Today’s meditation was a twelve minute long #DailyTrip session from the @Calm app.

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The @GlitterbyInk #NovemberWhispers25 Liminal Dreamland Challenge
Truth-Teller Prompt for November 10 : Lineage
Daily Mental Health Prompt: Seek a positive message to carry with you throughout the day and offer perspective.

Today’s draw is the Two of Swords (Feathers), which is traditionally a representation of crossroads, difficult decisions, needing more information, seeking inward for answers, weighing one’s options, and sometimes avoidance.

Discernment vs discrimination.

These terms, in my opinion, overlap. It’s like those venn diagrams where two circles overlap to create a third area of combined traits.

I’ve experienced a lot of discrimination in life due to my appearance, my father even more so. I can’t really look beyond him in my personal lineage, as there’s no resources to plumb, but I would imagine that he and I weren’t the first in our family to experience such things.

Through those experiences, “knowledge” has been passed down in how to behave in the company of others, who to gravitate towards (and away from), etc.

The thing is, though, how much of this carried down knowledge taught from generation to generation is actually a value, and how much of it is just bullshit built on prejudice and discrimination?

This happens with even small things like a great grandfather from a long ago war telling his great grandson that Asian people eat with chopsticks. Knowledge which this child carries into adulthood and then is surprised the first time they see a Korean eating rice with a spoon.

With such innocuous misinformation carried forward so easily through decades, it poses the question… how much misinformation are we carrying forward with us that’s not so innocuous?

The message in today’s card and the prompt of “lineage” is a reminder to challenge your preconceived notions and discriminatory knowledge. Every culture has these things they believe about other cultures, every person has these things that they believe about other people. Sometimes we pick them up from society and other times they are carried down through generations in our families.

Today’s message challenges us to not just go along with “the party line” just because it’s what we’ve been taught or what “sounds good”, but to actually explore and make up our own minds through personal experience.

DECK USED:  LIVING EARTH TAROT

The @owlandbonestarot #78DaysOfTarotSpreads Challenge
The Lovers Spread

What choice brings you closer to love or self-love?

Five of Swords and Clan of the Moon – When you let go of your fear of exposing your vulnerability, it brings you closer to love and self love. Your fight to stay strong and not let others see your vulnerabilities and weaknesses hold you back from them and the love they have to offer while simultaneously punishing yourself for these vulnerabilities. If you want to be closer to love and self love, you need to work on accepting your vulnerabilities rather than trying to hide them away.

What choice aligns you with your higher self?

The Fool and Entwined Roots – When you choose to allow yourself to stretch beyond your comfort zone, especially in the area of fun and play, it helps in aligning you with your “higher self”. A great deal of your strategizing, planning, and preparations that you do in life are about protection. When you let go of that need to protect, it helps you to connect with something raw and real that otherwise is hidden away from yourself and the world at large.

What choice risks pulling you out of alignment?

Wheel of Fortune and Portal Into the Depths – Allowing yourself to fall into negative narratives when things aren’t going the way you expect them to opens you up to dipping into depression and pulls you out of alignment with your path and purpose.

What choice will expand your growth?

Ten of Swords and Desert Seclusion – Making the choice to move on from moments of defeat and failure instead of wallowing in the pain helps you to expand your growth. When you choose to keep moving instead of wallowing in your misery, you are able to recover faster and look back to find the boon that much sooner than you otherwise would.

Other elements included in this reading:
Foraged Oak Branch with Moss and Lichen for Perseverance
Beak Hazel Branch for Sustainable Growth and Grounding
Dried Red Maple Leaf for Adaptability and Connection
Ammonite for a Sense of Stability During Times of Change
Orange Aventurine Leaves for Pause and Reflection
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECKS USED: THE MYTHICAL CREATURES TAROT AND LIFE’S SEASONS ORACLE

@LightningWildflower November Tarot Challenge
Earth and Water “The Fours” Prompts for November 10th thru 12th

Four of Pentacles

What am I holding onto too tightly?

Four of Wands and Selkie – This question should be what aren’t you holding onto too tightly. You’re stubborn to a fault. You want to do things your way,  you want them to look your way, and you want things to be your way… and your formidable will has a tendency to push for just that.

It is that formidable will that you need to let go of, though. Especially if you want to remain comfortable in your own home and more comfortable overall in the world. Being too rigid will not serve you well.

Four of Cups

What is distracting me from recognizing new opportunities?

The Hierophant and Garden – You spent too much worrying about how things should be done instead of thinking outside the box and exploring new methods. It’s true that sometimes it’s easier to just fall back on old traditions and all that came before, but if you do this too often it becomes a bad habit.

What would getting out of my comfort zone look like?

King of Pentacles and Gold – Getting out of your comfort zone more often would lead to a journey of self discovery towards a greater sense of “self”. As a result, as you learn to accept more of yourself, you learn to value yourself more.

Other elements included in this reading:
Staghorn Sumac for Connecting with Nature and the Wild Within
Foraged Parmeliaceae Lichen for a “Breath of Fresh Air”
Foraged Ponderosa Pine Cone for Resilience and Adaptability
Carnelian Agate for Inner Drive and Focusing On Aspirations
Desert Rose for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: LIVING EARTH TAROT AND FOLKLORE ORACLE

I managed to get my tax updates finished today, which feels like it lifted a huge weight of my shoulders.