Shhh.....

February 29, 2012(Leap Day): High Priestess, Haindl Tarot

The High Priestess in this deck is a radiantly silent woman gazing from behind a lovely and luminous Full Moon at the serenity of the night-silent Earth. The Moon here appears to be Full, but the High Priestess, symbolically, is not in the moonlight, but hidden behind the Moon. She therefore signifies the Moon's silent time, the darkness of the New Moon, when you are not the Sun shining upon your "Earth" but are withdrawn into your own dark stillness. It is the season when you must be quiet, must look inward. This does not mean barricading yourself in the house and refusing to speak to anyone. Instead, it means to take life slowly, to spend time alone, to keep still and feel a returning to who you are, to re-introduce yourself to your Self. If you have been very active in your business or social life, the High Priestess says to step back and look inward for awhile. Instead of trying to conquer the world, seek peace with yourSelf. Under the influence of the High Priestess, patience and calm are more important than action.

During the season of the High Priestess, you are able to find a sense of wholeness in life, and you need not try to separate your existence into pieces. It is a time for intuition rather than analysis, for feeling rather than thought. You may experience deep feelings that you cannot put into words. That's ok. You may actually, perhaps, find that you do not want to put these feelings into words. They are yours, spoken in the silent realms of your soul, where words are not necessary and you speak to yourSelf in that hidden language known only to you. The High Priestess advises resisting any demands, the clamor of your outward-focused mind, to "explain yourself." You need time, you need distance from the world, you need silence. Yes, you have commitments, to your business or to your children or to your responsibilities. But this day is sovereign. Today is the one day in the last four years when all things are turned around. You may say, to me or to your Self, "That sounds great, but I can't right now. I'm too busy." But--is this really true? Often, for all of us, at least part of our "busy-ness" is habit. If there's work to be done, yes, we must do it: feed the baby, answer the e-mail, do the dishes, go to the meeting. But after your work is done, instead of going out or scheduling something else, today is the day when you might best choose to spend some time alone. Even in a frantic day of errands, it is possible to try to develop a distance, an inner calm. Sit down, relax, be quiet. It's just you, now, you and the High Priestess. You are alone. Be still.....

OK, OK, I hear you. You're a wee bit uneasy about that, about a whole day/afternoon/evening of only your own company. Time to the Self is so rare, that when someone suggests it, most people say, "Oh, YEAH! That sounds great!" But often, we do not really mean it. The idea of doing nothing, of letting the inner life awaken, frightens us. Being alone with my Self? Having to look at my Self, listen to my Self? No, thanks! Let's go to the bar! But the High Priestess gazes serenely from behind her Moon, and asks you, "Am I really so hard for you to talk to, Self? Please stay here with me. I miss you."

The High Priestess is a card of quiet joy and inner peace. She represents your Soul, your Inner Power. Just as the Magician is the avatar of Personal Power, the outer power to Act, so the High Priestess invites you to join with Her, with your Self, in the Inner Power of serene and silent meditation. You have family, you have a sweetheart, wife or husband, you have kids, you have a job, you have responsibilities. But most of the time, the one place you are likely to fall down on or ignore your responsibilities is in taking time for your Self. Today, one day in four years, in a "time outside of time" the High Priestess is asking you to do that, to be with your Self, to be with Her. Go on, now, get outta here, go take your Self time. I am doing that, too. See you tomorrow!

Walking The Line...

February 28, 2012: Temperance, Utah Maninni One Tarot

Water pours down, fire rises up, meeting at the center in circles of earth and air--all the elements, all in balance, each effectively manifesting itSelf...

So--here we are, a brand-new day, nothing much has happened yet at 11 AM....What can we do to balance this day? How can we use ALL our talents and abilities, and overstress NONE of them...how can we do what is appropriate for the situation? I have an idea....

I awoke this morning to a long-loved saying posted on my FB wall by a friend. Here is a way one can truly remain in balance, exercise Temperance, today and every day...




The Four Agreements (Don Miguel Ruiz)

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally.
3. Don't Make Assumptions.
4. Always Do Your Best.

If we can do this, today and every day, we will be in the very aura of Temperance. Might not be a bad way to live...

Three Messages....

I spent the last two days either afk or ill, so your TarotWitch let the Realms lie silent. So, of course, stepping back into the aether, the question for today is, "What would you like me to know, now that I've been away?" Three days, counting today, three cards, one each from three Avatars. Here we go:

Friday, February 24: Avatar of this day, Spider Woman. Card, Mother of Stones, Haindl Tarot

She stands, gazing deep from within the labyrinth, into your eyes, into your soul. She is silent, as the turning angles of the labyrinth bring you face to face with your Self, again and again. She has drawn the threads together, and has created a shape of complexity, one which rivals the interconnected and divergent threads of your life. She is at Center, remembering that from this position she is aware of, and has control of, each and every breath, thought, being, idea that touches the strand of her web of Self, anywhere. At the Center, there is power. Where do you stand?

Spider Woman is the Life-Weaver, and at the end of the week, she draws the threads to center. She's a reminder that power always is found most plangently in the Spaces Between, and that nothing can reach you at Center that you do not control. Not a bad message for a Friday evening!

Saturday, February 25: Avatar of this day, Saturn. Card, Seven of Cups, Haindl Tarot

It's a party, and of course, you're the guest of honor. The drink flows freely, and the tone is convivial...or is it? Who's that, standing over there in the corner, talking to no one, an empty cup in hand? Could it be you've forgotten something in this mad flurry of alcoholic abandon? Where's that rent check again? What, you spent it on all this wine? Aaargggh!

This card shows up when you have been hurrying headlong through the moments of your day without actually noticing what they contain, because your main focus is to get through it all, getting'er DONE. When you arrive at your well-earned after-party, you simply leave it all behind, forgetting that there might have been MESSAGES in the mad scramble. So--here and now, think. Sit back, breathe, consider. Take a retrospective look at each and every accomplishment of the week, with that Saturnian focus of order and guardianship, that set of lenses that gives you the acute focus on the minutiae of the moment. What might you have missed, have failed to notice? What could you, perhaps, rethink? Go over to the Being in the corner, right that cup and fill it, put a loving arm around the part of your Self that has missed your attention in the headlong scramble. Success is an illusion when the precious bits of humanity and self-care fall by the wayside. Let's think the moments through, this time, and make sure we pick up all the pieces.

Sunday, February 26: Avatar for this day, the Sun. Card, The Moon, Utah Maninni One Tarot

Maybe it seems odd that on Sun Day, the card the Realms send us is the Moon. It shouldn't, though, if we think scientifically. The Moon is, after all, a rock, a cold body hurtling through space. It's luminous, plangent and illusory--its mysterious light is, when all is said and done, a reflection. And it is the Sun which makes the Moon shine, and changes its shape--the Sun, and the Earth.

So--put yourself there, into the heavens, for your message for this day. You are the Sun, today--you're the flaming source of heat, light, and energy in your own personal Universe. But--you are also the Moon. You reflect that which surrounds you, in the form and shape which is permitted to you by your own personal Earth, your body, your spirit, your responsibilities. You are the source of your own Being, you are the shaper thereof, and you are that shining reflection of Life that illuminates your own darkness.

So, today, make up your mind that you, as the Sun, will shine your brightest, reflecting light on your own Earth, and that your Moon will gleam serene and calm into your own darkness. I am being deliberately obfuscatory here--you know exactly what I am talking about, though, as it applies to you. So--focus, shine, shape, reflect. And go and do. It's Sun Day.

It's Waiting For You...

February 23, 2012: Page of Coins, Utah Maninni One Tarot

Here stands the child, welcoming you into the richness of the ornately decorated library where gold coins spin in the air. It's a tempting, intriguing, and totally satisfying sight, all that luxury and comfort. And it's all waiting for you....or is it?

The Page is the youth, the harbinger of potentiality, not actuality. Maybe that gold coin spinning in the entrance to the inner room is someone's vision of what could be. Maybe that roguish grin on the child's face is there because she's playing a trick on you. Maybe this lavish and ornate scene isn't one that can, or does, belong to you, but is only a dream in the making.

The Page of Coins says that there is a future of success and achievement waiting for you--but you have to earn it, you have to learn it, you have to discern it. The most important thing a child has to do in life is to grow up. So--what learning, what knowledge, what skills, what abilities, are waiting for you behind the welcoming door? What do you have to do that will teach you how to claim this richness as your own? You are not only being beckoned into the realm of wealth and success by the Page of Coins--you are the Page of Coins... So, get started, eh? It's all right there waiting for you...

Did I Win?

February 22, 2012: Six of Stones (R) Haindl Tarot

Today we have a card that demands our focus, because at first glance the message is scary and perhaps even negative. But always in the tarot approached through the lens of Witchcraft, things are never merely as they appear on the surface. So let's take a deeper look.

The card is a circle of stones in the depths of a cave, suggestive of the Inner Landscape. The stones form two triangles, an upper and a lower. These are reminiscent of the top two triangles of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, as well as the separated figures of the Star of David which bespeak "as above, so below". The center of the figure, however, is a hole in the cave, somehow reminiscent of that empty place which is often present at the core of our success.

However, Haindl did not mean to imply this, and that is why there is a golden light shining through the center hole. This light tells us that the "space within" does not signify emptiness at the core, nor does it mean to suggest the idea that our joys and successes are meaningless. On the contrary, the light tells us that we can find the true source of meaning, the glorious nothing of the Fool, within the happiness of daily life. We do not need to abandon the pleasures and satisfactions of success, at least not for now. Instead, we need to become aware of the Center, the light shining behind and through the solid things of this world.

But, we exclaim, our card is reversed!! So, doesn't this in fact mean that there really is "nothing" inside the emptiness? Not necessarily. In your Tarot Witch's experience, the reversals always surprise us, and that's the point. Reversed cards do not necessarily mean the opposite of what the card means in its upright position, but rather cry out "PAY ATTENTION! You're MISSING something here!" The reversal of this card forces our eye to that hollow center, and implies that we may have lost sight of spiritual values, seeing only the outer realities of wealth and success, and discounting or not nurturing the light at the center.

I use the phrase "Wholly, Holy, Holey" to describe the profound and sacred act of active not-knowing, not-doing, remaining clear, plangent, and empty so the light can shine through. The message of the reversed hexagram indicates the need to simplify, perhaps to look for values beyond outer success, or to take a more modest approach to other people and to life in general. When you look at life upside-down, only the center is right-side up. Especially if its empty.

So, in this case, because the card is reversed, the "hole" in the center is even more striking, and compels even more of our attention. The hexagram pattern, perfect balance, and especially the hole in the center, urge us to see the inner truth within the external delusion of material happiness. Riches and security are not "success" if your center is crying out for sustenance. Use this so-called success as a tool--having more security on the material level may leave us free to pursue more arcane foci, thus making our material security a true means to wisdom.

Serendipity....It's (c)up To You!

February 21, 2012: Ace of Cups, Utah Maninni One Tarot

Again, a repeated card...if I draw the same card twice in a 2-week cycle, it stands out as a message. Here I see the liquid flowing into the cup from an unknown source above, and the Guardian watching carefully, and I read: Your emotional triggers DO come to you, often, from outside your Self, but what you DO with the feelings is always up to you. Your cup is what it is, it is the shape it is, and you are the one who forms and shapes the contents. So be like the little Guardian avatar here, watching carefully as the cup is filled but not reacting as of yet--he's still considering. No matter what flows into your cup today, you are, as always, completely in control and response-able for your own emotional response...No one else holds your cup. No one else "makes" you feel any way at all. You are in charge of your feelings today. You always are.

And Again...

February 20, 2012: Strength, Utah Maninni One Tarot

When the same card shows up so often I know something important is happening...

I have no words. Let's look at this and decide--am I the mouse, or am I the cat? Am I strength by action, or strength by silent inaction? And what does that have to do with me, today? Because, it does...