Quote:
"Come with me into the woods. Where spring is advancing, as it does, no matter what, not being singular or particular, but one of the forever gifts, and certainly visible." ~ Mary Oliver
My thoughts:
In my Tarot pull today I got the Wheel of Fortune, reversed. Now that I mention it, I’m not sure I’ve explained my relationship to Tarot. For the sake of clarity I do believe it’s important that I make a couple things abundantly clear.
First, I am NOT a practitioner of tarot in the sense that I would read someone else’s cards. I have been asked to do so, and will only oblige for the people around me that I know very well and can intuit some meaning for. There is no power in the cards, they do not tell the future or supernaturally understand the past.
Tarot cards are a way of understanding oneself. They help us to ask better questions and seek within for clarity regarding the choices and opportunities we are confronted with.
On a related note, the meaning that we find in an activity like tarot comes from our own imagination and effort to think deeper about our circumstances. Tarot is an act of self-reflection where meaning does NOT come from any obscure unknowable mysterious source.
Second, the reason why Tarot can be powerful is because the images and themes are universal. The archetypes within the Major Arcana point to personality and psychological traits that are noticed across culture, gender, sexuality, and religious orientation. There is an order to Tarot that helps us tell a story about ourselves, and the characters can exist within us, and in the people we come across in our daily lives.
In Rachel Pollack’s wonderful book Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom she says, it [Tarot] “represents a process, and one of the things it teaches us is that we make a mistake when we assume that unification comes through any simple key or formula. Rather, it comes through growth and increased awareness (emphasis mine) as we travel step by step through the twenty-one stages of the Major Arcana.”
So, back to my card.
I got the Wheel of Fortune, reversed.
Now, when I get a reversed card I don’t always just assume that it’s something negative. Again, we are the ones who make meaning, we don’t leave that to the cards. That being said, when I got it today it felt like validation regarding stuff that’s going on in my life right now.
I was laid off a year ago and I’m out of money. I have recently gone back to work substitute teaching and it’s not going to pay the bills the way I had hoped. I built up my business in the hopes that the teaching would supplement coaching income, but it just hasn’t happened that way.
I feel like I’m spinning around and around the wheel and only finding the downsides. Setbacks and misfortune seem to be the new normal. It is hard to find the good when everything seems to be such a challenge.
And then Mary Oliver reminds me that spring is coming.
The Wheel of Fortune does NOT stop, it is on a cycle with the seasons and it will persist. Spring is a time when growth WILL occur, so we need to be mindful of the seeds we are planting. There have been moments when all I can see is the dead of winter, but new growth is right under the icy landscape getting ready to push through!
Intention:
Join me in this very simple intention:
Today I plant love, positivity, and kindness…
knowing that when spring comes it will bloom!
Meditation:
This week find an opportunity to be outside in nature and look for new growth.
It could be the buds starting to flare on the trees, or succulents emerging out of dormancy. It could be that it’s finally the moment when you need to pull the lawn more out and cut the grass that is now getting too long after the cold of winter.
Notice, be aware, go looking for growth and you will end up finding it EVERYWHERE!
Cultivation:
On a related note…maybe buy or find a flower or plant that you can begin to take care of. My plants are a wonderful reminder, every few days when I’m paying attention and taking care of them, that we need to cultivate and tend to them (and ourselves) in order to stay healthy!
Appreciation:
For nature we know that the harsh climes of winter are often NEEDED for a vibrant plant life. Perhaps that is true for us, too. We should be grateful, and show appreciation for, the harder elements that sweep through our lives that can often be so difficult to live through, but in the end seem to be necessary for the joy to be as prevalent. Like the great sages of hip hop Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock once sang “Joy and pain, like sunshine and rain” - it is the wheel of fortune, and they will show up in equal measure most of the time…so we must ride it out.