Gaian Tarot Artist's Journal

Nine of Fire (Wands) - Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

What do we most need to know for the coming week?

Nine of Fire

I’ve been away for a few days in the Santa Cruz mountains of California, enjoying some sister-time and some glorious sunshine.  It was a much-needed break from my daily routine as well as my ongoing house drama.  Now that I’m back, I’m looking ahead to three and a half weeks of intense work for clients as well as preparing to vend at the Readers Studio.  So I’ll be busy every moment with work, plus we are still engaged in the housing process as well.

So I wasn’t too surprised to turn up the Nine of Fire for the week to come.  I see this card as an admonition to make sure that I make time for spiritual practice during an extremely busy time.  I am also enjoying the solitude of being at home with my guy again, with lots of quiet time to surround me and nourish me after a few intense social days.  “Because of his spiritual practice, he is able to handle anything that comes his way with peace and equanimity,” I wrote about this card.  

I am looking forward to approaching the coming week with peace and equanimity.  How about you, dear reader?

Gaia, the World - Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

What do we most need to know for the coming week?

Gaia, the World

Yet another encouraging, hope-filled card for discouraging times!

It is also the third Major Arcana card I’ve pulled out of seven since I began this Card of the Week feature, a fairly high percentage. If the Majors truly represent our soul challenges, I can see how the lessons of Bindweed, the Canoe and the World are an accurate reflection of my own life right now, as well as that of the larger community.

Last night as I shuffled my deck, I looked ahead to the week to come. I was thinking mainly about my upcoming journey to the Santa Cruz mountains toward the end of the week.  I am headed there for my naming ceremony with the Sisterhood of the Silver Branch, and I am expecting an initiation into the next phase of my life, a phase of renewal.  At least that is what I am sensing. 

But my journey to the Boulder Creek / Felton / Ben Lomond area is also a “coming home” of sorts. I fell in love with that redwood-filled valley as a teenager and vowed to live there some day.  I never pulled that dream off, but as a young wife and mother living in the East Bay, I often took my boys camping at Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  I remember one camping trip in particular, when each night after dinner the four of us would gather round the fire and I would read aloud from the just-published “Mists of Avalon.”  What a magical setting in which to read such a magical book. I had just come out of a toxic decade in a fundamentalist church and was floundering for a new spiritual direction.  That book in that setting led me to the path I have walked ever since. 

The Canoe (Chariot): Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

What do we most need to know for the coming week?

The Canoe (the Chariot)

My heart just opened up like a flower when I pulled this card last night. It seemed like such a direct message from Spirit. Not only is it my Soul Card, but it always seems to appear when I am feeling the weakest and the most uncertain about what’s going on in my life.  Not only does it give me the sense that I am encompassed by the Grace, but it also carries a bracing message of “Buck up! Get on with it! You know exactly what to do!  Keep steady on your path — keep on paddling — look neither to the left nor the right. Keep moving!  Stay focused!  Exercise discipline!  Get on with it!”

Yesterday morning I made an affirmation/vision board that was so earth-centered it made my head spin when it was done. It was quite an ah-ha moment for me. All of my current goals have to do with “earthy” things like health, home and finances — all those things the suit of Pentacles represents.  Here I am, a triple Earth sign, who ought to be good at all those things and instead I’m still struggling. 

It did occur to me to ask what the gift of my current struggles with housing, money and health might be.  To imagine how to reframe the situation as being in “the right place at the right time.” (Thank you, Kendra Thornbury.) If indeed I am in the right place at the right time, what then is the gift of this uncertain time?  Well, I am finding within myself the determination to build my businesses and bring in a higher level of income; the determination to ramp up my “health” plan; and gratitude for the closeness between Craig and me in spite of (or because of) our housing uncertainties.  There’s more, but that’s the core of it.

And so, the Canoe appeared after the creation of my vision board, as if to say:  OK!  You’ve set the vision.  Now get on with it!  And success will be yours.

What does the Canoe/Chariot say to you, dear Readers?

Explorer of Air (Knight of Swords): Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

What do we most need to know for the coming week?

Explorer of Air (Knight of Swords)

This card reminds me of the saying “You can’t see the forest for the trees.”  In this case, it’s a matter of getting your head above the tree line to see the big picture and get a new perspective. 

Yes, I’ve been focused on many details lately.  Details in bookkeeping and taxes, details of Wordpress coding, details of looking at this or that house online and imagining what it would be like to live there.  This week I need to pull back and think about my larger life plan.  Where do the details I’m so focused on fit into the greater scheme of things?  It may be time to reflect on long term goals I’ve set for myself and see if they might be getting lost in all the details of daily life.

I’m also charmed to see all the birds in this image, in this season of Spring Awakening (although this morning, we have an inch or two of snow on the ground and the birds are quite silenced).  Listening to the birds begin the dawn chorus, or to the Steller’s jays squawking loudly at mid-day as they’ve been doing quite recently, lifts my spirits in a special way. The emerging birds are not only harbingers of the coming of Spring, but also of the renewal of our bodies and spirits.

Come, dear birds!  Come, beloved Spring!  We will lift our heads above the forest and get a glimpse of the landscape the way the winged ones see it.  May it be so.

And what does this image say to you, dear Readers?

Guardian of Water (Queen of Cups): Gaian Tarot Card of the Week

Hmmm . . . two Guardians (or Queens) two weeks in a row.  Don't you love it when patterns start to emerge?

For me, the Guardians represent a time in your life (either literally or metaphorically) when you are at midlfe, and are actively involved in your community.  You are a master of your chosen field, and you "guard" or protect the qualities and issues symbolized by the chosen suit or element.  In a life cycle, the Guardians represent the quality of fruition, which corresponds to a full or disseminating moon.

Last week the Guardian of Earth helped us to get grounded.  This week the Guardian of Water invites us to open our hearts to our dreams and visions, to compassion and to deep love.  "Pour it out for me," goes her siren song.   These are Kwan Yin's waters of mercy, poured out upon a troubled world.

This is one of my favorite images, at least in part because She represents the Ocean Mother to me.  She is that epiphany of the Goddess to whom I am most bonded.  And so, this week, I will listen for her voice in my dreams, in my intuitive hunches, in the cards, and in the sound of the waves lapping on the shore.

And what about you, dear Reader?  What does She say to you?