Thoughts from the Wheelhouse

I'm hooked on a fishing show. 


Never thought I'd say THAT. I don't fish. It makes me woozy to ride the "lazy river" at the water park. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat the crab the guys on TV catch, but never thought I'd want to watch the process of catching it in the first place. 


What does that have to do with intuition, tarot readings or the mind-body-spirit connection in dieting? It is a round-about connection, but we'll get there. Like almost everything in "The Vampire Diet" and "Modern Oracle Tarot" blogs, it is all about choice and taking charge of our own life. 


It's no secret that I loves me some Mythbusters. I watch Discovery Channel and Science Channel all the time. Not long ago I saw an ad for their series "Deadliest Catch" where there was an ill crew member. He had "the look".  It caught my attention and the part of me that spent 13 years in medicine like a grappling hook. Whatever was going on was real, and it was bad. That guy would have looked scary enough rolling into a well equipped emergency room. Can you imagine dealing with that situation in the middle of freezing water nowhere with nothing but a blood pressure cuff, a bottle of sports drink and a radio? Yikes! My hat, were I wearing one, is totally off to Captain Keith and the "Wizard" crew.


Now throw that little bit of light viewing in the mental stew-pot along with Marcus Bach's excellent "Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar", Gina Mazza's "Everything Matters, Nothing Matters", the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, and every other poetic captain-ship-ocean metaphor you've ever heard. The universe is trying to tell us something. These are powerful images and analogies for a reason.


Living life well is a solitary achievement.


We are each captain of our own ship. At the same time, we are deeply connected to the all-that-is just like a ship is connected to water. We can't disconnect from the one-ness of our existence any more than a ship can float up in the air levitate over waves. 


Our ship-of-self is part of a fleet. We command alone, but do not sail alone. You might not see yourself as captain of the ship, but, in a sense, you are. Think of the crew members on the crab boats...they aren't in charge of the actual ship, but they have the command call of how they conduct themselves. Each of them decides how they navigate their own personal 'ship' within the 'fleet' of the crew. They choose how to act, how to do their job. And they see results of those choices - fast - in their share of the profits and if they come back next season or not.


We are all captains in that sense. You can choose to sail alone, unconnected, but that seems to make an already risky business even riskier. 


We reach out to connect for guidance. The Captains have GPS, maps, and training to guide them, just like we can reach out to intuition and spirituality to guide us, but in the end, we call the shots. We can read diet books and recipes all we want, but in the end we decide what we buy, chew and swallow.  We can communicate and connect with other "captains" while we are in command our own ship. We get whatever information we can, yet we  still move with the waves and tides of our existence. Whether we roll with it, plow through it, or get rolled by it is our own decision straight from the captain's wheelhouse.  


Or at least, that's how it seems to me.


www.ModernOracleTarot.com

Today's Tarot - 2 of Swords

The 2 of swords is often read as "mystical unity" or some reference to re-joining, or reunification or one-ness from many. I suspect it is from the crossed swords on the classic Rider-Waite artwork.


I was reading earlier, doing research for "The Vampire Diet" when I came across an interesting statement..."We believe the body is the vessel for our spirit." (Valentine, Cunningham Kindle version, location 116-18) On the surface, this seems like a very enlightened thing for a diet book to say. It is certainly head and shoulders above the body-focused diets that have been popular in the past.


Yet it just doesn't get real mind-body unity. Yet again, it smacks of the way modern medicine uses holistic-ish things in a modern medicine way...like prescribing an herb in the same way you would prescribe a medication...holistic health doesn't work that way.


Neither does real whole-ness, mind-body connection OR the 2 of swords for that matter. (YES - you know I'm loving the chance to put my two favorite topics in one blog post, holistic health and tarot!)


Think of this spirit-in-the-body concept as water in a glass. Yes, it is IN the glass, but the water and the glass are not ONE, they are not a holistic unit. The glass can break, but the water doesn't.  You can evaporate the water, but the glass continues essentially unchanged. While this is a beautiful example of how the spirit can continue after death...it isn't an example of wholeness.


While alive, the mind, body and spirit are unified in a much more integral way. The body isn't the spirit's muscle car. The body is deeply inhabited, right down to the cellular level. We are more like water in a sponge than water in a glass. Either way, the water and the thing holding it can be separated, but while together, the integration is more complex, deep, and thorough...more sponge than "vessel".


That is one of many lessons the Two of Swords can teach. Not the structural differences between a glass and a sponge...the idea of real unity. At this level, the analogy becomes even less like water in a glass or a sponge, but more like salt dissolved in water. The card hints at unity taken to another level, a cosmic level. We are one with the cosmos even more than salt molecules are one with  the water molecules in the ocean. When you are talking about all-that-is, that kind of unity can be a very powerful idea.


So mad props to the authors for teaching about body-spirit connection in a diet book, but I think it is worth remembering we are more than souls in a vessel, we are spirits saturating the material world, which can be both comforting and empowering, exactly the intent of the 2 of swords.


Source: Valentine, J., Cunningham, J., 2003 "Weight Solutions: The New Body-Mind-Spirit Approach"  Kindle edition, originally with Trafford Publishing.

Today's Tarot - King of Swords

The King of Swords symbolizes "forging the spirit". It is no accident that sword-making imagery is used here. You can't forge a sword from fragile materials. Even when iron or steel is used, the metal is tempered and strengthened. No so much that it becomes brittle...that is an example of one thing (tempering) taken to an extreme and one thing (the strong metal) becomes its opposite (brittle, vulnerable, fragile).


The strengthening...growing...of the human spirit is much the same. Challenges make us stronger when we learn from them. Challenge beyond our individual ability to cope becomes stress. Stress makes us vulnerable to everything from illness to inattention to a bad hair day.


The human spirit is made of strong stuff. Like a well-made sword, it is bright, and beautiful.


Like a diamond, the human spirit is strong enough to have many facets. More facets brings out greater play of light and beauty...but takes more cuts, more challenge, more learning to achieve.
We humans are not defined by any one thing. We have more strengths and more facets than that. We are more than any one shallow label. To see the beauty, we must see all the facets.


Wishing you a day of strength and beauty.


www.ModernOracleTarot.com
www.RondaSnow.com

Balance is Essential

Trees could not survive without their leaves and branches reaching to sun and sky. Tress could not survive without deep and strong roots. Humans need similar balance. The mental/spiritual must be balanced with healthy body. Spirituality must be balanced with simple pleasures: food and rest, the company of loved ones.

Halloween Romance Reading

Everyone wants to know about romance at Valentine's Day, the winter holidays, New Years...

A question about romance this time of year caught my attention. Reminded me a little of one of my favorite movies, "The Crow"...the original from 1994 with Brandon Lee.

In "Animal Wise Tarot" Ted Andrews associates the crow with unexpected magic.

The meditation card I drew about the subject was the Sun from the major arcana.

My sense of it is this:

The sun is stability. Romance is steady now, and not the place for change, energy or upheaval. Let the relationship be as it is, appreciate it, see the good in it as it is.

The word "cascade" comes to mind. The crow speaks of magic, but it is clearly, now, a magic of self.

In short, be the best person you can be. The magic of this time is the magic of loving self, improving self, learning , growing, personal spirituality, our individual connection with the magical and spiritual aspects of life and the universe.

If you are the highest and best YOU, if you are the sincerest, most genuine YOU that you can be, that will cascade into relationships at a later time.

If you are in a relationship now, be your genuine spiritual self...it will transform the relationship you are in. It will help you do your part to make the relationship as it is meant to be.

If you are alone now, that personal power, spirituality, compassion, genuineness - it will all shine out like a beacon to draw love and companionship to you.

Wishing you all Halloween magic, connection to the spirit of the time, and a cascade of good karma to come.

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

ace of cups

Ace of cups: Psychics are like translators, helping you to understand the language of spirit and your own inner knowing as it speaks to you

Baihu

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

The Hermit

The Hermit: true guidance comes from within. That is where your wisdom lies, where spirit speaks, & where we are connected to all things.

Baihu
www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

4 of COINS

4 of coins: A surprise insight that makes life feel happier and richer. Money luck, but in mind-emotion-spirit connected way, as with any surprise windfall, however small, that also lifts your spirits and the mood of those around you through your lighter energies. A good example is finding a forgotten $5 bill in the pocket of your old winter coat, that puts you in a good mood...then your good mood and unconscious smile makes the world a little sunnier for everyone. That is the secret treasure of the 4 of coins...the human spirit and happiness, not just wealth.

May you find a secret treasure today.

Baihu

www.modern-oracle-tarot.com

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.

daily meditation 8 of swords

8 of Swords:

Numerology isn’t my strong suite. WAAAYYYYY too much like math and arithmatic…

But it comes up often enough in Tarot readings. The cards are numbered, and lots of one number or another can turn up and is usually a hint or message-carrier of some sort. Most of the time I just refer the sitter to the internet to learn about the numbers for themselves. That way they are more likely to find the true message for them, rather than have their perceptions of the number formed by my interpretations.

A friend of mine swears by Doreen Virtues’ Angel numbers. I found it a bit of snooze, and didn’t resonate with it at all…except for the number 8

She cites the number as being the symbol for infinity. This is also true in the Hindu / Buddhist tradition, and is part of the reason meditation beads from that tradition often have 108 beads.

She also associates it with abundance, and career luck. I’ll take that nowadays. Wouldn’t we all?

In most cases I associate swords with our relationship with society at large. The idea of “steadfastness” combined with the number 8’s abundance and career luck leads me to this simple bit of wisdom that we all know…but warrants a thought in today’s economy. 

It is sort of a cosmic ‘hang in there’

Steadfastness, and persistence is an essential element in success, in the mental, physical or spiritual realms, all three.

In our physical livelihood, we persist for material success. You can’t get a paycheck if you don’t show up for work every day. It takes persistence  to keep at our chosen career, improve it, succeed at it.

In the mental realm, it takes persistence to learn. Repetition is a key element in learning at any age.

Spiritually, growth, learning, experiencing, observing…all are continual aspects of our spiritual life. That never ceases. Plus if we move in the opposite direction here…our spiritual supports are steadfast, persistant and reliable. If we don’t feel that kind of persistent and utterly reliable guidance and support from our spiritual path, then we may be on the wrong path…but that is an idea for another day.

So Steadfastness and persistence are an element of success in mind, body, and spirit, to borrow a phrase from Holistic Health.

It also connotes an element of self-discipline. We have to be self-disciplined enough to do what we need to do to care for ourselves so we are physically able to work our jobs, find our jobs, and provide for ourselves and our families.

It takes self-dicipline to learn and practice something new, to keep mentally progressing and not stagnate. This will help keep the mind sharp and the emotions healthy.

It takes self-discipline to ask the hard questions, face the hard realities and choose the right spiritual path, and to persist on that path of spirituality once we find the right one.

All of these things have some thread of connection with our place in society and our personal responsibility. All topics that have become relevant in national politics and society at large today.

All of these things have connections with success and abundance on both the material and intangible plains.

Wishing you an infinity of success and the steadfastness to get you there.