Queen of Pentacles - Bellissima!

The perfect card for me to draw today! The Queen of Pentacles enjoys the abundance of life, being surrounded by natural beauty and bounty of the earth that surrounds her. She is quick to share that bounty. Being a Queen she has influence, is the salt of the earth and is motherly.

Embodied in the mythic figure of Queen Omphale, is the image of feminine strength and sensuality.

Experiencing the richness of the earth for me is one of the most wonderful things that I am so grateful to be able to experience this on a daily basis, and I get the most pleasure from. I'm not materially rich, but the good earth makes me feel wealthy.

I have this fabulous collection of Italian herbs, Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, and Basil, that I am so excited about and I'm really looking forward to having tomatoes, peppers and herbs from my garden to make salsa. Bellissima!

 We have a special dish in Nova Scotia called  Hodge Podge. After picking some fresh peas, green and yellow beans, along with new potatoes I threw them all into my slow cooker crock pot, along with seasoning, a large amount of butter, cream and milk.

I'd also made some bread yesterday, and this addition made for a delicious Nova Scotian Summer supper.  As we say here, it was some good!

Nova Scotia Hodge Podge

The Sun - Is The Sun Indifferent?

I can't remember when I last drew The Sun for my daily draw. It's uplifting, hopeful, positive, and a very promising card, on this gray overcast day here in Nova Scotia.

Recently I've been feeling inundated with the media hype about Donald Trump. I'm really so sick of seeing his foolish face, and all of his negative racist pronouncements.

This morning I heard some one say, good people need to speak out against this racism and injustice. I agree. I took this point to heart, though many of us might be think if we ignore Trump, he'll just go away. I'm tempted to think the same myself. Then I remembered, and reflected on what Eli Weiss said about indifference.

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death."         

                                               - Eli Weiss


The Sun is the antithesis of indifference. It's the life force, the power of consciousness to dispel darkness with affirming purpose, foresight, and a faith in the striving of the human spirit.

North Versus South - The Sun

It's a lovely thing to see the Sun, with the fast approach of Winter. I am not a sun worshiper, in the sense of being a person who sits in the sun day after day, soaking up the rays. I do however love to see the brightness, and light it brings everyday, especially when the days are short with too much darkness for my liking.

One of the reasons I look forward to Christmas is knowing the Winter Solstice is just around the corner, and with the approaching days of increasing light. There are good and beautiful things I greatly love about the North and the South, the Sun and the Moon, the dark and the light. You can't have one without the other.

In the 80s I moved to the North West Territories, where I lived in Yellowknife and Fort Smith for three years. It was wonderful having all that light until midnight, and I felt short changed when I returned to Nova Scotia, with 9:00 o'clock sunsets in the Summer.

More sunlight means folks generally have a sunnier disposition, or a least you don't have to work so hard at always keeping on the sunny side of life. Oh don't get me wrong, Winter was brutally cold and dark in the NWT.

The first year I arrived on April 28th, the day before the ice bridge closed. I thought I was going to end up on the bottom of the MacKenzie River, because the ice was melting! I was at least somewhat acclimatized, but I wasn't prepared for snow on my birthday June 4th, and I wondered what was I thinking moving from Nova Scotia to the 'Great White North, The Land of The Midnight Sun!'

When I returned to the Maritimes, sometimes I would tell stories to people about how it was so cold my braids would freeze, break right off, and fall on the ground, and a few other tales people would believe  about the frigid temperatures. The favourite story I would tell, was about how some Northerners didn't have ears because of frost bite, their ears fell off, and as a result they couldn't wear glasses.

I'm grateful to still have my ears and today I was happy to see I had drawn the Major Arcana card, The Sun. This card speaks of expanding horizons along with creative endeavours to follow. Oh happy day!

If we can't find the Sun outside of ourselves we have to find it within, and let it shine.

Northern Boys - Catherine Meyers

A New Way To Think About Temperance

Between 1979-1980 at the age of 26, I moved into the Women's Christian Temperance Union on Gerard and Young St., in downtown Toronto. Why the heck would I ever do that, most people would ask. The simple answer, I needed a place to live. It was one the best things I ever did for a myriad of reasons, which had everything to do with the way I thought about temperance, which were completely unknown to me at the time.

Though I grew up in Toronto, and in parts of Ontario, I was now returning, after years of living in Nova Scotia from the age of 15 years. I was attending school, to study Mime, with a group of approximately 8 other students.  But that's a whole other story.

When I entered the Women's Christian Temperance Union, I approached the woman at front desk. Once I got registered, she informed me, I would be sharing a room with another young women. She said, in her Philippine accent , " Oh Rosemary, she's a , how you say, a very very nice gurl. She doesn't smoke, doesn't drink. You goin' to just love her. She such a very very nice gurl. "

When I got settled into my room Rosemary wasn't there, but arrived within the hour. She immediately asked me, " Do you smoke? " Yes, I answered. "Good!" she said. "Do you drink?", she then asked. I again said, yes. She again answered, " Good! " We're going to get along great!"she replied excitedly.

If you asked what the word temperance meant to me back in the 80s. This would be it. You don't drink, you don't smoke or have per-marital sex. I was clueless. Today I am happy to know I have a new way to think about temperance. Temperance for me is so much more than not drinking or smoking  and all the so called rules that I was wanting to break.

Temperance is all about having a balanced heart, mind, body, and spirit. It's about transfiguration, spiritual insight, rising above what ever negative situation you find yourself in, and about being a compassionate human being. These are some of the characteristics Temperance embodies.

I choose to live a temperate life now, not because I have to, but because I want to, and because of my own personal recovery from alcoholism, and my 20 year road to recovery. It's not about just putting down the bottle, but living life on life's terms, one day at a time. This is what Temperance means to me.

Tom Waits

History, Origins and Myths of The Tarot

Before I began to learn about Tarot cards, I had some preconceived notions. Notions about the implications of being a reader, the meanings of the cards, how their meanings were relative to my life, and to the life of others.

In the late 1960s, was the first time I had gone to a reader, in my teens, many years ago, close to my neighbouring, small, Nova Scotian town. My friends and me, nervously anticipated meeting the woman we'd heard about, and whom we thought, was going to " tell our fortune ". She was a very sweet old woman, living all alone in a very old house, a top a steep hill we had slowly and persistently trodden, then to finally reach and enter with trepidation, into her old, dimly lite home, that had that old wood smell.

 We had decided to go and see her, just before leaving for a big road adventure, hitchhiking to visit one my friend's sisters, who lived in the city Ottawa, Ontario. It was going to be a very long trip. I remember only two things about the reading. Sure enough, she first did tell me, I would be going on a trip, which is often the proverbial thing people say they would hear, when going to a so called "fortune teller".  Then next thing she said I thought was ridiculous . She added, "And you are not the world's best packer." I laughed and pondered for this for a minute. I was confused and I couldn't figure out why in the world she would say such a thing.

Finally reaching Ottawa, and once over the initial excitement upon our arrival, now in the big city, I promptly began to unpack the contents of my backpack, only to find very little in the way of everyday clothes, that I should have brought with me. I did bring probably twenty pairs of socks.Why I did that I still haven't figured out. I still have a laugh about this now and again, but I am a much better packer now a days!

I just thought I'd share that little story, however what I really wanted to do is to let you know some of the misconceptions, history and the origins of Tarot.
The link Villa Revak is a great site that does provide a great deal of clarification. It will help you to discern and better understand some of the many preconceived ideas, accuracies and inaccuracies, about Tarot. It is very educational, has a plethora of information, and references to explore.
And if you're going on a trip, just a word to the wise, don't take too many socks.