The Eye of August


I’m looking at the world through yin/yang colored glasses this morning. How are things going for you?

Drew a card for today’s post. It didn’t seem right. Drew again. Ditto.

When that happens, sometimes I’ll just start browsing cards to see if anything sparks an idea.

The first thing I realized is how very over the 1909 RWS deck I am. The pale colors and religiousness of it just don’t get it. Thankfully many more RWS inspired, off-RWS, and Lenormand decks exist, although I have that same pale colored, last-century looking beef with a lot of Lenormand decks too. My first and only Lenormand is Christoper Butler’s Healing Light Lenorman where the art and colors are bullseye right in my intuitive and aesthetic wheelhouse – 10 out of 10, no notes, no interest in any other Lenormand Decks.

But back to feeling uninspired which is really the whole point of this.

The only thing that caught my psychic-eye while browsing cards was the center of the Wheel in the Witches Tarot deck, which is a silver pentacle. I don’t have a graphic at hand to show you, but you can Google it easily enough.

The Wheel card did step forward for attention recently and I think it has more to tell us, but not in its typical Tarot meanings like twist of fate, or constant change, or a reversal of fortunes or what have you. My hunch was to slap on the taijitu glasses and remember the spin on this from Taoist philosophy:

Anything in its extreme holds the seed of its opposite.

When we are feeling uninspired or unmotivated, it’s natural to disengage. I’m not saying let ennui run rampant forever. But it just might be the early signal nature gives us to unplug a little.

In the matrix of nature where humans evolved, late August is a good time for that.

BUT not in a pressured way. HURRY UP and relax is one of the dumbest things humans do. During the first weeks of August I witnessed multiple people in multiple situations being absolutely vile to retail workers because they had to go on vacation the next couple of days. They were so profoundly out of step with the time, the season and what was needed it broke the space for everyone there.

And that is the message here. We need a little back to nature moment today. Nature in the energy sense. Nature in the esoteric sense.

In that naturally, evolutionary matrix – this time of year is the most intense part of the heat here, so we need intense yin to go with it. This is sip tea in the shade for a minute before the whole harvest / preserve for winter intensity kicks in. It’s eye of the hurricane time.

In Taoist influenced martial arts, like Tai Chi, calm is seen as strength, just like the low pressure eye of the storm is the powerhouse engine of a hurricane.

Combine that notion with the Tarot hint from the center of the wheel card. It’s a day to go to center. Go to the hub of the wheel where the motion and change is less than at the rim.

It’s the eye of August. Find your quiet center. That is where you will find the energy for the soon to come time when we will need to power up for fall.

Yeah, I know. Southern hemisphere. Same thing. Sip a hot drink in the doldrums of winter and gear up for spring and frenetic planting instead of frenetic harvesting.

No matter where you are in the world, go to the center. Go to the quiet. Unplug where you are. Start where you stand. Don’t break yourself and everyone around you to go relax.

Be the eye of storm right where you are.

See you at the next sip

The Dregs of Summer

It’s August

Late August

I don’t like summer, especially the ass-end of it when my patience with blazing sun, heat and humidity is long gone. There is always a little bit of an energy shift when dog days end, even more so around the 21st when we are closer to the end of the season. It is the glimpse of cool darkness at the end of a blazing white hot tunnel if you’ll pardon the color-flipped metaphor.

Maximum yang, like peak summer heat, demands a healthy dose of yin in response. All this summering asks for some resting. Rest doesn’t have to be a full on vacation or a power nap (although a power nap is ALWAYS a good thing when you can manage it.) Sometimes it is just a matter of cutting yourself a little bit of slack. Take your foot off the gas on the downhill, if that makes any sense of it.

That’s what I’m doing for a few weeks. I’m retreating to my cyberspace comfort zone instead of taking the usual full break from the Internet. My basic plan is to drag some stuff out of the archives to post and do a basic re-set here on the blogs and newsletter. It’s time to collect myself and get ready for fall, that most wonderful time of the year.

Happy Pumpkin Spice Everything to those who celebrate!

PS – Private readings by email are ALWAYS OPEN, sabbatical, real holiday, fake pumpkin spice holiday or otherwise! Order your private email Tarot reading 24/7, no appointment needed HERE