Natural way

Tarot of the Hidden Realm (Llewellyn 2013)

It's a very sunny looking card this morning for a nasty wet day, Two of Wands from Tarot of the Hidden Realm (Moore and Jeffrey, 2013).

The card depicts two faeries with fiery hair and dragonfly wings frolicking amongst the foliage. It's an extremely warm and happy-looking card. The companion book informs us that these are rowan buds, which is interesting to me for obvious reasons.

'This card marks the need for vision, for the application of determination, but first you must decide where to direct your gaze and invest your energy,' Moore writes.

It's been months and months since I last weighed myself; I have no idea how much I weigh but I know that I have hardly any clothes that fit. I got up and tried the scale and got the message 'Low battery.'

Now here's where I have a choice. Do I go and buy batteries, dig out (or create new) charts and graphs, start myself on a 'program' -- or do I take it as a sign to try a different way, a more natural way, in which I don't know how much I weigh, don't know how fast I'm making 'progress', and instead make more wholesome food choices and over time begin to notice that my clothes feel looser? The second way is completely against my Aquarius with Virgo Rising nature. The first way indulges and encourages some quite negative aspects of that nature.

Two of Wands is the Water of Fire. This would suggest an intuitive course of action.

I've eaten oats in almond milk for breakfast and just packed a nice lunch of hummus sandwich, grapes, cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks. I didn't measure any of it. I didn't look up the calorie content.

We'll try it the 'natural' way then, see how that works out.

Now that's what I call abundance - Queen of Pentacles

Tarot of the Hidden Realm by Barbara Moore and Julia Jeffrey (Llewellyn 2013)

Holy boobies, Batman! It's the Queen of Mammaries, I mean Queen of Pentacles!

I don't mean to be immature, but when I drew this card this faerie nearly gave me a black eye. Holy smoke. Her tits are actually bigger than her head. I'm kinda speechless.

Anyway, on to the card (though I must admit I'm having trouble focusing on anything else but those ginormous norks -- I know, I'm a child! I should get over myself.)

(For some reason I just imagined the voice of Billy Crystal in 'Princess Bride' intoning: 'Do you vant ta talk ah-BUN-dance? Do you vant ta talk NOUR-wish-ment? Look no FUR-dah! It's all right there at EYE LEVEL, oy is it EV-ah.')

So yeah. It's the Queen of Pentacles today, another card that seems to be celebrating the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. :) But she's also a seductress, even the description in the companion book kinda makes you need to raise a window:

'She reaches up and touches a flower on a tree. As the drop of dew caught on a petal falls to her skin, tracing a tiny rivulet down her arm, the flower transforms into a ripe apple. She takes your measure, and even though she seems to find you wanting, she holds out the fruit she has just plucked from the tree.'

(That's giving me the vapours, Mammy. Fetch me my vinaigrette*!)

Seriously, though, I like the take on this card. This Queen of Pentacles is described as understanding all inner workings of the physical. 'The physical world, solid and lush and sensual, is just energy moving very slowly. Knowing that, she can work with the raw elements of the world, co-creating and manifesting according to her will.' This makes her much more powerful than the usual Queen of Pentacles. Then again, she IS a faerie.

Now let's look at those elemental attributions. As Queen of Pentacles, she is Water of Earth. That helps explain how she can see the liquid in the solid, ie, sensing that the physical world is 'just energy moving very slowly'. That makes me think of lava. It also explains why I always think of the Queen of Pentacles as moving slightly in slow motion. Slow, deliberate movements, intense awareness of matter and physicality, combined with perception of the fact that it's all actually mostly space.

I don't know what all this means for me today, but I'm hoping it has something to do with carrot cake. :D

*For those who thought I meant salad dressing.

DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT THIS IS MY 1000TH POST!

Juicy and she knows it - Queen of Coins - Fountain Tarot

Fountain Tarot (2014) 

It's the Queen of Coins (or Pentacles) today from the Fountain Tarot (2014). Once again, the depiction of a court card brings out aspects that are not so apparent in traditional RWS imagery.

For myself, I tend to think of Queen of Coins as a sort of mini-Empress. In the RWS image, her Earth Mother qualities are right out there -- she sits on a throne amidst flora and fauna, looking sweet and demure, and not particularly sensual, materialistic, or concerned with things like fashion and appearances. However, the Queen of Pentacles (or Coins) can in fact be very concerned about these things, and that aspect of her turns up here quite strongly.

On this card we see a beautiful woman wearing a flamboyant dark gown -- to me it looks like bottle green velvet. She stands in a self-conscious but undeniably alluring pose, one knee crooked, hip stuck out, one hand on hip, the other lightly making contact with her decolletage. Her surroundings are natural, but they are anything but wild. There is a pair of topiary trees -- a trained tree like this to me is the very symbol of man's dominion over the natural. The tree in the background fades into a shower of gold, and of course at her feet is a giant gold coin. This Queen of Coins certainly enjoys the finer things in life. She enjoys her flesh, she enjoys the outdoors (in her highly cultivated garden), she enjoys sensuous fabrics and having her hair and nails done and sipping fine wine and standing around looking gorgeous.

In my mind I know these qualities are 100% true of the Queen of Pentacles, but without particular context and surrounding cards, they simply are not the first thing to come to mind when reading this card. And that's a shame, because they really are strong qualities present in the Queen of Pentacles. They may manifest in various ways in 'real life', but concerns about money, physicality, the experience of the senses, and so on are her realm, for sure.

I like this luscious Queen of Coins. She is juicy and she knows it.

She would write this poem:

When is it ever enough?

Interesting that this lady should turn up today, because I've started thinking along Queen of Pentacles lines in the last couple of days.

Diabetes and overweight run in my family. I know this. And yet for the last few years, I've not only stopped working out entirely, I've also eaten with more or less wild abandon. It's almost like I've got a death wish. In the last year alone, I've gained 10 lbs. But these last few days in particular have brought home to me the peril I'm putting myself in. Three days in a row, I've baked a cake. The two of us have eaten the whole cake each day. They're small cakes, but each cake contains 1 cup of sugar in the cake, and 1 cup of icing sugar in the frosting. So that means in the last three days, I have eaten THREE CUPS OF SUGAR in the form of cake. This does not include the sugar in the jam on my toast, and other sneaky sources. I have also had a really intense headache that I can't shake, despite having Beconase and paracetamol. The ringing in my ears is also louder to me. I may be getting a sinus infection, don't know, but I can't help but think it's the gigantic sugar consumption. I know it's kind of dangerous to diagnose using online tools, but Warning Signs of Type-2 Diabetes lists 17 signs, and over recent months, I have had 8 of them. In any case, stopping this behaviour will only be good for me. My poor pancreas. How could I do this to it?

Today's card is Queen of Pentacles from Tarot de St Croix. Apparently she is the Queen of Sheba, and the companion book places more emphasis on abundance and the good life, but the Queen of Pentacles is grounded in the body as well, and concerns herself with health. Even the symbols of the good life here are natural ones -- fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh air and sunshine, etc.

It's an odd time of year to embark on a health kick, but to be honest, I don't feel up to any more junk. My appetite for it is greatly diminished, as if my poor little pancreas and other vital workings are finally speaking up in outrage.

Sage of Crystals is talking in my ear this mornin'

Sirian Starseed Tarot 

The Sage of Crystals from Sirian Starseed Tarot makes an appearance this morning. She is beautiful, and her garden is beautiful, and her message is much needed.

As water of earth, the Queen of Pentacles (or 'Sage of Crystals') has a lot to say about our feelings about and sensitivity toward the material world and the physical body. All of the queens can be considered earth mothers, but she is the earthiest of them, a mini-Empress in some ways (although this deck calls the Empress 'Abundance', and in some ways, the description of it in the Sirian Starseed LWB sounds more akin to Queen of Cups than Queen of Pentacles).

The Sage of Crystals asks me to take a loving and compassionate look at all aspects of my life on the physical plane. She asks me to forgive myself for mistakes I may have made, for poor choices or misguided thinking about the material world. But she gently insists the importance of moving myself into a healthier direction.

She asks us:

In what ways have you acted as steward of your body lately? Have you respected, nurtured and loved your body? Have you looked after yourself lately? Have you thanked your body for all it has done for you? Have you dealt compassionately with its flaws, or ways in which it might have (inevitably) let you down? Have you taken the steps you can to preserve and defend your body? Have you eaten well? Have you exercised? Have you given your body a proper amount of rest? Have you moisturised your skin? Have you exfoliated? Have you drunk plenty of water? Have you conditioned your hair, flossed your teeth? Have you had your eyes checked? Have you had your smear test? Your mammogram? Have you been to the dentist? ARE YOU TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF? 

In what ways have you dealt with the reality of your domestic and financial situation? Have you felt gratitude for the things you have? Have you dismissed longing for the things you do not? Have you balanced your check book? Do you know how much money you have in savings? Do you make regular deposits, to the extent that you can, to savings investment? Do you have short term and long term savings goals? When was the last time you did a big clean of the house? Cleaned the refrigerator? Culled your sheets and pillow cases? 

In what ways have you been looking after your personal appearance? When was the last time you culled your old socks and underpants and got rid of the holey or stretched out or washed-to-grey items? Does your closet need a clean? Do you throw on anything? When was the last time you gave some thought to your clothes? Are they comfortable? Do they make you feel happy? The Sage of Crystals isn't asking you to spend too much money or strive to impress, but just to dress in a way that expresses yourself, that feels comfortable to your body and that makes you feel happy. Are you doing those things?

I don't even have time this morning for the Sage of Crystals to start talking to me about work and livelihood -- because I've got to get dressed and go to work! But I think she's had plenty to say to me already.

How about you?

Contemplating the earthly plane

Aquarian Tarot

This Queen of Pentacles from the Aquarian Tarot does not look particularly earthy to me. The background is filled with sky, and she even has wings on her helmet. she is wearing an ermine cloak, trimmed with that strange cured pork pink, or perhaps it's a very watered down red, that appears in so many of these cards. The shape of the figure suggests she is holding the pentacle, but we see no hint of actual arms. Her cloak appears to be ermine. She gazes down toward the pentacle with an impassive face.

Reading just from the picture, today's card suggests to me someone who is usually quite airy (in their head a lot) focusing more on the body, health, the material and the physical. Also perhaps on their work.

I went to the doctor day before yesterday to get results on an MRI I had (and to talk about my toe) because I've been getting a pain and numbness in the quadricep (just above and to the side of my right knee) for some time, and lately it has progressed to a dull ache, with occasional sharp pains. She had me have an MRI to see if there was any compression in my spine or pinched nerves, which there are not. I asked what is causing it then and she said something vague about nerve damage and gave me a prescription of 10mg ametriptyline. I took the first one last night and can say it really did nothing at all to help. It's at night that I get the most nagging pain, no matter how I lie it seems to aggravate the spot on my leg. I have to get all my weight onto my left hip and crook my right knee in just the right position to ease it. It's not an agonizing pain, just annoying enough to distract me from going to sleep comfortably. It's also started to hurt when I walk for any amount of time. I dread to think what it will do when walking season returns.

Anyway, the card seems to say I'll be thinking a lot about physical stuff today.

Today, be mindful of your physical existence

Wild Unknown Tarot, 2012

The 'Mother' of Pentacles reminds me today of all I've been thinking about since I got up this morning. Although the card here from Wild Unknown Tarot shows a pretty picture of Bambi and his mother, the Queen of Pentacles has always been more about being in tune with the physical than being about motherhood. It's true the Queen of Pentacles is a nurturer, but she nurtures herself, those around her, and the earth, she's not just a baby machine.

The Mother of Pentacles asks us today, 'What can you do to take care of your physical body today? How can you nurture yourself? What can you do to ground your awareness in your body, to be mindful of your physicality, and to honour your connection to the earth through your physical experience today?'

Some answers might be:
When you have your morning shower or bath, pay attention to the feeling of the water, the scent of the soap, and use all your senses to experience the shower fully.

Whenever you eat today, look at your food and think about where it came from, think about it growing up from the earth, think about the hard work of many hands that went into planting, nurturing, harvesting and delivering that food to you. If you prepare it yourself, send your blessing into it. If it was prepared for you, eat it mindfully and with a thought of gratitude to the work of all those that brought it to you.

She...may be the song that summer sings...

Anna K, US Games 2013

Who's this lovely dark-haired lady harvesting everything there is from one grove? It's the Queen of Pentacles, one of my favourite court cards. I wanna be a Queen of Pents when I grow up.

She is the closest thing to the Empress in the tarot courts. But whereas the Empress has a distinct 'It's-not-nice-to-fool-Mother-Nature' danger about her, the Queen of Pentacles is all soft edges and connection. She does seem to be pregnant in this image, a condition often used in tarot art to denote growth, fruitfulness, abundance, continuity. The vine is also a potent symbol of the riches of the earth, and so we have one curling about our Queen of Pentacles. She is surrounded by baskets, each containing a different type of fruit or vegetable, suggesting that abundance of all types flows through her, boundless bounty. She has just picked a ripe plum and is enjoying its fragrance, probably about to take a bite of it, because the Queen of Pentacles is nothing if not entirely plugged in to the earth, and of all the tarot queens she understands and enjoys the pleasures of the physical plane. She also most deeply understands and empathizes with its pains and sorrows.