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...

Miaou!

February 18, 2012: Cat, Druid Animal Oracle

I am experimenting with random draws online, and today we didn't get a Tarot card, but a totem from the Druid Animal Oracle. The Animal totem for today is "Cat". Since we are using the Druid Animal Oracle, let's do some research on the concept of "catness" from Celtic cultures. There are numerous Celtic references to Cats, but these do not refer to the domestic feline, which only arrived in Britain with the Romans, but to the wild Cat, a larger and more aggressive creature, which still inhabits the Scottish highlands. The Celts believed that looking into a Cat's eyes would enable you to see fairies, or peer into the otherworld. Cat's eyes change according to the levels of light, imitating the waxing and waning of the moon, which may be the origin of the Cat's strange reputation. Along with its nocturnal hunting habits, this made the Cat a totem of the moon goddess. The Cat is a creature often associated with magic, from the sacred Cats of ancient Egypt to the archetypal storybook Witch (and, in my experience, real-life Witch) with her Cat familiar.

So, what is the silent prowl of the Cat at your heels trying to tell you for today? Aloof, knowing, and mysterious, her eyes seem to promise secrets. When Cat prowls into your cards, she indicates hidden knowledge and mysteries that may only be revealed by using your intuition or your psychic senses. Whatever it is you are hunting , whether it is a job, a lover or knowledge itself, you can learn from Cat. She does not waste energy chasing here and there and everywhere - she might miss the clues that reveal her true target. She listens to every whisper on the wind, sniffs the air for every scent and watches carefully for the slightest movement. She waits quietly until she sees what she really wants, and when it is within her grasp, she moves like lightning, and with one graceful pounce clasps it within her paws. Cat tells you that there is power in stillness, and beauty in dignity. Watch, wait, scent the currents around you. When it is the right time, you will only have to pounce to achieve your goal.