Tarot Card ~ January 1

Page of Cups

The Salmon

Cortune Fookie: Know what wisdom you seek. Begin or ramp up your search or endeavor now. Give your creativity more free play in your life.  Now!

   

 

  

 

 Hmmmmm….   mmm…  mmm-mmm-mmm…

Interesting card for the first of the year ~ and therefore for the whole year to come.  So let us take we a looksee about what we need to attend to for the next twelve months, shall we then? 

In Celtic legend, Salmon is considered the wisest of all creatures.  He dwells in a great well overhung by the Hazel, the tree of knowledge.  As the fruit (hazel nuts) of the tree drop into the well, Salmon eats of them, growing greater and deeper and truer in wisdom.

When this card shows up for a client, I share about the legend and then say something like,

First of all, this card is a call to find meaningful opportunities to seek wisdom and increase your knowledge – scholarly pursuits may be perfect just now.  So get started on that immediately if you feel some call to do so. 

Beyond that, Page of Cups is a card of creativity.  So be prepared to explore how you may begin or expand creative projects starting today. Not tomorrow.  Not next week.  Today.  

And in many traditions, The Fish represents spirituality.  Salmon is one of the only creatures on the Earth who returns to its place of  birth to procreate.  So this card speaks of a primal, powerful drive toward reconnection with Source − with The Divine, with Ultimate Reality, whatever name you choose to give to it.  Or perhaps a drive to return to a place you consider sacred — perfect at any time of the year, no, but certainly important to consider as you make plans for the year.

Some readers find the Page of Cups represents

a fair young person,

meditation,

an imaginative, reflective, inspiring friend,

or that

It’s time to discover some new career direction that will lead you towards prosperity. [Show of hands… Anybody interested?]

So if any of these are meaningful to you, or pop up in meaningful ways today [including via an email Tarot card reading, already], eagerly accept the gifts that are offered!  And let yourself begin to act on the gifts.        

What this card recommends and requests, all in all, is

Know what wisdom you seek.   

Begin or ramp up your search or endeavor now.

Give your creativity more free play in your life.

Let yourself contemplate, explore and pursue new career options.

Open to very solid and inspiring reconnection with

SOURCE

in beautiful, meaningful, transcendent ways.

DO IT TODAY.

DO IT TODAY.

DO IT TODAY.

Bright blessings, grace and peace! 

 Quote for the Day: Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men! ~ Sir Terry Pratchett, from Thief of Time

Today’s Weather:  Know the rules… so you can think before you break them.  Quietly.  Quietly.  

On This Date: 1908 – For the first time, a ball is dropped in New York City‘s Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight. [Hey…  Uhh… Is anybody else a little squishy about the symbol of a new year being dropping the ball?]

 

Happy New Year!

 

The Daily Tarot Card will return around January 5.

Blessings!

Tarot Card ~ December 31

Queen of Cups

Britannia

Fortune Cookie:  Keep an eye out for a wise, fair, caring woman who may be able to give you a hand.  Own your artistic and intuitive nature.  Honor and care for The Land, its creatures and its Spirit.  And have compassion – for others, yes, but especially for yourself.

Interesting card for New Year’s Eve, no? So let’s all take a moment to honor the  “Yo!  Will you PLEASE just TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF FOR A CHANGE?” message here.  Makes sense for most of us as we slog on through the very end of a challenging year and prepare to welcome a new one

Most readers respond to this card by predicting things like happiness, pleasure, or a good, fair, honest and devoted woman who will serve the querent − the person having the reading.  So if those things fit in with your needs, reach out for them; let yourself receive them.  And if you encounter such a person, by all means engage her on your behalf. 

One reader finds this card embodies the nature of St. Clare − the founder of the Poor Clares –  the feminine counterpart of St. Francis who embraced poverty, simplicity and service with great love and compassion for all.  Always an 

ideal to espouse. 

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, sees the Queen of Cups as many beautiful and wonderful things, including an Otherworldly woman with a wealth of artistic ability who trusts her psychic abilities.  Also a poetic person of vision and intelligence.  So, by all means, EMBODY THOSE THINGS in yourself and your life. 

Britannia is the Spirit of the Land of Great Britain, and (in my interpretation of this card) reminds us that we bear an obligation of loyalty to our land, i.e.,  to our environment and all the creatures who continue to live among us, as well as to those we have displaced in our creation of “civilization” and ecocatastrophes [which, on this planet, may well be redundant]. So put out some goodies for the birds and squirrels for a change. 

In working with clients over the years, I have also come to know the Queen of Cups as a card of compassion – especially compassion for the self. 

One of the most persistent pop psychology tenets of the 70s went something like,

“You can’t reeeeelly love anyone else unless you love yourself first.” 

Well, I’ve found that this card cautions something like that. 

When it turns up for a client, I remind them that, whatever may be going on in their life, it would be well if the whole magilla were seen and understood through the perspective of compassionate contemplation. 

And, just as important, it is necessary to be compassionate toward the self during times of stress or turmoil.  That way, we’ll be more likely to take care of ourselves well enough to be an appropriately compassionate helper to others if/when we are called to.

So:

Keep an eye out for a wise, fair, caring woman who may be able to give you a hand.  Own your artistic and intuitive nature.  Honor and care for The Land, its creatures and its Spirit.  And have compassion – for others, yes, but especially for yourself.

Bright blessings and a beautiful, gentle day!

Quote for the Day: For those who may not find happiness to exercise religious faith, it’s okay to remain a radical atheist, it’s absolutely an individual right, but the important thing is with a compassionate heart — then no problem.

                                               ~ Dalai Lama  

Today’s Weather:  An ancient faience Thoth walks into a bar…

On This Date: 1759 – Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.

 

And I repeat: Let’s all take a moment to honor the  “Yo!  Will you PLEASE just TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF FOR A CHANGE?” message here. 

Tarot Card ~ December 25

Six of Shields

Castle of Maidens

Fortune Cookie: Know what you would bring back to into your life, for the highest and best.  Know that now, today is the time when that renewal, that reconnection, that return, can begin. 

  

[Please feel free to click on this link and listen to some wonderful music of the season while you read.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywMOMedVVZs ]

Fascinating card to show up for Christmas Day, no matter what spiritual path you walk (or run away from).

On a day that is often filled with both joy and longing, deep and immediate elation and extra-potent nostalgia, it really can be a good day to spend at least a few moments taking stock of what has been lost (or presumed lost) that we would have return into our lives.  So do pull out those musty old ideals and hopes and have another whack at what they may still help you bring into being.

Now, normally, this is where I would go off into the sillies about what Monty Python did with the whole Castle of Maidens thing.  But I’ll pass on that today.

Sadly.  Oh well, there’s always next time.

And although the Arthurian Castle of Maidens story may have led to about the kind of scenes you’d have expected from the Pythons (see above), the real legend − and the meaning of the card − is actually very good, very kind, very positive. 

 

Pretty much any reader will tell you that the Six of Shields betokens generosity, charitable acts and material gain. Sounds good for today.  Especially if there’s either omelets or Chines food involved.  Some might also indicate it’s a sign that you will soon reach a position where you feel you can help others.  (Always good!)

In my readings, I’m often intuitively prompted to take the interpretation a bit farther and in a slightly different direction.  [Which of you nastynosed skroots said, “What else is new?”  Eh?  Eh?  Today?] I’m likely to say something like:

Okay. Yo!  Focus for a minute!

Let your inner vision move back and forth in time across your life. 

Something that is yours by right

that was lost or taken from you

will be restored to you in full. 

So today, right now, this moment let yourself attend to what that might be and how it can most happily be brought into being, for the highest and best, of course.   

This card can apply to many different people and aspects of life [and really is very timely during Winter, when we may begin to feel a tiddly taddly that things aren’t as happy and bright as our ideals would once have had them be], such as:

~ the artist who (thinks he) has lost his Muse

~ the investor who (fears she) has lost her basis

~ the manager who (believes he) has lost connection to his artistic side

~ the writer who (worries she) has lost her hope of prosperity

It can even imply a return of misappropriated property, a renewal of a sundered relationship, or the reopening of a realm of hopefulness that seemed long gone.

So the important thing to do is − without bludgeoning yourself!! − scan your life and acknowledge what it is you fear has been lost to you, or what you have in fact lost. Then let yourself understand that

TODAY is the day

you can renew that connection, revivify that dream, and reconnect with that hope. 

By the way, some readers feel that this card tells us to be attentive to the possibility of helpful intervention by/through positive masculine energy.  So keep an eye out for that.  And if it’s there, for God’s sake, accept it!

Know what you would bring back into your life, for the highest and best.  Know that this moment is the time when that renewal, that reconnection, that return, can begin.  Go from there!

Bright blessings, joy and light! 

Thought for the Day: ‘This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it.‘ cried the Spirit… ~ Dickens, from A Christmas Carol

Today’s Weather:  Poems, prayers and promises.  Carry sprigs of fresh rosemary for good cheer.  Holly to you!

On This Date: 1868 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers.  1977 – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat. [Let’s all keep the peace train rolling, kids!]

In the spirit of the season: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2SR_P-_98s

  

 

And because I really can’t resist: We already have Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Christine O’Donnell lined up….  One more Horseman and we’re good to go. ~ Andy Borowitz

Daily Tarot Card will disappearr for a few.  Bless all till then!
 

 

Tarot Card ~ December 24

The Horned One

Cernunnos

Fortune Cookie: Believe in and use your connection to Spirit to understand how you can bring about positive change through your very being and through your prayerwork in your day-to-day life.

 

  

 

 

Wow!  What a card for the season!  And if you walk a Christian path, what a card for Christmas Eve!  [And, fascinatingly enough, for me anyhow, it was the card for Christmas Eve of 2008!]

We last saw this card in September.  When this fellow showed up earlier, last summer, I was given the following Spirit-based insight:

“Now… remember that EVERY!!! day is a day of power, a day of connection,  a day of hope and magic and a day of celebration. 

Live THAT, why don’t you??”

As I said then, I should probably just end the posting with that insight and walk away now, y’know?  It’s plenty good information, and would save you a few minutes of additional reading to boot.

But NO-OOOO-OH.  [Oh well.  You’re a grown up.  You can stop reading whenever you want to.  Or just look at the daily horoscope in the paper or something on Twitter or whatever.] 

Anyway…

 

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

as it’s portrayed by Anna-Marie Ferguson in her Legend deck.There’s a beautifully muscled 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 torc ~ the old Celtic symbol of kingship ~ in his left a live serpent.  He is surrounded by folk of the wood ~ fox, otter, boar, stag, frog.  

It’s a beautiful, mystical, magical card. Wish I had it as a huge poster.

The painting on the card depicts images from the famous Gundestrup cauldron, a first century BC ritual silver vessel found deep in a Danish bog. 

Sacred, beautiful objects like this were ritually cast into bogs ~ which were considered places of mystery, power and great magic ~ as sacrificial gifts. [Better than tossing in the odd Ukrainian, I say.  And much better received by the Spirit of the place, as well.]

You can read more about the cauldron at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundestrup .

Cernunnos, the fellow depicted in the card is the Celtic incarnation of the Horned God.  He is considered to be the Lord of the Animals.

[In the spirit of full disclosure: in other decks, this card is often depicted by the devil, with some attendant negative interpretations.  Even Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, alludes to the card’s primordial power, and emphasizes the need to channel this power positively and for good.]

But 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 [yes, YOU!] have the capacity to connect with the realm of Spirit.  You have an ability to bring Spirit through 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 transitional season [whatever season or day of the year it may be, as we have been informed above]

~ explore your connection to Spirit (your guardian angels, the Universal Life Force, God, Goddess, The Infinite or however you perceive Him/Her/It)

 

~ believe in — in fact ASSUME — a functional connectedness

~ open yourself to the goodness and healing and wisdom that Spirit offers

~ use your connection to explore and understand how to bring about positive change through your very being and through your prayerwork in your day-to-day life.

Brightest blessings, joy, hope, deep spiritual connection and healing! 

Quote for the Day:  Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business! ~ Dickens, from A Christmas Carol

Today’s Weather:  A blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. Carry a knowing ghost.   

On This Date: 1914 – World War I: The “Christmas truce” begins.

In Celebration: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa7Wwmuo9yY

 

 

  

Tarot Card ~ December 23

Three of Swords

Palomides

Fortune Cookie: Release old stuff as you would to cleanse the poison from a wound, and move on to beauty, hope, joy, creativity and healing.  MOVE ON TO LIFE!

  

 Hmmm… We last saw this card toward the end of September.  But it’s certainly an apt card for this particular point in the holiday season.  

 

So: 

This is another one of those cards (in almost any deck) where clients see the illustration, gasp, blanch and look around for another Tarot reader.  Then they look at me as if to implore, “Say it ain’t so.” 

Okay. Right outta the box. IT AIN’T SO.  Now pay attention here.  And note that, as often occurs, this is a card where my interpretation veers a tad from what may be typical. 

So, for starts: dealing with some power issues are we, my pretty?

As I’ve noted here before, a lot, I believe that a three in any Tarot deck indicates that the question being explored has to do with issues of power:

~ beware of power games,

~ be prepared for power struggles,

~ watch out for failure to own your power  −

   or, better,

   OWN

   YOUR

   POWER

  FULLY

  NOW

~ have a care against disempowerment

   in any area of life, whether by the action

   of others,  or by your own action

   or inaction  [This is the fourth element. You’ll need to know that later.]

~ refuse to submit to ploys that would

   deny power you have earned

~ empower yourself

~ empower those you love and believe in

~ accept the challenge of owning all of

   what you are and who you can be

It’s the fourth element of that list that I perceive to be most important in the Three of Swords.  When this card comes up for a client, regardless of the subject matter we are exploring, I usually say something like:

Look, it’s tremendously important that you not get stuck in old emotions about this situation [this situation just now being the holiday season, with all its often overblown expectations leading to emotional bus wrecks].  Let go of the old stuff.  Get grounded.  Stay in the moment, stay in the now. Get focused, hold your head up, and move into your future without whatever wet, heavy, squishy ancient baggage is trying to sink you at the moment. 

That’s not always an easy thing to hear, let alone to do.  For most of us, the current choices we would like to make as we move forward most likely seem absolutely valid and maybe even perfectly right. 

But each of those transformations can be torpedoed by old emotional clottage like, “Oh, everyone will think I’m a complete flake,” or, “It’s crummy all right but at least it’s secure,” or “He was crummy all right but at least he was there,” or just plain, “I’m miserable. I’m miserable.  I’m miserable.  By the way, did I tell you I’m miserable?  Oh. Well did I tell you how miserable I am?”

The Three of Swords says

Don’t get stuck in the disappointment; don’t get caught in the heartbreak or emotional blackmail games!  [And for pity’s sake, be aware of whether YOU’RE the one doing the blackmailing, even if it’s of yourself!]

Release the old stuff as you would as if to cleanse the poison from a wound, and move on to beauty, hope, joy, creativity and healing.  MOVE ON TO LIFE!

Know that there are beautiful things to come, and that releasing − really releasing!!! the emotions & stuff of the past and moving on − will bring the hoped-for wonderfulness to you more quickly.

Bright blessings, peace, hope and release!

Quote for the Day:  I used to think anyone doing anything weird was weird. Now I know that it is the people that call others weird that are weird ~ Paul McCartney

And: None of us wanted to be the bass player. In our minds he was the fat guy who always played at the back. ~ PM

Today’s Weather:  Wintersmith interogatories. Seek the wisdom of the Walrus.      

On This Date: 1823 – A Visit from St. Nicholas, also known as The Night Before Christmas, is published anonymously.  

And: Special thanks to the twenty or so people who so kindly sent

~ good wishes,

~ distant healing,

~ Reiki,

~ Light,

and especially

~ One ancient Sumerian Demon Goddess of the upper respiratory and lower  intestinal tracts, with orders to help. 

I appreciate the wishes for comfort and joy.

 

Card for the Day ~ December 22

 

Tarot Card is taking the night off because of flu.

  

But here’s a card from one of my favorite online oracles in response to the question

  

“What do my gentle readers need to know about their day?”

  

Blessings,

 

N

 

 

 

The Guardian of the Gate Passages to new life. Openings.  Gatekeeping

Drawing this card indicates that a passage is being made, the beginning of something new in our lives. It speaks of new opportunities and new openings. Passing through this gate may lead to a physical journey, a mental or an emotional one, or a journey of the spirit. It always leads to adventure. This gateway will also lead to significant change in our lives. The passage through such a gate changes us. The gate we face may not seem like much, the decision to enter may not seem to be a matter of great moment, but the presence of the Guardian at the Gate tells us that something important is happening. It indicates that going forward through that gate is no small thing, but something to be approached with awareness and prayerfulness. We are embarking on a new phase of our lives and there will be no going back once this gate has been passed. That is the kind of transition the Guardian at the Gate leads us to–always to irrevocable change. We may, of course, ask the Guardian at the Gate for guidance and protection on our journey–and we would be wise to do so. Alternatively, the presence of the Gatekeeper in a reading may indicate that the querent is being asked to help open a gate for someone else, to help provide an opportunity for them. The job of a Gatekeeper (or gatekeeper’s assistant) is merely to open the gate, not to push people through it .

 

Tarot Card ~ December 21

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.  

 Haven’t seen this card since the middle of March! And, as it is the card for The Winter Solstice, it is the card for the entire winter season.  So do you think it means that networking and communications might be kinda sorta important for the next 90 days or so? Whaddya think?

Some readers see this card as betokening recreation. [So do take at least a little time to celebrate Yule for this year, please!] 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. [‘Scuse me.  Anybody NOT experiencing that?  Anybody?]

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

So, dear readers [y’all],  if any of those things resonate for you based on what you’re experiencing lately, or expect to experience in the near future, by all means take advantage of this card’s confirming insights and make some 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 shows up as a card about networking.  Get out and meet new people, learn about them and have them learn about you.  Do. Not. Hide. [Tarot guy grumbles and throws things at the monitor.  Then realizes HE’S the one who just typed that.] 

On a deeper level, it’s a card about honest and open dialogue.  You must speak your truth − calmly, 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 patiently, quietly, compassionately listen to the responses of the person you have addressed, and take their honest words into serious consideration.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly for all of us at any time, this is 

The card of

the Kozmic Giggle. 

[That’s the aspect portrayed in the Legend deck.  When Uther, Arthur’s father, came to possess Castle Pendragon, he felt it was hard to defend.  He and his chaps dug a moat and diverted the River Eden to fill it, to help make the place harder to get into.  Well, long story short, the River just wasn’t having any, and each morning Uther found the river running exactly where it always had.  He eventually accepted the situation, laughed at how the Kozmos will have its own jokes, even on a king, and went on to work on other things.]  

So it’s also a card that counsels us to retain a sense of humor when done in by mishaps.  And even in a loving universe [and despite our best efforts], there will  surely be some!

See?

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

Brightest blessings!

Quote for the Day:  You’re only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn’t lose it. ~ Robin Williams 

Today’s Waethyr:  Silvertrance with a side of seeweed.  Yes, seeweed.  Crosbyjohns  and featherheavens into the night.

On This Date: 1844 – The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England, starting the Cooperative movement.

And: 1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theater.

And, by the way: In ancient Egypt: The god-man/savior Osiris died and was entombed on DEC-21. At midnight, the priests emerged from an inner shrine crying ‘The Virgin has brought forth! The light is waxing’ and showing the image of a baby to the worshipers.

In Celebration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwStDK2_qpw

Tarot Card ~ December 20

Two of Swords

The Knight of Two Swords

Fortune Cookie: Know your goal. [Let me repeat that:  KNOW YOUR GOAL!] Keep your courage up. Ground. Center. Become as clear as possible about what needs to be done, and why.  Move forward with strength and go after what you believe to be for the highest and best! 

A card that hasn’t turned up since last Beltane [May 1]! And, as I said then, it’s a card that is given vastly different meanings depending on the reader and the circumstances of the reading.

Some readers would say this card indicates something like courage or balance in the face of adversity.  Others might suggest that a solution to a problem is available to the questioner, but he or she is blinded or distracted and can’t see it.  [I HATE it when that happens!]  Or, a reader may insist that the querent (a person who questions an oracle) be careful about being stubborn.  I’m not real fond of hearing THAT one either.

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, finds in the Two of Swords such things as having to make a choice without benefit of foresight, a moment of indecision, and a clouded perception of options.

That last phrase is the one that comes closest to my experience of what the card offers.

When the Two of Swords turns up for a client, I’m most likely to say something like, “Someone, I think maybe Khalil Gibran, wrote that the strength of the enemy is in our hearts, not in the enemy’s hand.” 

So if there is something you would achieve, and there seems to be great opposition arrayed against you, don’t let yourself be discouraged or dismayed.  Take a moment to become very clear about your goal –at least as clear as you can be.  Take a deep breath or two.  Square your shoulders. And wade into battle. 

That which seemed to be arrayed against you may simply turn to mist or smoke and allow you to pass through it like beams of pure light through a hologram.

So:

Know your goal.  Keep your courage up.  Ground.  Center.  Become as clear as possible about what needs to be done, and why.  Move forward with strength and a go after what you believe to be for the highest and best! 

Bright blessings, clarity and progress! 

Today’s Quote: Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place it leads. ~ Erica Jong

Today’s Weather:  Wuffleguudelicious cloudmothers; sometimes oftenly not, although.

On This Date: 1977 – Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations. [Yep.  That really is the best I can do.  What a day.]

Oh yeah.  And it’s the Feast of  Saint Ursicinus, an Irish missionary to what is now Switzerland. [Like I said… What a day.]

Tarot Card ~ December 19

Five of Swords

Gawain’s Penance 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fortune Cookie: Live!  Know, know, KNOW that you deserve joy and beauty, but know that YOU are the only one who CAN reach for it.  

 

 As I generally say about this card:  Always a good reminder.  Always.  And especially so on the Sunday just preceding Yule (the Winter Solstice) and Christmas.

  

  

  

  

To continue, roundaboutly: In the spirit of something resembling candor [but not actually being candor even though it looks remarkably like candor, as near as anybody can tell!], I will once again say that my interpretation of this card  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-hoooooooooey-toooooey upon that !!!!  

  

And I say again:

  

Phooooooooooooo-hoooooooooey-toooooey upon that !!!!  

  

Based on my intuitive guidance and my experience over the last fifteen years or so, when this card shows up for clients, I stand, shamble up onto my soapbox, throw things at them, shake my jowls (or at least a half dozen 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 heavied up and laid their stuff on ya years ago ~ even if they were/are people very close to you.  And even if you know they were doing the best they could.

  

In this moment, at this time and from this time forward, 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.

  

  Trust me.

 

   

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, beauty and joy! 

 

And did I mention JOY!!!?

  

Quote for the Day: Joy is not in things, it is in us. ~ Richard Wagner

  

 Today’s Weather:  Yon wondrous thunk.  Or wuzzat funk?  Or dunk?  Oh…   Duck!  [Or maybe tofurkey?]

 

 

 

On This Date: 1606 – The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery depart England carrying settlers who found, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.  [And there goes the neighborhood.]

 

 As I generally say about this card:  Always a good reminder.  Always.  And especially so on the Sunday just preceding Yule (the Winter Solstice) and Christmas.

Tarot Card ~ December 18

Ten of Swords

Camlann 

  

  

Fortune Cookie: What is the cycle that is completed?  What is the world that should be allowed to fall away, or even to die?  What is the beautiful new world to be born from it?  How do I begin to create that world, for myself and those I love − for the highest and best of all − today?

  

Sigh. 

  

 

This card last turned for us about two months ago. I know it can be perceived as a real toughie.  I mean, just LOOK at the thing.

  

 

  

   

But work with me.  It’s really a superb card.  And, as one or two of you may remember from last time it showed up, I have my own divergent take on it. [What ELSE is new?] 

  

Camlann, the image in this card, is the place and thus name of the final battle fought by Arthur and his knights.  It’s the battle at which Arthur took his fatal wounds − or rather, the wounds that caused him to be spirited away to Avalon. 

  

In any case, it’s the battle that (at least according to most opinion) saw the demise of the Round Table, the end of the Pendragon kings and the fall of Camelot.

 

Most readers see the Ten of Swords as a card of sadness, pain, affliction and desolation.  [Charming! PERFECT for a Holiday Season Saturday!]

  

Even Anna-Marie Ferguson, writing of her Legend deck, sees it as betokening troubles, conflict, a showdown, or perhaps the climax and end of a chapter.  That last one in particular isn’t necessarily bad, y’know.

 

When this card turns up for a client, I begin by reminding them of what tens mean to me:

  

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 own the great potential for you

to move into something wonderful and powerful and new? 

  

How can you keep that in front of you not only today, but for some time [like the rest of this year, at least, fer example] to come?

  

Then I’d say

  

Beyond that general information about cycles, I believe the Ten of Swords says in no uncertain terms,

  

You!  You!  You!  Yes.  You. 

  

At this moment, I require of you some courage and faith.

It is time to allow the old world − the world as you know it, your typical, day to day world − to die, in order that a beautiful new world may be born from it. 

  

Yeah, it requires some courage, all right. 

  

But remember the promise: “a beautiful new world to be born from it.”  This is in fact a hopeful card.

  

In following up with clients for whom this card is prominent in a reading, my sense has become that the changes they will need to make usually begin with a kind of ego death: a realization that the direction they have been firmly, even fanatically committed to really no longer serves them. 

 

That does NOT mean they are required to throw everything up in the air and rush off in a direction wholly opposite to that which they have known — or in no intelligible direction at all. 

 

It does mean that they must begin by asking themselves – “What if?” 

  

What if this path HAS taken me as far as it was meant to go?  And what if that’s a good thing?  What if this potential great change is a perfectly natural evolution?

  

What if I stand at the birthing place of beautiful new opportunities, beautiful new worlds?  What if I let myself fantasize about what I would wish them to be?

  

What would I wish them to be?  How would I wish to pursue them, for the highest and best, of course?  What would I do to begin?

  

What are the baby steps I can take to begin that today?

  

What is the cycle that is completed?  What is the world that should be allowed to fall away?  What is the beautiful new world to be born from it?  How do I begin to create that world, for myself and those I love − for the highest and best of all − today?

  

Bright blessings, courage, hope and beautiful dreams! 

  

Quote for the Day:  We have it in our power to begin the world over again. ~ Thomas Paine

    

Today’s Waethyr:  Freaking great belches of all kinds of hollyberry stuffness, rampant mistletoe and silver bells. It is the weekend, after all. 

 

On This Date: 1888 – Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde, Colo. 

 

For those preparing for the coming of Yule [the Winter Solstice, which will occur on December 21 at 6:38 PM EST], I thought this short video had a couple of sweet Yuletide prayers.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDXZLt6EqQM