Today’s draw is the Ace of Wands from Motherpeace tarot.
This card says it ALL.
As I sit with it in meditation I feel a bubbling up of excitement and joy through my body. I have spent the last several days navigating my resistance, acknowledging my terror, and allowing myself to be held– and this card feels like the perfect reward for my diligent work.
My mother, daughter and I had a ceremony yesterday for my Grandmother (my mother’s mother). She died when I was three, and I have one memory of her lying in a hospital bed with tubes in her nose. It was a terrifying image for a three year old, and one that is emblazoned in my brain. My mother has carried her ashes around for the last 38 years.
Yesterday she finally unburdened herself– and this card speaks to a rebirth of our lineage. We brought my grandmother’s ashes down to the Willamette river and scattered them there– sending her out to the Pacific. It was simple and easy. My mom showed my daughter pictures of her mother. She recounted simple stories about who her mother was, and the struggles she encountered. We set her spirit free– and released ourselves from her struggles.
Today all of us step forward on a new path. It is a rebirth for each of us as individuals and for our lineage. The four of us share the name Louise, which means “renowned warrior.” All four of us have an intense fight within us– the fire in this image perfectly depicts our nature. As we move forward we carry the fierce warrior with us but release the struggle. We allow ourselves to be held and supported. We honor the struggle that came before us– and balance the intensity of our fire with the movement and continuous flow of water.
Today’s draw is the Ace of Swords turned right from Motherpeace tarot created by Vicki Nobel and Karen Vogel.
So today I’m sideways as opposed to upside down. I suppose that’s progress…
Sitting in meditation today after drawing this card, my attention was drawn to my heart chakra. I felt massive pressure there, like a huge bubble welling up– wanting to be released but also needing to be felt. I sat with the bubble, connecting to my root and my crown, drawing light into my heart from both directions. I allowed emotion to move, tears streaming down my cheeks. As it flowed, the bubble began to disperse and turn into refracted light, like a sunset spreading wide across my chest, looking exactly like the image in this picture.
This image inspires hope for me. The butterfly beckons me out of my familiar and comfortable rut. In reading about this card, it being turned right is a sign of pushing an action or idea. That resonates. BIG TIME.
Yesterday in acknowledging my terror, I acknowledged also the comfort in pushing. My modus operandi throughout my entire adult life is to push forward and through. There’s something very comforting in the effort of the push. It helps me feel life I’m doing something– the struggle makes me feel alive. In this image the immense beauty is her effortlessness. She is poised and balanced and HELD from all directions, just as she emanates in all directions. The image is exactly what I felt in meditation yesterday… to hold and be held.
Today’s draw is the five of cups, seven of swords and five of wands from Motherpeace tarot by Vicki Noble and Karen Vogel.
I made this draw in the morning during the few spare moments I had between my early morning class and taking my kids to the doctor and the dentist. I first drew the seven of swords, an old friend from a few weeks back. I remember the last time I drew this guy I was horrified, because just the night before I’d had a sunshine-and-roses-all-signs-point-to-YES kind of draw, and this fox knocked me down several pegs. As I did the last time I drew this card, I immediately knew I needed to draw two more, first the five of cups and then the five of wands. As I drew the five of wands I said hello again, having just seen it a few moments before when it had tried to assert itself while I was shuffling, a “jumper”. This time I actually said hello instead of shoving it back into the deck. I think it’s safe to say this morning was a head down, get it done sort of operation– not a lot of conscious activity happening for me.
Immediately after drawing these cards, I took a picture and then headed off with my kids into “Operation mom” for the next hour and a half. Before leaving I tried to find my Motherpeace book, so I might be able to at least intellectually process what the deck was telling me– but to no avail– it was hiding. The cards were eerily haunting throughout the day– I checked in with the picture a couple of times. Operation mom moved immediately (and a few minutes late) into “Operation business owner”– and my day proceeded as such, moving from one thing to the next without any time to consider myself.
Welcome back to life!!
My job as a business owner is incredibly rewarding. I have relationships with so many different, amazing people. I have no one but myself to answer to (which totally works for me). I LOVE my work. However, at times running a business can be really challenging. It can be a lot to carry on my sizable-but-just-one-set-of shoulders. Sometimes I allow that stress to bleed into my personal life– because I certainly don’t want it to bleed into my professional life. Sometimes I don’t do a good job of managing my stress.
I had some unfortunate digital misunderstandings and miscommunications with my husband in the afternoon which added to my stress and general “off” feelings. I finished work at six and headed home to cook dinner, moving into “Operation wife” with a chip on my shoulder which was really uncalled for– but definitely present. When my husband arrived home I didn’t do a good job at communicating the gist of my day– and ultimately, while walking along the beautiful, tree-lined streets of our neighborhood we had our first fight as a married couple. Hooray!! (We all know it’s gotta happen, might as well get it over with).
Arriving back at our house after my own personal post-fight walk, I saw my husband through the window in our basement folding laundry, and I went into the kitchen and finished making dinner. Under the auspice of “not putting clothes in the wrong place” we made up, he always finds a way to make me smile. We settled back into our life and had a late dinner. It was then and only then that my Motherpeace book poked its head out from its hiding place RIGHT next to me. Yes. My daily draw.
I picked it up and leafed through the book, finding the descriptions of my cards, finally able to consciously take them in. I took some time to sit with the images. I felt gratitude for the resolution and communication between myself and my husband. Sometimes things present themselves before we’re ready to take them in. These cards definitely did that. They spoke of strategizing to get what I want, of not becoming overwhelmed or stuck in a space of grieving or letting go, and of an internal struggle and the rising of a phoenix from the ashes. YES, YES and YES.
This daily draw process is not always the easiest for me. It lays bare things that are not easy to look at– that are hiding underneath my rose-colored surfaces. It helps me to affirm where I am and with what I am struggling. I don’t like to acknowledge personal struggle, as it feels in my lizard brain like a weakness. Of course as a healer, I know better– but it is challenging to always stay on top of self-reflection. Today it tells me that consciousness in all things is KEY. And honest communication with myself and with the outside world is necessary.
Today’s draw is the hermit from Spiritsong Tarot by Paulina Cassidy.
Number 9 is my favorite number, and a hermit is what I would desperately like to be at the moment. It speaks of moving away from the distractions of the world and into a personal solitude. I feel the call of the koala and know that my looming deadline makes the idea of solitude sound like an impossibility. However, I appreciate the appearance of koala and feel that despite the “stress” I may be in the midst of– koala reminds me that despite the external chaos and distraction, I am still able to access calm and relaxation at my center.
Today’s draw is the reversed hanged one from Motherpeace tarot by Karen Vogel and Vicki Nobel.
This card feels incredibly etheric to me. There are halos or energy fields emanating from the base of the trees as well as the head and shoulders of the female figure. What I read of it speaks of being caught up in an external process, which is certainly true. I’m so caught in that process I’m having a hard time sitting with this card. I am where I am and it is what it is.
I’m right side up hanging from my ankle by a snake. Somehow what I get when I sit with this image is exuberance. I’ll take it.
Today’s draw is the son of discs from Motherpeace tarot by Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble.
Wow. I just actually sat for a moment with this image and was STRUCK by how brilliantly it portrays my life right now. It is the perfect metaphor for my wedding and the focus I have on the target, just nine days away. I am struck by the meticulous clarity with which he aims and focuses. There is no doubt in his being that he will hit the center of his target with surety and perfection.
He is surrounded by and supported by nature, the robin, dragonfly and the forest. He is harmonious in his forward momentum. Time in its insanely non-linear fashion is playing with me these days– but I have a slow and steady “eye on the prize” mentality that keeps things in perspective and helps me to understand that this final stretch before the wedding will be insanely short and immensely long at the same time. I am exhausted and exuberant, overwhelmed and accomplished.
I am ready and steady and I’ve got my eye on the target nine days from now and I know with certainty there’s no way for me to miss it.
mandycregan
