Daily Tarot ~ July 31

Two of Cups

Tristram & Isolt

 

Fortune Cookie: Be there! Be open!  Reach out for the ☼☼☼NEW☼☼☼ that is coming into your life!  Let yourself be available to receive and pursue it.  RIGHT NOW!!!!

Hmmmmmm… This card last showed up in mid January.  I’m glad it’s back, because I know at least a couple specific people for whom this is the PERFECT card just this minute.  So, in case YOU are one of them, please pay attention and take advantage of what the card offers fer the luvva whatever you consider sacred!

 

And, once again, again, again, my interpretation of this card varies some from the norm. That kinda thing surely no longer surprises anybody.

 

Many readers would respond to this card by suggesting things like friendship, affinity, concord, union, even love.   Some might say it bespeaks a complementary match, or a very solid relationship.

 

I may weep. 

 Dear, sweet…

 Okay.

Okay.

Look:

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, finds things like the beginning of a trusted partnership, rapport and the forming of strong emotional bonds.

Not even I would be idiot enough to fight with that, or to want to. So especially if any of those interpretations resonate with you – in terms of what you’re seeking lately or in terms of what the Universe seems to be offering today – honor it.  Seek it.  Go after it full tilt. 

But when this card has turned up for many clients, the intuitive information that almost always pops out of my mouth is,

“Look:

Some amazing (or beautiful or tremendously healing or whatever) NEW ENERGY(or opportunity or person or position or vision) is trying to come into your life.

It will, if you let it, sweep you off in a

wonderful,

beautiful,

incredibly positive

NEW DIRECTION.

 

LET IT!

LET IT!

LET IT! ”

 

So:

Be there! Be open!  Reach out for the ☼☼☼NEW☼☼☼ that is coming into your life!  Let yourself be available to receive and pursue it.  RIGHT NOW!!!! 

 

Bright blessings and beautiful new directions!

 

Quote for the Day: Enlightenment is not about becoming divine. Instead it’s about becoming more fully human. . . . ~ Lama Surya Das

Today’s Weather:  Partly frowsy with occasional cannoli. Stay off the sidewalk during blustery shellfish.

On This Date: 1703 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.

Text from Last Night: We’re gonna need a water proof camera with a flash….exit routes….booze…..and a tutu for good measure

Daily Tarot ~ July 30

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 in February. 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, 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 Monday with no major drinking holiday in sight!]

 

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 next few months, 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 dash off 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?

 

And of course:

 

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 all not only could know everything. We do. We just tell ourselves we don’t to make it all bearable. ~ Neil Gaiman

 

Today’s Waethyr:  Frogging great billows of marigolds, rampant squirrels,

bluejays and tufted titmouses. It is a Monday in July, after all.

On This Date: 2006 – The world’s longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.

Text from Last Night: dude… how many tongue depressors do I need to steal from urgent care to make samurai armor?

Daily Tarot ~ July 29

Page of Swords

The Adder

 

Fortune Cookie: Identify, own and begin a positive, deep and bright personal transformation.  TODAY!

 

This guy last, uh, popped up for us in mid February.  Of 2011!  So pay attention because he’s baaa-aack.  He’s potent.  He’s wise.  He’s transformational.  Check him out! Take advantage of his wisdom. [Or else why are you even reading this?  Hmmmmmmmmm?] 

 

 

A typical reader might say the Page of Swords betokens something along the lines of authority, secret service, vigilance, maybe even spying.

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, includes insight, receiving info first-hand about an important matter, and overseeing confidential affairs, among other insights this card brings.

So if any of those phrases pop out for you — like if you’re still waiting for notice about your parole hearing or whatever — keep your intuitive antenna up about the matter that resonates a bunch.

As I look at this card in the Legend deck, I’m reminded that The Snake (in this case, Adder) is a universal symbol of at least five things [although even I must occasionally remember that the Great Sigmund is reported to have said “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…”]. 

 

Yeah, okay, fine. So watch out for snakes if you live in the country and mow the lawn today.

Where were we.  Oyeh.  Snake is a universal symbol of at least five things.

Snake symbolizes:

1. transformation and rebirth (the snake sheds its skin, and in that process experiences rebirth;  it has become a new creature and a creature renewed)

2. healing (the Rod of Asklepios, Greek God of Healing and Medicine, was entwined by a snake, and snakes were sacred totem animals, guardians and helpers at the temples of dream healing dedicated to him)

3.subconscious wisdom (knowledge of the Shamanic Lower World, which is almost universally understood to be a place of deep and beautiful healing as well as  a place of ancient and traditional wisdom)

4. masculine energy (any questions on this one?  Go back to our friend Freud)

5. clandestine affairs (the sneaky sneaky sneaky snakey)

So when the Page of Swords shows up for a client, I’m likely to ask him or her

~ what kind of deep personal transformation or healing have you been longing for?

~ how can you be open to a rebirth − for personal and/or planetary healing?

~ how can you connect with deeper and perhaps archaic or ancestral wisdom, (Shamanic journeying, deep meditation, magic, prayerwork ) and to what purposes?

~ how can you go after these things in a direct, vigorous, perhaps even forceful way?

~ how will you test for integrity – in yourself, no less than in those around you?

Also, this card indicates that it may be a good idea to be more than normally open to help or guidance from someone of substantial masculine energy: a positive, powerful man or a strong and wise woman-warrior type, for example.

 

So, given all that:

What is the deep, positive and bright personal transformation you can own and begin TODAY?  DO IT!

 

Bright blessings and beautiful, healing transformation!

 

Quote for the Day: The only good hero is the kind who survives to talk about merchandising.  ~ Simon R. Green

Today’s Weather:  Drip. Drip.  Drip.  WHOMP! Touch not the nibelungengerbil, nor his Hobbittrail. 

 

On This Date:  2005 – Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris. [Yes.  That REALLY is the best I can do.]

Text from Last Night: …not only are you not the guy i fell in love with… from the looks of it, you ate him

 

 

Daily Tarot ~ July 28

Knight of Swords

Gawain

Fortune Cookie: Go after it. Go! Go! Go! But go after it smart, careful, clear and clean!

Last saw this guy in early March.  It’s one of those cards I have a trouble integrating into my life.  Maybe I need a thyroid supplement.  Kelp.  A fire under my… self.  Something.

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!!!  Gustooooooooo!!!!!! [I hate it when I do that.]

However, I will also share that this Knight has occasionally (actually, ruddy well frequently) been known to leap before he looks… to the ultimate and utter dismay of himself − and pretty much everybody who is by some sad mischance suddenly involved with cleansing the flying doofus of the huge, deep pile of… meadow muffins he has launched himself into.

Quite an image with yer bran cereal today, no?

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 to smithereens in the process − taking a pile of other good folk down with him in the mess. If he thinks of them at all − the self-centered bugger − he thinks of them as collateral damage, nothing more.

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, friends?  Hmmmm?]

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 can cause him to misjudge. [And thus end up in the m. muffins.  Or country Frisbees. Bullcrumpets.  Whatever.]

SO:

Get moving!!!! 

But take a few moments or go a few steps back and calmly, objectively check out the terrain really 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. (You might even wanna go so far as to further explore whether you are about to do something that IS in fact for the highest and best.  Always a useful test.  Imagine what the planet might be like today if we had REALLY pretty much all done that all along.)

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.  Dipstick.

Go after it, but

go after it smart, careful, clear and clean!   

Bright Blessings and a soft, nonsquishy landing!

Quote for the Day:  It’s a question of whether we’re going to go forward into the future, or past to the back.~ J. Danforth Quayle

Today’s Weather: Upwelling sunshowers.  Burberry brollies for another day. A hot split quad shot latte with whip.

On This Date: 1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.

Text from Last Night: …i was the only open register tonight… I just sold condoms and chocolate frosting to my ex…

Daily Tarot ~ July 27

Six of Cups In Ector’s Keeping Fortune Cookie: Easy, sweet, nostalgic in a positive way, calm and comforting ~ that’s the theme to get you through the day.   This card last showed up almost exactly… a year ago. I wish it would come around more often. Like, daily! As I always say to my clients, “Remember when you were eight years old and summer lasted forever, and all you really had to was love your dog, go swimming with your friends and dream about how wonderful the world could be?” Well, that’s the energy and essence of this card.  Not bad for a summer’s Friday. The Six of Cups is a card that bespeaks the beauty and the joy and the innocence and the wisdom of an almost ideal childhood. So in your connections and interactions today: Look for a quality like that in all those you meet. If you can’t find it, you’re probably not with the right people, at least for today. So, if it’s at all possible given the day, keep on moving till you’re with someone or someones whose energy is those wonderful things — even if the someones are, say, the masses of petunias in your back garden. Let yourself share in that vibe and be happy and comfortable there — and assume that you deserve to be there! Try to find new ways for yourself to be a calm, still, comforting pool in the center of the manic muddle around you. Especially give yourself permission to be that way to and for yourself. Call to mind all that which is and has been beautiful, and hopeful, and healing in your world, and keep those things flowing through your mind. (If you do Reiki, for example, start Reikiing yourself and everything in your vicinity the moment you read this, and keep going from there.) Also, this is a card that suggests you may have old friends re-enter your life. Be open to that as a possibility today. One last time, then: Easy, sweet, nostalgic in a positive way, calm and comforting ~ that’s the theme to get you through the day. Brightest, happiest blessings! Quote for the Day: …American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers. ~ W. Somerset Maugham, from The Razor’s Edge Today’s Weather: Epigrams and titters. Over Pim’s Number One Cup. On This Date: 1940 – The animated short A Wild Hare is released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny. [Very Six of Cups?] Text from Last Night: my Shakespeare prof staples burger king applications to failed tests

Daily Tarot ~ July 26

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 for the First Day of Spring. It’s back to remind us what we’re to focus on for the entire spring season!

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

And: [And do it that way ALL SUMMER LONG!] ~ NS

      

Today’s Weather:  Morning ragas, evening champagne. Breathe!!!!!  

On This Date: 1509 – The Emperor Krishnadeva Raya ascends to the throne, marking the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire. [I knew you would want to know.]

And: 1895 – Gracie Allen, American actress and comedian is born.

Texts from Last Night: …all i can say is im covered in mud, my jaw hurts, i can’t straighten my arm, egg is everywhere. and there’s a drunk squirrel…

 

Daily Tarot ~ July 25

 

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 that are emerging].

Okay.  For those of you who weren’t focusing all so very swell when this card showed up way back toward at the end of March:

Yo! Yo!  Ovah Heeeyah!  Ye-yah.  Heee-yah!  I’m tawking to yuuu—-uuuuuu!

PAY ATTENTION! 

[And by the way, what DIDN’T you ask for help with back then that you might have.  Eh?] [And and, as it showedup for us on Feb. 29, Leap Day, may I strongly suggest again that we all look at the entire rest of the year through the lens this particular card offers? Pretty please? With caviar and party franks?  Or Frank’s party?]

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 types) 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 – ol’ Nealio, he 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 the answer to that question for a fall marketing blitz.]

People should NOT NOT NOT come to a Tarot reader just to hear what’s gonna happen.  They SHOULD work with people of my ilk 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’re 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 Sushi.     

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 that may be 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: Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by. ~ Carl Sandburg

Today’s Weather: Scruffedymuffelins and blessed silly whiskers. La vie en poses.  

On This Date: 1965 – Bob Dylan goes electric as he plugs in at the Newport Folk Festival, signaling a major change in folk and rock music.

Text from Last Night: …the saddest part is, this is not even the first time i’ve woken up in a shopping cart with a concussion.

 

 

Daily Tarot ~ July 24

Nine of Swords

Lily Maid of Astolat

Fortune Cookie: Be careful today not to overextend yourself in unfair − especially to yourself − or unhealthy ways.  And hold solid, healthy boundaries!

Ack!  This card always gives me indigestion.  But it’s got some very important insights to offer.  So here we go:

It’s another looooooong post. This card last came up in early March.  Sadly, it’s a card for studying REALLY DEEPLY any time it rolls around.

Anyway… as I have said before, in our codependent, enmeshed and embalmed  (embombed?) culture, it’s always good to be reminded of what this card has to say. 

And to read it. And print it out. And post it next to your bathroom mirror. And every mirror you own.  Including mayhaps the rear view mirror of your vehicle.   And send it to yourself as a text message three times a day.  And stuff.

[Finishes pontificating. Wipes sweat off of jowls.  Or at least most jowls.  Gets down off soap box.  Makes a feeble attempt to tidy hair and looks around for… Tidies hair and…  Tidies… Aw buggrit!   Tosses brush out window, accidentally nailing a groggy blue jay.  Looks around for coffee.  Asks, “Where was I?”  Where, or who?  Oh.  Right.  Where!]

Okay. 

Kids, this is a card of warning, plain and simple.

Different readers vary the focal issues being dealt with here, so I’ll give bits and pieces of other perspectives before moosing on in with my take on things.

Betty – those of you who read this blog rather regularly will remember — was my long-time teacher and friend.  She used to turn the elucidation of this card into a real piece of performance art.  When Nine of Swords would come up, she’d shake her head, give a low whistle, shake her head again, look closely at the card, look up  mournfully at me − or whoever she was reading for − and say softly, “You gotta be careful.  Something here is nearly DEAD.”  Got me whimpering every time.  Even when I was just watching her read for somebody else.

So if that’s the interpretation of the card we’re working with, one of the things to be careful about − depending on exactly what’s being examined in the reading – is that you and/or a situation may be about to seriously pass the point of flameout or burnout and you need to pull back, regroup, rethink things and really recover before you go off the deep end or go up in smoke.

So please, today, give that possibility some serious thought throughout all major aspects of your life.  [Except those that involve reading this daily card. No sense going overboard, then, is there?]

Some readers find this to be a card of delay, deception and disappointment − or worse.  [Charming!]  Others indicate that it betokens fear and dread for the future, and it implies you should take a course of action that will still and calm the mind to help instill courage. [Yeah.  That there is a sentence that would really help ME calm down, you betcha!  Yo! Waiter!  Bushmill’s triple here.  Straight up!] 

Other sources say the card recommends finding a path of extra alertness and wariness, along the lines of “cover your back [or, uh… you know],” for now, anyway.

Anna-Marie Ferguson, creator of the Legend deck, writes of pining for a loved one, fretful dreams and obsessions.  Her interpretation that I’m most interested in (on your behalf) is depression blinding us to the possibilities and beauty that surround us.  (Don’t go there!  DO NOT!  You DO NOT need to be in that place!!!!!)

My take?

When this card turns up in a reading for a client, I say things like, “Okay, several levels of meaning here, and you need to pay close attention to each one.”

First, this is a card that says be very careful to NOT take on the emotions of others.  You may choose to be kind and be a shoulder for another to cry on.  But understand that to do so does NOT involve letting someone else’s disappointment or depression take you over; you are NOT meant to be anyone else’s emotional and psychic trash bin. 

If you’re one of those people who lets a friend come over and dump all his baggage on you so that he can then just skip away, free as a bird and back in the groove while you need to go hide behind the couch – STOPPIT! That’s unhealthy behavior.  It’s not kind.  It’s not even really helpful to you OR him. 

Second, do not take responsibility for other people’s emotions.  Yes, we all do things that disappoint others, including those we love.  But their emotions in response to the situation are THEIRS to deal with and work through.

I remember overhearing a woman in a store, talking to her four-year-old daughter, saying, ‘If you keep acting this way Daddy’s going to divorce us, and it will be all your fault!’ [Just. Plain. Vile!!!!]  It’s obvious how false and manipulative − not to mention cruel − that was. 

Whether we like it or not, EACH OF US is responsible for OUR emotions and HOW WE RESPOND to all the situations in our life.  That’s true for everybody else as well. So don’t let anyone bamboozle you into thinking different.

Third, don’t take responsibility for anyone else’s life or life choices.  If you’re in a position to help someone when they’re lost or down, and you CHOOSE to offer that, do so – if you can do it in a way that’s safe and healthy, non-manipulative, non-addictive, non-codependent, with healthy boundaries.  It’s like they say on an airliner:  if you’re traveling with a child and the air masks come down, put yours on first, THEN put on the child’s.

So: 

~ Be careful today not to overextend yourself in unfair (especially to yourself) or unhealthy ways. 

~ Hold good boundaries.

~ Be compassionate, but don’t be a doormat or a crying towel.

~ Double-check your own energy to be sure depletion isn’t closer than you may have realized.

~ If it seems depletion may be near, do what you need to do to take care of YOU!

Bright blessings, healthy boundaries, good choices and discretion!

Quote for the Day: That which does not kill me may require stitches. ~ Anon

Today’s Weather:  Extravagant but intermittent gonzo-bating.  Watch out for prolonged cookie binges. 

On this Date: 1911 – Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu, “the Lost City of the Incas“.

Texts from Last Night: “im not sure what exactly happened but… i may need help faking my own death…”

Daily Tarot ~ July 23

Five of Swords

Gawain’s Penance

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

[They’re baa-aaack!]  [The Daily Tarot thingies, I mean.] So here we go!

Hmm.  Mmmmm.  Mmmmmmmm…  Mmmmmmmm  mmm mmm. [You probably all recognize that as the melody to “When the Saints Go Marching In.”  Right?]

Mmmmmm.

Anyway, we last saw this card in late April.

Attend and perpend againd [and see if there isn’t SOMETHING in the message of this card that hits you squarely between the chakras]:

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 on a day like this], 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 [as I always say],  buggrall that!  Phooo-hooooooooo-ey upon that !!!! [Or worse.  But it STARTS with a running eff sound.]

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 nerf balls at them to get their attention, shake my jowls (or at least a bunch of them) and bellow:

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 weirdness on ya years ago

~ even if they are/were people very close to you. 

~ and even if you think (or 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.  Never.  It will only keep you from moving upward, and may even keep you stuck exactly where you are, causing you to repeat the 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: Time after time, history demonstrates that when people don’t want to believe something, they have enormous skills of ignoring it altogether. ~ Jim Butcher  

Today’s Weather: Frequently colliding archetypal fronts.  Initiate a sheltering incantation via potted herbs and cheddared… thingies.

On This Date: 1892 – Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is born!

Text from Last Night: …nothing like the It’s a Small World ride at Disneyland to remind you to take your birth control.

And: so… apparently, “Home” isn’t the correct response when a cop asks for your address…

JOY!!!!