Privilege, Mops + Family

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 Tarot  4 of Wands
Housewives Tarot
Today’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

Successful spells+Dark Goddesses

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
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…”]

Kamui Fuchi, Four of Fire, Dark Goddess Tarot, 2013

I highly recommend this deck.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Are You Mossy?

GEM78_5This card reminds me that a rolling stone gathers no moss. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.

On the no moss side, you are assured of a constantly changing view. You will never be bored if you are always on the move.

On the moss side, you would find time to rest and time to sink your roots down into a place before gallivanting off again.

I’ve been both, I think. I’ve lived in Kansas, Texas, Louisiana, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Utah, and Colorado with several repeat stops in both Louisiana and Texas.

One of the pluses of that gadfly behaviour was the chance to make and maintain friendships all over the country. Thanks to finding the internet (that was in Michigan), I met people I would have never met.

The first stop for me on the internet was pre-world wide web days. In fact, as I write this, I’m wearing a sweatshirt that proudly says, “use your modem to dial.” Oh yeah, those were the days. My first home on the ‘net was a place called Grex. It was magical for me. It’s still out there too!

I found a place where there were areas to be myself as well as areas to play in fantasy worlds as another character. I think it was the first place I exercised my creative writing other than via letters with Cai who is the other half of Marilu Mann.

The Four of Swords here is from AGMuller’s Gemstones and Crystals Tarot. While I don’t necessarily agree with all the choices this deck makes, I love moss agate for the Four of Swords.

Have you been a rolling stone? Where did you roll to?

Have you gathered moss? Where were you when you first felt that idea of “Oh, this is what it feels like to belong?”

I’m challenging you today to use 180 seconds of your day to focus on one of those questions. Then tell me about it.

Four of Swords, Tarot of Gemstones and Crystals, AGMuller 2007

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

I’ve learned how to take my mossy and non-mossy self to the next level with Leonie Dawson. You can too. Click the graphic below (aff link) to learn how. I have belonged since last May and it has truly galvanized me. I’d love to have you join me on this journey.

ABLAHeaderPink

Does It Permeate Your Being?

Shiver. I felt that statement down to my bones, y’all. Down to my marrow. It felt like one of those Moments From God (reverberating voice). As if the Universe had pulled me to that picture at that time to experience the word of my Deities.

zentangle031
Click for larger image, y’all.

Today’s card is one of my Zentangles. This is one of my zendalalas (Zentangle in a mandala form). I had so much fun doing this. Now when I come back to it, I love it still.

If this were a Tarot card, it would be the Four of Wands. I see it as a coming together of disparate things creating something of beauty.

Yesterday, Leonie Dawson said this on one of her Instagram photos, “When I really sit with it, I see how my life is an opportunity to experience beautiful places and make art. Beauty is everywhere… We gotta be the sentinels that watch for it, seek it, let it permeate our being.”

Shiver. I felt that statement down to my bones, y’all. Down to my marrow. It felt like one of those Moments From God (reverberating voice). As if the Universe had pulled me to that picture at that time to experience the word of my Deities.

This wasn’t a whisper. It was a clarion call to action. I feel that way about joy. We must watch for it, seek it, let it permeate our beings. Yes, Leonie, yes, yes, yes.

So how will you watch for beauty today? How will you seek joy? Will it come on a bright red bird’s wing? The chocolate-coated smile of a child? A wave from a driver you’ve never met telling you to come ahead? A snail leaving a shimmering silvery trail across your sidewalk? A crumpled up newspaper you pick up and throw away so someone else doesn’t have to do it?

What will you do today to make beauty and joy happen in your world even if only for three minutes? 180 seconds of joy. 180 seconds of beauty.

I know we can do this. I know the JoyPatrolAlert members will spread the word. Grab your 180 seconds. Then share the message with one other person. Tell them to seek joy for 180 seconds then pass it on.

The key here? The trick? The Secret?

Joy accumulates. It piles up. Each tiny piece builds until it crowds out negative thought. We are retraining our brains to seek joy instead of dwell on the bad. Because the bad exists. We are just rewiring our hearts to seek joy, y’all.

Are you with me?

Zendala #31, Arwen Lynch, August 2012

Seek joy,y’all. Pass it on.