Page of Wands - Enthusiasm and Discovery

The Page of Wands is an encouraging card, full of fiery creative spirit and life, imagination, and energy all flow from a place of inspiration and to move forward with enthusiasm and discovery. It is also represents the irritable, unrealistic and restless youth, Phrixus.

This personality needs to be tempered, because the temptation could be to dive in without forethought, and there is a risk of messing the whole thing up, however risk can be a very positive thing that enables growth.

This youth often provokes others and causes problems in one's personal life and work. Here in lies the warning message, look before you leap, and think before you act.

The wisdom of age needs to comes into play. The youthful spirit may not allow for the foresight in his approach to risk, and so careful consideration is required.

As the old saying goes, pride comes before a fall and the childishness that revolves around the ego of immaturity can be the default regardless of one's biological age.

This card makes me think about a saying my mother would always say. "Youth is wasted on the young."
The positive aspect exhibited by Page of Wands points to the power of the imagination and knowing that there is much more where the initial creative idea came from.

Strength

Using my head and not my heart can sometimes be difficult, because it can feel like I am going against the grain, as I approach life often with my heart. But I have learned to ignore some of those feelings when I know I am not doing the right thing, because sometimes my heart can get me into trouble if I don't think.

I now understand why 'they' say youth is wasted on the young. I wished I had listened to my head when I was young, and maybe I'd  have made decisions not based on fear. But we can't undo what has been done and need stay the forward course with hope and optimism.

Courage and fortitude is what the Strength card symbolizes. We all have situations were we try to have courage but are very afraid, just as we can have the guts to do some thing, but we feel weak. Courage can be spurred on by fear. Fortitude can be motivated by weakness. Fear and feeling weak can cause negative reactions, if we don't use our head. I need to handle unhealthy anger and self-serving pride. I must be willing to do the right thing in spite of fear, and try to replace my fear by acquiring faith. This helps be to walk through my fear, with love being the opposite of fear.

Self-reliance is not the way for me to possess strength, courage and fortitude.The human spirit is amazing. It inspires and changes our lives when grounded in faith.
Freedom from fear is a lifetime process.

Page of Swords - Curiousity & Communication

The youthful and elemental nature of the Page of Swords signifies emerging new ideas, the beginnings of independent thinking, a love of learning and the innate natural curiousity of a child.

Being an ambivalent card, two states of behaviour and mind set can co-exist simultaneously. Love and hate can be apparent. Especially when it comes to the negative aspects of this card, embodying a querulous and mischievous attitude, impart due to the childlike playful nature of the the Page of Swords.

 Unfortunately, as an adult, this playful nature can translate into gossip, which often has it's roots in jealousy, pride, envy and spite. This bitter root that can poison and suffocate relationships, affecting any, and all aspects of one's life. Gossip is to be guarded against.

 How we communicate and what we communicate, especially in present day, hardly allows us to think before we speak, especially because so many of us are preoccupied with instant online communication instead of face to face, or though slow communication via the seemingly dying art of letter writing.


The creative ideas and mental powers of the Page of Swords needs to be nurtured, channeled and directed in  positive ways and encouraged in a supportive manner.

Six of Wands - Recognition & Humility

" Success has many fathers while failure is an orphan. "
Everyone wants to feel they are responsible for success, but not for failure.

" Success is never final ".
After success you can't afford to become complacent and sit on your laurels. Hard work is still ahead, and is just as important as it ever was.

Proverbs provide words of wisdom and insight, acting as guideposts, giving direction along the spiritual path.

The Six of Wands is a very good reminder to always remain humble regardless of one's success and recognition, though it is a very satisfying card in the Minor Arcana, as it heralds public recognition.
There are always many others that we can attribute to our success, and to be grateful for their help in so many ways. The old adage of what goes around comes around comes to mind, and when we can, we  pay it forward.


Jason has been victorious after his battle with the dragon and retrieved the Golden Fleece with the Argonauts by his side, cheering and showering him with accolades. However Jason must remember, he cannot take credit alone and needs to accept his success with humility and grace. His hero-companions supported him completely, providing him with support and contributed their individual strengths and efforts. Jason could not have done it without them.

I have always loved and deeply appreciated what Thomas Merton wrote about humility in his book New Seeds of Contemplation.

"Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real."

- Thomas Merton

Queen of Swords - Idealism

Today's card from the Minor Arcana, the Queen of Swords is a strong independent woman. In the Mythic Tarot the Queen is Atalanta who was abandoned but her father who was disappointed that he had no male heir. He left her on a hill, but she was rescued and nursed by a bear, sent by the moon-goddess Artemis- Hecate.

Crescent Moon Bear - Catherine Meyers

The Queen appears aloof and cool, but don't be fooled, she has a soft underbelly after experiencing  great losses, and many difficulties in her life. This Queen is very familiar with hard times and suffering, but continues to thrive, not just in spite of them, but because of these burdens she has had to bare, this has given her an inner strength.
She has a vehement sense of justice, and benevolently upholds and champions the rights of others, perhaps as a result of her own loss and brokenness.

 Quick witted with a sharp tongue, she can cut to the quick, being very intelligent and passionate about her high ideals. Not willing to settle in love she can cut her nose off to spite her face because of this idealism, which in the extreme, is an expectation of perfectionism in others; an expectation that was placed upon herself as well at a young age.

The Queen is a woman possessing a strong sense of integrity and pride, but she is also lonely, and isolated as a result of these high ideals. She may be unconscious of her perfectionist expectations, however it does have a positive aspect, in that others are inspired by her, to improve upon themselves.

Being too idealistic prevents us from ever measuring up to a perfectionist ideal. It does not exist in reality, and is an image. This state occurs because this individual is fearful of being human, and leaves us vulnerable to being hurt.

Many of us have been hurt in early life or in the past, which manifests into our adult life, especially if we lack self-awareness, and choose not seek help to resolve these issues. Serious problems arise in our relationships with others, as a result of clinging to an unmovable faith in high ideals, leading to an addiction perfectionism.