In the world, not of this world

After my last post I have been thinking a lot about how to stay true to myself and today I wanted to ask this question to one of my decks. The sacred Rebels Oracle seemed to be a perfect fit for this question and it replied to me with: In the world, not of the world.

We see a woman with a shoal of fish. She jumps out of the water, clad in nothing but the locks of her hair. Although she used to be perfectly happy to be one of the shoal, lately it seems she has outgrown the mentality of the shoal and has started to make up her own mind about things. She knows this will make her extremely vulnerable so for now, although she is perfectly aware of her peculiarities and unique points a view, she still remains a part of the shoal. Perhaps for safety, community or just the need to belong to something more than herself.

This in between phase demands a lot of  courage and trust, in order to find a balance between being true to yourself and being part of this world; a constant weighing and questioning of when to swim with the shoal and when to jump out of the water,

As always balance is everything

Seven of Wands - True Colors

Today’s card is the Seven of Wands from the Joie de Vivre Tarot. This card is about courage, persistence and standing up for yourself. Instead of the defensive character of the Rider Waite version of this card, here we see the aftermath of the battle. Beam, beaming with confidence and joy, has stood up for his beliefs and dreams and has shown the townsfolk, who want everyone to be like them, that it is okay and quit rewarding to be who you truly are. To show your creative nature, your own uniqueness; your true colors. He has taken off his greyish coat and is brave enough to show the colorful outfit he is wearing underneath. Even though it was a bit scary at first, he is so happy he has come this far.    

I wonder what he will do next. Will he come down to live among the townsfolk again; Inspiring them to live a more authentic life or will he turn around and search for his own tribe?

"I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow"
(Cyndi Lauper)
 

Three Card Spread with the Tarot of The Hidden Realm

For today I will do a three card daily spread with The tarot of the Hidden Realm. The positions are as follows:

1 The general energy of the day

2 The challenge of the day

3 The gift of today

The cards I drew were:

1 The general energy of the day – Two of Wands

Two playful fairies are flying between the leafs and the blossom of a Rowan tree. They are young and their lives are filled with endless possibilities. While playing and experimenting they will learn what it is they truly want out of life and then they have two options: To keep fluttering from one tree to another or follow their passion, their hearts desire.

2 The challenge of the day – The Emperor

The next step is to bring structure into the mix and to form a plan. However, the challenge here is not to become too rigid, write endless to-do lists and squeeze every drop of the fun out of it. Instead, we might try turn to our inner adult for some fatherly advice.

3 The gift of today – Temperance

Yes, balance is all! The gift is a perfect mix between structure and play, between following  a plan and being flexible enough to adjust it and make room for trial and error

I am very pleased to see how these three cards have worked together to affirm my New Moon draw of the Six of Cups (inner child work). These cards highlight the need for play as well as for an adult approach to it.  

Lakshmi – All shall be well

Today I felt really drawn to pull a card from my first oracle deck ever, the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards, which has been a birthday gift from my daughter M. Those first decks which have brought me so much pleasure and deep felt kindness are so easily buried under the great amount of newer and more trendy decks. Decks with more symbolism, gorgeous art, new systems and with such a rich and layered messages. I mean you have to be an awesome deck to compete with that. Somehow I do believe that every deck, every card can give us the message we need to hear, since it all comes from within ourselves or if you like from divine guidance.

So for today, I got Lakshmi - Bright Future:  "Stop worrying. Everything is going to be fine."  Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of abundance and is often depicted with the elephant god Ganesh, the remover of obstacles. Her message is not to worry about all the terrible things that might happen, to hush your fears and worries and trust that the Universe/God has your best interest at heart.

I don’t believe this aspect of the divine will shower us with money and other riches but more that She and her Companion will grant us the strength and whatever more we need to move through our challenges and reap the due rewards. Also, I believe that focusing on this benevolent energy we are more likely to notice what She has given us and to express our gratitude for the abundance of the little things we notice each and every day. This way we become more and more aware of the abundance she bestows and feel more prosperous day by day

                                                                                                                                                        

New Moon in July

This new moon I have decided to use the whole deck again instead of only the Majors and for this coming lunation I got the Six of Cups from The Original Rider Waite Tarot.

The Six of Cups is my inner child card and whenever it comes up, it encourages me to give my little me some genuine love and attention. I know she loves to play and go out and honestly the last weeks we haven’t had enough time to do so. Life gets in the way so easily.

Another thing is that while thinking about this card and my inner child, I suddenly realized everybody has such a little girl or boy inside and it then occurred to me that others too might find it difficult to satisfy their own child’s needs. So I thought maybe it would make some difference if I would try to beware of that child, whenever I would come in contact with somebody. We are so much more inclined to be patient, and gentle with a child than with an adult. Just like we sometimes try to see the divine in someone maybe we could just as easily try to see the child as well

Othala and Intuition – Your gut feeling will lead you home

Today’s rune is Othala, the last rune of the Futhark, the end of your journey. It is the rune of heritage, inner wealth, coming home and finding your purpose, your destiny,.

So I wondered what energy I could consider to be my guide, my road sign, towards my purpose in live. Maybe I would even pull a card which would reveal my purpose in life…..

So I stood before my shelf with most of my decks, wondering which deck would be the one to answer my question and I picked The dreams of Gaia Tarot. After some extensive shuffling I pulled “Intuition”. Maybe not a representation of my life’s purpose but definitely a gentle guide towards it. Listening to my intuition will keep me on the right track for sure.

Our intuition is the voice beneath all reason. The undercurrent of our conscious mind. It is the voice which words our deeper knowledge. Of course feelings, inklings, gentle nudges and pulls are also ways of our intuition to communicate with us. For me intuition is not only the voice of our unconscious but also of our higher consciousness or maybe even of our divine spark or God herself.

More than often we tend to downplay synchronistic events  and coincidences. How much more magical our life would be, if we would see them as little miracles. Maybe this way we would me more keen to heed our intuition, so we would practice and strengthen this innate quality. This way our signposts to guide us where we are supposed to be would be written in neon lights instead of being hidden in the shadows of our mind.

Gebo and Son of Swords – The gift of reason and equanimity

Today’s rune is Gebo (Gift) which is all about giving and receiving; about reciprocity. It symbolises friendship and cooperation. So what could be my gift for today and/or what would by my gift to others? To answer this question I pulled the Son of Swords from the Wild Unknown Tarot.  My first reaction was, how could this card be possible a gift? But in the light of recent events, it gradually made sense to me.  Today M and I had an important doctor appointment. The gift for me was to be able to let go of my overly aggressive protective demeanour while talking to our physician. (yes, I still  can act like a vicious mother bear sometimes) and to feel relaxed and confident about the positive outcome of our conversation. My gift to our physician was that I could formulate my thoughts more clearly now about the subject and thankfully the three of us came to a very satisfying solution.

This experience will remind me that some equanimity during a difficult conversation is often more effective than barging in, being totally convinced that my way of seeing things is the right one and the need to convince everybody of my point a view who thinks slightly different.