Sunday, April 10, 2016

Strength - We try to make the best of it, day by day.

Tarot of the Hidden Realm Julia Jeffrey StrengthTarot of the Hidden Realm Julia Jeffrey Seven of Swords

Today’s card is Strength;  a great card to get and to lift up my spirit. We all know we have this great fortitude within us. We are so much stronger than we give ourselves credit for, so it is always a good thing to be reminded of our own inner strength. I particularly like this depiction of Strength because the woman and her wolf have such a deep spiritual connection. Without words or touch they know they belong together and they are an intrinsic part of each other’s life. (Maybe some of you remember I did a painting of this picture about two years ago)
What is it that we need this Strength for, this drive to go on, even when everything else seem to be opposed  to our efforts.
And then I drew the Seven of Swords. This is the lonely warrior. The one who goes on because he knows he is fighting for the good of all. Seven stars in the night sky are symbolic for his beliefs and ideals. He is a peace keeper with a sword in his hand. Each time before he goes into battle he examines his heart: Is it still pure?

It is hard to stand up for your ideals and stay true to what your belief in, especially when those around you do not  share those. Each day we get up and try to life our life according to those ideas as best as we can and each night when we go to bed and revisit our day we know some things could/ should have been done differently. But we don’t give up or give in and when dawn breaks we get up and try again.

10 comments:

  1. Interesting that one looks down and the other looks up in the cards. When we feel like an outlier, I think it is important to realize that there are others who think like us, they just might not be close by. :)

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    1. Yes it is :)
      Thanks to the internet a lot of us feel less outlier than they used to
      It feel almost as is he is looking for that soul connection in the stars too.

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  2. Did you ever see the movie LadyHawke? There were a pair of young lovers and they got cursed when the Bishop wanted Isabeau for himself and she rejected him. Thats what I saw with these 2 cards. She was a Hawk by day and he was a wolf by night. This the lonely warrior that becomes her wolf.

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    1. I do know that movie and I love how you connected it to these cards! :)

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  3. I like this 7 of Swords more than the thieving little so-and-so in RWS. :)

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  4. I can align with this message today also. Interestingly I pulled the Strength card from the Osho Zen this morning as a card to reflect on. I really love the representation of Strength in the Hidden Realm deck!

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    1. I can appreciate Strength from the Osho zen too: The tender flower finding his way out trough the crack in the stone. Now that is what I call perseverance! :)

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  5. What a very different Seven of Swords! Standing up for your ideals and keeping your heart pure is all well and good, but what if you're not sure what you believe in? Yet, you still have to put one foot after the other every day, and so we're back to Fortitude... :)

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    1. Maybe he is looking at the stars for an answer?
      I think that periods of spiritual uncertainty and doubt are often much more interesting than the times we know exactly what to believe.

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