Balance was the focus for me on my recent retreat with Joanna Colbert. We each did work with our ancestors to discover what it was that needed to be worked on. Mine was balance. We did a sacred dance with Jennifer Lucero-Earle where I danced my dance of balance to MaMuse Natural Order .
For me, Mabon is balance. Our TarotBlogHop wranglers, Jenn and Louise, have asked that we look at how balance can be restored. I am going to tackle that in this blog. You will also see me on another blog post in this hop. I decided to tackle two. Balance, yes?
So, the question of “how can balance be restored” presumes that balance has been lost. I propose that we don’t lose balance so much as we get a bit off-axis, if you will. By that I mean we wobble. Wobbling can be scary if you aren’t expecting it. Like being on a plane that suddenly hits turbulence. I don’t know about you, but I get REALLY anxious if the plane starts doing a jig without warning. You?
The thing is the crew is trained for this. I’ve learned to watch them. If they aren’t running and screaming as if Cthulhu has arrived, I do so deep breathing (after rechecking my seat belt, of course.) They’re not off-balance. They are still doing what they do. It also taught me to check myself before I wreck myself. Usually this works. There have been times when I’ve gone off completely unhinged. That’s so embarrassing to me.
Embarrassment and I are really good friends, though. I’m good at laughing at myself…eventually. Of course, in the moment? Not so much. But being truly out-of-balance or needing to restore balance? That’s tricky if you are self-correcting a mere wobble. There’s a high possibility you will over-correct. Which can be worse than the initial wobble. For example, think of a teen who breaks curfew one time (for any reason). Their parental unit goes nuclear telling them their curfew is now back to 7:30 as if they were eight years old. Any bets on how fast that teenager is going to sneak out? Start ignoring all the rules because, obviously, their parent is a tyrant? In teenage think, that is.
What if the parent had said “Okay, that’s one. You only get one because I don’t play baseball. Home by curfew or don’t expect to go out until your next birthday.” I’m not a parent so your mileage may vary. If that doesn’t work for you, let’s try cooking. You make a dish. You put in twice as much salt as you should rendering it inedible. An over-correction would be “I vow I’ll never make that dish again.” Right? All you need to do is pay a bit more attention.
I associate balance in the Tarot with the two cards. Each one has a message of what can happen if you do too much of one thing. Justice, card 11, and the High Priestess, card 2, and Judgment, card 20, are also two’s in my view. Think about what is wobbling in your life right now. How can you apply gentle correction to pull yourself back into balance? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Maybe I’m odd, but I always rather like turbulence. I find it a bit of a thrill rather than being really scared. Only time I’ve been really worried on a plane was coming in to land sideways in a driving storm with serious crosswinds. However, despite all the bumps and jaunty angle of descent, the pilot was so good I didn’t even realise we’d grounded. Wobbling is fine by me – gyroscopes wobble but are quite stable 🙂 I’m probably one of life’s anomalies – I don’t crave certainties and I enjoy the possibility of change.
Arwen–I really loved this. It was so gentle and lovely and reminded me of my own all or nothing mindset where if I screw something up, I never want to try again. Thank you for the reminder that this never works.
Watch for the wobble, and then a small correction. Good advice! I’d be interested to hear more about your thoughts on the twos! 🙂
Your post is the fourth time I have seen Justice mentioned, its starting to be a running theme with me at the moment. The retreat you went on sounds really interesting. I did similar things towards the end of 2017, and found it very powerful to be a part of but sadly as yet I haven’t had the chance to walk my ancestral line properly. I may need to walk it in Tarot, thanks to your post 🙂
Hmmm… I can totally relate to the over correcting! I also am a friend to embarrassment. Currently my wobble is over spending. I am working to cut down on the extra’s and only spend on necessities. This is extremely hard for me, as I am a “shiny” person or “squirrel” person… hahaha! When things catch my eye, buying goes into overdrive. So I normally try to stay away form online shopping (most of the time) and I don’t go many places. I try to not to go into the all or nothing thought process, but most times that is how it ends up for me!!! So still a “work in process”!!! Have a fabulous week!!!
Great trio of twos! I’d forgotten about Judgement. Also aspiring to Ania’s enjoyment of uncertainty. Makes for a much more interesting and chill in a way, sort of life.