Major Arcana Archives < Arwen, Professional Joy Seeker

What’s Your Normal Flavor?

Today’s card reminds me that I need to figure out why I’m in this hand basket and where I am going sometimes. Here is the chariot from Katie Rose Pipkin’s black and white Efflorescent Tarot. Sorry kids but it’s OOP unless she finds a publisher. Or at least that’s what I heard.

But I digress. See! It really is about focus with this card.

I’m tired tonight. It’s 11:11 pm by my clock. I should have had this done and been in bed an hour ago. But it’s full moon energy so I’m wound more than normal.

And am I ever normal?

I saw a GREAT quote on Facebook that said, “The day I broke up with normal was the first day of my magical life.”

Awesome isn’t it

But sometimes I lose my focus. I get scattered. I let the magic dissipate. I let normal drive again.

I fear the quirky.
I shun the weird.
I eschew the unusual.

And I’m not very happy when I do.

In a weird way, my life has a normal, for me, rhythm to it that involves talking to dogs and trees, reading cards for a living, writing intensely erotic romance, and chatting with Themselves.

That’s my normal.

I have to rein in both sides of me though. I can’t let avant-garde Arwen outstrip stable Stephanie. Or is that analytical Arwen overpower sassy Stephanie? Either way, both sides have to be moving together to take me in my chariot where I want to go.

Oh how I ramble. Do you ever wonder how I start out at point A and end up at point WTF?

So here is the Chariot. Traditionally a card of mastering one’s life. I would say that the charioteer will never be happy until she is following her own lead. When she tries to be what someone else wants is when the problems start. That’s when she drops the reins and her two selves can squabble about who gets to lead.

Equally yoked. It’s all about keeping both sides equally yoked.

So what’s your normal look like? Take 180 seconds…just three minutes…to journal about that your normal is. The only ground rule is that you can’t compare your normal to anyone else’s.

Because it’s your normal!

Chariot, Efflorescent Tarot, Katie Rose Pipkin, self-published on Etsy

Seek joy, y’all! Pass it on.

What would you like to change back and why?

Today’s cards are from US Games’ Dreaming Way Tarot. I really love this deck. It’s quirky with images that often make me turn my head this way and that.

Here are the Sun and the Moon. What I particularly like here is the small child crawling out for a lollipop. She’s bare and free of worry. Her future is bright.

Then we see the same girl (perhaps) more mature. She has learned to cover her body–from shame or peer pressure or even personal taste, we can’t know. She gingerly holds the lobster. Again, this is something she wants, but she has also learned that she has to deal with the consequences of her emotional choices.

East of the Sun, West of the Moon is a fairy tale that always makes me think of a favorite book by Pearl S. Buck. I know…my mind…it’s a weird synaptic journey.

But the book is East Wind: West Wind: The Saga of a Chinese Family (Oriental Novels of Pearl S. Buck) and is about a very traditional Chinese bride married to a very modern Chinese man. It’s a clash of cultures but more than that, really. It’s about blending. It’s said to be one of Buck’s very best. I’d be torn between that and Imperial Woman. I simply adore Imperial Woman.

But back to the Sun and the Moon. Today I’m asking you to tell me something. What do you think has changed drastically from your child self to your adult self?

What would you like to change back and why?

Journal time! 😀

And if you feel like it, I’d really like to know.

Sun, Moon, Dreaming Way Tarot, U.S. Games [aff]

Have You Ever Perjured Yourself? I Have.

Today’s card makes me a bit sad. It reminds me of something I used to do. If I catch myself now, I have to correct it immediately. While I’m no court of law, I do expect myself to hold some things sacred.

Truth is one of those. Here in the Shakespearian Tarot, the Devil shares this quote, “Sweet soul take heed of perjury”. It’s a line from Othello, The Moor Of Venice. One of the bard’s darker pieces, this tells the tale of a husband who murders his wife. I was going to say wrongfully murders, but really…is murder ever right?

But I digress. Today I want to talk about lying rather than murder.

Have you ever promised yourself something then not followed through because, after all, if you can’t lie to yourself who can you lie to?

Now think about that while you read the definition of perjury.

“The offense of willfully telling an untruth in a court after having taken an oath or affirmation.”

Willfully. Intentionally. Deliberately.

If we are in a relationship with anyone, the first one is with ourselves. If we can’t be true to ourselves, who can we be true to?

Now then, please note that I don’t see “fake it until you make it” as lying to myself. Not at all. That is actually telling myself the truth as it should be. That is rewiring my brain from negativity into positivity.

But there are, or were, things I told myself that were lies. Like…I was strong enough to do certain things alone. Or…I would set a boundary and then let someone else walk all over it.

The resetting of that boundary is something I had to do very recently. On the 4th of July in fact I had to clean up one of my own personal lies to myself. I ignored all the red flags about someone and gave them more chances to hurt me. And yeah, big surprise, I got hurt. Emotionally, not physically.

If I can’t tell myself the truth, how can I tell anyone else the truth? It really comes down to that for me.

What about you? How do you see perjury in the sacred court of your own sweet self?

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Devil, Shakespearian Tarot, USGS 1993 [aff]

Should You Break Some Rules?

Today’s card is a reminder to me about something I don’t like to do. Rules. I don’t follow them unless they make sense to me. It’s how I cook too. If I think a little more of this and a little less of that works better for me, that’s what I’m doing.

Sometimes that’s gotten me into trouble. Like the time the road sign cautioned the hairpin turn needed me to slow down. Baby, I almost went into a ditch. Slammed my brakes so hard parts of me are still shaking and that was last year.

That’s not the first time I’ve thought I knew better and got schooled.

And it won’t be the last either.

Here the Hierophant from the Wild Unknown Tarot shows a raven holding a metal key. A bolt of lightning streaks down ala Benjamin Franklin. The raven holds the knowledge but that electricity is what is going to light him up.

Question is…is he following his rules? Because of what this card represents (Saturn), I’m willing to bet he makes and breaks his own rules regularly. The key here (get it? the key? nudge nudge) is that they are his rules so he can break them.

I’ll bet he calls it remaking them or revisiting.

We can think of some of these rules as the old tapes in our heads. Those are the rules we follow because “Mama said so” or “I’ve always done it this way.” Maybe we need some personal lightning strikes in our lives to help us remake those rules.

Do you have any rules in your life that need breaking?

If you do, what would it take to get you to break them now rather than waiting for the bolt of sizzling electricity to zap you?

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Hierophant, Wild Unknown Tarot

How Do You Fill In The Blanks?

This unusual rendition of the Fool reminds me that blank spaces are not for the timid. An eagle flies with planets behind her and what might be steps or books beneath. This is from the Londa Marks Crow’s Magick Tarot.

How often do we try to fill in the blanks?

You are having a conversation and the other person pauses to gather their thoughts. You leap in to say what you think they are going to say.

This is one of my personal worst flaws. I do it a lot.

You are looking at a picture you have drawn. You start filling in the spaces until everything touches.

You are sitting in a room with nothing on. You turn on the radio, the television–sometimes both.

We can’t have spaces in our life. We can’t have silence. Blank area must be filled up with things.

What is it that drives us to fill it all up?

Consider this empty eagle flying off. Daring you to fill it or daring you to empty your own clutter and just be empty for a bit?

Your 180 second challenge today is to spend three minutes in silence. No sound. No music. No nothing. Just 180 seconds of silence.

Can you do it?

Fool, Crow’s Magick Tarot [aff]

Water, Devils and Demons

Today’s card always makes me ask, “Who made me do it?” See, I don’t believe in the Devil as a Christian construct of behaviour correction. I do believe in evil as a motivation for action though. Confused? It’s okay. I can be convoluted. It’s one of my many charms. GRIN!

Thoreau (1817-1862) asked, “What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?”

Wouldn’t that have been a better attitude than “The Devil made me do it” as an excuse? Both use a similar perception though that I just can’t get behind.

See, I have this nagging idea that I am responsible for myself. That I, as a grown-assed woman, have to say:

I did that because I was tired and out of sorts. I let my emotions get away from me.

I did that because I was afraid. I let my lizard brain take over.

You know…basic self-responsibility statements. Annoying, right?

I’ve had a lot of discussion with myself that start with, “Well if X hadn’t made me angry” that end with me having to admit that X didn’t make me angry. I allowed myself to become angry. I’m not saying that anger isn’t a valid emotion or response. What I’m saying is that I have control of my emotions. I am, as I pointed out, a grown-assed woman.

No one made me eat that piece of cake.
No one made me angry.

No one made me cry.

No one made me happy.

NO one made me do anything.

Unless I’m puppet in which case can someone please show me where the strings are and who might be attached to them?

Yeah, that’s what I thought too. No puppet master.

I won’t buy “Devil made me do bad” any more than I buy “demon made me do good.” I get to own both of those things. My actions are controlled by me.

I won’t ask you to commit to 180 seconds today for this concept. Instead, I’ll ask that you take that three minutes to do something completely off-topic. I’m asking you to turn off the water while you wash your hands.

Crazy, right? Doesn’t even compute as belonging to this topic. I know, but it is very important to me.

Water is precious. Here in Texas we are facing another drought. If you wet your hands, then turn off the water, you can then soap your hands for however long without wasting the water. Same for brushing your teeth. Per The Daily Green, you can also save up to 8 gallons of water a day simply by turning off the tap while you brush your teeth in the morning and at night.

Check out these 100 ways to conserve water.

So, today’s post was about devils, demons and water. I take full responsibility for the juxtaposition. Maybe the devil made the drought?

Devil, Herbal Tarot, U.S. Games

What’s Been Left Unsaid?

Today’s card reminds me of a quote by Christopher Crowfield aka Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is inevitable that we must all face death. No matter who you are, you have suffered loss. Some of believe our loved ones will move on to another place or another life. But this isn’t about their dying or even our dying. It’s about missed chances.

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.” Little Foxes, 1865

For me, the death of an animal companion can bite as sharply and as deeply as the death of a human companion. I know this is not so for others. There is no discernible difference for me when I grieve. What makes it harder or easier is my own feeling of “wrapping things up.” Have I had time to tell them what they mean to me? Have I had time to make sure they know that I love them. When I can say yes to those, then I can eventually find my own peace.

Last night, I happened to notice my voice memos from my iPhone had been synced to iTunes. Curious, I opened it and listened to them. One brought me tears, but they were happy, memory tears. It was a thirty second clip of my darling girl Carmen purring. She had a VERY distinctive purr. She also often slept with her nose close to my ear so I heard it a lot. Hearing her that way made me smile. When I helped Carmen cross the Rainbow Bridge, I chose to do it on a day two very dear friends married. I knew I would be at a celebration of life that day. As hard as it was to let Carmen go, I intentionally chose a day of joy to do that.

Did I grieve her? Yes, I did. And, truth be known, I still do. She was with me for over eighteen years. There were a lot of memories in her sable fur. But I knew it was time for her so I spent a lot of those last moments loving her and talking to her. That was healing for me.

So, your 180 second challenge is a hard one today. Is there anyone in your life that you would shed bitter tears over for leaving anything unsaid? How can you address that?

NOTE: Sometimes there are people we NEED to speak to but for whatever reason can’t/won’t. Write a letter instead. Then burn it to release that energy.

Seek joy, y’all!

Death, Sun And Moon Tarot, US Games Systems Inc.

Are You A Nosy Parker?

Today’s card reminds me of this quote I got from the AWAD newsletter. The word was so far from the essence of this card that it made me laugh. I liked the juxtaposition of the card, the word and this quote.

The word was “nosy parker”.

The quote was, “Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on “I am not too sure.” -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956) ”

The quote makes me think of the Hermit as the skeptical yet tolerant civilized man. However the Hermit is the furthest thing away from a nosy parker.

I like Mencken’s notion that the more right you think you are, the less civilized you are. I agree with that wholeheartedly.

In fact, grin, you might say I’m right. Ha!

Seriously though, how flexible are you? Can you be like the Hermit who remains a dedicated student of life? Can you follow his lead into quiet introspection about how things work? Will you join him in his intense search using the natural world as his vehicle?

And let me just state here and now that I live in a city and I can find nature EVERYWHERE I go. It may be harder when the weather is severe, but nature is there. Look for it.

Your 180 second challenge today? Search within yourself to find where you are “RIGHT, DAMMIT” and see how much flexibility you can worm into that.

That’s three minutes of admitting that your point of view might not be the only one with validity. That maybe that person with a different religious belief or cultural understanding of the world might simply be different rather than wrong.

Hermit, Shadowscapes, Llewellyn

Whom Do You Impersonate?

Today’s card reminds me that I need to tell y’all one of my guilty secrets. I see this card as a invitation to indulge in that secret. You want to know what the secret is?

I don’t know if I can tell you.

Let’s talk about this card instead. It’s from a 2012 Schiffer deck called the Lowbrow Tarot. It was a compilation of artists who each worked on one of the twenty two major arcana. I am not a huge fan of Majors only Tarot but have been given some great advice recently on how I might turn that around.

This deck runs the gamut from super dark to almost whimsical art. It truly is a miniature art gallery. Here is the Empress from this deck. She’s an unusual Empress to my way of thinking. More High Priestess with her cool gaze and chaste colors, this Empress seems to be challenging the onlooker.

I expect a few things from an Empress. This one doesn’t deliver on all things. She’s so subtle you almost miss that full belly. That’s pretty much a must for me. She must be fertile and show it. She holds something in her hand. Is it heart? A jewelry box?

No. It’s a very traditional symbol for the Empress–a pomegranate. But I have to wonder how she can hold that juicy fruit and not get a drop on her!

Her hair is braided to look like wheat which is a terrific touch. Her breasts are definitely full and her chair could be a throne. She’s portrayed outside which is another thing I like my Empresses to be.

At her feet are the thing that reminds me of that guilty secret.

Poppies, my pretty. Poppies.

Yes, it’s true. I have a fair-to-middlin’ impersonation of the Wicked Witch of the West.

SHOCKER!

I’ve also read every, I think, Frank L. Baum book in that series. I was seriously hooked on Oz as a young girl. I think TickTock of Oz is my personal favorite with Glinda’s book coming in at number two.

So what about you? Do you do any impersonations?

Oh! I can also do a Jimmy Cagney “you dirty rat” in sign language.

Yeah, I’m a special type of talented.

Your 180 second challenge today? For three minutes practice impersonations in the mirror. You have to do it until you laugh–hard. This is one I suggest doing with a pal because you can get them to do theirs as well.

This isn’t about doing it well.

It’s about doing it until you laugh.

Are you with me? You dirty rats!

Empress, Lowbrow Tarot: An Artistic Collaborative Effort in Honor of Tarot,Schiffer Books, 2012

Seek Joy, Y’all. Pass it on.

P. to the S. Want to become a radiant human being? Check out this online course (aff). I did it and loved it!

How Do You Play?

Another side of the Hermit is the solitary learner. The one who returns to nature to dig in and find both himself and God. There is a feeling that to be a Hermit one must be a “Very Serious Person.”

Today’s card reminds me that some days it’s okay to be the crazy cat lady (or man). Well, maybe I’m reaching on this card. But truly, I like this Hermit from the Tarot of the Cat People. It’s a rather unusual deck. It was published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc in 1984.

Is our Hermit going into the cave or coming out? I know I need both solitude and companionship to feel balanced. If I get too much of one, I crave the other. Maybe the Hermit is the first one to have mentioned guests and fish both smelling bad after three days?

I have to wonder though…how much life can you learn if you are serious all the time? In today’s A.Word.A.Day newsletter, there was a quote that really spoke this for me.

“Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.” -Heraclitus, philosopher (500 BCE)

Isn’t that the truth?

Have you ever watched a child playing? The focus and intensity would awe an Olympic athlete. They are all about the game. There is nothing else in that moment for them.

When is the last time you felt that focus? That “nothing else” intensity?

Today’s 180 second commitment is going to be hard. Grit your teeth. Grin and bear it. Just muscle through, okay?

Today I’m asking you to commit to 180 seconds of fun. Three minutes of doing something for the sheer joy of it.

A. Count the petals on a flower.
B. Tell someone a long, involved Shaggy Dog story.
C. Skip down the hallway.
D. Throw a ball for your dog (or go to a dog park and throw it for someone else’s.)

Have fun for three minutes today that doesn’t include any thoughts of “I shouldn’t” or “I should be doing something else.”

Come out of the cave and play.

The Hermit, Tarot of the Cat People, U.S. Games Systems Inc, 1984

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.