Today’s meditation was just over twelve minutes long and was another of the shorter guided meditations on the Calm app, which I paired with an interval timer for my piriformis stretches.

The focus of today’s meditation was about how sometimes we hurt ourselves more by struggling against pain and unpleasantness than we would by just going with the flow.  It is how, for example, if you were to step on an animal trap and it went off and caught your leg. The initial pain is bad enough, but then you begin to thrash and struggle in its grip and in the process cause yourself more pain and more damage.

In this way, sometimes when we resist change or fight against experiences that we don’t like or that hurt us in some way, we end up causing more pain to ourselves than if we had just taken a moment to pause and breathe through it.

Today’s draw is the Ace of Swords, which is traditionally a representation of seedling spark of new ideas, new aspirations, new educational pursuits, and new interests.

What really stands out to me in the imagery of this card is the spade on the sleeve of the arm holding the sword.  It’s such a small thing, and yet this tiny detail adds another element to this card that resonates with me.  The reason for this is in cartomancy, the Ace of Spade often represents death and the process of something in your life having to “slough off” to make way for something new.  Normally this is something I would associate with the Ten of Swords, but here we see the cycle that begins after that death is complete.  The new opportunity to do things different… to do them better this time around.

When combined with the Thera-Pets card for today, what I see here is a reminder that each day is a new day.  An opportunity.   Each day you can be better than you were the day before.  Each day you can find a different way, a new way, to approach the day and the struggles that lie before you.  Instead of looking down at the ground, remember to look up (based off the rays in the sky in the Ace). Keep your chin up and keep going.

DECK USED:  TAROT OF THE SEVENFOLD MYSTERY AND THERA-PETS EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL CARDS

LionHart’s Whispering Woods Tarot Challenge Prompt
Question: In what way am I asked to nurture or replenish myself?

 Reading Summary:  Slow down (Empress over the Devil).  Your enthusiasm for your addictions (Queen of Rods and The Devil) are being spurred to greater heights by the reawakening of your emotions (Knight of Cups).

Take Away:  It’s time to do a bit of financial replenishment.  Although this doesn’t mean cutting out on decks entirely, it does mean that it’s time to slow down a bit.  Don’t allow emotions to drive your pleasures and addictions over the line into being unhealthy.   This isn’t just about decks, but covers the crap ass food you’ve been eating as well.  This is not good for you either in excess.

Although broken down through these four cards, this could have been communicated just as easily by handing over the Temperance card. The cards broke it down to make sure that the message couldn’t be misconstrued.

DECK USED:  WHIMSICAL TAROT

#DiscordTarotolicsMar2021 Challenge Prompt
Question: What are my strengths when dealing with others?

Reading Summary: I am clever (Seven of Swords), passionate (Queen of Wands) and easy to learn from (Lady of Pentacles).

Take Away: I am extremely biased and blind when looking at myself and how I am perceived by others.  What they see is not at all what I see, and in this manner, I can’t tell if these cards are accurate or not. 

That said, what I see here in these cards is that I have a grounded energy that make me approachable to others and easy to learn off of even by those that are not in my life to learn from me.  A part of this is because I appear cunning and clever, which stirs up people’s interest, and because I am well seated in my passions and experienced in them.  The latter gives me the ability to speak on these things with authority and passion, sparking the interest and inspiration in others as a result.

DECK USED:  TAROT OF THE SEVENFOLD MYSTERY

I have been wanting to experiment with a new idea for reading cards, and in order to do that I needed to have some people to test out my idea on.   I’ve been putting it off because of my recovery, but I’ve been eager to give it a go.  Today I gave out a number of free readings (nine, to be exact) in order to test the readability of my idea.  Out of the nine test readings performed, I only had one that was hit-or-miss, and I think that was less about the cards and more about difficulty connecting with that person’s energy. I would consider this test a success, and I enjoyed it.