Personal Tarot Traits – 9 of Wands dig’s deep and keeps the pace spinning on a spin bike

Personal Tarot Traits – Relating Personal Daily Experiences to a Daily Tarot Card

The 9 of Wands spinning on a spin bike!

[9 of Wands — Nobody else can put me to task if I’ve already learned how to do that for myself.]

“Crank up the resistance… get off the seat and up on the pedals… Dig in! Push, push, push!  Drive, drive, drive… think of something you’ve always wanted and pretend all you have to do is to speed up a little bit more and it’s yours… dig, dig, dig!  One, two, one two.  Now’s a good time to remember why you’re doing this.  Fifteen more seconds…. you’re almost there… up and over that hill… give it a little bit more up and over the top… 5, 4, 3, 2 AND ONE! You’re there.  Good job, back it down.”

Breathless.  A sip of water.  Reviewing the effort.  How well did I stay on the pace? Did I keep up with the beat of the music?    Did I back it off at any point — why?  How can I avoid that next time?  Thinking about the effort…. another sip of water… keeping  the pedals moving… checking my heart rate monitor… remembering the watts and RPM numbers when I glanced down at the monitor and how well I held the RPM’s that I had in mind for that workout. 

Nine of Wands!  It relates to “keeping the pace”, knowing how to hang-in because of past experiences, yet also about the possibility of being one’s own worst enemy.  I’m not competitive with others–never have been really–not in the way athletes can be.  I compete against my self, my past performances and my own personal goals and ideals.

Persevering despite set backs is another quality of the 9 of wands energy.  I nearly laugh as I typed that line just now–setbacks.  I’ve gained weight, lost weight, gained it back and lost it again over this past year.  Talk about setbacks!   But they were all of my own doing — my own worst enemy.  That self-sabotage stuff can relate to this card as it applies to fighting one’s way back from setbacks.

All it takes is two weeks’ off from exercise and you start loosing fitness levels.  Oh, how I’ve experience the one throughout my life!

Keyword meanings for this card are these:  perseverance and stamina.  Sometimes we have to “hold it together” through sheer will and while this is something we are challenged with emotionally often if we can hold tough physically, it helps us to do so emotionally too.

Sometimes in life we have to continue despite fatigue!  We push onward no matter how tired we are and the more times in life we do this, the stronger we become.  Strength of heart, of will, of mind as well as the physical body are developed in this way — or so has been my experience.

On the bike there are times my legs are screaming and I just have to let them and not resist or fight against the effort that I’m making because if I don’t stay relaxed chances are high that I won’t reach my goal.  Determined effort.

This is the card that I pulled yesterday — 9 of Wands.  At some point in the 30-minute interval workout all the bikes were filled with riders and I wondered how many of us were competing in some way with the rider either side of them or at least pretending to in order to assist in their workout.

I thought of the other riders yesterday as all those rods surrounding the single human on the card.  I don’t mind being surrounded by others in that way and realized that ultimately I ride alone and like it that way.

If you work with tarot, maybe you will think of my spin bike experiences as you consider the card meanings in a reading.  I know that I will.   I love divination; just sayen’.

PS — I think of spinning as a meditation in learning to keep present, not letting mind drift.

ADDENDUM – WHY AND WHEREFORE’S OF THESE TYPES OF POSTS

In the morning when I first awaken, I let guidance come in and do a waking dream for the day ahead. On one of these occasions recently I received a directive in the form of an idea laced with intensity. “Draw a card at the beginning of the day and reflect on its meaning and then revisit it at day’s end correlating the day’s experiences with the card.” That’s the treasure at the end of the rainbow so-to-speak. Doing so gives insight into the world of divination for the purpose of adding layers or additional traits to the tarot card meaning. This deeper understanding to the cards can be applied for use when doing future readings. It’s like letting Life Itself teach us the cards.

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5 of Pentacles with 2 and 7 of Pentacles – When Life Circumstances Drastically Change

5 of Pentacles Issue with  a 2 and 7 of Pentacle Resolution

Haven’t there been times when we’ve used our pain or life trials as a crutch or to solicit sympathy or attention from others–at least temporarily?  In the card image for the 5 of Pentacles (above) she is sitting on the rock, crutches on her lap and out in the cold, no less.  Note the scarf, gloves and snow upon the ground.  We all get wounded from time–we suffer an eye-opening loss and our initial reaction is  squeeze the eyes closed.  We just don’t want to deal with it.  But eventually, it comes time to open the eyes and take inventory or make a plan of some kind.

Yet we all know that some folks never do; they lay claim to role as victim and do what they can to enhance that role or overly exaggerate their difficulty.  There’s help available and they know it and also know how to reach out for it but (for whatever reason) remaining victim has become a habit that they are getting something from.  The greater difficulty with a person using  using those crutches long-term is that they block the ability to change and loose touch with inner values and their own spirit.

Drastic changes in life circumstances due to external conditions happen to all of us at one time or another.   All three cards chosen today for blog fodder were Pentacles–cards of the earth and of material world and worldly concerns.  In some tarot decks we see the 5 of Pentacles person on crutches, wounded by life, walking past a church or chapel ~ not going in.  You get the feeling that spirituality is being ignored.

There are times that isolating one’s self from the world for a little while is a good thing right after suffering a dramatic change in the circumstances of our life.

I feel pretty qualified to write about the 5 of Pentacles, haven “been there, and done that” as the saying goes.  I isolated myself and shut my eyes and it got pretty cold there eventually and I did take shelter in the spiritual realms.  Reading spiritual books, meditating, seeking out like-minded individuals, finding a soul family for a while and being helped–but I had to seek a solution and leave the crutches behind, and come in from the cold place where I was making material concerns more important than they should have been.

And that brought me to a ‘2 of Pentacles kind of place’ in my mind and heart.  Through my newly established ‘spiritual legs’ (after haven tossed those crutches away), I was able to be more joyful about life.  I opened my eyes, realized the lessons and the blessings in the recent changes and was able to “go with the flow” as the saying goes.

The gift of the drastic change to external conditions enabled me to further develop the ability to feel much deeper compassion for myself and others.  I found ways to take advantage of the shifts of energy.  I raised my sails and let the winds of change move me and did not resist.

Sometimes there was no wind and I found myself in the ‘doldrums’ on those occasions–once in a  while depression or feelings of hopelessness kicked in.  But by then I had already turned my crutches in for a hoe (I’d learned how to use some spiritual tools) and just like the image on the 7 of Pentacles card (above) I had to contemplate how to use those tools; but figured it out.

Perpetual change was the name of the game in certain periods of my life and those changes helped me to learn how to maintain equilibrium.  I learned a lot about my strengths and also my weaknesses during times of rapid fire change.

I learned to trade in any illusions about the outer world being a stable and safe place and realized (each time and on deeper levels) that all stability and safety is to be sought and found within one’s own spiritual self.  In doing so I calmed myself enough (opening my eyes) to be able to see opportunities around me and also the true beauty of the Earth and Life Itself.  (Capitalization intended).  I saw The Divine everywhere I looked once I found The Source within.

We must not be afraid of change.  We need to “un-stick” ourselves from old conditions and release the past in order to benefit fully from all the gifts that Life has to offer.

We are taught by society that our stability in life comes from the work, the career we have within the framework of society.  We may have prepared for a particular job or career only to find that work dissolve before our eyes.

That happened to me. There was health care reform that affected many professional health care providers like myself for a short time.  Physical Therapists (like myself), Occupational Therapists and Respiratory Therapists–many of us found ourselves applying for job loss benefits.  It was very de-stabilizing time.  And  that was around the time that I found  much more satisfying work that I do as a counselor and professional psychic.

We all must do something in some way when we are feeling destabilized.  We cannot remain too long in that stuck and un-focused state.  We must take those tools (that garden hoe shown in the image of 7 of Pentacles above) and plant some seeds.  While we’re waiting form them to sprout and grow, we cannot loose faith and hope.  Instead, we can firm up our inner spiritual fortress while we’re waiting.

In my case, I built a website to do my psychic work and it was about 3 months before I could see the search engines picked it up and people found me.  Meanwhile however, it was a great joy for me to create the many web pages and load images and write articles for the website.  On days when I had no clients, I used the day to create the next web page and then the one after that.

I continue to have failures and also successes and both have served as great teachers for me– it continues that way.   For myself and for all humans who open their eyes and put down the crutches and pick up the spiritual tools, establish a true connection with the Spiritual Source within and plant those seeds while dancing with the movement of life we are able to recognize opportunity.   Then it becomes clear to us that there is nothing to fear and most of all that we are supported by a kind, giving and loving universe.

We get there by looking inward.

Daily Divination 8-26-11 Doing the Work of Soul Evolution – I CHING Kua 18 with Astrology and Tarot Correlations

IMHO a mistake or error that some “new age” spiritual thought systems or philosophical systems make has to do with denying emotion.  Attempts to “white light” and escape from areas of the psyche (soul) or consciousness without going ‘into’ deep feelings or old wounds to determine their core prevents evolutionary growth by skipping over or omitting examination of one’s role in emotional dynamics.  Many wish to wave their wand of light and “not go there”, preferring to escape or avoid the necessary work that supports growth and evolution.  Take, for example, a situation of a tumultuous or difficult relationship—perhaps even one in which some type of abuse took place.  Without going deeply into the dynamics of that relationship at some point, one avoids seeing how one may have contributed to the problem or the difficult dynamic. Essentially, we escape into the Light when we drop our body and cross to the other side; yet, we realize that we did not really “get it” and then come back again to go back into it so that we can see what needs to be healed, repaired or cleaned up or repaired within our own self.  When we say things like “let me stay in the light and not deal with dark feelings”, many times we defeat the purpose of being here—growth and evolution.  We have to “go there” in order to be able to recognize our own patterns and to repair them.

Today’s cosmic communiqué is inspired by Kua 18 of the I CHING called “Correcting Deficiencies” or “Work That Has Been Spoiled”.

We must first understand the cause of our suffering before we can do away with them and without going deeply into that area and examining it, we cannot ever know.  Without knowing and understanding, release cannot happen.  Negative emotions are not to be feared – they are to be understood and traced back to their source so that they can be corrected, re-worked, understood, repaired, restored, cleared up, so that we are in future able to respond differently, living a life in which old wounds are healed and balanced.

Old beliefs that we hold about victimization or neediness and the like have an opportunity to come to light and be corrected and that is why we’re here but we cannot make those corrections if we are unwilling to look/examine or if we are focused on spaceship brothers/sisters coming to “save us” or some sort of ascension scenario whisking us off to some heaven in the sky. No matter where we go in the cosmos, we take the same consciousness; there’s no real escape without the clean-up and correction work.

Behavior patterns that come from patterns of thinking that do not benefit us create problems lifetime after lifetime until we have enough courage and determination to feel and recognize the pain or negative emotion, go into it and make the necessary adjustment or correction.  The deep soul-searching and psychological uncovering reveals what requires attention so that we can live in The Light; yet, so many run away from this work.

As Ma Deva Padma says, “If you put your dinner leftovers in the fridge where you don’t see them for days on end, eventually they start to grow moldy and stink.  The same thing happens with mistakes and difficulties that we refuse to deal with.  We can pretend we don’t know about them, or disguise them with fragrance.”  But all our mistakes and difficulties are learning experiences and while it is easier to assume we are victim rather than examining our role, we avoid facing reality and only delay the moment of truth in which we must become honest with ourselves.

Looking within the self without denial or embellishment to see what part we have played is of utmost importance; otherwise, nothing changes and patterns repeat.

BOTTOM LINE:  Past problems and issues should be examined so that future progress is not hindered.  Don’t deny emotions; allow them and trace them back to their source and make necessary corrections to erroneous or victimization-type thinking

ASTROLOGICAL AND TAROT ARCHETYPE KEYWORD ASSOCIATIONS:

SCORPIO:  allow yourself to go deeply into your psyche and examine your emotions (water; Scorpio is a water sign; water is associated with emotion)

SAGITTARIUS:  ruled by Jupiter, the planet associated with expansive views and the BIG PICTURE; truth—to thine own self be true

LEO:  lack of ability for self-reflection; a need to create the ability to self-reflect; being “child-like” or emotionally immature; the drama-queen of the zodiac; desire to Play ‘god’

VIRGO:  victim; victimization; lack of using discernment; desire to escape into the Pisces polarity

HEIROPHANT/HIGH PRIEST:  going within; turning inward; inner teacher; learning from Life; need for clarity of thought; that which stimulates an inner awakening

TEMPERANCE:  healing after a death experience; being aware of what needs healing

HIGH PRIESTESS:  going deep into the psyche; being in a state of silent equilibrium; looking to the unconscious/subconscious mind for answers; tapping into deep parts of the mind to understand one’s life; looking for the “why” behind all events/feelings/emotions/thoughts/circumstances; paying attention to moods and cycles and learning from them

MAGICIAN:  transmutation of energy; turning the “lead” of negative emotions into the”gold” of love through transmutation that comes from self-understanding

HERMIT:  going within; need to withdraw and examine one’s heart and mind; inner seeking; solitude; the opposite of trying to escape; facing one’s inner self; NOT looking outside one’s own psyche for answers

STRENGTH:  the ability to overcome one’s own resistance and blockages; controlling emotions rather than allowing them to control her; breaking through one’s own personal blockages; releasing tendency to control others