Today's Tarot - The Hermit

Too much stillness is stagnation. Too little stillness is stress. A few moments of quiet contemplation are wisdom in the waiting.

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Today's Tarot - 2 of Coins

"Work hard, play hard" isn't bad advice. It is balanced...especially if you add in a little 'soft' every now and then. 'Soft hard' would fit too, if you think of that as meditation. It doesn't get softer than letting body and mind be still for a time.


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Sound and Meditation

Meditation has been used in spiritual practice and personal growth for thousands and thousands of years. Even in the West, scientific studies showing meditation reduces stress (and blood pressure) is old news...

Sources:

Harvard Health Publications

American Journal of Hypertension

Mediation is also one of those easier-said-than-done kind of things. But it is also one of those you-get-out-of-it-what-you-put-into-it kind of things. It doesn't take so much effort. What you put into it is an investment of time. It can help you if you don't do it, even if what you do - to casual observation - appears to be next to nothing at all.

Entire books have been written about meditation. There is much more to meditation than one blog post can cover. Although, if anyone can come close, it is my friend Joy. In her blog and newsletter, she often talks about meditation and how it relates to intuition.

Today she reminds us of the analogy of thoughts and sound in meditation.

Thinking, "inner dialog" some call it, is a normal, natural, spontaneous part of the mind. It is just as normal and natural as sound coming from a gong when you strike it.

The tricky part is the end of the sound, the letting go of the thought.

Just as sound comes naturally from striking a gong, the sound from that strike fades away. Thoughts come as we meditate. The trick is letting them fade away. Sound comes, sound goes. Thoughts come, thoughts go. The really tricky part is not striking the gong again. The really tricky part to meditation, the part that takes the investment of time and practice, is letting thoughts go, and staying in the silence in-between. Let the naturally arising thoughts go...and not rush on to the next thought.

All I know is my own experience. Meditation is one of those things where you can read about it until the cows come home, but there is no substitute for just plain DOing it.

Imagine each though being the ring of a bell (the reason for bell and dorje in Tibetan Buddhism??? I would love to know the answer to that if any of you are knowledgeable about Tibetan Buddhist meditation). For me, if each thought was the clang of a cymbal, I would sound like one of those toy wind-up monkeys clanging away most of the time. On a good day, it is more like a wind-up monkey with a bad spring. It clangs away...then I catch myself thinking, and let it go. It might be quiet for just a second before the clanging starts again. And then catch it-stop it as second.  And so the cycle goes. A second is better than nothing, and maybe someday the wind up monkey toy will sit quiet for more than a heartbeat. But even that clanging will fade. Even that clanging can be followed by a moment of meditative silence.

So what does meditation have to do with the blog topic, Tarot? Listening to your intuition is a kind of meditation. The right side of the brain is a quiet temple of meditation compared to the clanging, thinking logic of the left side. The cards are just a tool...a doorway into that quiet place. Some problems need us to stand firmly in the doorway, using both reasoned thought and silent insight. Sometimes we need to step into silence...even for a heartbeat...to see our way forward, to know what to do with the next round of clanging monkey-toy sounds.

Wishing you both pleasant bell-rings and silent moments

Today's Tarot - 3 of Coins

Make something. DO something.

Easy, simple, everyday tasks can free the mind and become a meditation

Queen of Swords: power source of magic

Queen of Swords: Magic is powered by the wings of change and transformation.

Summer 2010 Newsletter

I hope you are all well, and had a good spring. Summer (Winter for some) will be here before you know it.

The Modern Oracle Tarot Blog on Kindle is doing well and gaining more subscribers. You can download Kindle reader for iphone, ipod touch, and now for PC too. Technology is fun!

Even in this philosophy or psychic readings, time is still very connected to readings. They don't call it the space-time continuum for nothing ;)

Building on the idea of the "daily" meditation reading, I've started a reading that is like a "seasonal" meditation...giving a single card, with that card's one over-arching concept as a sort of guiding principle for the season. 4 Seasons, one year of guidance that can begin any point in the calendar and isn't limited to New Year's celebrations.

With all the sunny weather we are having this week, thought I'd pull a summer seasonal card for all of you. This is just a general "thought for the season" and one card may not fit everyone.

Summer is the season where private and party appointments are limited, but there are plenty of phone times, and of course you never need an appointment for an e-mail reading. Prices are still the same as the beginning, so if I can help with a more detailed or personalized reading, please feel free to get in touch!

Happy Summer!

3 of coins - "craft and art" "creativity and skill" - summer is a time of doing things. Often in the hottest part of the year, the advice is to counter the "yang" of the season with the "yin" of resting in the shade, and "letting the planted seeds grow" as the saying goes.

This year promises to be more active. This card brings to mind something I heard the band "OK Go" say in an interview..."we're artists, we like making stuff". That is the feeling I get from this card. There is a real 'learn by doing' tone...the kind of learning we had as children playing with leggos and lincoln logs, making mud pies and drawing with sidewalk chalk. Problems that turn up may require action, solving problems on the fly...in a very active warrior way. My teacher and mentor, Joy Star, who now specializes in Astrology, said just this morning that Uranus is entering Aries, and that the next few weeks would be a time of "warrior and rebels" and "technology" (yeaahhh...my kind of people...tech loven' martial artists). This card goes right along with that...the 'can do' "failure is not an option" NASA sort of flavor describes the season as well.

For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, you may find that this isn't so much of a cozy up by the fire sort of winter as it is a snowball fight in the front yard kind of winter.

The key ideas is one of SKILLFUL action...not charging ahead willy-nilly, not thinking problems to death, but acting with creativity and bravery.

I 'hear' "seeds planted will grow". You can't reap the harvest if you don't plant the seeds. So act now toward goals, it is an auspicious time.

Make stuff...and have fun!

Wishing you all an active and fun and relaxing summer season!

Ronda

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

practice makes easy

Practice not only makes perfect, it makes easy.

If you connect with spirit in a way of your choosing ...prayer, meditation, tarot, nature, whatever is right for you...then in times of crisis that connection will come easier than if it is never practiced. If you live your connection, then guidance, help, support flows more easily when it is most needed. Think of an old-fashioned well pump. Neglect it, and in an emergency you get mucky water if you can get it to work at all. Use the pump a little every day, and keep it in good condition...then you can get a big refreshing drink when you need it, right?

Wishing you easy practice, easy connection and a deep drink at the well of guidance

Baihu
www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

2 of CUPS

contemplation & meditation: true guidance comes in the silence between thoughts. Intuition, psychics, oracles, meditation, creativity are all some of the things that help us find that space between.

Baihu
www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

PAGE OF SWORDS

Faith is like a swinging sword: it shouldn't be used blindly.

Think of where you place your faith.

Blind faith, and belief out of habit is a kind of dishonesty.

What you believe in the end doesn't matter as much as the process of thinking about it first.

Place your faith as thoughtfully, deliberately, mindfully with the same intent and awareness as you would thrust a sword.

MAJOR ARCANA - STRENGTH

Daily Meditation: Strength is more than physical ability. It speaks to how we live life. Fear and anger are the enemies of Strength. Compassion and Integrity are its allies.

KNIGHT OF COINS

Knight of coins: Don't fall victim to preconceived notions. Look objectively. See, feel, explore and most of all think for yourself. As a knight would, the next step is to act on those honest independent conclusions.

"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." ~William Shakespere

9 OF WANDS daily tarot reading

The 9 of wands has to do with acceptance...accept yourself and your circumstances as they are.

But that is not to mean that you give up hope of change, or stop acting on behalf of things you believe in...most of all not to give up on your own growth and learning.

Acceptance is a very different thing than hopeless resignation...

It is a warriors card. It is a card of acceptance, yes, but this implies realism and pragmatism, not hopelessness. It implies practicality, not resignation.

This card reminds us to play the cards we are dealt. It says nothing about giving up on the game.

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

The Hanged Man - psychic tarot daily meditation

The Hanged Man - All things unfold in their own time. Enjoy the journey, and don't worry about arbitrary measures of time and achievement. One man's stuck in mud is another man's day at the spa.

Page of Coins: psychic tarot daily meditation

Page of Coins: You actions and the quality of your work show who you deeply are. Actions really do speak louder than words

Ace of Wands: free psychic tarot daily meditation

Ace of Wands: Creation. 

What new can you create? What is innovative and fresh that you can bring to your current situation? The novel and unexpected can help solve a problem. Don't be afraid to think outside the box! You might be pleasantly surprised at what you find when you look at things differently. Identify old thought-habits. Do they serve you well? If they help and make you better...keep them. If they are useless or harmful, let them go and create new and different attitudes and thought patterns.

9 of Wands Tarot daily meditation

9 of Wands: Acceptance. Acceptance is tied to judgement - what is acceptABLE and what needs more effort. Acceptance is an active process, not fatalistic surrender without thought or self-esteem.

Death Card: More than Meets the Eye

After watching the news on June 25, 2009 of Micheal Jackson's and Farrah Fawcet's passing, it seemed like a proper time to talk about this card. The Death card is one of the most mis-understood of the Tarot deck.

In so many movies and TV shows, its appearance takes on a sinister meaning, as a harbinger or certain, horrific doom. The Death and Devil cards have taken on the greatest darkness and occult inferences.

Keep in mind, Tarot cards are just that - cards. Bits of paper with pictures and words printed on them. Wood pulp and ink, nothing more. The only meaning or power they have is what we give to them. They can be used as a springboard to access the inner mind, the human spirit, our intuition and innate higher knowing...but in the end it is the human heart and spirit where the power and wisdom lies.

Of all the Tarot cards, in my view, the Death card is most like a mirror. If there is terror and darkness there, it is only as a reflection of our own fears.

This card reflects our own attitudes and beliefs about death, the soul, the afterlife, and more.

If you believe that death is a final and forever separation from someone you love, with that love somehow ending, then yes, the Death card is one of terrible tragedy and doom.

If, on the other hand you believe that there really is life after death, and that the soul and the love survives...then the death card becomes something else entirely. It becomes a reflection of our hope. It becomes a card of rebirth, transition, and evolution.

When doing a reading, the Death card seldom means the sitter is going to go out the door and meet some spectacular end. The Death card is not the end of a life, but instead is an irrevocable birth into a new life. It can be literal death, yes, as with the case of these celebrities. But it has more to do with some permanent, life-altering change. The face of popular culture will never be exactly the same.  When a loved one dies, as is inevitable, our lives, our selves are never quite the same. When I child is born, or a couple marries...that too is a forever, life-altering change. Change isn't bad...just different. Change can be for the better as well as for the worse...both are a part of life. 

Physical death does not mean the love ends. 

I was so impressed with the compassionate observations by Keith Olbermann as they showed the body of Mr. Jackson being transported.

Death is the great equalizer. No matter what sort of life was lived, in death we are once again just humans at the end of one path, beginning another. No matter how famous these people were, in the end they were fellow humans, wife, brother, mother, son...by whatever title, they were humans leaving humans behind. The mourning is the same. The love that persists is the same for everyone.

Death card is the card of change, a mirror showing us our souls, and a card of new life all rolled into one.

Celebrate the life that was...but also the life that IS...the lives of the survivors, the spirit-life of the one gone on ahead...and the forever life of the LOVE that exists in, through and beyond it all.

May all who grieve be comforted by the touch of life and love eternal.