Author: Twist the Leaf

River Rafting

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Today’s meditation was a ten minute #DailyCalm session from the @Calm app.

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The Heart's Path Tarot - Ten of Cups

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

Today’s draw is the Ten of Cups, which is traditionally a representation of feelings of completion, connection with others and harmony in those connections, and is often considered as the “happy family” card.

The Ten of Cups has then been combined with an affirmation card from the Pass Around the Smile Positive Guidance Oracle cards, which says, “Ride the Wave: You can choose which waves to ride and this is a good one. Allow it to flow.”

The fun of river rafting is in going with the flow. Whether you do this in an inner tube on your own, or on a raft with others, the fun is in riding the river and allowing it to choose your path. You’re not there to fight the current and try and go in the other direction, but instead to enjoy the ride.

Life is also like this at times. We can’t be in control of every situation, event, or experience. Sometimes the best thing we can do is let go of control and allow ourselves to just go with the flow. In this way, we can sit back and relax and enjoy rather than always having to make decisions and choose which direction to go.

The message in today’s Ten of Cups and affirmation card as a reminder that often the greatest joys in life come when you’re not in control, and instead just going with the flow; no matter whether this is on your own or in the company of others. Today’s message encourages us to just give it a try and see how it feels.

DECK USED:  THE HEARTS PATH TAROT AND PASS AROUND THE SMILE POSITIVE GUIDANCE ORACLE CARDS

@de_tarotjuf’s De Zomer In! #detarotjufjunitarotchallenge
Prompts for June 23rd through 26th

Divination Reading with the Loonacy Game Cards

Which dream calls for visibility?

One Way Or Another

Although you’re often encouraged to let go of expectations and allow yourself to be a bit more free spirited, don’t forget that the dreams that you are truly determined to accomplish need to at least be out in the open.

If you aren’t acknowledging your dreams and desires, and putting them out there in the universe, then you don’t have the assistance of the universe in achieving them. It’s only once you state what you want that you can garner the assistance needed to get there in a timely manner, without having to overextend yourself in the process.

What attention do I want to give to my senses today?

May Wonders Never Cease

Don’t forget to bring your earbuds with you today, as well as an audiobook queued up and ready to go. There is a wondrous world of curiosities and new experiences awaiting you in these books. Reading is perfect for the days when things are just a little too slow or stressful, and you need a bit of distraction from reality.

Which quality within me calls for care in the sun?

She Who Laughs Lasts

Take time to savor the sunshine and allow it to lift up your spirits. You may not enjoy the heat, but you do enjoy a bit of sunshine now and then, and it can help in dispelling the heavier emotions that hold you down and keep you from laughing more often. Even just a little bit of sun can help with this. It doesn’t have to be a lot.

What kind of adventure lies hidden in my neighborhood?

The Ice Skating Girl

Once it’s not so hot outside, taking a walk in your neighborhood can be a good way to connect with the community that you live in while still being a somewhat solitary activity. Currently, the heat makes the hills unbearable and means there’s just too many people out there to really enjoy the activity, but once it cools down that will change.

Other elements included in this reading:
Dried Red Maple Leaf for Adaptability and Connection
Carnelian Agate Mushroom for Focusing On Aspirations
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: LOONACY GAME CARDS

The @lightningwildflower June Inner Journey Challenge
Release Prompt for June 27th : What burden am I ready to release?

Tarot Reading with The Heart's Path Tarot

Reading Summary: Don’t allow your feelings on aging (Judgement compounded by the Page of Cups atop Three of Swords Rx) to hold you back from going after the things you enjoy (Knight of Cups).

Take Away: As you creep towards your fourth decade on earth, you’re starting to experience your first negative feelings in relation to aging. Through your 20s and 30s, you really didn’t have much of an opinion on this. As you reach towards your 40s, though, you’re starting to worry that you might lose your appeal to your partner or start to weaken in ways that could affect your way of life.

These cards encourage you to let go of those fears, and to instead work on stealing as much enjoyment in your life as you can. Don’t allow your fears of what’s to come to hold you back from these things.

Other elements included in this reading:
Foraged Wood Fern for Exorcising Negative Influences
Dried Cedar Bundle for Protection from Negative Influences
Conch Shell Knot for Concentration, Clarity, and Determination
Selenite for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED: THE HEARTS PATH TAROT
Daily Self Kindness

This is a catch up post, and I’m not entirely sure what the self kindness was for this day.

Gideon’s Challenge – The Sway

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Layers of Green Grasses

The Sway

There is
no stillness
even in
quiet moments
when even
just the lightest
breeze causes
whispers
through
the trees
and flowers
to dance
among
the sway
of grasses

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Free Spirit Seeking

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Today’s meditation was a ten minute #DailyCalm session from the @Calm app.

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

Tarot Deck Created from Soulcards 1 & 2 - The Fool

Today’s draw is The Fool card, which is traditionally a representation of innocence, carelessness, carefree enthusiasm, and new beginnings.

The Fool has then been combined with the Willy-Nilly affirmation card from the Nowbits Oracle, which says, “Don’t be afraid to live willy-nilly. Or at least to make lots of room for it. Your future self knows the magic of this! Don’t believe me? Think you always need a plan? Did you PLAN your greatest loves in life? Did you know HOW you were going to connect with those loves before it happened? I didn’t think so. See what I mean? willy-nilly can lead to a lot of great stuff.”

It doesn’t make a lick of logical sense, but it’s true all the same. Someone who dances to life’s drums with joy, enthusiasm, and trust in the universe can be just as (if not more) happy in their life than another who meticulously plans out every event and accomplishment.

So why wouldn’t we choose more joy? What is holding us back from letting go and living a little more freely? And, if we did, how would it feel and what would be different?

The message in today’s Fool card and affirmation encourages us to ask these questions, as well as reminding us that we don’t have to control every little aspect of our lives. It’s okay to let go and have some fun now and then.

DECK USED:  SOUL CARDS 1 & 2 (TAROT MODIFICATION)

One Card Tarot Journal Activity by @mariasofia_astro
Chapter 3 | Entry 4 – Family and Friends
Affirmation : “My perspective as an individual matters, no matter what my role is in a group.”
Prompt : Families are often best understood by those in them. If you had to describe your family to someone you’ve never met, how would you do so? Use the card you draw to aid in your understanding of your family and inspire your description.

Tarot Activity from The One Card a Day Journal by Maria Sofia Marmanides - Quarry Tarot - The Hanged Man

What feelings came up when I pulled this card?

Isolation. Aloneness. I can’t say loneliness, but a feeling of being on my own.

Combined with this came a need to understand what is going on around me, but being unable to “make heads or tails of it”.

What elements of the card’s meaning resonate with me and this prompt?

Usually when I think of contemplative isolation, it’s the Hermit that comes to mind.

In this pull, though, the contemplation is less about personal soul searching and more about trying to understand one’s surroundings from the point of a bystander. The Hanged Man is that bystander, tasked not just with making sense of the things and people around him but also handicapped in that process.

What in the artwork spoke to me?

The Hanged Man is bleeding. This speaks of the situation being one that hurts the observer (me), even when not directly involved in the situation.

The crow in the tree gives the impression there is a timeline involved. Time is running out to find a way to make things better.

My prompt response and reflections.

My family is scattered and the lines of communication are broken. Everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first move, and are so stuck in their own perspectives that even in isolation, it’s all they can see.

I am also guilty in this. They are unwilling to help me see things from their perspective, and thus I’m unable to let things go and take the first steps in reconciliation. I feel like I have a need to understand before I can move past it and bridge the gap.

Other elements included in this reading:
Petrified Wood D20 and D6 Dice

DECK USED: THE QUARRY TAROT

The @lightningwildflower June Inner Journey Challenge
Prompts for June 23rd through 26th

Tarot Reading with a Tarot Deck Created from Soulcards 1 & 2

Offer: Where do I need to offer myself compassion?

Temperance – Stop beating yourself up for not doing more. You do a lot. Perhaps it’s time to start logging your daily accomplishments again in order to get a handle on your expectations and negative perceptions of what you aren’t getting done each day, and instead impress upon yourself how much you actually are doing.

Listen: What message will arrive if I slow down and listen?

Three of Wands – Your head is so full of plans and “what if” contingency strategies that your missing out on the opportunity to act.

Put down the drawing board, take a big breath, and clear your mind… you’ll then find it much easier to take that first step.

Sun square Neptune: In what way am I confusing fantasy and reality?

Seven of Cups – You are entertaining too many “wishful thinking” and “what if” anxieties in your decision making process. Try writing these things down and then crossing out the unrealistic from the list.

Speak: How can I speak out with greater confidence?

Nine of Cups – Take a moment to connect with those things in your life that really make you happy and give you comfort. This is the foundation to speak from, as it allows you to draw on the joy that these parts of your life have to offer.

Other elements included in this reading:
Foraged Oak Branch with Moss and Lichen for Perseverance
Conch Shell Knot for Concentration, Clarity, and Determination
Carnelian Agate for Inner Drive and Focusing On Aspirations
Citrine for Energy Lift (easing the weight of heavy energies)
Desert Rose for Purification and drawing in Positive Energy

DECK USED:  SOUL CARDS 1 & 2 (TAROT MODIFICATION)
Daily Self Kindness

This is a catch up post, and I’m not entirely sure what the self kindness was for this day.

Gideon’s Challenge – Greedy

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Graffiti in Yellow, White, and Black

Greedy

How is it
that I can
miss you
so much
when you’re
no further
than a text
away from me
at any moment
and yet
I sit and stare
at my phone
instead
of picking
it up
to hit
send

Photo © ZenStatePhotography

Finding the Positive for June 23 – 25

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The Venus Morningstar Tarot's King of Pentacles, Asceticism Tarot's Page of Cups, American Renaissance Tarot's Six of Wands

June 23 – Mental Health Card of the Day

Today’s meditation was a ten minute #DailyCalm session from the @Calm app.

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

Today’s draw is the King of Pentacles, which is traditionally a representation of a projective alpha energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s financial security, resources, health, home, labors, manifestations, and other elements of the physical realm. This often translates into leadership that creates a grounded sense of stability for others.

The card has then been combined with an affirmation card from the Pass Around the Smile Positive Guidance Oracle Cards, which says, “Balance: Take a closer look at where your energy is going. Prioritize and balance what is important to you.”

Where does stability actually matter, and where is it simply indulgence hiding behind a mask of stability and comfort?

I have found that I like to languish. That is to say I like to “bedrot” or just sit around fucking around on my phone and letting the time slip by as I do so. I feel like at one point this was actually considered just “relaxing with a book”, except that these days I don’t think the content we consume on our phones or the games we play on there really count as enriching in the same way a book would.

Instead, this languishing really holds no enrichment value and is simply a wasting of time. Time that could be used to relax in ways that are enriching such as going outside to take a walk, reading a book, etc.

The message in today’s King of Pentacles and affirmation card is a reminder that sometimes what’s comfortable isn’t as stabilizing as we want it to be. Are our go to methods of relaxation really relaxing us and allowing us time to rest and recover? Or are they simply causing us to hover in a moment of suspension?

These cards encourage us to examine more closely our indulgences and prioritize those of quality over those that aren’t. Consider which ones foster healthy stability in our lives, and which ones are simply wasting our time and energy without giving us anything we need in return, then lean into the former and do less of the latter.

DECKS USED: THE VENUS MORNINGSTAR TAROT AND PASS AROUND THE SMILE POSITIVE GUIDANCE ORACLE CARDS

June 24 – Mental Health Card of the Day

Today’s meditation was skipped.

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

Today’s draw is the Page of Cups, which is a representation of a receptive omega energy, personality, or person in the area of one’s emotions, relationships, creativity, or intuition. This often translates into themes that have to do with emotional growth, second chances relationships, or exploring one’s creative pursuits.

The card has then been combined with an affirmation card from the deck, which says, “To receive what I want, I must not push against (the) unwanted. This is an expanding Universe, and all things must be allowed. In other words, for you to understand and experience what you desire, you must understand that which you do not desire, for in order to be able to choose and focus, both must be present and understood.”

The affirmation pulled for today bugs me. I both agree with the concept and disagree with the sentiment expressed within today’s affirmation card.

Yes, experiencing both sides of an experience, not just the good but also the bad, can absolutely create a greater depth of understanding. This is undeniably true. One can never truly understand the depths of clinical depression, for example, without having experienced it and come out the other side, or the torments of an abusive relationship without having been on one, etc.

At the same time? This affirmation seems to be saying you shouldn’t try to avoid these experiences, but lay down and let them happen instead of doing what you can to avoid or escape them. That is the sentiment I disagree with.

So, how does the Page of Cups factor into all of this?

It’s all about learning how to see others with empathy and kindness, and accepting that we can’t know how others feel, no matter how much we might intellectually understand the issue. Not everyone needs to experience every bad thing to give others the space and validation for what they’ve gone through. All it takes is a little kindness.

The message in today’s Page of Cups and affirmation card is a reminder that we can’t know what others have gone through or are going through. We can’t feel what they feel and know what they’ve endured. We can only approach them with the same kindness that we hope they would approach us with, and with the understanding that each of us has our own trials and tribulations, struggles and past with which to learn and heal from.

DECKS USED: ASCETICISM TAROT AND ASK AND IT IS GIVEN CARDS

June 25 – Mental Health Card of the Day

Today’s meditation was a ten minute #DailyCalm session from the @Calm app.

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

Today’s draw is the Six of Wands, which is traditionally a representation of public accolades, societal expectations, people pleasing, and peer pressure.

The Six of Wands has then been combined with a Denis Whitley quote from the Gratitude Insight Affirmation Cards, which says, “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”

Just as happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, worn, or consumed… it also cannot be purchased. Not with money, nor through acts of people pleasing. Allowing others’ praise and admiration to be the foundation of your self worth means that you are depending on others to supply you with the pieces of happiness that should already be yours.

The message in today’s Six of Wands and affirmation is a reminder that joy and happiness are our right. They aren’t something others can own and dole out to us, nor something we can “purchase” from others through people pleasing. Happiness is in validating ourselves, celebrating ourselves and our accomplishments, and taking joy in the present and those things we enjoy. It has nothing to do with who does or doesn’t approve. Only your own approval truly matters in this regard.

DECKS USED: AMERICAN RENAISSANCE TAROT AND GRATITUDE INSIGHT AFFIRMATION CARDS

Gideon’s Challenge – The Green

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Mossy Sign

The Green

The first place
to be
reclaimed
by nature
will be
where the
rain falls
often
and humidity
is high
for the green
will creep in
quickly
to take back
all that we
have stolen

Photo © ZenStatePhotography