Daughter of Grails – Are your dreams worth following?

Today’s card is the Daughter of Grails (Cups) from the Tarot of Vampyres. A beautiful young vampire is sitting on a rock with her feet in the water. She has drunk from a grail filled with blood and has sated her thirst, for now… but is obvious she want more. She is not yet completely satisfied. She reminds me of a teenager who wants to experience everything in life and if possible right now!

There is a longing in her eyes to get off that rock, dive in her emotional waters and swim towards the light spot in the background. But she hesitates. Why? Perhaps she is scared, or maybe she enjoys the yearning more than the actual fulfilment of her dreams because when dreams come true they might not be as glamorous as we hoped they would be. Dreams are gossamer stories, while real life is often more heavy and solid and not always so easy to fantasize about.

Although fantasizing and dreaming of whatever makes us happy is perfectly okay, it feels to me that this card is warning us not to dwell in our dreamscapes for too long. This can make us dissatisfied with the life we have in the here and now.  Dreaming as a first stage of planting seeds and changing our life is much more rewarding than dreaming about a more exciting and fulfilling life in general. The first sets things in motion. The latter fills us with discontent and imprisons us.

So for today, I will be mindful of my dreams and fantasies: are they uplifting and focused on bringing about positive change or are they born out of discontent and frustration…

Big Bold Vision with a touch of makeup

Today’s card is “Big Bold Vision” from the Sacred Rebels Oracle. This card encourages us to dream big; to not hold back when you are visualizing the most amazing things for yourself. I mean look at all the winged creatures in this card; they fill her mind with the most wonderful ideas and fantasies. For most of us this hard because while growing up we were taught to have only responsible dreams and goals and leave our capacity to dream big and limitless behind with our dolls and crayons.  I mean who needs a mother of two, who dreams of being an explorer, an artist, a farmer or who secretly even dreamed of becoming a nun.  All those dreams are still hidden somewhere and this card prompts me to revisit them if only for old times’ sake and perhaps to add some new ones:

Today I will think about what I want out of life when anything is possible.

Another thing which stands out for me in this card is the amount of effort and self-love it must have taken her to look like this. She definitely knows how to dress to impress.  I got the distinct feeling she has taken all this time to make herself look this beautiful for anyone but herself. Because she is absolutely worth it to pamper herself and to look as gorgeous as she can be.

I don’t treat myself very kindly in this area. Often I tell myself I don’t have the time but it is more that I don’t see the point in doing it only for myself when I am cooked up at home all day. So for today, I took the effort to put on some lipstick and mascara; just for myself because I wanted to. And it feels good. It is such a minor thing but with a unexcited major effect

“I believe all women are pretty without makeup and can be pretty powerful with the right makeup” Bobbi Brown

Creating a Tarot Mandala around the Seven of Cups

This morning, when I was driving home after visiting my husband, I was thinking about this reoccurring theme in my daily draws: “Dream, dream,  dream….”

I thought it might be a good idea to play around with this theme and see what would come up. First I started to write down everything I wanted in life. And I wrote quickly without censoring. Next I grouped similar wants and needs together, making small clusters. For  the more abstract dreams I added some practical implementations:  For instance living a creative life will require some practice and dedication on my side.

Then the fun part came: Creating the mandala. I used the Morgan Greer Tarot for its beautiful simplicity, bright colors and up close imagery. (You can imagine what this mandala would have looked like if I had used the Joie de Vivre tarot  J)

I flipped through the deck several times, pulled out a few cards out, put others back again and so on. And all this while putting them in some kind of layout. I deliberately choose the Four Queens  with their Aces for the corners of my Mandela as an indication of my strive to become a more balanced woman. The rest of the cards are my hopes, my dreams and my challenges....