Eight of Air from the Gaian Tarot

Joanna Powell Colbert continues to birth the Minor Arcana for her deep and stunning Gaian Tarot.  The latest offering is the 8 of Air, which depicts people sitting in council, one man speaking as he holds the talking stick.  Joanna has very generously dedicated this card to me and my work with council circle.  Please have a look.

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Dedication to learning?

What has happened to people who are dedicated to learning something well?  News of the last six-session beginners’ tarot course I was going to offer generated many interested nibbles, but when it came down to the crunch, only one person was actually ready to sign up, so I cancelled it.  There’s a lot of buzz about my upcoming Level One Reiki course on the last weekend in June, but so far no one has actually laid any money on the line.  Many times, on discussion groups and even in books printed by major publishers, I’ve seen unnecessary misspellings such as “querant” instead of the correct “querent”, or “alter” when the person means “altar”.  If we’re going to do tarot, or reiki, or circle, or astrology, or therapy, or writing, or massage, or whatever it is we do, let’s know our terminology and how to use it.  Let’s know our tools and processes and how and when to use them.  Let’s not come across as flakes.  Let’s actually learn and practise before offering our services, whether we do them on a for-pay basis or as favours for friends.  I’ve seen a couple of people in Toronto who took a one-evening, three-hour Learning Annex tarot class, then hung out their shingle to do readings.  I’ve been working, playing, and living with tarot for almost 29 years and I still don’t know it all.  When I come across something that excites me and that will enhance my work, I do my best to learn and integrate it.  End of rant.

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Demetra George in Toronto!

Last night, I was privileged to hear the great astrologer and author, Demetra George, give a lecture here in Toronto.  She emphasised the asteroids, something for which she has been famous for many years.  I discovered that there’s an asteroid named James and another one named Wells — how cool is that!  It’s interesting to me that only in Babylonian times and in the last 30 years or so has the mythic component of astrology been emphasised.  In the vast time in between, it was left out, perhaps for religio-political reasons.  The archetypal understanding of myth is useful to astrologers (and, I would add, tarot consultants, and therapists, and…) because the stories can help us understand our own stories and heal our relationship with the deities/energies within us and in the cosmos. 

I already have tarot card correspondences for the twelve zodiacal signs, ten principle planets, lunar nodes, and Chiron.  My curiosity is piqued about which cards I might assign to certain asteroids.  This could really open up fascinating and healing stories when I look at the asteroids in my own chart and when I offer my Your Stars in the Cards workshop for people to find greater depth in their birth chart via the card images/concepts.  When I come up with some possibilities, I’ll post them on this blog.

Demetra had a book there that I hadn’t seen before, Finding Our Way Through the Dark, a companion book to her rich and wonderful Mysteries of the Dark Moon.  Useful information and great journal questions!  Her new book, Astrology and the Authentic Self, is due out in November of this year.  Keep your eyes peeled for it.

See more about this remarkable teacher at www.ancientoracletours.com .

Where do you see your own situation or story mirrored in the world or in the cosmos at this time?  What can you learn about yourself from this greater story?  What can you heal in yourself that might also heal something in the world?

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Bird Invites Questions

At the side of our building, there’s a sloping driveway that leads to an underground garage.  Last night, a young bird was trapped there because one of the local cats was stalking it to the bottom of the slope.  We only went out to look because we heard a robin’s unhappy cry from the big maple beside us.  Steven distracted the cat from up on our balcony by making sounds and calling its name while I went down with gloves to try and pick up the bird to take it to safety.  One of our neighbours opened the garage door to get his car in.  In went the bird.  So Steven and I, cardboard box and gloves in hand, went down to the depths of the building to find the bird.  Eventually we found it, put it in the box, and took it to a secluded spot up the street, between a tree and some thick hedges.  Hopefully safe.  Later on, I wondered if we did the right thing.  Then a phrase from Christina Baldwin’s The Seven Whispers came to mind: “Ask for what you need and offer what you can.”  We offered what we could.

At one point, myriad thoughts raced through my mind in a mere two or three seconds.  Would I do this right?  Would I accidentally kill the bird?  Were we only prolonging a fate as prey?  Would I get pecked and infected?  Could it make its own way out of the garage and be safe?  Would it be better to call animal rescue?  Would it be OK to just let the cat get the bird?  And more.  There was a split second when a small piece of me wanted to absolve itself of all responsibility for assisting a fellow earth creature, to just let whatever might happen happen.  Fortunately, that aspect of me didn’t take over.  May that piece of me be forgiven, healed, and loved. 

This encounter with the bird carries energy for me.  It wants to be explored.  Perhaps, using the Tarot of the Crone and a simple three-card layout, I can do this.  Here it is.

1.  What is the deeper, larger learning for me in this encounter with the bird?  Grandmother of Cups, reversed.  I’m learning to enfold and love Source/Being and myself in a deeper, more mature manner.  I’m learning that by caring for the bird, I care more deeply for my own psyche and self.  I’m learning that Source/Being/Life enfolds me in quiet, unseen ways.

2.  What’s appropriate for me to release, exit, or leave behind?  8 of Wands, upright.  It’s appropriate and helpful for me to leave behind any limited visions I may have had about what leadership in the world might look in order for me to release the need to be in charge all the time.

3.  What’s appropriate for me to embrace, enter, or move towards?  Beast of Disks, reversed.  It’s appropriate to embrace my innate animal nature.  It’s helpful for me to move towards taking greater risks around my “security blankets”, to get “down and dirty” when needed in order to demonstrate how much more committed to earthspirit I’m becoming.

Thank you.

 

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