Alignment

There's a cosmic, astrological, and terrestrial event that began August 14th  to follow through the remaining days of August, where Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars are all going to be in alignment. These planets are pertinent to The Mythic Tarot, in that each planet is associated with a Major Arcana card in the deck.

This is a good time to get our lives in alignment, and here is my interpretation. It strengthens my faith giving me a deep sense of affirming clarity. I hope you will find meaning strength in this interpretation. 


Venus rules the Roman goddess of love and is symbolic of The Empress, the Great Mother, who is beautiful and bountiful suggesting luxury and abundance. We are reminded without this Great Mother within us, we can bring nothing to fruition.

Jupiter, the planet of expansion represents the Wheel of Fortune, meaning fortune, power, movement, sudden change and reminding us of the cyclical nature of life. Jupiter also connected with the Hierophant, the Higher mind, philosophy, and the wise teacher, that reflects an individual vision of the spirit.

Saturn the planet of time, age, decay, death, finance and also represents the goddess of fertility, Aphrodite. The Devil is the Major Arcana card associated with Capricorn, the goat, representing emotional, spiritual and physical bondage. Saturn serves as a model of discipline structure and commitment. It reminds us to work hard and reap the rewards, and to know we can be released from bondage and know freedom through love.

Mars the Roman god of war rules the Major Arcana card, The Tower, which signifies radical transformation.


Here's the down low, from the Old Farmer's Almanac about the alignment of the planets, using the moon as your guide, so you can witness this rainbow of of planets and brilliant stars.

• Starting with Venus in the southwestern sky, go left and a bit higher and you’ll see the blue star Spica. 
• Continue left and slightly upward to the brilliant white Jupiter, the highest point of the rainbow. (It’s not quite as bright as Venus.)
• Go farther left and a bit lower from Jupiter to the bright orange Antares. 
• Continue left and the next bright star is the colorless Saturn, which is actually a bit higher than Antares, spoiling the perfect rainbow arc. (Saturn is dimmer than the other three planets. Antares twinkles, while Saturn shines with a steadier golden light.)
• Now continue left and lower from Saturn to finish up with the very brilliant orange Mars, near the horizon in the southeastern sky, shining brighter than Jupiter.

If you counted six “stars,” you’ve succeeded, with four of them being planets, and three (Venus, Jupiter, and Mars) being super-bright. They’re each separated by roughly the same distance from each other. The only challenge is finding a site with an open, unobstructed view halfway around the sky from the southwest through to the southeast.

Follow the Moon as a Guide

From August 14 to August 23, the Moon passes all four planets in the evening sky, one after the other, following the same path!

• From August 14 to 16, the Moon passes Venus and moves toward Jupiter. 
• On August 17, the bright object nearest the Moon is Jupiter.
• The First Quarter Moon falls in the early morning hours of August 18.
• Around August 18/19, the waxing Moon passes red super giant star Antares.
• From August 20 to 22 look for the Moon to come very very close to planet Saturn.
• Finally, on August 23, 2018, the Moon is right next to brilliant red planet Mars. The two pair up all night from dusk to dawn.

The Devil-The Devil Made Me Do It

The Devil - Made Me Do It!



Wearing the world as a loose garment comes to mind when I think about this card. I learned the hard way many years ago, that I'm responsible for my own happiness. It's an ongoing lesson in one way or another that is proportional to my conscious contact with the Creator every day.

This isn't an easy lesson, living in a world that seems to perpetuate the illusion of happiness, to be found outside of ourselves, as we can spend a life time trying to fill a spiritual void with this illusion. I call it a hole in the soul.

It's a perfect card for me to draw today as I contemplate how I'm addicted to the internet.

Addiction is often what's reflected in this Major Arcana card of The Devil or represents emotional, spiritual and physical  bondage of some sort. Pan is the embodied god and the goat figure symbolizes the scapegoat, symbolizing the person or thing that people project their inferior side of themselves on to, in order to make themselves feel better. Being human is about accepting ourselves, the positive and negative, is a necessary life lesson to learn and essential to our happiness.

It's easy to blame this or that, or someone else for our life troubles. But ultimately we are all responsible for our own actions and for our own happiness.

"Write your sorrows in sand and your blessings in stone."

The Devil - Why Do Bad Things Happen?

I have to preface this post first off by answering the question I've asked, saying I don't believe the devil has anything to do with why bad things happen. Yes, I certainly do believe there are those who choose to inflict pain and suffering onto others, but the rest is simply life. The sun shines on everyone, as does the rainfall.

The more important question for me is, what do I do about it, that's the hard part.
This card reminds me of how many people have died over the past year and a half, and how illness has taken their lives and presented all kinds of suffering. I know there isn`t anything I can do to change these events, but I`m working toward changing myself and my attitude, and living life on life`s terms. I can do this because I`ve got the freedom to choose. I can either add to the already present chaos, or lessen it.

Having experienced a lot of death in my life I'll be the first to admit, sometimes I really don't cope very well with death, the death of others, and in particular, the death of those I love.  I think it's a combination of PTSD and my cultural conditioning not to talk about death. When it comes to attending funerals I have to force myself to go, and sometimes, more often than not, I stay away, which I know mostly is not the way forward to growth.

The devil symbolizes those fears and beliefs that prevent us from becoming whole people, and from experiencing growth. We are not fully alive, living from this perspective, and are in a kind of emotional bondage, as a result of these fears and beliefs.

In this New Year, here`s to resolving to facing fears and to changing beliefs.

Suffering is meaningless unless you decide otherwise.

- Rabbi Harold Kushner

 

The Devil - Did The Devil Make Me Do It?

No the devil didn't make me do it, sometimes that's the way I felt, but that would simply be another excuse, and after a while I didn't need one.


What am speaking of? It's what this card can indicate in it's interpretation, and if it does come up in a reading diplomacy, empathy, and sensitivity need to be used. Addiction or being in some kind of bondage, can and often does include a wide scope of things outside of ourselves. It's a topic many of us avoid or deny, and denial is often the hallmark of addiction. Usually everyone else knows before we do.

As in life and with each Tarot card there is both dark and light to be found in it's interpretation. I'm always on the look out when The Devil card appears for the questioner, because they might be dealing with some kind of addiction.

In my case, drawing this card today, is synchronicity at work, as it is my 22nd AA anniversary of being clean and sober, which I am so grateful for each and every sober day. I don't look for congratulatory comments. I once heard it said by a fellow long time recovering friend say, that giving an alcoholic a congratulatory medal is like giving a cowboy who has hemorrhoids, a medal for not getting back on his horse. I thought that was pretty funny, but I think he was right. Of course, I do acknowledge my sobriety, and have many medallions. I share my struggle with addiction, because  it may give someone else hope.

Addiction involves all kinds of "isms" and I still have a few. There is always lots of talk and controversy about when addiction begins, or if it is curable etc. To me that all just doesn't matter to me, because I understand my addiction, I know I'm an addict, and I know what I needed to do to get better, and what I need to continue to do to maintain contented sobriety.

 The best explanation of addiction I have ever heard came from Dr. Carl Jung. He called it "Spiritus contra spiritum" which is Latin  meaning,  "Spiritus" in Latin means both "alcohol" and "religious experience," while "contra" means "against." Carl Jung wrote this phrase to one of the founders, Bill W. of Alcoholics Anonymous and Jung described it as being,  "Attempting to fill a spiritual void with a material reality", is Jung's definition of addiction. Bill W. and Dr Bob felt that is was Dr. Carl Jung who enabled them to lay the foundation for the 12 Steps.

My desire for the drink or substances has gone, thank God, and I thank God for the 12 Step fellowship, that is second to none.

The Devil Meets The Wolf Woman

This morning I drew The Devil card. I have come to think of, and respond differently to this card. I no longer have the left over religious hang-up and misconception about this mythic figure. Though fortunately I never grew up with the so called "fear of the devil". I am not saying I don't believe there are spiritual dark forces  that can enter our lives in the form of bondage, but these don't have to control us, with a faith in the God of our understanding, a Higher Power, or a greater good in the Universe that is stronger than dark forces..

This card embodies the Greek Mythic god Pan. The impish trickster, rather like a misbehaving youth. He symbolizes the state of being wild, fertile, untamed, half man and half goat. He is not evil, dwells in a cave, and in a inaccessible realm of the unconscious.

I think Pan has much in common with the Wolf Woman, La Loba, the Wild Woman, half woman and half wolf, as she too is very much a wild one, untamed in nature, and in the natural state. She dwells in a den living by instinct and intuition.

On the eve of Summer Solstice is it fitting that I think of Wolf Woman.

The Devil - In The Details

We got off pretty darn good compared to others in the Maritimes, after the great big snow dump yesterday. Some folks got 100cm in a week.
Oh boy, seemed if there was anything that could go wrong this morning, is sure had a good kick at the can. Feeling good now that things worked out, and my good neighbour came, and plowed my driveway. After I shoveled, got myself dug out, and after jumping through a number of hoops, I finally got something to eat around 1:30 p.m. I made myself some bacon and eggs with homemade biscuits and piping hot coffee.  Ahhh what comfort. If you can't take good care of yourself who will?

So I ask, why does all this crap happen? Like Harold Kushner's book, I also ask the question, Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People? Is it the devil? Does God not like me? I don't believe in the Devil the way he is often depicted and thought of traditionally in our Western culture. The Devil nor God have nothing to do with these events. I don't have any pat answers, but you know, life is difficult enough without the darn Devil added to the mix, or blaming God. The Devil is in the details of life and is my monkey brain. . These details can either drive us down into the pit, or make us stronger. Focusing on the positive and being grateful for the simple things brings happiness and lightens our burden.

 I try real hard to remain the eternal optimistic. I have faith in my Creator and in myself. I manage to get through the storms and other irritations of life. Don't get me wrong it isn't easy. Life is not easy. But it is easier accepting life on life's terms, rather than being burdened with a big messy living problem, not having faith..

Often when this card comes up in a reading, people get jittery, full of dread and fear. It is a card about bondage to people, places, and things, that we allow ourselves to be controlled by. If we have hit a bottom and we are sick from these things controlling our lives, mentally, physically, or spiritually, we can choose to reach out for help or we can choose to try and fix the problem using our own willpower. Sometimes this works, some times not, depending on the kind bondage we are in.

Take the disease of alcoholism. Willpower just doesn't work in this situation, nor with any other kind of disease, in thinking that if we simply exercise our willpower, we will be able to overcome our affliction. Try willpower next time you have diarrhea. Good luck with that.

How To Take Control of Your Red Shoes - The Devil

I don't believe I've ever drawn the Devil card in my daily draw. This card represents the passionate side of the individual, from which we can experience growth if we recognize and accept this aspect of ourselves. Pan also plays the truth on his pipe, and the scene takes place in the depths of the unseen unconscious. The dancing figures represent the fears we have in facing the truth, and how we can often lie to ourselves.

What we think we want, is often not what will truly bring happiness, and we become addicted to what is outside of ourselves, trying to fill that hole in the soul,  instead of finding happiness, and fulfillment from within.

This card reminds me of Hans Christian Andersen's story, about the Red Shoes.
The young girl becomes completely enamored and then obsessed by her red shoes which causes her to continually dance, and this leads to dreadful torment, and suffering.

The Red Shoes - Catherine Meyers

The Devil - Bondage

When the Devil card comes up in Tarot readings people generally get into an state of anxiety. I could be the same if I didn't know better, and besides I've been experiencing enough anxiety the past few days, without heaping more upon myself.

 There are positive and negative aspects of this card. I understand the negative very well, as a person in recovery and a member of a 12 step program for over 20 years. The positive is that I became honest, open minded, and willing enough to accept my shadow self and I have been recovering ever since.

Pan is the great god represented here, once worshiped by the Greeks, as the Great All. He roams and haunts the woods and pastures of Arcadia. His nature is characterized as being wild, fertile and untamed.
In Greek myth, Pan was not considered evil, but simply being in his natural state, untamed, and amoral.

Not surprisingly his name is derived from the word 'panic' and he likes to give folks sudden frights. Whenever this card comes up in readings I do, though it seldom does, the thought that comes immediately to mind, is one who is in some kind of inner bondage.


As human beings, we are all aware of our shadow self. The saying. " we are only as sick as our secrets" is very true. It takes humility and honesty to face the truth, to confront our shadow side, and the most shameful parts of ourselves, and to look into the face of Pan, in acceptance. The acceptance that Pan is merely natural not evil, enables us to release our creative power when we face our own darkness.

 If Pan does not face his shameful secrets, he will only exhibit a sense of superiority, projecting the worst of his character on to others,  manifested in the form of prejudice, bigotry, discrimination and persecution toward others, whom he considers 'evil.'