Grindstone

Rest after a good day's work

It's okay to have a bit of smug satisfaction after a good day.  Acknowledge it and then go have a bit of R&R.
Put the swords down and take a break












The Chinese Tarot - Jui Guoliang

Directional signs

The Long and Winding Road

How many times do I find myself on or in the same place?  I have walked the same path so many times that the path has been worn smooth.  Is that the journey of the Hermit?  To do a thing until the lesson is completely learned?
Are we taught the same our parents were taught and then teach others the same lessons?  Is the lesson of the Hermit to do what we know or to get off the path and learn something new.








The Chinese Tarot

Wish-Full

"Dreams can true, they can happen to you if you're young at heart."

Heart felt choices.  Yesterday I drew the Nine of Cups, a place were we are okay with ourselves, satisfied, nay I say satisfied with ourselves.  In the Seven of Cups is where the Nine of Cups originates. We can speak a thing, see a thing, think a thing, but when we feel it deep in our heart and have a strong emotion attached to it, that is where intention becomes real.  Sometimes we have to re-route our direction if we get off path, like in the Eight of Cups, still a wrong choice is still a choice and helps us on our way to fulfillment, joy, satisfaction.  Wish-full is where it begins.






The Chinese Tarot - Jui Guoliang

Try another

Satisfaction guaranteed.

Reminds me of all the blind taste test that have been advertised over the years. Pepsi over Coke?  Spring Water or Purified Water?  Name Brand over Generic?  To Each Their Own. 
Maybe all these cups are opportunities for me to keep trying until I get it right or get what's right for me.
Is Satisfaction guaranteed?









Chinese Tarot - Jui Guoliang

one, two, Three

Here's to it!

May this be a Three of Cups kind of day.   Joyful and easy peasy. 














The Chinese Tarot

The Year of Less

"how I stopped shopping, gave away my belongings, and discovered life is worth more than anything you can buy in a store. " - Cait Flanders - quote and name of book as post title

The UNIVERSE, The World card.  When it all is said and done; has it all been said and done?  Most tarot teachers reason that the Universe is a place or a thing  done to it's completion and then we start again as The Fool.  Maybe, but I don't want to do the same thing over and over.
I recently have decided not to buy one more self-help book.  It has all been said and then re-said and stated. Then this morning in a Hay House email there is an offering to buy the ebook "The Year of Less" for a $1.99, so okay one more book.  After reading dozens of books on healing, new age, self discovery, this n that and an article of two on quantum physics, I cannot see any major difference in the Me of Me.  I am going to put these books down and look out the the window or sit on a park bench more and study the nature of things and me from my own point of view.  Which is probably the lesson of the Universe card.


The CHINESE Tarot Deck - Jui Guoliang

In the moment

Can paradise be defined?

To be apart of this field of lavender would be a paradise to me.  The soft lovely scent, the whoosh of wings as the heron flies by, and the whisper of the soft rhythms of the sea as it meets the shore.  Could there ever be a better way to spend a Saturday or any other day?  There are also rainy days like today, when being tucked indoors where it is warm and dry, snuggled in with a good book and the surrounding stillness is only disturbed by the pitter patter of the rain on roof and window.  I cannot forget the joy of beachside as I soak in the penetrating warmth of the Sun and search the water for my mermaid cousins. The common theme to these snippets of paradise is me and my chosen way to experience the moment. To take the time to be present and aware is the lesson of the Nine of Pentacles.

Gaian Tarot - Joanna Powell Colbert

Canopy View

Up above the world so high

This young boy is more page than knight I think. 
Is it exploration anymore when we keep traveling the same path, climbing the same branch day after day?  This young knight has been coming to this same vantage point so many times that all the birds in the canopy accept his being there. 
What am I looking for day after day?








Gaian Tarot - Joanna Powell Colbert

Make a Wish!

Appreciation

I really like this card.  I can relate to the simple joy of walking along and encountering a beam of sunlight.  I would step into the beam and hold my arms out and relish the warmth and light.  I also really like the traditional Nine of Cups as represented in The Rider Waite-Smith deck. That dude is simply happy with his nine of cups, and this gal is simply happy to greet the light.  Since the Nine of Cups is the Wish Card, I wish for Joy, easy enough when I keep my thoughts full of gratitude.

Winter's goodbye

SPRING!

You sure wouldn't know it if you looked outside my windows.  Seven inches of snow yesterday and still some coming down this morning.  It started about 5pm and as I looked out the windows I saw the Robins hopping around trying to figure out what to do. One inch came down pretty quick and the trees were covered by 6pm.  The Robins arrived several weeks ago returning from their Winter retreats and now this.  Best thing to do today is Shelter-In-Place.  Stay warm and safe, just like these eggs in their nest.

I noticed that I started Sunday with this deck with an ace and each subsequent day 2-3-4.  I wonder if the cards are hinting at something?


Gaian Tarot 

Innovation

You never know how good you got it.

That sentence may or may not be true.  Some know how good Life is and appreciate the good days and the not so good days as well.  This card reminds me of my Mother telling my sisters and brothers how when she was a little girl she could remember helping her Mother and Grandmother make ketchup, letting us know how fortunate we had it with the bottled version.  I recently did the Whole30 with my Sister and Niece and one of things I made was Ketchup; couldn't use the store bought as sugar was one of the things we had to eliminate for the month.
If I get the opportunity to join a group today, I will take it. SPRING begins sometime today, during the  snow showers predicted this afternoon




Gaian Tarot - Joann Powell Colbert

Choices

Diversity

Iceburg, Green Leaf, Spinach, Bibb, Red Leaf, Red Delicious, Gala, Yellow Delicious, Honeycrisp, Fuji, Granny Smith, Whole Carrots, Baby Carrots.  Whiny baby Good baby. 
I will remember I always have a choice.






Gaian Tarot - Joanna Powell Colbert

Fortitude

A new start with each day.

I wonder at any point does the caterpillar think about the upcoming metamorphosis and think, no, 'I am going to stay just as I am? 
I have had at least 22362 new starts.  That's the number of days in my 61 plus years at 365 days a year and adding an extra day for leap years and the odd number of days since my birthday. Some of those days are very memorable, the others not so much.  I guess this Ace of Air/Swords has come along to remind me today, I am different than yesterday, even if it is just a tinge, and tomorrow - different again.  It makes me think of a line in Sharyn Woertz's post yesterday, "every step we take marks and deepens our unique path"





Gaian Tarot - Joanna Powell Colbert

Talking Stick

A chance for you voice to be heard.

When I drew this card I heard "Fake News" I guess because we hear so much of what it is not true.  Back to what Dad said, don't believe everything you hear. Childhood truisms.  Disturbing that such a sacred item like a Talking Stick has been abandoned. 
Today I will really listen when someone has something to say.  Changing things always begins with oneself,









NATIVE SPIRIT Oracle Cards - Denise Linn

Tribal Spirit Dancer

On the wing.

These birds have all gathered to listen to my drumming.  One of my wings is not working, maybe I should head South to the healing waters of the Ocean. 
How lovely it would be to wake up from your perch and say today I think I will do this and just do it.  To flow with a different rhythm and dance across the sky.  Still, I guess birds have their responsibilities. I realize I am rambling so I am singing off....

Thunder Drum

Stand up and be counted

I am not a drummer.  I can listen to some drumming for awhile and then I become restless with it.  Denise Linn suggests that we thump our chest in a two-time beat, similar to our heart beat to activate our own grounding and to gather strength.  I went over to UTube and listened to several samples of drumming and nothing enchanted me.  My energy is out of whack and my body has gone crooked, similar to my tornado trauma.  So this evening after work I will search a few more UTube videos and see if I can find one that connects and maybe that drumming will help me stabilize my energy flow.  Maybe that and howl like the coyote yesterday will get me back to standing straight.



Native Spirit Oracle - Denise Linn

Trickster

Don't take everything at face value.

Wise words.  My Father always use to say "believe none of what you hear and only have of what you see"  Good words.

The booklet advises to go out and howl like a coyote to clear stagnant energy.  Sounds good to me.










Native Spirit Oracle Cards

Wanna puff?

Slow down and take a deep breath, have a puff.

I am a reformed smoker.  I loved smoking, everything about smoking.  From the moment you tapped the pack to eject a cigarette, the motion of bringing it to my lips, the strike of a match or the click of a lighter, the deep inhalation of the first hit of smoke and nicotine. Everything slowed down for a moment and then I would watch the curl of the blue smoke from the cigarette and the releasing puff from my lungs. I gave up the habit because the prices just kept going up.  It's been many years and I no longer miss them, but every so often, not all the time, when I pass through a cloud of cigarette smoke, I am not offended, I am reminded.

The Peace Pipe was smoked and passed for just the same thing; to stop, take a moment of contemplation. 

NATIVE SPIRIT Oracle Cards - Denise Linn

Storyteller

We are the story we tell ourselves.
'

As a card of advice the booklet gives us: 'Take an event in your life that you gave a disempowering meaning and find a way to rescript it so that the interpretation of this same story is one in which your are the hero.'
 Sounds easy right, not.  I have done this journey and it does take the hard angles off the story and with time maybe all the harshness, but it takes time to change the story that has been part and parcel of our identity, and some our stories have been playing since childhood, in fact most of them have.
I listen to the story of others and hear them portray themselves as victims and wonder do they hear the same from me?


NATIVE SPIRIT Oracle Cards -Denise Linn

Pocket full of posies

Working my way down the chain of Pentacles. 

When I drew this card I heard "Out of the two comes ten thousand."  This is the third day of royal pentacles, the king, the queen, and now the princess.  She makes merry as she goes along her path.  Spring is in the air and tonight we set our clocks ahead one hour for 'Daylight Savings Time'  I planted some pansies the other day and this morning they are wearing a light coat of snow; Winter has not yet released his grasp. Soon ten thousand of us will be dancing and celebrating the Spring Equinox announcing the longer, warmer days of Spring. 
I am ready to begin something new. 




Celestial Tarot  -Kay Steventon & Brian Clark

Identifier

The Queen of Pentacles, my identifier card,

Today will be a good day.  My gal pal the Queen of Pentacles is on hand.  I think she has showed up to remind that I have a friend in me, besides others. Yesterday I said goodbye to a friend because it was time for us to part ways. Thankfully the King of Pentacles was on hand to shore me up with his impassiveness when my 'friend'  had a hissy fit. I had given her a 'pass' card on many occasions, but it came down to a pentacle for me to say, enough is enough.  Thinking about it now it gives me lots of room to fill up with delightful, meaningful things that a Queen of Pentacles appreciates. 




Celestial Tarot

Achievement

Worldly success and achievement, not just for men any more.

This King of Pentacles is too etheral and watery from my perspective; doesn't seem very grounded.
Recently on the nightly news there was reporting that Americans may prefer daughters over sons? What?  Typically when a girl child is born more often than not a decision is made to "try again" to get that boy so many parents want.  That is changing.  Sons might have been the preference because they could eventually add to the family's ability to make an income, now that girl power is on the rise there is a lot less bias.  Watch out Kings you are no longer guaranteed a seat in the Boardroom.



Celestial Tarot

flip/flop

The other side of the World

Crucis, the Star pattern of the Southern Cross, or one of the stars in the Southern Cross.  Not something I will get to witness first hand, since I have never or ever will travel to the Southern Hemisphere. I can view it from online accounts and witness the magnificence of sky from the Northern point of view.  In the Rider Waite-Smith Tarot the Ace of Swords is pointing up; guess it is pointing down in this depiction since it is viewed from the southern perspective.
So maybe today I need to view something from a different vantage point. 





Celestial Tarot  - Kay Steventon & Brian Clark

Roar/Meow

Here kitty, kitty, kitty

I know most people link Strength with the Constellation Leo, which would all be based on the lion imagery.  Strength is more than just a roar.  Strength is endurance, going the distance, inner control and much more.  Leo the Lion is all about adoration.  They roar and meow when not getting enough attention, they are mostly about being noticed.  What's the point in being beautiful if no one tells you?
Maybe today I will encounter a lion that needs petting and I will just have to pull on my reserves and put up with someone's ego.




Celestial Tarot

In and Out

Persephone and Demeter

I wonder if Persephone had stayed in the Underworld; would her love eventually have changed Hades and his frightening image transformed to a softer image, a personage of man who loved?   Lots of women fall in love with the bad boy; maybe Persephone ate the pomegranate seeds so she would have to stay with the man she loved.  A true Beauty and Beast story.  But no, Mother Demeter wanted what she wanted, and blackmailed Zeus into getting her daughter''s return.
Spring is in the air.  The Earth turns and the grass begins to green.  The trees are soon to bud and new life begins. The cycles of Life and Death are one of the true constants. Beginnings and endings.



The Celestial Tarot

Sideway

That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

I think we have all heard that idiom before.  What a load of dead carp.  The King of Cups is a symbol of mastery of emotions, and some cup king most likely invented the saying.  I don't know about anyone else, but just about every man I have ever encountered that was a Cancer was a momma's boy. Easy enough to say  suck it up and not cry" when you go home and boo hoo into mommy's skirt. 
That which doesn't kill you, changes you, it doesn't make you stronger.  Sometimes it makes you hide out deep in the watery depths of your emotions.  If I run across this king today with some flippant comment, I will tell him to take a 'long walk off a short pier' - another 'pearl of wisdom'


Celestial Tarot - Kay Steventon & Brian Clark

Unburden

Undburdened

What can I do to go from unburden to unburdened?  The Charioteer has made a lifelong sacrifice to training.  I have to ask myself what have I made my lifelong training and what do I need to do to undue, unburden myself, to move myself in a different direction?  It's never too late to look up and find my North Star. Like the Fool, I will need to take it down to basics.  Release what drives me, strip away the armor that seemingly makes me feel safe, sell the chariot cart, and keep only the essentials.  Six years ago I was down to absolute basics and picked everything back up and still preforming for the crowds.  What will I pack in my knapsack?



The Ride Waite-Smith Tarot

Queen Me

Not me you won't

So glad to see this Queen of Wands.  Yesterday the Emperor started to get the best of me.  Last night I placed him back in deck and shuffled asking how I could deal with the bully (emperor) yesterday?  I went in search for the Emperor and the next card was the advice card, The Knight of Wands.  Immediately I felt that it recommended, "Carolyn get on your high-horse and go bonk the bully on the head with that big heavy wand he is carrying."  The Queen of Wands has now stepped in to take charge of the whole situation.  She empowers me not to put up with the heavy-handedness of the Emperor.






The Rider Waite-Smith Tarot

The Dude

Whose the Boss?

Well of course after three days of the Empress, I should have expected Mr Bossy, the Emperor to show up.  I can't help it, I just can't get serious enough to pay attention to his stern counsel.  I feel like sticking my tongue out at him behind his back and saying "you are not the boss of me!"  Well that usually causes a bit of trouble, mostly cause he does have some good advice but the way he delivers and comes across as the 'know it all' that irks me. For today if someone gives me some advice I will give it some thoughtful consideration.


Rider Waite-Smith Tarot