Part I: Visioning and Planning – The Year Review

Since 2004, I have used The Sacred Journey Daily Journal for planning and reflecting.  There are 3 basic elements to the journal:  1.)  Mission and goal setting for the year along with identifying annual and monthly symbolism to guide you. 2.)  Monthly and weekly calendars including spots for outlining objects, setting focus, noting tasks, and (for me) writing down weekly Tarot spreads.  3.)  Reflection pages at the beginning and ends of months, seasonal events, and the whole year.

During this year, I’ve paid much more attention to and evolved my practice of observing, and working to align with, the seasons as well as weekly planning, intention setting, and reflection.  Days seem to go by too fast for seeing patterns, and if I wait until a whole month has gone by I can’t remember enough detail.  Season reflection allows me to see time from nature’s perspective, which is so different from our clock-obsessed society!

I love the inter-holiday period and early January as kind of time out of time when I get to curl up with my old journal to reflect on the year and then get out the new journal to envision the year ahead.  Each year I try out new techniques and tools for doing this work and this year my Tarot friend Joanna Powell Colbert had two great reviews of planning techniques (the first one is here and her follow up is here) to prime my process development.

Also through my work at the Spiritual Life Center, I’ve been working to understand consolation and desolation as parts of decision making.  I define consolation as those activities or ways of being that align you with your highest purpose and serving the greater Whole.  Often consolations are joyous or gratifying, but they can also be difficult.  Living your highest purpose isn’t always easy.  Desolation moves you away from that highest purpose and does not feel good.  Oh some things like mindless TV watching (one of my desolations!) can be pleasant for a while, but it’s like eating too much candy and ending up with a belly ache.  Ultimately, desolations drain you.

With all this input I came up with guiding questions for my review of the year:

• What felt like consolation / living your highest purpose?
• What were moments of joy and fun?
• What were moments of desolation / moving away from your highest purpose?
• What challenges and struggles did you experience this year?
• What surprised you in this year?

I went through the whole year and noted things in response to each question.  Then I journal, doodled, and reflected on them.  I (of course!) concluded this reflection with some Tarot work to crystallize my views of the overall patterns.

A Consolation / Joy Elemental Layout

• First / Center Card – What is the essence of this year’s consolations / joys?
• Above the Center / Fire – What fire and sparks of consolation / joy to nurture from this year into the next?
• Below the Center / Water – What flows beneath this year’s consolations / joys?
• Left of Center / Air – Don’t forget to pay attention to …
• Right of Center / Earth – What have you made real in this year?

I used Rachel Pollack’s Shinning Tribe deck and was thrilled to turn over the Shinning Woman as the Essence card. Her basic meaning is living your true purpose!   The card is such beauty, great to meditate on, and it affirms that, yes, this work from the year supports me to live my highest purpose:

Using Tarot as a tool to support people in their lives.

• A writing project called Earth Hours that is based on Swimme and Berry’s The Universe Story.
• Being out in nature.  I feel the energy of the trees, earth, air, water flow through me!
• Taking time for retreats.  This year I did a mini-retreat 1 day a week for 6 weeks.
• Support for and work around my issues with my parents.  This one showed how consolation is not always easy.
• Writing and sharing my poetry, particularly as it deals with nature.
• Playtimes with my partner John.
• Starting to work as part of the Pathways team at the Spiritual Life Center.  Actually all things having to deal with the SLC have been a blessing, but the Pathways work was a big and pleasant surprise of the year.
• Getting laid off over the summer and then returning to reduced hours at my job.  It actually created space for new things to open up in my life such as the Tarot and Pathways.
• Group facilitation.  At work, I facilitated planning sessions and events that were gratifying and where it felt like I was using my best skills.

I also did a reading for desolations and challenges:

• Card 1:  What do I leave behind of these desolations and challenges?  Card 2:  How do I do that?
• Card 3:  What wisdom from these desolations and challenges do I take with me?  Card 4:  How do I do that?
• Card 5:  What is something I haven’t yet though about in regard to these desolations and challenges?  Card 6:  How can I pay more attention to this?

The messages I got from these cards are:

• You can lay down some of your burdens in regard to you parents.  It was a relief to think that I didn’t have to take them with me!
• I’d been feeling some sadness / regret around not having enough seasonal / communal ritual that felt meaningful to me, and the 3 of Rivers pulled in Card 3 spoke to me of paying attention to that and making shifts in the coming year.
• You are learning how to hold both your deepest grief and your greatest joys.  They exist together.

I also did work around reviewing specific goals, but this post is getting long so I’ll include that info in Part II of Visioning and Planning.

Articulating How I Work at Open Studios

I recently participated in the Artists Open Studio in the building where I work.  I organized a Tarot Gallery by creating displays on my walls with cards (Elmer’s Tack is my new favorite thing!) and did light one card readings to introduce people to Tarot.  It was fun!  And very interesting to be working to dispel some of the misperceptions and even fears that people have about Tarot.  I felt like a Tarot Ambassador.

And it struck me how Tarot really does need Ambassadors and lots more positive PR.  Some people when they realized the room was filled with Tarot cards backed quickly away.  A number of people talked to me about how they were afraid of Tarot, but when I did my 1 card readings for them, they were pleased.  They just needed to have a positive experience with Tarot, which most often is misrepresented as some kind of mystical force that will act on the questioner (and, sadly yes, occasionally is actually used in an abusive and unethical way) rather than a tool to be used by the questioner to support their own positive action or understanding.

Readers do use Tarot in different ways and over the course of the 3 days of the Open Studios, I got good practice at articulating some of the key principles / assumptions behind how I work with Tarot.  Here are the statements I made over and over again:

• I read in a collaborative, intuitive way.  We explore the cards together and both of our intuitions will be stimulated.
• You are an active participant in the reading and the first choice that you get to make is which deck to work with.   (I had two for people to choose from:  The Shinning Tribe and Tarot Roots of Asia.  Very visually different decks.)
• The future is not fixed.   While we can’t control everything, change is possible.  While cards can point out potential future directions, working toward a different or better outcome is possible.
• There is always something more to learn with Tarot.  My current favorite definition comes from Tarot writer Paul Quinn, “Tarot is an intuitive tool with an intellectual foundation.”  It brings together our right and left brain for holistic thinking.  It holds our desires, emotions, intellect, and physical reality and calls us to look at all of the beautiful complexity of our lives.

I like to work in the affirmative, but there were times when I felt the needs to describe my work by saying what I wasn’t or what shouldn’t happen.

I sometimes clarified that I do not work as a psychic.  There are people who do wonderful work as psychics, but that is not the approach I am taking nor skills I use in sessions.

And every once in a while I felt the need to say, “Don’t base a decision on what you see in this one card.”  Tarot needs to work with things like our emotional responses, counsel from friends or professionals, or our own new insights.  Tarot doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

At the end of the three days, I was a bit tired, but was also surprised to find out I was energetically filled.  I met wonderful people who shared with me the beautiful – and sometimes messy – questions of their lives, created new understanding of Tarot, better articulated how I work with this tool, and even was given a gift of a beautiful Tarot deck by someone who wanted to pass it on to a new home.  What more could I ask for!

Seasonal Reflections and Special Offers

The winter season brings strong winds to blow leaves from trees.  Plants die back and the land rests.  The essential shape of the landscape is revealed; we see sky and distant mountains clearly.  What is ready to be revealed in your life?  What needs rest and renewal in your life?

The dark descends.  Out of these long nights, all traditions have created celebrations of light where rituals with friends and families are enacted and stories told of ancestors and wisdom teachers.    These remind us that the light will return.  Do you have or need to create rituals to dwell in the dark while remembering the light?  Are you ready to gather with friends and family?  Or are there relationships that need special attention or repair?  What stories would you like to tell in this season … of your life … your community … your country?

The holiday of the New Year is a chance to start anew.  Ancient cultures gave us the gift of looking at the new year as a time when creation can begin again, when the new year offers the possibility of ushering in a whole new era.  Our calendar year’s start of the year in January offers a quiet time for reflection, dreaming, planning, and putting in place what is needed for a positive and productive year ahead.  What are the seeds that you would like to plan for the new year?  What are your dreams and visions for the coming year, for the next 5 years, for the next 25 years?

 To mark the season, I am offering the following packages at very special rates:

Family Trigger Buster:  Does being with certain family or friends during the holidays drive you crazy?  Families and people we’ve been with a long time can set off unconscious actions on our part, often leaving everybody feeling badly.  Working with the cards, you can better understand your patterns/triggers, imagine new possibilities, and identify supports for acting differently.  In December, I have 3 one hour sessions to focus on your relationship with one person for the special rate of $42.  If you need to look at a whole web of relationships, a longer consultation is necessary and I have 3 sessions of sixty to ninety minutes available for the special rate in December only of $75

Beyond Resolutions – New Year’s Visioning and Planning That Sticks:  Focus your consultation of 75 to 90 minutes on visioning for and gaining insight into the dynamics of the coming year, or have me guide you through a 5 year visioning process.  I have 6 slots for this work in January for the special price of $70 (a $15 savings from my regular fee for these in depth consultations).  Add 3 follow up check-ins (monthly or quarterly) for $120 pre-paid (a savings of $30).

Stepping Out of the Seasonal Frenzy to Finding Meaning in the Holidays:  Do you have a question about how rituals of the season or in general can connect to or deepen your spirituality?  A focused session of 45 to 60 minutes can help you explore this topic.  I have 4 slots for this work in December for the special price of $42.

See more about how I work and my usual offerings and rates here.

As always, gift certificates are available.

Paradoxes of Change: Memory & The High Priestess

Preparing for a recent Tarot meditation, I delightedly explored a new aspect of the High Priestess.  I am constantly amazed how the meaning of the cards is revealed afresh to me despite the fifteen or so years that I have studied the Tarot.  This time my attention was drawn to the High Priestess’ connection to deep memory through Rachel Pollack’s writing in her book on the Haindl Tarot about the High Priestess’ correspondence to the Hebrew letter Gimel:

 “The Hebrew letter for this card, Gimel, means “Camel,” the animal we see crouched at the the woman’s legs (in the Handel High Priestess card).  A symbol for timelessness and patience, the camel, which carries its own liquid as it crosses the dessert, links the elements Water and Earth.  But the camel (on the card) is filled with light, radiating upward, reminding us of truth found in animal instincts.  The camel looks away into the past.  The images and myths implied in this card belong to humanity’s most ancient memories” (p. 31).

 The High Priestess is the conveyor of deep memory along with deep mystery.  But what does this really mean?  Certainly this includes wisdom passed by our ancestors through books and scrolls like the High Priestess holds in so many pictures as well as through the oral tradition.  But I have also been reading lots of material on the new cosmology which weaves together science and spirituality.  In Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry’s The Universe Story, they move through time from the Big Bang to the present day.  They describe the birth of the earth and tell the story of the first living cell, who they name Aries.  Aries is our first ancestor and we’ve been drawing on his life generating forces since his birth from a lightening strike.  As Swimme and Barry write, memory is what connects Aries to us:

 “Cellular memory powers all of life, for nothing is more important to a living being than memory of the past. …  For four billon years the prokaryotic organisms have been remembering the composition at the beginning.  Most impressive of all their feats of memory is to remember how they were created.  They display this memory every time they create another version of themselves.  These cells have the power to revivify that sequence of events that brought them to life” (p. 87).

 This memory continues creation, but not in a constant, stagnant way.  The memory of the basics of creation allow for the innovation of change.  From that first cell, life has evolved to include incredible complexity of organisms and ecologies. 

 This is the deep memory and wisdom of the High Priestess.  And this is what makes her, paradoxically, a key part of any change process.  She carries forward the necessary foundations of life, inspiration, tradition upon and out of which the new will be created. 

 Questions for a High Priestess spread drawn from these ideas would be:

• What do I need to honor and bring from the past into the future?
• How am I being supported by a particular tradition (or the fabric of creation…) right now?
• How can I receive the deep wisdom of the universe right now?
• How does my past shape my future?
• How can I cooperate with my own life-generating cellular memory to make change?

Awe, Children and the Pages

A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what’s beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.” Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder, 1965.

These are the Days of Awe in the Jewish year, and perhaps that is influencing the multiple ways that awe and children’s ability to touch it has been coming into my awareness these past days. Last Saturday, I played a game of peek-a-boo with a two year old amidst late fall flowers. Her face was like an ever opening flower.

Then a couple of days ago, my friend Emily send me an e-mail about how the world famous violinist Joshua Bell – who performs at concerts sold out at a $100 a seat – went to a subway station wearing a T-shirt and baseball cap to play. A video recorded his performance and people’s reactions to it. Some people tossed him coins. One man stopped to listen for a few moments, but ran off after glancing at his watch. A 3 year-old boy stopped in his tracks, but his mother urged him on. She finally had to drag him away. Other children who went by tried to stop and listen, but were pulled away by adults. Only the children seemed to sense that some thing special was being offered them. They were in touch with that sense of awe that Carson talks about.

Last night, another friend told me about taking her four year old daughter Maya to her new pre-school’s picnic. Maya loves her new school and has made a special friend that she keeps talking about. Driving into the parking lot, she saw her friend also being driven in by her parents. They both pressed their faces against the glass and then jumped out of the cars to greet each other, take hands, and run together to the playground. Their ability to let their unlimited delight in each other show is inspiring and something that gets tamped down in us as we grow. This no doubt comes from our disappointments in relationships and their imperfections.

But awe can be stirred up in us, and the Pages, the youngest members of the Tarot Court can point the way. Although we think of them as the most inexperienced or even developed of the Court Cards, their fresh eyes and ability to be in awe have an amazing power, especially needed in times of transition and change.  (The images below are from the beautiful Gaian Tarot where creator Joanna Powell Colbert did reconceptualize the Pages as children and you can get a bigger view of them here.

The Page of Wands is in awe of, and gives attention to, the power of fire. This child invites you to embrace your creativity, enthusiasm, and self-growth. Drawing on the masculine energy of fire, this Page wants to see action and has the courage to try something new, shouting, “Go ahead and do something today to make your dreams real!”

 

 

The Page of Cups is in awe of, and gives attention to the power of water. This child invites you to embrace your emotions, bask in your imagination, and connect yourself deeply to others. This child invites you to go with the flow of your emotions and inner messages (perhaps intuitive or psychic) as well as to move toward where there is love in your life. Drawing on the feminine energy of water, this Page wants you to be receptive to what is and accept the responses that come from the heart and the unconscious.

 

The Page of Swords is in awe of, and gives attention to the power of air. This child invites you to embrace ideas, to explore them with your mind, and to fearlessly communicate your findings. This child invites you to learn, looking at all perspectives, and then synthesizing your findings to share with others. Drawing on the masculine energy of air, this Page wants to share discoveries with others and seeks to contribute to greater understanding and justice in the world.

 

The Page of Pentacles is in awe of, and gives attention to the power of earth. This child invites you to embrace the world around you and focus on what is in front of you. This child invites you to be in the present moment and trust that you will be provided for. Drawing on the feminine energy of earth, this Page is open to receive what is being offered and grateful for the small gifts of everyday life.

 

The other night I heard religious scholar Karen Armstrong on NPR’s Fresh Air. She was talking about how when religions were coming into being, people were using words like God to point beyond what could be named, and toward “the silent awe” of the Unnamable Mystery. Perhaps these children of the Tarot model for us how to move toward that Mystery. Perhaps they are the wisest people in the entire deck.

Rachel Pollack’s Tarot Blessings

As so many of you know, Rachel Pollack, Tarot Wisdom Woman, is my greatest Tarot inspiration and this morning she has a wonderful post on her (newly active) blog about Blessings in the Jewish Tradition.  She then ends with wonderful blessings for each of Marjor Arcana cards.  Here is the one for the World inspired by the Shining Woman from her deck:

 

Blessed are you, Dancer of Wisdom, who reveals our true home.

First Tarot Meditation Session at Awen Tree

“Meditation is stopping, calming, and looking deeply.”  Thich Nhat Hanh

 Buddhist teacher and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh has wonderfully simple ways of getting to the heart of spiritual concepts.  Still, there are a range of meditation practices and outcomes.  Matthew Fox, theologian of Creation Spirituality, looks at meditation across traditions and sorts approaches into two categories:  the emptying kind and the filling kind.  Although the immediate picture that may come to mind when thinking about meditation is sitting cross legged and emptying the mind of thought, there are also approaches involving guided visualizations and the imagination.  I believe that a powerful practice is to combine both approaches, which is what we did at the first Tarot Meditation group at Awen Tree this past Monday.

 We began by shaking off the day the distractions of the day and did some deep breathing.  We imagined connecting ourselves to earth and drawing up that energy to balance our bodies’ energy centers known as chakras.  We opened ourselves up to the energy of the universe, and then imagined walking into a Major Arcana card that we had selected before the meditation began.  We engaged with the figures in the card and left with a gift of wisdom to better understand the deep meaning of the card and our own lives.

 After our journeys, we briefly shared some of the wisdom learned, and I walked away with new insight into the meaning of three cards:

 

The Star really is a representative of the whole celestial realm.  She is a multitude rather than singular and always there to support us in our healing.  We just need to open our eyes to see what is available to us and tap into these resources.  Humans once had a stronger connection to the Star and we just need to open ourselves back up to this light.  The Star demands no effort of us, just openness.

 

 

 I am looking at The Fool in a new way as a warrior of the heart.  In some places, it is seen as foolish to lead with your heart, but The Fool is fierce with a playful appearance in pursuit of the demands of the heart.

 

 

 

The High Priestess is offering her wisdom to us, always and without condition.  There is a tear in her backdrop and this wound or imperfection is a way to enter into and accept her invitation. 

 

 

 

It was a rich night of learning with ease and openess.  Thanks to those who came out for this first session.  These will be happening monthly on the second Monday of the month.

Change Model: Transitions and the Hanged Man

There are a number of change models that I find inspiring.  Each one offers unique insights into different types of changes we as individuals and groups go through.  I’ll be blogging about a number of them.  Today, we’ll look at Bridges’ Transition Model.

William Bridges, English professor turned psychologist and change process consultant, has written on transitions for individuals and organizations.  He lays out a change process that includes letting go of the old and creating a picture of the new.  Creating the new does not happen immediately so for a while those in the process of change are in the “neutral zone,” and, according to Bridges, this is where the psychological adjustment to the change takes place.  

Bridges says that the neutral zone is both a dangerous and an opportune place where the old is released and new habits begin to take hold.  He cautions that change makers who try to escape prematurely from the neutral zone will fail or fall short in creating the new.  This concept calls to mind the Tarot’s Hanged Man who appears almost in a state of suspended animation.  He is looking at the world from a new perspective, surrendering to his highest purpose, figuring out what truly supports him, and making a transition to death (the next card to come) and transformation.  (The image to the left is from the World Spirit Tarot.  One of my favorites to use with people and avaialbe from Llewellyn.)

This model inspired me to create a Tarot spread for how to work with the neutral zone.

Releasing the Old

Card One:  What do I need to give up?

Working in the Neutral Zone

Card Two:  What is the challenge of the neutral zone (i.e. before the change is finished) for me?

Card Three:  How can I work with this challenge?

Card Four:  What is the gift of the neutral zone for me?

Card Five:  How can I embrace this gift?

Moving Toward the New

Card Six:  What might be coming next for me in the process of change?

Change and the Unknown

Mary Greer has an interesting post on her blog about a 1935 deck and one of the Tarot spreads included in the little instruction book accompanying the deck.  The spread uses 13 cards, but you only turn over 5 of the cards.  The rest must remain facedown; you never see them.  In the comments, Mary and her readers discuss why this might be so and connect it to the importance of ritual in shuffling, selecting, and laying out the cards for creating the appropriate mind set for receiving the wisdom of the cards.

 I am intrigued with this use of unseen cards because it reflects how change unfolds in our lives.  We can’t always know what change will bring.  Even with careful planning, we can’t know everything that will unfold.  A layout on a question of change where some of the cards remain unseen is a symbolic reminder of that reality. 

 This also makes me think of questions that could be added on for further exploration of the unseen in the spread such as:

• How can I manage my anxiety about what I don’t know about this change?
• How can I prepare for unforeseen challenges that might arise?
• How can I be open to unforeseen opportunities that might arise?

So what other questions might there be about factors in a change process that you can not yet see?

The Moon and Cycles of Change

At last week’s Tarot Playgroup we explored the Moon card (#18) through looking at the meanings ascribed to the card over time, taking a meditative journey into the card, and, as always, reading for each other.

From my time spent with this card, I took away a new understanding of what the Moon offers us in thinking about change and the cycles of life.  The moon cycles of waxing and waning, light and dark are more subtitle markers of change in our lives than days or even a year.  A day (presided over by the Sun card, #19) with its quick passage allows us to look back easily and reflect on what happened, and a year (that can be connected to the Wheel, #10), while lacking the details of the daily, offers us markers of seasons and holidays as guideposts to see patterns of change in our lives and the world.

But a moon cycle – or lunation – requires a different type of attention.  In our modern lives, we can live in our well lighted houses barely noticing the moon.  But reflections on the 28 days of a moon cycle or a month can be revealing.  I use a planner, the Sacred Journey Journal, that has a space for reflection and the end of the month and I have been surprised at how much happens in a month:  often there are dramatic ups and downs, progress and set backs, numerous amazing events all crammed into a short period of time.  To pay attention to this passage of time constructs memory in a different way.  We can note more of the waxing and dark times of life along with what was clearly seen in the light.  Deep memory dwells in the cycles of the moon.

Our Listening to the Moon reading was based on the 4 main phases of the moon.  It could be used as a general reading or tied to a specific topic that you want to explore.  Here are the questions:

#1:  What is waning / passing away (in my life in general or in regard to my intuition or …)?

#2:  What is hidden from me right now (in my life in general or in regard to my intuition or …)?

#3:  What is waxing / growing stronger (in my life in general or in regard to my intuition or …)?

#4:  What is full of light and inspiring (in my life in general or in regard to my intuition or …)?

Someone brought the Anna K Tarot deck to the Playgroup and it was fabulous to see!  The World card actually contains a beautiful picture representing the moon cycles and it is here for your enjoyment.  Be sure to visit Anna K’s site to see more.