The Gardener: A Business Vision (or, "Your Ideal Day")

In the Gaian Tarot Circle, we’ve been studying one Gaian Major Arcana card a month. This month’s card is the Gardener (aka the Empress).  Even though I created this card a few years back and know it intimately, I’m finding it has new and timely messages for me. A couple of nights ago, a group of us from the GTC had a conversation about the Gardener card on a teleseminar call. 

 

The key insight that emerged for me during the call is that the Gardener card is my exact model for how I want my business to be.  There's clearly been an enormous amount of work done — look Ma, no weeds! — but the Gardener has co-created with the nature spirits and with Mama Gaia Herself to create a lush, fertile, abundant garden.  And . . . she is relaxed, happy, healthy, and enjoying the "fruits of her labors"!  And she is pregnant with her next project . . .

I’m a Capricorn and a triple earth-sign to boot, so I have a tendency towards overwork and work-aholism.  Sometimes I feel guilty for taking an entire weekend off.  (I know, I know . . .)  So I’m very excited to have this card as a model for how I want my business to be.  Abundant, prolific, lots of hard work done . . . and I’m taking time to relax and enjoy it all.  Oh yeah!

There’s nothing more powerful than a clear vision of how you want your life and your business to be.  If you don’t know where you’re going, how can you possibly get there?

Many moons ago — well, back in the early 80’s — I read a book that had an enormous impact on my life.  That book was Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want by Barbara Sher. I still have my original copy with all my notes scribbled in the margins. I don’t think I did all the exercises in the book, but the one I did do (more than once) is the “Ideal Day” exercise. This was incredibly powerful for me, because it allowed me to dream about what I really wanted for my life.  Back in the early 80’s the highlights of my “Ideal Day” were: 

• Living in a beautiful home surrounded by trees and water
• Working from home
• Being a full-time “artist / teacher / writer / healer” (copied that directly from my scribbles in the margin of page 66!) 
• Being in a loving partnership
• Being part of a community of like-minded people

I wrote that first “ideal day scenario” in the early 80’s and about ten years later, everything on the list was present in my life. Things have shape-shifted since then, but those elements are still present in my life, and in much more satisfying ways than they were in the beginning. 

Today, I don’t think it would take me ten years to get there, because I know so much more about manifesting my dreams than I did in the early 80’s. Manifestation is partly mindset/spiritual practice and partly hands-on, practical know-how. 

Why don’t you write your own “Ideal Day” scenario?  Grab a copy of Wishcraft, or just follow a few simple steps:

1. Write in the first person.
2. Allow yourself to dream big — don’t censor yourself!
3. Begin with waking in the morning until you go to bed at night.
4. Describe a typical, ideal day in the life you want to have.
5. Where do you live?  What do you eat?  Who lives with you, if anyone?
6. What activities do you do throughout the day?
7. What sort of work do you do, and where do you do it?
8. What about leisure pursuits and spiritual practice?
9. What people are in your life?
10. Look in the mirror; what do you see? (Hint: radiant health!)
11. Engage all five senses: what do you see, smell, hear, touch, taste, throughout the day?  Describe them in vivid detail.

I’d love to hear your comments about this exercise, and what comes up for you when you do it.  

Blessed be.

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Comments

[Julie]

I have this book as well ... bought it in 1996. I love the Ideal Day exercise and highly recommend the information on Barn-Raising as well. We can make dreams come true (amazingly fast) when we work together!

[joanna]

Thanks Julie. So glad the ideas in the book worked for you too. Blessings!

[Lunaea]

Wishcraft is one of my core books. I do the Ideal Day exercise every year on my birthday. I make a ritual of it, going somewhere away from my house, taking special paper and a stamped envelope with me. I write it all down, then seal it up, address it to myself, and drop it in a mailbox. When it arrives a day or two later, I tuck it away unopened in my altar drawer. On some birthdays I read the one from last year to see how much has manifested. It can lead to powerful realizations!

[joanna]

Lovely ritual, Lunaea!

[Carey]

This is really terrific! Magic with a Pen! I've heard of this book, and have now ordered it from the library. I love Lunaea's ritual. My birthday happens to be in a week hmmmm. I am glad you posted this Joanna right now, Sun in Virgo with the Magic of Making Things Happen afoot!

[joanna]

Excellent, Carey! and Happy Birthday!