The Dark Side Of The Sun: Tarot Blog Hop: Lammas

It’s not that I hate the sun…Joanne’s blog hop theme just made me look at things a bit differently.

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Austin Sun 4

Joanne asks: So, give us your take on the influence of the Sun and/or Mercury in the Tarot or your favorite oracle deck. Pick a specific themed deck or go for one of the basics, talk astrology, or not, your choice. Tell us about a card or a spread that illustrates the properties associated with these celestial objects. There are various possibilities, particularly with Mercury, but there are also deities in different mythologically themed decks besides the Sun card (although you could also go there) that could shed some light on that symbol as well. Do a little research, consult your intuition, and teach us. 😉

First, welcome to our Tarot Blog Hop. If you want to join us, come find us on Facebook. We’d love to have other community-minded bloggers!

[Tweet “Hooray! It’s #tarotbloghop day. Sun, Mercury + 18 bloggers. Fascinating stuff, y’all.”]

Austin Sun 5

Joanne’s theme was hard for me. I am going to have to confess something here. I am not a Sun lover. I don’t like summer. I rejoice at Litha because the long hot days are going to be over eventually. Mabon is one of my favorite Sabbats because it is the harbinger of fall. I. Do. Not. Like. Hot.

Except in food, that is. Spicy food makes me happy. 😀 Burned flesh does not. I’ve had 2nd degree burns from the sun due to my Casper like coloring. We joke that I have two colors–white and red. Oh and that lovely in-between peel.

Austin Sun 2

So the Sun to me is not always a good thing. In Tarot, it tends to be one of those cards that most see in a very positive light. I’m going to turn that around to discuss the dark side of the Sun. Yes, with a spread. 😀

First a few words about these shots of the sun. I took all of these the last days of July and the first days of August 2015. I shot them with an iPhone 6 using the app Hipstamatic. I’m taking an EXCELLENT eCourse with Mellissae Lucia. You should definitely check it out. So much fun and not a bunch of Fstop this etc. Very intuitive stuff. Nest iPhone Image Adventure starts in September. Don’t worry Android users…Vintage is a very fun app for your phones. Someone in this class is doing it with her Droid. I’ll be in the next class too. Join me.

Austin Sun 3Dark Side Of The Sun

1. Sunburn: What are you overexposed to right now? What do you need to limit in your life?

2. Burnout: What is taking up too much of your energy right now? What do you need to pay attention to as an energy sinkhole?

3. Drought: Where are you not getting enough “juice” in your life? What do you need to get more of in order to thrive?

4. Solar Flares: Who or what seems to be flaming out of control in your world? Can you do anything about it or do you just need to set firmer boundaries?

5. Heat Exhaustion: What are you doing too much of? This is most likely a physical activity. Or it is something you are not doing enough of.

Austin Sun 1

It’s not that I hate the sun. I’m just not its biggest fan. Now hop on to the next blog to see what my neighbor has to say.

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Austin Sun 4

TarotBlogHop: Lammas 2013

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Hi! Yeah, so this is the Lammas 2013 Tarot Blog Hop. I’m the wrangler for this one which means I got to set the topic. Great right? Means I can be way ahead of the crowd. Riiiiiiight.

NOT.

It’s about 14 hours from the time the hop begins and I’ve written nothing.

NOTHING!

3-gardenerOh? The topic? It was “What can I share from my table to enrich my community?” Because this whole Tarot Blog Hop was begun to be a community builder. And, I think, it’s worked rather well. We have seen hops with 20+ every time we’ve done this. I’m very proud of what we’ve built.

To answer my own question, I thought what card seemed to convey this the best. In the blog document, I suggested the Queen of Pentacles. But I think perhaps this is more of an Empress thing for me. She is the Queen of Queens for me with her pregnant belly surrounded by all the generous bounty of the earth. Joanna Powell Colbert captures this perfectly in her Gardener card.

So I shuffled my Gaian Tarot to see what card might answer this. I got the Sun (you may remember that this card showed up for my Litha Tarot Blog Hop too. I think the Sun is stalking me, y’all.

But the flanking cards were the Nine of Air and the Queen of Water. That’s an interesting combination but it gave me a three card spread to share with you.

19-sun

Lammas Table

1. Why do I come to the community table?
2. What do I need more of on the community table?
3. What do I need less of on the community table?

The Sun is why I come. I come to get joy as much as to spread joy. I’ve found that the more I share how to be a professional joy seeker, but more joy I get back from others who are on the same path. It really does grow exponentially when I seek out those who are determined to bring joy into their world. When you eschew the negativity, it’s just a much nicer place.

guardian-waterThe Guardian (Queen) of Water is what I need more of. Here is the nurturer. The compassionate human who is willing to listen to others. This is about making sure I emotionally connect with my community as well. I’m richer for diving in fully. And I need to ask for that connection when I need it. That’s on me.

The thing I need less of is the Nine of Air. JPC has a bit of a different take with her woman clutching the pole here. I see this card as my reminder not to be a tail chaser (or a tale chaser.) I have to let go of my anxieties and fears about not being enough. I need to stop judging myself based on what others say or do. It’s a very hard thing to do but I need to let go and relax a bit more.

So what about you? We all enrich our community in myriad ways. Each of us brings something the other needs. Thank you for being a part of my community. I’m blessed by that connection.nine-air

Cards are from the Gaian Tarot.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Now leave a comment before you hop along to the next blog!

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Lammas 2013 Tarot Blog Hop Master List

Welcome to the 2013 Lammas Tarot Blog Hop. We have twenty-one bloggers who have all come together today to blog on a single question.

Here is what I posed:

Lammas is a special time for me. It’s the first harvest (generally fruits and grains) in many cultures. It’s associated with baking bread among other things. I won’t go into all that it is. Grin, you all have the ability to research for yourselves.

The first blog hop topic was “How can I be a better candle?” It was meant to spark the idea of how we can each light up ourselves and our community as a whole.

Going off that theme, the question I have for us for the Lammas 2013 Tarot Blog Hop is

“What can I share from my table to enrich my community?”

Remember this is a Tarot community. All Oracles are welcome as well. You can

Answering that question are the following bloggers. You will find links to the blog before them and after them. Sometimes things go wrong (we aren’t perfect) so you can always use this master list to find your way around the hop.

Remember that we don’t ask for payment but would love your comments. And signing up for our newsletters always makes us happy.

1. Louise Underhill
2. Stella T’arot
3. Jordan Hoggard
4. Joanna Ash
5. Vivianne
6. Chloe McCracken
7. Sharon Cumming
8. TABI (Tarot Association of the British Isles)
9. Karen Sealey
10. Morgan Drake Eckstein
11. Pepi Valderrama
12. Bonnie Fernandes
13. Alison Coals
14. Christiana Gaudet
15. Celtic Lenormand
16. Cassandra Santori
17. Arwen Lynch
18. Ania Marczyk
19. Alison Cross
20. Joanne Sprott
21. Joy Vernon

Potatoes, Hops & Lammas

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Welcome to the Lammas Tarot Blog Hop. This is the fifth one so far. I’m excited to be sharing space with thirty six other bloggers all sharing thoughts on this subject –‘’Pentacles : The Fruits of Harvest’’. If you are hopping from Sandie Worthy’s page, welcome! You can find your next hop at the end of my blog. You can also find my monthly Tarotscopes podcast here if that’s what you’re looking for. I know! 2 things at once. 😀 How bountiful.

This one was easy for me because I’m a mad fan of Pentacles. I adore the community aspect of them. My clients learn that I see the Earth suit (aka Coins, Stones, Plates, Discs, etc) as wealth in terms of what we have rather than money in the bank. It’s not about cold, hard cash to me. Pentacles are earth so they are about the steadfast, nurturing aspect of community. Wealth, in my worldview, is your family, your pets, your friends, your possessions, your health. It’s so much more than green folding stuff.

But Kareena, this hop’s wrangler, asked us to write a blog post on a specific card in this suit. That was a bit more difficult since there are so many cards that I love. I narrowed it down to my top six from my favorite reading deck (Elder of Earth, Guardian of Earth, Nine of Earth, Six of Earth, Three of Earth, Ace of Earth), then my top three (Elder of Earth, Six of Earth, Three of Earth). I did this by flipping through them super fast. My decision was based on nothing more than “yes” or “no”. I didn’t have any set thought in my head. Just let Spirit guide me. Then I used that same gut instinct to choose the Six of Earth from those last three. Interestingly enough, I thought I would end up with the Guardian or Queen of Earth.

This Six of Earth makes me happy. Two women exchange goods. One receives the beautiful sunflowers she wants while the other gets the cash she deserves. I’m very fond of farmer’s markets even though I haven’t been to one in Texas in nearly three years. I KNOW!

But today marks Lammas for me which is the first of the three harvest festivals. I am Wiccan and do celebrate the Wheel of the Year, but this blog hop is not pagan-based. Today is also the gateway between summer and fall. There is an emphasis on starting to put things up, put things back, store up the good. I have a friend who refers to her canned tomatoes as “saving summer.” I always liked that phrase even if I am more of a fall kind of girl.

I love to cook and have the body to prove it. One feature on this blog is my Tarot&Food series. One of my earliest offerings in this series was a How To Make Bread recipe.

But I wanted to share a new recipe here (I know…not totally Tarot, but you’ll have to forgive me). Not so strangely, the Pentacles is the suit with the most recipes so far. A perennial favorite has been my recipe titled The King of Swords’ Balls. I can’t imagine why so many search engine results keep hitting that page. But I digress.

The Six of Coins, for me is about generosity. One way I spread the wealth of Tarot is by giving away a free book on how to read Tarot intuitively. It’s on this page. Hint! Over to the right ( –>) towards the top.

Now about this recipe I wanted to share. This makes a generous amount of food and my sister is the one who generously shared her secret with me. I always loved her mashed potatoes. I had to ask her what she did that I wasn’t doing. And she taught me a trick for making mashed potatoes. I added her trick to my own secret ingredient and came up with a dish that people always ask for seconds on! If you combine this with a good milk gravy, you are set!

Six of Coins: Arwen’s AskForMore Mashed Potatoes

  • 3 lbs baking potatoes, peeled and cut into thin slices
  • Water
  • 1 sm onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1 C heavy whipping cream
  • 1/2 C sour cream
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Boil potatoes and onion slices until potatoes are soft. TIP: The thinner you slice them, the faster they cook.

Remove onions and pour off water leaving only potatoes behind. You can mince the onions and throw them in the gravy or just throw them away.

Add one stick of butter and begin mashing the potatoes. Start with a hand masher! As the potatoes work down, add half the cream. Keep mashing! Add the other stick of butter and the rest of the cream. Now add the sour cream. You may need to move to an electric mixer at this point, but keep mashing. Add salt and pepper to taste!

I advocate for tasting while you mash. You may need to add more seasoning or more milk (sour cream if you love rich, creamy potatoes). From the professional chefs among us, please use a clean spoon every time you taste. Thanks!

When the potatoes are whipped up creamy and smooth, slide the bowl into the oven on warm until ready to eat. Sometimes, I’ll put a bit of shredded cheddar (New York Sharp is my preference) on the top and let that melt all over the top. Oh yeah, I just made myself hungry. How about you?

Thanks for stopping by so I could chat with you a bit about Pentacles as well as share a recipe with you. I’m so delighted to send you on your way to J Jordan Hoggard’s place. Don’t forget to please, please, please take a moment to leave a comment for all the bloggers. It’s the only way we know you were here. And, grin, who doesn’t like a little acknowledgement. Want to see the Master List? It’s useful in case you stumble across a page that’s not up just yet.

Interested in the history of the Tarot Blog Hop? Read this write-up.

6 of Earth, Gaian Tarot, Llewellyn

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