Ace of Swords - When lightening strikes...

Today's card is the Ace of Swords from the Wild Unknown Tarot. This card is all about sudden clarity and spontaneous insights. A card of truth and inspiration. The two lightning bolts emphasize both the swiftness as the brightness of this energy. You have to be mindful of these flashes of insight; ready to catch them if they present themselves to you. This means we have to create open space in our mind for the lightning to strike.
Yet too often we keep our mind occupied by repeating the same old, same old over and over again. So how do we go about getting this open space?
Creating free headspace doesn't mean we have to sit on our cushion the whole day long. It is more about being busy with our hands and/or moving our body. Everything which occupies our mind just enough to keep it from obsessing and moving in circles.
My brightest ideas come to me when I am going for a walk or when I am taking a shower.
Where or when does your lightning tend to strike?

Ace of Cups – Receiving Love

Today’s card is the Ace of Cups from The Wild Unknown Tarot. This is a card of unconditionally Love. The type of love you feel for a little child or a newborn animal. The Love which flows through you when you are in awe of nature or for some of us the Love we experience when we feel close to the Divine

Seeing this card it encourages me to open up to this love; to step into the flow of receiving and giving and receiving again. Living in this flow of Love should be effortlessly but we tend to over think the Source of it, which immediately disconnects of its riches and abundance.

“Who I am to be worthy of this kind of this kind of love?"is a thought pattern which sums up all kinds of disturbing thoughts on this matter. So I asked what energy could be helpful for me if I was to start questioning my worthiness to be loved (again) and I pulled…

The Ten of Pentacles. It feels like I am looking into a colorful well. At the bottom of this well, we find numerous treasures. These are the treasures we have accumulated over time but due to worrying about guilt and regret we seem to have forgotten all about them. Maybe it’s time to dive into this well and remember what Love has given us already. Count your blessings may sound corny, but it does make us more receptive to experience  Love in all its forms.

Father of Swords – Don’t get too emotional too soon

Today’s card is the Father of Swords from The Wild Unknown Tarot.  Father Owl looks stern and strict but his standoff demeanor is softened by the beautiful colors of his sword. 

This sword tell us he has seen it all, experienced  a lot and all of this has made him a wise and knowledgeable father. One you can go to in times of need or trouble. You can talk with him about anything. Pick a color and he will tell you tales you never heard before and give you advice, gladly and sincerely.

I wonder why he has showed up today and I pulled Death. This is a card a of transformation, closure and letting go. Whenever we are confronted with the Death card it is so easy to shift  in full emotional mode but Father of Swords reminds us stay clearheaded and  to remember other Death occasions which weren’t all together as bad as we feared they would be.  Death is what it is, unbiased and a part of everyone’s life whether we like it or not. Death is the only certainty we have in life. Maybe Father of Swords’ gift of perception and looking at a situation from all angles can be very helpful for us to learn to accept this undeniable fact of life.

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.

Raidho and The Hanged Man – The journey within

My rune for today is Raidho (wheel), the rune of traveling and movement. The question I like to ask this rune is: "Where do I go from here?" and I pulled The Hanged Man. 

So physically I am going nowhere but that doesn’t mean I am not going on a journey. The Hanged Man tells us it is time to take a pause and reflect on what we need to hold on to and nurture and what we need to let go off. What is bringing deep fulfillment and is contributing to our purpose in life? What is helping us to step into our authentic power?  How can we respond to life with Love instead of reacting in fear? So many questions, so many things to ponder about. To find the answer to all of this we only need to quiet down and listen. This can be done during meditation, or while taking a walk or just sitting in our garden and let the beauty of nature sink in.

The Hanged Man of the Rider Waite Tarot shows us the effect of this inner journey. Just look at the halo around the man’s head. In the Wild Unknown Tarot we see how  by hanging upside down the bat keeps his head in the light too and in the Vision Quest Tarot the Hanged man is replaced by a Native American who is indeed going on a Vision Quest, an inner journey of self-discovery and spiritual growth

All the cards, however, show in their own special way that what is unconscious and hidden deep within needs to be brought into the light. Not to get rid of it but to truly own it and transform it from something we fear into something we are able to love. 

Expressing Gratitude with the Wild Unknown Tarot

Today’s question: “what am I most grateful for?”  got me thinking about how,  when we express our gratitude, we often talk/write about the same daily experiences like: A sunny day, a cup of coffee, cuddling with our furry friends  or looking at the flowers in our garden. Reading in my gratitude journal, I notice how I tend to repeat the same things and over again. And yes, I am truly grateful for them but this question filled me with the desire to stretch my perceptive a little and maybe look a bit more inwardly. So I asked the tarot to show me three aspects in my life for which I am grateful: three joy’s which are sometimes a bit out of reach of my day to day experience. From the Wild Unknown Tarot I  pulled:

The Moon: I am grateful or each time I am brave enough to face my fears and do it anyway. The last few days  I have been making abstract art journal pages  and each time it became too “pretty” I used gesso to “mess it up “ again

Four of Swords:  I am grateful for each moment of peace and quiet in a day. They give me a sense of security and also trust that I can return to this place whenever I need it.

Four of Wands: I am grateful for the pauses in life which are meant to celebrate what I have achieved. Resting in the blue center  of gratitude before  being ignited by the fiery passion of the wands again

Year Ahead Spread March - Ehwaz and Daughter of Pentacles

My Rune for March is Ehwaz (horse), which is a rune of fast movement and rapid progress. It encourages us to have confidence, to broaden our horizons and to be open to new elements in our life. The tarot card for this month is the Daughter of Pentacles from the Wild Unknown Tarot. This is a more gentle and cautious energy than Ehwaz. Imagine a horse running wild, mane waving in the wind, trampling the soil beneath his feet, foaming at the  mouth  from excitement: such a difference from the gentle fawn  in the Daughter of Pentacles.

I feel like the Daughter of Pentacles will help me to rein the sometimes unbridled energy of Ehwaz. We all know that feeling when the winds are changing, the earth is quickening and Spring is just around the corner. We seem to be able to tap into an unlimited source of energy but, yes there is always a but, for me this is a very familiar pitfall: Spending too much energy at once which will leave me depleted afterwards.

I am looking forward to the abundant energy of Ehwaz this month but I am also grateful for the prudence and sensibility of The Daughter of Pentacles. She will encourage me to slow down when needed and she also will show me how to seek out the most delicious herb and grasses between the weeds. That ways I can preserve my energy and also enjoy life to the fullest.

Year Ahead Spread: February – Two of Swords and Laguz

My card for  February is the Two of Swords from the Wild Unknown Tarot and my rune for this month is Laguz.

The Two of Swords is all about postponing a decision or reaching a stalemate.  This can become quite a challenge for me, since I am usually  all about solving problems and making things right as quickly as possible, so I don’t have to feel uncomfortable any longer than necessary. But truth be told this behavior doesn’t always benefits me. It can cause stressful situations because I tend to act quickly and sometimes too ill considered. Resolving unpleasant feelings as soon as possible has really become a second nature of me. But then I started reading “living Beautifully” by Pema Chödrön again and this reminded me how staying with whatever you feel and experiencing life how it is right now can be an act of compassion toward ourselves and how this can bring about a sense of deep peace and calm.

I feel this card symbolizes my effort to stay with whatever occurs in my life and refrain myself from seeking  a quick habitual solution to make it all go away.

The rune Laguz emphasizes this  notion because Laguz is the rune of  water, of feeling and emotions and of our unconscious. This rune fit seamlessly with “II Inner Voice” of the OshoZen tarot (aka the High Priestess), my rune for this lunation. Both urge me to listen to my heart,  before I decide how to act in a situation. This requires slowing down, becoming more mindful of what is really going on and trying to maintain a regular mediation practice. I am happy to say so far the latter is going rather well this time around. 

Raidho and Six of Wands - Rise up!

When I pulled my rune for today, my first thoughts where: “Not Raidho again!" But then I pulled the Six of Wands from The Wild Unknown Tarot to go with it and I realized how a single rune contains such a wide variety of meanings.

Raidho is the rune of movement, journey and travel and since I am on a sort of spiritual quest as of late, it is a very fitting rune for me these days.

The Six of wands is all about success and victory. Now you might ask if this means I have completed my quest? No, not at all but I can say I have escaped the tangled branches and the lost feeling this dark place entails.  Now the butterfly is flying upwards into the light. Although it is a beautiful place to be and it is tempting to find a spot to stay there forever, the butterfly will have to keep moving on to become the best butterfly he can be.

How often do we resist to leave that safe place of victory? It can be so scary to continue our journey with the possibility of failing or getting lost again? I am positive that if we keep this moment of success in our thoughts, it will build up out inner strength and trust, and then moving on will become a bit less frightening

Of course this card also reminds me of the devastating storm our dear friend Bev of By theSycamore Tree and her family and community had to endure yesterday.  I hope and pray together they will be able to rise up (again) from this terrible experience.

Thurisaz and Two of Wands - The Gate will wait one moment more

Today’s rune is Thurisaz (thorn, gate, giant). For today I wanted to highlight the meaning of Gateway. Often  a gateway holds the promise of something new. This could be a.o: a new opportunity, a challenge or perhaps a new insight. In my case it is often fear which prevents me from walking through this kind of gates. I also realize that this fear prevents me from having new experiences, meeting new people and broadening my spiritual beliefs. So for today I asked my cards what might be a beneficial way for me to approach such a gate.

And I got the Two of Wands from The Wild Unknown Tarot . In this depiction we see the moment just before the two wands touch each other and call for action. Notice how they almost form a gate themselves. When we dare to go through this gate it might open up so many colorful opportunities for us. This is the moment to focus, to consider, and weigh our options carefully. What will be the reward of going through the gate? What could be the worst thing that could happen? Where does my fear come from ? More than often we learn that our fear to go through the gate has nothing to do with this particularly situation. Most of our fears originate  from very long ago.  But since each gate holds a promise and a risk, it is up to use to find out if the promise is worth taking the risk.

So it is advisable to take a moment and really assess the situation and then our wands can come together and give direction and focus to our journey and we will continue to walk out path and whether we got through the gate or not it is still our path.

“Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.” J. R. R. Tolkien

Fehu and The Star – Gratitude for feeling good

Today’s Rune is Fehu (cattle or "vee" in Dutch),the first rune of the Elder Futhark. This rune stands for wealth, happiness, creativity and the physical manifestation of everything good. So in what area of my life might this energy of Fehu come into play? After giving my new edition of the Wild Unknown Tarot a thorough shuffle, I pulled The Star. This is one of the most  beautiful cards in any deck. It is the card of Hope and Renewal after the devastating  force of The Tower.  But what does this spiritual Card has to do with Fehu?  Then I remembered how I feel when I am standing outside, looking at a starlit winter night sky. The splendor of it all and the promise of hope and fulfilled wishes always give me that deep physical sense of well being. Yes feeling good isn’t always about material things, although you should have seen me yesterday when I got my new deck, but more often it is this deep rooted feeling of gratitude for what we already have and what is making us extremely more happy than anything still on our wishlist.

Word, Card and Rune for 2017

Long before the New year, I had decided what my word for 2017 would be. It is one I struggle with a lot. The word I picked for this year is Trust: Trust in myself and trust in others. I hesitated about adding faith too but I feel Trust is a more active and empowering word than faith.  Faith is more like a spiritual concept and trust is a verb: “Trust is faith in action!”

So with that in mind I pulled my card for my theme the year. Whatever it would be I wanted to trust that it would be able to teach me a valuable lesson this year and I pulled the Nine of Cups ( pfff). This card is all about experiencing intense joy and emotional fulfillment on a personal level. For me the Ten is more about the well-being of community; the love and joy experienced with family, friends and loved ones. The Nine however is an invitation to discover everything which brings you joy, to fill up those nine cups. But also it is about accepting what life has already put in those cups and making the most out of it. Joy can even be found even in the hardest of times.

In the five we were grieving and not able to see the two cups standing upright, The Six reminds us that our happy memories are always with us, the Seven asks us to find out what our heart truly desires. In the Eight we try to leave our cups behind. (I sincerely doubt if that is ever possible) And then we reach the Nine where we learn to find gratitude and Joy in all aspects of life.

I pulled Perthro from my bag of runes to go with The Nine of Cups and immediately  I recognized the cup which would transform my Nine into a Ten, into completion. Perthro means dice cup and it is a symbol of mystery, of not knowing. How this cup will guide me from Nine to Ten is a question I Trust, I will be able to answer one day and maybe even before 2018.

Year ahead spread: January - Nine of Swords and Teiwaz

This year was the first time I did a Year Ahead Spread for myself.  For this kind of spread you basically pull a single card for each month as a theme or an energy you may want to explore for that month. The first card you pull is your  theme for the year. I also added rune to each card to give the reading  an extra oomph. I intend to post my card of the month in the beginning of each month. For this spread I’ve used the Wild Unknown Tarot but I might want to use the version of one of the cards I pulled from another deck instead. Or I might even take the card from several decks for comparison. We’ll see were this journey will lead me.

So for January I pulled the Nine of Swords which in this deck is a very disturbing looking card and it is definitely not a very uplifting theme to start the new year with. The Nine of Swords is all about anxiety, bad dreams, guilt and regret, destructive self-talk etc.

Luckily I got the rune Teiwaz (Tir) to go with it. Teiwaz is a warrior rune but also one of order, justice and rationality . You can compare this rune with the Emperor card.

I often am prone to this kind of behavior when I let negative thinking get the best of me.  The worst things could happen if you would believe my internal gibberish. So I feel the energy of Teiwaz can be quite helpful. It is the rationality of this rune which speaks the most clearly to me in this context.

This rune awakes the inner sentinel which will defeat my Fear by showing me what it really is: False Expectations are Appearing Real. Such a clarity bomb often works a lot better than trying to ignore these thoughts or pushing them away. Both of these methods will often make our negative thinking even more persistent and intrusive.

I believe working with this pair could be a very interesting experience.  

Motto: Since I do not know how not to think I want to be mindful of what I think.

Son of swords – Keep your sword sheathed

My card for today is the Son of Swords from the Wild Unknown Tarot.  It feels like this card is warning me to keep silent when emotions are running high. And let’s be honest, these coming days emotions will easily get over heated and perhaps even explosive.

  

Tomorrow M. and I are going to bake two loaves of our traditional Christmas bread, and one apple pie. If we are emotional balanced it  will almost look like we are dancing around the ingredients and the loaves will be the final accord of the melody. But if we want to be right and do this how we think is best we will collide and might even hurt each other with our swords.

So what  is the advice we need for tomorrow. Ten of Cups. It seems like all the ingredients are coming together for a lovely baking day with delicious loaves of bread en  beautiful pie as result. Look how the cups are pouring their colors into one and other. Each cup is beautiful in its own way but together they are creating a rainbow rhapsody. So let’s keep our swords sheathed and let’s dance!

Six of Cups – Adapting our Memories

Today’s card is the Six of Cups from The Wild Unknown Tarot with the keywords: Memories, Childhood and Joy. A very fitting card for me, since I’ve visited my mom last weekend.

In this version of the Six of Cups we see a Fir tree with a stunning, intricate and colorful root system. On the surface this Fir looks like any other Fir in the forest but when we look more closely, each Fir has developed in his own unique way. His roots and his trunk could tell us so much more about his growth throughout the years. 

And the same thing is true for us. Our memories, happy and sad ones alike, are partly cause of who we are today. But memories are not stagnant, they change when we change they way we feel about them. It is not the exact memory which determines how  we respond to  whatever life throws at us but the way we relate to those memories. Our perception might change over the years. Memories laden with guilt can  become filled with acceptance and compassion. And so we grow new roots each day and strengthen old ones, or cut them off from our energy flow so they wither and be forgotten.

With this notion I try to approach the Holidays. Traditions, childhood memories and expectations are not stagnant. They are truly alive and can become part of something new and fresh Our personal stories, even the sad ones, can be retold from a more empowering perspective. 

Let’s fill our memories with Compassion and Joy

Eight of Cups - Breaking through resistance

Today’s card is the Eight of Cups from the Wild Unknown Tarot. Our eight cups are shattered, broken beyond compare and a dark almost impossible to climb mountain is blocking our way. When we find ourselves on the dark side of this mountain, it is very hard to imagine there could be light on the other side and trees and flowers growing there.  So what to do now in such a precarious situation and I pulled a Soulcard. At first glance I would say: Stay put, don’t change and pretend to be happy where ever you are right now. But I have been playing this game too long to fall for this initial thought. The message today is to open your eyes, acknowledge your broken cups, feel you fear and start climbing. Fear is a devourer of energy. So face it, name it and disempower it and feel a jolt of energy being released from its shackles. And you're lucky, for there is no need to pack because inside, you already have everything you need for the journey. Bon voyage! 

Four of Swords - Doing nothing is sometimes the best thing to do

For today I got the Four of Swords from the Wild Unknown Tarot. A little lamb is resting, while four swords are hanging above him. On the place of his third eye a light is shining brightly. He seems like he is not afraid of those swords. He knows he has to turn inward to access his mental strength and clarity in order to cope with them before they might strike and wound him severely.

For me these Swords symbolize my reaction to Saturday’s Skeleton card. I thought I had overcome the challenge it represents a long time ago but now it strikes back and I have to deal with it again. Parts of me need to get some more meat on the bones, made stronger and less vulnerable. My initial reaction to all of this was: let’s handle this quickly; put a kiss and a bandage on the sore spot and move on. But after given it some more thought I knew this skeleton needed more gentleness, nurturing love and time to heal this time around. So my card for today is about giving myself the time to do nothing about all of this and just sit with the notion of feeling vulnerable and being okay with it. No more hiding behind a clever and fierce appearance but really trying to connect with this part of me and then I hope a true and more lasting light will begin to shine from within. Only then healing this part of me might have some more long-term results.

A reading about energy-efficiency

Today is a bit of a Blah day. I don’t have much energy to do the things  I wanted to do. And those were fun things and not something like household chores. I even went to the gym to turn this downhearted feeling  around.  I did enjoy it but it did not have the result I aimed for so I decided to dedicate my daily draw to this dull and dreary Saturday.

My rune Kenaz told me there was something I needed to pay attention to, since this is the rune of fire, knowledge and clarity.  From Soulcards 2 I pulled a skeleton with an aura of yellow and red. It almost seemed like this skeleton was screaming in my head:  “Don’t you see, I am bone tired!” and I said: “You certainly don’t look that way, because you put a façade of knowing it all and being able to cope with everything  which comes your way!

Oops, that’s me all over. This perfectly ties back to my New Moon reading of September 1 and my ongoing quest to feel good. Today I realize (again) that  I don’t have to be creatively and intellectually  active  all the time. So what to do about it? And  I pulled the Hermit from the Wild Unknown Tarot. Ah, It is permitted by the cards to be tired and to take some essential me time, so I don’t have to do anything  but everything is permitted. I do hope that next time I feel like this, I don’t need The Hermit  to tell it is okay to be tired

N.B. Look how the flame is now protected in the lamp. It still shines brightly but It can’t be put out very easily anymore.  This is a much more energy-efficient way to illuminate yourself and everyone around you. 

Seven of Wands – A time to clear out the Dead Wood

For today I pulled the Seven of Wands from the Original Rider Waite Tarot and I picked its counterparts from the Wildwood Tarot and The Wild Unknown Tarot. 

When I pulled this card, the first thing that came to mind was of course “standing up for your beliefs” but when I saw the other two cards, I was reminded of how some of us (including myself), struggle with too many creative idea’s, passions and whatever keeps our heart and soul occupied. That got me thinking about the concept of pruning. After the Summer our garden looks a bit like a jungle. Some of our plants, like the Wisteria, even grow offshoots which almost strangle you when you walk past them. But if you want to have flowers and the next year you have to master the art of pruning. Prune too much and the plant will wither and die, too little and all its energy will go to maintaining all the excess branches and leaves instead of growing new flowers. In short we have to prune our non viable ideas (for now) to give room to our most  passionate desire to come to fruition. And perhaps maybe you will be amazed by how rich and luscious your creative talents will grow and develop.

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.” Steve Jobs

King of Pentacles – Our Pater Familias came to the party

Today’s card is the King of Pentacles from the Original Rider Waite Tarot, the Wild Unknown Tarot and the Wildwood Tarot. He is the patriarch, the provider and the defender of the family. He is strong, confident, skillful and  just. The perfect leader of his pack or herd.

For me not always an easy court card to interpret but for today it reminds me of my dad. “Family comes first” was his credo. He has worked his whole life hard to provide for us and after he had retired he could find joy in the simple pleasures of life: coffee, a walk, good book etc.  Yesterday it was M. her birthday and although he isn’t with us anymore in a way he was very present. Somehow it started when in the morning I gave M a kiss to congratulate her with her birthday. Suddenly I saw such a strong resemblance of my dad in her, which I’d never seen before because she is the spitting image of my mother and me. Throughout the day, when other family members arrived,  we kept seeing other family resemblances in one another. Some of us who were always compared to my mom suddenly also looked like my dad or vice versa but one way or another my dad was always part of the conversation. The King of Pentacles from the Original Rider Waite Tarot is connected to the earth by an overgrowth of winding and binding vines. This symbolizes today for me my dad is always with us; connected to us through his Love for us and his  Dna in us. And if  miss him we only have to look in our heart for him or ...in the mirror