Month: July 2020

Reigning in Distractions

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Today’s meditation was fifteen minutes long, and came after the second prolonged yoga/physio routine.  It was another of the harp strings with interval timers, but as with last time, I added in some extra stretching to help ease some of the tension of the new yoga work I’m doing.  I didn’t do the extra work yesterday, and I won’t tomorrow. I want to ease into it so I’m doing it every other day for the time being.

Cosmos Tarot and OracleToday’s draw is Four of Water (Four of Cups) which is traditionally a representation of emotional reevaluation of a situation, meditative contemplation, or withdrawal which on an emotional level  can turn into an apathetic outlook.

What stands out to me the strongest in the imagery of today’s card is all the motion and movement.   This is not something that I really associate with the fours of… well, any suit, really.   Fours, to me, are about stability and so all of the movement seems a bit counter-intuitive to the traditional meaning of this card.

The other thing that stands out to me in this card, though, is that the dogs on this card are wearing collars.

The movement combined with the collars brings my mind to the swirling of thoughts that go through one’s head when they can’t settle. And so maybe this does tie back to the traditional meaning after all, because what I see here in this card is the constant attempts of the mind trying to interrupt times of meditation. This is something that happens to everyone, and when we catch ourselves in the middle of meditation that is being interrupted by stray thoughts or emotions, we grab on to the “collar” of those thoughts and tug them back in line.   And yet, they always start running around again soon enough.

The message in today’s card is about accepting that this happens, and that it’s normal that this happens. It’s okay that the mind wanders during meditation as long as you catch yourself and bring your attention back to center again… no matter how many times it takes.

DECK USED:  COSMOS TAROT AND ORACLE

#TarotForGrowthJuly Challenge Prompt
Topic:  I’m struggling to maintain motivation.
Question: What aspects of my current routine might be helpful in achieving my goals?

New Palladini Tarot

Reading Summary: My self-defeating behaviors (Five of Swords) are actually a powerful tool (The Magician) in fostering hope and spiritual awareness (The Star).

Take Away:  This is a reminder that not all of my goals are centered around financial stability and security.  Growth in those areas is great, but my distractions and self-defeating behavior (such as slacking off, sometimes falling behind, etc) in these areas also opens myself up to those other types of growth that need to take place. 

DECK USED:  NEW PALLADINI TAROT

#DiscordTarotholicsJul2020 Challenge Prompt
Philosophical Question:  Is morality relative?

Tarotbot TarotReading Summary: Some things are constant no matter where you are or who you are (The Sun).

On the other hand, some things are more about inner perceptions (Four of Wands) and experiences (Ten of Swords). These things are relative.

Take Away:  Like the sun in the sky and the need for life on our planet to be nurtured by it, some things are universal and that includes some aspects of morality.  On the other hand, there is a great deal of morality that is based upon perception and experience, either through individuals or through societal experience.

The cards indicate that morality is not a whole, but rather is a conglomeration of pieces that are brought together through both universal values and personal/societal experiences.  So it is both relative in some areas… and not in others.

DECK USED:  TAROTBOT TAROT

#OwlandBonesJuly Challenge by Owl and Bones Tarot
Topic:  absolute truth // opinion // misconception // lesson

Midcenturian Tarot

Absolute Truth – The World and Wheel of Fortune – All life moves in cycles.

Opinion – Temperance and Eight of Cups – Walking away from something is the same as peaceful restraint.

Misconception – Knight of Cups – Emotions don’t have to be full on all the time.

Don’t forget that the experience of one’s emotions is subjective to the person experiencing them and the memory of those emotions is influenced by what comes out of them.

Lesson – Five of Cups Rx – Letting go of pessimism and that inner narrative of negativity in order to choose a lighter path.

DECK USED:  MIDCENTURIAN TAROT

#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question:  What am I being called to create now?

Evolution Tarot

Reading Summary:  You can create balance in your relationship with your responsibilities (Two of Coins) if you’re willing to practice patience and allow for your growth to continue at a slow pace (Seven of Coins). Enjoy your time with those nearest and dearest to you (Two of Potions), and give yourself space to grow (Page of Coins).

Take Away:  What I am being called to create right now isn’t about manifesting a physical item in the world, but rather I am being called to create space within my life for growth, and patience to allow that growth to take place by spending time building my relationships with those I love rather than focusing on pushing forward and rushing things.

DECK USED:  EVOLUTION TAROT

Gideon’s Challenge

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IMG_6324The Wrinkle

Like a crease
on the soul
a surface
that seems smooth
until you look close
and really
pay attention.
My soul clenches,
tightening
in its vulnerability…
Back up.

Subdrop sucks. Just sayin’.  Thank you so much for being there with me and helping me through it.  I know I’m not easy to be around in close quarters when feeling raw and vulnerable.  I can pretend I’m fine for most… but when you get too close the view changes drastically.   You manage to always see me at my worst and love me despite the wrinkles in my soul in these moments.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Weekly Creativity Prompt – A Dream

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Pull (at least) three cards use them as the foundation to write about one of your dreams (either literal or aspirational).

IMG_5515In the dream I awake in the ditch beside an abandoned street (High Priestess). It’s night time and chilly but not cold.  There is a slope on one side of me and the street on the other and as I rise I find friends arguing with each other a short distance away (Justice beneath Strength).

They are arguing about going to a haunted house, and as they start to climb the hill, I can see the house in the distance at the top.  In order to get there, we have to take a zigzagging route with some wooden ramps and bridges made of wood that cross over deep cracks in the ground. (The Tower).

When we reach the house, there is a party going on inside, but each time you go through a doorway, you end up in an entirely different part of the house.  I go through the doorway from the kitchen to the living room, and end up in the attic. (Wheel of Fortune)

I get creeped out by the behavior of the party goers, which seems to be becoming more and more malicious the longer we stay.  None of my friends want to leave, so I decide to take off on my own. (The Chariot)

Getting down the hill and through all the different ramps and bridges, over the rocks and boulders, all seems much more difficult as I try to get back to the road than on my way uphill.  All the way down, I feel the need to go faster and faster, as if something evil is breathing at the back of my neck, ready to devour me if I slow down or turn around (The Moon).

And then I wake up.

DECK USED:  DARK SPHYNX TAROT

The Dip in the Cycle

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Today’s meditation was ten minutes long and was one of the harp strings meditations with interval timers.  I was right yesterday, when I said that I would be more sore today than usual after I upped my yoga/physio practice and extra stretching.  I think it was a good choice, though.  My body had become used to the normal routine, so it’s good to mix it up just a bit.

Herbcrafter's TarotToday’s draw is The Fool card, which is traditionally interpreted as a representation of innocence and carefree enthusiasm.

The Fool is all about new beginnings, and what better symbol to use for The Fool that the Dandelion.  This is an herb that crops up seemingly on its own, and crops up… and crops up… and crops up.  It multiplies like crazy, flourishes again and again and has a life cycle that returns to be renewed over and over.

Metaphysically, the dandelion is about surviving through challenges and difficulties by rising above through the power of warmth, positivity and hope.

The message in today’s card is to reach for that positivity… reach for the optimism and the hope.  Remember that the subdrop, like all unpleasant moments of emotional upheaval, is just a phase in a cycle that is mostly good.  Almost all good.  But every cycle has to have a dip somewhere along the path.  It’s temporary, and you’ll be rolling back around to somewhere more positive soon enough.

DECK USED:  HERBCRAFTER’S TAROT

#DiscordTarotholicsJul2020 Challenge Prompt
Topic:  Take For Myself / Give To Others

Aquarian TarotTake For Myself – Nine of Pentacles – You need alone time in which to enjoy the fruits of your labors without others around to distract or otherwise detract from the experience. There’s nothing wrong with this, so take that time when you need it.

Give to Others – Three of Cups Rx –  This fits in with the “take for myself” part of the reading, as it speaks of allowing others to go have their fun without me. You don’t need to be there for everything and you don’t really want to be even if you could.   So let go of the feeling of “slacking off” or “neglect” that comes up whenever you leave everyone to their own devices and go off on your own.

DECK USED:  AQUARIAN TAROT

#OwlandBonesJuly Challenge by Owl and Bones Tarot
Topic:  practice // practice // practice

Minchiate Etruria Anima Antiqua

Aquarius and Three of Cups Rx – Practice at optimism. In the Minchiate Etruria, the Three of Cups is about a favorable turn of events, or an unusual and unexpected circumstance. The Aquarius is about having an open mind and open heart. Together, these two cards are an encouragement towards optimism, and making sure that you look for the positive opportunities presented through unexpected events.

Four of Staves – Practice at attuning to the “harmonious” coming together of different energies and forces.  Sometimes when things come together, they do so like pieces of a puzzle falling into place. Don’t take these moments for granted or let them to pass you by. Instead, pay attention and learn how to better identify when opportunities are presented through this union of harmonious energies.

House of the Devil (The Tower) – Practice trusting in things to balance themselves out when in the middle of chaos.  Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the moment and all the cacophony of sudden change.  It’s important during these times to remember that this shit is temporary.  It’s a shift.  Like an earthquake shifts the earth, and then the earth settles into a new configuration afterward.  So too does the calamity and chaos of change settle into a new configuration of reality.

DECK USED:  MINCHIATE ETRURIA ANIMA ANTIQUA TAROT

#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question:  When am I most creatively confident?

Student Tarot v4 Godard's Birds

Reading Summary:  When I actually make the choice (Two of Swords) to make the time for creative writing (imagery in the Six of Cups) with Gideon (The Lovers and The Empress).

Take Away: Gideon is expressed here by both the Lovers and the Empress, because he represents both of these themes to me at once.  He is my love, my choice, and my committment.  He is also my comfort and my encouragement.  He provide me these things along with his love and his support, while still fostering my own strength at the same time.

It makes sense, then, that when I am creating with him, it would be one of the times when I am at my most creative.  We create worlds together, lives together, stories together. We bounce ideas off of each other, and weave those ideas and our mutual creativity together into wondrous expressions of our emotions, our dedication, our passions, our desires, and our love for each other again and again.

DECK USED:  STUDENT TAROT v4 GODARD’S BIRDS

Gideon’s Challenge

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IMG_4681Hidden

I am the one
concealed in the green
peering out
to watch
from dappled shadows
and swaying fronds.
I am the one
that sees you.
That secret wild you
civilization
will not accept…
but I do.

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Another Way

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Today’s meditation was a bit longer than normal at fifteen minutes, as I added on a few extra stretches to my piriformis stretching.   It was just a quiet meditation, and I had a bit of trouble focusing, which is fine.  I’ve picked up my yoga practice a bit, so the piriformis stretches are a part of that .  I expect to be a bit sore over the next few days.

Cosmos Tarot and OracleToday’s draw is the Mercury card, which is a part of the oracle cards that are included in this deck. Although I am not really strong in astrology, I do know that Mercury rules over communication which is why when Mercury goes into retrograde so many people freak out and so much seems to go awry… once communication goes off the tracks? Everything else soon follows.

When I look at this card, I get very confused. Somehow skulls and face with one eye and a smile and a hand and snakes and ribbons and long tongues and…. it all gets messed up in my head when I look at the imagery on this card.  It’s a fucking clusterfuck mess, and i can’t seem to ever piece out the imagery to make sense of what I’m seeing.

In fact, what I see in this card’s imagery today is… not really there at all. Because when I look at this card, I see a nude figure curled into itself made out of the hand in the upper right hand corner, and the curvature of a bare spine from shoulders to hips out of the lower left skull.

What I see in these things that are not really there is vulnerability and a need to retreat from chaos.  Today’s card is a reminder of this.  Of the fact that when I feel vulnerable that I have a tendency to try and curl into myself and away from the chaos.  It is a reminder that that is the old way of doing things… and I’m learning another way.  A better and healthier way.

DECK USED:  COSMOS TAROT AND ORACLE

#TarotForGrowthJuly Challenge Prompt
Topic:  I’m so burnt out all the time.
Question:  How can I rest more effectively?

Tarot of the Journey to the Orient

Reading Summary: Learn from the new knowledge that you’re gaining emotionally to guide you (Knave of Chalices) instead of falling back on the fire that is sparked through conflict (Five of Wands) and charging ahead (The Chariot).

Take Away:  This is about managing my energy in a more resourceful way.  Instead of spilling my energy all over the place and using the flash fire of passions to drive me forward, I need to seek a gentler way of motivating myself so that it is easier to unwind from that motivation to rest more easily.

DECK USED:  TAROT OF THE JOURNEY TO THE ORIENT

#DiscordTarotholicsJul2020 Challenge Prompt
Question:  How can I become more sure of myself?

Karma TarotReading Summary: Move away (Eight of Cups) from the belief that you have to be the end-all be-all and be able to do everything all the time (The World). Take some self reflection and allow those things that really aren’t any of your responsibility to fall away (The Hermit).

Take Away:  This message has to do with more than just my actions and physically taking on too much, but also my sense of inner responsibility. I need to remember that I am ultimately only responsible for myself.  This is because when I take on more than I can handle, or responsibilities that are not mine to take on, when I then fail, stagger, or struggle… my inner critic uses this as fodder to tear myself down through it’s negative inner dialogue.  That inner dialogue is all about being a failure, and I shouldn’t be taking that on for things that aren’t my responsibility in the first place.

DECK USED:  KARMA TAROT

#OwlandBonesJuly Challenge by Owl and Bones Tarot
Topic:  hold your ground // step aside // share the path

Slavic Tarot

Hold Your Ground – Five of Cups – Against your depression and pessimism.

Step Aside – Ten of Coins – From the responsibility of balancing everything on your shoulders… sometimes they’ll flourish just fine on their own without your stressing over them.

Share The Road – Two of Swords – With the fact that sometimes you do have to make difficult decisions even when you don’t want to. That’s OK. Just be well informed first.

DECK USED:  SLAVIC TAROT

#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question:  When am I least creatively confident?

Albano Waite Tarot

Reading Summary: When joyous fun (The Sun) is torn down by selfish words (Queen of Swords Rx) by someone that should be a nurturing figure in my life (The Empress).

Take Away:  When I’m having my fun and/or expectations crushed by my mother.

DECK USED:  ALBANO WAITE TAROT