Tag: stork

Action Eases Anxiety: Move with Charisma

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Snakes aren’t evil.

The Lenormand Tarot reads them as threatening energy and a strong caution not unlike the three of swords.

This isn’t a time for impulsive action – but neither is a time to be frozen by fear.

In China and other Buddhist cultures, Snake is part of their astrology and revered as one of the 12 zodiac animals to heed the Buddha’s call. People born in Snake years are thought to be intellectual, wise, enigmatic and charming. Snake people got the rizz.

What it is (current energy): The Snake. Be Cautious, not frozen. Impulse and emotion should take a back seat to intellect and wisdom this week. This is a good environment to put your best foot forward and show off the best parts of you that are already here. Shift the focus from self development to self-shining. Polish what you have, instead of seeking what you don’t.

What to do: The Stork. Yep….the exact same card we saw last week. Repeats like this warrant our attention. My mind is drawn back to the same mountain top image as last week. We’ve waited, watched, gathered information. I’m pulled straight ahead to the downhill path. An easier road ahead. The side paths along the narrow mountain ridge are less lit, more shadowy. They are flat, but downhill is easier than flat. And in this new image, safer too. I hear “razor’s edge” (in reference to the narrowness of the paths, not the book) Joy can not be maintained and changes the same as sorrows change in time. All emotions come and go like clouds in the sky or leaves floating in a stream. The peak, as beautiful as the view may be, is unsustainable. Move ahead. The elevation changes, but is ultimately a wide, safe, sustainable way forward.

We are at the point where cautious watching could easily become frozen in fear. Cold, frozen, decay. Standing where we are is fraught with new challenges, new dangers. Standing still is no longer a healthy option in this image. The golden sunset light from last week has faded into an icy, snowy night. Moving forward again is where the warmth and light leads us.

I hear “follow the stork” and remember the “follow the white rabbit” scene from the movie The Matrix. Intuition isn’t entirely without value. Trust your inner guidance, trust what you know.

Snake and crane together are a symbol of the practice and art of Tai Chi. We often think of the yang side (crane) of things as being powerful, but Tai Chi and Taoism teach us that yin is powerful too and both in balance is best.

Climbing and mountains are yang, and need yang-style power. Downhill paths and valleys are yin energy, a power all of their own. Think of a magnet. Instead of going out hunting and capturing what is needed, yin draws what is needed in, like a magnet.

Negotiating a downhill path requires balance now just as much as climbing the mountain did not that long ago.

Snakes have a magnetic personality, cranes and storks have big powerful breaks and wings. Both together are balance in motion. Here is where searching the two of pentacles in the archives might come in handy.

The ultimate point of the reading is to not let the anxiety you feel stop you. Don’t be frozen by fear. Remember your charm. Make literal charms and talismans if it helps. Move forward. Let the new cycle begin.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. When it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path where the fear has gone and there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Frank Herbert, Dune

Week Ahead Tarot: Summit and Crossroads

This is different.

When I do these week ahead readings, typically I either use my Action Eases Anxiety layout with my one and only Lenormand deck, or I use another layout with one of my several RWS decks, whichever one intuitively seems right for the moment.

Oddly, today’s energy asked for a TaoCraft Path layout with the Lenormand deck. Gives me the feeling that either this is going to land with someone personally OR that the collective energy has something to say and wants to be heard. With any kind of luck, it’s both.

Anyway, here’s what we got.

Influence from the past: The Mountain (right)

OK – maybe the storm lasted 6 years instead of two. I ‘hear’ (meaning the intuition comes as mental words or music instead mental images) both the words “end game” and an old 1970s song “Looks Like We Made It” (Barry Manilow? – ugh. OK, message received. I’ll brain bleach that with music I actually like now)

The feeling and imagery reminds me of images given toward the end of covid lockdown, of cautiously coming out of a storm shelter to see what damage has been done. Maybe that was actually the eye of the hurricane and 2024 was the second side of the 2020 storm.

It also gives me of the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indy crawls over the edge of the cliff where his dad is staring over the edge thinking Indy was dead. So Indy just stands there too, trying to see what everybody was looking at.

Long story short, this card is letting us know we made it – again. We’ve climbed another cliff, and now it’s time to drag ourselves over the edge, see what everyone else is looking at and figure out what to do next.

Current Energy: Crossroads (middle)

With this I ‘hear’ “Hekate” and “keys”. The mental image is coming to the top of the mountain or dragging over the cliff edge as with the last card and immediately being faced with a crossroads. The straight ahead path immediately heads down the other side of the mountain. Left and right paths go along the summit ridge in opposite directions. All are equally lit by the setting or rising sun, all three seem equally compelling. My instinct is to stay still and gather a better sense of things. Choosing to do nothing just now is still a choice. I hear “this needs time”

For YOU as individual, I hear “the key is imagination.” If you imagine that your stresses are winding down (regardless whether they FEEL that way or not right now)…imaging that they are. Imagine that you have survived your stress, it is behind you, and you have four clear choices of how things go from here in the near future. Left, right, straight ahead or stand right the hell here for a minute, which pulls you? Which looks brighter in your mind’s eye? Where are each of those choices headed? Which direction do you WANT to go?

“No rest for the wicked” as the saying goes. We are being hit with a deliberate, mindful choice as soon as the wave of stress and challenge begins to pass. The time to choose your next steps is NOW. It’s about the mindfulness of the choice. Even if the choice is to stop and rest for a minute, MAKE that choice deliberately. It doesn’t matter as much what you choose, only that you choose it with full awareness and purpose.

You can change your mind later, the point is to at least make up your mind for now. Don’t just let this week happen to you. Experience it on purpose.

Best Next Steps: The Stork (left)

The Stork symbolizes newness and cycles. Not all change is bad, but new change is hot on the heels of old change. This last phase, this last storm is rapidly closing, but there is no fence to straddle, no flat path to follow. Standing still is a choice on the razor’s edge. New movement and change comes quickly. In this mental image of the summit and the paths, the top is narrow, maybe a meter wide. Straight ahead slopes down quickly, right and left remains flat but narrow along the ridge. Every direction is equally light, equally compelling.

You can always change your mind later. This feels less about which direction you choose…less about WHAT you choose and more about making a choice NOW and even more importantly choosing AT ALL. Don’t let this week just happen to you. Be deliberate and mindful about what you do, even if it is to nothing. Stay the course if you want, but do it on purpose.

Astrology isn’t my strong suit, but it is the full moon, a blue moon, in Saggitarius for whatever that is worth. The astrology side of social media caught my attention with it because it is supposed to be good or lucky for my sun, moon and rising signs. It is supposed to be at time to plant seeds of intention as this is an opportune time for the to come to full and good fruition.

I’ll take that.

But I get the sense that this is an opportune window of time, a favorable energy environment for deciding your direction. Nothing has to be finished now. The Stork card hints at birth and beginning. Take it all in for a moment, but plant the seeds now. Or as social media’s Tank Tolman says….begin where you stand.

For some, standing is a beginning.

The past has been hard. You’ve seen things and done stuff, and crawled back up and over the edge of the cliff. Right away we are hit with the likelihood of more change, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Level and downhill is easier than dragging ourselves up a steep climb. It is all sunlit and warm (gives pleasant sunset vibes) The thing to do to move forward in harmony is just to do it – do anything or nothing so long as we do it deliberately

Here is to a sunny summit kind of week for us all. See you at the next sip!