Regeneration

From the tempest comes new Life.  The scan of this card doesn't do justice to the deep colors of the lava flow.  Sometimes I guess that is true for others things along the line.  Certain things pale in detail to the original.  We can listen to the stories of others but there is nothing like the real thing.  Out of death comes rebirth and the cycle continues. 
Blessed Be on All Hallows Eve.






Wisdom of the Oracle cards - Denise Linn

Iconic

Look who stopped by and visited me yesterday via email.  They are all looking straight out at me, even the trees, inviting me along for a walk under the moonlight.  I think I will join them this evening for walk in the moonlight and see what wise words she may impart to me.  Most likely to bring a coat, it's pretty cold, so I better bundle up, and oh a scarf for my neck.  Wisdom can be as simple as a coat, scarf, and gloves. 

Disguise

It's only human to wonder how the other half lives.  Halloween sometimes gives us that opportunity.  Costume parties and contests where one can vacate their own life for a time and be something or someone else. I wonder if that is why Halloween is the second largest celebrated event around the country. 
Yesterday morning I was out with clients and we were meeting the builder to go over details of their new home to be built.  All the one of them could do is talk about the Halloween party later in the day.  She had more excitement  about their costumes than the home that was to be built. 
A reminder about the masks we wear.



Wisdom of the Oracle - Colette Baron Reid.

Clap - hurry please!

What a enchanting, bewitching card.  Do you believe in Magic?  I do.  There are lots of examples everyday.  Streaks of light that just quickly past our visions-angels or ancestors  among us.  Pennies-see a penny pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck.  Crepuscular rays, those rays of sunlight that streak through breaks in the clouds-awe inspiring.  And of course clapping to help save a fairy.  Many of us preform rituals and routines that help keep the magic near.  The Universe is always conspiring to help us along the way.  Coincidence, more than happenstance.  Today I will look for more signs of magic around me.  It is after all, that time the veils between the worlds are thinnest. 


Gateway Oracle Cards - Denise Linn

It's a beautiful day...

Mr. Roger "It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood..."
Mother Nature doesn't play small and since I am one of her kids neither should I or us.  There have been many times in my life that I missed opportunities because I was dumbing down, playing the introvert(which I really am), hiding my true self, or just too shy to speak. I never got over the shyness, just hide it well.  Maybe low self-esteem is what they might label it.  All that being said, this card nudges me to not be that today.
So, here is to - today.  Throwing my hands up wide and saying "take a look at me  - Wowzaa!" and carrying that energy with me throughout the today.


Gateway Oracle Cards - Denise Linn

Snippets

Those well intentioned hints or bits of information that  we receive to help us along the way.  Some of them useful and some not so much.  Occasionally we are privy to a 'Pearl of Wisdom' and those we hold onto.
Today I will be open and receptive to a bit of advice from someone, it might just be what I am looking, whether I knew it or not.

"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."  Carl Jung




Gateway Oracle Cards - Denise Linn

Sugar please

What a lovely whimsical card, a planned tea party.  Has to be planned since someone took the time to set up the table out-of-doors.  Tea and crumpets.  Still some of the best laid plans get interrupted by a 'Mad Hatter.'  I am having a late lunch with a friend today, maybe a rabbit will hop on by.

Planning

This card kind of feels like a Seven of Cups.  Choices, daydreaming, a bit of this or that. 
The year is winding down and currently there are a number of business clinics open for enrollment to make your business plan for the next year. What? lets get this one done.  I admit it, I have never had a business plan these twenty some odd years in sales.  I go with the flow; maybe that is why I am not a 'top'  producer.  Now one thing I do plan on is taking a vacation every year, and this card speaks to me of that.  One of my nephews was by the other day and really wants to take a vacation and fly there.  His parents have always been - stay at home folks.  He has never been more that 80 miles from home.  Yep, we are planning a beach vacation, that's my happy place. 

"If you fail to plan you are planning to fail." -Benjamin Franklin

Gateway Oracle Cards - Denise Linn

Query

Healing the Past.  Is that something we can do?  Maybe come to terms and degrees of acceptance.  The Past is part and parcel of who I/we are.  If we completely "heal" how much different would we be in the here and now?  I spent a few meditation sessions and took myself back to an event that injured me and worked on acceptance, but that or those injuries have shaped me along the way.

"I want my pain, I need my pain." - Capt James T Kirk from the movie Star Trek V - the Undiscovered Country


Gateway Oracle Cards-  Denise Linn

Come down from there

This does not appear a solid place to stand your ground; those boulders could shift at any time.
Why sometimes do we pick precarious places?
For the view?
To beat out the other person?
Because the pile of rocks is there?
There are times I cannot figure out why I chose this over that, makes me snort in derision about some of my choices.
For today, before I contemplate tackling a new project, I will think twice before making that climb.


Gateway Oracle Cards - Denise Linn

Vantage Point

I have a deep abiding fascination and love of hawks.  I catch glimpses of them here and there and I always give thanks that I had the chance to see them and share the moment.

I had the opportunity to enjoy a late lunch with my niece yesterday afternoon.  We went to her favorite place, Panera Bread and enjoyed lunch out on the patio.  To and from I spotted several hawks and commented on them to her.  I have pointed them out to her before and she mentioned how I always seem to spot them.  Well maybe not always but I really try to take notice.  I thought at one time that the hawk might me a totem animal for me and that might be so, more likely they are a reminder of awareness and being in the moment.  Once I tried to imagine joining hawk on a flight.  I envisioned what I thought they would see from high above. The experience of seeing from a higher vantage point and the feel of the wind ruffling through my feathers. Today might be a good day to take flight again. 

SPIRIT ANIMAL Oracle - Sue Lion

Can't put my finger on it

Roses are beautiful but they have thorns.

Something is amiss.  You know that feeling you get when everything looks right but your intuition nudges you with 'beware.'  I get a curl to my right lip and my nose twitches and my right squints when looking at something that just...well just something.  You can't quite put your finger on it.  This Nine of Pentacles is like that; all those lovely polished pents lined up nicely and yet the backdrop of rocks and storm clouds on the horizon indicates that first appearances are not seemingly.  The RWS is somewhat the same, a lovely woman in her abundant garden and yet she has a falcon, a hunter, at her beck and call.  Something just out of sync with that as well.
Today I will try to beware of things that are not what they seem

The Sacred Circle Tarot

Enough is enough

When I see the Ten of Swords a cloud of worry washes over and through me.  Weeks and months before my tornado trauma the RWS Ten of Swords kept making an appearance. 

I am better with that image and have only drawn it once since trauma, associated images from other decks, like this Ten of Words don't hold the same sway over me.  The authors of the deck and companion book gives us Disillusion: cause to realize that a believe or an ideal is false.  Point on or is on point? They also discuss that Owl flying above those swords, as an omen of dark times, mostly I think there is a mystery to owls because they belong to the night.  Some see owl as a portrayal of wisdom.
Maybe with their hoots of  'who who' we could see it as a moment of identity crisis and ask ourself/myself what is my confusion at this moment. I asked myself a question about an event today and this card says skip it; good enough form me.

The Sacred Circle Tarot - Anna Franklin & Paul Mason

Opposition

Sometimes the best argument is to not argue at all.

This morning drifting in an out of sleep I came across an encounter whilst driving.  I pulled into a parking lot and heading down a narrow lane, someone ahead was coming from the opposite direction, so I pulled to the side to give a leave-way and the gal driving began to slow down, and then kind of angled her car across the drive and blocked the lane. She pulled out her phone and ignored me sitting there in my car waiting.  As I sat there trying to decide to honk the horn, get out and ask her "what the heck" or just back up and get on with it, a part of me realized I was having a dream.  Now in dreams everyone you encounter is supposed to be a facet of oneself.  So if I am blocking me, what is the me of me trying to tell me?   We can never win an argument with ourselves.

The Sacred Circle Tarot

Nostalgia

What is past is past, or is it?

Most of the tarot sixes give us moment.  I have been looking at these six cups and the only movement I can really begin to conclude is my mind's remembrance of something in my memories.  If we spend too long in the past can one get stuck there? You betcha.  Most decks and tarotist give Nostalgia as the meaning behind this card.  Good times or not so good, the past is part and parcel of who we are, but not where we should live.

Any opinions on what that tower is doing in the backdrop of this card? Maybe it is a remembrance of a tower moment?




The Sacred Circle Tarot

Queen Me

I always liked the game of Checkers, if you managed to maneuver across the board and move your piece to the opponents home you got to announce, "Queen Me" and that queen became the strongest player on the board.

This Queen sits rather stiffly on her throne.  All the fuss to have her portrait done.  I believe she'd rather be back at home, tending to what needs to be done and taking care of what needs to be taken care of.  Still it is nice to have a bit of fuss made over oneself.  She is a Queen after all.








Sacred Circle Tarot

Take a right

The road less traveled.

In this area the Fall is not dressed in her usually brilliant foliage.  Lack of significant rainfall has effectively limited the color palette the trees normally display.  Even if the Fall's wardrobe is not what we usually get to see it is a wonderful time of the year. It is a good reminder to not let little bumps in the road blindside me to what is or can be a wonderful opportunity or drive through the woods.  
"Everyday is a winding road" -Sheryl Crowe

Who's that girl?

Can we really know ourselves unless from time to time we challenge ourselves?

Sometimes we need to tap into our reserves to see if we can 'go the extra mile.'  Strong body, Strong mind, Strength of will.
The Olympian, The Dancer, The Musician, The Poet, all those that do what they do with grace and with ease, make what they do look so easy.  Most of us don't think of or realize all the hours of training, practice, and dedication to honing their craft that many devote to what they do.
Do we do what we do or do what we are? 
I have ask myself that question several times in the last week or so and I am guessing Strength has shown up to help me answer my question.


The Sacred Circle Tarot

Don't take for granted

Reaping the fruit of hard work.

Wands energy.  Never did quite get the gist of a person standing at the ready waiting for ships to come in.  Hopeful for all of her hard work to pay off?
This card helps bring this home.  Good Soil, Sunlight, and Rain are exactly what the plant needs to thrive and produce, and yet it needs tending.  Someone had to plant the Wands as a trellis and weed around the plant.  Something to think on and remember, seemingly easy success might not reveal the hard work that went towards that success.
Looking at all those luscious strawberries - might be a good day for some strawberry shortcake for dessert, after my hard day of work.



The Sacred Circle Tarot

A Gift!

Years ago, maybe ten, I went to this class on Tarot. A relative newbie as were the other nine people in the class, we all had shiny new decks waiting on the informed insight of a 'Master Teacher'  Since then I have come to the conclusion that you can never quite master tarot, mostly because insights as to what the card relay can change daily or with each situation.  One of things I remember from that class is when an Ace appears it is a gift. I can still read that on some of the tarot sites "A Gift"

Yesterday I read of a new  on-line Mystery School being offered and though I am reluctant to sign on with another pseudo wizard of oz program; I think this one may have merit.  I didn't sign up last night after reading about it and thought I would see how I felt about it this morning.  This 'gift' of an Ace indicates that beginning a program on a possible ancient mystery is something worth following through with.
As Bilbo Baggins said, "I am quite ready for a new adventure."






The Sacred Circle Tarot

Design flaw

The Authors of this deck give us the Tower and drafted their card after the tower in Glendalough in County Wicklow, Ireland, a monastic settlement.  When I view this card I wonder what the monks  were thinking or what I am thinking?  The Tower with the two stone huts at his base is to me symbolic of the male anatomy.

I am not sure why Anna Franklin & Paul Mason have decided to place the Tower as card fifteen and switching it with the Devil or in this deck the Underworld? Actually I think the placement of the Tower after Temperance might be a better flow through the Major Arcana.  After getting the lightning strike I can see us being tempted by the Devil when we are our most vulnerable.
For today I am going to put a lucky stone in my pocket as a  talisman to ward off any possible "strike" of misfortune.  And if I discover anything that I question it or their intent, I will give it a pass.  What I see or interpret maybe only be a unique perspective.


The Sacred Circle Tarot

Self-perception

Do we do what we are, or are we what we do?

Do we become what we do? Would we be strangers to ourselves if we did nothing? 

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut








The Sacred Circle Tarot

Defeat

How harsh that word seems, defeat. In the instance portrayed in the card, defeat was the most likely outcome, since two swords are broken. One must wonder did the blades get broken in this encounter or were broken swords the only ones available to counter the three?

I can't assume or I won't assume just because I didn't "win" in a situation doesn't make me a loser.  Maybe I didn't have the right tools or information. Maybe it was the Universe stepping in and saying "not for you."
It took me many years to learn this lesson.  I mostly notice it now while out driving about.  Missing my turn on the highway or misplacing my keys just before leaving home.  Delays I call them now, something kept me from being in a certain place at a certain time.  Instead of berating myself, I now just go with the flow.  So if I come across a situation today with only broken swords, I will do my best and I am okay with that.



The Sacred Circle Tarot - Anna Franklin & Paul Mason

Can you count

One + One = Two

Earlier this year I ran into the proverbial wall looking at the cards and spent a month with basically my beginners deck - Rider Waite Smith.  Since then I have tried to spend two weeks with a deck.  The Gaian Tarot was a bit of favorite a few years back, now it leaves me glassy-eyed.  So in the spirit of hanging in there I decided to continue with the second week.  I drew the Ace of Air/Swords today, a repeat from a few days ago. I looked at it and nothing, so I grabbed the RWS and drew the matching card from the deck, now I got two aces and nothing.  I guess once the mind goes into the void that is it. Not willing to give up, I drew a third card from the Wisdom of the Oracle deck to help with the Aces, got Two Owls. 1+1=2.  I gave up and went back to bed and took a nap.
The only thing that makes sense is when I size up a situation is make sure 1+1=2  and not 3 or some other number.  Take things at face value.  I am not a quitter, but i think the Gaian Tarot has to go to the back of draw.

A moment

Stand up and take notice!

Last evening I experienced a perfect moment, time stopped and I could have lived in that moment.  A Sunset so stupendous and breathtaking that stories should be told about it.  I have seen many through my years and all are perfection.  There have been some Sunsets experienced at the beach as the Sun retires and there appears to be twinkling lights dancing across the ocean that are magical.  This one was different.  And I had a thought as I stood in awe, that had I died five years ago, I would have missed this moment of glory. 



The Gaian Tarot -Joanna Powell Colbert

Up or Down

The butterflies have all but gone in our area. Taken flight to warmer places. 

After scanning the card in I realized it was upside down, a reverse drawing of the Ace of Air/Swords.  I normally do not look at cards from the reverse perspective so when one somehow makes an appearance, I take it as a noteworthy occurrence. 
Maybe this just informs be to be aware of possible misdirection today, especially where my thoughts are concerned.  If the printing on the card was not upside down, one would not know it is a reversed drawing.  Same with most things, just the smallest change most likely will go unnoticed.




Gaian Tarot - Joanna Powell Colbert

Howl at the Moon

What an auspicious card draw for today, the day of the Full Moon.

The Harvest Full Moon.
Moon Magic.
I am going out tonight and give my best howl.
Later tonight say 12/13 hours or so from now, if you step outside and glance at the Full Moon with thin wispy threads of clouds drifting across her lunarscape and hear something, some whisper in the night, it is me "awhhoooo" and if you feel so inclined, please join me in the chorus.




Gaian Tarot - Joanna Powell Colbert

Suitable environment

I drew the Ace of Wands again today, emergence.  I decided to place the card back in the deck and reshuffle asking where this Ace was directing me, where to direct all this fire energy that is coming to me and at me?  After the shuffle I went looking for the Ace and  the card immediately following, the Ten of Earth/Pentacles.

Interesting, Ten being a higher octave than One/Ace.  Mostly though I felt like a snake would be more comfortable in the forest, a natural habitat; that is unless you were a water snake. 
The forest with all it's lovely trees, lots of old growth, still, the forest is ever changing.  The foreground tree stump show new growth.  All animals and things complete their cycle of life and new life takes it place, ever changing.  Maybe that is the message of the Ace of Fire/Wands these last two days.  I am making a switch in my sales career moving from outside sales to inside sales.  Something new from the old ways.  A new path to follow and the energy to take it.

Gaian Tarot - Joanna Powell Colbert

Vilified

Are snakes mostly vilified because the whole garden of eden mysticism? 

This baby snake is just emerging from her egg.  No oohs and aahs for her.  Baby turtle, bird, cat, dog, giraffe, human - yes indeedy, not the poor lowly snake.  Snakes are such a benefit for Planet Earth and obviously they fulfill a need or they would be extinct.
The message for me today is to not dismiss something that I might find contrary or not in accord with my way of thinking.  As with Aces something new might be found in my day and I should give it's due.






Gaian Tarot - Joanna Powell Colbert

Wallow, why don't you

"If you want something to cry about, I will give you something to cry about."

I much prefer the image in the Rider Waite-Smith deck, the gal sitting under the tree, full of woe is me.  Disconsolate that the partying portrayed in the the three of cups has ended, she doesn't notice the new opportunity presented with the offered fourth cup.  That's the way of it sometimes; we don't want the good times to end.  The thing is, if the party goes on continuously it becomes the new norm and boredom sets in.  Never happy are we?

My Dad used to threaten us with the above quote, it was enough to dry up the tears.




The Gaian Tarot - Joanna Powell Colbert

Middle Way

Temperance just about always has me scratching my head.  Blending, merging, middle of the road.  Might as well stay home for the day if you are not going to get much if anything accomplished.

I took a few minutes of contemplation and pulled out a few of my books on tarot to re-read what some had to say about Temperance. In several instances The Serenity Prayer was quoted, so for me that will be my advice from the my card draw for the day.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Different advice really than just taking the middle road or blending.  Do if can and don't if can't and be okay with myself either way.

The Gaian Tarot - Joanna Powell Colbert