Even when you walk among your tribe, you alone must take the steps to move along your spiritual path. It is your responsibility - and your joy.
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Showing posts with label spiritual. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spiritual. Show all posts
09 June 2013
24 March 2013
Today's Tarot - Ace of Swords
Personal growth and spiritual awakening is a warrior's enterprise. If you dare grow, you lose the person you once were, maybe more. You could loose it all - but gain everything. Awaking takes courage, and is worth every bit.
10 February 2013
Fancy Some Cartomancy?
People have been trying to predict the future and "tell their fortune", well, forever. Every culture has some sort of divination be it a special person within the society (shamen, priests witches, gypsies, the Pythia of Delphi, psychics, you name it). Just the same, there are all sorts of things, tools that anyone can use to do the same thing. Again, these "oracle tools" (as I like to call them) are ubiquitous and global: Tarot cards, palm lines, rune stones, scrying mirrors, tea leaves, bones, entrails, the list is enormous.
It's no surprise that modern items have been called into use, like our contemporary gaming cards. There are a lot of similarities between the minor arcana portion of the Tarot deck and the playing cards we've all used for poker, bridge and solitaire. After all, Tarot cards were originally a game too.
The fancy name for doing intuitive readings with regular playing cards is "cartomancy". Cartomancy has several advantages. It is an easy way to learn to use cards as a way to access the natural intuition that everyone has. Without the ornate artwork, or the complicated symbolism you see on Tarot cards, modern cards let you keep it all simple. Simplicity embraces all the possibilities. The simplicity of playing cards make them easy for beginners to use, at the same time it is unrestricted...it lifts the boundaries and lets an experienced reader shine too.
Simple is neutral. Modern cards don't have the emotional and cultural baggage that tarot cards can have. Some people are put off by Tarot's reputation of being "occult". Others find the religious imagery on older decks uncomfortable. Neither of these are a problem with playing cards, making them comfortable and accessible to a wide range of people.There are no scary pictures in the game deck, so they are nice for a first reading or anyone who is feeling timid about the whole reading process. I always keep a game deck on hand for anyone who would rather have a cartomancy reading instead of a tarot reading. Since I work only with entertainment and advice (never predictions) anyway, the two are completely interchangeable. Tarot went from game to oracle, and so have our modern playing cards.
06 January 2013
Today's Tarot - 9 of Cups
Strive to understand in fullness. Understanding decreases fear, which in turn decreases anger and violence.
31 December 2012
Tarot 2013
Have predictions jumped the shark yet?
I've been saying it like a broken record for years: Tarot doesn't make predictions. Nothing can. You heard George Lucas' Yoda - the future is always in motion. Stephanie Myers was right on target with Alice in "Twilight" too - when someone changes their mind, the "vision" changes. I think Doctor Who said it best in the "Cold Earth" episode written by Chris Chibnall "The future turns around you, here, now, so do good".
Predictions do no good that I can see. A "prediction" seeds a specific idea that may or may not be for a person's highest good. It locks in the psychic's vision of the future...no the person who sought guidance in the first place. Predictions weaken choice and narrows vision. It can heap stress on an already stressful situation if the "prediction" is frightening or un-nerving in any way.
I believe that inutitive work of any kind...psychic readings, tarot, palms, tea leaves, anything... should do the exact opposite. Intuition should widen our vision, show other possibilities we've missed, give us more choices, ease stress and soothe emotions. "Accurate predictions" have no place in that. That's why I won't do readings like that, even though it has lost clients and money for me over the years.
I'm hoping 2013 is the year that REAL intuitive work comes into its own. Maybe with the whole rediculous December 21 doomsday thing behind us, and having survived the mellinium, asteroid fly-bys and the end of twinkies, maybe, just maybe we can all get over the idea of PREDICTING the future and get down to the work of CREATING a better future.
Sure, predictions are fun, especially at the New Year. Truth is, even the most choice-and-guidance oriented of us will indulge in making predictions for the New Year. It's a game, a plaything, an entertainment, as much for us as our readers. It stretches the mental muscles that help us do our more important work, just like playing a physical game can help your physical fitness.
This year I'm going to play a different game. Instead of indulging in the straight "cold reading" kind of thing, I'm going to do a "Four Seasons" reading for the year 2013. The "Four Seasons" is my home-made reading style that sticks with the idea of guidance, but still gives that 'look ahead' feeling that we naturally crave, that need to know that naturally drives humans to want to see the future in the first place. Each card isn't a prediction, but instead is a theme for the season, or an important idea / choice that may come to you during that time. Of course, this reading isn't going to match everyone. It's just for fun, but if it makes sense to you, or helps someone, somewhere along the way...all the better. Happy 2013!
General Pattern: three major arcana cards with only one minor arcana card suggest that we may be faced with more choices, changes, and in the first part of the year compared to the second part. Again, not a prediction, but pointing toward the way things are trending - like a compass needle points north. It doesn't predict what will happen or what people will do...just the direction things are headed.
Winter (Jan. - March ) - THE MOON: On the Rider-Waite deck, the Moon card shows dogs or cayotes looking / howling at the moon, with a lobster crawling out of the water onto a path that extends to the mountains in the distance. The phrases "howl at the moon" and "evolve" come to mind. The 'howl at the moon' part connects with the idea of authenticity...the advice here is to be true to yourself, be your truest self. This winter may ask us to be more honest with ourselves than ever before - and when we are more honest with ourselves, it leads to more honesty and open-ness with others. It is a difficult thing to do, and can cause us to lose some people we used to think were friends...but shines like a light to truer friendships, and helps us find our real community. When faced with a choice in this season, think about what you honestly want to happen not what you honestly think is the best thing for everyone ... not what you think is the expected answer. All of this also links with evolution...not the physical kind that makes so many people twitchy...the personal growth kind that shows we can learn, adapt, adopt new ideas, ideals, and find a better way to do things. My mind is drawn to the national debate about marriage rights. Perhaps it is time for the nation to 'evolve' on social issues en masse.
Sping (April - June) THE FOOL (INNOCENT): This is the very first card of the tarot deck. In very old calendars, the first of April was considered to be the beginning of the new year instead of January. Springtime is still the beginning of the year in some cultures. Urban legend has it that April Fools day started after the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calenday that switched the beginning of the year from April to January. Those that continued to celebrate the old way were teased as "April Fools" (www.snopes.com). The message here is that Spring 2013 will be a chance to relax and play and de-stress a little, as we look forward to new beginnings and fresh starts. Spring naturally carries a sense of renewal and optimism. My hunch is that we can make it larger, more pervasive than usual, like the phrase "renewed national optimism". I think this may extend to national policy and economy despite continued international policy and diplomacy concerns in the background. The advice here is to make the hopeful choices, and to avoid choices based in fear. "He who hesitates is lost". This does not feel like the time for ultra-conservatism, philosophically or politically.
Summer (July - Sept)-7 of Cups: Pendulums will swing. The 7 of cups is sometimes read as "delusion". In this case, the connotation would be more along the lines of "take care to see clearly". Don't get carried away with the spring's optimism. This is a season of pragmatism, practicality, watching, and carrying through with what was begun in spring. In spring, seeds are planted. In summer, we don't do much with those seeds except tend them...watch, water, weed, wait. It is a time to face what we can not control. What's done is done. Do what you can. This season teaches the comfort of seeing things as they are, and focusing on here and now.
Autumn (Oct. - Dec.) HIgh Priestess: And the pendulum comes full swing, and things go a full circle in a single, dizzying year. The feeling of watching the seeds grow changes to a feeling of springing into action for the harvest, and reaping what we've sown in spring - literally and figuratively. It feels like a busy time too, the lesson here is to "stop and smell the roses"...where the Moon card pointed to spiritual growth, the Priestess card points to the new destination...asks us to appreciate where we have grown TO. We've cleaned house, added on a room, planted a garden and stored the harvest for winter...this is the season for gratitude, to stop and survey what we've accomplished, and plan our next step. This season is a reminder to remember the spiritual side of things, as much as possible to experience the magic, mystery, and mystical side of life. After all the activity of spring planting and fall harvest, things start to fall back toward watching...this time watching the full moon through the trees, looking inward instead of outward.
General summary: This year will see full cycles compleated at a rapid pace. It will generally follow the cycles and pace of nature, perhaps more closely than society has for several years. I feel pushed to say the "rise of the nones" will continue...nones meaning those from the Pew survey who do not participate in any religion, yet maintaina robust spiritual life. Tolerance will evolve, and we begin to see a generational shift in the way we all look at the world. Letting us have a brightness andoptimism we haven't really seen in the past 10 -15 years. There is a feeling of Korea being in the news again, in a sunny season like spring or summer. I get the mental image of a knit hat in Jamaca's national colors and hear "rasta" and a feeling of fun...maybe a new popularity for Reggae or Reggae influenced music, like The Police in the 80s. Winter weather in the northeast feels crisp, cold and white...but not storms, just normal. There is a feeling of drought in the midwest again this summer, but in a smaller area than last year. Something about whales and the west coast...very large whales like blue or humpbacks, perhaps a rare and special sighting of some sort. Now I see the "time vortex" from the Doctor Who opening sequence...either the Doctor Who 50th anniversary season will be a gigantic hit in the US as much as all the Whovians are hoping, or people really will come to a new understanding of time, predictions, probablilities and all of that quantum theory can teach us. More confirmation of the Higgs boson from Cern perhaps. Overall, I feel upbeat and optimistic energy around 2013.
Ok, so I couldn't resist playing a little with that last paragraph...but why not? Play is a wonderful thing, but it isn't everything. Dessert is a wonderful thing, but we can't eat only sweets. Predictions are fun, but they are only a small, entertaining part of things.
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, safe and prosperous
17 September 2012
Q&A:Spiritual Dictionary
You might find this one to be a little controversial...read at your own risk.
Q. In a tweet a few days ago, you described yourself as "secular". Isn't that the same thing as an atheist? How can you be "secular" and say you give "spiritual guidance" with your readings?
A. Fair question. You make a good point.This is kind of hard to explain, so be patient with me for a few minutes.
As I see it, "spiritual" and "secular" aren't exact opposites. They don't cancel each other out, and you can have both happening at the same time. I haven't talked about any of that for a while, so someone new to the blog or the @modernoracle twitter feed might not have seen the older, spirituality-oriented posts.
The key is in the words "secular" and "spiritual".
Since we are going there, we might have to talk about the big emotional words "religion" and "atheist" too. They are all emotionally charged words, that carry a LOT of connotations, reflex reactions, defensiveness, fear, anger ...you name it. It is hard to talk about these things without emotions getting in the way, so I'm going to try and take this step by step, as logically as I can, ok?
To my way of thinking, "secular" simply means not-religion. It doesn't necessarily mean atheist. An atheist is someone who doesn't believe in any god. If you don't believe in a god, you don't need a religion, so atheists are, by definition, secular. But "secular" by itself doesn't say anything one way or the other about a belief in god or not. It is possible to believe in a god or gods, and not participate in religion - like the free-thinking Diests in the 1700s and the Age of Reason. Theism and religion, atheism and secularism seem to pair up most of the time, but they aren't the exact same thing. That's why I like the term secular...it is actually god/atheist neutral.
"Spiritual" is different from both religion and atheism as I use it. When I say "spiritual" I mean a person's individual understanding of how life works. Spirituality is an internal, individual relationship with the subtle, mysterious parts of life. It is our personal individual understanding of truth. It is how we, each alone, makes sense of life, the universe and everything (to borrow a phrase from Douglas Adams). It is based exclusively on our internal sense of truth, ethics, morality, philosophy and so on.
Religion on the other hand, is an outward, group, social construct. Religion is codified, external definitions of truth, morality, ethics, philosophy and so on. Religion is often expressed through rituals, writings, lifestyle, and is taught one generation to another in ways that personal spirituality often is not. Religion is external, a shared, group experience. Spirituality is internal, an individual experience.
For some people, their inward spirituality and their outward religion is the same thing. For others, like me, the two are entirely separate. I do not practice or teach any religion...so I'm secular.
Through tarot and such, I think about and interact with the intangible ideas in life. I share what I've learned, and how I've used tarot symbolism (among other things) to learn them...thus "spiritual guidance".
Tarot readings are spiritual, not theological in my experience. The ideas and symbols are helpful, no matter what your religion or beliefs might be.
Readings are all about one person coming to an individual, internal understanding of their situation. Readings are a way for an individual to navigate through a portion of life, and a tool to help with individual choices. Some people use their religion for that guidance. Others don't. Whether you use a religious or secular guidance-tool, the essence of this kind of guidance is internal, individual and spiritual.
From that point of view, religion offers spiritual guidance, but so does intuitive readings. It is all about how an individual uses the reading/religion, not the reading/religion itself.
Your question is a good example - it is essentially spiritual. We aren't primarily talking about religion...so this is mainly a secular post. We are talking about individual understanding, individual life-philosophy - so this is also a spiritual post.
There are even Tarot cards for this kind of conversation. The Pope or Hierophant card from the major arcana talks about the intersections of social convention, religion, and individuality. The Moon talks about our internal, intuitive, spiritual journey.
And before you even ask...I don't talk about whether I am atheist or not. I won't talk about religion except in very very general terms like this, and even then only when it is brought up by a question or a card. Like Bella said in Twilight..."I'm Switzerland". I'm a religion-neutral, religion-free zone. I'm secular, and I help people find spiritual guidance through tarot-symbolism and intuition-development. In my mind, "secular" and "spiritual" live side by side just fine.
www.ModernOracleTarot.com
21 August 2012
The Way of the Peaceful Vampire
Of all the modern vampires, I have a real soft spot for the Cullen family in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. Their "coven" reminds me of that quote from Richard Bach "The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life."
My brother-in-law is family both ways. On the surface, he seems like a happy-go-lucky athlete. Every now and then, you catch a glimpse of the deeply thoughtful, loving intellect that lies beneath. During this summer's visit, he said something amazing.
He's quitting smoking. Thank goodness...cigarettes will kill you, and I'd like the dude to hang around for a while. This time he said he is "at peace" with the idea of quitting. There is no doubt in my mind that he will quit this time. There is an ocean of profound under that one statement. It's a deep idea that applies here too.
It is so easy to fall into the mainstream diet trap...to focus on food & exercise while forgetting about the mind and spirit. This blog has been taking that turn lately too. Time to throw some esoterica at you.
You can argue that being happy will bring a healthy weight from a purely physical standpoint. If you reduce stress, there is less adrenal gland interplay with insulin production, glucose metabolism, and fat deposition.
You can make the same case from a mental-emotional standpoint. Mind and body are utterly connected. A contented outlook, combined with good information and a sprinkle of self-awareness, can find the non-physical connections to what we choose to eat. If you figure out why comfort foods comfort you, or discover why you don't pay attention to what / how much you eat, then you can go a long way toward making a healthy change. That doesn't even touch the way mood, appetite, and brain biochemistry are connected.
But then there are the spiritual aspects that diet books, nutritionists and mainstream fitness 'gurus' seem to avoid. Being at peace with your decision to live a healthier lifestyle is truly important. In tarot, the 9 of Wands card is often associated with the idea of "acceptance". But not the way you might think. Like I tell my tarot clients, acceptance doesn't have to mean acquiescence. This isn't about giving up or giving in. It is about taking off the rose colored glasses and dealing with the reality of a situation - to accept it for what it is so you can deal with it...calmly, peacefully.
This card, and my brother-in-laws realization, is also very close to Dharma Drum Mountain's "Four Steps for Dealing With a Problem": face it, accept it, deal with it, let go of it. Being at peace with what is makes it easier to be at peace with what we need to do.
It is so easy to drop into a fearful, defensive stance when it comes to losing weight or quitting smoking. I told my brother (you can skip the in-law stuff as far as I'm concerned) that I was trying to cut out sugar. Later on he didn't offer me a sweet dessert when he offered it to everyone else. It's a small thing, but to me it was huge. It was quiet, peaceful acceptance of what I'm doing. I wish there was something more I could do to support and encourage him in his efforts. A little peaceful acceptance can go a long way.
That's where a family-of-heart, like the Cullens, give us a good role model. They have a accept what they are, and solve the problem through an ongoing lifestyle choice. Except for the occasional adventure with humans, hunters, werewolves and Volturi, they are pretty much at peace with themselves.
We welcome our heart-family into our lives, and the same spirit can help with our physical health. Instead of fighting obesity, we can welcome weight loss and fitness. Instead of fighting cigarettes, we can welcome smokeless health. It's a subtle attitude difference, but an important one. Marc helped me learn that.
Thanks man. I appreciate it.
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For a tarot reading with the author, please visit www.ModernOracleTarot.com. For Holistic Health and Stress Reduction tutorials with the author, please visit www.RondaSnow.com.
20 May 2012
Today's Tarot - 9 of Wands
24 April 2012
Today's Tarot - Knight of Cups
That is especially true of spiritual work and of writing...you can't talk all the time and not turn into a yammering idiot...it is important for teachers of all kinds to take a break, to live, to learn, to listen and to go get something worth while to say.
So feel to take a peek at the FAQ page and let me know what is on your mind...I'm listening.
www.ModernOracleTarot.com
29 March 2012
Today's Tarot - Queen of Swords
www.ModernOracleTarot.com
17 March 2012
19 January 2012
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:
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
30 September 2011
Today's Tarot - Queen of Swords
There are many different "meanings"...shades of connotation. So even though the Queen of Swords turned up fairly recently, there are still plenty of ideas to explore with this card.
When reading tarot, or learning to expand your intuition, it is helpful to have several books and resources. Many books about tarot give long lists of keywords that are more confusing than helpful. The trick to it, so I've found, is to find one main resource that resonates with your own understanding of the card...what your gut instinct tells you is the "right" meaning for the card, but have one or two others on standby. Sometimes, you will instinctually know that this primary meaning just isn't quite the right choice of words. Then you can go browsing...look up other meanings, use other reference sources, or just draw from your own insight until you find just the right-feeling meaning.
Sometimes, coincidence will point the way.
Today's card, the Queen of Swords, just came up recently...then, the idea from my favorite reference seemed to fit like a charm. Today, not so much...so I pulled out my other favorite reference and TA-DA there is just the right idea: sharpness of spiritual vision.
No only did that feel right, there was the added validation of coincidence. Just today I read a newsletter article by my teacher, Joy. It's hard to sum up her insight in a sentence, but the closest I can get is this: To have the best psychic insight you can have, be the best person you can be.
Psychic, intuitive, spiritual ability is a normal, natural part of the human experience. To have the spiritual vision, be the best you that you can be.
www.rondasnow.com
www.modernoracletarot.com
19 September 2011
Today's Tarot - 7 of Swords
Being lost, feeling lost is sometimes the perfect opportunity for accidental discovery.
When you are looking carefully, to find your way back, your sharpened perception might see something you would have overlooked under normal circumstances. Sometimes being lost breaks habits and lets new, needed information in.
That applies to thought and personal growth as much as to being literally lost. I'm not talking about dangerous-lost in the wilderness or a high-crime neighborhood. I'm talking about an accidental turn that shows you a shortcut for the morning commute, or lets you drive past a little hole-in-the-wall that becomes your new favorite restaurant.
If we feel lost in our lives, it shows us that something needs to change. The little jolt that comes when we realize we are lost, wakes us up enough to show things we were sleeping through. It can show where we are on auto-pilot. Getting lost and un-lost shows us new thought and behavior patterns that work better.
Sometimes getting lost is good, because getting yourself un-lost can be a real learning experience.
www.ModernOracleTarot.com
26 July 2011
Today's Tarot - 7 of Swords
Experienced navigators still look at a compass, maps, satellites - they get the information they need to do their job well. The same principle applies to people and intuition...even the most spiritually advanced still can benefit from guidance and validation. That is one of the best uses of oracles like Tarot.
21 April 2011
Q&A
Now it is my turn to ask YOU a question...
What do you want to see covered in this blog?
What sort of psychic, tarot, oracle, intuition, spirituality, paranormal topics would you like to see covered.
While I won't answer requests for free individual readings, I WILL answer specific questions in a FAQ sort of format.
Send a comment here or e-mail your questions to faq@modern-oracle-tarot.com
Baihu
01 April 2011
24 February 2011
Past Lives
Was just reading Ted Andrew's book "How to Uncover Your Past Lives"
He's right, as always. I really admire his way of thinking, just in case you haven't noticed...
But think about it. One of the most powerful and empowering aspects of the the idea of reincarnation and karma is the awareness of future lives, not just the past ones....
For full article and unique content not found here, please consider subscribing to the KINDLE version of the Modern Oracle Tarot blog...only $0.99 per month. Kindle is available as a free download for pc, mac, ipod touch, smartphones and more!
Thank you
Baihu
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