Today’s card isn’t a card. It’s a lovely quote image from Leonie Dawson.
If you’ve been paying attention, you know I have a mad business girl crush on the fabulous Aussie mum and heart-led entrepreneur, Leonie Dawson. She’s made a difference in my life and I’ve never even met her. How crazy is that?
She wrote this amazing thing called You Have Permission. You can get a free download of it by signing up for her free goodies
It was enlightening for me. No, more than that, it was lightening. It freed me. It released some things I didn’t even realize I was holding on to. I want you to have that gift too.
Today is a short post because I want you to head over, sign up for the goodies and then your journal prompt for today is,
Today’s card is from a charming Goddess on the Go Oracle deck.. I love the dancing woman but really love the shadow figure dancing behind and above. I see it as a part of her. If you have read my words here, you will know that I’m pretty insistent about the fact that shadow self is not bad per se. It simple is. It’s bits and pieces of pysche that we would rather not deal with OR that are being used to protect our “tender bits” as Po Panda might say
You’ve probably heard the “dance like no one’s looking” phrase, but have you seen the whole thing? Or know who said it?
“You’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching,
Love like you’ll never be hurt,
Sing like there’s nobody listening,
And live like it’s heaven on earth.”
? William W. Purkey also attributed to an Irish proverb also attributed to anonymous
That first line gets the most air time, but look at the second one. Raise your hand if that makes you want to puke or run or laugh hysterically or some combination of the three.
Mmm hmm…that’s what I thought.
Me too some days.
Other days I would rather love out loud (yes, love, that’s not a typo) then live in fear of pain. That’s my goal real…to love out loud.
So hold on to the image in the card today. When things get you down…when someone just sucks the joy right out of your life…when you get cut off in traffic AGAIN… see this woman and become her. Allow your shadow self some time to dance as well.
Because even shadows need love, y’all.
Seek joy, y’all! Pass it on!
I am dancing my own dance, Goddess on the Go, U.S. Games Systems, 2007 [aff]
Today’s card is from a deck I rarely dip into. Part of that is because it isn’t a Tarot deck. It’s an Oracle deck. Some Oracle decks I use more than others. I used to use this one more too. Here is a favorite card of mine. Some might wonder why I am so fond of it when the animal isn’t really one of those “super cute” woodland creatures.
I guess I’m just a victim of Bambi mentality. I look at this card and think, “He can call my flower if he wants to” in that sweet little voice of Flower from the Disney movie, Bambi. And I just melt. I remember the teasing that was about to start on poor, innocent Bambi and the little skunk boy dissipates it all by telling the others he didn’t mind the name.
Have you ever been the one who diffused the pack mentality? The one who said that you just didn’t care about something so someone else didn’t get picked on or mocked?
Ever been the one who said something others deemed stupid and had to take all the teasing for however long the teasing went on?
At some point, teasing gets old. I have a friend that I STILL tease about something. He’s a super good sport about it but sometimes I wonder…has it just gotten old for him? Or is it something he can laugh about with us? Guess I need to just ask him. Maybe he’s been being Flower all along for me. Wonder if he’s tired of that.
Skunks are neat animals who apparently make rather fascinating companion animals. I really like that they are extremely clear about their boundaries. If they don’t want you crossing them, first they stomp their feet at you. Then they lift their tail. Once they are standing up on their front fee, it’s pretty much toooooooo late.
Do you have clear boundaries? Around teasing and being teased? It’s a weird area for me. I’m not really sure I know when to stamp my feet and when to just, as it were, stand on my head. Because once I go there, it’s tooooooo late and feelings are going to be hurt.
Not sure where this post was going, but here’s where it ended. Take three minutes today to review situations where you are the teaser. Ask yourself if it has gone on long enough. Or maybe, just maybe, ask the person you are teasing. Who knows? Like Flower, they may just enjoy the attention.
Today’s card is not a Tarot card. It’s a Zentangle. It might be a Quotangle, but since it is only one word–not so much. I had a great deal of fun doing it. I started with this video from Suzanne McNeill.
The hardest thing for me was starting. I was scared I would mess it up. I thought I might do it wrong. I had to stop and wrap my mind around the idea that there is no right or wrong in Zentangle. It’s one line at a time. Just focusing on that is the point of the art. What comes out of that focus? Well, that’s a beautiful by-product of relaxing my mind.
I did start, obviously. I also finished. This would be correctly called Zentangle Inspired Art since it uses a recognizable shape.
Fly.
One simple word that goes hand in wing with a bird, yes?
But go back to my hesitancy in starting. Consider this. If I’d never taken that first stroke, the bird would have never had wings.
What in your life are you hesitating over? What has you parked on the edge of your safety zone, your nest if you will, peering over the edge? What has you torn between the terror of making mistakes and the joy of doing something that calls to your heart?
Fly, darlin’, fly.
If you want to tangle with me, bring it. 😀 You can learn more here. All you need are:
Today’s card is the Universe’s way of teasing me, I think. I pulled from the gorgeous Magical Times Empowerment deck by Jody Bergsma (USGames) this morning. I didn’t focus. I didn’t meditate. Just grabbed the deck and pulled. And snorted when I saw the card title.
Flexibility. Gently flow through the turbulence. Life has the ability to shape you. Bend, don’t break.
This echoes a phrase I saw yesterday. It’s one I’ve heard (and said) a lot. The willow survives the storm because it bends.
Life throws a lot at us. We have to think on our feet. We have to negotiate seemingly endless bumps and turns. We have to actually live.
Life isn’t meant to be a straight line, y’all.
We set goals. We have to change those goals or alter how we get to them all the time.
That’s not failure. That’s life.
It goes back to that other saying about giving thanks for unanswered prayers. Our today selves aren’t fully cognizant of what our next year selves will need. We make goals based on today’s self so it’s okay that things change as we move through life.
Be flexible but more than that? Be gentle with yourself when you realize a goal needs to be moved or reshaped. It’s okay. That’s life.
And do yourself a favor! Sign up for free goodies from Leonie Dawson. Her changed how I do business but, more importantly, how I VIEW business. Mind-altering stuff. [aff]
Today’s card is not a card. It’s a flower. 😀 It’s a late afternoon hibiscus from my hibiscus plant. In the morning it’s a soft tangerine but fades to this peach by the end of day. I love looking down into them.
It’s a reminder to me to find the beauty. This could have been a dandelion. I would have still found the same sweet peaceful joy in looking at it.
How often do I go about my daily agenda without ever glancing out the patio door. And that’s all it takes, y’all. Just a moment to glance out…to see…to seek. How often do I forget to do that?
This is my reminder to me to enjoy the blooms while they are here.
Today’s card is from a brand-new oracle from Schiffer Books. The deck is called the Green World Oracle. As with most decks, I opened the box and flipped through the cards. The names are associate with, wait for it, plants.
The art work works for me. A lot. It is unusual and there is a lot to be seen in every card. This one caught my eye on the first run through. Then I shuffled and drew.
And out popped Ash. That made me smile. One of my dear friends is called Ash. He’s my Thursday husband. I wasn’t sure about the women in this card. I thought they were a tri-Goddess but they didn’t fit the normal Maiden, Mother, Crone. That along with the deer in the tree (although I thought they looked like Duk Duks), I grabbed the book.
Not Duk Duk (not even sure I have that name right) but stags representing the four winds. The woman are the Norns or the Fates. The tree represents Yggdrasil which is a tree I associate with the Hanged Man (Odin hanging from Yggdrasil).
So there is a lot in this book for each card. I mean, a lot.
The mythology, the botany, the meaning of the card and then there are footnotes. No, I’m not kidding. In the seven pages dedicated to this one card, there are twenty-three footnotes.
This is in-depth, y’all. Based on this one card alone, I would recommend this deck to those interested in the magic of our natural world. It’s only got thirty-three (now there’s a magical number) cards but it ranges from the Greeks to the Norse to the African to the Japanese. I’d say it covers the world from my cursory look.
These three women remind me that those heroes of old were the ones who were fated to do something and did it their own way. Many of them “beat Fate” as it were.
How do you live your life? As if your Fate were already sealed or as if you were captain of your own ship? How would your life change if you knew someone else was driving?
I think the truly brave are those crazy enough to understand that we were each given lives/ships to take our journey in but where we go is up to us.
So where will you go today? Will you tempt the Fates by doing things your way? Will you please the Universe by living a well-lived life?
So during yesterday’s blog hop, someone asked me to post a Zentangle piece. Like that’s a hardship. I love doing them. I love sharing them. I love hearing what you see in them.
I’ve gotten on a kick of doing phrases. This one seemed important to me when it popped into my brain. Don’t know where I’ve seen it but it’s such a simple statement that I can’t be the first to say it.
“Make now special.”
Not be aware of this moment.
Make it special.
How do we go about that? For me, it means that I am not going to waste any more time worrying about what if’s. Like Vernice “Fly Girl” Armour says, I’m going to change that to “why not.”
So what do you do to make things special for you? Is it a perfect cup of tea? Is it a 20 minute nap? Is it secretly smiling to yourself when you know you just need that boost?
How do you make now special, darling? That’s your challenge today. Take 180 seconds and focus on that concept. Don’t fall into the trap of judging your special, either. Yes, I heard you go there. Special is as special does.
I’ve mentioned the Maori Oracle (Schiffer Books) by P.A. Minnell before. I did this video review last week or so. In that review, I laughed about a card that leapt out of the group I’d chosen to talk about. I said she didn’t want to be seen.
Well, I’ve been pulled to this oracle a lot but haven’t done anything with it. I finally took some time to be quiet. The way to do the reading is really very sacred. I shuffled. I cut. I let each stack tell me which basket it was.
When I turned the third basket up, I knew what card was there. Not guessed. Not supposed. Knew in that deep, bone-tingling way. KNEW.
Then when I thought about how I would share this post, I got told in no uncertain terms that this card did not want to be shown. So you will see one card face down. I’ve learned to respect those feelings. The subsequent 2×4 when I ignore them is very unpleasant.
For the first basket, the physical world, I drew Ko. It makes me want to go dig things up. I feel like it is asking me to connect with my physical body in a more conscious way. I look at the book and am told that Ko is a digging stick. “Nothing happened in the gardens without the turning of the soil with Ko.” Shiver.
The second basket, (and I’m condensing this a lot) is emotional self. Well it’s more. It’s what we should be doing to stay on the right path. I drew Papaka. This card makes me think I should be focused on my home and surroundings. I am drawing that from the astrological meaning of Cancer. I also get a sense of protection. I look to the book to learn that Papaka represents a renewal, a new beginning. I take that as me renewing my joy seeking. Sometimes it seems I’ve strayed from that because of the back issue.
The third basket represents concealed knowledge. I am laughing as I write this because the card that won’t be seen can be thought of as concealed knowledge in this sense.
The reading spoke to me in a very concrete way. This deck, y’all? This deck stirs something in me that I can’t quite pinpoint. It’s almost familiar to me when it shouldn’t be. I am very moved by the way this deck feels in my hands.
Yeah, weird. Me. 😀 I own it. I rock weird in fact.
So how about you tell me about a time when you had knowledge of something you couldn’t possibly have known. Deja vu? Premonitions? Let’s talk psychic woo-woo, baby.
Today’s card is not a card. It’s a zentangle with a poem. It’s not my poem. And, if I am going to be precise, it’s a haiku. It’s by this guy who knew how to wield a pen and a sword. It’s by a samurai named Mizuta Masahide.
What you see in this zentangle is an alternate translation. This is what I found as an original or closer version.
Barn’s burnt down —
now
I can see the moon.
Both are lovely but I find that I prefer the visceral punch of the second one. It’s so raw but the lyrical hope at the end makes me teary.
The samurai competed in so many things…are you surprised to learn that one of those was also poetry? How completely opposed is the art of war and the art of poetry?
But I digress. What I wanted to say is this. This poem is the Tower card.
Have you have ever lost your barn (metaphor,darlings, metaphor)? You know…those catastrophic, “my life as I know it is completely over and I shall never see Tara again” moments? [Whoa! Hold on as I whip you from 17th century Japan over to 19th century Georgia!]
Do you remember when you first realized you could see the moon [metaphor again, darlings]? That instant when you realized not only were you going to survive, but you were going to be a stronger version of the you pre-burnt barn?
Yeah. That moment right there.
That’s the moon moment.
Take 180 seconds today to recall that feeling when you realized that you could see beautiful new things even though you’d lost something you thought so precious. Even though you thought you couldn’t go on, you did.
For me, that barn? Well, I’ve had my fair share of burnt barns–the kind that are long and smoldering (the death of my mother), the kind that are middle of the night “Pa! The barn’s on fire” (break up that I thought I’d never survive), to the kind that are like a wildfire took down your barn, your house and your other house too.
What were the moons? After Mama died, I realized that there is a lot of her in me. I hear her come out of my mouth in so many ways. Used to make me cry more than laugh but now I laugh more than cry. That’s a moon.
So what about you? If you care to share what your three minutes brings you, I’d love to hear it.
Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on. See the moon.
Zentangle, Arwen Lynch, Poem by Mizuta Masahide 1657-1723, 6/17/2013
Here is a set of books that I listened to recently. It mesmerized me. It is, in its simplest form, the saga of the Samurai as told through the journey of one boy and one Samurai lord. It’s far more complex than that of course. I highly recommend this series–>Tales of the Otori. It still haunts me.
Today’s card isn’t a card. It’s a lovely quote image from Leonie Dawson.
, U.S.Games
. It still haunts me.