What about you? What do you think your family thought you might grow up to be? What did you want to grow up to be?
Housewives TarotToday’s affirmation is based on this quote from Joseph Campbell. “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” How many times have you tried to squeeze yourself into the wrong place? Tried to alter how you thought, felt, looked in order to fit in?
I think it’s fairly natural to do this as a child. We want to feel safe and secure so we try to get with/go with the crowd. We don’t want to stand out. We intuitively know (or are taught in unpleasant ways) that being different makes us targets.
Then we hit those teenage and young adult years. High school and college can be a time of trying out different approaches. Maybe seeing if we really are rebels. It’s about testing ourselves against our own images of ourselves–and maybe the images our families have of us.
I imagine my family thought I would be married with grandchildren at my age. I’d have most likely been a teacher or maybe a librarian. I should ask them sometime what they imagined I would grow up to be.
I’m fairly certain bisexual, Wiccan, psychic wasn’t on that list.
[Tweet “What do you think your family thought you might grow up to be?”]
What about you? What do you think your family thought you might grow up to be? What did you want to grow up to be?
Strangely? I wanted to grow up to be a writer. My family probably saw that one coming though. HA!
I think this Four of Wands from the Housewives Tarot by Quirk Books captures this! She’s risen above it all but she’s supported by those mops because that’s the work she’s done!
Today’s affirmation:
I revel in my privilege of being who I am. I accept that my path has brought me from my family’s image of me to my image of me. I hold my connections to my past with gentleness and love. I release any hurt from that past. Loved and loving, I love each of you.
Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.
Four of Wands, Housewives Tarot, Quirk Books http://amzn.to/1sffRbH
How many stones do you need to achieve victory? Working w/ @gardenskull’s tarot today
[Tweet “How many stones do you need to achieve victory? Working w/ @gardenskull’s #tarot today.]
The Wooden Tarot
#affirmation I am sticking with this selfie #tarot deck for this week. I am enjoying exploring it.
It has an unusual suit system. Plumes are Air which I assign to Swords(East). Stones are Fire which I assign to Wands(South). Blooms are Water which I assign to Cups(West). Bones are Earth which I assign to Coins(North). Your mileage may vary.
The artist is A.L. Swartz, aka @gardenskull. His bio states that he lives in Alabama with his husband. GO #TEAMQUEER! 😀
This is the Six of Stones. He’s used crystals here with an orange/red/yellow coloring. I like how it captures the essence of fire. Traditionally the Six of Wands is the card of victory. I think this antler crown works. There’s a message of hard work too because bringing down an 18 point buck isn’t easy.
18 points because there are nine showing here on the one antler.
So a message of victory from the Wooden Tarot today leads us into our affirmation.
Today I win. Today I understand that each step, painful or easy, carries me towards my goal. I believe in myself. I believe in my ability to succeed. I am open to infinite possibilities. Loved and loving, I love each of you.
Some days there are just too many foxes in my world. Do you ever have this problem?
[Tweet “#affirmations Some days there are just too many foxes in my world. Do you ever have this problem?”]
Shadowscapes
#affirmations Some days there are just too many foxes in my world. Do you ever have this problem?
I get an idea of what I want to write about but I’m not sure of the direction. Today’s thought was dissatisfaction.
A rather unusual thought for me since I am a professional joy seeker. But still, that’s the word I had so I went with it.
I’ve had a lot of stress-inducing situations in the past two weeks–nearly all of them out of my hands.
Someone’s health
Foundation of a building
Foundation of a company
A loved one’s very hard battle
Nothing that I could point a finger at to merrily say, “Seek joy, y’all.”
In fact, I think if someone had reminded me of that, I might have just cracked. Yep…stress.
So when I pulled this Knight of Wands from my Shadowscapes Tarot app, I snickered. Then I giggled. Then I guffawed.
Because this, my darlings, this is the perfect expression of what I am feeling.
So much to do…so many foxes to direct. I see each fox as a thing that I might do. A project that needs attention.
And there I am straddling a lionzelle (my word for this gorgeous lionesque creature with gazelle horns.) The beast is ready to go, but I have not yet leaned forward. I have not yet committed to the events underfoot.
I can so see this as the root of my dissatisfaction. No action has been taken but there is a clarion call to action taking place.
The problem, as I see it, is too many foxes. Which one of the five is it to be? Once I figure that out, I think this general ennui will dissipate.
Perhaps this niggling, just out of reach itch of need is my clue that I just need to move. I need to pick one and go with it. Those other foxes?
Well there’s good news and there’s bad news.
They will always be there.
What? That’s the good news AND the bad news.
So how about you? What projects are calling to you? What do you need to move on? Is it a time of action or of rest for you?
Today’s affirmation:
I choose to take action. I am responsible for my own happiness. I make time to create. I open myself up to the infinite possibilities of joy. Seeking joy is my way of life. Loved and loving, I love each of you. Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on!
That bears repeating. ‘I had thought 2013 sucked until I sat down to do the closing ceremony
Wildwood Tarot
Today’s card reminds me of my word for this year. I guess that’s appropriate seeing as how this is the last day for that word–although not for the energy of the word.
The Wildwood Tarot‘s Ace of Bows has the title of Spark of Life. This is a deck I need to work with more. The cards are rich with imagery. My friend Louise Underhill of Priestess Tarot works with this deck as does a new friend, Ellen.
One of the treasures 2013 brought to me has been the new and renewed friendships. This year was truly a galvanizing one. Many small sparks have spread into warm fires of success for me. One unlooked for blessing was an offer to blog somewhere. I can’t say where just yet, but it was a pretty big deal for me. It’s a one time thing but still, it’s a big deal.
Add to that my blogging (which I must get back to more regularly) with Witches And Pagans plus the three books submitted in 2013? Yeah, that sums up a pretty fabulous year of writing. Here on this page I managed to post nearly ever day so go me and go Cai (the other half of Marilu Mann.) If you like to read paranormal (and contemporary), go you to http://www.greatmta.com lol! )
This card also points towards a new beginning. The Ace of Bows is new life, new energy and bright, fresh, shiny starts. I’m embarking on a new journey in one week. I’ll be saying “I do” to a special someone. What better way to kick off 2014, right?
I know that I still have things that need improvement. There’s always room for improvement, yes? Things like unburying my guest room/office so it can actually see use as an office. Continued work on my health. More focus on my lines of income. All of those things will be part of my work with the 2014 Create Your Amazing Year Workbook + Planner.
I have to laugh here because I got an email last night. Here’s what K.C. had to say about this workbook.
“Hi, Arwen. While I’ll admit I got the Leonie Dawson workbook because of your 3-card mini read, I’ve sat down to do it and I am amazed. It is so wonderful. (Of course, you knew that already.) I had thought 2013 sucked until I sat down to do the closing ceremony. That in and of itself was a fabulous gift.
In fact, I loved it so much, I gave 2 as gifts using your link.”
[Tweet “That bears repeating. ‘I had thought 2013 sucked until I sat down to do the closing ceremony.'”]
I can so relate to that statement. I felt the same way about 2012! And of course there have been some sucktastic things about 2013, but the beautiful things (and all of the beautiful people) outweighed the suckage.
I’m thrilled to see someone else connect with the special magic of this workbook. It’s so much more than a calendar/planner. There’s magic waiting to happen. I’m looking forward to some time to work on this even more.
What magic do you want to happen in 2014. That’s your journal prompt, my darlings.
Ace of Bows, Wildwood Tarot, Sterling Ethos, 2011
Snag your copy of the 2014 Create Your Amazing Year workbook + Planner at http://bit.ly/TbAIncred . Besides an incredible tool, you will also score a three card Tarot reading from me. Just let me know you got the downloadable version.
Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.
See you next year! (Yes, it amuses the heck out of me to say that. LOL)
During the working, the small Goddess statue (it’s of Ishtar) came to life. Yes, I know how strange that sounds, but there I was with the Goddess smiling at me and nodding Her head.
Dark Goddess, Four of Fire
Today’s card is one of those moments when I have to whine, “Mom! The Tarot is mocking me again” but also when I must tell you a tale of true magic. Why? Because last night in a truly lovely sacred space created by Nancy Antenucci and Ellen Lorenzi-Price, a group of us all drew for the same reading. In those various posts, I kept seeing one particular card. I thought to myself, “Self! We need to look that Goddess up.” And looking her up reminded me of a spell that went really really well.
Today, I shuffled the Dark Goddess not even consciously thinking about last night. No, my thought was “Tell me what I need to know for today” and boom. There she was. Kamui Fuchi (Kamuy Fuchi) stared back at me. And y’all? I was just going to shuffle the cards one more time when I saw her.
The face that can’t be denied looked back at me. I’ve seen Her once before.
I read up on Her a bit this morning which is one of the reasons this post is a bit late. OOH SHINY and down the research hole I go. But back to Kamui Fuchi whose full name is Apemerukoyan-mat Unamerukoyan-mat said to mean Rising Fire Sparks Woman/Rising Cinder Sparks Woman according to the never-wrong Wikipedia. 😐
One thing I read is that She is so important that she never leaves her home. Another thing I learned is that the hearth is considered a gateway to communicate with the kamuy or Gods.
I love the image in this card. Her rising up from the fire. All of the others below Her. What a lovely thought to be able to sit before your own home fire to communicate with the Gods. That’s when I remembered my spell that went really really well.
I’ll tell you this story about this working. It seems apropos. This was back in…96 or so. I lived in Georgia. I’d quit a job that was sucking the life out of me. I needed a new one. So I did what any witch would do. I worked magic to call the right job to me.
I won’t go into how important it is to tell the Universe what you want and to be hope to what you get. The Universe doesn’t always see things the way you do so your pony might be a Mustang. 😀
During the working, the small Goddess statue (it’s of Ishtar) came to life. Yes, I know how strange that sounds, but there I was with the Goddess smiling at me and nodding Her head. No words, just movement. I remember thinking that maybe I’d fasted a little too long. Then I just asked Her to help me find the right job for me. She smiled and nodded again, then went back into statue form.
The next day I saw an ad for a job for a new company. I was in NO WAY qualified but it was something I wanted to do. So I sent in my email with resume attached.
Then I kicked myself for forgetting to turn off my tagline program. Anyone remember those? They randomly generated from lists you created? Yeah.
I’d just sent an email off for a technical job (again, not qualified for) with a tagline that said, “Hardware: That part of the computer you can kick”.
When I got the call for the interview, the woman mentioned that tagline. She said that was WHY she pulled my resume aside and WHY I got the interview.
I subsequently got the job. And it is still to this day one of my favorite jobs ever. I moved from rep to manager in six weeks and my office was the first satellite to achieve a 40k month.
But that all came from sitting in front of my candle flame and talking to the Gods. Now I know why Kamui Fuchi drew me so hard last night. I’d met Her before but not known Her name. In either this or another working in the same time period, I also met a Kitsune. But that’s a story for another day.
Journal prompt today is, “When have I asked for one thing and received another from the Universe? What was my lesson?”
If you choose to do a working, please remember to phrase it so it is open. Don’t ask for a pink party dress. Instead ask for the right outfit for you. [Tweet “The Universe isn’t keen on being told what it thinks…”]
God shows up in some pretty different ways,y’all. I’m just sayin’…
Today’s card is from another of my retired reading decks. I fell in love with this one so many years ago. One of the cards is dedicated to Barbara Cartland (of prolific romance writing fame) for her work with the gypsies in England.
What drew me to this card was the idea of unasked for help. Here a young man is putting something together. Hard to tell what that is but he needs help.
He’s not paying attention to the man above him but he reaches up anyway. I think he’s just asked for help from the Universe. He’s smart enough to know he needs to do his part but the Universe will pitch in.
How often have you asked for help and then just stopped doing?
Right?
It’s like that old tale about the guy on the roof of his house. The river was flooding so he prayed to God to rescue him.
A boat goes by with a man who offers to help him down. The man refuses. “God is going to help me.”
A helicopter hovers over offering to pull him to safety. The man refuses. “God is going to help me.”
Another boat comes by again trying to rescue him. Again, the man refuses. “God is going to help me.”
Well the man drowns. When he gets to heaven, he asks God why he didn’t rescue him.
God says, “What? You want that I should come down there myself? You refused all three rescues that I sent to you.”
So yeah…we need to make sure that when we ask for help, we accept it.
[Tweet “God shows up in some pretty different ways,y’all. I’m just sayin’…”]
So today’s journal prompt is, “What help do I need? How can I ask for it? How can I accept it?”
Today’s card forces me to ask a hard question. It’s not one I like to answer at all, but it is one I should probably lead with on most everything I do.
The Seven of Wands from Lisa Hunt‘s gorgeous Fantastical Creatures (U.S. Games 2007) shows a Valkyrie swooping down to a battle field. Her job was to fetch dying warriors who had proven themselves to be heroes. They would then enjoy Valhalla as their reward.
Great idea, right?
But what if those warriors had chosen the wrong battle or the wrong side? What if they had sided with the ice giants instead of Odin?
The hard question is this. “Is this battle mine or someone else’s?”
If I could bottle all the energy I’ve thrown into other people’s wars, I’d be still going just like the Energizer Bunny. If I had channeled that passion into creativity, I might have 800 books published and not eight.
Now, when I hear of this injustice or that, I have to ask myself how mad can I get? How passionate can I be? I’ve learned to pick my battles.
Sadly, grin, I haven’t learned to only back the winners. Too often I am on the losing side simply because we can’t outfight the money. Do I quit?
Nope. I’m either too stubborn or too optimistic to quit. I truly believe that in some cases (GMO/Monsanto for instance) that all we need to do is to keep educating. Eventually folks will understand the damage we are doing to our bodies and our world.
Eventually.
I wonder if the Valkyries will come for me.
Your journal prompt today is, “What battles am I fighting now that I should withdraw from?”
Today’s card is from a deck that I have on order. I haven’t heard yet whether it is in. The lush beauty of the first card I see pulled me in–hard. I am a very visual person. If there is a TV on near me, I check right out of any conversations. I try to position myself with my back to the tube if I’m out at dinner with friends.
And here’s why. As I stare at this card, I see the lions (all four of them), the Daliesque sunflowers, the cat who looks so much like my beloved Carmen, the hint of a peacock on the staff, the rich fabric of her dress and the face of Angeline Jolie staring out at me.
Is it Jolie? I don’t know. She’d make an excellent Queen of Wands though. But this card shows off the stylish side of the active Fire mistress. Odd that I am such a water sign but identify with this queen more than any other.
She is fierce. She is ready to get things done. She is a do-it-herself woman.
Those are pluses as well as minuses really.
That last one…that do-it-herself one? Yeah. That’s why I’m currently on two different medications. One to stop the inflammation and the other to help me sleep while the inflammation is still raging. In a word? I hurt.
Why?
Back to that do-it-herself. I could have easily asked for help moving the dog crate and other things for my house-sitting gig. Did I? No. Why?
Picture a three year old, curly black hair, hands on hips shouting, “I DO IT MYSELF.”
Yeah. Never quite grew out of that.
So now I get to pay for that toddler attitude. 😀
What about you? What is your “DO IT MYSELF” moment? How did you learn to stop and ask?
I’m still working on that one. Getting a bit better, but still…hands on hips!
Today’s card reminds me that sometimes the only thing you can do to grow is to turn your back on things and people. Not all people are in our lives to help us grow. Well, maybe that’s not quite true. There are those people who exist to be examples of what not to do. So I guess they are in our lives for that reason.
We all have detractors. We all deal with those who just don’t want us to succeed. Generally that’s because they live in fear, y’all. You have to take just a moment to feel so very sorry for them. How awful it must be to live a life so full of negativity that nothing is shiny unless it’s focused on you. No one is worth a damned unless they are putting you above all others.
Sad, yes.
But if I’m going to be as authentic as possible, it also makes me mad. Mad because I see these people tear down others in order to build themselves up. I don’t want people like that in my world. I don’t want the sad,angry, narcissistic parasites. They suck me dry.
Just like with people who are never happy about anything, these fear-dwellers suck the life out of things.
Don’t suck the life out of things, darlings. Agree to disagree with people you love. Agree that sometimes they are going to tell you that you are being a dirtbag.
My sister did that for me today. And I threw it back in her face.
Oh. Yes. I. Did.
Then I apologized a few hours later.
Why? Because I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d said. Not what she’d said, but what I’d said. It came from a place of fear. I was afraid she was right. I was afraid she’d found a hole in my joyful life.
Then I realized that she had and that it was okay. I’m not perfect. And, thank the Gods, I never will be.
I promise to be as authentic as possible.
I promise to turn my back to those detractors who are fear-dwellers and attention-seekers.
I promise to pay attention when my trusted circle tells me I’m being an ass.
I promise to work at learning to listen and think before I respond from fear.
I promise to focus outward rather than listen to the negativity around me.
This beautiful Three of Staves is from Kris Waldherr’s Goddess Tarot by U.S. Games.
Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.
And are you ready to stop living in fear? Are you ready to let your own creative goddess out? Come join me in an online course. I’m retaking it because it blew my doors open last year. (aff) and so worth it! You can take just the class or the join the full academy. Up to you. I did the full academy because I saw three classes I wanted to take right off the bat. 😀
Today’s card is from a deck that has taken me some getting used to. This is routinely the most popular deck in many Tarot groups. It reminds me that for my projects to take root and to flourish, I have to put myself into them.
Traditionally the Three of Wands shows a figure watching three ships in a harbor. But Patrick Valenza shows his Deviant Moon character attached literally at the umbilical cord. She contemplates the three growing things with a serious demeanor. I see the fierce, almost grotesque, fish cape as being her emotional protectiveness of these tender plants. The moon lends a breath, a light, a glow? highlighting the intention.
As a witch, I know that what spells I cast, I tie myself in to. It is for that reason that I rarely do bindings etc. If I dislike a person enough to bind them away from myself, the very act of engaging on that energetic level ties me to them. So it’s rare for me to do that type of magic. I prefer the magic of ignoring them–what I think of as Arwen’s Not-So-Amish Shunning. I shut them out.
I’ve learned that will wither the connection faster than any binding or mirror box. I don’t read them. I don’t listen to them. I don’t “run by their Facebook page just to see if they are talking about me.” None of that. Period.
For me, I’d rather put my energy into projects that bring joy and growth to my world.
Simply put….ain’t nobody got time for that. 😀
What about you? Are there people and projects you could be shunning (really shunning not talk about it all the time shunning, lol)? Are there people and projects you could be giving your energy to that will give back?
I’m going to challenge you to take three minutes today. That’s right…180 seconds. Think about someone who drains you. Someone you’ve tried to let go of.
Now let go. Replace that thought with something affirming. Move on, darlings.
, U.S. Games, 2008