Daughters Of The Moon Archives < Arwen, Professional Joy Seeker

How Does It Stop You?

Today’s card isn’t an easy one. For one, it has a keyword that is a real trigger word for me. For two, I don’t really love decks that include keywords. In my opinion, they are limiting. They confine you to one thought or idea.

Unless you are like me and just leap off the cliff every time letting your intuition carry you.

Here we see a woman kneeling in the desert. A vulture hovers over her head. She is not sharing her water with that bird nor with the snake who coils up and around her arm. It’s all for her.

Sometimes I have these twinges of jealousy. I see another Tarot professional using a spread like one of mine. I see someone saying “Seek Joy” without the y’all and I want to fuss, “HEY! Say it right. That’s MINE.”

But it’s not, is it? The concept of seeking joy is as old as time itself. It is far larger than me.

So when I feel those twinges of jealousy, it might be better for me to think, “YAY! Someone else is on the joy hunt with me. The more the merrier!”

Jealous can ruin relationships. How many of us can raise our hand when asked if we’ve ever lost someone due to a jealous nature–theirs or ours.

Sucks, right?

So maybe the next time that ol’ green eyed monster starts nibbling on your ass, you can turn that around.

Just because my partner looks at other women, doesn’t mean I’m not enough.

Just because my colleague books a huge speaking date, doesn’t mean I won’t.

Just because a fellow author hits the NYTimes best seller list, doesn’t mean I can’t.

Stop letting jealous get in your way. We use it as a reason to stop doing what we love.

Well, if so-and-so is taking ALLLLL the speaking engagements, I’ll just go sulk.

Yeah, that’s useful. Right?

So let this Seven of Cups from the Daughters of the Moon Tarot by Ffiona Morgan et al remind us that we get further by sharing our resources. We empower ourselves when we celebrate the successes of others–sincerely. We grow when we stop seeing one another as threats to our happiness.

Seven of Cups, Daughters of the Moon, 1991

Seek joy, y’all! Pass it on!

Don’t forget to grab your copy of my Fairy Tale Tarot Spreads eBook. Check out Bonnie Cehovet’s review here.

How Do You Get Turned On?

This card represents that force in us all when we get TURNED ON and TUNED IN to our lives–when we are truly connected to our soul. How do you make that connection?

Today’s card is from a very interesting deck. It is a group artist effort that was produced in the 80’s. It’s full of feminist energies and images because it is one of the first (and perhaps only) lesbian designed Tarot decks. One of the unique things about this deck is that it is round.

I pulled the Ace of Wands this morning and had to laugh. I’d been on my iPhone pulling daily cards and had gotten the Queen of Wands not once but twice. So no surprise to me to see another Wand. With all the fire energy I’m pulling due to my word of the year, it’s going to happen.

Look at this card. Baby leaping out of the egg. Joy happening. The child is the spark. She is the fuel feeding all of that energy surrounding her. It’s not feeding her. She’s not seeking sustenance. She is sustenance. She is energy.

This card represents that force in us all when we get TURNED ON and TUNED IN to our lives–when we are truly connected to our soul. How do you make that connection?

A blogger I love, Jodi Chapman, talked about her soul-connecting playlist. While I’m not much of a music person (I prefer silence), I do have some songs that just reconnect me.

One of those is a new one on a very recently released album by Anna Fritz. It is the title track and was the thing that hooked me into participating in her fundraiser. The Gospel of Tree Bark moves me in ways I can’t explain. I sometimes listen to it when I just need to get back to myself.

What about you? How do you reconnect with yourself when you feel disconnected? Is it music? Art? Literature? Nature? What reconnects you?

Ace of Fire, Daughters of the Moon (color), Ffiona Morgan 1981

YAY! I just found out that they’ve brought the B&W version back! 😀

Seek Joy, Y’all! Pass it on!

Want to work on your own word of the year? Join me in working with Leonie Dawson’s 2013 Incredible Year Workbook+Planner.

Connecting, Pouring & Passion

What connects you to your physical self? To your passionate self? To your emotional self? How do you utilize those energies in your world? How do you balance them one with the other?

Today’s card is from an older deck. Round tarot cards are unusual in that you have more than reversals to read. You can read angled cards as well. Is the energy of the card tilted towards the reader or away?

Here we have Temperance from the Daughters of the Moon colored version. I also have the black and white version. Traditionally, Temperance is an angel pouring water from two cups–one into water and one onto rocky ground.

This Temperance, while not visually an angel, pours water and fire that loop out and around to combine into a rainbow above her head. What really calls me in this card today are the lines in the ground under her feet. They seem to be spreading out as if they were ley lines.

Perhaps they are connecting her to the earth and to the others in her net. Maybe she is showing them how to balance emotional needs, spiritual needs and physical needs. If you turn the card upside down, there is almost a yoni effect with her in the middle waiting to be born. The lines then seem to be drawing her out.

What connects you to your physical self? To your passionate self? To your emotional self? How do you utilize those energies in your world? How do you balance them one with the other?

Perhaps, if you feel overwhelmed by one or not engaged by another, you can hold this image in your mind. Focus on working all of the energies. Understand that when you have all three things in balance, you can become your own angelic self.

And, grin, of course there is always the message from Terence:
“Moderation in all things including moderation.”
Don’t be hard on yourselves today. Do something to make someone else joyful if you are feeling down. Remember to find those tiny, small joys and let them pile up.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Temperance, Daughters of the Moon, 1991

P. to the S. Looking for a way to make 2013 an incredible year? Join me as I work through my workbook+planner to create amazing things!

Friends, Family & Love

One of them is my sister. She and I had what you might call a rocky childhood with one another. I could regale you with tales of us trying (and succeeding) to harm one another.

Today’s card was drawn at random. Given yesterday’s horrific events here and in China, I was a bit concerned. In my head I had a backup plan that I could draw another card if necessary.

I’m sure the hurricane-starting butterfly had nothing on my sigh of relief when this soothing card came out.

I have four copies of this particular deck. Two are the original black and white and two are the color version. Each has its draw for me.

This speaks to me of joining, of bonding, of forging connections. Do you see how they all touch one another? Each woman holds up her own cup while touching one other woman with her free hand.

Their gazes aren’t on one another, but on the fountains of water from the cups. They dance in a garden bursting with flowers and green growth. We only see one foot from each, but those feet are all beautifully bare..

Who are your siblings of choice? Who are the friends in your world that you have forged an unbreakable bond with? Who are the humans that you turn to when you need your own cup of joy refilled?

I’m blessed. One of them is my sister. She and I had what you might call a rocky childhood with one another. I could regale you with tales of us trying (and succeeding) to harm one another. But we have moved into an adult relationship that is very strong.

Another is my best friend from high school. Yep, I said high school. We met in 1976 and never looked back. Oh, we have had our bumps, but they never corrupted the thing that is between us. The fact that she is family is concrete.

I have others in my life–men and women–who could step into this circle as well. As I said, I’m blessed. I weep with the joy of it some times.

I think I don’t say this enough and it’s one of my . I need to tell you that I love you. Don’t wiggle. Don’t deny. Just let me have my love for you, okay? No need to return it. Just know that you are loved by me.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on!

3 of Cups, Daughters Of the Moon, 1991

Healing, Strength & Pain

Today’s card reminds me of the healing power of friendship. Here we see five women touching another woman. She lies quietly allowing them to share their energies. The water washing up shows the waves as women too.

This is from a lesbian-feminist deck so the energy is matriarchal to its very core. Don’t let that stop you from the meaning here.

Compassion. That’s the key word the deck creator assigned to this one. More often it is about reminiscing and old friends. But here I am reminded about the two sides of compassion. Giving and receiving.

I can be compassionate for those in need, for those in pain. But what about when I’m in need or I’m in pain? What then? How strong do you have to be to reach out and say, “I need help. I need love. I need support.”

How strong are you? Are you strong enough to receive compassion as well as give it? Or do you hole up like some wounded creature lashing out if anyone dares approach you.

Take some time today to think about the other side of compassion. Think about what it means to be the recipient. Don’t let your pain cause you to hurt those who want to help.

Be compassionate. Be open. Be loving.

You are loved. You are loving. That is enough for today.

I’m here if you need to do a reading to see how to find your way again. Just let me know.

Seek Joy, y’all. Pass it on.

6 of Cups, Daughters of the Moon (B/W version), DotM 1986

Guts, Judgment & Mistakes

Don’t trust your gut. Arwen discusses why.

Today’s card is a reminder that sometimes it is not okay to trust my own judgment. I have to understand that my wanting to believe in the innate wisdom of my own gut is a crazy thing.

And that’s perfectly normal to believe.

It’s also really really wrong. Gotcha!

This card shows the Ffiona Morgan Daughters of the Moon (B/w version)’s Hermit. This Wise One takes her own advice. She goes her own way. She knows that sometimes that makes life a little lonely when others don’t “get” her. But she’s accepted that.

When I first accepted this about the world and myself, I became a happier woman. Was I ever wrong? Heck yeah, but I also realized that I had to accept my own responsibility in those situations.

Trusting my gut. Going my own way. Learning from my stumbles. Moving on. Releasing fear.

Those were the beginning steps for my becoming a professional joy seeker.

Trust.
Go.
Learn.
Move.
Release.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on!

The Wise One, Daughters of the Moon Tarot, Daughters of the Moon, 1984 (OOP)

Tarot Tips: On Tarot And Meditation

Often I am asked about meditation. I do try to meditate with the Tarot sometimes, but my best method of meditation is a walking one. However, here are some tips for you to try out in order to attempt a more traditional method of meditation.

Choose a Tarot card. You can pick a random card or a specific one. For this meditation, I picked Continue reading “Tarot Tips: On Tarot And Meditation”

Musings On Mawu

Today’s card is a unique one. It is Mawu from Daughters of the Moon tarot by Ffiona Morgan. This is the old black and white deck (the image shown is from the full color deck). Mawu is the Fon goddess who shares duality with Lisa, the Fon god. Mawu and Lisa were twins and regarded as an unseparable unity. She is the moon and he is the sun. In their mythology, she creates the world. In this deck, Mawu represents both the Emperor and the Empress.

On this card, we see an elephant’s head in the foreground. Massive tusks seem to protrude from the card with his ears held wide in an aggressive pose. This is a bull elephant in the defense posture. On his back there is a woman of obvious African heritage who has one hand protectively over her belly. Her other hand is helping a child slide from her vagina. Her expression is one of joy and contentment. There is no fear in her at all. The child is at peace as well.

On either side of the elephant you can see some foilage. I imagine the colors I would choose for this card would be vibrant ones to signify the life that is here. This card is about birth and beginnings and protecting that special time as well.

But there is something here that many might find ominous. On the branch that reaches over Mawu’s head from the tree on the left hand side of the card, there is a snake sinously twined. The snake seems more curious than dangerous to me. Its tongue protrudes in the typical tasting/smelling fashion of reptiles. I think because she shows no fear, I feel no fear from this reptile. Of course, I am a reptile lover so that will color how I view the serpent here.

In the background lies a great waste of land. There are low-lying mountains rising from what looks to be a desert to me. So the symbology of birth could be expanded to being birth after hard times. Creativity from nothingness.

On researching Mawu after writing this, I learned that Mawu asked the World Serpent DA to curl up around the world to support it in case of accidents. The child she is giving birth to here must be the world and the snake is Da waiting to do as asked. This child is Gu, the divine tool, who was used by his parents to shape the world.

So the message of this card is give birth to yourself and your own world. Be your own world shaper and know that you are protected and safe.

NOTE: The Fon people are of Benin and Togo.

This musing originally posted on Tarot By Arwen