Greenwood Week - Day Four - Waterworld

Six of Cups: Reunion 
In the golden light of an autumnal sunset, two souls are reunited on an ancient mound, the source of the waters of memory and deep love. Six green cups full of golden liquid float in the pool of knowledge. Two otters, animals of loving and playful affection, hunt nearby. Reunion with an old friend, soulmate or a wise part of oneself. A feeling of inner peace. -- Chesca Potter

The otter on the right stands on a bit of log, and seems to be presenting the other otter a fish. The otter on the left stands upright on its hindlegs, perhaps to get a better look at this old friend who's turned up with a gift. In the background water pours out from the burial mound. Potter calls it the pool of knowledge.

What wisdom from the ancient past offers itself to us in such abundance today? What old friend provides a bit of nourishment? It appears it may be an issue that the sun seems to be setting on, and the source of wisdom is very old indeed. (The mound has mature trees and grass growing on it and probably looks nothing like it did when originally built.)

What ancient, spiritual wisdom will flood out for us today, in a playful, affectionate, and nourishing way?

The oracle card from Celtic Shaman's Pack offers an echo. The Inworld is 'the abode of the ancestors and thus one of the prime sources of knowledge and wisdom. The roots of the Tree of Vision and Tradition grow down into this realm and it is reached by descending through a tunnel or deep hole in the earth.' Could this be the view inside the mound from the 6 of Cups?

All we can do is humbly ask what primordial wisdom is on offer for us today.

(I think my message may have something to do with the wisdom of going two days with no vegetables beyond the toppings on veggie burgers and pizza.)

Flow with the waters of the wisdom of the ancestors today, whatever that may mean for you.

Cups and more cups

Looks like our house purchase is proceeding, now the question has turned to insurance. Home owners, life, critical illness, income protection, and all that jazz. How much insurance cover do I need? What action should I take with regard to insurance?

Jean Dodal Tarot, Flornoy 2009 

I was really surprised by this draw, as I was expecting a lot of swords, to indicate both trouble and decision making. Three cups in a row! Really?

So yeah, three cups in a row, and on either side, the World and the Empress both look away from the cups. I also can't help but notice that 21 and 3 are both 3, and two of the three cups is a multiple of three. What you make of that is up to the reader, but there it is.

The first message: There's all the insurance in the world out there, and it's an extremely emotive subject that plays upon our instinct to protect the nest.

The second message: This emotion doesn't have a great connection to the actual world or actual nurture. Ie, fears and reality are not necessarily directly linked.

The third message: The best action I can take at this point with regard to insurance is to look away from the multitude of emotions -- most to do with fear -- and look to more pertinent issues.

That's funny, because I didn't think I was being emotional, I thought I was being quite rational and gathering information at this point.  The cups represent being fed, basic needs, and by association, fear of not being fed or having basic needs met. And that of course is the very driver of insurance.

If the two figures are looking away from all this emotion, what are the they looking at instead?

What is the World looking at? 4 of Swords -- I figured a sword would turn up.  There may be a World of insurance out there, but I am constrained by certain limitations. I must avoid being led by emotion and turn my attention toward what is actually a logical best choice. 'Four does not change.' The only unchanging aspect in this equation is the finite amount of money I have to work with. That should be a prime consideration, obviously.

What is the Empress looking at? 7 of Wands -- 'Seven brings troubles that fate has assigned.' The Empress looks toward the likelihood of trouble. Trouble is pretty certain to come, but we don't have much chance of knowing exactly what it might be or when it might occur. There are lots of troubles that never happen at all. But she's looking toward the card that represents problems, so it's important to identify those things that are most likely to be an issue for us, and not get carried away by lots of fears and wild what-ifs.

My two real advice cards, then, seem to be 4 of Swords and 7 of Wands, as they are the ones that pull away from the quagmire of emotion in the middle. Both cards suggest protection. 4 of Swords shows a central flower encased in 4 curved scimitars. It is protected by the four interlocked blades. Similarly, 7 of Wands shows an upright wand shielded behind 6 interlocked wands. One is surrounded, the other is shielded. There may be a story in that, but either way, a lone figure is protected, which would have been quite vulnerable on its own. Both are defended.

It seems to me I should examine my current protections and look for gaps that would need to be filled by insurance coverage, rather than being led entirely by the hungry mouths of emotion.

It's interesting that no Coin cards have turned up. I suppose once you identify the type of cover you need, the money side of it is ruled entirely by ability to pay. Not much use looking at prices. Just identify cover and then buy what you can afford.

Analyse it all you want, it comes back to the first impression. All those cups cards shouted to me at once: 'Too much emotion, whether you realise it or not. Dial that back and then proceed.'

The Hamburger Moment: A Reading

An article that's making the rounds on Facebook caught my eye the other day:

The Hamburger Moment: I wasn't treating my husband fairly and it wasn't nice

I recognized a lot of my own patterns of behaviour in that article, and not for the first time. I know from experience that I am not the only woman who tends to come down very hard on her partner for small things. I've listened to women complain to each other vigorously about such sins as leaving wet towels in the floor, not opening the hamper but leaving clothes on top, and putting toilet paper the wrong way round. I have certainly seen a lot of this sort of behaviour on TV shows like 'Everybody Loves Raymond' and 'Home Improvement,' etc (forgive my ancient TV references, I don't watch a lot of sitcoms anymore). I guess we've been doing this crap for a long time; it's even mentioned in the Bible: 'A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand' (Proverbs 27:15-16). Ha ha!

I don't have a clue about the bigger picture of why there seems to be a pattern of women nitpicking. Maybe it has something to do with some underlying pressure to be perfect ourselves, imposed on us by cultural and societal expectations, maybe it's learned behaviour from watching our mothers, don't know, but what I do know is I can try to recognize and address this sort of thing in myself. Better late than never. So here is what I asked:

1. Why do I slip into the habit of constant fault-finding in my husband? 

2. What is the best course of action to address this? 

3. What is the biggest challenge in this course of action?
4. What is the biggest support?

5. What is the outcome? 

I then pulled 5 cards and examined them:  7 of Cups - 2 of Pents - 10 of Swords - 10 of Wands - 6 of Cups. I was getting an impression of the reading, but decided to pull clarifiers for each card in the spread (not something I usually do) and laid them in a second row beneath: Sun - Ace of Wands - High Priestess - King of Swords - Queen of Wands. Each card I laid down felt like 'Boom! There it is!' They just solidified the original draw so well. Let's take them in pairs. 

 I do this because of deceptive, destructive fantasies of perfection. It's not just him I hold to these unconscious rules, it's the entire world! I've been reading a lot about irrational beliefs that underlie our unhelpful responses to life, and I've identified several from a list produced by Albert Ellis (12 Self-Defeating Beliefs). The ones at work here seem to be:

*People should always do the right thing and when they don't, they must be punished.
*Things must be the way I want them or life will be intolerable.
*My unhappiness is caused by things outside my control, so there is little I can do to feel better.
*Every problem must have an ideal solution, and it is intolerable when one cannot be found.
*To be a worthy person, one must succeed at what they do and make no mistakes.

I have no idea how these irrational rules and beliefs become embedded in us, but I have found that when I feel upset about something, if I have a look at these lists, I can usually quickly identify the irrational belief or demand that is causing the discomfort. It is rather uncanny. So what's the best course of action?

To create 'a partnership working with proper energy flow and support', I must remember that 'mood swings may threaten stability' and that 'anger and not fully understanding the consequences of actions' will break down the balance. (The quotations come directly from the LWB of the Sacred Rose Tarot deck. It's useful to keep and to check the LWB! Sometimes what you find there is spot on!)

The key here is to learn to catch myself between the irrational belief and the consequences (that's the exact term used by Ellis -- fits, doesn't it!) of that belief. It's almost impossible to do that, so the only way you can change a habitual response is by doing what Ellis called ABC analysis (see previous blogs here and here). Over time, with reflection and by disputing irrational beliefs after the fact, the behaviour begins to change. That's the theory, and it's certainly helped with my tinnitus, so why not try it here.

The biggest challenge is of course rooting out and recognizing the self-defeating actions. That's reflected in the pairing of 10 of Wands and High Priestess. The LWB says there are 'excessive pressures and problems to be resolved' and that good judgement is based on 'logic and knowledge removed from the confusion of emotion.' That is precisely the process of REBT. It's not easy, it's hard work. So it's the biggest challenge.

The biggest support comes from the cerebral nature of the whole thing. This is the death of irrational beliefs and the meticulous re-training of the thinking needed to challenge and change them. If the King of Swords were to identify something as entirely self-defeating, he would be merciless in rooting it out. This is a good thing. When my King of Swords nature recognizes how illogical and pointless certain beliefs are, he simply won't allow me to believe them anymore. And when I don't hold a certain belief anymore (like 'people must be perfect and they if they make a mistake they deserve to be punished') then I won't react to events based on that belief anymore (like if my husband or I drop the cafetiere and break it, it is cause for a flash of anger and sharp words). -- If my underlying belief can be changed to 'People make mistakes and though it's inconvenient it is not intolerable and we remain worthy human beings regardless of our mistakes', then dropping the cafetiere would result in 'Oh crap, oh well.'

The outcome of attacking this behaviour using these techniques? I will become responsible (or accept responsibility for) my own emotions. This will allow me to access the better qualities of my Queen of Wands nature: warmth and affection coupled with authority and determination.


I then asked, 'What is the overall message to me about this issue?' and drew three cards:

It's up to me to recall the source of love and emotion and to exercise my free will in deciding how I will react, what path I will choose in response to the cycles of the day-to-day. There is always a choice in response to the Wheel of Fortune. May its genesis be love, and not flawed beliefs and unconscious rules. 

All images in this post are from Sacred Rose Tarot (US Games 1982). 

Be a booster

What is the will of the Universe for me today?

The Tarot de St Croix offers Six of Cups in answer to this question, a card that is generally interpreted to mean innocence, or nostalgia for simpler times. As usual, there is a bit of twist on this. The guidebook says:

The little girl is focused on giving her playmates exactly what they most desire, symbolised by what is in their cups. 
Meaning: By opening your heart to friendship and love, it is returned.

That's fair enough, let's take a look. We have a teddy (probably Winnie the Pooh) with honeycomb and honey. Then a troll doll with a swirl -- no idea what that is. A monkey with a banana. Raggedy Andy with a heart. Somewhat disturbingly, a golly having a rainbow poured into his cup (not sure I'd have gone there). And finally, a bunny with some carrots.

My message is made clear--today is a day for paying attention to others and helping them get what they need. I will do my best. It reminds me of a song from my childhood:

Booster, booster, be a booooooster!
Don't be grouchy like a roooooster!
Booster, booster, be a booster!
And boost our Bible school!

(Okay, the relevance fizzles out at the end, but that's how the song goes. :) )

Like candy floss

Wicca Moon Tarot

'Come here quick!' cried Daisy at the window. 

The rain was still falling, but the darkness had parted in the west, and there was a pink and golden billow of foamy clouds above the sea. 

'Look at that,' she whispered, and then after a moment: 'I'd like to just get one of those pink clouds and put you in it and push you around.' 
~ F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

The 6 of Cups is about nostalgia, and the pink cloud with the flowers-and-sparkles rising out of the cups like champagne bubbles certainly seems to evoke the sentiment expressed by Daisy.  She and Jay Gatsby had enjoyed a rather adolescent flirtation during the years of WW1, and now in the Jazz Age, each would like to recapture that feeling and that era, Daisy because she wants to feel young and innocent again, and Jay because Daisy represented (and still represents) all the dreamy aspirations of his impoverished childhood -- the beauty, the affluence, the privilege, the easy grace, the carelessness. 

The 6 of Cups can be a complex card. It might just be one of the most complex in the tarot deck. Our childhoods, our memories of our childhood, our youthful dreams, our lost innocence, it's all tied up here in this card.

But it can also be a card that shows just a longing for things to be simple and uncomplicated, easy and 'happy'. That's what I'm hoping for today.

Opening the heart chakra with the Wild Unknown Tarot

Wild Unknown Tarot, 2012

The deck for this week is The Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans (Wild Unknown, 2012). It is a curious deck, made of line drawings with minimal colouring. There are no people in the deck, and only a few man-made objects. It's mostly animals, a few plants and a few bugs. The deck does not depict nature in all its lush abundance--it's quite an austere deck, really. It's almost like it shows a shadow side of the natural world, the stark nobility that lies beneath the green and gold glow of the life force in nature.

Today's card is 9 of Cups, a card that traditionally signifies great self-satisfaction. I like the way the cups here are arranged in big semi-circle, leaving the centre of the card open. The crescent moon sits at the top of the card; to me it signifies spirituality and the continuous cycles of life. The empty space in the middle of the card suggests an openness in the heart, open and empty and ready to receive connection between self and other. It reminds me of the motion of the arms arcing down toward the floor as you descend to forward bend in yoga sun salutations, and also the upward motion at the end of the sequence. The move, and this card, seems to represent the clearing and cleansing around the heart chakra that clears the way for connection and experience of the all. Yoga is, after all, about connection between the self and universe.

Today's yoga practice for me was a series of sun salutations done to the words of the Lovingkindness Meditation:

May I be well. May I be safe. May I be peaceful and at ease. May I be happy.
May ___ be well. May s/he be safe. May s/he be peaceful and at ease. May s/he be happy. (an admired teacher)
May ___ be well. May s/he be safe. May s/he be peaceful and at ease. May s/he be happy. (a loved one)
May ___be well. May s/he be safe. May s/he be peaceful and at ease. May s/he be happy. (a neutral person)
May ___be well. May s/he be safe. May s/he be peaceful and at ease. May s/he be happy. (a challenging person)
May all beings be well. May they be safe. May the be peaceful and at ease. May they be happy.

The 9 of Cups to me today shows that big cleansing openness to wellness, safety, peace, ease and happiness that is there for the taking, if we just breath in and pull it into ourselves.

Wistful?

Wheel of Year Tarot, LS 2011

Our final draw of the week from LoScarabeo's 2011 Wheel of the Year Tarot is 6 of Cups. It's a very pretty card. I love the colours, that yellow dress with hot pink trim and a purple shawl, wow! Really vibrant and lovely. The girl is demure in her youthful clothing, her tender little barefeet peeping out from the eyelet lace trim of the dress hem a symbol of her purity and simplicity. In the stream, an image of herself and a man. In happier times? Or is it a hope for the future? Six of Cups is normally associated with 'nostalgia', so it leads me to lean toward the scene being from her past. I don't necessarily think she's no longer involved with this man, though. The card seems too vibrant to be about pain or loss, and in fact, my associations with the number 6 do not really allow for painful feelings. The number 6, for me, is about harmony, strong relationships, reconciliation. So I would say, she's not upset or pining so much as feeling very 'loved up'. And that kind of feeling is often associated with innocence and naivety.

It's nice to be loved up on a Friday. Even if I do have to work on Saturday.

The Goddess Suit

Book of Shadows, LoS 2012

We have a goddess on our card of the day from Book of Shadows Tarot Vol 1.

Sarasvati is the Hindu goddess of the arts: music, writing, painting, sculpture performing arts such as dance, drama and so on. She is called the Goddess of the Word and the Goddess of Learning and is identified with culture, language, speech, communication, creativity, intellect, and inspiration. As Six of Water, she is depicted here surrounded by six undines, water elementals that serve in this deck as pips. The Water suit in Book of Shadows Vol 1 is the goddess suit, each card featuring a goddess, an aspect of divine feminine.

Musings on the Celtic Tarot: Cups

Cups suit from Celtic Tarot, Davis, 3rd edition 2002

The Cups do not lend themselves immediately to a continuous story, as the Wands suit does. There is a thread that runs through them, though. Each card features cups suffused in a kind of effervescent glow, suspended in front of a circular pattern reminiscent of a rose window. The groupings of the Cups and a few subtle cues in the rose window are all the clues you get, really, to help you interpret these cards.

So much potential!

Touchstone Tarot, Kat Black (Kunati 2009)

My draw today from Touchstone Tarot is so encouraging! I drew three cards with no positional meanings (most of my 3-card draws are done without positional meanings, and read either from left to right, or using Robert Place's 3-card method. I'll do a post on that soon!)

The 6 of Cups suggests approaching life with childlike wonder and openness, while the two aces speak to me of potential energy in the two areas that have been of major concern to me lately, the material and spiritual realms. I love that both figures in the ace cards have wings, but are not using them. Again, the potential is there, but just waiting for the first flappings to soar away!

In the Ace of Coins, there is a dog, which always symbolises faithfulness and humility to me, loyalty and even a kind of nobility. The lily behind the winged figure reminds me of purity. I believe this to be purity of intention. The Ace of Coins figure faces the 6 of Cups, even is pointing one finger at it! So surely the message here is that in order to move forward in the material realm, I must access my childlike openness and wonder. For my exercise, to rediscover the joy of movement. For my nutrition, to be willing to learn new things and even to be retaught things I once knew. For my livelihood, to trust that I will be provided for by a loving universe. Now, that's truly childlike trust!

The Ace of Wands figure also inclines her head toward the 6 of Cupse, but the shoulders and torso point away. This suggests to me that in the spiritual realm, I must keep an openness, but may need more emotional maturity to move in the direction that I wish to go in. This makes perfect sense, as I want to grow and mature in my spiritual practice. The figure holds a wand and seems to be nurturing a bowl of hot coals. These represent to me smouldering potential, and also call to mind the practice of burning ground herbs and resins on coals in a cauldron or other vessel. The castle in the background on the hill reminds me of the attainment that awaits with diligent practice, and the humble cottage below reminds me that the day-to-day living of the spiritual path involves very little glory. And of course, between the figure and the castle, there's a very tangled wood to be negotiated. What are her fingers pointing toward? They both point away from the Ace of Coins. Maybe a reminder that the answer doesn't lie in materialism--like buying new decks and books every other day? (Ouch!)

May I remember the messages of this draw as I move through the coming week: retain my wonder, enjoy my physical existence, and begin the trek through those tangled woods of the spiritual realm. Hello, meditation cushion!