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.

DECK USED:  CATTON CANDY NIGHTMARE TAROT