Tarot Card for the Day ~ December 1

 

King of Swords

Mordred

Haven’t seen this feller since back in February. Guess we’d better pay some attention here.

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.  Man!

Okay, so here are some of the interpretations I’ve gotten from others:

~ the bloody bastard who never knows when to stop fighting

~ the 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

~ the revolutionary   

So if any of those interpretations mesh with how it seems you need to be in your life just now, (or represent the energy that’s intersecting/interfering with your life), then pay attention and act accordingly – i.e., if it’s about 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 back 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 flakey, 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.

“As a result of the first and second issues, 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 how they would best blend together. He refines his goals, and then develops a specific, detailed plan that incorporates every major step necessary to take him from where he is to where his ideals and passions would have him be.

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

Hard work, but worth the effort.  

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.]

What are your highest ideals?  What are your deepest passions?  Where do they intersect and support each other?  What are the steps that will carry you to them?  How can you begin those steps TODAY?

 

Bright blessings, high ideals, passion and success!

Quote for the Day:   In Japan, employees occasionally work themselves to death. It’s called Karoshi. I don’t want that to happen to anybody in my department. The trick is to take a break as soon as you see a bright light and hear dead relatives beckon. ~ Scott Adams

 

Today’s Waethyr:  Bongo loco. Prune lovatos skittering sloppily across the firmament.  And softament.  Floss before striking.

On This Date: 1955 – American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Tarot Card for the day ~ November 30

The Tower

Vortigern’s Fortress

Uh-GAIN? 

This is the third time this card has shown up in November. 

That would lead me to believe some of us really do need to go back to the shop and hammer out a few of the most basic details about who we are, what we believe, what is the capital of Abyssinia [Sorry! Wrong movie!], what we want to build and why.  Or maybe we all need to do so, especially as we move into the emotional maelstrom that is the holidays.  Because the Tower has come to tweak our karma uh-gain! 

As I’ve written before, it’s such a valuable card.

So here we go.  I hope.  Pretty please.

This is definitely one of those OhBugger! kinda cards, [and we seem to be seeing them regularly of late, eh?] at least from its appearance. 

It’s one of those cards for which − by my interpretation, which veers a good piece from the norm − I’m supposed to tell you, “Ah, yes, yes, yes.  Don’t jump to conclusions.  Don’t leap before you look.  Really significant opportunities for growth here.” 

Remember the teachers (from High School Math types to your skating coach to Ram Dass to Sai Baba to Miss Laura on Romper Room to even President Obama) who have said that?  It always really means, “Get ready for some work!”  Even I admit that, and I have the honesty quotient of a watermelon.  In winter. 

Well, so, maybe that hard work thing IS the case here.  Maybe.  But with this card, it’s also a matter of IMPORTANT work that will be worth your time and attention for sure.   Hard work, maybe, but SO VERY meaningful.

Now, The Tower isn’t a dire card, at least not as I’ve been given to understand it – intuitively and through my experience with clients. 

But when my clients see it as it’s depicted in the Legend deck − a huge red dragon fighting a ginormous white one, completely destroying a massive royal fortress in the process – it sort of makes them go, “Eeep,” if not  “Holy St. Swithin,” suck in their breath,  swallow hard and say, “WTF!”  [That’s Westminster Tiramisu Foundation.]

So what’s different about my understanding of the card and what it offers?  I usually say something like:

“Okay, I know it looks scary, dragons fighting, castles blown to bits.  But really, it’s positive.

“No, REALLY!

“The card is asking you examine yourself, your dreams and your being. 

“It’s saying, ‘Hey.  Stop for a minute.  Look at your life.  Think about it for a minute.  

“If you take your life down to its foundation, down to what’s REALLY important, what’s really essential to the you that is really you, then WHAT IS THAT TRUE FOUNDATION?  Who are you?  What are you?  What is it that you really have to build upon, and wish to build upon, this time around?  And, by the way, what will you build upon it?’”

This evaluation should be applied to every area of significance in your life, particularly those in which you’re experiencing some transition.  [Transition.  What a weenie word.  How about stress.  Or wobble.  Or outright caving in.  Better?)

What is the true foundation – for YOU:

What is the true foundation of career?

What is the true foundation of family?

What is the true foundation of relationships – of each and every kind, from the most intimate and powerful to minor friendships to the bagger at the grocery store?

What is the true foundation of joy?

What is the true foundation of spiritual connectedness?

What is the true foundation of physical health?

What is the true foundation of emotional health?

What is the true foundation of creativity?

What is the true foundation of home?

What is the true foundation of beauty?

And so on, all through the entire list: everything on your own personal list of areas of your life that are important to you. 

What IS the true foundation for YOU?

Once you know what your various true foundations are, then you can determine what you’d like to build upon them, how you want to do it, and what the best way is to go about it. 

And it’s perfectly okay if what you wish to build changes.  It can be a villa one week, a pagoda the next, a log cabin sometime next month and a fairy castle sometime after that.  So long as you know what your foundations are, and honor them, then what you are about building is and will be perfect.

What are your foundations in each area of your being?  How can you be mindful of them?  How can you stay mindful of them?  What do you wish to build upon them?  How can you begin today?  

Bright blessings and a deep, happy, helpful knowing of yourself!

Quote for the Day: Christmas crept into Pine Cove like a creeping Christmas thing: dragging garland, ribbon, and sleigh bells, oozing eggnog, reeking of pine, and threatening festive doom like a cold sore under the mistletoe.  ~ Christopher Moore from The Supidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror 

Today’s Weather:  Wampeters.  Miscognition. Paralapsed woomics.  You might as well just start the day with a jelly donut.  

On This Date: 1786 – Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgates a penal reform making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty. For this, November 30 is commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day.

And: 1954 – In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges Meteorite crashes through a roof and hits a woman taking an afternoon nap in the only documented case of a human being hit by a rock from space. [So keep a low profile.]

Tarot Card for The Day ~ November 29

Ace of Spears

The Grail Lance

We last saw this card just before Labor day.

As those of you who have read this blog for even only a few days will likely remember, Aces in any Tarot deck are cards of a new beginning.  So, let’s ask again (and again and again, from time to time as the Universe recommends it):

~ 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 that question until you (yes, you!  Don’t try to weenie out of it this time!) truly remember to ask it over and over again as a part of who you are!

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.  

[So ’scuse me while I have a revelation.  Humteedum Deedum.  Humtedee Deedum.  Humtedeedeeedeeeeeee Deeedum.  Ahummmm.  Thank you.]

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. 

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.  I think we could all spend a little more time on this one.

~ 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.  (So it’s assertive rather than aggressive.)  Know what you want for a new beginning.  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 a strong, positive masculine drive would.  Do something concrete about it today. 

Bright blessings and blissings and beautiful, knowing beginnings!

Quote for the Day: At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, and clearly a healthy society permits more satirical comment than a repressive, so that if comedy is to function in some way as a safety release then it must obviously deal with these taboo areas. This is part of the responsibility we accord our licensed jesters, that nothing be excused the searching light of comedy. If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted.

                                                                         ~ Eric Idle 

Today’s Weather: Poconos framboises with occasional rootstalk determinism.  Turtle sideburns.

On This Date: 1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.

 

 

Tarot Card for the Day ~ November 28

Knight of Cups

Galahad

This fellow is back again after only nine days.  Do ya suppose it might be attempting to remind us of what’s REALLY important at this sacred and magical time of year? [WHO said a Razor Pocket Rocket mini electric bike? Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeze.  Why don’t you just go watch that smarmy blonde doofus on Fox so I can talk to serious people here?]

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

[Razor Pocket Rocket my astilbe!]

Therefore, if you have been feeling that your life really isn’t going in the direction you and God (or The Universe, the Universal Life Force, the Big Enchilada, Beyonce, The Voice of John Cleese, Brangelina – 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 George Clooney.  Or Madonna?].  Others could say it indicates someone (maybe you?) ingenious, full of original ideas.

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck I use, feels this card betokens a tempting proposal which deserves serious consideration. [Avoid snakes in apple trees.  Things rarely work out.]  Also, an approaching opportunity for advancement.  Or an unexpected gift.  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.

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!  

Quote for the Day: Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art. ~ Claude Debussy  

Today’s Weather:  Swooping fotheringays jolting up against post-holiday primal precognitions.  I have no idea what that means.  

On This Date: 1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license.  [Do you have any idea how much that is in 21st century bucks?  Like… a lot!]

And: 1893 – Women vote in a national election for the first time: the New Zealand general election.

  Goodbye, Ko-Z.  You dance free among the stars!

Tarot Card for the Day ~ November 27

Four of Shields

King Mark

Oh. 

Bugger. 

It’s been about two months since we last had to face up to this guy, and I still wanna just say Argghhh!

[Spirit of full disclosure:  you might wanna take a couple Tylenol before you try to wade through my interpretation of this card.  Or a couple mushrooms.  Quaaludes.  Something.]

I suppose I say O. B. because this is a card that always gives me hives and reflux.  No attitude to have, perhaps, but the card leads me to say rude things and argue with God when it turns up for me.  So I suppose I better pay [even more] attention [than normal] here.  And if I must, you must.  I’m not dealing with this all by myself, so there!

I feel MUCH better now.  Thanks!

Where were we?

The Four of shields is, in part, a card about strategic planning with really honest, true, deep objectivity.  [I’m an Aquarian.  Need I say more?  See first two lines above.]

As I have confessed before on this blog, I can come up with a brilliant, elegant project planning and tracking system for you if you like.  Just don’t expect me to use the [bleepin’] thing.  That scenario literally happened in an organization I worked for many years ago. 

Anyway, as I say pretty much every time the Four of Shields turns up:

This is one of those cards that clients, particularly intuitive, artistic clients, find incredibly less than charming when it shows in a reading. 

It IS, after all a very

Be grounded in ordinary reality

as you work to take the next steps on your path

until you are soaring –

so eventually you CAN soar

as you deserve to

kind of messenger.

But remember, O artistes, intuitivoes and others of our ilk [and I use the term ilk with the greatest of affection], there are times grounded behavior can be beneficial. 

And hardly painful at all.  Mostly.  I’ve heard. 

[By the way, on that grounded until you get soaring thing: if, as you’ll see below, a key element of this card is to get yourself a wonderful mentor, why do we sometimes have trouble with wanting to do that or following through on it?  

Is it because we’re not clear enough about who we really are and what our goal actually is?  Hmmmmm…?   

And I ask again,  Hmmmmm…?

Because, you know, part of the REASON to hook up with a mentor is so that you can take an honest look at what some realistic goals might be − for the next part of your path, anyway.  And sometimes we’re afraid those goals won’t seem good enough, to us or to others.

Well… Phooey that Shitaki!!!!  {Cleaned that one up.  Yup! Yup!  Yup!}

No matter how high or low the goal, it’s still a matter of one step at a time, over and over again.  And the mentor can help you see that in a useful, perhaps even kindly and encouraging way.  And perhaps help you get a handle on who you really are/who you’re trying to become as well.]    

Where was I? 

Oh.  Okay.

For me the Four of Shields basically says:

~ Be prepared to become concrete in your planning,

    at least for the moment

    [and don’t beat up on yourself if it ain’t easy]

~ 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 some time into the foreseeable future 

  until you will naturally and inevitably soar  

Once upon a time, this whole process was called, simply, Get yourself an amazing and powerful Mentor!  And listen to that mentor’s guidance!  AND FOLLOW THROUGH ON IT!!!! And that can still apply here.

In this blog, if you’ve been around for a bit, you know that I’ve used John Lennon and the Beatles as illustrations of following your bliss despite predictions of failure.  (And if you’ve already read this story at least three times, READ IT AGAIN!  Otherwise it’s back to hustling pay- as-you- go cell phones for you.  Right?) 

Well, aside from the fact that the Beatles were brilliant to the point of magical, they also were able to make some of their first huge leaps because of Brian Epstein. 

He was a superb businessman and their manager beginning in 1962.  He married his ordinary-reality-based magic to his aspirations to be a major player on the music scene and to the Baetles 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 valuable baby step along the path by actually accessing them!

Believe in yourself.  Believe in your dreams.  Help give them focus in ordinary reality by working closely and deeply with insights from someone who can help be an architect of their creation. 

Bright blessings and tremendous success! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! YEAH!!!  

Quote for the Day:  A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men. ~ Roald Dahl 

Today’s Weather:  Polar bearly.  Tofu nuggets from heaven right out the gazebo.  Kiss your rosemary goodbye.  

 On This Date:   1895 – At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies. [There’s a Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris?]  

Tarot Card for the Day ~ November 26

Four of Spears

La Cote Male Tale & Maledisant

Yipes!  A card we haven’t seen since mid-January.  And a perfect card for Thanksgiving Day in the US.  Unless you’re a turkey. 

In most Tarot decks, the Four of Spears would be seen as a card of harmony, prosperity, happy social occasions and perhaps even romance.  So, because most of those things will, or at least should (at least in theory), be on tap for today, by all means go after them in any way that won’t get anybody arrested.  [Ask boozy Uncle Fred for a loan during your joint after-dinner barbershop quartet rendition of “I’m a Lumberjack.”  That should cover everything.] 

When I’m working with a client, I tend to perceive the card as having a stronger energy those attributes listed above, wunnerful though they are.  In fact, I feel this card makes makes a really powerful demand on the person I’m reading for. 

Because of Anna-Marie Ferguson’s illustration for this card in her Legend deck, and the story it portrays, I call it “The Card of the Perfect Marriage.” 

If I were reading for you − as I am, now that I’m sober enough to think of it – I’d suggest you take a few minutes on this holiday for a good, hard, close look at all the major areas of your life, especially the ones that register as REALLY important to you just now – whether business, spiritual path, health, and yeah, even relationship – and ask yourself honestly:

What it would take — from everyone involved — to help the situation so that it can evolve into a “perfect marriage?”  Or, what will it take to be honest with yourself and accept that it probably just ain’t gonna happen?  And what are all the implications either way?

And remember that, at least as it is represented archetypally, marriage is a coming together of opposites.  So think about how something that seems completely the opposite of what you’d normally expect — or would want to try or would think could succeed — might create the harmony, the prosperity, the health, the partnership, the opportunities, the “perfect marriage” you seek.

In the areas of your life most important to you today: What is your perfect marriage?  What steps will it take to get you there?  How can you begin, at least with a baby step, today?

Bright blessings and happy realizations!

And a beautiful, hope-filled, happy Thanksgiving to all!

Quote for the Day:  There is hope for the world.  ~ Pete Seeger

Toady’s Whether:  Frogpossum spoonerisms pitched at the cerebral cortex of the Vast Machine, tra la! Carry an aperitif. 

On This Date: 1789 – A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.

 

Tarot Card for the Day ~ November 25

Seven of Swords

The Sword in the Stone

This card shows up just about monthly.  It’s one of those cyclical reminders I’m grateful to see, because I think the information and direction in this card is SO tremendously important for all of us.  The clients that have turned this card in a reading, and really honored what it gives, have benefitted tremendously.

So −

As I now ask whenever this card turns for us,

We all remember the story of the Sword In the Stone, right? 

 [Aw, MAN!  Not THAT kind of stone!]

Well, sort of.  Maybe.  A bit.  You think?

What’s important for our understanding of the Seven of Swords is to know that Arthurian legends contain two sword-in-the-stone stories. 

This one takes place long after Arthur has become king, and involves the introduction of Galahad to the court of Camelot.  It’s a story that has been known in and told with a number of variations.

Here’s the essence of the story as it has come to me in my own Shamanic journeying.

The Camelottish folk were all gathered for the Christian feast of Pentecost (or Whitsun  ~ the 49^th/50^th day after Easter) when they saw a huge red marble boulder come floating serenely down the river and right up to Camelot dock, as it were.  Gleaming and protruding from said big red stone was an ornate sword so beautiful it had an aura of its own.

In some versions of the tale the rock is engraved with the words,

“This sword shall only be pulled out by the Best of all Knights.” 

Of course, pretty much every knight lined up to have a heave at it, jostling, grunting, bragging, swearing, betting, whooping, loudly discussing potency inducers, passing around copies of PlayKnight, quietly discussing horseback hemorrhoid remedies ~ about what you’d expect of boys in chain mail in groups.

They all had a go.  And failed.

Then a new, unknown young fellow quietly walked up to the stone.  Without a word, a hesitation or a glance in any direction, he took hold of the sword and pulled it from the stone like light piercing shallow water.  Then he quietly walked back up to the castle and took a seat at the Round Table.  

Thus was Galahad’s presence and stature made known to all, and thus did he rightfully sit in the Siege Perilous, a seat at the Round Table so strictly reserved that it was fatal to anyone else who sat in it.  (There were a few beefcake bimbos who tried.)

Which brings us to the interpretation of the Seven of Swords.  [You did trust I’d get around to it eventually, didn’t you?] 

Traditional readings of this card are pretty down, with words like “dishonor,” “futility,” and “lone wolf” tossed about.  Some readers talk about a person who is intelligent but unorthodox, or suggest that it recommends vigilance against unexpected danger.

Me, I see wonderful and positive things in this card, especially as it is portrayed in the Legend deck.  Anna- Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, by the way, sees it as betokening inspiration, enthusiasm, and the instilling of hope, faith and strength.

[Anybody out there NOT up for that?  If so… GET HELP.  Now.  And possibly a side order of exorcism!] 

When I work with a client and we turn this one up (and it’s amazing how often it shows up in the career section of a reading), I say,

“Own your power. 

Own.

Your. 

Power. 

Own it WITHOUT EGO

but also WITHOUT APOLOGY to anyone.  

Be yourself.  

All of yourself.

Be who you really are. 

And get going at it.”

The Seven of Swords indicates that it’s truly time for you to own your skills, abilities, gifts, potentials, intentions ~ your POWER ~ and let yourself begin to move in a new direction with new purpose.

Now that we are into the beginning of the holiday season, with all its unique magics, it is good to remember that we honor our Creator and The Earth by becoming more and more who we truly are for the highest and best of all.

Own your power.  No ego.  No apology.

Bright Blessings!

Quote for the Day:   It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. ~ Francis of Assisi

 

Today’s Weather :  Stuttering mutherjumpers.  Anodize your periwinkle. 

On This Date:  1984 – 36 top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. 

Tarot Card for the Day ~ November 24

Strength

Percivale’s Vision

We’ve seen this card twice this month.  Good!  It’s always a fortunate card to turn up.  And it usually shows up not a moment too soon!

Obviously, this card betokens its own name: Strength, as well as courage and vitality.  Plus magnanimity − both toward you and emanating from you – [so feel free to send your favorite Tarot reader a beautiful and rare Italian silk almost-anything.  Thank you.]  The card can also indicate perhaps the most perfect light touch of luck.   [So give that a try, yes?]

Really pretty good!   So TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT!  ALL OF IT!!  [Otherwise what are you reading this for?]

Where was I?  [Come to that, Who was I?  Oh yeh…  Boring.]

The Strength card is one of the most utterly positive cards in the deck.  And it does offer a few useful, specific recommendations.

It is very important that you do not underestimate your physical and emotional strength at this time, or doubt the power and durability of your connection to Universal Life Force – God, Spirit, The Big G, Mr. Dylan, der Cheney-Fuhrer or Whatever-You-Name-It. 

In other words, don’t down yourself out or assume less of yourself than you may actually be able to handle.  If opportunities come, REACH!  If challenges come, PUSH BACK!  Don’t just crawl under the bed and hide. 

Believe in your ability to succeed and to attain that which you most desire, particularly in areas of physical healing and achievement and/or emotional connection and healing. 

Draw on your inner strength, which is truly far greater than you give yourself credit for.  So haul that butt up from under the bed.  Right now! I mean it. We’re all waiting.  Come on… Now!

Like many of us, you may need to begin investing some ongoing effort toward actually identifying and functionalizing your connection to your inner strength.  Our culture ain’t so good about that, unless you have forced yourself to march to the same “inner drummer” as everybody else.  Get to know your OWN connection to Source, and work with it.  

We have in us the brilliant, beautiful and eternal power of stars.  It’s up to us to find and focus it.

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, feels this card indicates having the strength and vitality to realize one’s goals, and also ambition tempered with serenity – a gentle strength. 

When I work with clients, I advise them about an additional level of meaning to this card in this particular deck.  I find this to be the card of the visionary – the individual who can see higher, farther, and deeper than others can. 

Sometimes, even more important, this is the person who can see (distinguish clearly) the trees for the forest and the forest for the trees.  So give yourself credit for being able to see things more clearly, and define things more accurately and truly, than the madding crowd around you. 

Own your ability to be the visionary who can, as Robert F. Kennedy so beautifully put it, “…dream things as they never were, and say why not?”  Or see things as they really are, and say, “Nuh-unh sucker!  We don’t play that way NO MORE!”

Trust in your strength and draw on it.  Manage it well when you must, but draw on it.  Believe in your success.  And let your vision of WHAT CAN BE guide you higher and higher beyond the norm of what has been.

Bright blessings, light, clarity and joy!

Quote for The Day:  

— Remember ~ that which does not kill us can only make us stronger.
— And that which does kill us leaves us dead! ~  Terry Pratchett, from Carpe Jugulum

Today’s Whether:  Drivel, dravel, druvel.  Low-wandering bituminous oxymorons. Brush your yak.  

On This Date:  1868 – Scott Joplin, Ragtime composer is born.

And:  1991 – Freddie Mercury, Zanzibar-born singer of Queen, leaves the building. 

Tarot Card for the Day ~ November 23

Five of Swords

Gawain’s Penance

Well, well.  Gawain has shown up (in two different cards) two days in a row. 

I’m reminded of one of the worst movies I ever saw. It starred Sean Connery, in fact.  It was called Sword of the Valiant, and Connery played The Green Knight — brilliant casting, if you remember the legend. 

Unfortunatley, the director must have been aiming for an unsophisticated, probably American audience, or something.  He kept having Connery pronounce Gawain’s name GahWAYNE.  You could see old 007 become more furious every time he had to speak it. Nice costumes, though.

 

Oyeh.  The card.  Sorry.

Kindly PAY ATTENTION then, eh?

In the spirit of something resembling candor [but not actually being candor even though it looks remarkably like candor, as near as I can tell!], I will once again say that my interpretation of this card in readings veers away from that of most readers I know. Alive or otherwise.  Or in between.

Typical readers will say things like degradation, destruction, dishonor, loss.  Yummy, that.  Some might say something like, “Move on.  Learn from your experiences, but be positive.”  Really helpful there.  Really.  I could come up with something like that before my morning caffeine of choice.  REALLY big help, and compassionate, too.  NOT!

Even Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, sees loss, regret, having to accept one’s limitations, or, at best, a valuable lesson, one not to be repeated.

Well buggrall that!  Phooo-hooooooooo-ey upon that !!!!

Based on my intuitive guidance and my experience over the last fifteen years or so, when this card shows up for a client, I stand, shamble up onto my soapbox, throw things at them, shake my jowls(all of them) and bellow:

STOP!   STOP!  STOP!!!

Stop turning your life

into one long gawd-awful penance! 

It ain’t supposed to be.  And you don’t DESERVE it to be!

And stop living as though you have some penance you think you’re supposed to do, especially if doing so seems “justified” according to the sad, warped old belief structures of some bozos who laid their nastiness on ya years ago  ~ even if they are/were people very close to you.  And even if you know they were doing the best they could. 

Reach out for joy, for beauty, for healing, for the highest and best of your potential. 

Constantly rubbing your own nose in the messes of the past will never bring about positive change.  Or a happy nose.

It will only keep you from moving upward, and may even keep you stuck exactly where you are, causing you to repeat errors and disappointments of the past.   

Don’t do that.  That is just purely NOT RIGHT!

Live! 

Know, know, KNOW that you deserve joy and beauty,

that you are entitled to reach for it at every moment

and with every ounce of strength and brilliance you have –

but know that YOU are the only one who CAN reach for it. 

Seek all that is uplifting, and wonderful, and full of Light!  Now!

Bright blessings and joy!  And did I mention JOY!!!?

Quote for the Day:   Only nothing is impossible.  ~ Grant Morrison

Today’s Weather:  Ratta ratta racka racka. (But look out the window, just in case.)

On This Date:  1963 – The BBC broadcast the first ever episode of Doctor Who, starring William Hartnell, which would become the world’s longest science fiction drama to date. 

And:  1995 – Grant Morrison asks readers of his comic book series The Invisibles to participate in a worldwide “wank-off” to give power to a sigil intended to keep the series in circulation.  [Really. Ya can’t make this stuff up.] 

 

Tarot Card for the Day ~ November 22

Knight of Swords

Gawain

Haven’t seen this guy since early September.  It’s one of those cards I have a trouble integrating into my life.

It’s a card that says,

Okay, okay, okay!  You over there!  And you.  You, too!  Everybody! Hey!  Everyone! Up’nat’em!!! 

The Knight of Swords is a card of action.  Fiery, passionate action.  So if there’s something you’ve been putting off, or something you have wanted to do but always delay, today is the day to get started.  With!  Gusto!

However, I will also share that this Knight has occasionally (actually ruddy well frequently) been known to leap before he looks, to the ultimate dismay of himself − and pretty much everybody then involved with cleansing him of the huge, deep pile of meadow muffins he has landed himself in. 

And, he has from time to time gone so far as to find himself moving with such great passion that, all unknowing, he oversteps appropriate bounds, doesn’t check out the situation and its implications thoroughly, and blows his rosy red Orkney rump up in the process − occasionally taking a pile of other good folk down with him in the destruction. 

If he thinks of them at all, he thinks of them as collateral damage.

Other readers see the Knight of Swords as representing skill and bravery, or wrath and war. [A wee tad of distinction there, don’t you think, there, friends?  Eh?] 

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, sees him as a determined, intelligent young man [uh… person] – so keep an eye out – but also as someone who may be overeager to display heroics which causes him to misjudge. [Thus, the meadow muffins.]

SO: 

Get moving.

But take a few moments or a few steps back and check out the terrain pretty thoroughly first. 

And double-check that you are acting with integrity, and doing something that is in fact desired by all parties who have a vote (not to mention something that is in fact for the highest and best). 

 As I’ve said before:

That way you won’t paint your foyer in record time, but paint it the lavender shade that was discussed while tippling on New Year’s Eve rather than a pale ice gray − you know, the color that matches the paint chip that was left under your wallet before you headed to the hardware store.  Doofus.

Go after it, but go after it smart, careful, clear and clean!    

Bright Blessings and a Soft Landing!

Quote for the Day:

This book will prove the following ten facts:
1. A Goon is a being who melts into the foreground and sticks there.
2. Pigs have wings, making them hard to catch.
3. All power corrupts, but we need electricity.
4. When an irresistible force meets an immovable object, the result is a family fight.
5. Music does not always sooth the troubled beast.
6. An Englishman’s home is his castle.
7. The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
8. One black eye deserves another.
9. Space is the final frontier, and so is the sewage farm.
10. It pays to increase your word power. 

      ~Diana Wynne Jones, from Archer’s Goon

Today’s Weather:  Pater Nostalgia degenerating into morgly frumpupances.  Span your bannerjees mindfully indeed.

On This Date:  1928 – The premier performance of Ravel‘s Boléro takes place in Paris.