What In The World....

March 30, 2012: The World, Utah Maninni Three Tarot

When all is said and done, the Great Salt Lake IS the Goddess Utah, for the entire state, not just the Valley. She is an amazing paradox, a lake more saturated with life-killing salt than the Dead Sea, which is non-supportive of life, so it should be a wasteland, right? WRONG!!. The brine shrimp which teem in its waters are a commercial harvest of over 2 million dollars a year in fish food, and the associated brine flies feed birds which have a centuries-old flypath over the GSL and through the extensive wetlands which surround it. The lake is a natural wonder of the world, and it is the reason why Salt Lake City has become a commercial and recreational center for not just the USA but the entire world. Yes, the World. Hail the Goddess Utah!!

Card meaning: You can't reverse a sphere, so if you draw this card, just take the basic meaning: The World is influenced by, and influences, everything you are doing here. Pay attention.

Look At That Girl Van Gogh!

March 29, 2012: Queen Of Cups, Daniel's Bootstrap Tarot

Exuberantly dancing on the edge of mystery, holding the "stars" in her hands, the Queen of Cups as envisioned by my friend Daniel Webster Christiansen cavorts gaily in front of Van Gogh's brilliant "Starry Night", fusing in her exuberance the ideas of water and fire.

Briefly put, the Queen of Cups is the avatar who represents the pure force of Water, intuitive, reflective, and emotionally secure in her Self--but here she also reminds us that Water dances and plays, sparkles and shines, flows and splashes, and gives us back the full range of emotions including the passion for life.

Fire of Water seems almost a contradiction to us when we think about the two elements--they do seem incongruous. But fire is to water as Will is to Want...and the Queen of Cups is cavorting through our cards today to remind us that fire and water do, indeed, have a symbiotic relationship. One "puts out" a fire with water, yes. But one may also heat water with fire. And one takes what one "wants", ideally (the manifestation of fire as desire or passion) and one subjects it to the concept of the True Will, the deep Self as manifested by intuition and insight, the underlying elemental correspondences of water. So the Queen of Cups dances in the starlight, joyous exuberance fully manifesting--but she's not really "holding" those stars, and she's in no danger whatsoever of stumbling into a face-plant no matter how intricate the steps of the dance.

So, for today, here's a novel thought. How about trying, in our own small ways, to manifest the exuberant equilibrium of the Queen of Cups? How about--thinking about how we feel, and feeling our deepest thoughts? How might that change your dance, today? Let's find out!

Bee Well....

March 28, 2012: Bee, Druid Animal Oracle

Our daily draw today disdained the Tarot, and gives us instead the Druid Animal Oracle, selecting the BEE--which means Community, Celebration, Organization. Bees invite us to celebrate. You may have a special reason for celebration, or you may simply need to celebrate the wonder and mystery of being alive.

In the Druid tradition, there are occasions to celebrate every six weeks or so. As human beings we need to have times when we can come together to enjoy each other's company. The bee tells us that we can live together in harmony, however impossible this may sometimes seem. By being at one with the natural world, by paying homage to the sun, by centering our lives around Spirit or the Goddess, we can work together in community.

A beehive functions harmoniously because each bee knows its role and the work it must do - consequently it is highly productive and plays an important role in the local ecology. The bee knows the value of organization, of paying homage to the Goddess and the sun, and of working hard. She calls us to an inner recognition of our membership of the community of all Nature.

In the Druid tradition, bees come from the paradisaical world of the Sun and of the Spirit. Finely attuned to the position of the sun in the sky, it is the bee who brings the sacred solar drink of mead as a gift to humanity. The bee, with its highly defined social structure and extraordinarily productive and efficient community, all centered around the Queen Bee, was seen as symbolic of the ideal society - centered on the Goddess, paying homage in sacred dance to the sun, and producing an amber substance from the flowers of the fields and woods that could both feed and divinely intoxicate.

So, today, think of your "hive", think of your "honey", think of the ways bee-dom might inform your life-walk today--and buzz along, now, and get "bizzy", eh?

Wheeeee.....

March 27, 2012: The Chariot, Haindl Tarot

Well, you are doing things, aren't you? And that means you're moving forward? And you're overcoming obstacles? And you're going to WIN, right? Well....yes.....but-- The Chariot does say all those things, but it has some other resonances, too, some that most people either don't know about or tend to ignore--let's look a little more carefully here...

The traditional Chariot usually symbolizes the fence of civilization or "controlling intelligence" as some commentaries call it. As the number 7, the card represents a victory of human will over the ordinary problems of life.

The Haindl Tarot retains the idea of will, but carries it further, showing the confrontation of willpower with fear. The self—the figure in the boat—rides on the surging sea of life, driven by the primal beast, experienced just over the shoulder, just out of sight. And yet the figure remains calm, unshaken. In other Tarot decks, many of the themes being developed in the artwork on this trump usually do not emerge until the Moon. Looking at the art here, we see the "mythic journey", not the "riding roughshod over life" idea of the chariot-racer on the traditional Tarot trump, but the watery and incomprehensible journey into the Self.

We see a boat with wheels, rushing through a rough sea. The boat is red, the color of energy. A red glow surrounds the figure standing in the boat. The boat carries huge blocks of stone, pitted with holes to indicate great age. They help give the picture an archaic quality, a sense of experience older than civilization. The stone appears in blocks, like the blocks used in creating the pyramids. Like the symbol of the fence, and like the pyramids themselves, the carved stones represent human mastery over nature. And yet, we get no sense here that the person has conquered nature. The courageous mind—the card is an emblem of courage—faces the world in all its power, seeking mastery over the self rather than the environment.

Of all the trumps in the Haindl Tarot, the Chariot stands out as the card that most evokes myth, giving us a sense of traveling to the place where myths and images emerge into consciousness. It exists in a visionary world of its own imagination, reaching deeply into mystery.

And so--how does that speak to us, to you, here and now, today? Take a look at today's "journey" as being more than it is. We always have the rocks, the boat, the path. We always have mundania. We always have "stuff". But--we need to connect it, today, to Self. To the Inner Journey. To "who am I and what am I doing here and why am I doing this and what does it mean?" Asking those questions about whatever you are doing today is probably the most important thing you will do all day long.

Two-Fer, On A Monday...

March 26, 2012

As always, when mundania causes your TarotWitch to miss a daily draw, we compensate the following day with an actual spread. Had some scattered thoughts going through the head this morning, and don't quite know what to make of them. So I did a two-fer spread, for me and for you, too, with one of those questions a reader uses when s/he knows there's something going on but doesn't quite know how to address it. So the question(s) for the spread are, addressed to the Universe: "what do You want me to know, and why?" Let's see what we've been told.

1) What do you want me to know?
Seven of Wands, Utah Maninni One Tarot

I found it immediately brain-catching that the random draw came up with a card I myself created for our first community Maninni Tarot deck. Without any pushing on my part, the concept leapt into my head, "You already know what I want you to know--you're just ignoring it." This card, of course, represents "wands-as-fire" although that is not my general attribution, and this card is about finding the unexpected idea or piece of information sparking into one's head when one already had things arranged in what looked like a correct and useful pattern. Roses are arranged in the Star of David pattern, which is representative of "As Above, So Below" and also indicates the balance of Fire and Earth, ideas and manifestations, and yet, and yet, there's that torch in the middle which really doesn't seem to fit--and yet it's burning brightly, and unlike the roses, is moving, active fire, which might just consume everything we've so carefully arranged. So...the Universe is telling us...What I want you to know is that the unexpected is coming, to disarrange your carefully-laid ideas and plans. Wait for it, and be prepared, so you'll know what to do when it gets here.


2) Why? Four of Swords, Utah Maninni One Tarot

He lies quietly, hands folded, looking almost like a corpse on a bier...the crossed swords over his head and the one in his hands clearly indicate that for now, at least, the time of action is over. He's at rest, he's contemplating, he isn't in a hurry to get back to the fight. He's just "being", not "doing". And that's the best possible "why" when one receives a card such as the one above, where we are told that something unexpected is going to disrupt our plans. If I could hear the conversation the Universe is having with us in these two cards, it would sound something like this:

"You have things all balanced and nicely arranged, all your ideas fit together in symmetry...but wait! You're not aware of this piece of the puzzle, and it doesn't exactly fit your pattern. And the reason this is happening, and the reason I want you to slow down, stop, think about it, is because you're ignoring something--some vital piece of the puzzle that burns brightly right in the middle of everything you're doing, while you are acting as if it isn't even there. Pay attention here. Take a step back, put up your swords, rest and contemplate, and figure out how to make the whole picture fit. Pay Attention, here!"

Ahhh...ok. We moved too fast--we missed a piece. It's all about Paying Attention?

Uh...what else is new?

Is It Really THAT Bad....???

March 24, 2012: Eight of Swords, Utah Maninni One Tarot

Well, she's finally done it. All this time, she's been wielding that sword, not listening to anyone else's take on things, simply slashing and chopping her way to her own power in the situation...and now, look at her. All her own owls lie dead like a fence around her--wisdom has been slain with arrogance, and no new ideas can emerge here. She's immobilized by the impregnable force of her own previously-declaimed opinions, ultimata, and angry jabs, all of which have hurt, in the last analysis, no one but herself. And now she stands, her back to the situation, finally looking within, realizing that her only recourse is to look to the cup of sacrifice, to contain her emotions and thus her actions, and to withdraw into herself, awaiting the impact of others to clear the carnage she has strewn behind her...yes, I guess it really IS that bad---or is it? Take another look....

Yes, she's been wild and crazy with those swords. But the lightning striking is hitting the ground around her, not hitting her. The dead owl, really, is just one owl, one way of thinking, one single manifestation of ideas that have fallen dead by the wayside due to anger and impatience. One owl, multiplied again and again by her own fear, until it seems she's put herself in an inescapable prison of her own making. But--she is not bound. She is able to move, as is evidenced by her turning inward to the cup of peace and harmony. It is only her own fear that holds her immobile. Any time she wished, she could turn back to face the situation, and she could leave the swords behind and use the power of the sacred cup, of contained and focused emotion rather than wild aggression, to deal with it.

I won't interpret this further today. You know what it means to you, what it's about. Look at the card. Think. Act in accord. The power here is all yours.

When the Eight of Swords appears, its purpose is not to taunt you or to tell you something you already know. The reason for its manifestation is to show you that you can escape your situation just as quickly as you put yourself into it. You may not think your options are plausible, and you may not even know they exist, but they are there waiting for you to put them to use. The key is to stop using the Swords for negative purposes. Anger, aggression, haste and excessive force will only make your situation worse, so let them go and accept the mental clarity and peace that the Cup within idealizes. With that new and perfect vision you should be able to see the way out of every problem that you encounter.

Drink, Drank, Drunk....

March 23, 2012: Five of Cups, Daniel's Bootstrap Tarot

Oh, woe, what have I done...The five of cups is no damn fun! This card never has much to say that people want to hear, but there might be a rather unique way of looking at it, if we're willing to give it a try...

Here we see the bartender doing one of those amazing sleight-of-cup tricks that makes us fascinated enough to order another round simply to participate in the magic, even though we don't like martinis. And before him sits the customer who already appears to have either run out of hope, run out of patience for the headache to go away, run out of money, run out of friends, or is ready to run out of the bar, no matter how enticing is the visual magic taking place behind her. And so--how can anything good possibly come out of this incipient hangover?

Notice, here, one essential difference from the traditional five of cups--none of the cups in the card is spilled or broken. Au contraire, mon frere--they are not only upright but filled and inviting. But--and here's the significance...they are behind her. Either she hasn't been able to see them, or has turned in despair and disgust because she doesn't want to see them. And herein lies the quintessential meaning of this card, in any deck...It is about rejection of, or regret for, or a negative association with, whatever lies behind us. Of course, since we're using Cups, we're speaking of emotions here..so regret for the past has to do somehow with feelings. Wrong relationship, wrong attitude, wrong response, maybe even wrong bar and too many drinks...but whatever is flowing behind us, we can't look at it any more.

And that's the crux, here. What is behind her is still happening, and doubtless others in the bar are enjoying the trick, and may even ante up for another round. But neither their attitude, or her attitude of turning her back on the situation, has anything whatsoever to do with what the bartender is actually doing. It is what it is. So it is with our "emotional past", the things in our lives that have already happened that evoke in us an emotional response. They are what they are. But we are fully in control, always, of how we choose to react to them.

What is behind you, with all its flow, perhaps its drama, perhaps its manipulation (as the cups and the cocktail are being manipulated) by others, is still behind you. It is over, it is done. And yours is the choice of whether or not to react to it in a way that will hurt you, in a way that will help you, or in a way that simply ignores it and chooses to let it go and move on.

So there it is, lady. I don't know if you just got left at the bar by your boyfriend, if you're drunk on your ass through your own choice, or if you simply aren't interested in what's going on around you. But in any case, you get to decide what happens next. Pick yourself up, grab your purse, and either turn around and order another drink, or go outside and get a taxi and go home. What the bartender is doing is behind you, and has nothing to do with you. And tomorrow is always another day, another place, another time. You have all the choices here. Make one.