The Magician of the Tarot Gives Insight about Finances

I drew this card the other day when asking for insight about finances:  The Magician.  The first thing I’ve always thought when this card shows up has to do with one creating one’s own reality. I’ve softened that over time and think of it as more having to do with how one chooses to experience one’s reality (or transcending reality!)  But it’s a balancing act since seeing life as magical even when one level of our mind would be telling us it apparently sucks!  Yeah, a real bummer–that is.

Sometimes I think of this card in terms of that phrase, “as above, so below”–and that always refers to astrology.  I mean just look at the card itself and how the magician is pointing to the sky with one hand and to the ground with the other.  Maybe this card means something like, “Don’t ask me, consult astrology for that answer!”  LOL

I don’t know what others would have to say about the card of the Magician coming up for a financial question–the authors of tarot books generally give good marks for finances when the card comes up in  a reading about money.  One author describing  The Magician gave this interpretation regarding finances–and I will have to paraphrase because I’m going from memory:  too much money or success can cover up, screw up or confuse one’s values.   That’s probably a good point to consider.  

Financial concerns do seem to keep me on the higher path I suppose and when money is rolling in, that feeling of… well, lets say humility can suffer a bit.  I don’t know if these thoughts are valid insights to apply to The Magician card or maybe that’s just ‘me’.

The energy seems to need be be kept in balance–that’s another feeling-type insight that the card conveys to me personally.  

As I contemplate this card further to squeeze every bit of divination out of it, I find that the card does seem to have a strong connection to my financial life. Financial results do come as a result of what we’d call “confident prayer” or on a weaker day as a result of sending out an S.O.S. because the rent is coming due and funds are low.  Usually I can connect incoming numbers with a recent prayer, invocation or sometimes just being generous to others does it—creates some meaningful financial magic.

I really do see the financial ups and downs as a significant and intricate part of my spiritual path.  I suppose I can make peace with the fact that if I was rolling in greenbacks that it may stroke too much ego or confuse my values–yet, I think my values are pretty strong; but I still get the point.

I don’t ask for more than I need usually and find my desires are usually met and then some (I’d like it all to work a bit faster but then again it would seem less magical when my financial needs are met and exceeded in significant timing).  That may be because usually when I set my mind and  heart onto the task (as in the image on the card of the magician who has all his ‘tools’ at the ready), there’s one thing I always add to my intention and that is “This or something more or better” .  Why limit one’s self or The Divine– ?   

Probably so much more one could say about The Magician and Finances but time for the next appointment….

ADDENDUM:  Oh, and as far as the Magician saying, “What the heck do I know?–go check your astrology chart”, at the present time Transiting Venus is merged with (conjunct) Transiting Jupiter–both planets have money associations (archetype meanings).  Venus rules the 2nd house of money and Jupiter makes everything lucky and expansive.  Venus kisses Jupiter (as above, so below) and shazam!  It might just be a good day to play the lotto!  Just sayen’.

 

Handeling Procrastination Tendencies – Tarot Oracle Wisdom and Inspiration from The Magician – Is it a MARS Thing?

Yeah, I’m doing it – no doubt about it! Procrastination! Dude! Maybe it’s a Mars thing—Mars is stationing as it moves ahead direct, pulling us in a new direction. Maybe that’s IT – blame Mars!  I’m nearly at the final mile in my closet projects—close to the finish line and I am resisting the big finish! WHY is that? And what do we do about procrastination tendencies? Why do we do it? Likely the i-ching would give us a deeper answer but I’m going to pull a tarot card instead and the whole time I typed the first half of this sentence, I was mentally reminding myself (at the same time) that I have bills to pay and a bank statement to reconcile. Ugh! Yeah, and here it comes… more. There’s outdoor projects awaiting too; yet here I am at the keyboard with the coffee. Maybe a little clarity will help—thus, let’s shuffle and draw a card!

As I grab for the cards, I think of my brother—you know something? I haven’t heard from him since last we heard that he was returning with the body of his wife to the village where she was born for the purpose of further burial ceremony. She was a native Alaskan… American Indian; but then most Alaskans’ are and the rest are white who exploit (the funeral home in Anchorage certainly did!) or serve unless they are “THE CORPORATION”. From the layman’s perspective and not knowing much about the culture and observing from way outside, I think all of the talk of “The [mighty] Corporation” may have to do with gas or oil or other exploitive conglomerates. Anyway, one of my other family members said that the tribe she’s from is Inuit but this is wrong and her own family told us (via the grapevine which is apparently how all information in the tribe is disseminated) the tribe is Athabascan which later became Navajo and Apache as they migrated south. Sometimes Athab [p]ascan spelled with a P instead of a B and is pronounced that way. They are very scorpion-ic (Scorpio like) similar to the native local’s around here i.e. private and secretive and suspicious of outsiders. Anyway, while I’d like to project/blame my procrastination on my brothers incommunicado—that’d be wrong.

Let me shuffle the cards and see what the tarot oracle may say about my delay tactics and feelings of procrastination today and meanwhile maybe there’s some wisdom to come for you too on those days when you are putting things off.

Another sip of coffee. Shuffle. Well, well, well. What do you know? It’s THE MAGICIAN. Okay, got it; it’s going to be a ‘personal power’ message that we get from the tarot oracle on this. Whenever I look at this card, it makes me think of (forgive me) but witchcraft – you know? Calling on the elements of the North, South, East and West and drawing down the Moon and that kind of thing. It is totally about focusing one’s energy too but it is about calling on help from the forces that be in order to do that. Okay, so much for my initial impressions. What I’ve gotten for myself so far is that in order to get across the finish line with those projects it is important to envision the outcome—use the mind’s eye. That’s what the magician is doing. All we need to stop procrastinating is a little “magic”.

Suddenly I think of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and that scene where the apprentice puts the brooms and mops to work and then falls asleep only to find he’s created chaos. Anyway, magic. That’s what we need and in order to have it, we call on the big guns. Well, if you’re not a witch or a magician, then what? How about just envisioning the outcome, focusing on the vision and a prayer or two or if that’s not your cup of tea—an affirmation or mantra. How about something like, “I’ve completed my work and it feels so great to have it done.”

The Magician is about creativity and imagination – seeking creative solutions. Visualizations helps with that. And it’s also about the strength of ‘will’….like I said, personal power. “I will do it dammit!” Well, you get what I mean, right? In a way, it’s like the Strength card and also the Chariot but let’s not get lost in more detail—that only puts things off even further. The Magician is assuring us that we have everything we need to get the job done; we just have to focus our desire and will. And most importantly we need the enthusiasm to make things happen—like I said… we just need a little magic. And how does that occur?

Well, how does anything at all occur? Anything that happens in the outer world happens first in the inner world—in the mind! Like I said…. visualization. And earth energy—maybe another cup of coffee or forgive me but maybe something like a 5 hour energy drink (I never had one but saw a commercial the other day) and then there’s always ginseng or ginseng tea.

(pause)

Well, maybe THAT [pause] was in divine timing! I had a call into my daughters and just got a call back. I’d wanted to know how they did in the race this morning—one of my girls and my grandson ran a half-marathon (13 miles) this morning! They’d been training since winter for that. Talk about being inspired… running for 2 hours + straight! Really? And I am being a wimp about finishing my little ole’ minor projects around here! That pretty much does it! I’m good now. What just happened was a total MAGICIAN moment – inspiration!

My two inspiring MAGICIANS!

The MAGICIAN is about holding your position in time and space and remaining in that flow. If they can do a half-marathon, I can certainly plant a few bushes, finish sorting through a few clothes, balance my checkbook and pay a few bills! Let’s master those elements!

ADDENDUM or FINAL THOUGHT:  In my conversation with my daughters, we talked about the finish line and her sisters said that she nearly turned the wrong way near the finish line. 

HO!  do I remember how that goes!!  I ran a 12 mile race once;  they ran 13 miles today… anyway, I remember how people will yell out how much farther to the finish… and how it always seems soooooooooooooo much longer! 

 One race that I recall in particular in which we were told only a quarter of a mile to go… there was a hair pin turn to the left to get to the finish line but when you’re at the end you know you are looking for it and it just seemed to be the longest 1/4 mile I’d ever run!  If you can ‘see’ that finish line, it helps!  

 My daughter and grandson got to the finish line this morning after running for longer than 2 hours straight–and so will I in my own little way!  C’mon!  WE CAN DO IT.  One step at  time; let’s GO!

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