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Weekly Card Celebrating the 3 of Cups
Posted on May 14, 2015
Wow! We’re getting the Tarot version of 2×4 between the eyes (anybody else have that dent there from calls to pay attention?). It’s been less than a month since we last saw the 3 of Cups.
So what does it mean when we repeatedly see the same message in the cards?
One possibility is that we’re being shown places where we’re stuck in a rut. I have to say, 3 of Cups isn’t such a bad rut to be in. Of course, we can get caught in celebrating heart connections (the dancing women in the Gilded Tarot) when we have practical things to do. Or we can be overly emotional (those overflowing cups in the Haindl image) when what’s called for are rational decisions. Or we’re putting our creative ventures on public display (Yoga Tarot) right when there’s a big media storm to blow our projects away.
Another is that we’re in a long-term process. We’re not in the habit of being highly sociable or expressive and creative or of letting our emotions flow. It can take time to un-make an habitual hermit or logical Spock or repressed artist.
And a third is that, although we’ve got 3 of Cups in our repertoire, we’re focusing elsewhere. It’s the “hey, over here!” attention call.
How many times have you put aside social connections because you’ve just got too much to do? Or decided that now is not the time to celebrate; your problems are way too big and pressing? Or shelved creativity in favour of the sure thing to please the boss? And we all know that emotional stifling is the order of almost any day in the life . . . .
Here the message is, despite the apparent strong demands in other directions, the useful action or useful focus is to choose creativity, to choose time with your heartfelt friendships, to choose joy.
So which is it for you: long-term process, an unrecognized rut, or a repeated call to re-focus? And, since life is a many-layered thing (why am I thinking “cake”?), it could be all the above.
Celebrate the loves in your life!
Weekly Card VII The Chariot
Posted on May 7, 2015
Brian Williams’ The Renaissance Tarot
It’s good to have some of the gaps in our tarot view filled in this past month. Since this is (mostly) a random draw, the past two years have seen repeated cards, so not all 78 have been covered yet.
Time to meet VII The Chariot.
Rider Waite Smith Tarot
How do we relate to someone in a chariot? Especially someone armoured? Most of us have absolutely no experience of that in our lives.
Or do we?
When was the last time you were in commuter traffic?
Being in commuter traffic ties in with having a role in society, one of the indications of VII The Chariot. At that point in our developmental journey, we head out into the world with something to offer. The world receives us well, saying, “yeah, we can use what you’ve got; we’ll make sure you’re compensated for it.”
But things can still be black and white at the VII Chariot point (notice the light and dark horses or the black and white sphinxes). There can be conflicting forces to manage. They can add to the spirit of adventure that’s connected with VII The Chariot. We may have found a societal role that works, but the adventure’s just beginning.
We’ve still got those internal conflicts to work out. Stay tuned: the Majors will addresse those – it’s worth clicking the “Majors” tag to look at some of the places we’ll go from VII The Chariot.
And those conflicts keep us moving forward. That’s why travel is often associated with VII The Chariot.
So is “progress”. Sometimes it’s straight ahead progress, as we keep the light and dark forces balanced. Other times it’s a zigzag hopscotch between the two, struggling to keep both wheels on the ground.
And then there’s that armour. Like a crab shell, it keeps the soft stuff protected – that stuff where we’re vulnerable while we struggle with our personal black and white. Think about your public self. Mostly your public persona does that for you, doesn’t it? It’s a way of being guarded but mobile and functional.
So, this week, where are you moving forward? Where is the progress straight ahead? Where do there seem to be obstacles? How could your internal conflicts be creating the stuff out there that you have to go around?
Define your role in society and use it to make progress!
Yup, we can definitely lose control of our personal light and dark steeds. When that happens, tarot is a wonderful tool to help train the team to make progress. You know where to find me.
Hard Time
Posted on May 2, 2015
Oh, would that there were an easier path. Not so much this month.
We’ve got a combination here that indicates a whole lot of hard work. And that’s the positive possibility.
On the negative side, we’ve got a bunch of rigid, dogmatic individuals butting heads, with no one ready to back down. We’ll be up against the kettle of fish we’ve put ourselves into as a species. It’s time to deal with the places that we were total slackers, expecting others to handle the issues. Reckoning time, so to speak.
Everyone’s up against their limitations, especially those they’ve created themselves. Obstinacy is the bugaboo of the month. The year, in general, brings out abilities to take charge and move forward. But those abilities are severely hindered by obstinate individuality, by connection to detail rather than the big picture. I rarely suggest that you stop hugging trees, but this month I will. Instead, hug the whole dang forest.
Those who accept responsibility for their part in the difficult situations will be the ones who can move things forward. They’ll be doing more than their share, but they’ll be making use of the positive possibilities this month. All that detail work and organization has to happen (remember, we’re all making up for lost time), but it will happen successfully only with constant input and with constant attention to the big picture.
I know it’s not an easy environment to be in the midst of, but use the energies to clean up old stuff when it presents itself. Overspending, letting others handle what you should be managing, selfish bulldozing of others needs are all areas that come up for management. It’s nose to the grindstone to handle the cleanup, but there’s deep progress to be made.
If it feels like a prison sentence, at least it’s a short 31-day sentence. The alternative is a much higher pile of, er, poop to clean up next time this sort of energy cycles around.
Numerology is one of the especially helpful tools for making the best use of energies we’d rather skip. Get in touch when you need.
Weekly Card 3 of Swords
Posted on May 1, 2015
This post is part of a Tarot Blog Hop. You can find the previous blog here, the master list here, and the next blog here.
Rider Waite Smith tarot
Oh, we so don’t love to see these kinds of cards . . . the “sad” ones, the “bad” ones. We’ve had a couple of encounters before, here and here.
And here, at the 3 of Swords, we’re encountering sorrow at a very personal level. How much more clear an illustration of heartache can we get? Since we can’t spit it out, how do we deal with this distasteful card?
Look back to the heartaches in your life. What brought them on? Loss of a love? Loss of social standing? Loss of a cherished pet? Loss all around, isn’t it? Nothing we would have asked for.
Then again, when have you heard yourself say “he certainly asked for that one”? We could look at any situation and see how the ending had its seeds in the beginning. Heartless as it is, I’ve had people tell me that I was just asking for trouble by living in an hurricane evacuation zone.
And there’s the opportunity in the 3 of Swords. We’re putting our mind – the mental world of the swords – into our hearts. Rather than dissociating our thoughts from our humanity, we come to a deeper understanding of why it’s worth making connections regardless of the inevitability of endings.
For a writer or an artist, this can be a brilliant opportunity, this meeting of intellect with emotion. What needs to be expressed? Is there a story to tell? Is there a sorrow to be danced, painted or composed?
For the rest of us, the lemonade out of lemons involves developing compassion. For ourselves. For others who’ve travelled a similar path. And that requires taking heart in the positive sense: courage. Courage to believe in a life that continues. Courage to look outside ourselves again.
But how do we deal with the pain? You’ve got lots of clues in the multiple images for the 3 of Swords. The sad grey puss in the Baroque Bohemian Cat image finds the pain too difficult to take in. She has her angel holding the pierced heart. It’s still close at paw, but she’s got assistance. Who are your angels?
The Haindl Tarot image speaks to the isolation that pain can bring. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Time alone to mourn the loss, to replace what’s no longer there with tears, is a healing action. Recognize where your paradise has come to an end and grieve. It’s not necessarily fun, but healthy grief helps us move forward, back into life and connectedness.
By getting to the heart of our sorrow, by understanding what happened and who we’re becoming as a result of our loss, the Gilded Tarot image offers us the possibility of enlightenment. Our old way of thinking, our old way of expressing ourselves has cut us to the heart. As we recognize the old ways, we can move into the light of the new.
But not too quickly, says the Contemplative Tarot image. Life is possible, says the vine around the bleeding heart – and life with love, says the heart shape in the vine. It’s even going on around us. But so is the fish out of water, belly up in the cloudy sky. It speaks to the discomfort of no longer being the self we recognize. Allow the new life of connection to grow out of the wounded self, in its own time.
In your own life this week, what has pierced you right at the quick? How can you use your mind to get to the heart of the matter? And how can you express yourself about it all?
Let your mind and heart work together to keep compassion in the foreground this week.
This post is part of a Tarot Blog Hop. You can find the previous blog here, the master list here, and the next blog here.
Finding Inspiration
Posted on May 1, 2015
Do you ever feel that your source of inspiration is totally tapped out? Are you having a stretch of time where it’s enough to just get out of bed and do what needs to be done, without worrying about inspiration?
Sometimes there aren’t enough hours in the day to finish everything that’s already been set in motion. (As in, you’re lucky I even opened this email, never mind read this far!)
At that point, all we need is the connector to why we set anything in motion in the first place. Did we take the current job out of desperation because savings are gone and the rent still needs to be paid? Are we running like a madman because our kids deserve enrichment in their lives? Did taking up golf seem like a good way to network while managing a too-sedentary lifestyle?
If we’ve got the connection to motivators, all we need to do is tweak the results, if they’re not working, or consider next steps if we’re treating an interim solution like a “forever home”.
No time? I totally get it. In my world, that’s what dishwashing, phone holding and traffic lights are for (honk kindly if you’re behind me and I don’t move fast enough). Those “lost” minutes can be put to use for any of the stuff that gets swept aside by louder demands.
Then there are the things you can’t find motivators for. And you’ve even got time to look. And you’ve done the deep work to look. What then?
Coffee needs time to percolate, right? So do ideas and transitions and glimmers of feelings.
In that case, I love distractions. What would you do with your time if you had no demands? Read? Paint (remember, we don’t care how “good” you are at something)? Run like the wind (could I talk you into skipping, which is so much better for your body – detour into imagining a world where grown men and women skipped – ha!)?
In all cases, intention is a powerful thing. Set an intention to fill what’s missing, replace what’s outdated. Let that intention simmer until fully cooked. I promise you’ll smell it when it’s ready.
Presumably, we all know what to do with the yummy smelling stuff: chow down!
Of course, I’m here to help you find motivations and plan or navigate transitions. Energy work is great for getting past blockages and finding buried creativity – or even willingness to find creativity.