Daily Draw- Ten of Wands, Hierophant, The Lovers

Today I feel a heavy burden of guilt.  As a family, Halloween is our favorite time of year.  And I can't really participate in it.  No costume for me this year, no haunted houses, no ghoulish treats to make, no tricks to be had.

Silver Era Tarot- Ten of Wands, The Hierophant, The Lovers

I always want to give my kids everything, every experience, every tradition, because we didn't have those when I was a kid.  Nothing was the same even from day to day, let alone year to year.  I like my kids to experience traditions both big and small, holiday grandiosity and every day comforts.  I know they do not matter to them all that much now, but I know they will.  One day.  The Ten of Wands shows my heavy burden, and my back pain, quite literally.  The Hierophant is the card of tradition and ritual, things doe the same over and over.  The Lovers is not just romantic love, though my sweet, handsome man is picking up the slack as best he can, but it shows the love I have for this family, and the choice I have to make today, between pushing myself beyond what I am capable of and trying to provide what I think they want and need.

Silver Era Tarot- Page of Cups

Inspirations for Survivors

The shadow card is the Page of Cups, a sweet soul who tells me the kids understand, and I would ask for forgiveness but they don't even expect it.  This is most often my NicNoodle in my readings, and she has already made plans to be with friends tonight.  I am glad she will be busy and happy, but I am sad I am not so missed.

I also drew a card from Inspirations for Survivors, also by Aunia Kahn and Russell J. Moon, and it seems that I may be making more of this than needs to be made, because its' message is overwhelmingly positive, The song bird in your soul is ready to sing.  So, while my finally tricks and treats, and I rest in bed, and they wear costumes and scare each other and get scared, I'll be doing what I am supposed to be doing, too.

These cards are from Silver Era Tarot and Inspirations for Survivors Cards, both by Aunia Kahn and Russell J. Moon, published by Schiffer Books.

Tarot Spells- A Samhain Celebration

Although my deck of the week is Silver Era Tarot, I can't resist using Halloween Tarot by Kipling West this morning, and I am going to do a little magick with it this morning, too!  The book I am using is Tarot Spells by Janina Renee, published by Llewellyn.

The spell I will be working today is #40, from page 148 in the book, To restrain the actions of a malicious person.  I wish this person well, I wish them happiness, but mostly, I wish them to either go in peace, or stay in peace.

From the book, "Although we acknowledge that each person shares a spark of the Divine, and is therefore worthy of being loved and honored, most of us are all too aware that there are persons whose negative energies and destructive actions have a harmful effect on others.  If such an individual is troubling you, this spell offers protection from both physical and psychic forms of harm.  It utilizes a bell-jar technique, shielding you and deflecting your foe's ill will back to its' source.  Your adversary is restrained by being sealed within a magical container, causing him or her to stew within their own juices.

The cross-shaped layout serves a dual purpose here, the subject or Significator is the person who needs to be restrained (rather than the person who is performing the spell).  If you can't think of an appropriate Significator to use for your adversary, or if this is a case where the identity of the person is unknown to you, it would be acceptable to use the Devil in the central position.  If that seems too intense, you could instead use a King, Queen, Knight, or Page of Swords, as these cards sometimes represent adversaries."

I chose to use the Queen of Cups as the Significator for the person whose malicious actions I would like restrained, because most often that is what comes up for me to represent them, usually ill aspected.

Halloween Tarot Spell- To Restrain the Actions of a Malicious Person

"The Two of Swords, Hanged Man, and Eight of Swords show your would-be troublemaker plagued by indecision, unable to move, and forced to give up his or her malicious plans or actions." ~from Tarot Spells by Janina Renee, page 149.

Temperance would usually top the spread, to encourage this person to self restraint, but in cases where the law must be involved, Justice should be substituted, so substitute I have, though I have become painfully aware that common decency can't be court ordered..

There are more steps to this spell, including meditation, affirmation, and the use of a bell jar, which I won't share, both to protect copyright on the book (you should buy a copy if you want to use it to cast tarot spells) and to protect the identity of the malicious person I am asking for protection from.  I wish them no harm; I only wish them to actively stop trying to cause harm to me and the people I love.

Halloween Tarot- Eight of Pumpkins

Halloween Tarot- The Moon

What will be the result of successfully executing this spell?  The Moon- I think you cannot always know what you set in motion by casting a spell, and that I cannot be sure what the result will be.  I do see a wolf howling in impotent rage, and the rage seems to feed on itself.  The Shadow Card from this reading was the Eight of Pumpkins, which would be Pentacles, and the diligence of the worker shows I will need to be vigilant, too.  I can't let up on this.  The malicious person certainly has unlimited time and resources to spend on being so, and while I have neither the desire to pursue vengeance, and certainly neither the time nor money, I still have to remain constant, because I do not believe this person will stop, because they don't want a pound of flesh for their perceived hurts, but an entire ton, and even that won't fill the awful void in their heart.  It's just too sad.

Tarot Spells are, to my mind, a proactive form of positive visualization, affirmation, and a signal to the Universe that you are ready to take responsibility for your own happiness as well.  I do not believe that I can cause anything to happen that a good and loving God/dess would not allow, and I do believe that anything I may put out into the Universe will come back to me threefold, so I think carefully before casting any sort of magick.  I wish this person no harm.  I wish them joy and love and the beauty of  happy family and self esteem and a life all their own and happiness and freedom from the ties that bind them, but I can't sit idly by and let me or mine come to harm, either.

Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain to all of you!

These cards are from Halloween Tarot by Kipling West, published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.

NaNoWriMo 2012

Every year, hell, every day, I tell myself I am going to write, and in November if you are going to write it has to be National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNoWriMo.  Procrastination is the what kills me, every time, every November, and if I am really honest with myself, every day.

Silver Era Tarot- Two of Cups, Six of Wands, Four of Swords

"Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy." ~Wayne Gretzky

Even as I am typing this I am looking at Pinterest, checking email, rubbing my sore back and telling myself surely I deserve some time off to deal with that, talking to My Little Big Man about spring league football, planning crafts I want to make (I never want to make crafts so I know this is Resistance), wanting to go get coffee, and watching Hoarder with equal parts fascination and horror.  (My Little Big Man went to fetch me coffee.  One more bonus of having a Kuerig- kidproof coffee and he feels great about helping me!)

What obstacles can I expect to encounter this November during NaNoWriMo?  Two of Cups- I have two thoughts as I look at this card.  The first one is that it's hard for me to do anything that takes time away from my husband and my family, because there is so little of it, and it is so vital.  One thing that can counteract that, for me, is that Little Big Man wants to participate this year too, and we can totally sit in companionable silence together, working, plus he is such an interesting writer!

The second thing I think about is that for me, the Two of Cups is often about sacred contracts, the why we came to this world at this time, in this body, what purpose we have.  I have no doubts that writing is one, for me, but because it is so very important to me, I struggle with it.  I want it to be just right.  I want it to be perfect.  And perfect doesn't exist.  I worry about putting something out into the world that is less than perfect, because if I can't do this one thing well, what can I do well?  It's sometimes easier for me to pretend I didn't want the grapes anyway, like the fox in Aesop's fable, than admit I want them more than anything but jut am not sure how to get them.

How can I overcome the obstacle?  Six of Wands- This card makes me chuckle.  Astrologically speaking, it is Jupiter, the most beneficent planet, in Leo, the SuperStar of the zodiac.  What that means for people who don't deal with astrology, is that this card has a lot of well deserved chutzpah.  It may be a little bit arrogant, but it deserves to be.  For me, as advice, what that means is that I need to own my talent.  Sometimes I want to hide behind modesty, to pretend that I am not all that, which sounds like modesty, but really isn't.  It is actually an ugly personality trait, because to waste such a precious resource, like talent, that is Divinely gifted, is nearly blasphemy, and it's actually a way to try to avoid the responsibility that goes along with having a talent.

What will be the end result?  Four of Swords- If I manage to stick to my schedule, and finish NaNoWriMo successfully, I will have earned a well deserved rest, self satisfied and easy in the knowledge I did my best.  Swords have to do with thoughts and ideas, so I think this also means I will have gained a skill which enables me to hold my ideas, suspended, like the three swords above her, ready to implement when I am ready to write them, while I concentrate on the one currently most important.  This will be really valuable to me because, like many creative people, I get overwhelmed with ideas and then I do nothing about any of them.  This card promises I'll gain the skill of organizing those ideas so they can later be utilized.

Silver Era Tarot- Seven of Swords

The Shadow Card of this reading is the Seven of Swords.  In Denver Tarot Geeks one evening, I heard my brilliant friend Rory describe this card as stealing from yourself, robbing yourself of an experience that you needed to have, and this describes me very well.  If I don't do this, I will be stealing an opportunity for myself to grow, learn, and create, from myself.  I will be hurting myself, and to what end?  Just because I love to procrastinate?  Just because I am afraid that what I write won't be "good enough"?  How selfish, how cowardly, and how not who I want to be!

Inspirations for Survivors

The card I pulled from Inspirations for Survivors, also by Aunia Kahn and Russell J. Moon, reads ,"The World is at your fingertips."  I have always known I would not win the lottery, because if I did I would not do the work I was sent here to do.  I have also known that I will be quite successful, which is not arrogance. Clearly, as of yet, I have no right to be arrogant, as I have not published a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, or even much of anything.  That doesn't matter to me, though, because I know I will.  The fact that I haven't yet doesn't affect that at all.


Are you going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year?

These cards are from Silver Era Tarot and Inspirations for Survivors by Aunia Kahn and Russell J. Moon, published by Schiffer Books.

Theme For The Week: Major Arcana on Monday- The Moon

Because, really, why not?  I draw The Moon over and over on Mondays, which I find endlessly amusing, and today the full Moon is in Taurus, my Sun sign.

Silver Era Tarot- The Moon

Taurus and Scorpio are opposites on the astrology chart,something I feel very deeply when dealing with my gorgeous, changeable, artistic, deeply sensitive daughter, who has four planets in Scorpio.

That opposition may cause this full Moon to be one that seems to pull us in different directions, as we are currently in the Sun sign of Scorpio.  However, they can certainly find common ground in the realm of sensuality.  Taurus, being ruled by Venus, is an earthy, lustful sort, and Scorpio rules over secret things, like sex.  Taurus probably doesn't care if the sex is secret or not, as long as they are getting it, but the tang of naughtiness probably enhances it for Scorpio, and the mystery of The Moon has its' own ethereal desire drifting through the picture.

The primal pull of The Moon this week will likely influence me heavily, no real surprise as on Thursday NaNoWriMo kicks off, and I am determined to produce a novella during this time.  My family deserves it.  I deserve it.  My talent deserves it.  Hell, I am going to go out on a limb and ay the whole world deserves to read what I have to write.

(I had surgery four days ago.  Most of you know that.  A discesctomy.  If this surgery does not do the trick, then it is a fusion I am looking at, an even more hellish prospect.  I feel like hell.  Warmed over.  But I feel better when I write.  So write I am going to.)

Inspirations for Survivors

I decided to pull a card from the wrenchingly beautiful  Inspirations for Survivors Deck, also by Aunia Kahn and Russel J. Moon, because those have been my go to cards while I have been healing, since August, too zoinked on pain meds to really tap into the parts of my mind that tarot needs, and the message for today was one of great comfort- "Even in chaos you can find peace."  The Moon is beautiful, the Moon is often still, but her energy is not always so peaceful.  This card is a message that my peace is my own domain, and I can find it if I desire.  My peace does not depend on the action, attitudes, or word of anyone else, and that is supremely potent.

These cards are from Silver Era Tarot  and Inspirations for Survivors by Aunia Kahn and Russell J. Moon, published by Schiffer Books.