Tarot Card for the Day ~ January 1

Ten of Spears

The Green Knight

 

What a wonderful and intriguing card to begin the year − and therefore to betoken the nature of the entire year to come!

You may remember that this card showed up exactly two weeks ago, which allowed me to play up some of the mystical-shamanic-Christmas-y aspects of the Green Knight story.  I’ll leave that information in at the end for you to go through.

But what I want you to really latch onto for today and for the whole year to come is this:  

Tens in any Tarot deck betoken the end of one cycle and the beginning of another, or even the end of one way of life and the beginning of another.  So, if I were reading for you today and this card came up, I’d ask:

How do the things you have been experiencing – and more importantly, how do the things you have begun to long for in life just now – represent a strong message to you that you must allow yourself to acknowledge the end of a cycle and the powerful potential for you to move into something wonderful and new, even miraculous?  How can you keep that in front of you not only today, but all through the year?

Then I’d say:

Beyond that general information about cycles, I believe the Ten of Spears says in no uncertain terms, “You.  Yeah, you!  Go on a spiritual adventure.  Let yourself be open to new and incredibly transformative experience.  Keep a sharp eye out for integrity, in yourself and in those around you – particularly teachers and spiritual leaders.  And seek spiritual renewal through the wondrous.  Yes, starting RIGHT NOW.  Get going!  Do IT!”

So, in consideration of the fact that it’s time for you to begin an entirely new phase of your life, and in consideration that I’m reading for YOU today, let me be a little pushy and ask a couple readerly obnoxious questions.  Ahem:

What ARE the spiritual adventures and transformative experiences and magical evolutions you’ve always kinda hungered for but never really had the courage, or cash, or whatever to pursue?  Now, given that you and I are ~

a.) Looking at the specific energy you are being asked to embrace to start this year, and ~

b.) Bearing in mind that you are being asked to accept, own and foster this energy and therefore this transformational nature of yourself over an entire twelve month period (so you don’t think you hafta have it all together by dinner tonight) ~

c.) What dreams, hopes, changes will you PLEASE actually give yourself permission to believe in and REALLY pursue so as to have achieved them by, say, a year-and-a-day from now?    

(Okay, for you Capricorns, Virgos and Aquariuses {Aquariusae?}  [oyeah, Aquarians], you have my permission to take a minute and write the things down in a list on paper.  Aquarians will have lost the list by dinner anyway.)

d.) And what are one or two baby steps you can take today and this week to begin the concrete process of demonstrating your commitment and beginning your quest?  (Aquarius, that would mean finding the list.  Or at least printing out the questions and taping them above your desk.)

So, will you love yourself and the world enough to take those questions on for the New Year?  We’d all sure appreciate it!

By the way, here’s some info about how other folks see the Ten of Spears:

Some see the Ten of Spears as a card of

~ oppressive energy that is overcome to achieve success (So know that you may feel challenged by the nature of the changes or goals you have the courage and give yourself permission to go after.)

~ disguise or false seeming (That’s why it’s important to keep an eye out for integrity in those you connect with, and perhaps even in yourself and your own motives.)

 ~ an awesome task which is successfully accomplished through perseverance (You deserve to take on something awesome.  That’s what’s worthy of you and your true nature.  Besides, that’s why you’re HERE right now.  Right?)

So, for today and for this year:

How will you (how would you wish to) end one cycle and begin another?  How will you go on a wonderful, transformative spiritual adventure?  How will you be open to miraculous experiences, and recognize the miraculous nature of yourself?  How will you guard your integrity and seek for it in others?  How will you make this the most beautiful and wondrous of years?

Bright blessings and miracles!

And a Happy, Joyous, Beautiful, Healing, Hopeful, Magical New Year!

*******

Here’s the info about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.  (The official version is at http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/arthur/art193.htm  .)

The story of Gawain and the Green Knight is a tale that begins during the Christmas season at Camelot.

My abbreviated version:  one evening at Christmastide Arthur and all the members of the court sit around after dinner, waiting for a holiday wonder.  Into the great hall rides a huge green knight on a huge green horse.

Richly clad, the knight carries a bough of holly in one hand and a huge battleaxe in the other.  He challenges Arthur to a “Christmas jest.”  Arthur is about to accept the game when Sir Gawain, Arthur’s nephew, steps forward and says (more or less), “Yo!  My liege.  Somethin’ funny here.  Lemme play this one for you.”  The King gives his assent.

The Green Knight, obviously of the Faery realm, offers Gawain the axe and one chance to behead him, adding that if he “abide the stroke” (survives), in a year and a day the Green Knight would have the right to give him a whack in return.   

Gawain takes the axe and in one blow severs the big guy’s head from his body.   All the court sits back, saying, “Oh, well.  Too bad.  Whaddya gonna do?  Somebody clean up this mess,” and so on.

At which point the Green Knight’s body leans over, picks up its head, hops on the horse and turns the head toward Gawain.  The head says, “Many men know me as the knight of the Green Chapel, and if thou askest, thou shalt not fail to find me. Therefore it behoves thee to come, or to yield thee as recreant [wussy].”

So, a year later, Gawain does indeed seek him out and has several wondrous adventures, as they say, in the process.

Tarot Card for the Last Day of the Year!

Nine of Cups

 

The Healing of the Maimed King

 

 

What an absolutely perfect card for the last day of the year! 

 

The only thing that could be better would be to have this as the card for the first day of the year.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  Picky, picky, picky!   Listen, it’s my job!

 

I’ve blogged about this card before, and what I said then is − it’s an absolutely positive card in every way. 

 

For me, the nines in any Tarot deck indicate a very near completion of a cycle and/or the first stirrings of moving into a new cycle, a new great opportunity, a new realm.

 

When I turn the Nine of Cups for a client, I find that it promises a clear and profound opportunity for the full and final healing of old, poisonous wounds, provided the person will believe in, reach out for and be open to it. 

 

The card betokens kindness, generosity, hope and wisdom.  It is a card of achievement, success, emotional well-being. 

 

It portends the dawn of beautiful dreams. 

 

Because the Arthurian story of the Healing of the Maimed King involves a sacred healing and ceremony performed by Galahad, Percivale and Bors, three of the greatest and purest of knights, this card can also speak of an effective team working well toward a common goal. 

 

So with all that to work with, GO FOR IT!  Or if appropriate, LET YOURSELF RECEIVE IT!

 

One last thing.  I have written this about the Nine of Cups:

 

I’m reminded of a wonderful recorded talk I heard by the spiritual teacher Bo Lozoff.  At one point he said something like, “I know two things are true.  We’re all going to die.  And we’re all saved.”  It’s the “We’re all saved” part of the Nine of Cups that I’d like you to focus on right now – especially at the end of a somewhat bumpy year.

 

In our true, ultimate spiritual reality, everything is forgiven.  Everything is healed.  Everything is blessed.  Everything is perfect.  Already.  So if that’s the case, why not give yourself permission to know yourself as the beloved, complete, perfect vessel of Light you are? Then operate from the goodness inherent in the nature of THAT being.  Try it for a while.  I think you’ll really like it.

 

Let the old wounds heal.  Open to a beautiful new beginning.  Believe in generosity and kindness as your just desert.  And give likewise to others in their hope and healing.

 

As the year comes to a close, let me thank you all for joining me in these little daily explorations.  I hope you find them helpful and enjoyable.

 

Bright blessings, light and healing!!

 

And best wishes for a beautiful, sacred, fulfilling and magical New Year!

Tarot Card for the Day ~ December 30

Ace of Spears

The Grail Lance

 

As those of you who have worked with me will remember, Aces in any Tarot deck are cards of a new beginning.  So, especially as we move to close out this year:

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

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

~ What potentials can you believe in, hope for, reach for and remember?

Expect The Universe will keep asking those questions until you (and we all) truly remember to ask it over and over again as a part of  who we are alla tyme!

Some readers feel the Ace of Spears has to do with invention or creation, and perhaps with an inheritance.  Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, finds mental activity, revelation and beginning anew to be elements of the card’s meaning.

I believe the Ace of Spears asks for two things when it appears. 

~ First, it reminds you to become very clear within yourself about something you want or some goal you would achieve.  It is, therefore, important that you know specifically what you want to go after – perhaps some major wish in life, or perhaps just a current, interim, in-the-moment thing that will be helpful or fulfilling for a short time, or serve as a useful next step. 

And it is equally important that you be clear about why you want it.  What are your true motivations, and are they really for the highest and best? So this card is also about being conscious of what you would do and have, and of your impact on the world.

~ Then, once that first, more internal step is completed, the Ace of Spears directs you to use strong, clean, clear, non-repressive and non-repressed masculine energy as your model − think Dalai Lama, maybe? – and simply go after your wish or goal confidently, firmly and directly.  Know what you want.  Pursue it.  Yourself.  Today!

What is your new beginning?  Be clear in what you want.  Be clear about the why of it.  Go after it directly, the way anyone with strong, positive masculine energy would.  Do something concrete about it today.  

Bright blessings and beautiful beginnings!

Tarot Card for the Day ~ December 29

Knight of Spears

Bedivere

 

Well, this is a card that makes some sense from a Whaddya gonna do? It’s Monday of the last week of the year! So whaddya expect from me? kind of perspective.

And it’s one of those cards for which my interpretation deviates some from the pack −which fits perfectly with the card, as you will see.  

Typical readings declare the Knight of Spears to betoken departure, a change of residence, etc.  So if those things are on your mind, take advantage of that energy and move along.  Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck I use sees this Knight as sociable, committed to fully developing abilities and acting on intuition — an interpretation I like, of course.

I see the Knight of Spears as the card of The Eccentric.  It represents the individual who knows what her or his goal is and what the best path will be to get there − even though it may seem the least likely path, and perhaps even the least useful goal to almost everyone else. 

The Knight of Spears will therefore have to put up with a great deal of sage (and mostly useless) advice from everyone else about what to aim for and where to go.  The Knight will perforce take all that in with grace and “goode humour” − to a point.  Once that point is passed, she or he will simply start down her or his own path anyway.  And if that doesn’t work, she/he will begin nudging the well-meaning obstacle (person) out of the way.  And if that doesn’t work, she/he will walk her noble steed right over the blockage.  And if that doesn’t work, she/he will simply take out a spear and put it right through the center of the silly f… Well, you get the idea.

So, today − and as you tie things up for this year and begin to prepare for the next − know your goal and know what you believe to be your best path to achieve it.  Be completely unsurprised if NOBODY else gets it.  Be true to your unique gifts and hopes – to your eccentricity, if you like.  But get going.

Bright Blessings!

Tarot Card for the Day ~ December 28

The Emperor

 

 

Arthur

 

A powerful, positive card, it encourages us to see the goodness flowing to us and our world.  Even more, it asks that we be open to it.

 

The Emperor is a card of intellect used well and accomplishment attained.  For some clients, I find it indicates that they may be thrust into a new position of power, even if they have not sought it.  When that is the case, I ask that they accept the new responsibilities (and the attendant opportunities) graciously.  I say, “If the Universe didn’t think you were ready for this, it wouldn’t have put you in a position to receive it.  So go for it and be brilliant about it!”

 

Be open to the helpful counsel of others, so that a greater wisdom can be attained and acted on.

 

This is a card of progress and security.  So believe in that – own that − as THE true, evident and inevitable possibility.

 

Use your wonderful intellect very well today; that’s why you have it.  Seek wisdom through the counsel of others who truly have something helpful to offer.  Know that, through such actions, progress and security can be yours.

 

Bright blessings!

Tarot Card for the Day ~ December 27

Four of Shields

 

King Mark

 

 

Well, well.  This card appeared almost exactly one month ago.  Looks like someone wasn’t taking the old STRATEGIC PLANNING thing seriously.  Well, here’s a last minute chance to get some in before the New Year’s BIG WISH CEREMONY happens.  Right?  

 

As I said last time, this is one of the cards that clients, particularly intuitive, artistic clients, like least − you should have heard the language that originally went through my head! − when it shows up in a reading.  It IS, after all a very Be grounded in ordinary reality as you prepare to take your next steps kind of messenger.

 

Remember, O artistes, intuitivoes and others of our ilk (and I use the term ilk lovingly), there are times grounded behavior can be beneficial.  And hardly painful at all.

 

For me the Four of Shields basically says:

 

~ Be prepared to become concrete in your planning,

   at least for the moment

~ Do this in the following way:

~ Find someone who is an acknowledged expert in

   what you seek to achieve, and/or who is a

   respected (especially by you) wizard in the successful

   laying out of the kind of path you seek to walk

~ Work together closely, over some time to develop  

   YOUR plan

~ Follow that plan.  And follow it carefully,

   at least for the foreseeable future  

 

Once upon a time, this whole process was called, simply, Get Yourself a really good Mentor!  And that can still apply here.

 

In this blog, I’ve used John Lennon and the Beatles as illustrations of following your bliss despite predictions of failure.  Well, aside from the fact that they were brilliant to the point of magical, they also were able to make their first big leaps because of Brian Epstein.  He was a superb businessman and their manager.  He married his ordinary-reality-based magic to his aspirations to be a player on the music scene and to their incomparable artistry and passion and the world was changed.

 

Now, maybe you don’t have a Brian-the-Wizard to pull out of your hat. Yet.  But who and what DO you have?  How can you access him/her/them?  Give it some thought today, and take that concrete and valluable baby step along the path.

 

Believe in yourself.  Believe in your dreams.  Help give them focus in ordinary reality with insights from someone who can help be an architect to their creation.

 

Bright blessings and tremendous success!    

Tarot Card for the Day ~ December 26

Ten of Cups

 

Corbenic

 

 

Well, the spirit of the Holidays is apparently meant to continue for us this week.

 

First of all, tens in any Tarot deck betoken the end of one cycle and the beginning of another, or even the end of one way of life and the beginning of another.  So, in reading for a client, I ask them to consider how the things they are experiencing – and more importantly, what they are seeking in life just now – represent the potential end of a cycle and moving into something wonderful, new, even miraculous.

I consider the Ten of Cups to be one of the two great WISH cards of the deck. 

 

So, when I work with a client and this card turns up, I usually say something like:

“Ohboy!  Ohboy!   Ohboy! [Sometimes I’m subject to bursts of enthusiasm.]  You shall have comfort, joy, healing and delight − perhaps through what may seem almost miraculous intervention –

IF you are clear within yourself about what your wishes truly are,

IF you truly believe in the goodness and the justness of your wishes,

IF you allow yourself to believe in miracles,

AND IF you hold true to your quest, moment by moment by moment, no matter how farfetched or hopeless it may seem, no matter how misunderstood you and your quest may be by everyone else.”

 

The Universe smiles on those who stretch the fabric of our reality by thoroughly embracing the miraculous in their existence.  Remember though: it can’t be a half-assed embrace.  You have to really reach out and take hold.  You have to let yourself KNOW that the miraculous operates in your life NOW.   

So, it might be very useful to go through today repeating at least a thousand times,

“I create miracles. My life IS miracles.”

Because you do, and it is.  With every breath, every thought, every hope, every smile, there are millions of miracles being born within and through you.

Let the Universe see that you believe it, and watch what unfolds.

Bright blessings!

Tarot Card for the Day ~ December 25

Six of Cups

In Ector’s Keeping

 

Well, what a perfect card for the day, whatever spiritual path you may walk (or run from).

As I always say to my clients, “Remember when you were eight years old and summer lasted forever, and all you really  had to was love your dog and go swimming with your friends?”   Well, that’s the energy and essence of this card.

The Six of Cups is a card that bespeaks the beauty and the joy and the innocence and the wisdom of an almost ideal childhood.  So in your connections and interactions today:

·        Look for a quality like that in all those you meet.  If you can’t find it, you’re probably not with the right people, at least for today.  So, if it’s at all possible given the day, keep on moving till you’re with someone or someones whose energy is those wonderful things.  Let yourself share in them and be happy and comfortable there.

·        Try to find new ways for yourself to be a calm, still, comforting pool in the center of the manic muddle around you.  Especially give yourself permission to be that way to and for yourself.  Call to mind all that which is and has been beautiful, and hopeful, and healing in your world, and keep those things flowing through your mind.  (If you do Reiki, start Reikiing yourself and everything in your vicinity the moment you read this, and keep going from there.)   

Also, this is a card that suggests you may have old friends re-enter your life.  Be open to that as a possibility today.  (If they do, offer them the sacramental gift of a cheap tie or a fruitcake.)

Easy, sweet, nostalgic in a positive way, calm and comforting ~ that’s the theme to get you through the day.

Bright blessings!  And

MerryHappy Everythingandthensome!

Tarot Card for the Day ~ December 24

The Horned One

 Cernunnos

 

Wow!  What a card for the season!  And if you walk a Christian path, what a card for Christmas Eve!

Following a Shamanic spirituality as I do, I simply consider this the most powerful card in the deck.  Let me describe it a bit for you.

 

There’s a beautiful, powerful fellow sitting cross-legged out in the woods under a bright full moon.  His legs are shaggy and end in hooves.  He has stag’s antlers protruding from his head.  In his right hand he holds a golden torque ~ symbol of kingship ~ in his left hand a live serpent.  He is surrounded by folk of the wood ~ fox, otter, boar, stag, frog. 

 

The painting on the card is depicts the images on the famous Gundestrup cauldron, a first century BC ritual silver cauldron found in a Danish bog.  Sacred objects like this were cast into bogs ~ places of power and magic ~ as sacrificial gifts.

 

Cernunnos is the Celtic incarnation of the horned God.  He is the Lord of the Animals.

 

In the spirit of full disclosure, in other decks, this card is depicted by the devil, sometimes with attendant negative connotations.  Even Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, alludes to the card’s primordial power, with the need to channel power positively, without illusion and for good.

 

Here is what I see in the card, based on many years of working with clients.  This is a truly shamanic card in that it says, “You have the capacity to connect with the realm of Spirit.  You have an ability to bring Spirit down into ordinary reality in a way that can functionally, positively bring about change. 

 

“Because you have that capacity ~ from the Shaman’s perspective ~ you have the OBLIGATION to develop it and use it for the highest and best of all.”

 

So, in this very sacred season, and on what some consider the most joyously sacred of nights,

~ explore your connection to Spirit (your Guardian

   Angels, the Universal Life Force, God, Goddess or    

   however you perceive It/Him/Her/Them)

~ believe in ~ in fact ASSUME ~ a functional

  connectedness

~ open yourself to the goodness and healing and

   wisdom that Spirit offers

~ use your connection to understand how to bring

   about positive change through your being

   and through your prayerwork in your

   day-to-day life.

 

Brightest blessings, joy, hope and healing!

Tarot Card for the Day ~ December 23

Six of Swords

The Eachtra

 

 

As I said last time this card turned for us, the Six of Swords as I work with it has several layers of meaning, and requires a bit of storytelling and explanation.  So please bear with me.  Go get a beer, a bowl of fudge ripple or Tofutti, mug of hot tea, whatever. 

 

According to Anna Marie Ferguson, author of A Keeper of Words  − the book that accompanies Legend,the Arthurian Tarot  − The Eachtra is the Irish phrase for an Otherworld journey and adventure.  In some Arthurian legends, there is a great quest in which Arthur and his knights venture to the realm of Annwn − the Celtic Underworld − to win and bring back magic and magical tools for the grace and hope of Camelot.

 

Let’s see.  An otherworld journey and adventure…  That’s a pretty perfect thing to have recommended for right now. We are, after all, in the season when, according to many traditions, the veils between ordinary reality and the realms of spirit are the thinnest they will be all year.  How will you let yourself explore the doorways to goodness, wisdom and healing that are available just now?  Dream on it a tleast, I hope!

 

Anyway, back to the card, more or less.  In the teachings of modern core shamanism, journeying is the term given to the deep, powerful meditation used by shamanic practitioners to travel to alternate realities. Often, the first teaching journeys are to the lower world, into beautiful, fruitful, healing darkness entered through an opening into the Earth.   

 

So, in my work with clients, and based on my shamanic work, I’ve come to refer to this as The Journeywork Card. 

 

The Six of Swords directs us to go deep – deep within the self, into the core of our hopes and dreams, to the very essence of our being. It tells us to believe in, seek and find the beautiful, powerful, enlightening treasure within us. And it asks us to then embrace it fully and bring it up and out into the world to share with and benefit all.

So, in this sacred season:

 

Explore the realms of the sacred and the healing.  Go deep within and find the treasure there, then bring it out to share with us all.  Be part of the beautiful and powerful magic of the season.

Bright blessings and miraculous journeys!

 

[For more information on journeying, please see my article at

 

http://shamanspath.org/index_ShamanicJourneyIntro.htm  ]