The Contract Tarot – Eight of Virtues and Cosmic Principles

Welcome to the Eight of Virtues and Cosmic Principles! Eights are about rebirth, revision, something more… We have come from the sevens where illusion reigned, discernment was necessary and indecision was the traditional modus operandi and we have come to the eights.

Let’s look a little more closely at this card.

The first thing you notice is the background is otherworldly. It is a nebula, a cloud of possibility. In front of this backdrop are two swans and the word Commitment between them. Some of you will see this as commitment to another, a partner, and be satisfied. I encourage you to look beyond this however and notice that the swans are mirror images of each other… the commitment is to yourself, the inner you, the REAL you.

Below this, you see a labyrinth. A telescope has emerged from it and the phrase that appears is Search for More! This image I use to signify how easy it is to get lost in the mire of our own making, the illusion, discernment and indecision from the sever preceding, and how we need to rise above it all and search for more.  Note, however, that the telescope is being positioned toward the swans (your mirror image). Perhaps this is soul searching, deep and expansive, full of possibility thinking and considering our unlimited options.

Traveling up one leg of the ‘V’ are 3 ants. The word on one of the leaves they carry is Purpose. I chose this to help you understand that allowing possibility thinking to blossom will help you release your self-imposed limitations and find your true purpose! You don’t find your purpose by being narrowly focused on what you think is expected of you or what you expect of yourself. You find your true purpose by challenging everything you believe, value and expect and holding it up to the light of unlimited possibility thinking to find what truly, passionately and positively moves you forward. It is an exercise in true self soul-love first that will allow universal love for all things to be a natural evolution of your experience.

Below this is a blooming pink dogwood tree. The general symbolism of the dogwood is one attributed to sacrifice. It is a smaller tree that is twisted in appearance. The wood is dense and fine grained. It is deciduous and a perennial.

The symbols above the ‘C’ are Saturn in Pisces. The symbol above the ‘P’ is Water.

The Tree of Life path is Hod (splendor) in Beriah (creation).

What do you see in this card? How would you interpret it?

Until Monday… Love, light and blessings!

The Contract Tarot – 10 of Runes

Tens are about completion. Not completion in the sense of being done with a thing and having nothing more to do with it. No, this is about completion that is a culmination of everything that has come before. We have finished this part of the journey and are completing, all the while knowing that we are not starting over from scratch, we are starting over from a point of experience and hard won knowledge. There is a distinct difference.

The 10 of Runes is about oppression from external forces. Let’s look at the card more closely.

A bear is dressed like the grim reaper. He stands with scythe in front of a stock ticker for the NASDAQ.  His keyword is Consequences. He also stands in front of a mass of lava from an erupting volcano. The keyword here is Destruction. Standing on top of this volcano, feet firmly planted in the hot mire, is the multi-colored sacred cow of money or finances.  The keyword here is Oppression. Rising above all this is the phoenix, a mythological bird of rebirth, hope and survival.

Now… most people dread seeing this card come up. I would encourage you to shift your perspective to a more resourceful one. While this card shows us that we are under oppressive energies that have, most usually, the consequences of destruction, it is not just showing us this. It also shows us that out of the oppression, consequences and destruction rises rebirth, hope and survival. There is another side to this story. It is one of overcoming, learning from our consequences and being smarter and taking destruction and creating beauty and regrowth from it.

On a personal note: typically Tarot cards will show this card with the negative connotations associated with it. It is up to the reader to encourage the Querent to try to find something here besides destruction and doom. As a Querent, however, if you are presented this card, you only seem to think and take away negativity. As an eternal optimist and someone who loves balance and making things easy for most, I had to add the phoenix. It was appropriate for me. 

Let’s look at the symbols on the card.

Saturn, Fire and Sagittarius are at the top of the card. The runes under Saturn are: Nauthiz (personal growth and life lesson, consequences from past actions), Jera (cyclical process, right timing), Perthro (evolutionary force, doom). The runes under Sagittarius are Thurisaz (destruction by natural forces, regenerative catalyst), Ihwaz (movement toward Enlightenment, destruction), Hagalaz (crisis and catastrophe, changes for the long-term good).

The Tree of Life path is Malkuth (kingdom) in Atziluth (emanation).

What do you see in this card? How would you interpret it?

Until tomorrow… Love, light and blessings!

The Contract Tarot – 5 of Runes

This journey just took a turn for the worse if you choose to look at it in that way! I am, however, the eternal optimist and will speak to this card in that context.

Let’s look at it a bit more closely for now.

There is really no overwhelming feature to this card. The sky is orange and red, colors of Fire. The Colosseum is a structure in ruin and it holds a history of the keywords in the card: Strife, Conflict and Discipline. The elephant, leopard, rhino, tiger and lion have a history of being part of the slaughter that once took part in the Colosseum. The axes, spear and maces are weapons used in the Colosseum. This card is meant to take you back to a time when there was no value on life of any kind. This was a time of indiscriminate violence and slaughter. This was a time of obsession and hedonism.

The symbols at the top of the card (left to right) are: Saturn, Fire and Leo. The runes are Nauthiz (conflict, primal truth) and Thurisaz (conflict, explosive violence, strife).

The Tree of Life path is Geburah (severity) in Atziluth (emanation).

I see this card as a recognition of our shadow side. This card gives us the opportunity to become aware of our relationship to conflict, to strife and to discipline. It encourages us to become more aware of nature and our responsibility to it. It also helps us to understand that the road to ruin is paved with excess, with giving away our power to others, with obsessive tendency towards acquiring and exercising our power over others and our environments. This card is an invitation to rise above that which is our primal nature, to nurture, to positively discipline ourselves to develop a healthy respect for ourselves, others and that which is part of our daily environment. This is a card of finding our inner strength and addressing our sense of rebellion.

Until tomorrow… Love, light and blessings!

The Contract Tarot 21: The Universe

“You’ve travelled so far Your Great Work is done! No more wishing on stars No more do you run. The dance is here The dance is on! Nuit dances Heru-Ra-Ha romances Shemhamphorash appears The highest high The lowest low Potentiality pulses Magick becomes Universe done!”

This card is full of movement in the spiral of the Universe. Let’s see what else in in this card.

The kerubim are present on the four corners. They signify the great cycles of birth, life, death and afterlife. The three pyramids appear as does the periodic table of elements. Both the pyramids and the periodic table are symbols of manifestation and matter.

The symbols at the bottom of the scroll (left to right) are: the Hebrew letter Tau (cross), the elemental sign for Earth and the astrological sign of Saturn.

The Tree of Life path is from Yesod (Foundation) to Malkuth (Kingdom).

For looking very busy and complex, this card is really quite simple. This is the Universe, your Universe. What have you manifested and made real in your world? What life have you lived and what legacy will you leave?

What do you see in this card? How would you interpret it? Love, light and blessings!

 

25: Trailblazing… managing expectations

I woke up this morning to a forecast of winter returning next week for a short visit! How could that be? I was expecting that Spring had truly sprung and winter was but a distant memory! It’s not unusual to have winter in April here.

You might think that my expectations for weather are pretty silly… and you’re probably right. What struck me about the thoughts that ensued weren’t that they were silly expectations, it was that I had any expectation at all and that it had been in my thoughts unabated and quietly forming without any real conscious effort on my part. Imagine that… unabated and quiet thoughts forming without conscious effort! Humph!

This brings about the awareness that, while I realise that manifestation starts with thoughts and that I have been making a concerted effort to control my thought process, the expectation that I could do that with any real success may be just as silly as my expectations about the weather.

Our minds work with such complexity on so many levels that, to control our thoughts, is nearly an impossibility. But like an AA meeting, awareness and admission are the first steps to conquering whatever is taking over your life.

So, how do I manage my expectations? Expectation is like a virus that plants itself and seeks to replicate itself as quickly as possible and overwhelm your defences. An antibiotic won’t do. There is no pill to take, no medication to take that will control this virus.

Perhaps the best way to manage expectation is to become aware of it in the first place as it works away quietly in the background trying to hide away from your radar. Once you become aware it is happening, you make a choice: is this expectation important and valid or is it folly and unnecessary?

If it is the latter, choose to let it go with love. You can say, “Thank you, but I don’t need to worry about this anymore.” The expectation was there to alert you to something for consideration. It has done its job well. Let it go. It is unnecessary.

Whew! Now that should cover about 99% of expectations I have. I can clear that cache from my memory banks. Now, back to work… ♥

Today, I have drawn The Fool – 0. I am using the Thoth Tarot illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris.

 What an appropriate card for today. This card is about creative potential and trust.

Letting go of expectation and trusting that all will be well is exactly what I need to do today. He is fertile, thought, infinity, trust, abundance, creativity, potential, everything and nothing. He is the end and the beginning.

He ends the last cycle and begins afresh with new eyes, new dreams, new creative potential. He is sure of his way because his faith/trust is so strong. This is such a lovely card that supports creative pursuits.

Let’s look at this card a little more closely. The Fool is wearing a diamond on top of his head which represents Kether – the Crown of the Tree of Life. Behind this is a rainbow halo which symbolises the enlightenment that Kether provides. He has yellow skin which is the colour of Air, the attribute associated with him. His yellow horns signify creative force and his yellow shoes signify the Sun, the creative light of life. He wears a green tunic and tights. Green is the colour of the fertile Earth. He wears the symbol of the Sun at his root chakra and this not only signifies the creative potential of the genitals, it also represents base human consciousness like a newborn babe. He holds in his left hand what looks to be like a pinecone on fire, a firebrand that travels over his head to meet the cup he holds in his right hand. This cup has a pyramid base and a bowl. He is emptying the contents onto the ground. The firebrand signifies creative fire, the pyramid base is the male phallus and the bowl is the female womb.

Behind the Fool is a background of yellow diamonds. Yellow is the colour of Air and the diamonds tie this to Kether. An arrangement of flowers can be seen between the Fool’s legs. One is a white rose, the other four are lilies. The infants below the flowers represent the ‘solar twins’ found in the Lovers and the Sun. A rainbow-hued spiral circles three times around the fool. This is attached to his heart chakra and is the link between the higher and lower energies of the chakra system.

A dove, vulture and butterfly fly towards the Fool’s heart. The dove,  the female symbol of Venus and the male influence of Yod (20 rays of light), is thus a hermaphrodite, and signifies the descent of spirit to matter. The vulture represents Mut, the Egyptian Mother-goddess, the creator of all things. The butterfly represents the soul and the symbol of Air. This represents the soul entering the unborn babe in the womb. The Fool is, like a newborn babe, trusting and full of potential.

There is a strange image on the spiral over the Fool’s left rib cage. It looks like it has pinecone head and the body of a caduceus supported by the blade of a sword. The caduceus and the sword are symbols of air. The pinecone suggests a Thyrsus, the staff of Dionysus, a symbol of creative energy.

The grapevine that sprouts from the Fool’s heart chakra ties this figure to Bacchus and Dionysus. Suspended from this grapevine is a bag of coins. The symbols on the coins are for the planets and the zodiac and represent the powers potentially available for the Fool to use.

Finally, a tiger and a crocodile are apparent near the base of this image. The tiger represents Leo. The color is reddish-yellow and this represents the world of Assiah (action – one of the four worlds associated with the Tree of Life). The crocodile is the symbol of Saturn, the devourer and a carryover from the Universe, the end of which the Fool takes on as he initiates a new cycle.

I know, there is a lot to this Fool! He is initiating a journey of discovery and growth. He is a newborn, trusting and full of potential.

Until tomorrow… Love, light and blessings!

Pathfinding…

Last week, I started on the path of learning Tarot. It sounds really simple, doesn’t it? And yet, the more I tried to adopt ‘traditional’ methods (because I thought it was the right way to proceed), the more I found myself bogged down in someone else’s understanding, someone else’s way of assimilating the information. I’ve always done this… (no, not being bogged down) trying ‘traditional’ methods in the hope that they will ‘speak’ to me in an intuitive way and that there is scope and room for someone with ‘different’ thoughts and methods to adopt and use what is on offer. Now, I’m not saying traditional ways don’t work and aren’t good to use. I’m saying that, regardless of how hard I try to fit within the confines and structures of ‘traditional’ and accepted ways, the more I find myself becoming impatient, frustrated and stymied in the narrowness of it all. To me, it’s liked being in a tunnel that gets smaller and smaller and all i want to do is escape the confines and rise above it all. So, I go pathfinding.

With that in mind, one of the things that helps me ‘see’ what I need to see is by using the cards to answer relevant questions. What will my day bring: morning, afternoon and evening? is one of those which I adopt and from which I fashion a story. I have used that many times over the last week and it helps me not only focus on each card but how they come together. I am examining different spreads to see how they work, to put together a story from each one and to see how I can use them in the future. It is not necessarily the traditional way to proceed but I am learning more that way than step-by-step. Yes, I still consult texts and still learn those things that are more general knowledge because I am interested to learn just how far afield I am wandering,if at all. I am still learning about the peripheral yet central ideas behind the Tarot including numerology, astrology, colour, symbology, alchemy, etc. because I find that these inform what I see and add texture and flavour to the story. I am beginning to really love the width, breadth, the depth and the height of Tarot! It’s truly phenomenal!

With that… I will do today a 1-card draw. ‘What will my day bring?’ The card I draw for today is The Devil XV, reversed. I am using the Thoth Tarot illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris.

This card suggests to me halves and duplication. It would appear that the spheres at the top (bottom) of the card are undergoing mitoses, while the rod in the centre separates them into halves. The spiraling horns suggest that wonderful replicating double helix. The two large spheres appear to be ‘eyes’ that see everything, our deeds and our misdeeds and how we manifest what we create, both sides, the good and the not so good. It is male and female, two halves of a whole. It is unity and division. It is Capricorn and Mars and Saturn. The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 are all represented here. It is the Behedeti, the winged sun disk with serpents. It is the three-eyed goat. It is yellow, pink, blue, black, orange, brown, red and gold. It is spiral and spheres, rod and phallus, rings and flowers. It is unity penetrating creation. It is spirituality, rebirth and enlightenment as we journey from inward to outward and back again.

This is an excellent card for today. I am returning to my intuition and working from a deeper level to give new birth to my creativity and my spirituality. This is the beginning of a new way and the ending of a more traditional view. This is a very positive card for going forward. Fabulous!

More tomorrow… until then, Light, love and blessings!