Two of Pentacles – Keep practicing

Today’s card is the Two of Pentacles from the Goddess Tarot. This is a card of balance, flexibility and a touch of playfulness. When we look at this woman, it is very obvious she doesn’t find this juggling act very difficult. She keeps her Pentacles in the air with grace and ease. She doesn’t even have to watch what she is doing. That is, in my opinion, the secret of a juggler. Once you get the hang of the rhythm of throwing and catching it isn’t that difficult anymore. Mind you, juggling isn’t so much about catching but more about throwing; about purposely letting go and trusting you will catch it again when the time is right.

Ah, if only I was such a proficient juggler. No need for planners or to-do lists, no need for creating some good habits day after day. I would love to be more like this woman who is living in this very moment and is satisfied with doing what she is can do. She isn’t concerned with all her other Pentacles laying around the house and catching dust.

So, for today I will try to focus on the task at hand without letting myself be distracted by everything else I should be doing instead.  Also, I will try to find some flow of throwing and catching, of breathing in and breathing out. 

Rhiannon - Movement, Moving into Autumn

Today’s card is "Rhiannon – Movement" from the Goddess Tarot. Rhiannon is a British horse goddess who rides on her white horse into the thick of the forest. An apt choice for this deck’s Chariot card. When you look closer, the swirling wind around her emphasizes speed and determination. She knows where she is going and how to get there and she has absolutely no fear to get lost in the woods.

It is almost the end of August and I feel a bit like this goddess, moving confidently into September, into Autumn.  How I have longed to reach this month, this season. I have survived the Summer and now I can start living again. Our pumpkins are almost ready to be picked, lot’s of bread needs to be baked, Chestnuts and acorns need to be gathered, Autumn decks have been missed and I have longed for so many more aspects of Autumn these last few months. 

Yes, let's gallop into fall and celebrate the arrival of this wonderful season!

Three Card Spread with The Goddess Tarot

Theme: Eight of Cups

With a waning moon and ebb tide, this card urges us to leave behind feelings and relationships which are no longer beneficial for us or perhaps they just have passed their expiration dates. It asks us to be true to ourselves and live an authentic life which is often not the easiest way to live.

Mentor: Tara – Beginnings

This card features the goddess Tara who has the power to grant all wishes and heal all sorrows. She is the perfect goddess to free us from mental blocks and help us to move forward in life. Notice how both the figures in the first two cards are looking over their shoulder and how Tara has no more reason to stay where she is now. The Cups are gone; no more regrets

Healer: King of Pentacles

Because most of the time life isn’t that easy, The king of Pentacles encourages us to enjoy the good things life has to offer us: coffee, sunshine, trees, chocolate, crystals…. So many things to cherish and to savor. And never forget time…there is always enough time to relax and take delight in what life has to offer us.

Ace of Cups – replenishing my Heart

Today’s card is the Ace of Cups from the Goddess Tarot.  In this card, we see the full moon “contained—but not captured—within a golden cup surrounded by the ocean, source of all life”. This is a card of great emotional fulfillment and an abundance of Love. It is a card of generosity; giving Love from your heart without holding back but at the same time it is also a card of receiving this Love, which is freely given and will fill up your Heart to the brim and even more. The only thing we have to do is to be willing and deem ourselves worthy to receive it.

This weekend I have been visiting my mother and the overall experience was good. But I am quite exhausted now, so I wasn’t surprised when this card came up again. It has been following me around for the last four days. J

For today I see it this card as a reminder to take care of myself and do the things which will help me to fill my cup again. So after finishing this blog post, I am taking “the day off” and forget about every  “I have to”  until tomorrow. 

Three Card Spread – Keep checking in with yourself

For today I have decided to do the Within-Without-Advice spread with the Smith Waite Tarot. The cards I drew fit perfectly with my previous post about my attempt to create a “Free-Flowing routine” in order to establish some fulfilling and more healthy habits.

Within – Eight of Pentacles

It seems I feel quite content with the result of my new routine. Working with it brings structure in my life and a great deal of satisfaction. Gradually I will get better in maintaining my new and still fragile set of habits.

Without - The Chariot

Look at me I am riding on the wind. Just doing great. Oh no, not quite the movement I was expecting. Yes, this chariot has left the city behind the walls but now, in his concrete wagon he is going nowhere. It looks very impressive on the outside world but what is going on the inside of the charioteer?

Advice – The King of Cups

This is for me the archetype of the healer. He is our inner therapist, the part of ourselves that is able to distance himself of the problem at hand. He urges you  to find out what is really going on.

Yes it is obvious I am already trying too hard; becoming too rigid in my efforts although my intent was to stay compassionate with myself  and surrender to the flow of the day. This is so me: wanting to do my very best, even if it is not the best for myself. So I will take this advice at heart and I will proceed more slowly, more gently and more consciously about how I am feeling.

New Moon in August

For this new moon, I have pulled one card from the Fountain Tarot as to what energy I should embrace during this next cycle of the Moon and I got the Six of Wands: Another Six after last New Moon’s Six of Cups. Six in tarot is a very auspicious number; it is all about Union, Harmony, and balance. The Six of Wands speaks of hope and motivation and is a very timely card for me because as of late I am trying to build a free-flowing daily routine for myself to get things done and get a more healthy lifestyle. A free-flowing routine might sound like an oxymoron to you but it does work for me.  I’ve started with one habit I want to keep above all, which is meditating for 15 minutes before doing anything else and all the other things on my list were mere suggestions. Now I am also writing daily in my journal and drawing a tiny sketch a day. For me, the success rate of my “routine” is very motivating. I feel very accomplished by doing these three things which will cost me about 45 minutes a day. Only when I feel these three activities have become real habits, I will add one more. Also, I have promised myself that taking a step back when I feel overwhelmed has nothing to do with failure but is, in fact, a kind and compassionate thing to do.

The whole premise of this experiment is getting motivated by success and to take one baby step at the time. Every little success is a like golden star on my chart. And every little setback a pink heart of compassion.

Ace of Air – Being honest with ourselves

This morning M. and I went shopping at a local metaphysical store and she gifted me a gorgeous piece of tumbled Sodalite. This stunning deep blue stone with white calcite veining is a stone of clarity, honesty, and truth. For me, it is a perfect stone to help to express myself more truthfully in my writing. The card I picked to go with this stone today is the Ace of Air from the Vision Quest Tarot. The feather in the depiction reminds me of a quill pen, so it fits wonderfully with my intention for this piece of Sodalite.

Although I am a fervent journaler and creative writer, it is sometimes hard for me to be really genuine and authentic in my writing.  Too often I am inclined to shy away when I touch upon painful subjects or I find myself smoothing over a difficult situation.

Yes, even in my journal, my safe place, my sacred space, I sometimes, mostly unwittingly, wear a mask instead of being true to myself.

I sincerely hope this stone will become a key for me to open the doors to my inner realms, to help me be confident enough to seek for the right words to write down what I find there and to bring me inner peace when I am done.

While writing this I realize it is a great stone for shadow work.

“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” Thomas Jefferson

Daughter of Air – fly boldly, fly freely

Today’s Card is Daughter of Air from the Vision Quest Tarot. In her hand, she is holding a feather. This feather is linking to her inner free flying eagle, who rises above her daily sometimes trivial problems to get a better view of the big picture and who will guide her into the right direction.

This card is all about self-liberation. To get out of our rut and turn into the freedom loving human being we are supposed to be. Staying where we are may seem the most secure and comforting thing to do but when we remind ourselves of our inner strength and innate power it isn’t strange we long for more. Remember we aren’t newly hatched chicks anymore;  we are full grown eagles ready to be bold and soar. 

"There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud. Carl Sandburg

Mother of Earth – It is okay to be proud of ourselves

Today’s card is Mother of Earth from the Vision Quest Tarot. She is all about nurturing ourselves as well as others, about connecting with our body and with nature.  Mother of Earth implies that whatever we do for ourselves we also do for others since everything is connected and we are all one. So practising self-care and self-love is by no means an act of self-centeredness.

Today my focus is the child on her lap. It feels like she wants to tell her mother all the things she has already accomplished. Yes, she knows she has still a lot to learn and to practice but that doesn’t mean she can’t  be proud of her achievements so far.

We tend to focus mostly on the what we still need to improve and on how to better ourselves but it can be quite inspiring to give ourselves a pat on the back once in a while just because we deserve it.

Today I am proud of baking our daily bread, choosing organic alternatives for my groceries  if I can afford them, taking a walk, pumpkins in our garden and meditating before breakfast

What would you like to share with Mother of Earth today?

Queen of Clouds - Caged by Morality

Today’s card is the Queen of Clouds - Morality from the Osho Zen Tarot. Although the Queen of Swords is the queen I identify the most with, I sincerely hope this queen is nothing like me. Most likely she is a shadow aspect of me since I was raised, like many of my age, with lots of “do’s and don’t’s” and “should’s and shouldn’t’s”. I was supposed to know what was expected of me and if I failed to live up to these expectations, I knew I had disappointed my parents, which would hurt just as much as being sent to my room. Because of the fear of making a mistake, I build a protective cage of false security around myself and lived my life as obedient as I could. Within that cage, judgments about others grew rampantly and left me isolated within myself. Luckily cages can be broken or torn down, often by major life changing events and many years ago I experienced the freedom of The Knight of Water (jumper card). The world was so much bigger and more diverse than I ever could have imagined.

To mature from black and white morality to a multitude of colorful ideas and options about life demands a large recalibration of the mind and even sometimes a hard restart. Yes, it hurt but it was so worth the darkness, the pain and the tears. 

Spreading your wings for the first is scary but when the inner fluttering becomes too strong you finally understand your cage is not your home anymore.

Eight of Wands - Keep your calm in a chaotic world

Today’s card is the Eight of Wands from the Llewellyn tarot. We see the familiar eight Wands in the air, although today it doesn’t feel like they are all going in the same direction. Some seem to go upwards and some seem to fall from the sky. What also stands out is the calmness of the grazing deer. Some are eating and some are watchful but they are all convinced there is no need to fight or run to a safer place.

Often when a lot of Wands are flying over our head we tend to jump up, decide, act, again and again until each Wand is taken care of. We don’t like to allow those Wands to pass freely without our interference and to watch how life unfolds. To be able to do this demands a great amount of trust and confidence in our inner strength and in our resilience when something isn’t going as we hoped it would.

There is a lot happening in my life but I have to take a step back from most things, instead of jumping in, to “help” and  “fix it all. This card teaches me perfectly how to live in a chaotic world.

Time for lunch J

"Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset." Saint Francis de Sales

The Sun - Be your own hero

Today, on a warm August morning I drew The Sun from the Llewellyn Tarot. This card depicts the Sun God Llew, riding on his horse while feeling victorious after slaying his enemy.

So, I was wondering how the optimistic, youthful, and confident energy of this card could help slay my current, most vicious enemy: my anxiety and need to control every situation.

The light and warmth of The Sun will uncover and burn away the anxious feelings and the hurt this enemy is causing me. This does sound a bit like slaying my own dragon because both the characters of this story are parts of myself: my energetic confident ego as well as my slimy and deceitful anxiety.

So what weapons can I use again this ongoing thread? Together, Happiness and Joy will make a strong shield.  Being in the moment with a childlike innocence is the perfect attitude which will keep the darkness at bay. And whenever it does slip through my defences, I can throw an arrow dipped in a potion of trust, faith and self-confidence.

It is so self assuring to be able to be the hero of my own story instead of waiting for my knight in shining armor to come and rescue me.

Nine of Swords – Tired of worrying

Today’s card is the Nine of Swords from the Llewellyn Tarot. It is the card of worries and depression, of anxiety and insecurity.  

Each of us has issues and situations in their life to worry about and to keep us up at night. But we are also aware that often life is never as scary as we imagine it to be. At night, when we lay down our heads on our pillow and in the morning just after we have woken up, our thoughts seem to have a life of their own and are likely to spiral down if you have an anxious mind. I can assure you I have been presented with the most horrible outcomes of various situations during these hours. So what to do about it and I pulled The Star, a card of Trust and Hope, which is the exact opposite of fear and worrying. This card represents the story of Branwen, a British princess who was married to an Irish King. The little Starling in the picture was her only friend in an abusive marriage to this king. Here you see how it flies with a message for help over the border to her brother Bran.

For me this card tells us is to never lose hope and to trust all shall be well in the end. Another thing which these two cards convey today is to get out of bed and to go outside. Or at the least get your body moving and try to do something to distract your mind from worrying. (Like writing  a blog post J)

Yes, I have been worrying too much over minor issues lately. So I wasn’t  surprised at all when these two cards came up. I have been reducing my anxiety/sleeping meds for almost a month now and so far so good but I feel I have to take it very slowly in order for it to succeed.

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. (Leo Buscaglia)

Page of wands - Get off the beaten path

Today’s card is the Page of Wands from the Llewellyn Tarot. This is a card filled with enthusiasm and a zest for life. This Page is playful and he always feels the need to try new things and broaden his horizon.

When I saw this card my first thoughts were: “Well, it is clear this isn’t me today.” Lately, my energy level is quite low and I feel absolutely uninspired to do the things I usually love to do. While writing this I realize this is exactly the message I need to hear: get off the beaten path and do something out of the ordinary:  Wear something colorful instead of always black, draw with crayons instead of watercolors, read fairy tales, anything as long as it is different from what you normally do.

For a habitual person like me, this could become quite an adventure but I believe if the little rabbit is up to it so am I. I think my inner child, whom I have promised some extra attention this month, will be quite excited about this.

Nine of Pentacles – Happy Lughnasadh /Lammas

Yesterday I have received the Llewellyn Tarot in the mail. It was a belated birthday present from M. This deck has been on and off my wish list for such a long time because I wasn’t sure if I needed yet another Rider Waite Smith based deck in my collection. It was the artwork that convinced me that I indeed wanted this deck. When I flipped through the cards for the first time I was amazed by the rich palette the artist has used. As always in real life, the colors are so much more vibrant than in the online pictures. Because it is Rider Waite based, the deck is easy to read but has also more than enough new symbolism and layers to stir my curiosity and to let me dive deep into this deck and the beautiful guidebook filled with Welsh history and myths.

Today it is Lammas or Lughnasadh, the festival which marks the beginning of the harvest season with the first wheat harvest. For this day I picked the Nine of Pentacles. Not only because it is one of my favorite minors but more so because it illustrates beautifully how the time of reaping what we have sown has begun. The lady in the card is fortunate: she has worked hard all Summer and her harvest is abundant. The first wheat has been bound into a sheaf and I am positive that a lot more will follow.

I am planning to bake a loaf of bread today and fill my heart with things I am grateful for. All the things  I have sown myself but perhaps even more important: everything which  I have received as a gift from others.