Nine of Pentacles - A little update on where I've been…

Today card is the Nine of Pentacles from the Original Rider Waite tarot. This card shows perfectly well what I’ve been up to these last few weeks: Nothing spectacular except taking it easy and enjoying the peace and quiet of my own home. Life has presented me with some rather difficult “stuff” which took and still is going to take a lot of my energy, so blogging had to be moved to the back burner for a while. I don’t know how it is with you but when life is challenging my cards seem to grow quieter with the day, so there wasn’t much to blog about anyway. The lady in this card is enjoying herself in her garden and she is noticing the precious daily gifts of her life. Like the snail she moves gently and slowly through her day. She encourages me to follow my heart’s impulses and to do what brings me joy and happiness. Also she is a welcome reminder that there is so much to be grateful for even when life isn’t all together perfect.

Nine of Cups –Sharing our gratitude

Today’s card is the Nine of Cups from the Druidcraft Tarot. This card is my theme card for this year. We see a man sitting at his table with his cup raised. He is content and has done well for himself. But especially in this depiction, it feels like something is missing. He has laid the table for his guests to drink some of his exquisite wine and eat from a fresh cooked salmon. Yet, nobody else is there. Perhaps it is still too early; otherwise, he wouldn’t be smiling and sitting there all pleased and feeling good about himself.

This is the card of dreams come true, wishes fulfilled and all things good in life. It invites us to ponder about what we have filled our nine cups with and what wisdom we have gained (salmon) There so much to be grateful for and to be proud of. This harvest season is particularly suited to express our gratitude for everything life has offered us. And yes I do mean everything because often our challenges are carrying our most precious gifts.

So for today, I will ponder on the content of my nine cups and especially about what this beautiful salmon has taught me in the last few months. But... I will also share my findings with my loved ones and then I will be stepping from the solitude of the Nine of Cups into the warm embrace of the Ten of Cups...

New Moon in May

For this new moon, I have pulled one card from the Gaian Tarot as to what energy  I should embrace during this next cycle of the Moon and I got The Sun.
This card puts a big smile on my face. As you all know I haven't been feeling all too well as of late but now, when I am starting to feel a lot better this card is an affirmation to hold on to this positive change in my life. I don’t expect everything to go smoothly and within my control but I can try to focus on the things that make me happy and on what  I am grateful for. It is often not so much the reality which makes us happy, sad or anxious but the way we perceive this reality. This card encourages me to seek joy intentionally and if I can’t find it, it urges me to do something which makes me feel good: painting and drawing, walking and riding my bicycle, enjoying my garden, eating strawberries and chocolate and reading a good book or perhaps even buying a red dress. And yes, it's okay to spend time with myself because I am totally worth it!
I also love that when I feel good, others seem to feel better too. It seems that Joy and Happiness are as contagious as an ordinary cold
All in all, I am really looking forward to working with the energy of this card for the next four weeks.
Affirmation from the guidebook: I "choose to make a life that creates happiness for myself and for others.”

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

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.

Eight of Earth – Gratitude will protect us from evil spirits

Today's word to draw a card with is Jack O’Lantern. I’ve picked the card with the same name from the Halloween Oracle and its keyword is protection, So I wondered what energy will protect me from evil spirits or maybe rather from self-defeating attitudes and thoughts  and I pulled the Eight of Earth from the Dreams of Gaia Tarot.

In this deck the Eight of Earth stands for enjoying what you have accomplished so far and contemplating where to go from here.  Since you were able to  reach this luscious garden, this card also wants you to remember you have the ability to unlock doors to maybe even more greater successes and abundance. This is highlighted by the keys dangling from the lady’s staff. She is also holding a crystal ball in her hand with which she can seek out new possibilities and manifest her future.

Don’t sell yourself short. We are often capable of much more than we give ourselves credit for. Feeling grateful for the abundance in our life as it is right now and feeling thankful for and proud of what we have achieved so far will fend off insecurity, fear of failure and other shortcomings (or evil spirits)

Today I am grateful for: S has helped me doing the groceries,  fresh apple pie and coffee, this blogpost, my Dreams of Gaia Tarot, Jofee is feeling better, the sun is shining,  my home, watching “Turn” with M, I won the Fountain tarot give away, my health, whole wheat bread with cheese and a glass of milk, clean sheets sprayed with lavender…… and so much more

New Moon in November

Today’s cards are picked by myself from the Anna K Tarot to represent my intention for the coming lunation.

Release - The seven of cups.

Lately I feel the desire more than usual to buy stuff on an impulse. YouTube is a very powerful enabler. Lots of gorgeous decks are unboxed, revealed, and reviewed. Besides that I feel the urge to smoke a cigarette more often and more intense. And don’t get me started about milk chocolate with hazelnuts. I know giving in to these cravings only will give short time fulfillment but none the less I feel them so intense.

Embrace - Strength. This card beautifully represents for me the practice of “Feeding your Demons” developed by Lama Tsultrim Allione which Bev  introduced me to.

The woman in this depiction of Strength is facing her inner lion, her untamed self, the sum of  her intense emotions and burning desires. She asks her what it is she really needs because it isn’t chocolate, the next new deck or a cigarette. And gently her lion puts her paw on the woman’s lap and looks at her with her deep brown eyes and she knows: Her lion needs to be loved, comforted, held, cared for, listened to, and so many other things that money just can’t buy. When all of her needs are met she can unfasten the collar and sit with her quietly.

I love it that in this depiction the lion is female too, which highlights the fact that the woman and the lion are on and the same.

This month I am going to focus on tending to my lions needs and to be compassionate with every part of myself when things get difficult. I also want to focus more on being grateful for what I have.   

Gratitude: Today I am grateful for seeing through the illusion that things will give me what I really need and for the inner strength to change my behavior patterns    

Taking a pause and be grateful for where you are right now.

Today’s card is “The perfection of your life” from the Sacred Rebels Oracle. 

Initially I thought what a “Woo Woo” card. My life is everything but perfect. I’ve got lots of mundane problems and worrying on my mind.  And on top of that I feel spiritually lost in the woods……Maybe it is the woods in this depiction where I am wandering. Trying so hard to find my way out. Being such a problem solver, this must be a piece of cake Then I notice the mandala in the earth: a flower of life, a source of life-giving  energy which is working its way up to nourish the forest and every living creature therein. See how the trees draw this energy in and all the way up until they are brimming with life.

And then I ask what do I have to do to experience this caring loving energy. And I pull The Chariot of The Wild Unknown Tarot and I feel I have to read this card as a challenge. Today this card is asking me to stop right here and now and to take care of my sweating dead-tired horse. We both need some downtime and nourishment from that mandala . What better way to show my gratitude for this gift than to appreciate the course of my life. For it has brought me here and now and there is no place I would rather be.

And now I am going to treat myself with coffee and chocolate in my garden. The sun is shining, the airs is crisp, birds are singing and that is perfect enough for me today.

The Star - Opening to Grace

Today’s’ card is The Star from the Gaian Tarot. Again another Major Arcana card and this time a very tranquil and serene one. This is the card which follows after the storm and lightning of The Tower. A woman kneels near a sacred starlit spring. She drinks from the magical water to recuperate and to be filled with hope and inspiration  Above her stars are shining and watching over her.

This card represents a renewed connection with the Divine which is unearned and freely granted.

After a busy weekend, today will be a day of graceful calm and gratitude for the many blessings in my life. Also I want to be aware of my connection with God(dess) and with everything else in this beautiful abundant world.

“Now is a good time to begin the practice of gratitude, of giving thanks. When our hearts are full, it's easy to be thankful. If we begin the practice now, it will be easier to sustain when times are rough. Follow your star, for it will guide you home. “

It has been too long since I’ve opened my gratitude journal, so today will also be a good day to revive this practice.

I am grateful for: M cleaning and reorganizing closets - being home again – friends and family -the unconditional love of our dog - lots of rain - coffee with biscuits – hydrangea – tarot decks -  internet - and so much more

Four of Earth - Yearning for my neglected decks

Only two days to go before the solitary Tarot challenge by Reacine from Owlmoon513 has ended. Today I pulled the Four of Earth from the Gaian Tarot, and this card describes very well how I am feeling at the end of the challenge. This is a card of gathering supplies, taking stock of what is yours, saving for leaner times and being grateful for everything you have, not only for the material things but also for health, safety and friendships etc.

I see myself as this squirrel at the end of my challenge. Look how he is carefully holding and admiring his acorn. I am longing to work with my other decks. It almost feels like I have abandoned them. They are sitting idle on the shelf gathering dust. This morning I have been fumbling through them, rearranging  them on their shelves  and in their drawer. .Just the act of touching them felt reassuring everything would get back to “normal” very soon. The stack of stones in the front symbolizes things you are grateful for. There are a lot of things I am grateful for regarding this challenge. This stack represent four of them:

1. The fact I was able to read four weeks (yes not the entire challenge ) with one deck
2. I’ve learned a lot of new ways of reading a daily draw
3. It was not an issue for me to change decks during this challenge (bending rules is not always so easy for me J)
4. For the first time in my life I did some shadow work and I felt no fear

Affirmation: “I am a wise steward of my resources and I give thanks for the blessings in my life” J.Colbert

Tarot bag from Tiferet tarot and Update

Late November I've participated in a giveaway hosted by Steve Bright form Tiferet Tarot

and I won!!!

 The winner would receive one of his handmade beautiful tarot bags. Since Steve is a qualified designer and fashioner of clothing, this bag is a beautiful crafted piece of work. It is a lovely soft bag to hold in your hands. It has a matching lining and is softly padded. My bag has a design with birds and little bows. The bag closes with a magnetic press stud. On the front side is little tuck bag for a LWB or a crystal or something like that.

Steve, Thank you so much for this beautiful gift I am so happy with it. I don’t have a special deck for it yet. For now it holds the deck I am currently working with and it has found a regular spot on my simplified altar. I can highly recommend purchasing such a Tarot bag, either for yourself or as a lovely Christmas gift

I love to hold it in my hands while and feel it while contemplating my question for the card I am about to draw. This way it has become a part of my daily little tarot ritual

After ten days of mostly rest I am still experiencing al lot of discomfort in my arm from the pinched nerve in my neck. I have started with leaving some comments here and there because I do miss you all. Typing and sitting behind my laptop is still painful but I wanted to write this post so much to express my gratitude to Steve and say hello to my blog friends

Hugs

Ghost of the Pumpkin Patch – Count your Blessings

Tonight is All Hallows Eve or Halloween, the evening before Samhain. My last two posts were about my intention to look into my fears and anxieties. So for today I've asked the question, what will help me to face my fears. And I pulled The Ghost of the Pumpkin Patch from the Oracle of Shadows and Light.

The Ghost of the Pumpkin Patch Speaks:

“Something that is a blessing is being overlooked. It appears cloaked and seems almost invisible to you. You must stand in your field – that is to say, your life – and look around you, and see all that has been given to you again, and give thanks for it. You are forgetting how much you truly have, and how much you will have again, and again. My time is the harvest: it is now your time to bring in, or harvest, the joy and love of what you have so much of, and share your abundance.”

When you want to face you fears it is wise to first count your blessings. This will give you lots of security and strength for your inner journey. Life is not always as bad and scary as it seems. Skeletons in the closet are a lot smaller than the sound of their rattling bones might suggest. Spiders in the attic? Humbug, Monsters in the cellar might be just brooms and boxes when you are supported by the joy of your blessings

I've written  a lot about the practice of gratitude and this card is a reminder to uphold this practice when dealing with the harder parts of life

Count your  blessings and don’t take anything for granted. Count until there is nothing left to count, not even the smallest little squash in the corner of  your patch.

Happy Halloween and Samhain!

Seven of Pentacles – Honor and Gratitude

For today I've drawn the Seven of Pentacles from the Joie de Vivre Tarot by Paulina Cassidy When you  could use a lighthearted and cheerful message, this a deck which will always be one you can count on without being too cheesy.

For each card the artist has written a little story about the characters in the picture. For the Seven of Coins it goes like this:

“A pair of fairydeer, Gratitude and Honor, planted a tiny seed. Through thick and thin, they were dedicated to nurturing this tree through its stages of growth. Ultimately, their seed had grown into a monument of beauty and grace. They pause for a moment of contemplation, reaping the rewards of their hard work.”

The two fairydeer are aspects of ourselves which are vital when working on a long term project.  Honor and Gratitude are what keeps us going when we commit to an idea or an intent: a tiny seed of love we sow and care for.  It will grow and develop and during this process we can be proud of ourselves for our commitment and achievements. Sometimes it is good to pause to see how far you’ve come. Although you are not there yet the change is evident. So pause, reflect and think back where you came from to see how your seedling has developed and grown stronger. You don’t have to wait for your goal to have been reached. Just tend to you seedling with honor and take pride in its development. Enjoy the process moment by moment and count your blessings every step along the way.

Affirmation: Today I am going to take a step back and look at my  “garden” with honor and gratitude

The Courage to dare to embrace the Ordinariness of Life

For today I've drawn the eight of Rainbows  (Pentacles) "Ordinariness” from the Osho Zen tarot. We see a woman walking in nature, enjoying the blossoming trees and the flowers all around her. “Beauty can be found in the simple, ordinary things of life. We so easily take this beautiful world we live in for granted. Cleaning the house, tending the garden, cooking a meal--the most mundane tasks take on a sacred quality  when they are performed with your total involvement and love.” (guidebook) 

This is an attitude which can bring us so much joy but is so hard to maintain. So I pulled another card with the question: what do I need to enjoy an ordinary life? Imagine my surprise when I pulled "Courage" (Strength) from my deck!

This little tiny flower had the courage to meet the challenge of the rocks and stones and it has become the flower it was meant to be, basking in the sunlight. 

Our daily life with its chores and routines can easily be represented by the rock and stones This courageous Daisy is asking us this: Do we dare to meet the challenge of our daily life; "to dare to live life fully right where you are" and embrace each moment of it. Maybe it can be helpful if you can look at your life as a beautiful painting. Instead of looking at the whole picture in a glance, and judging it in second, look for the details, the brushstrokes and how the light is captured on your canvas.  See the beauty of the colors and notice how they deepen by your perceptive look. Enjoying life can be as simple as looking at it with wonderment.

Today I am  going to be grateful for the colors my day is going to be painted with. So I will brighten the palette of my life

Five of Pentacles – a helping hand

After having pulled rather challenging cards the last two day, I decided to draw today’s card with a positive question in mind:  “What can I do right now, in this moment that will bring me pleasure and also positively impact my future” (Sasha Graham). I’ve written about the origin of this question in a previous post.

How happy I was with my decision when I pulled the Five of Pentacles; an obvious example of a again a challenging card. It felt almost as if the tarot was pulling a prank on me. In this depiction we see an elderly couple sitting under a make-do shelter covered with snow. This card is about deprivation, poverty and physical, mental or material hardship.

“But this card does also imply that comfort can be found in such situations in partners, friends or unexpectedly compassionate strangers. The card invites us to look for help and to accept help that is offered to us”(guidebook). So that is the positive side of this card.

In answer to my question; I will look for how I can  be compassionate to others and how I can try to gracefully accept offered help. The last part is the most difficult because I usually want to do everything myself so it will good for me to learn to depend on others too. 
This morning somebody friendly let me cut in line at the grocery store and when I came home my girls offered to put the groceries. So it was a good start of my day
I love it how the question has  determined the atmosphere of this reading J

Today I am grateful and accepting for a helping hand, either mentally or physically

Ten of Pentacles - Is everybody Happy ???

For today I've drawn the Ten of Pentacles from the Anna K Tarot. As I’ve said before, this beautiful and vibrant colored tarot deck reads for me like a storybook. This card is the “They live happily ever after” card for me. It is all about family, security, loyalty, traditions and yes… also about gratitude for all these things J.

Honestly, the guidebook says:  “The Ten of Pentacles stand for the kind of wealth that can be found in daily life. They stand for happiness with your family, for the small joys of life - garden, sunshine, a cup of tea, the sound of rain, the visit of a good friend... Those who know and appreciate this kind of wealth will hardly ever be discontented or unhappy.”
So as from today this can also be my "gratitude" card!

Yesterday I've addressed the issue of last post and although difficult is was the right decision to do. Afterwards I felt so much better. It  was such a relief to have been able to express my feelings and to be heard.

What stands out to me the most in this card, is the love and care for this tiny baby. It is surrounded by family and friends and is safe and protected. When I consider a tarot card as a mirror of who I am then the child is that little precious part of me who I want so badly to be happy and cherished. And today I am sure I am not the only one who wants this and  I feel loved and supported by my family and dear ones

Nine of Swords - What to do when you worry too much?

What a fitting card I've drawn for myself today: the Nine of Swords from the Anna K Tarot. Being a rather anxious worrier myself I can often relate very easily to this card but today even more because yesterday evening I was feeling down and hurt and I had trouble sleeping. When you look at the girl in the depiction you’ll see she doesn't even have room to lay down in her bed because of all the swords are sticking in her mattress. Sometimes I wonder if I expect too much of others but I felt left out and forgotten and it did hurt and I felt sad about it.  And then I find it difficult not to wonder about the why’s and I worry about how deal with this issue; what is the right thing to do. Should I forget about it and act if nothing has happened or should I share my feelings and risk to be completely misinterpreted or brushed aside. 

So I ask what is the best solution if I worry too much and can’t stop my train of thoughts. And I got the Seven of Cups. This card is shouting to me: “you should practice what you preach” 

Last Tuesday I had written the post: “a thousand gifts”. This was all about how to be grateful and see the beauty and wonders of life even when you’re down or in a stressful situation. And look at me two days later. Needing the Seven of Cups to remind me of my own resolution to practice gratitude and list my gifts J. 

So for today I am  going to pick up my journal and write down the content of those Seven Cups!

“It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up.” Eckhart Tolle

A Thousand Gifts…

For today a slightly different post than usual. Lately I've been thinking a lot about Gratitude and what it really means to me. Maybe because we are heading for the Autumn equinox this concept has been a lot on my mind. Gratitude is the one pillar of my spiritual practice which never wavers. When everything else is put to the test and doubted, gratitude remains fully alive and intact. I even don’t mind if I can figure out  to who or what I am grateful.

Yesterday when I was Googling about Gratitude, to explore how others practiced it and what they had to share about this subject, I came across  Ann Voskamp, a Christian writer, who has written a book called: “One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are”. It was written in 2011 so perhaps many of you have heard about it already. Although her spiritual path isn't exactly mine, I think she has a very important message for all of us, since in my opinion Gratitude is a universal principle. She dares you to list one thousand things you are grateful for. One thousand gifts from who/whatever you think they are coming from. It is a well known practice to list five things each night before you go to sleep but to list one thousand is something entirely different. 

Ann Voskamp has been through a lot in her life and she claims her faith but even more her Gratitude practice has pulled her through. Gratitude is not all about being thankful for the big things in life but even more for  the everyday events, like a bird singing, a leaf falling or the snoring of your dog. Just try to notice the beauty around you where you are at that moment. You don’t have to live a grand life to be grateful. This morning while drinking my first coffee in the garden, I enjoyed the first signs of Autumn in crisp morning the air.

Being grateful when times are good isn't so challenging but being grateful when the wheel turns and life gets difficult is not that easy.
Seeing beauty when the lightening hits The Tower is a gift we can gracefully accept with our hands wide open. That’s when trust comes into play. Do you trust the flow of life; trust that everything will be okay again. That’s something to be grateful for and everything else will follow. We are all worthy of so much; even of one thousand gifts and more

So for today I am going to start with my list of a thousand gifts.

“Wherever you are, be all there." I have lived the runner, panting ahead in worry, pounding back in regrets, terrified to live in the present, because here-time asks me to do the hardest of all: just open wide and receive.” Ann Voskamp 

Post Birthday Gratitude

Yesterday was my birthday. It was a small family celebration which I often prefer too large  gatherings. I’ve received mostly tarot presents. From each of my girls I've received a deck: the Tarot of Sidhe by Emily Carding  and the Tarot of the Hidden Realm by Julia Jeffrey

The last deck has arrived at my house for the second time.  Last year September I’ve bought it for myself but I send it back to the store because I couldn’t connect with it. But I wasn't able to let go of it either. So here it is again. And I am so happy with it. The other deck was love at first site and I am so pleased I've got it as a present.

It was only on my birthday I had realized both my new decks have the Other World as their theme. (I am really getting older J).Each with their own point a view and style of art. How fitting to spend time with them these coming weeks up until midsummer. I will enjoy exploring these two decks even more now I’ve realized this!

From my husband I’ve got the book from Joan Bunning about reversals. I seriously want to  start learning to read with reversed cards more in depth. I figured this was a good book to give me some more insights about several ways to approach reversals.

And besides all those yummy tarot goodies, I’ve also got some beautiful  Carnations in pink and white and a lovely little plant which is called Tolmiea menziesii  It is known by the common names: Youth on age, Thousand mothers, and  Piggyback plant. In Holland we call it “Little child on mother’s lap” An last but not least  a bouquet of small red roses

All and all I am ever so grateful for my wonderful gifts and the pleasant and lovely day we’ve had together as a family

Reading: What I'm grateful for and how it does affect me.

As a follow up for this morning’s post I thought let’s do a reading with both oracle and tarot cards. For the main theme I drew from the  Oracle of the Shapeshifters:

Bats in the belfry: This card speaks to me about gratitude for how far you've come on my life’s journey. Despite what everybody else was thinking, I did it, thanks to looking at things in a different perspective and daring  to fly blind, trusting on other instincts then usual (bats). Well that card did ring a bell for me J. Then I drew three cards form the Legacy of the divine Tarot:

The Hanged man: That’s again one of those hits. Because this card also talks about looking at things from another point a view ,staying put for a while, to be in the moment and to think about the next move/direction.

The five of cups: I Know I've come to this point to keep my focus on the two filled cups. Although there was grief, there was also much to be thankful for. And I will keep those cups filled. Perhaps I’ll even get some new ones.

Seven of wands: Now  I’m strong enough to take care of myself, to stand up for my convictions. To defend my place in life.

I feel I am in sort of a limbo, a resting place. So I can gather my strength to make the next choices for myself and then I'll move forward in life again.