Two of Pentacles - How Juggling Made Me Feel Balanced

 The Two of Pentacles is about juggling and keeping things balanced, without loosing site of other areas in your life. This requires learning to find ways to reduce your stress, learning how to relax, and to not take on more than you can handle. There is really nothing easy about this, but the more you practice, the easier it becomes, and it eventually gets to be a habit.

Many years ago, I went to study Mime, ( Commedia dell’arte) where among other skills, I took up juggling.
It really became a discipline, a skill I could adapt to my life, as a reminder, to take one day one, one step at a time, and to breath. Juggling requires that you master one task time, before you move on to the next. You have to learn to breath, especially diaphragmatic breathing, which helps you to relax, which is necessary to directly effect your ability to concentrate.

Juggling helped me when I was feeling overwhelmed. It taught me to put first things first, and to break things down in order to lessen my stress, and it helped me to not take on too many things at once. The physical, and psychological benefits enabled me to gain control of my ability to relax, through my breathing, and I could concentrate on the task at had, and go from there, doing what I needed to do next.

Like all of the Twos of the Minor Arcana, our drive for material goals must be grounded and channeled, if we are to master the skills required to achieve our objectives via the flow of creative energy.
We must be flexible, and willing to do whatever is necessary to receive the reward for our efforts made.


Juggling is a truly portable workout.
It makes you smarter.
It sharpens focus & concentration.
Juggling is the ultimate in stress relief.
It’s an exercise that doesn’t ‘feel’ like exercise.
You can juggle where you are, no travel required!
Juggling maintains and increases range of motion in the arms and shoulders.
It is one of the best ways to improve coordination.
Juggling is beneficial for all age groups and body types.
Helps ward off cravings.
Juggling makes exercising with family and friends easy.

Eight of Wands - Confident Progress & Motivation

 
The release of creative energy is represented in the Eight of Wands. It signifies previous conflicts and struggles faced, riding the rough sea and storms of life. There is triumph in overcoming them, which renews our energy, giving a feeling of buoyancy, confidence and exhilaration. We are confident in progressing forward.

Having healthy conflict and struggle in our lives is often necessary to creativity. We may think at the time, there is something wrong with us, that we are alone in feeling this way regarding our creative struggle. We are not alone. This is common to many people in all walks of life, and in all aspects of life form time to time. We get hitched up on the rocks, tossed around on the waves; we can feel stuck and lost. There is a way through.

I can speak from my own experience as an artist that many, if not all artists, struggle with periods of not having any creative output for one reason or another. It can be troubling and worrisome, as this can give rise to a fear of not picking up a paint brush again, or whatever choice of medium or whatever our vocation.

The best solution I have found is to make an effort to do it anyway. Do something, anything creative to get imagination and motivation flowing again. I have learned we need to make our environment conducive to creativity, or do whatever we can to get us back into the creative stream and to gain our confidence. I have also learned we don't get motivated by waiting around for inspiration. We get motivated by action. This motivates and inspires us, we move forward, and suddenly feel a renewed energy.

 This is why I developed the habitual discipline of writing daily. When I can't seem to paint, I am still keeping that creative tap open and it helps to maintain the flow of my imagination. The discipline of daily writing also provides for me the restriction, and challenge needed to enjoy the progress of creative energy to keep moving forward.

Four of Wands - Reward & Harvest

Wands are the suit of action, energy, and growth. Often we can feel overwhelmed by daunting challenges and tasks. But, when we achieve these difficult tasks we feel wonderful, and can celebrate what we have achieved.

Not unlike Jason in the Four of Wands, who pursues and eventually captures the Golden Fleece, along with his trusted friends who help him, we can not do it alone, without the direct or even indirect help and support of others. The saying, " It takes a village to raise a child. " comes to my mind.

We need to find strength, creative vision, intelligence, deep feeling, and empathy; all the individual characteristics of each one of Jason's trusted friends. If not from our real friends, we can draw from our inner resources that are available to us in order to reach our goal. When we discipline ourselves, applying hard effort and work, with these resources, we will reap and harvest the rewards and we will find freedom. However, keep in mind that this is just a stage on our journey, and harder challenges lie ahead , before we reach our final goal.

No matter how big or small the challenge facing you, you can achieve it through faith, and having a belief in yourself. Breaking it down into steps helps a great deal, and the task at hand will not be so overwhelming. Try not to worry about the future, nor regret the past, as there is nothing that will drive you more crazy. Live in the present moment, and do what you need to do with concerted effort, and if you need help or even moral support, ask your trusted friends. They are sure to help you. After all, friends help friends.

Demeter is the goddess of the harvest

Eight of Pentacles - Apprenticeship - The Circle of Courage

 An apprentice must work hard at practicing his or her skill to learn their trade. It helps immeasurably if you are a quick study like the individual in the Eight of Pentacles. Advancement of your craft happens with conscientious effort and old fashioned hard work. The new ventures presented to you, will be rewarded through all your care, effort and dedication. Perfectionism is not the goal, but progress.

We all reach a stage in life often referred to as, a mid-life crisis. This juncture in life can be navigated successfully if we are willing to be open to new challenges, and work hard at learning, to acquire new skills.  
Life long learning accompanied with a positive and optimistic attitude, can not only improve our quality of life but can increase our life span as well. We can learn from one another.

I found out many years ago, the definition of what a skill is. First, someone takes time to demonstrates the skill to us. Then we attempt the skill, and follow this up, by disciplined regular practice, if we want to develop, and master the skill. I believe developing and learning a skill, regardless of our age, can lead us to a greater sense of well being and health as whole human beings.

It takes courage sometimes to change course and take on the challenge of a new skill, particularly one you know nothing about. You are not alone. There are many folks out there that have done or are doing just that. Seek them out, and find others who are like minded in following their passion. You will find a sense of belonging, community and fellowship. You then can in turn, be an example to another and help some one else learn something new,sharing with them what you have learned.