Two of Wands - Out of the Sanctuary of the Cave

The Two of Wands signifies the formulation of a new vision and creative idea that is coalescing. This card indicates a pervasive sense of duality or polarity, and the opportunity and having the willingness to pick up with both hands, all the progress and discovery that is freely offered, enabling a harmonious and positive future.

Tomorrow Canadians, or many of of us, will celebrate Canada Day. I don't share this enthusiasm. Oh yes I will emphatically state, I'm so grateful to live in Canada, as there's so much to be thankful for living in this country, and I will always feel this way. But as far as the celebrations over the past 150 years, I can't feel much more than the sting of hypocrisy because this history is heavily overshadowed by the dark legacy and travesty against Indigenous people in countless ways, that was an attempt to commit nothing short of genocide through Colonialism, and this is nothing to celebrate.

I may not share the enthusiasm of Canada Day but I certainly do share the hope of a new creative vision for Canada's future, that depends upon individual courage and faith in that invisible creative power and capacity to generate positive change. This vision of the new path ahead, where human beings are united together as one people, will make a better country, and a better world.

 Does my attitude make me any less Canadian?  I don't think so, but I do hope it just might make me a better Canadian because I share a different vision in hopes that we can't make the same mistake twice.

The Hermit - The Way to Wisdom

Normally when I draw a card each day I don't usually ask a question. I do pay attention to how the card relates to my life and perhaps to what is going on around me. Tonight I asked a closed question, which really doesn't lead to a very clear answer and opposed to an open ended question. What I think my psyche was really asking, was how to find the way to wisdom, and this is what my answer directly related to.

Often when it comes to reading the Tarot we might not like the answers revealed relating to our question. We want a happily ever after scenario, which is magical thinking and not realistic.

This was the case today when I pulled The Hermit in hopes I'd get an answer that I wanted to hear as opposed to what I actually needed to hear. This card is the image of The Fool's last moral lesson. Here is the mythic image of Cronos, who's name means time, carries the lamp of insight and understanding that has come from loneliness and patient waiting, which The Hermit card implies.

The lesson and the gift of patience with the limitations of our mortal life and with solitude, comes self-discovery and then comes acceptance. This is the way to wisdom.

There is no crystal ball into the future, and I'm sure as heck not a psychic. I think often times we know the answers to many of our questions before we even ask, but we often need to see a kind of tangible clarity that lies within the archetypal meaning of the cards, reflecting our present situation, and what's going on within our psyche.

We can't always get what we want, but I do believe we get what we need, and this will help us to find the way to wisdom. The Hermit's lamp is the beacon of light in the dark, pointing us in the right direction along our path.





Then flash the wings returning summer calls
Through the deep arches of her forest halls.
–Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841–1935)

King of Cups - The Ideal Father

The King of Cups is a card of emotional balance. Something that's often hard to find within ourselves.
John Bradshaw once said that 95% of the population is dysfunctional and co-dependent in some way, and the other 5% are in denial.

I remember back in the 80s when I first heard about ACOA Adult Children of Alcoholics and the given description of the behavioral personality characteristics displayed by those who grow up in alcoholic homes. It very accurately described me to a tee and that was just the beginning of my own personal recovery journey.

 I was relieved to learn why it was I'd felt so emotionally imbalanced all my life, and to know I wasn't alone in what I thought was my weirdness. It has hard for me to remember there ever being a time I didn't feel this way, that I didn't belong or that happiness was for everybody else, but it eluded me.

What an incredible relief it was to finally begin to understand why I behaved the way I did, to appreciate, accept and eventually come to love the person I am.

The King of Cups embodies the mythic figure Orpheus the singer. He represents for me the kind of father that most of us envision as being ideal.. He is both priest and healer who seeks to form relationships with others and yet his relationship with himself is lacking in that he doesn't seem to know how to make himself happy. The King of Cups is the image of the Wounded Healer and he is far from perfect.


None of us grow up with an ideal father though it is often easy for us to put them on a pedestal and see them  as perfect, even in the face of abuse, neglect or abandonment in some way.

Forgiveness and acceptance of our fathers as they truly are, comes when we do this not for them, but for ourselves. Then we can begin to love them not in spite of who they are, but because of who they are.

Six of Wands - You've Got A Friend

 I couldn't have ever reached my successes or achieved my goals without the help of my friends. Regardless of what form this help comes, in big or little kindnesses from others it can be monumental, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant. This love, support and encouragement should never be underestimated or taken for granted because it can change our lives.

 It's certainly changed mine in too many ways to count, and I am so grateful for my friends and even for those who are not friends because they too have taught me so much about life and love.

Recently I had my 64th Birthday, and was given a surprise party, something that I've never had before in my life. I was completely overwhelmed by the kindness and generousity shown to me, and it will be one of the most memorable Birthdays ever.

 I can say that the kindness of others has changed my life, in that I'm so grateful, because it has deepened my humanity, it makes me want to be a better person and to continue to pay it all forward in whatever way possible.

There couldn't be a better card to draw today than the Six of Wands. Wands represent Creativity, Fire and growth all enveloped in self-confidence and progress.

In the Six of Wands, we see Jason who has finally achieved the goal of finding The Golden Fleece, but he could never have accomplished this difficult spiritual pursuit without the love, support, and encouragment from his friends that enabled him to fulfill his creative vision quest.

Knight of Cups - The Hopeful Romantic

Some might see the Knight of Cups is a hopeless romantic, and perhaps this is a fair enough impression, but without the personality of this Knight the world would be a cold and baren place.

 I've a great affinity for this Knight, because he is a romantic and no doubt, because I am an artist and he appeals to my creativity. However I don't see him as being hopeless. I don't see any one as being hopeless. I prefer to call those of us like this Knight hopeful romantics. The Knight of Cups is also seen as being spiritual, considering his high ideals and quest for the ideal spiritual, divine love. He is a worshiper of women and loves his mother.

 Here we see the embodied mythic hero Perseus, the poetic and senstive son of Zeus, surrounded by a romantic landscape of forest, green hills, admist field and stream. Everything is lush and full of life, as he moves along, traversing on his way, mounted on his majestic and beautiful white horse. Perseus was favoured by goddesses, ever step of his life journey. The water-deities and the Graeae, the three old crones who knew the secrets of the future.

  This card implies the romantic dimension of love or perhaps an artistic proposition. Pereus loves beauty and truth and is the defender of high ideals.

I identify strongly with this Knight of Cups, particulary at this time of the year, during the new beginnings of June, when everything is at the hieght of new blossoming life.

Living in the country, in rural Nova Scotia is a conduit to much romanitc beauty, making it easy to feel like a hopeful romantic, who gratefully aspires daily, to loving and living life to the fullest in beauty, truth and high ideals.

I think Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a fine example of a Knight of Cups.

Mine is the Month of Roses; yes and mine
The Month of Marriages! All pleasant sights
And scents, the fragrance of the blossoming vine,
The foliage of the valleys and the heights.
 
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82)