Daily Tarot ~ February 4

The Hanged Man

Castle Perilous

Fortune Fookie: Stay much more aware ~ especially intuitively ~ than normal.  Know that positive energy and opportunities are near and can benefit you.  Reach out and take hold of them, one by one, to get where you intend.

We last saw this fellow on the early end of July. Let’s see if we learned anything ‘t all from the good advice he brought last time. Maybe? [Why do I even ask?]

Here we go: 

[Gonzo Tarot reader slowly and carefully sidles to far end of table, humming “Who put the bomp/In the bomp bah bomp bah bomp??” or some other pleasant but innocuous tune.]

[As Sir Terry Pratchett put it in his book, The Light Fantastic, “He moved in a way that suggested he was attempting the world speed record for the nonchalant walk.”]

This is one of those cards whose visual depiction can set clients whimpering and collapsing into themselves in a repetitive rocking fugue the moment they see it.  Pretty amazing, really. I suppose I can understand that. The name alone is enough to cause mewling in all of the hardiest guys I’ve read for − okay in the only hardy guy I’ve read for.

Some decks picture a fellow hanging by a rope upside down by one leg from a tree, possibly with his head about to take a deep dunk in a fast flowing river.

Even my deck, Legend by Anna-Marie Ferguson pictures a passle-o-knights left hanging in a grove, one leg and both arms tied behind their backs to show the world that they were rendered utterly powerless and had, one by one, failed in their quests.

So I get why some readers interpret the card as indicating restriction, sacrifice or − at best − feeling drained.  Sort of an I need Ativan and a B12 shot kinda energy, ya see.

As the regular crew of bloglodytes expects by now, I see the card differently.  When it turns up for a client, whatever area of his or her life we’re examining, I usually say something like,

“Okay.  Right away now.  Keep breathing.  Nice deep breaths.  Good!  Not too much.  Don’t hyperventilate.  Have a little brandy or a shot o’ Jack Black, maybe a little Cuervo action. Try some flower essences.  Take a hit of this.  Good.  Hey!  Give it back!

“Now….

There are several levels of meaning to this card.

“First, what the card is saying to you is, ‘If you’ve been feeling stuck in place or like you’re so deep in a rut you can’t see over the edge… Guess what?  Good news! You really have been.  You aren’t just a whining, puling little git.  And knowing that should actually make you feel better, Spunky!

“‘Second, it’s time for you to move up and out of that stuck space.  And very soon, if not immediately!’”

And this is How. 

So pay attention.

The Hanged Man asks that you be extra vigilant in keeping your intuitive antenna up for strong, wise, functional, interested and caring energy that can and will help pull you out of your rut.

The help may come in small chunks, like a better-paying job that can move you forward − as opposed to winning the Mega Millions jackpot. [Sorry!  Remember, I’m just the messenger here.] But the help will be here, maybe even is already here, and it will be here in the ways that can really, truly benefit you.

Your mission then is to stay tuned in, be aware, notice the positive energy or helpful opportunity, reach out for it and grab onto it when it shows up, and use it to move you along to where you really want to be.

As if that weren’t enough, I find that there is an additional directive from the Hanged Man.

The card basically says that, in those moments when the new, positive, helpful energy and opportunities aren’t readily apparent – and those moments happen to all of us − your mission is to refuse to get sucked into the old It sucks to be me! I’m hopeless!  I’m helpless! whirlpool.

Rather, use the time for

deep prayerwork,

healing meditation, shamanic journeying, etc.

Go deep within for wisdom and direction; embrace your own spirituality, guidance, hope and healing.

Use the “fallow time” in practices that will help you become more fully connected to your truer, deeper, self and to the channels of spiritual power and assistance around you.

So:

Stay aware. 

Stay much more aware than normal, in fact, especially intuitively. 

Know that positive energy and opportunities are there and will benefit you.  Reach out and take hold of them, one by one, to get you where you intend.  

If nothin’s shakin’, use the time for prayer, meditation, magical and deep wisdom studies and spiritual practice to increase those elements that are of and for your highest and best.

Bright blessings and beautiful positive flow upward, out to freedom!   

Quote for the Day: You are what you want to become. Why search anymore? You are a wonderful manifestation. The whole universe has come together to make your existence possible. There is nothing that is not you. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Today’s Weather: Galaxy de pommes frites.  Starbender tenders.  And wherefore the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a?  Eh?  

On this Date:2004 – Facebook, a mainstream online social network is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

Daily Tarot ~ February 3

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.

 

This card last came around in the middle of October.  When this fellow showed up for an earlier blog posting, 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, 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 just about 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 (see above).

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.]

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 beautiful, hopeful 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 to Spirit

~ 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:  Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity. ~ Christopher Morley

      

Today’s Weather:  Morning ragas.  Thou shalt possess not valence, neither shalt thou be without thy cool; ’tis  a 3 day, y’all.  

On This Date: 1959 – A plane crash kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson. The incident becomes known as The Day the Music Died.