Hey hey hey

Morgan's Tarot, US Games

Our last draw of the week from Morgan's Tarot, US Games 1970. 'What's Happening?'

This phrase reminds me of the TV show I used to watch when I was a kid, called 'What's Happening?' It was a sitcom centred around a group of young African Americans and their silly misadventures. Each of the characters had a catchphrase. The kid called Dwayne always used to say, 'Hey HEY hey!' every time he entered a scene. And now I can't get the theme tune out of my head:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpBhrjfetkk

If anyone reading this is American, did you watch that show? :D

Okay, back to the card. What have we here? A circle, a triangle, a square. 'What's happening?' Well. A stable base, then a precarious balance. Helpful as always, the LWB says, 'Who knows what the figures on the card mean? Or this is an innocent question as to why you are allowing this nonsense to occur.'

Actually, that is kind of helpful. Whatever the shapes on the card might mean (and I doubt very seriously it's earth, fire and water), the message is pretty straightforward. Look around and make a wide-awake assessment of your current situation. If there's something there you don't like, what will you do next? Maybe a bubble of yours is about to burst. Maybe a temporary stability is about to topple. Or maybe right now everything is in balance. But until you open your eyes and look at it, how will you know? When you're sleepwalking, all three situations look the same. A circle, a triangle, a square.

The Faerie Tarot: New Deck Exercise

I don't like new deck interview spreads. I find them contrived and silly. But I do like a technique I found on Aeclectic Tarot called 'Balancing the Moment.'  You go through a new deck and identify your most favourite and least favourite cards, and read the shadow meaning for your most favourite, and the upright meaning for your least favourite.

I thought I'd try this technique out on my new Faerie Tarot by Natalie Hertz, US Games 2007. The kit consists of box with slip sleeve in which nestles a tuck box containing the deck and a Little White Book. A fold out spread poster of the ubiquitous Celtic Cross is included. To be quite frank, I'd have been happier with just the tuck box. In my opinion, there is too much packaging in tarot decks. It's a waste of resources, a waste of storage space, and makes the deck more expensive than it might otherwise have been. Does anyone use those spread posters they include in these sets? Or those dreadful organza bags? I don't know.

Om mani padme hum

Morgan's Tarot, US Games

O, thou jewel in the lotus, hail.

Today's card from Morgan's Tarot (US Games 1970, 1983, 2009) features a lotus. The title of the card is 'Right'. But inside the illustration of the card is 'Whatever's'. So the card moves from possibly being a statement of the 'Right' thing, the 'Right' way, to 'Everything is right. Anything is right. Whatever is right.'

Whatever happens, it's the right thing to happen. Whatever we do, it's the right thing to do. It sounds like a load of old cobblers, doesn't it? How can 'whatever' be right? What if something bad happens? Is that right? What if we make a choice that has unpleasant consequences? How then could that choice have been right?

It's right, not because it's good, but because it is real. 'Whatever' is happening in this moment IS what is happening. (Maybe that's why we call it 'right now'.)

This moment, regardless of how we got here or how we feel about the situation, is our reality. If we do not accept it as 'right', we waste the moment by being in denial about it. Any changes we could have made will be lost. The first step to changing a situation, is accepting that it is actually happening. This is a truly tough lesson. Sometimes we think we have accepted something, but we're really in complete inner turmoil, anger, grief, or denial about it. We may look placid and accepting on the outside, but inside we are at war. We don't realise the war is a battle of one, and there will only be one casualty.

The lotus is a symbol of peace. Make peace with right now. Whatever's right.

Sorry, what were we just talking about?

Morgan's Tarot, US Games

Okay, I have to admit something. I've nearly overrun the bathtub twice in the last 6 months. The first time it was right up to the edge. Second time, it was about 1/3 full, which is 2 or 3 times deeper than I usually run it. *sigh*

I've also developed a new method of cooking. Put the food in a tin, preheat the oven. Wander off. Go back to the kitchen in a half hour to see how it's going and find the food still sitting on the stovetop. Swear and put food in the oven.

Alternate method: put food in oven and go back in an hour to find it blackened and smoking.

Advanced method: Take food out at perfect time and have meal as normal. Return to kitchen at bedtime to check on things and find the oven is still on.

Optional bonus: decide it's a good idea to swap two items from one rack to the other. Take the first item out, put it on stovetop. Use the oven glove to pick up the second item, stand up and try to pick up the first item with your bare hand. Yes I did this last week. I then spent the remainder of the evening sitting with my hand in a bowl of ice water, which prevented it from actually developing a blister. I let go of that pan REALLY quick, but still. What the heck is this all about? At the rate I'm going, I won't be able to take care of myself by the time I'm 55, let alone 85. I've heard that absent-mindedness is a symptom of peri-menopause, so I'm hoping that's all it is. My GP doesn't seem too concerned. But then, he doesn't seem too concerned about much. Still, how excited can you get about a forgetful middle-aged woman when you've got 5,000 people in your practice, and 30 of them are in your waiting room right now.

A Wisdom Reading: What is happiness?

PCS Commemorative, 2009

What is happiness? 6 of Pentacles

Were you expecting The World? Something really BIG at least. Such a big question. WHAT IS HAPPINESS??  And then what turns up--a mundane pentacles card. A card about charity. Oh, wait. 'And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.' (That was old St Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:13).  The word 'charity' here means love, the sort of love that reaches out rather than turning in. It is conventional wisdom, 'better it is to give than to receive'. We hear it, but do we do it?

Giving--though depicted here as of a very material nature--need not be about money or material wealth. Many things are more precious to us than material things. What about our attention? What about our time? How would it make someone feel if when he stands before us he becomes, in that moment, the most important person to us in the world? And perhaps more significantly, how would it make us feel to treat them that way? The next time someone talks to you, stop what you are doing, turn to face them, look them directly in the eye and think only about what they are saying. Then think beyond what they are saying (because you might not actually like what they are saying), and go to the common humanity between the two of you. Your eye contact becomes your namaste to the universe. Make them the most important person in the world for that moment. I know people who have this skill. I wish to develop it. I admire those people who seem to come by it naturally. I feel that it is one of the true keys to personal happiness, though it does not seem to be our primal, instinctive response. It is, as Abraham Lincoln called it, one of the 'better angels of our nature', and requires conscious development before it becomes a habit.

On reflection, maybe it is our primal, instinctive response. I was just thinking of the way a baby pays attention to someone. Complete honed-in eye contact and full attention. Have you ever locked eye with an infant? There's some serious connecting going on there!