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Feel what you feel. Emotions are what they are. They come. They go. They are valid while they are here, but it is OK to let them flow away as easily as they bubbled up.
Be gentle with yourself and kind to what you feel today.
“Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.”
Emily Dickenson
This is always a good new card.
Think of it as a fortune cookie reminding you that your efforts will pay off, sooner or later.
Cause and effect is the engine of the universe. Be the cause of good things.
“…the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and stability.”
Life can be a dumpster fire. Or a sudden storm. Or a dumpster fire in a storm.
When that happens…and it always does at some point for everyone…you do what you have to do to make it through.
During those times stability and comfort zones are sometimes more helpful than striving, goals or lofty ideals – even our so-called “personal growth.”
When the dumpster fire is particularly raging, it can help to get granular, get smaller but more stable. A lower center of gravity is more stable.
But so is flexibility. The tree that bends in strong winds doesn’t break. That is why coastal cypress trees are a classic symbol of strength in the storm.
When the storm comes, it is an opportunity to be the creator and protector of your own little bubble of strength and stability. You alone can’t stop the storm, but you can control your reaction to it. You can control your hunkering down and seeking shelter, protecting you and yours as best as you can.
The protective, competent, powerful, self-confident energy of the Emperor card reminds us of this.
Anything helps. Anything is better than nothing. This is where all the little milquetoast platitudes and meme-ish affirmations take on some actual value. Anything you can do to create a little stability for yourself, anything that will foster the strength and flexibility that you need has benefit. Meditation for even a few minutes, sitting and staring at your morning coffee for a few minutes, say that affirmation to yourself in the mirror, scroll and inspirational social media feed – draw that Tarot card.
You don’t have to be a towering redwood. A short and supple pine tree will do just fine.
If enough of us become our own little cypress tree, soon we can have a whole forest that can withstand any storm.
“There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.”
John F. Kennedy
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Sometimes courage means putting your life on the line for something you believe in.
Sometimes courage is getting up to face another day.
“Courage is the resistance of fear, mastery of fear, not the absence of fear.” – attr. Mark Twain
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Website update complete.
It’s still all about Tarot, but with a different energy.
It’s a private blog, not a business, with opinions and vocabulary to match.
Welcome.
Knowledge is power.
Two things piqued my interest in Lenormand Tarot. First, a friend described them as giving blunt, direct, plain-talking, hit-you-over-the-head. That alone was enough to prompt me to get a deck and explore. Then an episode of The Circle is Podcast with Mat Auryn and Rachel True confirmed my experience with the deck with their own observations: The cards connect in a linguistic, sentence-like way.
It is part of the Lenormand technique to interpret cards in the context of adjacent cards instead of the context of layout position meanings as in RWS style Tarot. The cards seemed to me to be a combination of short, direct, blunt, frying-pan-to-the-face messages in a short but very connected format, like a two word sentence. In the case of these “Action Eases Anxiety” layouts it is noun-verb, specifically current energy and what to do about it.
Today, the cards are so blended they don’t even keep that minimal subject/verb sentence order. They meld together into a single message. The book hints at knowledge. Lenormand doesn’t usually pay any attention to reversals, but in the reversal feels significant, and related to the hidden and inner knowledge energies in recent readings with the queen of wands and the last Action Eases Anxiety layout. Christopher Butler, in the Healing Light guidebook connects the stork with change and “upheaval” – both an understatement here in the U.S.
In essence we are advised to study the old, lofi, hidden, analog, offline, real world ways to learn how to survive the upheaval at hand. Humans have done this before. The knowledge about how to choose your side and live well in it exists, but is hidden, to protect it.
Keep your head. Seek your tribe. Learn the way.
deck: Healing Light Lenormand by Christopher Butler. copyright 2021 all rights reserved. Used with permissions grated on llwellynpublishing.com
There is a saying that to go fast, go alone, but to go far, go together. This is a time for slow, steady, collaborative work. It isn’t even about progress. It’s about living. Being.
It’s ok if you are not ok.
One step. One day. One moment. Existence is enough. Do what needs done to survive the day.
It’s ok if you are ok.
It’s ok to like who you are right now. Self improvement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Be kind. Be decent. Everything else is someone else’s thought and opinion and in the words of poet and artist Ryan Summers “it’s none of your business what other people think” (or something close to that, sorry if I misquoted you, Ry)
Slow and steady, do the work that you think is important. Do the work that you want and need, slow, steady and kind.
Wishing you a day of being good with whatever is. After all, your thoughts about you are the only ones that matter.
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This reading can resonate with anyone, anywhere, at any time – if it feels right for you, it’s yours. The reading also feels like it is directed at those of us in the US who are forecast to (GASP!!) get a bunch of snow in the middle of January. Get your snackies, beer, stuff for sandwiches if the power goes out and ingredients for soup and cookies if it doesn’t. It’s a good excuse to stay home, and stick it to capitalism by not buying a damn thing extra all weekend. Stay safe, stay warm and be good to yourself. This is an introvert’s paradise, so extroverts are on their own for this one. Imma knit and read and putz around on the website.
This layout lends itself well to Lenormand decks. It’s like a simple sentence, subject and verb. It shows us what the energy is and suggests a good thing to do about it.
Doing something (even if that something is wait, watch or conserve) can take the edge off of worries. Just having an action plan can help, even if you don’t wind up using it.
Current energy: The Stars.
I ‘hear’ “the road to riches is close at hand but hidden” This is a good omen type of card similar to the Star card in the RWS major arcana. It speaks to good fortune at hand, but it also has elements of subtle guidance. It hints at doing the necessary mental work for find your good fortune. Look before you leap, think before you act, but in the end, actions speak louder than words. You have to take steps in order to walk the road to good fortune.
What to do: The Bear.
Protect what you have. Don’t be a spendthrift just now. As Ben Franklin said “a penny saved is a penny earned.”
The deck author, Christopher Butler describes this card as a very mama bear energy.
Don’t just stand up for what you believe in, sit with it. Share space and spend time with the things and people most important to you as far as you are able. Send your thoughts and check in with friends and loved ones if you can’t physically be there.
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See you at the next sip!
Deck: Healing Light Lenormand by Chrstopher Butler copyright 2021 all rights reserved. Used with permissions granted on llwellynpublishing.com.
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