Valuing Traditions

/ Twist the Leaf / Leave a comment

Today’s meditation was a bit over fourteen minutes long and was spent in quiet with breathing exercises and forearm stretches.  My right forearm has seized again, and so the stretching during my meditation was to tend to this issue.

Telluric Tarot 2nd EditionToday’s draw is the Hierophant, which is traditionally a representation of tradition, structure, guidance, established principles, and spiritual knowledge.

In today’s card, the Hierophant is represented by Staurolite and Oak. Staurolite, an iron based mineral, has qualities of stability and longevity, while the Oak shares and transforms this longevity into strength and long established tradition.

The message in today’s card, therefore, is about where we find comfort and stability in old traditions and passed down practices. Especially in the third quarter of the year, we run into a wide variety of traditions, both in society and family. The holidays that fall in this quarter of the year are steeped in them.

Today’s card invites us to examine those traditions and the reason they are carried on through the generations. What value do they hold that keeps them flourishing year after year? Which traditions do you value most, and which need a closer look to understand more fully?

DECK USED:  TELLURIC TAROT 2ND EDITION

OwlandBonesTarot’s #BothSidesOfTheTarot Prompt
Questions for September 29th and 30th

Oracle des Messages de Ton Cœur and The Wandering Soul OracleWhat boundary could be set in place?

Angoisses – As the holiday rush approaches, anxiety will rise. Make sure that you are not allowing this anxiety to freeze you in place. Staying fluid and flexible is important.

What wall could be taken down?

Souffrances – The chronic pain you deal with on a daily basis has levels, and you need to start doing those things that help keep your pain and suffering in check.

Finding Balance Between the Two – You know what you need to do (Wisdom), so untie those stubborn knots tying your hands and holding you back (Bound) and do it.

You need to work on establishing a regular meditation practice, which helps a great deal with both your anxiety and your pain levels.

What needs acceptance?

Nourriture – Nurturing comes in all forms. We feed our body with food, we feed our heart with good friends and love, we feed our mind with books and curiosity, we feed our soul with those things and people that make our soul sing. All of these aspects need fed. All of them; not just whatever ones you feel are valid.

What could you refuse?

Pitié – Pay attention to your negative inner narrative and shut down its lies when they try to whisper to you. Don’t allow them to turn your perspective sour.

Finding Balance Between the Two – When you connect to those things that spark fire in your soul (Burn), it creates a lift in all areas of your life including how you speak to yourself. The better you feel, the less your negative inner narrative has to say (Interconnected).

DECK USED: L’ORACLE DES MESSAGES DE TON CŒUR AND THE WANDERING SOUL ORACLE

#DiscordTarotholicsSep2022 Challenge Prompt
Questions for September 29th

Telluric Tarot 2nd EditionGoal – Knight of Cups – To instill more joy and enthusiasm into your day-to-day activities, especially in relation to pursuits that involve your creativity.

Pros – The Lovers – More connection with your purpose, and a healthier outlook towards your work and responsibilities. Rose colored glasses make everything look better, which influences how you feel, think, and communicate with others.

Cons – Ace of Swords – Enthusiasm created from those “feel good” feelings brings about a plethora of inspired ideas that you don’t really have time to add to your plate.

Obstacles – Two of Swords – This over abundance of enthusiasm and barrage of ideas can cause solid planning and realistic goal setting to fall to the wayside.

Solutions – Antecedent of Pentacles – Don’t start what you can’t finish. Write it down instead, and save the ideas “for a rainy day” when you have a bit more time. You can always return to them late.

DECK USED: TELLURIC TAROT 2ND EDITION

Daily Self Kindness

I shared my frustrations with others instead of holding them inside and letting them fester.

What Makes the Journey Worthwhile

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

Today’s meditation was skipped (again).

Cats Rule the Earth Tarot - Three of WandsToday’s draw is the Three of Wands, which is traditionally a representation of forward movement, advancing, plans set to action, and opportunity.

Sunflowers.  That’s what catches my attention in this card, and it’s an interesting choice for a card that traditionally holds a depiction of a figure looking out to sea and a whole lot of water.

Sunflowers are a symbol of happiness and joy, and what I see as the message in this card is actually an encouragement to make sure that when you begin to act on your plans that you’re heading in a direction that will include happiness and joy in the journey.

Don’t forsake how important these qualities are, or how important it is to instill these qualities in any journey you undertake in life.  They are what makes the journey worthwhile.

DECK USED:  CATS RULE THE EARTH TAROT

Mr Lionhart’s #TheSeptemberTarot Between Dusk & Dawn Prompt
Questions for September 28th thru 30th – LESSONS

Medicina de los Animales de la Cruz del SurWhat did my September journey help establish for me?

Yarará – It provided you with the rest, respite, awareness, and clarity needed to prepare for what’s ahead. It was a time of pause that is helping in getting ready for the busy season to come.

How am I invited to build upon September moving forward?

Lechuza – Turn those qualities gained through September toward helping you nurture the success you wish to achieve (as opposed to trying to force it) over the next three months.

What am I guided to graciously part with or move away from starting October 1st?

Águila – Take care that as the veil between the spirit world and ours thins, you aren’t allowing those coming through to hinder or hold you back. You have had this experience in the past, depending on who decides to come through, and it’s not something you need to add to your plate this year.

DECK USED: MEDICINA DE LOS ANIMALES DE LA CRUZ DEL SUR

OwlandBonesTarot’s #BothSidesOfTheTarot Prompt
Questions for September 27th and 28th

Cats Rule the Earth Tarot and Glowwood OracleWhat is falling?

The High Priestess – The time to linger and explore the secrets of the world around you (and those within you as well) is coming to a close. This time, as it does each year, will put a good part of your intuition into a holding pattern while you deal with other more logic driven concerns and physical world matters that need your attention.

What is rising?

The Chariot – In place of your amble through what (should usually be) the unknown and the secrets that lie there, you will be swept up into the control and drive needed for the tasks ahead. You know how you want the next three months to go, and your determination and control are rising up to make sure it goes just how you want it to.

Finding Balance Between the Two – Look to those that you trust and give you a sense of home and safety (Earwig), to help in preparing for the road ahead (Limestone). You’re not in this alone, so don’t make yourself do it all alone.

Where do you feel respected?

Death – You feel expected when it comes to leading the way through change and helping others through the process. Others notice the sense of stability and support that you bring to these situations far more than you notice doing so.

Where do you feel disrespected?

Two of Cups Rx – There are times that when you don’t see eye to eye with someone, you perceive this as disrespect instead of just a difference of opinion or a differing perspective. This is usually tied into how the differing opinion is presented to you.

Finding Balance Between the Two – Be an inspiration to yourself and others (Snow Lichen) by rising above miscommunication and struggles to understand (The Hornbeam). Work at staying aware of the fact that people look to you for guidance and a sense of strength and stability, even when you aren’t aware it’s happening.

DECK USED: CATS RULE THE EARTH TAROT AND THE GLOWWOOD ORACLE

Daily Self Kindness

I really didn’t want to get up and go check, but when Gid asked me to go make sure I hadn’t missed any doses of my meds, I went and did it anyway.  (This seems like a stupid self-kindness, but there was some real inner resistance there for some reason.)

Weekly Creativity Prompt – Relating and Relations

/ Twist the Leaf / Leave a comment

Prompt:  Shuffle your deck of choice, then pull out every ninth card. Of the eight cards now sitting in front of you, which card do you relate to most strongly and why? Of the seven cards now left sitting in front of you, which card do you relate to the least and why?
Extra Credit: There are now six cards left. Assign a real person in your life, a fictional character, a movie, a book, or a song to each of these six cards and then tell us why you made the choice you did for each.

Cirque du TarotCard I Relate to Most Strongly – Ace of Wands – So much inspiration and so little time. There are so many things I want to learn and explore, but there’s never enough time.  Every single day, more new ideas and new interests stir to live inside my mind and heart, and I want to explore every single one of them.  Picking and choosing between them is hard when they all old so much potential value either monetarily, or through the pure enjoyment of discovery and exploration.

Card I Relate to the Least – The Fool – I am too cautious a thinker to relate well to this card.  Although I often move at lightning speed to seize opportunity or get things done, there is no carefree abandon in this speed. Instead it is controlled precision. Tossing all cares to the wind and being carefree and innocent just doesn’t feel like it is a part of my nature.  In fact, about the only time it ever happens is when I’m playing in the liminal spaces within the rainforests here in the PacificNW.

The Empress – I often think of Z when I see this card. As my mentor growing up and throughout my adult life, she has often held the place of nurturer in my life.  Sometimes The Empress and nearly always The High Priestess… it turns out that it’s her mother that has stolen the Empress role from her of late.  Now they seem to somehow share this role together in my mind.

Two of Wands – This card made me think of the second episode of the Rings of Power on Amazon Prime. It’s all about direction, planning, and the course of actions we plan to take in our lives.

Seven of Wands – Drive by Incubus
https://youtu.be/fgT9zGkiLig

Three of Wands – Time to Pretend by MGMT
https://youtu.be/B9dSYgd5Elk

Two of Cups – It is the timeless friendship between Morpheus and Hobs in the series The Sandman on Netflix that this card reminds me of. An immortalized human and the god of dreams strike up an unusual friendship by meeting once every century at the same tavern again and again.  It’s an unlikely friendship, and yet it shows how such relationships can grow from just the seed of companionship between two people.

Four of Wands – At the end of Ambrose Ibsen’s book “The House of Long Shadows” the main character, possessed by a myriad of spirits, is walled up into the home he had been renovating in order to keep all those entities trapped within that place.  The book then takes a look at the man’s spirit life afterward, and how the tree he’d thought smelled so disgusting all this time throughout the book now smells sweet and “like home”.  He found peace in the house, even if it was after the horror of how he died, and the scent of the callery pear tree now is a celebration of that peace and home he’s found.

DECK USED: CIRQUE DU TAROT

The Sadness of Letting Go

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

Today’s meditation was skipped.

Trionfi Tarot - The WorldToday’s draw is the World card, which is traditionally a representation of the end of a journey, the completion of a time of growth, accomplishment, and transitioning from one path in life to another.

The imagery for this card today is very classic, but what catches my attention is the fact that the card is a bit… dark.  That’s not a trick of the light in the photo, it’s actually a bit dark and muted.

This brings to light an aspect of a card that is usually a bit of a celebration and a bit of a relief.   That is, the sadness of letting go.  In order to step through that wreath of laurels and into a new beginning, we have to leave something behind.  That can be hard, and sometimes it can feel a bit sad.

The message in today’s card is to remember that you have new good things ahead.  Don’t let the letting go get you down and make you forget where you’re going.

DECK USED:  TRIONFI TAROT

#DiscordTarotholicsSep2022 Challenge Prompt
Questions for September 26th and 27th

Secret Wood OracleAs the warmth of early Autumn draws to an end next month, what needs to be let go of?

Dreamer atop Ally – Sadly, this is referencing the interactive storytelling that you enjoy with Gideon. In these endeavors you create worlds together, and spent time with him in these worlds.

This is a reminder to enjoy it while you can, for as the holiday rush arrives in early November, you will have to let go of this joy in your life until next January.

What needs a little more focus and energy to complete before winter?

Creatrix – Self discovery and self care. Soon enough you won’t have time for either. It’s time to make sure that you ensure you get all that you need, and build up the practices that will get you through the winter rush.

DECK USED: SECRET WOODS ORACLE

The #ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge Prompt by E Roebuck-Jones
Questions for September 26th thru 28th

Trionfi Tarot - Knight of Swords, Queen of Swords, Hanged Man, The HermitHow can I stop taking criticism personally?

Queen of Swords atop Knight of Swords – Stop and think it through then rise above instead of impulsively flying off the handle.

Do I believe my opinion matters?

The Hanged Man – Yes, but you think everyone’s opinions matter. You like to see outside your own perspectives, and part of that is in listening to and trying to understand other people’s viewpoints.

How can I best express my love for others?

The Hermit Rx – Don’t shut them out. It’s not healthy for you and it makes them feel lost and alone.  By letting them in and making sure they are a part of your life instead of just in the periphery of it, they feel more loved and more important, and you are healthier both mentally and emotionally.

DECK USED: TRIONFI TAROT

Daily Self Kindness

I brought a handful of tarot cloths with me to the house today so that I don’t have to pull cards on cardboard and packing paper every time I pull my cards there instead of at home.