. You eat it and use its energy to power your body. But what about all the energy exchanges you make with unseen and unacknowledged energies around you? Just because you're not conscious of them, doesn't mean you're not interacting with them. Wouldn't you like to be more aware of those exchanges?

That's what the shaman has come to us about today. To start noticing energies around you. As you interact with people today, take a moment to note the kind of energy or vibe they put forth. Is Joe's energy laid-back and mellow or is he a quivering nerve all the time? How does his energy affect yours? If you walk into his cubicle when he's not there, can you feel his energy there? 

Likewise, if you walk into a store or a room or someone's office today, connect with how the room feels...the energy it emits. Or hold an item, preferably of someone else's and see what kind of energy it has attached to it. You may not feel anything the first time try, but keep trying.

Before you can interact with energy, you first have to know it's there. And before you can shield yourself from unwanted energies, you have to understand how you interact with them. 

Energy exchange is a language all its own and it's something that was critical to the survival of early man. The tribe shaman was the go-to guy for everything from physical and spiritual healing to energetically ensuring a successful hunt through his interaction with the spirit world. He was the most venerated person in the clan. That's how important this skill once was to us. My own instinct tells me we can't let this ability slip away. It's a part of us we can't afford to lose to evolution. And it's a part of us we'd be remiss not to explore in this lifetime. 

So play around with it today. Nobody else even has to know. And see what you can tune into. At the very least, the more tuned in you are, the more information you have to guide you toward success.

8/18/12-8/19/12—Celebrating the Almighty You

Weekend Reading: The Garden from Chronata's Minute Lenormand by Robin Tisch Hollister. As Self Care Week draws to a close, it's now time for a celebration—a celebration of you! You don't need a special reason, because you ARE the special reason! So get some streamers and buy a cake, by golly. The Garden card wants you to be happy. It wants you to throw a party. It wants you to honor you like you've never honored you before. Heck, why not even pretend it's a surprise party? If you keep waiting for someone else to do it for you, you might wait forever. And, let's face it, they'll never get all the details right anyway! So, really...do something special for yourself this weekend. Splurge a little on a giftie. Get yourself some birthday cake for no reason. Host an hour-long bubble bath in your honor. Walk around town in a sandwich board that says, "Kiss me. I'm special." Whatever your style, go all out for you this weekend. You deserve it!

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. 

8/16/12—Feeling Full

Today's Draw: Five of Coins from the Medieval Chihuahua Tarot by Tarot Lyn. Is there something you still need to receive or achieve before you can be happy? Is there something that you don't have nearly enough of? Or are all areas of your life perfectly funded?

OK. I need to get something off my chest. This deck of chihuahuas dressed up in Middle Age gear is the first all-dog, 78-card deck EVER in tarot history. To my knowledge. There is a major arcana deck of all dogs. And there will be another 78-card deck coming out soon. But ever since tarot was invented in, like, the 15th century, there has never been a dog deck. There have been rat decks, bear decks, gummi bear decks, rabbits, dolphins, dragons, ferrets...you name it. And cats! Cats in fancy costumes, cats who practice magick, medieval cats, anthropomorphic cats, white cats, cats being cats, cats taking a nap, cats taking a crap...you can't swing a pendulum without hitting a cat deck in the tarot world. But no dog deck. Until now. 

*caressing my sweet Medieval Chihuahua deck* 

And, as a bonus, all the proceeds of this deck go toward chihuahua rescue. So you're not only getting a dog deck and a piece of history, you're helping adorable pocket-sized pups. 

Anywho, so there I was mourning the lack of dog decks for YEARS, doing everything in my power to get a dog deck created, and yet I had a couple of hundred other really cool decks I was neglecting—and, quite frankly, disrespecting—because none of them were dog decks. Sure, I had decks I loved and all of that, but none of them were DOG decks!

And that's the lesson the chihuahuas bring us on Day Four of Self Care Week...the dangers of the poverty mindset. The Five of Coins is a card that signifies loss and poverty. But I tend to read it more as a poverty mentality—a focus on what you don't have, rather than a focus on what you do. 

See, as long as you're lacking, you're never "complete". You still have work to do. There's something missing from your idea of perfection. And you're probably not fully grateful for all the gifts in your midst. And if you're into manifestation and the energies you put out into the universe, then you're also blocking or delaying the flow of the very thing you want into your life. The only benefit of focusing on lack is....oh, right, THERE IS NO BENEFIT!!!!

So today's lesson in self care is to let yourself be enough, simply as you are. Have enough with whatever you already have. And do enough with what you're already doing. 

Sure, you want to always have ambition. And we all need our basic needs of food, shelter and water covered. But how different would life be if you stopped *wanting*? If everything that came to you was gravy...a blessing...from this moment on? How would that change the way you viewed your life? How would it change the way you feel about you?

I'll bet if every one of us looked hard enough at our lives, there's something we're mourning the lack of—money, love, respect, youthful beauty, peace, order, chocolate...it could be anything. It almost seems like, if you were to have it all, then life wouldn't be as fun. But imagine, instead, how fun getting showered with unexpected miracles could be! 

To someone less fortunate, you look like you've got it all. Don't you deserve to allow yourself to feel that way?