Tag: the crow

Weekend Oracle: Stuff of Life

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GRAIN: They used to say “bread is the staff of life.” Grains reminds us of the stuff that the staff is made of. It speaks to the source of basics, the true essentials.

The grains card reminds us of the stuff that makes up day to day life, as simple and mundane as it gets. It speaks to food, clothing, shelter. This is a earth energy akin to the 3 of pentacles in tarot. It’s about doing essential tasks, and the hands on activities of daily living from the most mundane to the most sacred and creative. This is a weekend to take care of those things. Stay home. Sort your socks. Water those plants you’ve been forgetting. Put the laundry away and put your feet up with a glass of wine and a good book. Grain by grain, a wheat harvest leads to warm bread on a cold day. Do the little stuff that you’ve been putting off because little things, in the long run, can mean a lot.

This vibes with this harvest time of year, something reversed in every culture that I can think of.

This card and this weekend is a reminder that the mundane IS the sacred.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.”

Alan Watts

Deck: Oracle of Secrets by Seven Dane Asmund, used with permissions Publishing Goblin LLC

Discover

Life is a stress test.

In medicine, a cardiac stress test is where a person exercises with an EKG, an electronic measurement of heart activity. In some kinds of heart disease the problem doesn’t show until the heart is put under stress by the physical activity.

Sometimes in life, our innate strength doesn’t show until it is put under stress by life.

The problem comes when strength isn’t recognized for what it is or if we expect it to be different than it is.

Being sad during sad times isn’t a failure of strength. Acknowledging it and dealing with it is strength, especially when that strength comes in the form of asking for help.

In The Crow movie, Eric Draven said “It can’t rain all the time.”

The sun can’t shine all the time either.

The world would be Death Valley if it did.

Both are essential. Both are inevitable wherever life survives and thrives. There will be times of sadness or suffering. Period.

They come, but they need not steal our strength. If anything, they just might uncover a gift, namely the strengths and foundation that the good times provided.

Sometimes a ‘fading energy’ card is less overtly fading, but a reminder of times past…a reminder to use tools and skills that have worked well in the past. This card is less fading and more reminding, asking us to remember the lessons we’ve learned and bring them forward to apply to current situations. Those lessons learned are a treasure trove – like 9 coins is a treasure, a high number pentacle card.

The Ace of Cups has an abundant, overflowing cup sort of feeling. It confirms what you have – confirms the inner strengths symbolized by the 9 of coins is indeed there, full, at the ready to pour out on any problems that come up.

The five of cups is emotion spilled, but not emotion denied – tears spilled, but not tears denied. It may be a new problem, but it just might be a comfort to find an old skill that still works.

Thank you for reading. Please come back Wednesday, September 20 to start the next “Learn With Me” series when we start to explore the 36 card Lenormand Tarot.

See you at the next sip!

My Tarot Valentine 2021: Any Little Gesture

Chivalry is such a quaint word.

You don’t hear it much any more. It comes to mind today with the Knight of Cups today, in a sweet, kissy-kissy way. I can’t blame you if you just aren’t in the mood for it. As I write this it is first thing in the morning and I’m not in the mood form much other than a large latte. Like Gurney Halleck in the Dune movie tells us, “moods are a thing for loveplay and cattle” Loveplay it is then.

In another movie, The Crow, Eric tells us (in the scene where he visits Officer Albrecht at home) “Little things used to mean so much to Shelly- I used to think they were kind of trivial. Believe me, nothing is trivial.” Little things mean a lot. Little gestures mean a lot.

Things that may seem trivial to you at the time might just be a little treasure to those who care about you. Don’t be surprised if small gestures of affection – in any human connection, not just grand romance – give you a little heartbeat of happiness too.

Today’s Tarot: Lingering Winter

The Five of Penticals still points very strongly to the physical realm. When I do these readings, it is with the intent of reading the general energies and hopefully giving a reading that is thought provoking or in some way helpful to the broadest audience possible.

Today there is a sense of a three way split, with a slightly different idea for each group.

Again, at least here in the U.S. the pandemic is the top of mind issue and the dominant energy. All three, however, reming of long winters. We are in the late January equivalent of this energy wave. We are in the dark heart of a long and lingering winter, do to speak.

Some may feel cautiously optimistic. You are right, this will end, but for a long while and not with rainbows and unicorns you might think. Nurture that optimism, it is like a flower poking up through the snow. But don’t get too carried away just yet. Temper and balance that optimism with realism and practicality. This isn’t over yet. Don’t panic, things will change, but at their pace, not ours. Plan in case scarcity last longer than you think.

Others may feel just plain terrible, and the bleak imagery on most five of coins cards captures that feeling. You are totally justified in feeling that way. Things are terrible in a lot of ways for a lot of people. The initial zinging panic energy has already changed, even if it has changed into the low level him of persistent existential dread. There’s no easy remedy for that kind of mental and emotional headspace. I’m not talking about real depression or genuine mental health need, which is far outside the scope of this kind of this kind of blog. It speaks to the normal funk of a person put in a funky situation beyond their control. Here I get the mental image and sound of “it can’t rain all the time” from the movie “The Crow.” In 1816, a volcanic eruption in the south Pacific caused an ash cloud so severe that it caused crop failures in Europe. Even in that “year without a summer” Yes, things suck. Don’t deny or minimize how you feel about it, but at the same time don’t let it affect what DO about it. Persist. Keep plodding on through the deep snow drifts. It might be along winter, but it isn’t a forever winter. You aren’t in this alone. To continue the analogy with winter, we are all freezing our buns off together to one extent or another. You might be in an isolated cabin by yourself, but you are not in the storm alone.

The third group has pretty much just snapped. Cabin fever has boiled over. Whether they have carried an enormous burdon or were just fragile to start, some have been pushed beyond their means to cope and are operating from a place of fear and anger. That person isn’t reading this and probably couldn’t hear anything the card might suggest anyway.

It falls to the rest of us to protect ourselves from lingering in a place like that and from those who do. Whether you are walking around harboring a glimmer of hope, like sunshine on a freezing afternoon or if you are sitting in fully overcast gloom, we got this. Yes, mind your resources. Yes, honor your genuine feelings. Winter can sometimes linger, but it never lasts forever.