Ace of Shields

Avalach’s Shield

Fortune Cookie:  Look for and define your new beginning. Know that great gains, treasures and healing are not beyond your reach.  And let a beautiful swirling and blending of spiritual paths guide you toward and support you in your wonderful new life!

This card last turned for us way back in mis-July.  So pay attention, mind, ‘cos it’s a goodie!

As anyone who has been afflicted by these posts on a regular basis will remember, Aces in any Tarot deck  are cards of a new beginning.  So, that being the case,

~ How can you − how do you need to − begin your life anew, today, this moment?

~ What changes can you begin or pursue, even in small ways?

~ What potentials can you believe in, hope for, reach for and remember not to forget?  Eh?

And you can most assuredly expect The Universe will keep giving you situations that ask that kinda question until you all remember to be askin’ it alla tyme by yerownseff!  Right?

And now, back to the Ace of Shields.

According to legend, Avalach was a “heathen” king, befriended and converted to Christianity by Joseph of Arimathea, carrier of the Holy Grail into Britain.

Avalach’s shield was known to have miraculous powers of protection and healing.  For hundreds of years it stayed in an abbey waiting for Galahad, the world’s greatest and purest knight − its ultimate and final bearer − to come and take it up.

Most readers would likely indicate that this card signifies things like PERFECT contentment, felicity, even ecstasy, and perhaps gold.  Not bad, says I! Not bad at all! Not bad for a wintry January Wednesday!! [It IS Wednesday, ennit?]

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, finds the Ace of Shields to be a card of treasures, prosperity, making great gains, but also of enrichment of the spirit.  Yes!  Yes! Yes!

When I work with a client and this card comes up, I look deep into the card, which is beautifully illustrated, depicting a mask of The Green Man above a Camelottish Knight’s shield upon which is worked a large golden cross. The mask and shield are mounted on a wall; below them, incense, or perhaps oak leaves, burn on a brazier, with all enfolded by an otherworldly light.  It’s a wonderfully mystical scene.

I find that the card directs us to look for healing, growth and progress via mystical or spiritual means.  It suggests that we should be comfortable blending seemingly diverse spiritual paths in our process, just as the good sisters in Ireland pray to the Christian Saints, but leave tidbits and goodies in the garden to feed and engage the Leprechauns and other Good Folk, finding no contradiction in this custom.

I’m reminded of my first shamanic teacher, who laughingly referred to herself one day as an Apachecathobuddhajew. Works for me!

So… look for and define

YOUR NEW BEGINNING.

Know that great gains and treasures are not beyond your reach.  And let a beautiful swirling and blending of spiritual paths guide you toward and support you in your wonderful new life!

Brightest blessings!

Quote for the Day:  There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. ~ The Dalai Lama

Today’s Weather:  Soaring guitars wielded by mysteriosos in strange chapeaux. Wear flower-power Wellies.  With flair!

On This Date: 1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

King of Swords

Mordred

Fortune Cookie: What are your highest ideals?  What are your deepest passions?  Where do they intersect and support each other?  What are the specific, definable, practical steps that will carry you to living them?  How can you begin those steps TODAY?  And how can you keep to them EVERY day?

No, he STILL does NOT look like Johnny Depp.  Not a bit.  Not even a little.  Hardly. At all.  Really.  Not ever.

Oh.

As those of you who are regular readers of the blog, AND have a fairly good number of still-functioning brain cells [...which leaves me out {What does?} Never mind! {Okay!}] may remember, this was the daily card waaaaay back in mid-May. Which, I suppose, is of no real significance whatsoever.  [{What is?  Or isn't?} Never mind! {Okay!}]

As I said then:

The King of Swords is one of those cards where each Tarot deck, each author writing about Tarot, and each reader has his or her own unique spin on what meanings are most truly representative and therefore accurate.

And then, to assign Mordred (more about him toward the end) to the card.  [Gravelly voice]: Lotta heavy weight on this card here, friends!!

So here are some of the interpretations I’ve gotten from others:

~ the bloody bastard who never knows when to stop fighting

~ a ruthless and daring person(likely male)

~ one (usually a man or someone of strong masculine energy) who sits in judgement

~ the innovative but probably unpredictable leader

~ a revolutionary  

~ a sign that now is the time to make a clean break with what you have been doing up until now and go off in your own unique direction.
So if any of those interpretations mesh with how it seems you need to be in your life just now and for the rest of this season (or mayhaps it represents the energy that’s intersecting and/or interfering with your life), then pay attention and act accordingly – i.e., if the interpretation accurately describes what you see in someone else, accept that your perceptions about the person are TRUE!, then figure out what to do from there.

I did a shamanic journey to determine how I should generally interpret this card for my clients.  A spirit guide in the form of a great black and silver dragon came by.   It said,

This is what you need to know about the King of Swords.

The King of Swords has three major characteristics:

First, he is so idealistic he often lets his head drift away into the clouds and he becomes a hopeless flake – which will often cause him to fail.

Second, he is so passionate he often loses track of what’s sensible, appropriate, or even legal and he blows his own ass up by getting crazy-emotional about what he wants or hopes for – which will often cause him to fail.

Third, as a result of the first and second characteristics above, he has actually learned from the example of the Queen of Swords and he has FORCED himself to develop the will to become strategic about what he wants.

He asks himself what he would need to do in order to be true to his highest ideals AND his deepest passions.  He determines where and when and how they could best blend together. He refines his goals, and then develops a specific, detailed plan that incorporates every major step [and most of the baby steps] necessary to take him from where he is to where his highest ideals and deepest passions would lead him.

And then he exerts the will to hold himself to that plan, day by day, until changes in his higher ideals or deeper passions cause him to rethink his goals − and start the whole process over again.

Hard work, but worth the effort.

How would your life be different if you had done that, and held yourself to it, twenty years ago?

It’s never too late to start.

[About Mordred:  pretty much everyone knows him as the 'illegitimate' son and only child of Arthur. According to most legends, Mordred, out of evil or just out of spite, plotted and schemed to displace The King and, in the process, brought down Camelot.  Maybe that is how it was.  There are a number of variations on that theme throughout the tales.  But in one version of the legends, Arthur and Mordred were reconciled in the end; they died fighting side by side against foreign invaders.  Maybe so.]

So:  What are your highest ideals?  What are your deepest passions?  Where do they intersect and support each other?  What are the specific, definable, practical steps that will carry you to living them?  How can you begin those steps TODAY?  And how can you keep to them EVERY day?

Bright blessings, high ideals, passion and success!

Galahad

Fortune Fookie: Think upon the commitments for this lifetime that you made before you came into being.  Determine the next few steps to keep you moving along that path – or the first steps that will be necessary to move you back onto that path.  And GET GOING!

Okay.  This good fellow last stopped by  in mid-December.

It is a card of sacred questing, and for all of us, whatever our spiritual path, it’s a good reminder to look at and remember what’s REALLY important and worthwhile and magical and holy ~ at any time of year.

The Knight of Cups is always a good energy & good advice card.  As I have said, I think of this as the card of the sacred quest.

Therefore, if you have been feeling that your life really isn’t going in the direction you and God (Spirit, The Universe, the Universal Life Force, the Big Enchilada, Maggie Smith, The Voice of John Cleese,  Jimmy Fallon ~ whoever) agreed to before you accepted birth this time around:

HEY!  YOU!!!!

Don’t you think it’s time to reconnect and GET GOING?

Some readers might interpret the Knight of Cups as the coming of a messenger, advancement in the world, or a graceful but not warlike person of great masculine energy [think Baryshnikov, I guess. Or Angelina?]. Others could say it indicates someone (maybe you?) ingenious, full of original ideas (probably you!) .

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck I use, feels this card betokens a tempting proposal which deserves serious consideration. [However, avoid snakes in apple trees and guys playing the fiddle at the crossroads. 'Cos things rarely work out with them.]  Also, an approaching opportunity for advancement. Or an unexpected gift. [Duh!] So if something like that crosses your path today, assume you deserve it, accept it fully and gratefully, and run with it!

I still like my intuitive interpretation best. [And I say that with no modesty whatsoever.]

Think upon the commitments for this lifetime

             that you made before you came into being. 

Determine the next few steps

                        to keep you moving along that path –

or the first steps that will be necessary

                                to move you back onto that path. 

And GET GOING!

Bright blessings and remembrance of your sacred self, and the sacred in us all and everywhere!

Quote for the Day: God has no religion. ~ Gandhi

Today’s Weather:  Sands of time.  Controlled remote drooling. Alexander’s secrets. 

On This Date: 1957 — Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts introduce America to Patsy Cline.

Another Quote: …people who work in the field of intuition, myself included, are some of the moodiest, most anxious, irritable, high-strung, blunt, and passionate individuals I have ever met….  Other examples of the types of very hard-to-treat, reactive, complex health problems that medical-intuitive advisors often seem to have include anxiety, migraine headaches, weight and thyroid issues, and immune-system disorders. ~ Mona Lisa Schultz, M.D., Ph. D. from The Intuitive Advisor

And:  In traditional cultures, shamans are sick all the time.  And it’s not necessarily even their illness.  It’s the illness of their community, or of the Earth itself, that they are feeling and processing. ~ Myron Eshowksy

The Fool

Percivale

Fortune Cookie:   Follow your bliss! Follow your bliss!  Know what your bliss is!!!  Follow your bliss!

Okay, Y’all:  We last saw this card four months ago almost to the day.  Therefore, we’ve all had plenty of time to work with its good counsel and direction. 

So which one of you is still holding out on following your bliss?  Hunh? Hunh?

Not!!  Good!!!!

Anyway, I’m always grateful when this card comes around again, for prolly more reasons than I can count.  Sometimes I think this may be the most important card in the deck, for us and for the world in this time.  It is in fact the FIRST card in the deck, which should give you some idea of the weight it carries.

Just as significant, it’s the antithesis to that common state I see so very often: folks lassoing their own private gloom clouds, knotting them in place just above their heads and walking around beating themselves with a stick [riding crop, electroshock device, or small laser, if budget permits] while chanting that ever-so-helpful mantra, “Life sucks.  The world is doomed.  Life sucks.  The world is doomed.  Life sucks. The world is doomed, and I’ll probably be first in line to get whacked.”

If these are in fact transformational times [and they are], then that is ZACKLY the wrong thing to immerse yourself in!  No?  Yes!

So, back to the card.

I call this The Joseph Campbell card.  It’s the card that says, “You.  You.  Yeah, you!!  FOLLOW YOUR BLISS.  NOW!  With joy, hope, excitement and expectation.  NOW!!!”

This is therefore the card that offers you permission to go off on your own great and profound personal quest, just like Percivale did. (And he became one of the three greatest knights of all, y’all!)

The important aspect (and for some of us, the hard work) is:

to actually KNOW what our bliss is (or would be/could be) if we would own it.

Because you see, when we get kinda down or times are tough, THAT is often the first knowing or believing or hope that goes RIGHT out the window.

So, as I have written before, this is the somewhat rambling response I’ve given to a few clients when they’ve asked,

Follow my bliss?

What the hell does that mean?

You start by knowing what your heart’s true desire is [provided it's moral, of course.  At least mostly.  And pretty close to legal. Pretty close.] If necessary, take some time to hone your understanding of what that means to you, for today, anyway.  Do it over an extra cuppa if that’s all the time you have.  But do it.

Do!! It!!!!

Then, no matter how impossible or illogical it may seem, like −

I’m gonna write a children’s story about an orphan boy who goes to a school for wizards, and it’s going to be so beautifully done it’s going to earn me enough to support myself and my family for the rest of my life.  In fact, it’s going to make me the first person to ever earn a billion dollars from writing fiction!  [Like THAT could ever happen!]

− take your first single SMALL step on the path that follows your bliss.

And see what that leads to.

Then take the next step.

And see what that leads to. And so on.

The difference between The Fool and some other Tarot cards that offer permission to follow your own unique path is that The Fool in particular says,

“Stay connected to your heart, moment by moment. 

Know that your heart may change, and so your direction may change, moment by moment.  But DO NOT allow yourself to think less of yourself, your efforts or your path because of that.  Go where your heart tells you and you will achieve more than most will ever even hope for.”

This is the card of the Sacred Fool, the Holy Fool;  the one who is open to divine inspiration and honors it by following his or her bliss, harm to none and love for all, always.

IF we know our hearts truly truly;

IF we honor that which truly resonates for the Highest and Best,

which is always one with OUR Highest and Best;  

IF   we

follow

our

bliss.

Wishing you a day of magic, and the sacred, and your true path.

Brightest Blissings!

Quote for the Day: I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. ~ Douglas Adams from The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul

Today’s Weather:   Widdershins wobblers. Whoopa, hey mesa, hooba huffa! 

On This Date: 2006 – Witnesses report seeing a bottlenose whale swimming in the River Thames, the first time the species had been seen in the Thames since records began in 1913.

Tristram & Isolt

Fortune Cookie: Be there! Be open!  Reach out for the ☼☼☼NEW☼☼☼ that is coming into your life!  Let yourself be available to receive and pursue it.  RIGHT NOW!!!!

Hmmmmmm… This card last showed up toward the end of September.  I’m glad it’s back, because I know at least a couple specific people for whom this is the PERFECT card just this minute.  So, in case YOU are one of them, please pay attention and take advantage of what the card offers fer the luvva whatever you consider sacred!

And, once again, again, again, my interpretation of this card varies some from the norm. This kinda thing surely no longer surprises anybody.

Many readers would respond to this card by suggesting things like friendship, affinity, concord, union, even love.   Some might say it bespeaks a complementary match, or a very solid relationship.

I may weep.

 Okay.

Okay.

Look:

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, finds things like the beginning of a trusted partnership, rapport and the forming of strong emotional bonds.

Not even I would be idiot enough to fight with that, or to want to. So especially if any of those interpretations resonate with you – in terms of what you’re seeking lately or in terms of what the Universe seems to be offering today – honor it.  Seek it.  Go after it full tilt. 

But when this card has turned up for many clients, the intuitive information that almost always pops out of my mouth is,

“Look:

Some amazing (or beautiful or tremendously healing or whatever) NEW ENERGY(or opportunity or person or position or vision) is trying to come into your life.

It will, if you let it, sweep you off in a

wonderful,

beautiful,

incredibly positive

NEW DIRECTION.

LET IT!

LET IT!

LET IT! ”

So:

Be there! Be open!  Reach out for the ☼☼☼NEW☼☼☼ that is coming into your life!  Let yourself be available to receive and pursue it.  RIGHT NOW!!!! 

Bright blessings and beautiful new directions!

Quote for the Day: Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead it’s about becoming more fully human. . . . ~ Lama Surya Das

Today’s Weather:  Partly frowsy with occasional cannoli. Stay off the sidewalk during blustery shellfish.

On This Date: 1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartooncharacter created by Elzie Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatrecomic strip.