The Magician - To Drive The Cold Winter Away

The Magician - Egg Tempera on Porcelain - Catherine Meyers 2015

The Magician has all the tools he needs at his disposal. There are Cups for his emotional health, Swords representing the intellect, Wands symbolizing creativity and Pentacles serving the physical needs on the earthly plane. He points to the Heavens and to the Earth reminding us of their direct interconnection.

 During Christmas and in the dead of Winter, it's wise to have all our tools at our disposal as well, in order to make the most of a difficult time for many of us. Of course not everything about Christmas is difficult, there is beauty, kindness and love extended toward many that often goes unnoticed. There are those who selflessly give of themselves time and time again throughout the year, every year.

The spontaneous generousity of giving is part of the magic of Christmas but more importantly it is also a basic human need that builds and maintains positive interpersonal relationships, and is vital to our own health and happiness everyday.

I have a number of things that help to give me comfort and joy during this time of year. Here's my list of seven that I use from my personal tool box. There are no doubt, lots of other tools that I'll continue to add and please feel free to add to this list as I would love to know what's on your list.

1. I always choose to have some special Christmas ornaments that I keep up all year round as a reminder to  keep the spirit of Christmas in my heart always.
2. Music soothes my soul and gives me strength, so I play certain songs during the season. I love to play Loreena Mckinnet's  To Drive The Cold Winter Away .
3. The smell of fresh growing herbs reminds me of Spring and my connection to the earth, and growth. This year I have a combination of Italian herbs and a close friend gave my a smudging bundle of sacred sage.
4.The Magician's tools I compare to the Circle of Courage which I pray for that I'll always strive to keep in mind that I need to maintain balance in order to maintain a happy and healthy life.
5. Keeping some of the special traditional activities alive and creating new traditions are affirming and heart warming, providing a sense of belonging.
6. I've found the best prevention for the "poor mes" is to focus on trying to help someone else.
7. Last but not least find ways to have a good laugh, whether it's watching some good comedy, stand-up comedian, or attending a party with some friends who love to laugh will get those feel good hormones working.

The Queen of Swords-Warrior Woman

This Queen of Swords impresses me very much, and simultaneously she does not. I am not so drawn to her, like I am the Queen of Cups, that lives life from the heart and intuition. Nonetheless I admire The Queen of Swords greatly.

This Queen, strikes me as being distant and aloof, sometimes appearing cold to others. Her  intellect, and ability to always maintain an objective, detached perspective, takes precedence over her emotion. Don't be fooled though, she feels deeply, and is a very passionate, compassionate woman. Her aloofness is really her armor that protects a very tenderhearted broken heart. She is really a wild woman in the sense, that she walks her own path and is her own person. Still waters run deep, and what appears to be, may not be all there is to the story, as much lies beneath the surface, within the depth of this woman's personality.

There are always occasions and circumstance that this kind of detached approach to life is positive. This can be problematic, if an individual is implicitly devoid of feelings and subjectivity, this leaves a person suspect, relying solely on empirical evidence of things unseen, such as intuition, the psyche and love. It makes for difficult intimate trusting relationships.

You will not win in a war of words with this Queen, and you don't want to cross her, as she will cut you with her quick wit, and sharp tongue. She expects much from others, like she does from herself. This can be manifested in a character defect as perfectionism, and having unrealistic expectations of others, that they can not idealistically live up to.

Inherent in the Queen of Swords seems to be is a lack of trust in the self, in others, and in the God of her own understanding. Reason, rational thought, and logic are the tools she uses to solve her problems, and how she reaches her conclusions. It is difficult for her to let go of her rational mind, and to take that leap of faith that is a prerequisite for trust.

Understand that I am somewhat biased, and admittedly a bit jealous of her ability to be so intellectually, rationally strong and emotionally detached. I know I am not so much like her, but she has some very admirable personality characteristics I relate to, and I try to emulate and adopt her mental strengths, and her positive traits.

The Queen of Swords is a very strong warrior woman. She is the embodied mythic figure of Atalanta the Huntress, who in the past was dealt a bad hand of cards, regardless, she has thrived, not in spite of all these struggles, but because of them. She has developed an internal fortitude, that has given her an independence and the self-reliance to take care of herself. In this way she is very close to my heart, as I have known and know, many beautiful strong woman like her, and I identify with her very much.

Wolf Woman-Catherine Meyers