marigold tarot

Enthusiastic Overburdening

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

IMG_7781Today’s meditation was just under ten minutes long, and was a guided meditation with interval timer for my piriformis stretches.

The topic of today’s guided meditation was about individuality.  It was about not just following your own inner compass, but marching to the beat of your own drum.

To be fair, I didn’t really relate all that much to the pep talk. I’ve never really had much of a problem with peer pressure or felt the need to conform to the norms and expectations of others outside of my extremely overactive work ethic in relation to my father’s voice in my head.   It was still a wonderful message, though, and one that I wish more people were comfortable with.  That is… individuality over conformity.

Traditional Manga Tarot - Ace of SwordsToday’s draw is the Ace of Swords, which is traditionally a representation of the seed of new beginnings in the area of one’s thoughts, ideas, intellect, communication, and ambitions.

What stands out to me in the imagery of this card is the woman’s posture, and the size of the sword and crown that she holds.   I know that in the image she is actually bowing to the sword and crown, but when I saw this image this morning… that is not what I saw.  Instead, it appeared that she was struggling to carry those items.

This seems like an awful amount of weight for the girl to carry, and she appears to strain under the weight.

The message here is about how much you take on… and only taking what you can sustain. It’s all well and good to be bombarded with great ideas all the time, but when you start too any of them at once, suddenly you find that none of them end up completed.

DECK USED:  TRADITIONAL MANGA TAROT

LionHart’s As Above So Below Challenge Prompt
Venus Question: How can I begin to do more of what I truly love?

Elemental Tarot

Reading Summary: Allow your emotions to play a part (Ace of Cups), savor them (Nine of Cups), and create that sense of homecoming for your emotions like what you already feel for your creativity (Four of Wands).

Take Away:  If I want to do more of what I truly love, I need to open up to my emotions more and allow them to have a more welcome and permanent place in my life. Right now I am still exploring them, but I’m not really comfortable with them.

By allowing my emotions to have the same type of value that I put on my creative spark, it will open me up to more opportunities for doing more of the things that I love.

DECK USED:  ELEMENTAL TAROT

#DiscordTarotolicsNov2020 Challenge Prompt
Question: What do I need to focus on for self-care for this new moon?

Catharsis TarotReading Summary: When it comes to dealing with your past (Six of Cups), take your time (Seven of Coins) on deciding what you want to deal with (Seven of Cups). Remember that it’s okay to set it behind you for now (Five of Cups), because sooner or later it will come around at a time you’ll prepared to deal with it (Six of Spears).

Take Away: What I need to focus on for self care this new moon has to do with leaving my past in the past for now. 

I need to accept that I’m not yet in a place where I can deal with these things, but that by setting them aside to wait, I will allow myself the time I need to sort through everything and pick where to start with better clarity later on when I’m in a better place.

DECK USED:  CATHARSIS TAROT

Heal & Transform November Challenge Prompt
Question: What physical daily habits or routines need reevaluated?

Dark Wood Tarot

Reading Summary: When I feel the tendency to tense up and hunker down (Four of Pentacles), this is not the time to retreat but rather it is a time to open myself up and share (Six of Pentacles) with Gideon what I’m feeling so that he can help me deal with things (King of Cups).

Take Away:  I’m not sure I would have considered this a daily habit, but it’s true that my natural instinct when I am feeling vulnerable or overtaken by emotion to curl into myself and “show my shell” like a turtle rather than dealing with those emotions or even bothering to give them a cursory examination.

The cards here indicate something I know, but that I need to be reminded of often as I try to change this well known habit.  It is a reminder to reach out for help instead of closing myself off… and specifically to reach out to Gideon for his help in exploring and understanding the emotions and triggers that cause me to try and close myself off in the first place.

DECK USED:  DARK WOOD TAROT

#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question: What three to five qualities do I feel I want to embody?

Marigold Tarot

The Hanged Man – I want to be able to take in different perspectives and always seek a deeper understanding. The more perspectives I see, the more I understand.  The more I understand, the better person I become.

Page of Swords – This also means that I seek to be the perpetual student, always learning new things and exploring new ideas beyond my current knowledge base.

King of Swords – But at the same time, I want to be able to share my knowledge with others and inspire them to learn as well and expand their knowledge as they seek out their own answers.

Nine of Wands – I also desire to continue protecting and defending my personal values, and those things and people that mean the most to me. Sometimes this can feel like an uphill battle, but if it’s something I value enough to fight for… then it’s worth it.

King of Rings – I feel a deep seated need for stability and security, grounding and strength through a strong foundation beneath my feet.  I don’t mind moving slow at getting there, as long as I am making progress in the right direction.

DECK USED:  MARIGOLD TAROT

Reconnecting with Nature

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

IMG_7564Today’s meditation was ten minutes long and was a guided meditation that focused on the benefits of mindfulness that you learn through meditation and can then carry on into the world beyond.   It dealt specifically with the ability to stretch time within one’s meditation so that a minute can stretch out to feel like five, and ten minutes can stretch out to feel like thirty.

Sometimes?  This is exactly how my meditation goes.  Other times, though, even when I am fully focused on my meditation, the ten minutes seems to fly by and I feel like I have not spent enough time in my meditation.  The interval timer often creates this impression.  It’s set to go off every 2.5 minutes.   Each segment of 2.5 minutes can some days feel like ten minutes each, and at other times feel like not even a minute has passed.

Tarot of the Little Prince - The EmpressToday’s draw is the Empress card, which is traditionally a representation of abundance, the sacred feminine, and a nurturing earthy mother type of energy, personality, or person.

What stands out to me the strongest in this card’s imagery is the fox, and the reason for this is it is through the fox that I see the connection in this card to that earthy nature energy.

I often see the Empress card as a representation of Gaia, the earth goddess, and the way that the fox looks up at the woman in the card speaks strongly to me of that connection.

The message in today’s card is that I need to get myself out into nature. Doing so is about nurturing my self, and finding balance and grounding in my connection with mother earth. I’ve felt really off lately, and I need to reconnect with the earth in order to find the clarity and grounding that I need.

DECK USED:  TAROT OF THE LITTLE PRINCE

LionHart’s As Above So Below Challenge Prompt
Question: Take time today to fill out your birth chart and learn more about your Sun, Moon, and Rising Sign placements.

As Above So Below Birth Chart

#DiscordTarotolicsNov2020 Challenge Prompt
Question: Do Spread #1

El Tarot de los MuertosA message that your ancestors would like to give you at this time:

The Tower – The chaos is coming. I am hoping that this is about the holiday rush crashing down on me with the force of a tornado.  The problem here is that this feels more like the need to restructure things in order to move forward, evaluating and reorganizing priorities, etc.

Honestly, I would not be surprised if that instinct is correct and this is a warning about the holiday rush not being as lucrative as I need it to be, but I am too close and have too much inner chaos concerning this topic at the moment to fully see what the card is saying clearly.

I should have pulled a clarification card.

A message that your ancestors have been trying to convey that you have not been receptive to in the past:

Four of Pens (Wands) – Appreciate your home and current situation and the stability you have in the present.  Make sure that you are being mindful of the present and wallowing in the pleasure that the stability you have created to date is providing for you. It doesn’t always have to be about the future.

How to be more open to messages from your ancestors in the future:

The Moon – Don’t give in to your fear and uncertainty. These emotions muffle your inner voice, and thus muffle messages from my ancestors as well.  Remember that sometimes not knowing and not digging to know is okay.  Work on being more comfortable with uncertainty instead of railing against it.

How to honor and connect more strongly with your ancestors moving forward:

Four of Coffins (Pentacles) – Ground yourself and stay open.  In staying centered and grounded, you are able to better hear your inner voice… and thus their voices as well.  Inner chaos silences them… inner calm and grounding allows them to speak loudly and clearly.  This honors them as well as connects them, as it opens you up to their input, lending them your ear and your attention.

DECK USED:  EL TAROT DE LOS MUERTOS

Heal & Transform November Challenge Prompt
Question: Where, right now, in this moment, should I focus my energy?

The Marigold Tarot

Reading Summary:  Your intuition and inner knowledge (The High Priestess) require you to move away from (Six of Swords) the distractions and outside influences that are setting you off kilter (Three of Cups Rx).

Take Away:  I have been struggling a good deal with a sort of foggy cobweb of confusion over the past few days.  This screws with my intuition and inner guidance and it’s something I need to work on resolving now instead of continually pushing it off to the side to try and ignore it.

DECK USED:  MARIGOLD TAROT

#ConnectWithYourDeckChallenge by E Roebuck-Jones
Question: What does my ideal day look like?

Antique Anatomy Tarot

Reading Summary: The opportunity to help others in finding their path, and learning from them in turn (The Hierophant).  A variety of activities that I enjoy (Seven of Coins). Time with Gideon (King of Elixirs).

Take Away:  It brings me a great deal of joy to help others in finding their personal path.  Whether it’s just some small thing I say that creates a burst of realization for them, or spending a good length of time speaking with someone over something to help them find if (or how) it works for them personally so that they can explore it more in depth.   During these types of activities, I get the chance to not just guide others, but to learn from them as well. Adding this aspect as a part of my day is on of the things that would create a perfect day.

Another aspect that would help create my perfect day is having a variety of different things to do during that day.  Things I enjoy that breaks up the day into segments, instead of getting stuck doing one thing all day and the day then sliding away in a haze.  By segmenting my day, it lengthens the day and creates a variety of memories for me to look back on later instead of one big fog (which is what happens if my day is spent doing the same thing all day long).

And of course, no day could ever be perfect without my King of Cups as a part of it.  Spending time with Gideon makes each and every day better, and thus no perfect day could ever be “perfect” without him along for the ride.

DECK USED:  ANTIQUE ANATOMY TAROT (MASS MARKET EDITION)

Finding Balance During Change

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

Today’s meditation was just over ten minutes long, and although I can’t remember what the focus of the meditation was, I do know that it was really helpful in relaxing me a bit.  I did the meditation after the soak in the bath, and it helped a lot in keeping my anxiety from causing too much discomfort. Enough that I was able to take some ibuprofen and a short nap afterward.   And, although I sort of feel like I wasted the couple of hours involved there, it also managed to get rid of my headache.

Tarot of the Little Prince Today’s draw is a double without a jumper, which means both cards dropped out of the deck together as one.  The cards in today’s draw are the Four of Wands and Six of Pentacles.

When I look at the cards in today’s draw, what I see is an encouragement to find the fun.  This is not off of traditional meanings of the cards, but rather it is from the imagery itself.

I think, especially when I have been drowning in work for so long that that sense of overwhelm starts to feel normal, it is important to remember that that is not all that life is about.  It’s just a temporary whirlwind, and not permanent.  Soon, though. In the next few days there will be a shift from that chaos and bustle to a slow down and time to breathe.  It’s at that time I will need to remember to interject some fun into life to help offset the discomfort of adjusting back to the ‘normal’ of the rest of the year.

DECK USED:  TAROT OF THE LITTLE PRINCE

Bonus Reading – #TarotForGrowthDecember

Question: How can I release that regret as I move into the new year? (Build off of yesterday’s reading.)

The Marigold Tarot

Reading Summary: I need to remember to stay centered emotionally while receptive to what I’d experienced in the fall and allowing it to grow (Queen of Cups), and at the same time stop pretending that everything is okay because I’m going to end up hanging myself yet again next year if I don’t (Ten of Cups).  The fruits of my labors will come whether I’m overloaded or not, but it will be better if I take on what I can handle (Seven of Rings) instead of putting so much on my plate that I feel overwhelmed throughout the year.

Take Away:  It’s time to look at managing my time better.  This is pretty much a reiteration of yesterday’s reading concerning finding a better balance between my administrative tasks and my creative spark.  The cards are telling me to keep my feet on the ground and be realistic.

DECK USED:  THE MARIGOLD TAROT