Patience as Skill Development

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

Today’s meditation was skipped.

•    •    •    ◈    •    🌾    •    ◈    •    •    •

Daily Mental Health Prompt: Seek a positive message to carry with you throughout the day and offer perspective.

The Green Tarot - Seven of Pentacles and a card from the Crone Power Oracle and Affirmation Deck

Today’s draw is the Seven of Pentacles, which is traditionally a representation of slow growth, sustainability, domestic harmony, hard work, and practicing patience while the fruits of your labors develop and take form.

The Seven of Pentacles has then been combined with a card from the Crone Power Oracle and Affirmation Cards, which says, “I am peaceful. I find calm within myself.”

I have a tendency to rush. Not just in pushing myself in my endeavors, but also in everyday life. Like a dragonfly zipping from task to task and place to place, never pausing for long and rarely slowing down.

I’ve found, though, in my efforts to ease off in this behavior, that life’s little joys are enjoyed far more if you pause longer and move a bit slower.

The key is in learning to practice patience. In finding patience within yourself and encouraging it to flourish. In giving yourself permission to linger instead of rush. As a result you are then able to notice more instead of disregarding everything as a distraction. And that… is a major aspect of mindfulness.

The message in today’s Seven of Pentacles and affirmation is a reminder to slow down. Practice (as in try, fail, and try again) patience, and use that extra time to notice the things you normally wouldn’t. The more you practice? The more you will become better at bringing that patience up from within yourself when you need it most.

DECKS USED:  THE GREEN TAROT AND CRONE POWER ORACLE AND AFFIRMATION CARDS

September Prompts by @forgotten.dumpling & @ml.mecham
Prompt for September 9th : before we fossilize

Creative Writing with the Dunhuang Duyumen Playing Cards

Let’s pick apart the issues
(Nine of Spades)
Let’s celebrate our joys
(Nine of Hearts)
Let’s connect heart to heart
(Two of Hearts)
And create confidence from the noise
(Four of Hearts)
So that what we carry forward
(Jack of Clubs)
Is solid and strong
(Four of Diamonds)
Immortalized into the future
(King of Diamonds)
To help them to fix what’s gone wrong
(Queen of Hearts)

Other elements included in this reading:
Beech Pods for Realizations that Foster Personal Growth
Foraged Oak Branch with Moss and Lichen for Perseverance
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: DUNHUANG DUYUMEN (THE NINE-COLORED DEER) PLAYING CARDS

@lightningwildflower‘s September Self-Talk Challenge
Prompts for September 9th and 10th

Tarot Reading with The Green Tarot

Reset – What part of my routine needs a reset?

Four of Swords and Ace of Wands Rx

You need to stop looking for new things to get excited about, and instead take some time to assess and what you’ve already explored that is working for you, as well as ascertain what isn’t. Looking for new interests and ideas is simply a way for you to run away from those things that aren’t working for you instead of dealing with them.

Venus enters Scorpio – Where am I craving intensity, honesty, or deeper connection?

Intensity – Ace of Cups – You don’t like feeling as if he’s lost interest or is no longer enthusiastic about learning new things about you. You are used to his emotions keeping him invested (and obsessed). As a result, when he’s not as invested as he once was you equate it to a waning of emotion.

Honesty – Seven of Pentacles – You don’t want to be pandered to when it comes to those things you’ve invested your time, energy, and patience into. If something isn’t working out or needs changing you’d rather know right away than have it sprung upon you later on down the line or have to discover it for yourself.

Deeper Connection – Queen of Pentacles – You miss the nurturing energy that you used to get with more frequent trips out into nature. Find the time to get out among the trees and lichen more often and this craving will ease.

Other elements included in this reading:
Mandala on Cedar for Anchoring to the Present
Dried Red Maple Leaf for Adaptability and Connection
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THE GREEN TAROT
Daily Self Kindness

I brought home cupcakes from Ms B’s for a treat to snack on over the next few days.

🌑 New Moon in Virgo – September 2026

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

Tomorrow is the new moon, and like all new moons and full moons, I did a spread aligned to the moon’s current themes as a part of my recognition of the moon’s cycle and influences upon us. Today’s spread is courtesy of @auragami.la

New Moon in Virgo Tarot Reading with The Garnet Witch's Tarot and Willowseeds for the Wild Soul Oracle

A powerful reset in your daily life

Seven of Pentacles – You are in the process of learning how to allow things to move at their own pace instead of constantly pushing them forward with unreasonable demands and expectations. This change will allow you to take more time for the things you truly enjoy, and see life less as a race and more as a journey of growth and development.

The desire to simplify, organize, and create more structure

The Lovers – It’s time to look more closely at those things you continue to tend in your life that aren’t suited to you. Whether bad habits or self destructive behaviors, this moon’s cycle offers you a chance to objectively look at what these things are doing for you and how they are holding you back.

A stronger awareness of where your time and energy are going

Four of Cups – Where are you wasting time resisting others and holding yourself apart? Consider how life might be different and/or easier if you were connecting more closely, and what things might make those closer connections problematic. Your interactions with others need work in order to smooth out moments of resistance and rectify unhealthy patterns.

A renewed focus on health, healing and overall well-being

The Emperor Rx – Your focus on everyone else’s well-being is restricting you from taking better care of yourself. You are allowed to give yourself the care and attention needed. The needs of others can wait while you do that.

Clarity around what needs to be refined, released or improved

Refine – Guide – Consider examining more closely who and what you are listening to. Hone in on those you really want to follow or align with, instead of just allowing yourself to be pulled in multiple directions.

Release – Rooted – Consciously make the choice to get out in nature more instead of trying to ground yourself through “shortcut” means. Plants need soil, and so do you.

Improve – Keeper – Remember that the only person you are truly responsible for is yourself. Take time to enjoy and sink into the little wonders in the world instead of sacrificing these things to the demands of responsiblies and the needs of others.

New Moon advice from the Minoan Goddess Amalthea

Page of Pentacles atop Four of Pentacles Rx – Make sure you are focusing on your new understanding of stability (developing one’s sea legs) and balance (the tip and sway of scales) through movement. Don’t get sucked back into your outdated views of stability and balance as still or stagnant. You are learning, at this time, how to incorporate this new understanding into your life.

Other elements included in this reading:
Goat Figure as Sympathetic Representation of Amalthea
Dried Cedar Bundle for Protection from Negative Influences
Black Spruce Needles to Boost Self-Confidence and Positive Thinking
Dried Rosebuds for Potential and Beauty Waiting to Unfold
Dried Purple Heather Flowers for Independence and Luck
Rose Quartz for Gentle Kindness to Self and Others
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THE GARNET WITCH’S TAROT AND WILLOWSEEDS FOR THE WILD SOUL ORACLE

Gideon’s Challenge – Captivated

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment
Vast Clouds over the Mission Bridge

Captivated

evening brings
the swell of clouds
that seem
to birth
from nowhere
and spread
over head
until the sky roils
like a sea
filled with ripples
and white caps
in a battle
for supremacy

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

It’s a Step by Step Process

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

Today’s meditation was skipped.

•    •    •    ◈    •    🌾    •    ◈    •    •    •

Daily Mental Health Prompt: Seek a positive message to carry with you throughout the day and offer perspective.

The Good Karma Tarot - Eight of Pentacles and a card from the Create Brave Deck

Today’s draw is the Eight of Coins, which is traditionally a representation of hard work, expertise through practice, honing a skill, quality craftsmanship, handicrafts, and manifestations through skill and hard work. The card is often the embodiment of the “practice makes perfect” adage.

The Eight of Coins has then been combined with the Dreamscape card from the Create Brave Cards, which says, “When I imagine my future, I turn it into a reality.”

Today’s cards feel like a carryover from yesterday’s card of the day, which spoke of the need for more than wishful thinking in order to build the future one wants as opposed to the entitlement of expecting it to be given to us.

Today we see a card that represents working hard to hone one’s skills and abilities in a specific area combined with an affirmation that talks about turning what one imagines they want into reality.

This speaks not just of the work involved in building the reality that we want to experience, but also the fact that this process takes time. It takes time to develop one’s skills, including both successes and failures along the way. Sometimes the things that we do don’t work out, and from these things that don’t work out we learn how to do them successfully the next time.

In this way, failure is never actually failure unless you give up. Instead, failure becomes a learning experience on how to improve.

The message in today’s Eight of Coins and affirmation card is a reminder that instant gratification might seem nice, but it doesn’t really give us anything of value.It’s those desires that we worked towards and earn through trial and error, curiosity and exploration, that give us the sweetest things in life that we find most fulfilling.

DECKS USED:  THE GOOD KARMA TAROT AND CREATE BRAVE CARDS

September Prompts by @forgotten.dumpling & @ml.mecham
Prompt for September 8th : I carry the ash in both hands

Creative Writing Exercise with the Thornwood Playing Cards

As the man, I was falls away defeated by new ideas and new perspectives (Ace of Spades atop Five of Clubs), I find myself less focused on balance created by stagnancy (Two of Diamonds) and let go of the need for plans to be starched rigid with strategy (King of Diamonds).

These expectations are burned to ash by trial and error (Five of Spades) while I find a better way (Nine of Diamonds).

And yet as I move on, I carry the ashes with me, coating the palms of both hands, for they serve as a reminder of what came before and was lost along the way as I move on to better things (Jack of Hearts).

Other elements included in this reading:
Bird Figurine for Encouraging Hope, Positivity, and Renewal
Foraged Parmeliaceae Lichen for a “Breath of Fresh Air”
Foraged Acorn for Protection during New Beginnings
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THORNWOOD PLAYING CARDS

@jourie.co‘s An Imaginative Life Journal Prompts
Prompt for September 10th : Who are you when no one needs anything from you?

Tarot Reading with The Good Karma Tarot

Reading Summary: Someone whose entire world (The World) becomes driven by their addictions (The Devil), who is never satisfied with how much they have accomplished and is always looking for more to do (Two of Swords atop Nine of Coins).

Take Away: This is interesting, as it’s a question I’ve never really considered or looked at before. In fact, it was this question and how intrigued I was by it that convinced me to do this particular challenge for September.

These cards make a good point. Before I had others depending on me, I was working myself into the ground while heavily flirting with my addictions.

Although I often find myself perceiving my responsibilities to others as a struggle or a chore, the truth of the matter is that if these responsibilities weren’t there, I would be finding other ways to not just keep myself busy but keep myself overwhelmed with too much and distracted by addictions whose urges are currently dimmed by my focus on other things.

Other elements included in this reading:
Norway Maple Key for Fostering Strength and Resilience
Foraged Parmeliaceae Lichen for a “Breath of Fresh Air”
Flower Agate Moon for Opening the Mind to New Possibilities
Tigers Eye for Protection and Fostering Confidence
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THE GOOD KARMA TAROT
Daily Self Kindness

Even though I hate the stuff, I took a benadryl when I had an allergy flare-up earlier instead of trying to “tough it out” until it was over.

Gideon’s Challenge – The Dig

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment
Red Maple Leaf

The Dig

you reach for me
even when
I try to hide
that something
is wrong
you seek out
the marrow
in the bones
of the issue
and pick it apart
until you know
all that
I try to hide

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Delusions of Entitlement

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

Today’s meditation was skipped.

•    •    •    ◈    •    🌾    •    ◈    •    •    •

Daily Mental Health Prompt: Seek a positive message to carry with you throughout the day and offer perspective.

Greenwood Tarot's Sun Card and a card from the Tao Book and Cards Pack

Today’s draw is The Sun card, which is traditionally a representation of success, optimism, positivity, fun and frivolity. In my practice, the Sun is also a symbol of masculine vitality, virility, and warmth.

The Sun card has then been combined with a card from the Tao Book and Cards Pack, with a Lao Tzu quote that says, “A thousand mile journey starts with one step.”

I don’t understand the mentality of entitlement. The idea that “I suffer, therefore I am owed”, or worse yet “I exist therefore this is my due.”

I see it all the time, and it never fails to bother me, surprise me, and disgust me. Where the hell did the idea that everything should be given to us come from? And why do so many believe it?

Life is a journey of lessons and work. In my opinion, if you want something then you go after it, work for it… earn it. You don’t just sit back and expect it to just happen, and then have the nerve to blame anything or everything else when you don’t get it.

The message in today’s cards is a reminder that we take ownership of our lives and our futures through action, not through waiting for things to be handed to us. These cards encourage us all to take the first step. Then another… and another. This is how we end up in the life we want to live; by building that life and living it, one step at a time.

DECKS USED:  THE GREENWOOD TAROT AND TAO BOOK AND CARDS PACK

September Prompts by @forgotten.dumpling & @ml.mecham
Prompt for September 7th : the space between us measured in time

Creative Writing with the Inner Eye Oracle

When I discovered the real you beneath the mask (Jack of Spades), I realized I’d never really known you at all.

It took twenty years to discover you didn’t care, and what I’d mistaken as caring and love was simply you playing devils advocate (Five of Diamonds atop Six of Hearts) to his reign (King of Clubs).

And with each year that passes since then, I see more clearly how little our values mesh (Ace of Diamonds), as we grow further and further apart (Seven of Hearts). Until even when sitting across from each other the chasm between us grows ever larger (Five of Hearts).

Other elements included in this reading:
Dried Cedar Bundle for Protection from Negative Influences
Black Spruce Needles to Boost Self-Confidence and Positive Thinking
Dried Rosebuds for Potential and Beauty Waiting to Unfold
Dried Purple Heather Flowers for Independence and Luck
Norway Maple Key for Fostering Strength and Resilience
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: INNER EYE ORACLE

@lightningwildflower‘s September Self-Talk Challenge
Prompts for September 7th and 8th

Tarot Reading with the Greenwood Tarot

Patience – Where can I practice patience with myself?

Ten of Stones Rx – Remember that hurdles on the way to one’s goals are simply a part of the journey. We are supposed to be enjoying the journey, not beating ourselves up for not reaching our goals as quickly as we think we should. Growth takes time, and is the entire point.

Perspective – What is a new perspective I’m beginning to adopt?

Wanderer of Cups – Emotions aren’t such a bad thing after all, and they can be a strength instead of seen as a vulnerability. They only feel so vulnerable because you find them uncertain and unfamiliar, not because they’re an actual weakness.

Add On Question – Why did you toss yourself all over the place earlier?

Balance – Because you were rushing things and weren’t fully grounded. By the cards ending up going every which way instead of behaving in your hands, it provided you that little bit of extra time and a touch of aggravation. This, in turn, allowed you to center and ground more deeply through the breathing exercise you used to activate your patience and the movement of your body to collect what fell on the floor.

Other elements included in this reading:
Foraged Acorn for Protection during New Beginnings
Foraged Lodgepole Pine for Strength and Growth
Pressed Pansy Flower for Hearing the Heart More Clearly
Gneiss Stone for Patience in Moments of Discomfort
Calcite for Gently Calming the Mind and Stimulating Insights
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THE GREENWOOD TAROT
Daily Self Kindness

I picked up my pants from the seamstress on the way to the garden center so I could do laundry tonight instead of waiting until Wednesday.