Five of Wands - Wait for the right time to go for it

Today’s card is the Five of Wands from the Shadowscapes Tarot. This card is all about competition; wanting to be challenged and more importantly wanting to win. It is my “go for  it” card.

  

Al the foxes want to catch the hare and are jumping over each other  and are obstructing the guy who wants to go the opposite way. It doesn’t feel to me like the foxes are doing this on purpose because they only have on thing on their mind : Hare!

Since the beginning of October I have not been able to do the things I love the most due to my neck hernia. I am happy to say my pain is decreasing gradually and typing gets easier each day. But writing longhand in my journal, drawing and knitting are still difficult. Now, since the new year, I have been ill. Nothing serious but enough to lower my energy levels and not feeling up to do anything productive.

Oh, how I want to run up that hill just for the fun of it. Not because I have to but just because I want to feel my blood running through my veins and feel the fulfillment of reaching the top.

As advice on how to deal with these fiery feelings I got the Page of Pentacles: Just sit this out patiently and enjoy what I can do. Read a good book and write a blog post. Find wisdom (owl) in waiting because my opportunities will keep slumbering for a while longer until I am really ready to wake them up.

Five of Wands – I went to the Gym!

Today’s daily draw really made me laugh: I got the Five of Wands and the King of Pentacles from the Original Rider Waite tarot. Reading Carla’s blog "Rowan tarot" reminded of my most favorite tarot deck. Some call it your soul deck. It’s  the one you can always rely one in whatever  circumstances you are. It will never let you down and in my case it often makes me laugh because it can be so literal.

Anyway the Five of Wands came first and you have to believe me that today was the day I was going to the gym for the first time in years. A little bit anxious but also excited. This card was obviously representing the gym and all the people there, trying to get fit and maybe also trying to be more fit than the others.

M had given me the advice to pick one type of fitness equipment so It would be easy for me to determine afterwards if training on the equipment would cause me pain in my neck or knee. I chose the crosstrainer and I loved it. Just for 15 minutes with a very low resistance but it was enough for me and I felt so good about it. It didn’t matter at all to me that the woman next to me was very athletic and far more skilled then I was. My main focus was that this is beneficial for my well being.

I also pulled a card to tell me how I felt about it all and I got the King of Pentacles. Yes, I feel like the master of my own physical health again; feeling my body move, perspire (a little) feeling my muscles hurt (a bit) and trusting that this body will recover and become stronger and more flexible over time.

All in all a very motivating experience.

On my way to freedom

These last two weeks of December I am participating the #MagicSeeker2016 Tarot challenge on IG hosted by @ghostkittenart. The prompt for today is: What energy do I need to help me cultivate more Freedom in 2016?

Since carving out more personal time and freedom is one of the major challenges in my life, I decided  not to pull only one card but three, because all good things come in threes!

From the  The Wild Unknown Tarot I pulled: The Emperor, The Sun and the Five of Wands

The Emperor advises me to keep the reins of my life in my own hand. He is the one who makes the rules and expects both his people and himself to abide by them. He is also not afraid to delegate or ask for help . No emperor can do everything by himself.

I think I might benefit from some kind of schedule or routine which will bring more structure into my days and which will help me to find balance between activity and rest; breathing in and breathing out.

The Sun is a very welcome card for this question. Choosing actively for joy, love and light will help me to prevent losing energy to complaining or whining about everything I have to do or about how tired I am. Just get it done and be happy and content afterwards. Feeling good about yourself is such a great motivator.

The Five of Wands. This card is strongly connected to my word for 2016: Focus. The Five of Wands is an exact representation of my mind when I feel anxious and stressed out by the many things I want to get done All my ideas  and plans and whatnot are all mixed up and they all want to be heard and executed NOW! So for 2016 I am going to try to Focus on only a few tasks or projects at the time and the rest of my ideas will be written down on a “You don’t have to think about this now ” list

So all and all some clear road signs to more freedom in 2016

Hopeful Past-Present-Future reading

Usually I use tarot primarily for daily draws. That way the cards can empower me, guide me or help me to approach a situation with a new point view. I hardly never do actual readings for myself but today I felt like doing a Past Present Future spread. Just three cards nothing, more nothing less. And I got:

Past: Eight of Pentacles

This is me doing my daily “chores” ( meditating, gratitude journal, making art, etc:) ticking of boxes day in day out in the hope things will get better….

Present: Five of wands. 

A lot of inner conflict, knowing that just pointing out a winner isn’t the solution. Every part of me has to agree and make compromises. How can I shape and form my path in a way which will fulfill me completely?

Future: The Star

Yes, that is a hopeful card.  And so beautifully timed after my last post about the Tower. She is naked and vulnerable, brave and strong enough to expose herself to Love.

Problem solving with tarot

This morning, when I woke up, I didn't feel that great. I was obsessing about, now please don’t laugh, which journal I would like to use for the coming time. This is an obsession which has been going on for as long as I write in my journals. I go back and forth between several formats and almost never really finish one. Sometimes I write everything in one book, or I use multiple journals; for each subject a different notebook. And don’t get me started about the actual journals I can choose from: ring-bound, spiral bound, hardcover, digital, A4, A5, A6, lined grid, blank…. the possibilities are endless. A typical first world problem or maybe a cover-up for an underlying issue. When I feel this anxious it is very hard to let go of. So instead of obsessing about it even further, I flipped trough my deck and picked a few cards face- up which visualize how I feel.

In short:

When too many choices are available, I get stuck, unable to move, while in my mind the quarrel is constantly going on and without a winner. The only thing I have to do is take of my blindfold get up and receive the gift of choosing one possibility, be content with it and start journaling. This will lead me through the gate towards freedom.

It is so easy. All I have to do is make one decision and release the illusion I have to solve this dilemma for eternity. Just choose for today and be happy with it.

Is it just me, or does any of you have such nagging, not at all crucial, long lasting, dilemma too?

Five of Wands – Don’t give up

In the Five of Wands from the Shadowscapes Tarot we see a pack of foxes chasing a white hare. It is a disorderly tangle of fur. And how could it be anything else since foxes usually don’t hunt in packs. It is every fox for himself. They jump up and down, cling themselves to the wands and the red ribbons, and collide with each other. A man is trying to run up hill but the foxes are slowing him down and they are obstructing his way up.

While living our life we find numerous obstructions on our path. Mostly small ones we can either deal with or choose to ignore. But sometimes it seems like the all these conflicts and setbacks are piling up into a big overpowering wall. It is up to us to keep seeing the building blocks of this wall for what they really are. And if we are able to do this, the cement made of fear and anxiety will crumble and we will be able to tackle one problem at the time. We will find in ourselves the strength to do so. Undoubtedly this strength will grow stronger with each obstruction we've cleared away. Just like our physical strength, our spiritual strength can be trained too.

It is hot and moist in Holland. Sunny hours, rain showers and thunder and lightning are talking turns. Leaving us with a very humid weather which is slowing me down. Chores seems harder to do, and the “foxes” seem stronger. I am so happy I've taken up my drawing/ painting again. Although my floors aren't vacuumed as they should be, I do have a sense of accomplishment after I've made some marks in my sketchbook. Luckily the weather is going to be cooler this week. Fingers crossed J

Another spread for Self Love

A few weeks ago I've posted a spread for self love for Valentine´s day. Yesterday I've discovered a great website called "Little Red tarot". There I saw a post with another “awesome” Self love spread for this Holiday. But hé, self love is for every day of the year and since I adore this little three/four card spread so much, I wanted to post it here. So (drum roll)…. Here it is:

“The ‘Me Myself and I, aka Why I Am Totally AwesomeTarot Spread”

1. What’s totally awesome about me is…

2. My favorite thing about myself is…
3. I am brilliant because…

And if that hasn't sorted you out, go right ahead and pull one more card:

4. One reason it doesn't matter if I have one lover, three partners or no sweetie at all is…  

I guess this is the Valentine’s day position, so for now I like to call this extra card: the loving/caring action for myself right now

It is in the nature of this spread to read it in a quick, positive and intuitive way. Just see it as a pat on the back whenever you need it.

So let’s give it a try:

 

Crystal Visions Tarot

 1 What’s totally awesome about me is…

Five of wands – I have a lot of creative ideas running around my mind: I just have to pick one…

2 My favorite thing about myself is…

Strength – I am  a compassionate , strong woman

3 I am brilliant because….

Five of Pentacles – Even in times of need I always take care of my family

4 How can I love myself right now?

Ace of Wands - I will pick one creative inspired idea and  I will  go do it!

I highly recommend this spread because it feels só good! The cards give you compliments you would not have thought of yourself. Even this reading with two fives has been so delightful