Q&A: My Girlfriend Left Me. Where do I go from here?

Q:After 5 years, my girlfriend left me a few months ago. I gave so much to someone who just didn't feel the same way. What is next? Where do I go from here?

A: I'm sorry to hear about what happened. It feels like you did everything you possibly could to make things work, so you can move on with no regrets, certainly. Your question is perfect for a classic "pathway" style reading...one card for lessons from the past that can help you now, one card to show ideas for dealing with the situation you are in now, and a third to show a good path forward.

General impressions: 
These cards carry a lot of energy...this experience is a real pivot-point for you. This is an important time and an important lesson. Please take care to learn and grow all you can, or this kind of experience will repeat until you learn what is needed. 

Keep in mind as we move forward to the individual cards that the images are concepts, ideas and symbols...they do NOT predict the future. How things unfold are up to you based on what you do and decide. Also keep in mind that the Tarot cards are very old...they came to be in the 1200s, so you have to put them into today's context too.

The first card is Death in reverse (upside down)...This isn't the distant past, but more about the very recent past, meaning the break-up with this girl in June. The death card is not literal...it talks about a life altering change. It does give you that caution I spoke of earlier...that this could repeat if care is not taken to learn from this, grow from this. It also is a message of hope...death, especially if it is reversed, speaks of re-birth...heaven, reincarnation and all that. This card strongly reminds you that this is a new beginning, a new phase of life, a new beginning, a fresh start for you. It is a chance to find real happiness this time. It is a new chance, a new beginning, a new day for you. Embrace it, and allow that to make you happy, not to get stuck in the past and what happened, which is another part of the message for you...the past is gone, essentially it is dead. Lesson learned, allow it to go, move on to something better.

The next card reassures you that something better is indeed possible...the next card is the 10 of coins, which means truth and happiness. The feeling here is "now you know". You can look for someone who returns the feelings and effort you give. Now you know more about what you hope to have in a relationship. I also get the mental image of a candle and the message "let your light glow". Be your genuine and true self...Don't try to fit other's expectations or bend them to yours either one...be who you are, love who you are, love others as they are. When you live from a position of love, like attracts like. If you are caring and genuine and honest, that will attract that honesty, and you both will know sooner if things are going well or not. The part about loving yourself is important too. Being honest with yourself that it isn't right is just as important as giving your best effort to a relationship. A teacher of mine always reminded us to think of what serves the loving highest and best. Is the loving thing to continue on in denial of what you feel, or to honor what you feel and move on? In any case, truth and happiness are there for you if you open to the possibilities.

The last card is the Devil...don't be frightened by it. In your case the message is like that old saying "give the devil his due". Acknowledge mistakes that were made before...admit the problems from the last relationship so you can let them go. If the mistakes were hers, then admit that, allow that you put up with too much for too long...and then you can move on to brighter days. If you had a part in things not working out...admit that too. Then change it next time. This whole situation feels more like a gift of a new chance, more than a loss.

Often I will end with a 'cold reading' portion with any final impressions, that might go with the cards or not. All I get here is the image of a magnifying glass, and the energy ends. It feels as if we are being told the message has been given...give full focus and attention to what has already been said.

I hope this helps. Good luck moving forward!

Baihu

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Today's Tarot - The Devil

This is one of the scary cards. There are cards in the deck that can frighten people, and often propagates the occult-ish "evil" reputation tarot has, especially among certain religious views. Even if you understand that Tarot and the cards are really about ideas and learning (not predictions and superstitions), even then, the artwork on some of the cards can be a little on the dark and disturbing side...like the guy face down with swords stuck in him on the Rider-Waite 10 of swords. Death and the Devil aren't exactly  cheerful-looking, no matter which deck you use.

These cards are part of the Tarot deck for a reason far more intimidating than satanism or witchcraft...they are there because of reality. 

While we might not enjoy thinking about it, the reality is that we all die. The reality is that there really is violence and injustice in the world. There is a dark side to life on planet Earth, and yes, fear and anger can take you there.

When the Devil card turns up in a reading, it isn't a prediction that something terrible is about to happen to you. That's an easy prediction to make, because we all experience ups and downs and bumps in the road - some bigger than others. 

When this card turns up, there is nothing wrong with taking precautions...forewarned is fore-armed. The problem comes when practical caution turns into fear and paranoia. I like to re-frame this card as a "use your street smarts" card. Think of it as a crook, gangster, drug dealer kind of card to put it into perspective.

The Devil card is a reminder that injustice and wrongdoing really does exist, and asks us to think about what we are going to do about that incontrovertible and unavoidable fact.

"The Devil", injustice, and "evil" are part of the wholeness of everything.  That doesn't mean we have to accept them. While it takes some work, we can find some tiny measure good in evil when lessons are learned from tragedy. Wrong is in the world for a right reason...to teach us how to protect against it.

Injustice is in the world to teach us how to fight and overcome it.

It is a card that can bring out the fear in us, or it can bring out the ethical warrior in us. The choice is, as always, yours.

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

Today's Tarot - The Devil

The Devil:

 Hiding in the light because you are afraid of the dark does not make the darkness go away.

Darkness is as much a part of life and nature as light. Fear and anger make the darkness stronger, puts things out of balance. George Lucas was right..."fear and anger lead to the dark side".  The balance comes by seeing the shadow as part of the light, as part of the whole.

We can't see in total darkness, but by the same token, we can't see at all if our eyes are dazzled by light alone...we need contrast and shadow to see well. Light and dark together in balance is the way of nature. It is a hint for how things work philosophically as well.

Balance also comes by taking light to the darkness. Courage and compassion balance fear and anger. If we face fear with courage, the devil disappears.

The more pious and fundamentalist we are, the more absolute and powerful evil must be to strike a universal balance. If we admit there is a little light in the dark, a little dark in the light, then the balance is easier, just a little more loving toward everyone. If we admit there is a little darkness, a little or the "devil" inside human existence (as Halloween and Dia Del Los Muertos reminds us).

When we remove fear and fundamentalist piety, the devil is diminished. Instead of powerful and mysterious, the devil becomes mundane and commonplace - like dark woods on a bright summer day. Neither good nor bad, it simply is. For some, such darkness is cooling respite from summer heat. For others, the darkness of the woods is a source of fear and the unknown.

What the Devil tarot card teaches is largely governed by the emotion we bring to it, rather than anything it actually IS. For some it sparks a very deep visceral fear. For others, it is just "devilish mischief". 

Here is where I might make you mad...this is the controversial part, so it is up to you to keep reading or not.

I don't like to talk about religion or politics because these topics are divisive in the extreme. The only time I "go there" is if I feel really compelled by intuition or "spirit" or the universe or however you look at such things.

When this card turned up, the 2011 new year's reading came strongly to mind. You can read the full 2011 New Years post HERE.

Here is the part that the Devil card brings to mind:

I get the feeling that things will go well for the Obama adminstration: people will begin to see what he has done and again see what is possible “he will have earned his Nobel prize” is the feeling. Americans, real, grass roots population will rally behind him…”have his back” against dark forces…more of a domestic threat than international issues. There is a black way, a dark and wrong possible future…only the voices of ordinary people can push it back, and choose the brighter way. “Don’t be fooled again” is the message.

As I see it, the dark way is the Republicans. Vote them back into Congress or the White House, and we are going to be lead down the primrose path...again. "Ordinary people" may be Occupy Wall Street, or it just might be your average voter. If you like how things are now, send a thank you note to the Republicans who have been manipulating and making noise since 1998, probably longer. If you want something better...vote for Democrats, Independents, Green Party...anyone else you think is qualified to do the job. The Republicans voted in the House of Representatives two days ago to reaffirm the "In God We Trust" motto ...when only a short time ago the Republicans refused to commend the military involved with Bin Laden mission because they wouldn't entertain "frivolous" or ceremonial issues.

After hearing about that vote, there was no doubt in my mind what the dark path in the reading was talking about. The Devil here is clear. Rather than facing them with fear, allowing ourselves to be bullied, we must use the brightest light of our democracy...our vote.

On a lighter note...

that celebrity wedding...don't know where the red color comes in, but sure sounds like that Kim Kardashian thing. If you like that kind of thing.

There were some more tarballs on the gulf coast this summer.

There was a low oxygen thing killing sardines near California.

That was fun...it always surprises me when those new-years semi-predictive, just for fun readings actually "come true". Who knew?

Be brave, vote for courage, vote for compassion, your vote can diminish the Devil. 

www.ModernOracleTarot.com

The Devil major arcana card

The Devil card is one that many people find frightening. It has the strongest association with the occult, and other misunderstandings about Tarot.

So lets use the Tower card that we've talked about in the past to understand this card: use perspective. Let's put the Devil major arcana card into some context.

Tarot evolved in a very Catholic culture in pre-renaissance Europe. Sure, the Devil was a very potent symbol in its time, and it still communicates powerful ideas. But it is also time we introduce the Devil card to the 21st century.

Many cultures and religions have a figure like this. So restricting the card to just the christian understanding of 'the devil' isn't so useful in our global, multicultural time.

Some say that the representation of the devil on the cards is less a visual representation of the old testament entity, but more a suppression of the horned male god of the European pagans. It symbolizes the id unleashed, the natural world and the natural impulses of humans. The physical aspects of life were vilified, some say as a way of suppressing the nature-based religions by the advent of a politically powerful christian church. So in this view, the 'devil' became the cosmic bad-guy trying to make you do really bad things - like question church authority.

If that is the old understanding, how does this concept fit into a modern outlook? Has the Devil card been rendered irrelevant?

I think a better understanding would be one that reflects the idea of the "dark side"...both of our individual persona and in life at large, a la George Lucas.

I think the Devil card can be seen two ways...as the dark side of humanit: racism, bigotry, hate, anger, brutality, torture, theft, assault...the list is huge.

While few individuals are heinous criminals or despotic dictators, we all have parts of ourselves we judge as 'bad' or 'wrong'. Nobody is perfect. We all have our inner dark side: anger, bias, harsh words, selfishness, apathy to others...sadly this list is just as long.

The message of the Devil card isn't external arch-evil, it is our inner demons, and the way they are made manifest through our words and actions.

The message of the Devil card is to be aware of the dark side of existence, and meet it with courage, conviction and common sense.

In a literal way, this card is a reminder that bad things do happen, so common sense precaution is a good idea: get that emergency flashlight, don't walk alone in a dark city alley at night, don't throw gasoline on a campfire...

It also speaks to the inner dark side. Denial does nothing to bring balance. Denial of our true selves, dirty laundry and all, does nothing to serve compassion. If we ignore our faults, we can't learn from them or change them. Facing our inner demons takes the most courage, but yields the most profound changes...for the better.

Wishing you courage and balance to free you from the devils inside and out.

Baihu
www.modern-oracle-tarot.com