Monday, March 19, 2012

Tarot Blog Hop- Ostara: Paint A Journey With A New Life

Today I am thrilled and honored to be participating in a group activity, the Tarot Blog Hop.  A group of tarot bloggers have all agreed to write on one subject and share.  Today's theme is Ostara: Paint a Journey With a New Life.

You may have arrived her from Donnaleigh's blog and if so welcome!  Welcome wherever you may have come from!  When you have finished reading here, the next stop on this blog hop is Andrew.  I hope you find pleasure in all the writing you may enjoy today.

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Paint is artistry, so what am I if not the artist and creator of any life I may lead, let alone a new one?  My first card will be what I am I painting, creating, now?

The second part of the theme, is Journey, and I will explore what kind of journey I am on now, what my road looks like.

The third card is A New Life, where I will end up as I paint and journey through my days.

I chose the lovely Queen of Wands, in this deck represented by Titania, as my muse and guide for this reading.  She is in fact weaving a gossamer tapestry  of dreams in this depiction, but that is close enough to painting for me, and the Queen of Wands is the kind of creative driving force that can make serious progress on a journey.

Fantastical Creatures Tarot- Six of Wands, Eight of Cups, Death
What am I currently painting- Six of Wands.  In this deck, Zeus and his white eagle combine with the traditional meaning of the card, victory, to speak of the kind of triumph one can achieve through communion with Spirit.  The white eagle is a harbinger, a messenger between the mighty deity and the mortals that serve him, one that reveals absolute truth to us in dreams and visions.  I have been diligently keeping a dream journal, no easy feat when it works best to begin to write even as you are mostly still asleep, bleary eyed, before the wisps of the dreams evaporate in the morning light.  This is a great help in clearing my mind and helping me to remember all the journeys I take at night.  Also, for me as a writer, it is critical I get all the extraneous thoughts out so I can concentrate on my story to tell.  This is a bright and confident card, and I fell that as I paint this picture for myself I am also painting one of success, happiness, and attainment of my goals.

I instantly understood the card for what kind of journey I am on- Eight of Cups.  I need to let go of my emotional baggage that holds me deep under, drowning in my own emotions at times, too heavy to float to the surface and gasp for life giving air, too human to grow gills and breathe underwater.  This card is depicted as the Daughters of Ran, a Norse sea goddess, cold and pitiless.  They are akin to mermaids, and not the Disney ones, but the ones of older lore, hungry for the souls of men.  To combine this with my last card, Death, I understand that the only way for me to leave this baggage may be to surrender fully to the horror of it, with the trust that once its' weight is lifted I can then rise to the surface, reborn.  This is a very metaphorical thought, but one of my main coping mechanisms is to pretend nothing is wrong, particularly if I feel I cannot change the wrong thing.  In practical terms, this means that I need to face my pain, admit I can't necessarily do anything about it, and then it will  lose its' hold over me.

My final card, Death, is where I will end up.  This made me chuckle, because yes, cards, I know I will die.  The only time the Death card has meant a physical death to me was when my grandfather was in hospice care, and again, it was a situation that had me sighing at my cards, "Yes, I know, but tell me something else."  Therefore, I can rest assured this card is most likely referring to the kind of spiritual death and rebirth that is necessary for growth, and for a new life.  This card is Anansi, the African Spider God, a trickster and terribly clever, wise in the fact he has learned to celebrate life and never take himself too seriously to have fun.  As I continue on my journey, I know, not entirely comfortably, that no map can guide me, and it is not for me to foresee all that I will face, as I paint my picture of creativity, of commune with the divine, and as I swim through the depths of the pain I have bottled up for far too long.  It may well be for me, the way forward is the way back, and that is how I will paint my journey with a new life.

My cards remind my of a quote from the esteemed George R.R. Martin in his acclaimed series, A Song of Fire and Ice, where one of the gods worshiped is a cold one of sea and stone.  His followers say, "What is dead may never die, but rises again stronger and harder."  At first read, this may seem a bleak sentiment, but upon reflection I find comfort in the realization that what does not kill us in fact only does serve to make us stronger, cliche though that may sound.  Often I create more pain by trying to avoid what is before me.  Sometimes it is okay to sit with an uncomfortable feeling, to let it stretch me and cause me to strive and change.  This is the fundamental base of any workout program, which ultimately serves to reshape the body.  Sometimes pain is a workout for the soul.

Thank you for visiting 78 Whispers in My Ear from Donnaleigh's blog, and I hope you will continue the Tarot Blog Hop to Andrew's blog next.  Blessed Ostara to you, rich with the fullness of the promise of renewed life in Spring!

There is a full list of participants and links to their posts at Tarot by Arwen's page if you would like to hop around rather than sequentially.  Enjoy!





This deck is Fantastical Creatures Tarot by D.J. Conway and Lisa Hunt, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

17 comments:

  1. Hi, what a great web blog. I usually spend hours on the net reading blogs on various subjects. And, I really would like to praise you for writing such a fabulous article. I honestly believe there is a skill to writing articles that only very few posses and yes you got it. This is really informative and I will for sure refer my friends the same. Thanks.

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  2. I love the positions for this spread and the powerful cards you pulled, Manda! Great deck choice as well!

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    1. Thank you, Zanna! I was not sure what to write so I let the cards tell me, and it was made easy with such an expressive deck :)

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  3. That Death came in the final position was a very funny draw! Tarot has a great sense of humor! But what an important message in the end, and one I needed to hear today. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. So true.

    Thank you for this.

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    1. I've got snarky cards, what can I say? Thank YOU for wrangling and stopping by! Me and Kelly Clarkson, preaching the gospel of carrying on.

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  4. Your first comment is a spammer. I get hit with them all the time. :) This is a very deep spread and one I will be utilizing. I'd love to hear more about your choosing a guide/muse for this spread. Is this your significator position?

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    1. At least a polite spammer :) Or a flattering one, anyway.

      Thank you for your kind words! I picked this Queen of Wands by looking through my cards and finding which one I felt best embodied the theme, through imagery, and combining Titania weaving with a more traditional interpretation of the Queen of Wands gave me exactly what I was looking for! She seems to me a strong, capable woman, truly creating her own world, and that is what I wanted to express with our theme. I wanted to bring her energy into the reading, so I just threw her down and asked her to join. I wanted her to lend me her creativity and she graciously did. I am a big believer in laying down cards you want to bring in, not just what is randomly drawn. This is part of how I paint my journey.

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    2. Well I really loved this post so thank you so much! By the way? Winter is coming. :D

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  5. A great spread and lovely deck. Thank you for reflecting on the GRMartin god. I haven't read those books yet, so I appreciate the apt introduction.

    claire-marie

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    1. The books are crazy good, not your average fantasy, and while the HBO series has thus far followed fairly closely, there is so much context beneath the story the can't touch. If you like to read, and like your fantasy all grown up, you will probably like them. Thank you for stopping by!

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    2. What Manda said. Only? Don't get too attached to ANY character. :|

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  6. That is a pretty deck - thanks for reminding me I need to get it :-) Interesting spread too :-)

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    1. It is a stunning deck! But, I need to look up the various creatures to get there with this deck, because it does not follow "traditional" meanings faithfully, and the Wands are Air, Swords Fire in this deck, which is fine with me but confuses some people. I adore Lisa Hunt's art and D.J. Conway is ridiculously knowledgeable, making this deck a double whammy. I am pleased you like the spread!

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  7. That deck looks beautiful! Luffing that Queen of Wands SICK :-D

    Ali x

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    1. Titania, all hail! She's gorgeous! I was struck by how many Queens of Wands we saw in the hopping!

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  8. Hello, you have done a lot of work on your tarot blog, and I enjoy the wonderful color and images on your site. The tarot is a powerful form of divination and I enjoy learning more about the inner workings of the cards. I find the tarot so useful and helpful in many ways, that it really should be more popular that what it is, just my opinion.
    psychic reading

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