Today’s Tarot: Be The Stability

 

“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Ghandi

So far, 2020 has been a helluva decade. 

We are all awash in change. If you look at Tarot as being predictive, then this is good news, an omen of increased stability on the horizon.

Nope.

I don’t see it that way in general principle or in this particular card on this particular day. In fact, if I listen with intuition to the general, zeitgeist, energy-at-large feelings then it feels opposite, well, actually kind of sideways from a return to stability or any sort of prior normalcy. It doesn’t feel like a hopeful, optimistic sunrise or a gentle stable reliability of the returning sun as is usually the connotation with this card. At the same time it isn’t a sense of decent into interminable darkness, either. 

The feeling is more akin to “Brace yourself for part 2. It’s gonna be a doozy.” Remember that eye of the hurricane turn in the energy last week? Or was it the week before…you know, last blursday the 77th….

It feels like the eye of the hurricane is about to pass by and we are facing the other side of the eyewall. In my minds eye I see black clouds blowing sideways in a circular wind, like farm soil picked up in a tornado. The biggest difference is this time we know what is in there. We know what we are in for. The sense of optimism that was there for a tiny bubble of time when New York City reported mitigation was working and the rate of increase was slowing down. 

Now is when the storm moves from New York City and spreads like a mud flow across the nation, at it thickest where partisanship reigns and mitigation / health science does not. Not pleasant, not neutral, but that’s the image, that is the facts of it. Tarot and science are not at odds…but are rather different windows into the same human experience.

So what does all of that have to do with the Sun card you are probably asking. It’s an advice card, not a predictive one. It is time to be your own stability. In chaotic times, the change you want to see in the world is a change toward more stability. We can’t count on that coming from the outside in. Just like we can rely on the outside world or other people for our happiness, we have to be our own stability right now. This isn’t a time for reaching, forcing, or inspirational charging ahead. This is a time for watching, prioritizing, doing what the present moment needs, preparing, being. Just be. That we can do with great consistency and stability. If you allow yourself to be, without expectation or goal or judgement, just as the sun simply IS in the sky, then that is both enough and as reliable as the sunrise.

Consider these two things:

First, a Zen parable, author unknown – 

A student asks the master “I want to be happy. How do I do that?” The master said “First, drop the ‘I’ because that is ego. Then drop the ‘want’ because that is desire. Then all that remains is ‘be happy’.”

Second, a quote from lovely Brea Fisher, Qi Gong instructor and vlogger (please support her on Patreaon www.kwanyinkungfu.com)

“Being is a current theme right now for me and many others. Beingness sends a pulse out into the world like the beating of a drum so continuous is drone. You are enough simply by existing. You don’t need to do anything more to be worthy of this life. You are whole in this moment no matter what” – Brea Fisher

That being said, being is enough. Being is your stability. Anything else is desire and perception. You can be the stability you want in this world.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot for May 3 – 9

 

You Choose: Pick a card. If you want more time, pause the video and restart it for the reveal.

You Choose: read the interpretation below or use PeaceTarot ebook (download from the Etsy shop)  Use it along with the card draw videos to learn to do DIY one card Tarot meditations, even if you don’t have a Tarot deck!

Left: King of Wands. Being the leader of your internal kingdom is a big responsibility. The buck stops with you for the things you say and do whether you own up to that responsibility or not. At the same time, it is good to be the king. You don’t have to have every answer at every moment. You are perfectly allowed to make yourself comfortable within that internal space, within your own skin. Being who you are, where you are and engaged with this moment of living is leadership enough. 

Center: Three of Wands. Every moment is a new horizon. Watch for your chance. Watch for your moment. A fresh start is always at hand. Wait and watch for the perfect one for you. There is a positive, optimistic energy around the card, like watching the sunrise. Watch for good things.

Rignt: Four of Wands. Solid and stable, the four of wands is associated with family foundations, and a celebration of the things that keep you grounded. “Put down roots” comes to mind. What makes you feel grounded, balanced, solid and stable? Look for those kinds of people and things. It’s been a weird couple of months. This is a good week to steady yourself.

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Today’s Tarot: A Well Stocked Cookie Jar

With all the pentacle cards that have been showing up lately, I’ve taken to re-reading old reference books to see if there is some obscure meaning, or some facet of the cards I’m missing. Call it due dilignce, although it is probably closer to trolling for inspiration.

Today was browsing the book that came with the deck in the video. It is my far and away favorite deck right now, the Witches Tarot. The book is by Ellen Dugan and the georgous artwork is by Mark Evans.

The keyword “homemaker” jumped out from the description for today’s Queen of Pentacles. My first knee jerk response was drudgery, housework, negative connotations of leaving the workforce that still get foisted on stay-at-home moms who are seen as somehow lesser, or giving in to old strictures of patriarchy.

Ok, let’s let that go, let the cultural programming wash a way for a second. Deep breath.

Now let’s connect the word homemaker to the more common, more resonant, overarching meaning of nurturing and self care that typically comes through with this card. Now lets connect that further to the pandmic that was such a huge wave of energy coming through the pentacle cards lately.

Rather than the HGTV Martha Stewert version of homemaking, think “nesting.”

Think comfortable. Think of making a soft cozy little nest of pillows and blankets and watching TV in bed or from your favorite seat. Think pillow forts and cookies and comfort foods. It is sourdough season.

There is the potential for good things to come out of this experience. Those out and working have found strengths they may not have known before. May they also discover a vast pool of support they have never had before as well. Delivery trucks, supply trucks, and grocery stores have my eternal gratitude to go right with the healthcare and first responders.

We’ve been given the chance to face up to…and befriend who we are right here and right now. What better way to make a friend than sharing a cookie or two? We’ve been handed the chance to rediscover childhood pleasure, and create new ones. We don’t need mass consumerism and a constant drive to heal, to grow, to progress or to succeed. To bake a loaf of bread, put on our jammies, to become OK with a being on earth…even on who likes the occasional sweet treat or second (or fourth) cup of coffee, or letting yourself sit and finish listening to that song, a stretch, a yawn … any of a million tiny sensual physical realm pleasures that are close at hand with minimal effort.

We can get back to obsessing over appearances and diets and progress and consuming and doing and achieving later. For now, stock the cookie jar and deeply, mindfully enjoy the simplest, smallest pleasures at hand. Little things mean a lot, even when you are the Queen.

May we always have well stocked cookie jars and appreciate the simple pleasures close at hand.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Plant

Pick a card. Pause the video if you need some time. Restart to seee the reveal, then you can scroll down to get your reading below. OR you can do you own reading. PeaceTarot ebook download can teach you how. (https://www.etsy.com/listing/248936426/peacetarot-e-book-how-to-do-daily)

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Left: Ace of Pentacles. “Bloom where you are planted.” The energies are a wind at your back, the near future is an opportune time for productivity and creativity in a very tangible way. Both the muses and the maker’s energies are with you. Be on the lookout for inspiration and opportunity to make or do something tangible.

Middle: Seven of Pentacles “Let the planted seeds grow.” In the 27 years that I’ve been reading cards, I’ve never seen a pattern so repeated, so loud, so clear as the energies have been for the past couple of months of the global pandemic.

Now is not the time for big innovation, change or being overly high-minded, or woo woo spiritual about things. Let the seeds that were sown grow. This is one of those time to leave well enough alone. Sit with what is and what has happened so far. This is very different from the major arcana Hanged Man energy. It isn’t stagnation…this is a needed, necessary quiet. We aren’t stuck, the best thing to DO is nothing, is to wait. Being at peace with that will reap harvest in its time. Finding out that you are not at peace with quiet and your own company is important too. Both are needed now in order to move forward at harvest time.

Right: Queen of Wands “Tend to your garden.” Again this is a clear, repeated message of the times. Take care of yourself and those near to you. Do what needs done. Protect yourself. Do the right thing to protect those around you. The Tarot is on the experts side. Again, just like with the Seven of Pentacles, no is not the time to push or innovate or be overly woo woo spiritual, Tend to the physical. The spiritual will come back in its time. Your endurance is needed. Sleep. Eat. Get outside when you safely can.

Social Distance is my Tarot specialty! I write Tarot as easily as speaking it face to face. A keyboard is a hotline to intutition for me. The connection comes from information, not physical presance. Spirit and energy exists everywhere, so I can get your message and send it anywhere. Order on the home page. Prices reduced through at least the end of April to help out during the pandemic.

Today’s Tarot w/ Zombie Cat: A meeting of the minds

Braaaaiiiiiiinnss – they aren’t just for zombies anymore

It’s true that humans are social creatures. There is something primal about it that probably goes back to wolly mammoth BBQs. In modern times there is some other thread that ties us together other than pure group effort survival (altough some of that is needed nowadays too)

Wherever there is a meeting, there is a meeting of the minds. At a concert, it is the shared enjoyment of music. At a movie itvis the shared experience of images and stories. Pictures and stories don’t have to be called art and literature brain and emotion feeding kinds of things.

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you.” – Carl Sagan

Whether you are reading a book and communing with that unknown author, or chatting it up on facetime with grandma, it is still human interaction on a much needed mental and emotional level, if not the physical one.

During times when our physical beings are kept separate, it is all the more important to connect in a meeting of the minds.

Trust me on that one, because, you know, brains.

YouChoose Interactive Tarot: Persist – with STYLE

 

You know the drill….choose a card. Pause the video if you need some time. Restart it to see the reveal.


 

Left: Eight of Swords. The thread that connects the 8 in all decks it seems is a pervasive feeling of helplessness or a trapped situation. The Pamela Smith artwork suggests an unconventional, ‘outside the box’ solution, even though that wasn’t, of course, the language of the time. The faintness of the sword image in Thom Pham’s artwork might suggest that the barriers are perhaps mental or self-imposed. In any case, real or imagined, if you are feeling trapped or victimized, think of clever work-arounds rather than brute force bash-throughs. Sometimes life needs a little jerry rigging to make it through the day. Just ask anyone who is old enough that the word MacGyver is a verb.

Center: Five of Swords. Adapt. Challenges are ahead, but if you are stubborn, stuck to principle or habit (be it a literal habit, or a habit of thinking) then the outcome is not as good as if you were able to roll with the punches. I’m not super familiar with the Dark Knight movies, but the Keith Ledger version of the Joker is about as single minded as it gets as I remember it. Things are getting pretty Darwinian. Adapt or die, figuratively speaking. 

Right: Seven of Wands. This is a bit of an action hero card. Obyron from Game of Thrones is pictured. Every good action movie has action and conflict, right? Think of the all the pop culture renegade heroes we know and love…Han Solo, Deadpool, Tony Stark, James Kirk, Malcolm Reynolds, heck, the whole Firefly crew…you get the idea. Overcome challenge while letting your individuality show and your freak flag fly. Your greatest individual quirks may well prove to be your greatest individual source of strength just now. So persist and overcome the challenges ahead with humor and with style.

Today’s Tarot: Bend Don’t Break

It’s still your choice, even on days where it feels like one card is the right thing to do. It’s still your choice whether you would like use this card as a prompt for your own DIY reading or scroll down to the one I’ve written below…or both.

It may not be one of our run on coins cards, but The Fool, reversed, has pandemic advice all over it.

Begin a new journey? Nope – stay your backside at home.

Begin an inner journey? Absolutely! But that is where the reversal comes in. Mr. Andrews describes the cayote on the card as one of the most vlever and adaptable animals. So a reversal here begs the question of where and how you are having problems adapting. Taoist philosophy has a similar idea. If you don’t bend, you could break. Living beings are supple, bendable. Life wants to be clever and adaptable like cayote in order to stay that way. Dead things are rigid, stiff, unbending, brittle, breakable.

This isn’t over. The old ways have to change, else death may follow. Yes, you have to do things differently and think about things differently now. It bests the alternative. Bending is far better than breaking.

Stay safe, stay home. Protect the ones who go to work to protect you by staying home for them.

You Choose Tarot

Left: Two of Cups. A good time to follow those romantic impulses. Give your love their favorite dessert. Buy yourself some flowers. Hold the door for a stranger. You don’t have to be in a romance with another person in order to be in a relationship with life.

Middle: The Hanged Man. People invented calendars. Life doesn’t care what year it is or how fast you want things to happen. Whatever name you give this day, make it a good one.

Right: Two of Wands. This is the time when we naturally want to look to the future. Look ahead, make plans. Then think about what you are going to do when those plans blow apart and nothing goes as expected. “I always say don’t make plans, make options” – Jennifer Annisten (via brainyquote.com)

Deck: Heart of Stars, third edition, by Thom Pham, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

Four Seasons Readings are available for a limited time. This special layout looks to the year ahead with one card for each season and one card to snapshot the energy for the year as a whole. Order HERE anytime, no appointment needed. Distance readings are open all holiday season 2019.

You Choose Tarot (14 Nov 19)

Left: Seven of Wands. Success after struggle, but only if the ground you stake, the stand you means something imortant. Your stance, your tribe, your allies show your true self.

Middle: The Star. Navigate by stars, not by clouds. Look to your spiritual north star, a philosophy that is always reliable, something that always shines in your darkest night.

Right: Eight of Pentacles. Execute. Make. Practice. Do. Plans are one thing, doing it for real is quite another. This is where things get real.

You Choose on YouTube

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Left: Ten of Swords. Ok, now what? You gave it your best shot, went for the dream, and it all went precisely pear shaped. It sucks. Take a minute. Regroup. Look at what went wrong so you can not do THAT again. If going for your dream gets you this, it is OK to take the cosmic message and re-evaluate things, even if I means considering the dream really isn’t the right thing to do after all.

Middle: The Moon. Everything looks better in soft light. Not every minute is bright sunshine, the moon grows and wanes. Sometimes you chase, sometimes you sip wine in moonlight and dream.

Right: Queen of Coins. Emerson said the greatest gift we can give is a piece of ourselves. You can make it rain with the smallest of gestures: a smile, hold the door for someone, be a little more patient. Kindness is the Midas touch that turns everythign to gold.