Today’s card is Five of Feathers from the Margarete Petersen Tarot. Since I read my cards mostly for personal development, I interpret The Five of Feathers often as an internal struggle. With the Five of fire in a few posts earlier, this struggle was heated and aggressive and emotions were all over the place. With this card however the energy is much more manipulative and calculative. Our mind wants to lure us into believing all kinds of fabrications about how we shouldn’t do what we want because we are not good enough, strong enough, bright enough etc.. For me, those stories are predominately fear based. They try to prevent me from acting and playing and experimenting. Well let me rephrase that: I try to prevent myself from doing what I love.
So this card is all about undermining ourselves and focusing our energy on winning this endless fight. The advice this card is giving us is to quit, to throw in the towel. This is a battle that can’t be won, even if you think you are strong enough and victory is within your grasp. Believe me, it is not. As long as we keep fighting ourselves, we will feed our mind with energy to uphold an strengthen these demeaning opinions over us. No, the only thing we can do, just like in the five of Fire, is taking a step back and withdraw ourselves from the fight. This is the only way to quiet our mind and listen to the soft voice of our inner Truth. The one that says we are wonderful, we can do anything we want…..
Some of the best advice I ever heard came from Pema Chodron: You don't have to believe everything you think. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the quote. That's a perfect summary for this post! :)
DeleteChristmas dinner the time every person was talking and no person was listening. I left early.
ReplyDeleteA sad but definetly the best decision you could have made. I wish I was that brave in a situation like that.
DeleteI have been spending a bit more time watching my thoughts. Mindfulness. Instead of dismissing a thought I am trying to find the thread back to where it began. But...similar to Sharyn's comment sometimes the chatter from all my voices is too much so I skip the internal debate.
ReplyDeleteI am mindfulness pro when everything goes smoothly. During the more challenging times I seem to have forgotten all about it. But he we have to start somewhere! ☺
DeleteEllen, Lovely post. With your words and looking upon the card, the ball turned into chaos for me, and reminded me of my chatter brain. I love that you touched upon this and on all weeks to do so. I've been fighting with my chatter brain for a few years now. I honestly remember a time when it wasn't this way. There wasn't time for such, I was always busy, working to survive. But now, when it's time to enjoy life without the struggle, oh my, my thoughts have created a certain explosion in my mind. I recently listened to an audio book which helped a little to settle it down and help me to understand the why behind it all. May I recommend - The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer. Of course the big step is to go from knowledge into action and arriving at the peaceful, happy state. I'm working on it. Big Hugs.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cher. I do know the book. I have been enjoying it but since, like yours, my mind is sometimes all over the place I don't believe I have actually finished it. I am currently reading a few different books at the same time. Perhaps it would be a good idea to bring it back to maybe two?. Perhaps it will help me to concentrate more.
DeleteI try to practice mindfulness which teaches me to bring myself back over an over and over again to the present moment. Knitting etc is great for this too
Hopefully your journey towards inner calm is a successful one
hugs
You can't win when you fight yourself! Sad, but true. It's similar to my Strength struggle... Hope you can find some inner calm, Ellen :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Chloe, I just finished meditating. it's been too long (again but hopefully this time around......:)
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