Tarot Card for the Day ~ February 1

Eight of Swords

Guenevere at the Stake

Fortune Cookie: Reach out. Ask for help. Let yourself receive help − help of all kinds from all appropriate levels. Especially seek assistance from those who are extremely capable of helping you understand, take on and overcome the difficulties [or go after the new goals] that may be trying to creep up [or emerging]. 

 

Okay.  For those of you who weren’t paying attention on January 10th and 11th…

Yo! Yo!  Ovah Heeeyah!  Yeah.  Heeeyah!  I’m tawking to you!

PAY ATTENTION!  

[And by the way, what DIDN’T you ask for help with back then that you might have.  Eh?]

As I said the last couple of times this card showed up, this is really one of those cards that a client only has to see for about a second before they start whining and puling.  Can’t say I blame them, based on how the Eight of Swords is usually depicted.

Even in my Legend deck, the largest elements are Guenevere tied to the stake, wood piled about her, the executioner (looking very much like Lurch from the original Adams family) ready to set the pyre alight.  Charmin’ all ’round, ’tis.

So when intuitive consultants (Tarot readers) typically offer interpretations along the lines of bad news, conflict, slander, crisis, regret and being held at a disadvantage − I suppose I can see why a client might whimper some.

However − as most of you have already begun to say under your breath – Nealio don’t see it THAT way. 

Let’s think about something for a second.  [Yes, you have to.  Have another coffee or a strawberry cough pancake for pity’s sake.] 

Why do people come to guys like me for a reading? [Be nice.  Remember, I still know your email address.] [And besides, I need that info for a marketing blitz.]

They should NOT NOT NOT come to a Tarot reader just to hear what’s gonna happen.  They SHOULD work with people like me to learn what THEY need to know that will help THEM maximize success and optimize outcomes!  BIIIIIIIG difference! 

I like a phrase my wife shared with me.  “Some American Indians think of prophecy as that which can be changed.”

So, you come to me for a reading.  The Eight of Swords turns up.  You start looking for a place to hide.  You find you don’t fit under the table and you can’t leap from the window because we’re in a basement.

So I say,

Wait a minute! Wait!  Wait!  Wait!

[Wait!]  Don’t leap (or claw your way up) to conclusions! 

The first thing this card is telling you is that, if you’ve been feeling bound, trapped, concerned that there’s some negativity trying to bring you down, you’ve been right.  You’re not just being a wuss.

But!  BUT!!!!!  Look carefully at the card, Watson.  The Queen is tied to the stake and about to become an order of crispy-crunchy, dipping sauce upon request, no vegans please.  However, peer more closely [I’m exerting peer pressure] and you’ll see there are knights coming over the hill, riding to her rescue.  And, if you remember your old Richard Harris movies, they will succeed.

This card is a gift to you, warning you in advance of possible crisis and other down-side realities.  And sure, if you freeze like a deer in the headlights, you will become Highway Delight.      

How should you deal with this card?  Do what Guenevere did. 

Reach out. 

Ask for help.  

Let yourself receive help − help of all kinds from all appropriate levels. 

Especially seek assistance from those who are extremely capable of helping you understand, take on and overcome the difficulties [or go after the new goals] that may be trying to creep up [or emerging]. 

That will lead you to the most positive outcome possible, and even to a successful turnaround of the situation.

This card offers an end to adversity and a new beginning.

Let me repeat that for greater effect:

This card offers

an end to adversity

and a new beginning.  

But you have to reach out for it and grab the help when it’s there.  (After all, don’t you owe it to all the rest of us to make your life, and thus the greater vibration, better?)

Feeling tied down or tied in knots?  DON’T try to handle it alone.  Reach out.  Get general support from all those who care about you.  Engage those who have the strength, skill and wisdom to help you free yourself and move on to new, bright possibilities.  And make it a habit not to go solo any more.  Reach out.  Ask for help − of the highest and best kind.

Bright blessings, hope, peace and joy!

Quote for the Day: I find letters from God dropt in the street—and every one is sign d by God’s name… ~ Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass

Today’s Weather: You are an incomparably accurate weather report.  READ YOURSELF: FOR A CHANGE. 

On This Date: 1884 – Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.

Tarot Card for the Day ~ January 31

Two of Shields

Castle Pendragon

Fortune Cookie: Honest and open dialogue is important today.  So is networking.  Get out and meet new people. Make new connections for your potential benefit. 

Well.  We haven’t seen this card on the blog since October, 2008.  And yet it came up for more than half of the six people I read for on Saturday.  Gee, I wonder if that means it’s an important card for just now?  Whaddya think?

Some readers see this card as betokening recreation.  Others find it to be about receiving news in writing.  Some say it indicates that the querent is juggling a lot of things at the moment, and must work to keep things on an even keel.

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend Tarot, writes of successful handling of fluctuating fortunes, employing creative maneuvers and the reevaluation of plans. 

So if any of those things resonate for you based on what you’re experiencing lately, by all means take advantage of this card’s insights and make skillful moves on your own behalf. 

In working with clients over a number of years, I find a couple of other recommendations to be useful when this card comes up.

First, it’s a card about networking.  Get out and meet new people, learn about them and have them learn about you. 

On a deeper level, it’s a card about honest and open dialogue.  You must speak your truth − calmly if possible – directly to those who need to hear it and/or those who can help you follow through with what your truth requires.  But then you must ALSO quietly, compassionately listen to the responses of the person you have addressed, and take their honest words into consideration.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly for all of us lately, this is 

The card of

the Kozmic Giggle. 

It’s a card that counsels us to retain a sense of humor when done in by mishaps.  And even in a loving, Spirit-driven universe, there may be some.

So network.  Engage compassionately in honest and open dialogue.  And try to keep it light!

Brightest blessings!

Quote for the Day: “This wise clown of compassion is a genuine mahatma of the Cosmic Giggle.” ~ Ram Dass, speaking of Wavy Gravy

During the first Woodstock Festival, Wavy Gravy and fellow members of the Hog Farm Collective were put in charge of security, which was remarkably low-key. The backstage password was “I forgot,” typical of the good-natured whimsy of the era.  Wavy called his rather unorthodox security group the “Please Force…”  ~ From Wikipedia  [A great illustration of working WITH the Kozmic Giggle.]

Today’s Waethyr:  Heh-heh.  Heh-heh-heh.  Heh.  Heh-heh.

On This Date: 1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.

 

Tarot Card for the Day ~ January 30

Ten of Cups

Corbenic 

Fortune Cookie: Stretch the fabric of your reality by thoroughly embracing the miraculous in your existence.  Remember though: it can’t be a half-assed embrace. 

I bet you’d like to come to this site once in a while and just have me get right to the card, huh?

Okay.

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, when this card comes up in a reading for a client, I ask them to consider how the things they are experiencing – and more importantly, what they have begun to seek in life just now – represent the potential end of a cycle and moving into something wonderful, new, even miraculous.

How can you acknowledge the end of a cycle?

How can you recognize that the end of this cycle is a positive thing, and is “just in time/just at the right time?”

How can you own the potential to move into something wonderful and powerful and new?

Aaaaaaaah, but there’s more to it. [Of course.  Right?]

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

So, when this card turns  – after I stop beaming at the client and stop wondering why it hasn’t come up in a reading for me lately − 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:

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 truly believe in miracles,

AND IF you hold true to your miraculous 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.”

[Corbenic is one of the names given to the castle in which the Holy Grail resided until the Grail knights achieved their sacred quest.  The Grail Kings, guardians of the Grail, held to their family’s sacred mission for hundreds of years on faith and belief in the miracles to come.]

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, as I’ve said before, it might be very useful to go through today repeating at least a thousand times,

“I create miracles. My life IS miracles. Our world 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!  And miracles!

Quote for the Day: 

“What is your name?” asked Lear.
“Caius,” said Kent.
“And whence do you hail?”
“From Bonking, sire.”
“Well, yes, lad, as do we all,” said Lear, “but from what town?” ~ Christopher Moore, from Fool: A Novel

Today’s Weather: Moderate tadpoles mixed with intermittent pre-made torvald bangers. A battery powered mandrill could come in handy.

On This Date: 1969 – The Beatles‘ last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.

Tarot Card for the Day ~ January 29

Ace of Spears

The Grail Lance

Fortune Cookie: 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.

We last saw this card around the end of November.

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.  Ahummmmmmmmmmm.  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: Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. ~ Dalai Lama

Today’s Weather:  Showers of Insanely Bad Elf moderated at least in part by the Welsh equivalent of beer nuts. Trym yer dragonwyck, wackyr.

On This Date: 1845 – “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is published in the New York Evening Mirror.

Tarot Card for the Day ~ January 28

Seven of Cups

The Questing Beast

Fortune Cookie: Go after the joy. Seek it, quest after it, demand it!  And for pity’s sake, at least be sure you can actually define what it is − or what it would be, if you had your druthers − for you.

 Okay.  Who isn’t taking this seriously?  Who isn’t paying attention here?  We saw card on Monday, and less than two weeks ago before that. You think I’m just doin’ this for fun?  Huh?  I could be downstairs watching Jeopardy.  Or reruns of Two-and-a-Half Men.  But no.  I’m up here trying to find something vaguely new to say about a card that has come up three times in two weeks.

So are we ready to pay attention? Huh?  Huh?

That’s good, because it’s an important card with a very solid reminder.  A reminder of what?  

A reminder that we really need to work on joyfulness in our lives. Did you STILL not read the Fortune Cookie?

So.  Joyfulness. My advice would be to stop reading this, have a Dos Equis or a coupla mimosas or an Irish coffee or some God Bud pancakes or brownies, or a…

Oh, wait.  Wrong blog.  Right audience, maybe, but wrong blog.

Anyway, we really need to work on joyfulness in our lives.

This is another card where my interpretation may diverge a tidly, tadly [or rather substantial] bit from that of other readers.  And I’m pretty joyful about it.

Some see the Seven of Cups as recommending opening to visions through contemplation. [Or pancakes.]

[Mustn’t argue with that, ever, unless you’re ready to have the Storm Troopers of Light come kick yer butt all across several dimensions, with at least of them being Texas.  And gold lamé spacesuits with ruby go-go boots first thing in the morning is more than I can handle.  Even with God Bud pancakes.] 

Some readers find the card dictates that the querent (questioner) has a choice to make, and must decide upon one of various options.

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, sees this card as betokening – among other things − fantasy, whims or perhaps a bizarre turn of events.  Right up my alley.  [My office cat refers to my office as the Bizar Bazar.] 

I see the Seven of Cups as the card of utter, total complete joy and joyful abandon. 

There may be some need to stay at least a bit grounded, so you DON’T go completely off into the realm of fantasy in a    

“ ҉     ҉     ҉   Wow, look at all the pretty colors!   ҉    ҉    I’ll betcha I can too live on air and rainbows and weird pancakes    ҉     ҉     ҉  !”    kinda scenario.

But [but! but! but! but! but!] this is also the card of Fairy Favors, creativity and clear vision around attaining true desires.  (And, as I said to a client in a recent reading, it really does imply that you’re going to do some meaningful work on defining and owning what your TRUE desires in this life actually are!)

And this can be a great, great time to do some wishcraft around becoming reacquainted with the Green Fey Friends down the garden way come spring time, and work to re-earn the Fairy Favors they offer.

So go after the joy. Seek it, quest after it, demand it!  And for pity’s sake, at least be sure you can actually define what it is − or what it would be, if you had your druthers − for you.

Let yourself renew your belief in and commitment to your happiness, and be open to the myriad magical ways the universe may offer to bring it to you.  Let yourself be open to surprises and miracles in that regard.  And open to a little Fairy Magic today! 

Joy!  Joy!  Joy!

And Joy! 

Bright blessings! 

And don’t forget joy!

Quote for the Day:  I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.  ~  John Lennon

Today’s Weather:  Oceans of sky-borne fluffwads caroming out of control.  Keep a hob or jill in your pocket.  

On This Date: 1887 – In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world’s largest snowflakes are reported, being 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick.  [Dayum!]

Tarot Card for the Day ~ January 27

The Tower

Vortigern’s Fortress

 

Fortune Cookie: Go back to the shop and hammer out a few of the most basic details about who you are, what you believe, what your foundation is, what you want to build — and why. 

As I’ve written before, it’s such a valuable card.  So here we go. 

This is definitely one of those OhBugger! kinda cards, at least from its appearance — in ANY Tarot deck. 

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 Mother Teresa to Miss Laura on Romper Room and everybody in between) 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 mugwort.  In winter. 

Well, so, maybe that old 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 energy 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-Mewlp,” suck in their breath,  swallow hard and say, “WTF!”  [That’s Welterweight Terpsichore Fundamentalists.]

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 to 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 available 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 MASSIVE 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 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:  How little do we know that which we are!  How less what we may be!  ~ Lord Byron, from Don Juan

Today’s Weather:  Goobernungenlied in translation. Tiny, well-behaved Eurobozos and opera phantoms throughout the afternoon.  Tea!  Tea!

On This Date: 1593 – Vatican opens seven year trial of scholar Giordano Bruno. [And you thought the OJ thing went on forever.] 

And: 1996 – Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day. [In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designates January 27 as an annual international day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era.]

Tarot Card for the Day ~ January 26

Queen of Spears

Dindrane

Fortune Cookie:  What is your unique personal sacred quest?  How can you recommit to it, know it more fully, and take a concrete step toward it today? How can you open to that in you which is compassionate, kind, healing, artistic, gentle, honorable, mystical – and let those qualities become the pillars of your strength?

Well. We last saw this card for the Winter Solstice.  And it’s such a valuable card for our world at this time, so I’m grateful to have it come ’round again. 

Some readers find the Queen of Spears to be a dark, kind, friendly and honorable woman, or any person whose energy reflects those qualities.  Others see her as a person of deep spiritual strength, one who encourages the higher aspirations of others.  I like that.  Still others find her to be the archetypal shepherdess,  or one known for mysticism and visionary experiences. 

I perceive the Queen of Spears to be the card of the feminine sacred quest.  Although most people don’t know it or remember it – even the ones who have read Arthurian legends since childhood – there was one lone woman who was among those who quested for the Holy Grail. 

She was Dindrane, Percivale’s sister.  A princess and an anchoress − in Christianity, a woman who chooses to withdraw from the world to live a solitary life of prayer − she was a most helpful director, motivator and advisor to the only three knights who did in fact ultimately achieve the Grail.  

In our culture, as in most cultures over the past 5,000 years, it is generally the guys who go off questing, pursuing the sacred, etc., etc., etc.  Or at least it’s the fellas whose stories get told.  Time for that to change, and also time for us, umm… penile Americans to aspire to, embrace and foster the divine feminine.

So today, and throughout the winter at the very least:

Ladies: each of you, what is your unique personal sacred quest?  How can you recommit to it, know it more fully, and take a concrete step toward it today?

Gentlemen: how can you open to that in you which is congruent with the energy of the Divine Feminine — compassionate, kind, healing, artistic, gentle, honorable, mystical – and let those qualities become the pillars of your strength?

Bright blessings and the touch of the beautifully and deeply sacred!

Quote for the Day: We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit. ~ E.E. Cummings

Today’s Weather:  Min’string faeriefire out past the meadow. Tote an unwieldy silver cauldron and five pounds of chocolate sprinkles.  Expect a wondour. 

On This Date: 1962 – Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later misses the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).  [Sigh.] 

And: 1988 – Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s The Phantom of the Opera has its first performance on Broadway.

Tarot Card for the Day ~ January 25

Seven of Cups

The Questing Beast

Fortune Cookie: Go after the joy. Seek it, quest after it, demand it!  And for pity’s sake, at least be sure you can actually define what it is − or what it would be, if you had your druthers − for you.

Saw this card less than two weeks ago. That’s good, because it’s an important card with a very solid reminder.  A reminder of what, you may ask?  

A reminder that we really need to work on joyfulness in our lives. Didn’t you read the Fortune Cookie?

So stop reading this, have a coupla mimosas or an Irish coffee or some Blueberry Bud pancakes or brownies, or a…

Oh, wait.  Wrong blog.  Right audience, maybe, but wrong blog.

Anyway, we really need to work on joyfulness in our lives.

This is another card where my interpretation may diverge a tidly, tadly [or rather substantial] bit from that of other readers.  And I’m pretty joyful about it.

Some see the Seven of Cups as recommending opening to visions through contemplation. 

[Mustn’t argue with that, ever, unless you’re ready to have the Storm Troopers of Light come kick yer butt all across at least several dimensions, at least one of them being Texas.  And gold lamé spacesuits with ruby go-go boots first thing in the morning is more than I can handle.  Even with Blueberry Bud pancakes.] 

Some readers find the card dictates that the querent (questioner) has a choice to make, and must decide upon one of various options.

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, sees this card as betokening – among other things − fantasy, whims or perhaps a bizarre turn of events.  Right up my alley.  [My office cat refers to it in her memos as the Bizar Bazar.] 

I see the Seven of Cups as the card of utter, total complete joy and joyful abandon. 

There may be some need to stay at least a bit grounded, so you DON’T go completely off into the realm of fantasy in a    

“ ҉     ҉     ҉   Wow, look at all the pretty colors!   ҉    ҉    I’ll betcha I can too live on air and rainbows and weird pancakes    ҉     ҉     ҉  !” 

right on down the primrose path kinda scenario.

But [but! but! but! but! but!] this is also the card of Fairy Favors, creativity and clear vision around attaining true desires.  (And, as I said to a client in a recent reading, it really does imply that you’re going to do some meaningful work on defining and owning what your TRUE desires in this life actually are!)

And this can be a great, great time to do some wishcraft around becoming reacquainted with the Green Fay Friends down the garden way come spring time, and work to re-earn the Fairy Favors they offer.

So go after the joy. Seek it, quest after it, demand it!  And for pity’s sake, at least be sure you can actually define what it is − or what it would be, if you had your druthers − for you.

Let yourself renew your belief in and commitment to your happiness, and be open to the myriad magical ways the universe may offer to bring it to you.  Let yourself be open to surprises and miracles in that regard.  And open to a little Fairy Magic today! 

Joy!  Joy!  Joy!

And Joy! 

Bright blessings! 

And don’t forget joy!

Quote for the Day:     Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.  ~  Sir Terry Pratchett

Today’s Weather:  Pegasus poo wafting over the wabes. Try a stiff tequila.  

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

And:  1918 – The Ukrainian people declare independence from Bolshevik Russia. [Yeah.  Like that REALLY helped.]

Tarot Card for the Day ~ January 24

The Magician

Merlin

 

Fortune Cookie: How do you need to honor the Magician in you? And how do you need to live a life in balance so you can access and use all of your wonderful skills and gifts?      

Another card up from last October.  And boyo, can we all use a card like this on a winter Sunday!  It’s worth the long read here, and some extra contemplation. 

I consider The Magician to be the Ace of the Major Arcana in the Tarot deck.  (The Major Arcana are the twenty-two cards that are all archetypal, allegorical figures – The Magician, The Tower, The Priestess, etc. − that have no complement in a regular deck of playing cards.)

So, as you’ve heard me say before, Aces in any Tarot deck are cards of a new beginning.

Therefore:

~ How can you (how do you need to) begin your life anew, today, right now?  Or at least open to the possibilities that can help bring it? 

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

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

Here’s an excerpt from an article on my web site (www.shamanspath.org) that will give you a bit more Nealio’s perspective info about The Magician:

“When I look at The Magician, no matter what deck I hold, I consistently see (and sometimes sense through intuitive awareness) some specific elements or aspects: 

There’s the element of deep scholarship and functional learning, often represented by books, scrolls or papers. 

There’s the element of magical tools, including wands, crystals, and icons from various traditions.  [What are YOUR magical tools? Piano?  Pen?  Computer?  Healing hands? Trowel?  Paintbrush? Clay and cloth?  Voice?  Smile?]

There’s an element of ceremony or ritual, often depicted in the motions of The Magician. 

There’s a connection to the realms of Spirit, often represented through the presence of spirit helpers like angels or totem animals participating, or at least being present. 

And there’s an aspect of connection to Power – of focusing will, energy, mind and soul to bring positive things into being in the world.    

I may find that each or any of those elements and aspects seen in the card should be selected and emphasized for any specific client, and then included in recommended “homework” I may suggest as a result of our session.  

For example: softly sing to yourself what was your favorite lullaby three times a day for three months to help you reconnect with the magic that is in you but has been allowed to go fallow. 

Or: remember and reread the three novels that have been most influential in your life to help remind you what you really care about, and why. 

Or: write a haiku a day for thirty-six days to help re-find and heal the writer in your soul.  

Importantly, each of the elements I “see” in The Magician card is a thing that many of us have had learned out of us as we have “grown up.” 

So we give those things, which are central to many traditional cultures and most spiritualities, extremely short shrift as we attend to our cultural paradigms for living a fulfilling life in the here and now that we have been taught. 

As one client ruefully said, ‘I have ritual in my life.  I DO.  Every day except Sunday, I get up at seven.  I stop at the ’Buck’s at 7:45 for a grande cappuccino.  At noon, I eat rabbit food from a black plastic bowl.  I worship the Goddess of spinning at the gym ’most every evening, and I’m prostrate under goose down with TIVO by 10:00 at night.  I might as well be a nun.’

Well………… Okay. 

But that’s not quite what I have in mind by ritual.  Although, over the course of working with any client, I may help them find that such events and actions, which most of us would consider meaningless from a perspective of personal ceremony, can in fact take on deeper meaning and become a connection to our higher aspects for our own magical good.  If we consciously determine that they will.

But back to The Magician.

There’s an additional aspect of the card that I came to understand one afternoon when I was reading for someone on the cusp of a beneficial but stressful personal − let’s call it − evolution. 

I stressed that The Magician, or in our case, Merlin the Wizard, brings together

learning/tools/ritual or ceremony/spiritual connection & guidance/embracing of power for the benefit of self and others. 

BUT, I realized as I was speaking to this particular client:

in order to be able to do so – to be ready to blend, focus and use each of those elements at the right moment, perhaps in an instant – the Wizard must attend to living a truly balanced and positive life, moment by moment.  And that’s something our culture hasn’t really helped us with much over the last century or two (or fifty).”

So given all that:

How do you need to honor the Magician in you? 

And how do you need to live a life in balance so you can access and use all of your wonderful skills and gifts IN THE MOMENT when they can be most helpful to you and to us all?

Work with that today, and see what magic you can claim − and work − for the highest and best of all of us!

Bright blessings and YOUR OWN Magic!!!

Quote for the Day:  Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?   ~ J.K. Rowling, from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Today’s Weather:  Derling wurvishes escarining up and around the mossy downlands.  Buy your wildebeest lavender petit-fours.  

On This Date: 1961 – 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. One weapon nearly detonates; its uranium core is still lost.  [Oh. Swell.]  

Tarot Card for the Day ~ January 23

Ten of Shields

Camelot

Fortune Cookie:  Look for the right GROUP energy to become part of to receive the right kind of support as you move onward and upward in your life.

Very interesting card.  Always a very interesting card − at least when I have seen it.   It last showed up for us in August. 

For those of you who are regulars to the Blog, you know I’m about to say something like

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, and not just for today? 

How can you let today be part of something new that you BEGIN TODAY but may continue to pursue for some time to come?

Some readers see the Ten of Shields as gain, riches, or having to do with family abode.  Okey-dokey.  We likes riches an’ gains, do!

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, indicates this card is about  affluence, riches, inheritance, and possibly clan gatherings.  As my grandmother often used to say about clan gatherings, “I’m always glad to see you all come.  And I’m even happier to see you go!”  I hear THAT!

I see the Ten of Shields as saying:

Time for a change. 

Possibly time for a BIG change. 

In pursuing that change, don’t look for the right person to help bring it about. 

Look for the right groups and circles and organizations – possibly new ones to you – to become part of.

Be very careful to evaluate the GROUP energy or the GROUP dynamics of where you are and where you need to be. 

If you were interviewing for a new job (or a new spiritual circle, or new club), it wouldn’t be anywhere NEAR enough to evaluate whether it felt like your prospective new boss (or leader, or pastor, or teacher, whatever) would be good to work with.  

You’d really need to explore and be sure that the energy of the greater team, group, circle or organization felt positive, clean, imbued with integrity, excitement, spirit – whatever you need a boost of right now.

So:

Be open to the possibility that some element of your life is grinding its way to an end. 

Understand that it may simply be TIME for that to happen – no judgment attached to the feeling.  Just a necessity in your evolution.

Then look for the right GROUP energy to become part of to be supportive of you as you move onward and upward in your life.

Bright blessings and REALLY GOOD group connections!

Quote for the Day:   If I had only known then who I was now. ~  Peter Barnes from The Ruling Class

Today’s Weather:  Mild equitoadial cross-braced poltroons. Steady. Steady.  

On This Date:  1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States’ first female doctor.