Prairie Tarot -- Becoming who you choose to be

I found this court card exercise at Alison's This Game of Thrones blog, and thought I'd give it a try.

1  Think of a single area of your life that you'd like to work on.
2  Choose a Court Card that best reflects where you are right Now.  
3  Choose another Court Card that best reflects your future Goal, how you'd like to be.
4  Set them out with the Now card on the left and the Goal card on the right. Leave two spaces between them.
5  Shuffle your remaining Court Cards* and think about the journey from one to the other.
6  Draw one card whose energies will HELP you make the transition. Set it after the Now card.
7 Draw one card whose energies will HINDER you from making the transition. Set in the remaining gap. 
*If you want to use the rest of your deck for those last two cards, by all means do so.

The area that I'd like to work on right now is my attitude toward my daily life. I would like to be more enthusiastic about tackling challenges, particularly in mundane areas. Maybe they aren't challenges so much as little annoyances. Things like tidying up, or eating well, working out, or even getting the gumption to go out and do something when it's more comfortable and appealing to just stay in. I think the key word is gumption. I'm looking to develop 'gumption'. So in the spirit of the word, I will use the Prairie Tarot.

Robin Ator, Glow in the Dark, 2011

I chose the Page of Wands as my starting point, which might seem a little odd, as the Page of Wands is usually thought of as a precocious tyke who flies around on his tricycle running over half open manhole covers or sticking paperclips in electrical outlets--not one to hold back, in other words. But this Page of Wands, although he seems to be contemplating tearing down a fence that is holding him back, he doesn't look too excited about it. In fact, he looks downright tired at the thought of having to snip one more wire or knock over one more fence post. Truth of the matter is, there's not much left of that fence. And actually, if he stopped to think about it, he doesn't even need to finish knocking it down. He could just turn and face the new horizon and take a step over the wire and into the place he's wanting to go. What's holding him back? He's not looking where he wants to go. And he's letting his thoughts about how bad it's going to be to proceed, keep him from doing it and finding out it's not as bad as he feared, and that there are actually alternate courses of action to take.

The finish point is Knight of Swords. Good lord, look at the energy there. He barrels down the hill on that horse, hat flying, sword raised to absolutely lob the head off anything that stands in his way. And that would include, no doubt, even his own thought patterns. This card doesn't say 'thinking' to me, though. This card only says, 'Yaaaaaaaaaaah!' I need a little of that.

What gets me there? I shuffled the entire deck together for the two middle cards, and drew The Fool for the energy that helps me. It seems so obvious, doesn't it, when you turn over a card. Of course. I already saw in Page of Wands that I need to lift up my eyes and see the horizon. Well, the Fool is so focused on the horizon, he doesn't even seem to notice he's about to step off the edge of the bluff. He won't do it, though. The Fool has a magical quality; somehow he never gets hurts. He never does fall off that cliff. You know why? It never occurs to him that anything bad might happen. He's too in love with the day to consider negativity. The Fool never gets bored, either. I'm sure if you handed him a pile of laundry to fold, he'd  get all excited about the fresh smell, admire the colours, and start making up songs about folding or telling stories about the adventures you could have wearing clothes like these. Childlike enthusiasm. Delight in the moment.

What hinders me? My own bad dreams. Nine of Swords, there I am making up things in my head, bad things. Lying awake, dreading. Playing out scenarios of negativity or doom. Allowing negative thoughts to become all too real to me. But they're not real, they're only thoughts. They can be brushed off, same as a bad dream. And should be.

Once again, tarot kicks my butt and tells me to stop being a whiny b**ch. Thanks, Prairie Tarot. You know, I needed that.

Flower remedies to go with this reading... 

Hornbeam

 Hornbeam is the definitive 'gumption' essence, addressing procrastination and tiredness at the thought of doing something. It helps boost enthusiasm, to give you the umph to get over that Monday morning feeling.

Clematis helps to balance the energy of the Fool, so that you can stop daydreaming and focus more on the task at hand.

Mustard dispels gloom that comes on for no apparent reason.