King of Cups - The Caring Heart of the Artist

I realize this card it is truly my favourite Court Card. The King of Cups is full of compassion and counseling for others, with the sensitive, wise and caring heart of an artist who was both poet and musician, represented by the Mythic figure Orpheus.

These qualities are so admirable and highly regarded and can be seen as being very positive. The negative aspect is that the King is unable to help himself and is known as the wounded healer. Many in the helping professions tend to crash and burn, because they extend themselves beyond their limits, in order to help others without addressing their own personal issues. I had once experienced this myself years ago as a counselor.

I heard it said that the best way to get your focus off of your own problems is to help someone else. This is often true especially if you are feeling sorry for yourself our full of worry and anxiety about your life. However if your motivation is to do this in order to avoid your own problems, this is not going to work for long and isn't healthy.

Certainly, those who are helpers do have insight into other peoples problems and are initially very good at assisting them in many compassionate ways. However this cannot happen consistently over a long period of time, because the individual will eventually come up against their own struggles and eventually will be unable to ignore them.

The message found within the King of Cups is that taking care of ourselves is an absolute must. If we can't take care of ourselves first, we can't really be there to effectively help others.

Seven of Pentacles - Do you Know What Your Answer Is?

This has been a month of decision making for me and the cards I have been drawing daily, have definitely reflected this.

I see this decision making theme once again in the Seven of Pentacles, upon seeing today's card where Oueen Pasiphae is wanting to make an offer to Daedalus he can't refuse. Daedalus already has lots of golden coins, (Pentacles). However she's got another one in her hand to freely give him, none the less for a price he may not be prepared to pay.

When someone offers you something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

 I have  generally found this to be one of those truisms in life.
This past week I was offered one of those kinds of deals and honestly, I was tempted initially until I gave it careful thought. I concluded in my heart that is wasn't a good decision for me realistically, because I'd be in a worse case scenario financially, then what I am in presently.

That said this is the kind of society we live in today. There are various modern day snake charmers offering big things, with a big price that is often hidden or we rather not think about because we are reacting emotionally.

When it comes to money, and consumerism, we live in an economy that is credit rich and cash poor.
Taking a page from my grandparents book of debt, thinking about how they lived, and remembering what my mother once said. "If you don't have the cash to get a bargain, it isn't a bargain."
In those days, there were no credit cards, which I think now are mostly misused and are the scourge of our economy, affecting people and our world on so many levels.

This card has the message not to react impulsively. Care and forethought are necessary in order to make the right decision.

Every situation and person is different and so perhaps the question to ask is, am I going to be further ahead if I put my energy into a new project or should I continue to develop what I have already worked hard at in achieving.
I know what my answer is. Do you know what your answer is?

  

Five of Pentacles - Letting Go

The Five of Pentacles always reminds me of Persephone descending the staircase to the underworld, certainly not a fun journey, but it's not all bad either.

Daedalus isn't going to the underworld. He's however in a very dark place in his mind and spirit, wrestling with forces somewhat beyond his control, and let his ego get in the way making some really bad decisions, that has lead him here.

Things may look dismal, and foreboding but the moon is lighting his path and all is not lost. It's in his power to change his attitude and to look inward for guidance to provide him with discernment, in order to make the right decision. Indecision and is also a decision, and often waiting is the best choice until the way becomes clear.

Pentacles indicates a financial loss that presents a very difficult situation, possibly causing us to have a loss of faith in ourselves. Letting go, forgiving ourselves, and preparing to start over is the best way to get our bearings again.

What is necessary is to take inventory of how we contributed and exacerbated the problem. Then we can re-orientate ourselves on an financial level and on an inner one.    

Eight of Swords - What is Your Value and Worth?

Orestes is once again being taunted and tormented by the Furies on one side and Apollo looks none to happy either. Orestes feels frozen, but he knows all too well what the consequences of his actions will be. He needs to make a decision, ask himself what he really wants, and needs to act once and for all.

Oh boy, some times there are certain cards, you will draw over and over in a short space of time. You could almost feel like your are being really bugged or stalked by a particular card that you keep drawing. Truth is, there is an important message needing to be heard. Much like in life, we will often keep making the same mistakes over and over, and we can't figure out why. It's because we haven't learned the lesson yet.

I really gave this card some thought today. Then it came to me, and I figured this one out. I know it directly relates to my own attitude and the part I play in shaping others attitudes toward me personally and professionally. Of course I acknowledge that there are some rotten tomatoes posing as well intended folks out there, but they also have to take responsibility for their own behaviours. I try hard to avoid those folks completely.

At the same time I also have to take responsibility for my own behaviour, happiness and success. If people don't like that, well I say tough tat-tats! I don't have to live life as a victim, nor allow myself to be taken advantage of personally or professionally.

This is often a hard and long lesson learned, especially for many women because we don't want to, God forbid, piss any one off, and we don't want to be seen as being not a 'nice' person. Too much of the time women are willing to settle for less, which is a big price just not worth paying for in the long run. We devalue ourselves and are left feeling less than, undeserving and unworthy. This is absolute BULL CRAP! We are more than, deserving and very worthy. It's been said, and I believe it to be true, that our value and worth is our sacred capital.

I always remember something Dr. Phil said many years ago when he first came on TV. " You teach people how to treat you. " This is not a blaming the victim kind of statement. I am not talking about the cycle of violence that is present in abusive situations. I am simply talking about talking responsibility for our own behaviour. It 's about taking charge of our own selves in order to elicit and enable real positive change. We don't have to take the path of least resistance. This is not the way to happiness.

We don't need to fear confrontation, we don't need to avoid, nor to be duplicitous or blind. What we need is to be honest with ourselves and with others, to take responsibility for our actions and get proactive.

Knight of Cups - The Hopeful Romantic

One of my favourite cards, is the Knight of Cups. Emotion is represented by the suit of cups and being a person who relates in an intuitive manner, on an emotional level, I strongly identify with this card.

The aftermath of Valentine's Day usually lives me feeling rather deflated as a result of all the hype around this very commercialized day, that has generally lost it's meaning in that it is now geared toward couples, who gush about their undying love toward one another. The unspoken message is a presumption that most of us the population is coupled. Reality certainly does not bare this out, but I don't want to get off on a tangent about this.

What I want to talk about is the nature of this Knight of Cups. I ask myself what kind of quest is he on? Firstly he is the mythic hero Perseus who is on a kind of spiritual vision quest and is greatly favoured by goddesses, The Graeae, the three Crones, who knew the secrets of the future.

Perseus is a real romantic and comes to the aid of the damsel in distress. He love's love, worships women, beauty and truth. He defends high ideals and searches always for that perfect love. Kindness, gentleness and idealistic in nature and personality, does not mean he is weak in character. Without the Knight of Cups, it would leave us in a cynical, bleak and a colourless world.

Our world has lost much of this romantic spirit found in the Knight of Cups. I see him as a hopeful romantic, and world needs more of them.

King of Swords - 'The Wily One'

This has been a week full of swords. My fourth day of drawing this suit. Yesterday I drew the Eight of Swords but didn't get around to posting, which is a card of bondage through fear.

Today brings me the King of Swords and the mythic figure of the the hero Odysseus who's intellectual authority and principles remind us to use reason over emotion and to not allow ourselves to be dictated by emotion and irrational thought. He urges us to act with foresight, cleverness, strategy, guile and determination to reach our goal.

The King of Swords may be cunning, artful, crafty and smart, but not necessarily wise. Wiliness needs to be tempered with intuited emotion, and wisdom, because the King of Swords in sometimes lacking in depth of feeling and can have a tendency to be dissociated with emotion necessary to be empathetic. In other words, trust your gut and be wise.

As a creative person it is essential for me to always be willing to question authority and to really listen to my own inner voice of authority. This may not be immediately apparent, but I need to be patient and trust that insight and discernment will be given.

Overcoming  fear means to be able to look fear in the face and traverse that road less traveled, and to be our own hero or heroine.

Two of Swords - La La La La I Can't Hear You!

Orestes in the Two of Swords is caught between a rock and a hard place, with his mother, Queen Clytemnestra  on one side and his father King Agamemnon on the other side.

Orestes isn't happy, nor is he unhappy. He can't move or grow, appearing calm enough but just beneath the surface is great tension and anxiety. Orestes has taken the path of least resistance, thinking if he does nothing he won't risk conflict. But the chaos is really between his ears, and is the loudest noise he hears, regardless of what is going on around him. It is the chaos that comes when we refuse to face an impending consequence that calls for us to find a more creative way of handling this situation, instead of deciding to avoid the inevitable.

Listening to our own quiet still voice can be challenging. So how do we do it?
I think the answer varies individually, but the first part of this answer for me comes when there is an acknowledgment and acceptance of the chaos. This chaos can be external or internal, our chaos or someone else's, and we decide to make it ours or not.

There is a saying I love, " not my circus, not my monkeys." In other words this isn't my problem, and it isn't my business.

Learning to detach with love from  people, places and things has been one of the most important life lessons I have learned. It isn't as easy as it might sound and it really does take practice, especially if we've have a pattern of avoiding reality and keeping up with appearances to keep everyone else happy but ourselves. Making a decision to make the first step is the most important. It is so very worth the effort, because it can spare you from a lot of grief and stress.
Ultimately others will benefit from our honesty and so will we. If I have to choose between serenity and storm, I'll choose serenity every time