And Happy Groundhog Day!!

February 2, 2012: Imbolc Day, and Groundhog Day

Again, today, on the second day of Imbolc, our draw is not a Tarot card, but a Celtic oracle. Yesterday we dealt with trees, today we are using the Animal Oracle...Happy Groundhog Day to our American brothers and sisters, and today's draw is a cousin of the groundhog! 

The Animal Totem for today is "Badger." Badgers were highly revered by the Celts, with Badger skins found buried in the graves of chieftains. The nickname "Brock" is derived from its old Gaelic name of Brocc. Pictish Druids were known as Badgers. This is probably because the Badger lives deep within the earth, the supposed dwelling place of gods and ancestral spirits, and is therefore privy to their secrets, including the mysterious germination of life that takes place in the underworld. The Badger is one of the sacred animals of the goddess Brighid and a totem of Imbolc, when the Celtic women gathered together to celebrate the rebirth of spring symbolized by the Badger emerging from beneath the earth, just as new growth mysteriously emerges from the ground. 

If it sometimes seems that the whole world is against you, turning you into the "Badger in a bag", then listen to the lessons of Badger. His defenses are his fortitude and his indomitable will, even against overwhelming odds. He does not waste time on blame or regret, but stands his ground, tenacious and unyielding. If you feel powerless and angry, stop blaming other people, they can only make you feel what you allow them to. Go within yourself and find the power of Badger - centered, grounded, and unshakable. Badger may be advising you that healing may come from earth-based therapies, such as herbs, essential oils, massage, and body work, from grounding and feeling your deep connection to the physical realm. Blessed Bees!

In A Nutshell

February 1, 2012, The Feast of Imbolc, Brighid's Day

As is my many-years-long tradition this day, my draw of divination on Imbolc is not Tarot, but the Celtic Ogham. And today's Gift from My Lady Brigid is the Hazel, Coll, the tree of Hidden Wisdom for the Seeker of Wisdom.

As well as poetic skill, this Ogham card represents intuition, the power of divination leading straight to the source. Hazel twigs have traditionally always been used for divining because of their pliancy and affinity with water. So the Hazel embodies many talents: poetry, divination and powers of meditation. Through the guidance of this card, these talents can also be a channel for creative energies, especially that which allows you to inspire or increase these capacities among others, through your work, interests and pursuits.

The Hazel, in fact allows you to be a catalyst or transformer, working through the promptings of intuition to bring ideas to the surface. Inspiration from a higher source will be bestowed upon you, as the Hazel feeds you with spiritual nourishment. You are at a creative high point. Everything will proceed smoothly if you trust your intuition and proceed bravely, with the knowledge that all will going accord to plan. Through your apprenticeship, you are discovering your own power. Sometimes you will need to act quickly and change your plan as you go along, but you have all the wisdom, energy, and inspiration that you need to dance through situation with grace and power. 

From the skill and dexterity needed to crack a seamless hazelnut and remove the meat without crushing it comes the saying, "that's the whole thing in a nutshell." The Hazel encourages us to seek out information and inspiration in all things and emphasizes the value of the enquiring mind and of learning of all kinds. Just as the hazel concentrates all its goodness and its continued existence in the kernel of its fruit, so we attain wisdom by reducing knowledge down to its purest form and passing it on down the ages. 

Through meditating on the essence of wisdom, we gain creative inspiration. Like the limbs of the hazel, we must remain pliant in our approach to learning. Concentrated thought in an open mind can, like the hazel, become a connection with the divine source of all things. The hazel teaches us the noble arts of learning, teaching, communication, and healing.

How Can I Be The Best Candle?

This post is part of the wonderful TarotBlogHop created by Stephanie Arwen Lynch, and thus the bunnies. If you've hopped here from somewhere else, just follow the links to dance the bunny-hop through the whole line.

(Click on the bunny to see who hopped to me...)


Tarot BlogHop, Imbolc 2012: 
How Can I Be The Best Candle?

February 1st is the Festival of Imbolc, the feast of the Goddess Brighid, and the first day of Spring in Ireland and many other Celtic countries. We are coming out of the darkness of winter, and of all Her symbols, the most characteristic icon of the energy of Brigid is the Flame.  She is the Goddess of the Hearth, and Her three faces may each be represented by a different kind of fire: the forge-fire of "smithcraft", the making of all kinds of things; the poet's "fire in the head" of creative inspiration; and the healing fires of love, compassion, justice, and the warmth and light of physical good health. So, of course, we who honor Her are sparks of Her Flame, trying to spread Her light in the world as was suggested by Portia in The Merchant of Venice: "How far that little candle throws its beams; So shines a good deed in a naughty world!" (The Merchant of Venice Act V, sc. i)  And so, today, in honour of the Goddess Brighid and the Festival of Imbolc, we consider the question, "How can I be the best candle?"

 
The card above is one I created for the Utah Maninni Project, the first time we did a Maninni Deck in the Salt Lake Pagan Community, in 2000. I was actually thinking of the three faces of Brighid when I did this card, so the three groups of three candles each represent the three fires of Brighid, poesy, smithcraft, and healing. I saw the imagery of three threes as representing in each case my Self, the Goddess, and the World--as in--"I, through the Goddess, give this light to the World". I didn't, of course, have quite the precognitive power to foresee this TarotBlogHop, but I was actually thinking along the lines of "how can I bring Brighid's Fire into the world, in my own small way?" The answer came to me in an odd way, for a Pagan, because as I was thinking of it, a quotation that seemed to answer the question for me landed, complete, with a "plop" of finality, in my head--and the quotation (here's the odd part) was from a Christian pastor. The quotation I 'heard', and which I have no doubt whatsoever was sent to me by the Goddess, is a famous aphorism of John Wesley, founder of Methodism (and we are discussing "methods" here, aren't we?) Here's the quotation:

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

I remember thinking how coincidental it would have been for my card had the quotation had nine lines, rather than seven, but things don't always come out quite that serendipitous. However, it resonated with me as it has done since the first time I heard it, many years ago as a Catholic high school student. And today, for this blog hop, I am thinking of all the layers of meaning here. A Christian pastor--as a good candle, I don't hold prejudice towards any religion or teaching, but take and reflect Light wherever I find it. An exhortation, filled with the word "all"--a candle doesn't shine only in certain corners of the room, but shines its light everywhere, because it is a candle. So, shine wherever I am, to all the corners of my current "room", no matter who else is there, because I am a Light and that is my nature. And, of course, the resonance of certain words...look at the quotation, the way it appears on the page, and start with the word "good", and simply look straight down from there. If your display is similar to mine, you will get the hidden message "good--means--ways--places--times--people--ever"...And that one hits me over the head like the very anvil of Brighid's Forge. "Good" means ways, places, times, people...either "ever"yone, or FOR"ever"....So. I will be my Self, shed my Light, everywhere, for everyone, not because of who/what THEY are, but because of who **I** am. I am Brighid's candle. I will shine. You?


And hop on, now, to see who is hopping next in line to me... 

Holding It All Together

January 30, 2012: Strength, Utah Maninni Two Tarot

This card was created by a Utah Pagan Community member known as Patric, who left our community four years ago to live overseas. Here is his description of his card:

  

Media: I take a lot of pictures around the SL valley, so I used them and some graphics I took off Lady A.'s pages to make my cards in Paint Shop Pro.

From things I have heard I guess the Gypsy Moon has been around since the very beginning of the Pagan community here. It has connected a lot of people. I thought that, and the Green Witch from the 2001 MabonFest my girlfriend and I went to, and all the natural stuff in and around SLC, might represent things that are persistent and compelling, including how the Pagan community keeps on keeping on, even here in Mormon-land. And I put in something about the community, because even though I knew about some of the old shit, it appears not to have wrecked the fact that people want a community and will keep trying to have one.

Strength upright: Even though you think you are not getting anywhere, no one can stop you if you keep on doing what you know is right. The way of overt power isn't it for you. Just keep on doing it however you can and you will succeed.

*****

I think this description of the card is far more cogent than anyone could have believed it would be in 2005, when this card was created. Crone's Hollow, Salt Lake Pagan Pride, the Black Hat Society, Witche's High Tea, Bright Blessings in Ogden, and all the other manifestations of community here, are a testment to Strength as Patric defined it back then, when the community we have now was just  a gleam in some of our eyes. 

So--what about you? Today, what have you almost given up on? What do you need to hold on to? Where is your "strength", defined as "persistence", needed today for you, for your life, for your goals? You have it, that Strength. Keep on keeping on. You're holding it together, even if you can't yet see it.

Detour!!

January 29, 2012: Five of Lakes and Rivers, Utah Maninni Three Tarot

This card was created for the Utah Maninni Three Tarot, the theme of which was "The Goddess Utah". All the suits, therefore, had some connection with the natural world of the state of Utah, and the Suit of Cups was represented by Utah's lakes and rivers. This card was created by Cue Bee, the alias of a well-beloved member of our community, who has, unfortunately, passed beyond the veil. Here is his interpretation of his card:

The Card: This is one of the pools at Raging Waters, and I like it because it is one of the places people go here to cool off. It seems like in a desert, you're always looking for water, and my grandkids love this place. I like it for the five of cups, because the five is always about a diversion or a change of direction, a tangent, as it were, and going to an amusement park is a diversion most people need to take advantage of more often than they do. The Goddess Utah is represented by all the many places people who live here have made the desert 'blossom as a rose' and put water into the desert, even water just for fun.

The Meaning: Fives are about tangents, like those water jets spraying in every direction. And the meaning, upright or reversed, is simply that your emotions are getting the best of you, and you need a diversion. Lighten up, go have some fun. It will all go better if you do that. 

******

Just think about that. Here you are, Sunday morning, looking towards another week of working at whatever you work at, at making sure you're responsible, at getting it all done, or trying to. In that calendar you're looking at--is there an appointment for "me time"? Is there something scheduled just for fun, just for rejuvenation, just for YOU? If not--do that. Take a day, take a few hours, take a minute, for hell's sake! Take a detour, take a rest. Take joy!!!

Here I Stand...

January 28, 2012: Seven of Wands/Rods, Rider-Waite...

He straddles the path on the brow of the hill, and no one can move him--All those other wands assailing him can't even touch him. He is steadfast in knowing where he needs to go, and he cannot be stopped.

Today, you stand at the summit of your path, but there are interruptions and irrelevancies trying to distract you from where you need to go. But notice that none of the rods assailing the traveler are even touching him--they may not even be actually trying to do that--he just thinks they are....He is not letting himself be distracted by irrelevant arguments, because he knows they don't have anything to do with his journey. So--

Don't you let yourself be distracted either---You know where you're supposed to be going on your journey. Let yourself go where you intended to go, and let yourself ignore things that don't matter. The guardians are at work. Don't let yourself be distracted from your path. It's important. 

We Circle Around...

January 27, 2012: Six of Discs, Utah Maninni Two Tarot

This card was created for the second iteration of the Maninni Tarot here in Utah, by my friend Trish, who has since ;( moved to Pennsylvania with her new hubby. Here's her description of the card: 

"Thinking of Discs as "circles" here, this card shows, superimposed on a map of the SL Valley Canyons, six of the places where Utah Pagans have held "circles." Since there is no up or down with a circle, and since the traditional meaning of this card is about sharing with others, I choose to only offer an upright interpretation, and that interpretation is ....."Circles of community"

I like what Trish has to say here, because somehow community is a focus for me at this time of the year. Not only are we coming up on Imbolc, which features, for me, the blessing of the Hearth and the renewal of bonds with friends and family, but the first anniversary of our wonderful new community center, Crone's Hollow, is upcoming. Over the years, as well, my definition of Community, thinking like a Witch, has expanded and changed. So--this card, for today, says to me:

"What communities have you built for yourself, and how do you fill your place and maintain your standing in these communities? How are you serving your community? What do you see as the needs of your community--and what are you going to do about it?"

You are the center of your circle. How is it spinning?