The Canyon
Forgotten places
like
unspoken words
sit in
darkened spaces
and grow cold.
Shirking shadows
like
hidden tears
are seen
but not
delved into.
Morning Bonus Read – Witch’s New Year Spread
What is the strongest potential/possibility awaiting me in the next twelve months?
The Chariot atop Eight of Wands
Slow down and get where you’re going to faster. It sounds counter productive, yeah? Slowing down does not feel like it would get you where you want to go faster… but sometimes it does.
The Chariot indicates that I have the control to take myself forward in any direction that I want to go. All roads are open. What’s key here, though, is that whatever road I choose? I need to take my time.
What attitudes do I need to shift to welcome this opportunity?
Strength
I need to reevaluate what I perceive as strength. This makes perfect sense, as taking things slow and moderation are not really things that I usually view as strengths, especially when trying to get somewhere or accomplish something. And they are very much something I’m not at all good at. The suggestion here is that I need to sit with the concept of one’s strength, and consider how I view my own.
What beliefs do I need to shift to welcome this opportunity?
Page of Pentacles
So much of my time and focus lies on the development of stability and security in both my home and finances. This has been to such an extreme over the past decade that it sometimes feels as if these values are the only thing I have dedicated myself to working towards in life.
If I want to welcome in the opportunities available to me over the next twelve months, I need to reframe how I see these goals as well as how I go about accomplishing them.
What behaviors do I need to shift to welcome this opportunity?
Knight of Swords
Jumping in full-bore and going at it without taking a pause or giving myself breaks. Allowing my ambitions to drive me ruthlessly forward, constantly pushing myself harder and harder. These behaviors are not healthy and although I have begun the process of changing how I do things in this area, there’s still a long way to go.
How can I support myself as I make these shifts?
Page of Swords
I need to take some time to really think on and absorb the ramifications of the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors mentioned above. In these specific areas, the old way is not the best way and I need to make sure that I am open to learning something new that’s going to serve me better.
How can I empower myself as I make these shifts?
Ten of Swords
Accept the shifts need to happen and do what you can to step into them and allow these old attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to die. In order to move forward, you have to leave something behind.
DECK USED: DEAD WAITE TAROT
Enjoying the Journey
Today’s meditation was skipped this morning because the girls would just not leave me the fuck alone. Between that and the running of the vacuum, I just couldn’t make it happen. I will be doing it before bed, though. Absolutely. I won’t skip it entirely.
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 finances, resources, home and hearth, health, and manifestations. This often translates into themes that have to do with business acumen, a strong sense of responsibility, and financial growth and stability.
What stands out to me the strongest in the imagery of this card is that the king is surrounded in all of this wealth, but his sword is down and he looks bored as hell.
We all have goals to aim for, dreams to reach for. We all have those things that we strive for in our day to day lives. The thing is? We spend all of this time striving… and then once we get there? We’re bored.
The message in today’s card is about enjoying the journey. It’s not about the end zone. It’s about the game. It’s about each step you take along the way and living in the moment instead of being so focused on the future that you miss all the good stuff in the now.
DECK USED: TAROT OF HAUNTED HOUSE
LionHart’s #TheOctoberTarot #SeasonOfTheWitchChallenge Prompt
Question: I now call in my ancestors, how do you respond?
Reading Summary: My ancestors respond with a hopeful outlook for this new connection (The Star), and an eagerness to play a more open role (The Sun) in helping me find balance (Justice).
Take Away: I wasn’t really sure how this reading would go, but it went really well and the answers came through loud and smoothly. My ancestors are eager to have a more conscious role in my life just as my guides are, and hope to help me on my journey to make good choices, enjoy life more, and have a better sense of balance in my life.
DECK USED: RITUAL ABUSE TAROT
#DiscordTarotholicsOct2020 Challenge Prompt
Question: What healing lesson is waiting for me to realize and accept it?
Reading Summary: That you can carry forward and reap the benefits of the lessons you’ve learned (Page of Pumpkins) in the past (Six of Ghosts), while still letting go of the bad stuff and leaving it behind (Death).
Take Away: Although I know that this is possible and have been able to do it in some cases, there are other cases where the crap that taught me the lesson still clings to the lesson itself. In these instances, I struggle to pry my emotions about the incident away from the lessons learned. Although I realize this struggle is ongoing for me, I haven’t yet gotten to a point where I’ve been able to accept it in all cases yet. Its something I’m working on, though.
DECK USED: HALLOWEEN TAROT
#MysticStarChallenge October Challenge Prompt
Question: What in myself do I need to strengthen to understand my Guides better?
Reading Summary: The stronger your intuition is the more you’ll understand (The High Priestess rising up from beneath the Eight of Swords). Use the spark of passion that you have in your soul (Ace of Wands) to search for ways to develop this slowly… a bit at a time (Death).
Take Away: This is a message about taking things slow and steady while continuing to develop my intuitive abilities. The interior cards here are all about my intuition, and allowing it to emerge and slowly bring clear sight to murky moments and the things I’m not yet ready to see. The outer cards are then about taking my time and allowing my curiosity to lead the way forward into this change and through it’s slow development.
DECK USED: THE GOTHIC TAROT
#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question: What beautiful aspect of my life am I ready to embrace?
Reading Summary: Gideon is helping me in making better choices (The Lovers) that don’t involve retreating into myself (The Hermit Rx). As this help continues, I’m learning to lean into that response as my go-to reaction less and less (Eight of Wands).
Take Away: Each time situations arise that I would have previously retreated from the world and curled into myself, I more quickly jump to use the tools and methods that Gideon has been helping me with learning. Healthier methods that allow for me to connect with others instead of close myself off from the world. The beautiful aspect of my life that I am ready to embrace is two-fold in this reading. First, is Gideon’s help. Second is the healthier methods he has helped to teach me.
DECK USED: DEAD WAITE TAROT
Gideon’s Challenge
Sentimental Value
Sometimes
the things
that we take
with us
tell others
as much about
who we are
and who we
want to be
as the things
that we choose
to leave behind.
Photo © ZenStatePhotography
Morning Bonus Read – Sovereign Self Spread
Where have I let my guard down?
Three of Swords
Despair and disappointment have been allowed to creep in and just because you’re trying to ignore that it’s there isn’t going to make it ease up or go away. The reason you’ve been feeling like crap lately is because your negative inner dialogue is whispering to you and although you aren’t exactly listening? You’re not doing your all to fight against it either.
Where are my boundaries weak?
Four of Wands atop Queen of Cups
Your boundaries are weakest with those that you share a roof with and an emotional connection to. You want to give them a chance to enjoy themselves, and because of that you’re not setting down boundaries as firm as you need to be.
How might I step up and reclaim sovereignty of myself?
The Moon
Stop entertaining all your self doubts and uncertainties. That inner dialogue is fucking up your perspective and causing more doubts and uncertainties to come to the surface with each day that passes.
How might I step up and reclaim sovereignty of my space?
Three of Cups
Make things fun for everyone. Being together so much is a struggle and it makes all of us a little techty. It isn’t as if they are going anywhere right now, so in order to reclaim your space it’s important to take control of the energy in that space and turn it into something positive that reinforces the bonds between all three of you.
How might I step up and reclaim sovereignty of my experience?
Ten of Cups
Focus on what you have and just how good it is. Fill your life with positive emotions, positive hope, and a positive outlook on the present. In doing so you leave no room for that negativity that’s trying to drag you under. This is not always easy, focusing on that positive aspect. But it’s necessary.
How can I continue to create and maintain strong boundaries moving forward?
Knight of Cups
Know what it is you want and go after it. Good things come to those that reach for the stars, so decide what stars you want to pluck from the sky and do what is needed to make obtaining them possible.
DECK USED: THE GOTHIC TAROT
Quality Rest vs Wasting Time
Today’s meditation was ten minutes long and was a quiet non-guided meditation with interval timer for my piriformis stretches. I really just needed a little peace, and I felt that the guided meditation, or even a bit of music, would feel like a bit too much over-stimulation.
Today’s draw is the Four of Swords, which is traditionally about rest and recovery, especially after a time of struggle. Recuperation is an important part of making sure you are able to carry on and the pause traditionally depicted in the tarot is one of not just recuperation but also reflection.
What stands out to me the most strongly in the imagery of this card is the face of the resting individual. Looking closely, you can see that the lower half of the figure’s face is covered. That combined with the angle of the head and the wreath crown make me wonder if this is not a corpse instead of someone taking a moment’s respite.
Set in the window in the background is a portrait of a woman and a little girl that looks like she is bend to whisper in the prone figure’s ear, though… which to me hints at the idea that there is indeed some consciousness present still, even in this moment of deathlike stillness.
The message in today’s card is more about the quality of one’s rest than taking rest on its own. You can sit around all day and dawdle, get nothing done, and spend the entire day wasting time and still feel exhausted at the end of the day as if you’d been on the go for hours. On the other hand? Sometimes you can take a ten or fifteen minute break, and feel fully refreshed and ready to take on the world. The whispering little girl does not bode well for a restorative rest, no matter if the figure has passed or not.
Don’t allow your inner whispers to disturb your rest the way that the little girl is trying to disturb the figure’s rest in this card. There’s no point in resting if you’re not going to make it count…. otherwise you’re just wasting time and not getting anything from it but more stress.
DECK USED: MADAM LYDIA WILHELMINA’S TAROT
LionHart’s #TheOctoberTarot #SeasonOfTheWitchChallenge Prompt
Question: Draw a card for an ancestor or loved one who crossed.
I asked for advice from my grandmother on my mother’s side. It feels like this card turning up in response is an encouragement that I am on the right path. Although I enjoy my creative business and creative endeavors, I’ve found a real joy in helping others as well, which is something I’d explored a bit when I was younger by teaching now and then, but didn’t really delve into in great depth until the last couple of years.
I’ve always had a really hard time socially, but it seems to have helped me immensely in this department to be able to actually contribute to other’s journey.
At the same time, I feel there is also a reminder here to make sure I am delving into my own roots and staying true to my own path. Having been raised Wiccan, a great deal of my current Pagan practice comes from these roots in my childhood…. which come from roots in my family that go back generations. Spellcraft, especially, has ran in our family for many generations on my mother’s side and many traditions and practices have been passed down from one generation to the next and then to me.
If I do not share my practices and beliefs with others, and share the traditions that have been passed down to me, they will then die with my sister and I… as there is no next generation for either of us with which to pass on this knowledge further.
DECK USED: THE VAMPIRE TAROT
#DiscordTarotholicsOct2020 Challenge Prompt
Question: Do Spread #3
Smoky Quartz – Nine of Swords – To purge negativity from my life and develop greater stability, I need to stop listening to that negative inner dialogue that encourages anxiety and causes me to feel down on myself, my performance, and my abilities.
Apple – Six of Cups – To improve my physical health at this time, it is important to look back on the things that have made me happy in the past and have me feel good… then, stop thinking about them and start doing them.
Chrysanthemum – King of Cups atop Seven of Pentacles – The defenses that need fostering right now in order to foster my growth have to do with making sure that I don’t allow vulnerability to creep in and screw with my emotions just because things are taking their time in growing and getting where I want to be.
Aquamarine – Knight of Wands – The calm found through meditation can bolster my confidence by allowing me to more easily focus on where I want to go, what I want to do… and how to get there most efficiently. This, in turn, sets me free from the restraints that anxiety and doubts use to chain me up.
Mint – The Tower – Factors in my relationships that are in need of reevaluation and adjustment have to do with how I deal with chaos and catastrophe. Instead of retreating into myself, ducking my head down and plowing forward on my own, I need to seek support from others instead (like the figures in the card sitting together at a distance watching the tower burn).
Carnelian – Ten of Pentacles – Including more creativity in my life can lighten my daily outlook because, at least in my life, creativity is the path to my greatest goals of stability and security in my life. These are the things I want so much and focus on achieving with neatly each breath I take. My business is based on my creativity, and therefore fostering creativity allows these things to happen… while others look on and wonder at how it’s done (last part added in from the little figure at the top of the stairs in the card’s image).
Pomegranate – Six of Wands – The wish of mine that is ready to be manifested into reality right now is that desire for success… and the acknowledgment of that success by those that matter to me most. I hate admitting that I need that desire that acknowledgement, that I feel a longing for those “atta’boys”. But, not wanting to admit it doesn’t make it any less true that I do desire them.
DECK USED: TAROT OF THE SWEET TWILIGHT
#MysticStarChallenge October Challenge Prompt
Question: What changes do I need to make to understand my Guides better?
Reading Summary: Stewing in your own misery (Four of Cups) and seeing everything in a defensive/offensive viewpoint (Seven of Wands and Nine of Wands) is a habit that you need to get out of (The Devil).
Take Away: When my mind is clouded in the smoke of my wallowing, it muffles my ability to hear my intuition and thus also my guides. Same goes for when I am too focused on protecting myself and what I value. When I am feeling defensive, I try to build walls. Walls are a bad habit that are very much not healthy for me and do not foster open communication with the living, the dead, or the spirit guides trying to help me.
DECK USED: CARNIVAL AT THE END OF THE WORLD TAROT
#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question: What deep fear am I working through?
Reading Summary: That fighting for (Seven of Wands) what I want out of life (Queen of Pentacles) is going to make me a hard and calloused son of a bitch (Queen of Swords Rx).
Take Away: As with the Mystic Star question for today, the answer here is about my inner walls. It’s about shutting people out and burying my emotions so that I become someone I do not want to be. I want to stand up for those things I believe in. I want to fight for those things I value. At the same time? I need to make sure that I do so in a way that doesn’t… turn me into my mother.
I believe that the work I have been doing with Gideon about getting in touch with my feelings and my growth in the areas of dismantling those walls and developing a stronger sense of emotional intelligence are helping me in making sure this doesn’t end up my fate.
