Card of the day: 6 of Swords

Original Rider-Waite

Yesterday was a pig of a day. Youths causing trouble in the public building where I work.  A rather lengthy discussion with a senior manager about an issue that's been troubling me for a long time. Then I get home and have a big row with my partner. Not fun. I feel quite wrung out.

My daily draw this morning turned up the 6 of Swords. How very apt. For me, this card is the aftermath of troubles. It's that feeling that is a combination of relief and weariness, a hollow delicate feeling, as if you're tiptoeing around like some wary fawn in the forest, hoping nothing gets you. Like the figure in the picture, you feel huddled down and passive, hoping that the boat doesn't tip you out, not because you're afraid to drown but because you can't take one more thing happening. 'Please God just get me past this', the card says. What a relief to know that you are already on your way.

You'll get no touchy-feely from the Anglo-Saxons!

There are so many things I want to accomplish, and I just can't seem to find time in a day to do them all. Seriously, a full time job takes up most of my waking hours, and by the time I get home, I usually have only 3 or 4 hours to accomplish everything that I want to do for myself before it's time to go to bed and start all over again the next day.

I pulled some cards from the Rune Cards Oracle asking, What can I do to find balance and do what I want to do each day? What is preventing me from doing this? What will be the outcome if I take the advice of the first card?

 

So, what I need to do is Ash. There's a long house there, with weapons and shields, and in the foreground, a sort of bare ash tree type thing with its arms outstretched, covering the whole picture. This speaks to me of protection. 

I bought some herbs today, oh boy

I just bought these herbs and pots today. From left to right: peppermint, lemon thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage.

I'm a little worried because when I took the plants from their plastic containers to pot them, they had massive root systems that filled the entire container. I wasn't expecting that, but I'm no expert on plants by any means. So when I put them in the new clay pots, I had to add hardly any soil at all around them. Perhaps I should have bought bigger pots, but it's too late now. I can't very well unpot them all and exchange the pots. It's just like me to take something that was meant to be fun and relaxing and find ways to stress and fret over it. I don't want the plants to die because the pots are too small, they're not getting enough light, the window's too drafty. Etc.

The fact is, I've been way more stressed lately than I ought to be. I don't know if it's hormones, my work situation, worry about things back home in America, or general malaise caused by the upcoming equinox. I don't know what it is.

So I drew from the Haindl Tarot. What is going on today? What is the underlying cause? And what is a possible solution?

Running from Lightning

I have been feeling tired lately, and I asked this morning:

Why have I been so tired lately and what should I do about it?

I drew 3 cards for the why: 2 of Earth, Explorer of Water, and Lightning. Then 2 cards for what to do: 9 of Water and Elder of Fire. And outcome: The Star.

The 2 of Earth shows a man juggling two screaming babies over his shoulders while trying to do his shopping. The Explorer of Water shows a surfer, who is zooming toward the 2 of Earth and AWAY from the Lightning card, which is the equivalent of the Tower, and shows a tree being struck by lightning while 3 human silhouettes fall from the sky. It's hard to find balance when you are running from the fear of disaster. My emotional flight from the uncertainty of my job situation (which is the only Tower event I can see in my life right now) has lead to distinct imbalance in my daily life.

What should I do about it? I drew 9 of Water and Elder of Fire. The 9 of Water shows a woman standing in the mouth of a cave. Sunlight is streaming into the cave, and she is facing this with arms outstretched. A stream is runing into the cave and runs along beside where she is standing. Water also seems to be running down the walls of the cave and trickling over rocks. It's a wet cave, pierced with shafts of light. Okay, so I am in a sort of cave of emotion, I suppose I am meant to find the light. The advice of the companion book is to 'open up to the Divine...dive deep into your heart to find what will bring you true and lasting happiness' (Journey through the Gaian Tarot, p. 198). That's not asking much! Then sitting next to this card is the Elder of Fire. Wow, I love this card. It was one of my favourites, and nearly the top card for me when I did my sorting exercise on the first day I had the deck. This woman looks very serious, but at the same time benevolent. She is intense. She has at her disposal every means of affecting change and transformation. She is most certainly not a victim. This combination of cards is a deep message for me. I must take my time with them.

The outcome card is The Star...It is significant because in the major arcana, The Star card comes directly after The Tower (or in the Gaian Tarot, 'Lightning').

You have the opportunity to relax into a time of calm, healing and grace. Your heart is wide open and you deeply feel your connection to Source...It is a most blessed time of hope peace and well-being. ~ Journey through the Gaian Tarot, Colbert p. 100

That is most certainly the result I would like to see! I must investigate the work of 9 of Water + Elder of Fire. Your thoughts on this are welcome!

The Prestige

Today's draw from Kat Black's Touchstone Tarot (Kunati, 2009) is The Magician. This Magician appears to be an occult scholar, most likely an alchemist. His turban is quite elaborately decorated and suggests both riches and an otherworldliness, even a sort of holiness. His inner robe appears to be golden silk, intricately embroidered. His outer robe is decorated with large stars and moons, as one would expect of a wizard. Multiple rings on his fingers, he is grasping in two fingers a chain that ends in a golden orb. (The forefinger touching the thumb is a mudra symbolizing knowledge. What sort of knowledge might that golden orb represent?) On the table before him, the suits of the tarot deck, also representing the four elements: cup, wand, knife, coin. Clearly he is seated in a library, just next the stairs that lead up to more books above. An owl perches nearby. On his face, a very enigmatic expression, as if he knows all sorts of things he's not quite willing to share. Or wants you to think that.
The Magician represents the ability to turn thoughts into reality.  He takes the knowledge he has gathered over the years of study or contemplation, and through concentration and will, makes them happen in the real world. The ultimate expression of this ability was alchemy, 'a process by which paradoxical results are achieved or incompatible elements combined with no obvious rational explanation'. The primary objective of the alchemist was to turn base metals into gold, or finding the 'universal elixir'.

What could this have to do with daily life in a reading?  The Magician reminds us that we can make things happen. We can use all available tools, combine them in unusual, even unique, ways in order to make our dreams reality. There's a shadow side to the Magician, though, and his earlier manifestation in tarot was as The Juggler, ie, a sideshow trickster. So we are also warned to watch out for too-good-to-be-true schemes, sleight of hand or out and out illusions. Thus that enigmatic smile!

May I use all resources at my disposal wisely today, and keep my wits about me so as not to be misled.

Open the scroll and recite

 

Today's Sol Invictus (by Kim Huggens and Nic Phillips, Schiffer Publishing) draw reflects my start on several new projects all at once. A group of friends and I have decided to band together to support one another over the next 12 months, starting from today, as we each work on our own individual goals. 

The central card, Ace of Swords, clearly represents this new beginning. The Egyptian god, Thoth, the god of writing, knowledge and wisdom, seems entirely appropriate, as the group is an online group and all our shared support will take place in writing. The heiroglyphs on the card read, 'Look, their words are set and writing. Open the scrolls and recite.' You can see a quill writing on a scroll. It has written: 'Lover of wisdom,' 'I think therefore I am,' and 'Dare to know' in Latin. These are all famous phrases. Can you identify the author of each? :)  So here I am on day one, with my written goals preparing to take wing and fly up toward transformation, as represented by the butterflies in the card. Spoken words have always been thought to have the power of creation. So the directive here is not just to open the scroll and have a look, but to open the scroll and recite.

BUT...

Change is not fun for human beings. By our nature, we don't like it. We resist it. Even if we are the ones who intiated it and wanted it, we easily come to resent it. We can easily start to think how 'UNFAIR' it all is, and how 'UNFUN' it all is. Poor us, so put upon. This is what the Five of Coins represents here. It's a card that signifies feeling left out in the cold, shut out from all things good and comfortable and familiar and safe. This particular version of Five of Coins shows Lucifer having landed, charred and despairing, in the snow just after being cast from heaven.  This is one way my new projects could go. I could start to think how HARD it is to eat well, exercise, discipline myself to daily meditation, and all the other goals I've set could quickly come to seem like a big deprivation and self-imposed banishment from all things lovely. 

On the other hand, I can approach my new project with a Four of Wands spirit, as seen in the card to the right. The card depicts the celebration of the harvest in the form of a sacrifice to Agni, the Hindu god of fire and acceptor of sacrifices. The Four of Wands always depicts a celebration of sorts, and the security of firm foundations having been set by positive action and hard work. The people at the celebration are thanking the gods, but that wheat is a creation of man, through many generations of agriculture, and that bread is a result of the hard work of man working in community. The gods didn't just hand it to the celebrants. So, I see this as a celebration of the bounty of nature that has the potential to bring forth bread from the earth, and of the spirit of man who has the drive and ambition, skills and fortitude to make it happen, while retaining the humility to give thanks to the gods for the results of his own stubborn effort. 

Which will I do? I have a choice, each day really. Will I fall into despair and rebellion and cast myself out into failure, or will I put in the work having faith that the result will be something worthy of celebration?

The words of the scroll in the Ace of Swords are pointing toward the 4 of Wands card, the prism of light refracting from the swords hilt leads toward the 4 of Wands, the tip of the quill points toward it, and even the butterflies are fluttering in that direction. Clearly I am steered toward putting in the effort, reaping the reward, and celebrating it with my community.

So, here I go! Where will I be in a year? I've written it down, and today I open the scroll. And recite.