Rich Git

Daily Draw: Universal Fantasy Tarot ~ 5 of Coins

Romney.

I'm reminded by this card there truly are people who don't have a clue what it's like just to struggle day to day. How convoluted it is to access the safety net, and how small that net is and how easy it is to miss it entirely.

"I'm not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there." ~ Mitt Romney (January 2012)

Poison Fruit

Daily Draw: Universal Fantasy Tarot ~ 8 of Coins

What kind of fruit are you nurturing?

I'm reminded by this card nurturing poison fruit is actually easier than the worthwhile, the uplifting, the useful. I know this because I've been there and it was a long road back.

"She nourished the poison in her veins and was consumed by a secret fire." ~ Virgil 70 BC - 19 AD

She nourishes the poison in her veins and is consumed by a secret fire

What If I Gave A Party

Daily Draw: Universal Fantasy Tarot ~ 9 of Cups

What if I gave a party, loaded the table, and no one came? That happened to me once, I invited eighteen in-laws to Easter dinner and one came. He has always had a good appetite, but even he couldn't make much of a dent in all that food.

• I'm reminded by this card I learned several lessons that day. Number one was what to expect from my in-laws, good people though they all are. 
• It was foolish of me to just assume they were all coming simply because they'd been invited. I should have checked. 
• Lots of recipes for leftover turkey that have served me well for forty years, and that as tasty as it is you can get tired of ham.
• And the kind of sad underlying lesson is I've said ever since I don't want a funeral service. Because in my imagination, nobody comes. 

Turns out Load Table is computereze...but it still applies, as science generally does.

• It is important to note that if column statistics exist when a LOAD TABLE is performed on a column, statistics for the column are not recalculated. Instead, statistics for the new data is inserted into the existing statistics. This means that if the existing column statistics are out-of-date, they will still be out of date after loading new data into the column. If you suspect that the column statistics are out of date, you should consider updating them either before, or after, executing the LOAD TABLE statement

Free Fall

Daily Draw: Universal Fantasy Tarot ~ High Priestess

I drew this card for a friend yesterday in the Don't Do position. At first glance her seating assembly looks like a chariot, but no, it's her and all her hidden knowledge, suspended high above earth, in a seat whose only ingress and egress is down. And out. Free falling.

I'm reminded by this card that feeling is why we hold our own council and continue on with old stifling traditions when our feelings or interests or even basic beliefs have changed. We go into free fall until we accept the change. In truth, the knowledge the High Priestess doesn't possess is fear of change is the stumbling block, the fall isn't nearly as far or hard as we preconceive it.

"The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, but by preconceived opinion". ~ Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860

Yet None Say Nay

Daily Draw: Universal Fantasy Tarot ~ Hierophant

The term hierophant comes from the ancient Greek, one who interprets sacred mysteries. I will admit to having a bee in my bonnet this year about crushing dogma, men who abuse their station, men who lie and lie and lie to power their station. Paolo Martinello's artwork in this deck speaks of the things I'm so inept at voicing, ancient habits and standards come calcified by time until the pseudo myth runs the machine and none say nay.

I'm reminded by the three women in this card and the coup sticks on the throne these men aren't and weren't living in a vacuum, at some point the inhabitants of the world need to quit slinking, freezing, and folding, and try sipping the spirit of the Amazons. It. Doesn't. Have. To. Be. This. Way.

"We have to free half of the human race, the women, so that they can help to free the other half." ~ Emmeline Pankhurst 1858-1928

Cryin' Shame

Daily Draw: Universal Fantasy Tarot ~ Magician

No staid doddering inflexible Magi here, we have Power and Fire and Passion and abiding interest in the subject. How many of us live days that run one into the other, without definition or color,  there is no fire, no interest in the thing we spend the bulk of our waking hours doing? What a cryin' shame.

This card makes me smile because I spring from bed each day eager for the next thing, even the thing I did yesterday and the day before because they are touched by my passions. I work hard at not overwhelming my life, but savoring it, and in order to do that I pick what to keep and choose what to leave behind. I couldn't do it all and do any of it well.

"Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still." ~ Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862

Out Of My Head

Daily Draw: Universal Fantasy Tarot ~ Knight of Wands

I draw Knights far more than the other courts, and for 2012 this is only the 6th court I've drawn, all Wands and Coins. 2011 I drew Pages 10 times, Kings 11 times, Queens 11 times, and Knights 20 times.

From that dry information there isn't much to deduce, my records from the start of tracking my court draws would probably reveal much. In the three years I took care of my father-in-law I drew the Kings over and over. Back to the Knights, I'm reminded by this handsome brute Knight of Wands is the encourager, the seeker, the one who is fired by thoughts and ideas into doing something. A good friend and mentor, who gets me off my duff, out of my head, and on to action with infectious enthusiasm.

"Enthusiasm, the sustaining power of all action." ~ Samuel Smiles 1812-1904

The deck this week is Universal Fantasy Tarot whose incredible artwork is by Paolo Martinello. Published 2006 by Lo Scarabeo, distributed by Lewellyn Worldwide in the U.S.; last used on Quirkeries in 2007 and 2010. 

Truth Walking

Daily Draw: Sacred Path Cards ~ Arrow

This card would have us walking our truth or realizing we don't know our own truth. Owning our mistakes and respecting other's truths.

My cards are a simple little example. I choose to have them openly displayed in my home in three different rooms. I wear tarot earrings. At any opportunity I mention I use the cards in hopes of meeting a fellow user. Even after all these years, no joy. I blog here daily under my real name. I speak and walk my truth about the cards. That isn't the path other might or do choose, and their reasons are just as valid as mine.

"Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking." ~ Antonio Machado 1875-1939

Living Euthanasia

Daily Draw: Sacred Path Cards ~ Peyote Ceremony

Jamie Sams indicates the sacred harvesting, preparing, and ceremony of peyote or mescaline began in the 1880's and  allowed native Americans, who had been systematically robbed of everything, the knowledge that their souls could never be stripped from them. The peyote ceremony allows them to see the 'crack in the world'.

This is a difficult card, and difficulty is one of the things peyote is supposed to allow the users to deal with. I am not tempted to try it in order to 'get' what has essentially robbed my little brother of any real life potential other than taking up space. I'll grant the idea there may be someone somewhere that can use a drug in a sacred manner on their own terms...but it's a difficult thing to swallow. I can only perceive it as a living euthanasia.

"For if one always saw like this, one would never want to do anything else. How could one reconcile this timeless bliss of seeing as one ought to see with the temporal duties of doing what one ought to do and feeling as one ought to feel?' ~ Aldous Huxley 1894-1963 of two massive doses of LSD administered by his wife, euthanasia rather than terminal laryngeal cancer. 

Doing

Daily Draw: Sacred Path Oracle ~ Drum

The drum asks us to examine our own body to ascertain if we are moving and living to a natural rhythm or underutilizing or forcing ourselves into a physical lifestyle that neither aids nor enhances. Do we say "I'm trying to get fit", or "I'm trying to lose some weight" or "I'm trying to drink more water"? Or are we doing these things.

I'm reminded by this card trying and doing are worlds apart, and who are we fooling while we try...no one, our body and lifestyle and our actions show our intent.

"A fool is like the big drum that beats fast but does not realize its hollowness" Malayan proverb

Surprise Me, Go Ahead, Make My Day

Daily Draw: Sacred Path Cards ~ North Shield

Another cardinal direction. For me North has taken on the coloring of tarot's sword suit. Deep experience, old experience, wisdom gained from trying to walk the walk, falling, and walking again. And gratitude for those lessons from which we'd rather turn and flee.

Yesterday I got up with an enormous burden hanging over me, and not a clue. Mid-day, it came to me like a bolt out of the blue how to fix it by sacrificing something of my own. I wept for joy I had something to sacrifice, and why hadn't I thought of it earlier, weeks eariler? Two hours later I got a call that the burden had disappeared. Like pure magic it had been lifted, never to be considered again. Had I been walking head down in a funk, unobserving and ungrateful and life happened anyway, or did gratitude for what I could offer bring the gift of release, to everyone concerned? I choose to think gratitude=magic...I'm still dumbfounded.

"The capacity of man is only revealed when, under stress and responsibility he breaks through his shell, and he may then be a splendid surprise to himself." ~ Harvey Cushing 1869-1939

Wheels Within Wheels

Daily Draw: Sacred Path Oracle ~ Medicine Wheel

Year Wheel, Spirit Wheel, Sacred Hoop, Medicine Wheel, all the same and all very different. Same in that each begins with the compass points, aids in something, and has deep meaning; different in focus of personal or group use. But this is the basic stone wheel, 4 points, 2 or 3 stones between each point, and the cross stones or roads on the inside.

This card just happens to come up on the day I'm assembling all my thoughts, materials, and  notes re: my own Wheel; that's what the cards do. I read back through my last ten posts yesterday and it made the hair rise on my neck they were so pertinent to what is going on in my life. Do I make the cards, or do the cards make me?

It was prettily devised of Aesop, 'The fly sat upon the axle-tree of the chariot wheel and said, "What a dust do I raise" '. ~ Francis Bacon Sr. 1561-1626

Permanent Personal Cloak

Daily Draw: Sacred Path Cards ~ West Shield

For Jamie Sams west, dusk and night, is the color black and is signified by the bear cave which equals the womb we come from and that place we hibernate to process thoughts and feelings, and where all our tomorrows take seed.

I'm reminded by this card I'm painting my own Wheel this year as part of a year long project which has me thinking of the compass points and how they relate to Here and Me. I've come to think designing a Wheel is a bit like designing a permanent personal cloak. It is hard not to take into consideration current trends and historical fashions and remain true to whatever is at the heart of my Wheel.

"Don't reinvent the wheel, just realign it." ~ Anthony J. D'Angelo 1972-

Fear? Or Joy?

Daily Draw: Sacred Path Cards ~ Cradleboard

My ability to respond in some areas of my life is pinched. The workbook says I should be able to respond to whatever is new in my life with joy. I could take that as the new yearbook I'll start with the Vernal Equinox, or cancer. It says I should ask questions without shame to help others rid themselves of guilt...do I really dare ask my aunties about grandpa? Would anyone's life be better at this late late date?

I'm reminded by this card the invisible cradleboard we inhabit will offer support when life gives us jerk. Missteps and wrong doors don't require us to fall or go through, only think before that first step, and then whatever happens approach it with joy. If we can do this exercise for five minutes, we can do it for a day. For a day, we can do it for...

"Our thinking and our behavior are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based." ~ Deepak Chopra 1947-

My deck this week is the Sacred Path, 44 card artwork by Linda Childers, hardback 325 page companion book and soft cover 285 page workbook by Jamie Sams, Harper Collins 1990.

Moving Targets

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Ancestor of Boundaries

I'm guessing most of my boundaries come from being in trouble. Went too far, got my butt chewed or found out something I didn't want to know, or hurt someone. 

I'm reminded by this card which faces the past, one of the key central behaviors that help us get through life in one piece is recognizing a boundary. Boundaries are a moving target in a healthy life because we grow and change, my boundaries today are probably about 90% smaller than the enormous fortress I used to have around me. This is better. Healthier, more fun, and not having to keep my guard up all the time saves a lot of energy.

"This is one of the major questions of our lives; how we keep boundaries, what permission we have to cross boundaries, and how we do so." ~ Abraham B. Yehoshua 1936-

Hunter of Gifts

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Hunter of Gifts

It was sunny and warm at Ocean Shores yesterday.
I had the most tasty fish for lunch.
How hard the clerk at the seafood store laughed when I asked her if the saltwater taffy was made in China.
Staff who remembered my mother and her issues.
Puppy mill dogs on their very best behavior, always knocks my socks off.
A full 24 hours with my Rob.
Memories softened by time, driving through my old home town.
Remembered to get fishing line for my Power Sticks
Remembering that I remembered something...
Laughter over learning to use our debit cards for the first time.
The use 12 times a month which in turn earns us 2.25 compounded interest on our savings. Try beating that anywhere.

I'm reminded by this card every day is full of gifts. I kept a gratitude journal for a number of years, it changed how I viewed life. Every day is better when we are appreciative for the gifts that sift through us and to us from all directions. We don't even have to hunt for them, they fall into our laps, nay they leap into our lives, if we but notice.

"Each day provides it's own gifts." ~ Marcus Aurelius AD 121-180

Elephant in the Room

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Spirit of Challenge

Have you heard the term 'there is an elephant in the room'? It means there is something going on or not going on that everyone involved either refuses to see or can't see, comes to the same thing. The elephant takes the proportions of a complete roadblock to anything else beyond it.

I'm reminded by this card the book I'm reading this week has given me two new exciting interesting valuable tools for cutting down my own elephant. I can see the elephant, I've been prying at it for a year. It is no longer black blocking out the sun... but it's still too big to kick to the curb. I have great hopes for a leap forward this month.

"To be angry or fearful is one thing. To let it grab you by the tail and swing you around is another." ~ Katherine Paterson 1932-

Dancer of Unfrustration

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Dancer of Frustration

It's funny how we end up where we should be when we are ready to be there. I read a phrase yesterday from Stephen Leacock, "He jumped on his horse and rode off in all directions." That's been me, more galloping madly and going no where at all.

I'm reminded by this card my internal compass has kicked in and I feel like I have a direction once again. It is a marvelous feeling to be the Dancer of Unfrustration, for however long it lasts.

"When life demands more of people than they demand of life, what results is a resentment of life almost as deep seated as the fear of death." ~ Tom Robbins 1936-

Exile, Limbo or Life?

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Ancestor of Exile

I've often wondered what I'd do in the exile's place. Cling to my own kind, shop my own kind, avoid learning the native voice and culture?

I'm reminded by the world this must be the first choice of human nature, why else the American enclaves, Little Italys, Chinatowns? I'd like to think I'd seek out and thrive in the real world rather than live in a weird limbo in an artificial one. All that I am is within me and can't be taken, all that I could be is without, there for the exploring and assimilating. In many ways I've been an exile most of my life.

"Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance." ~ Richard von Weizsaecker 1920-

Loss and New Paths

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Shaman of Loss

From the companion book: The Shaman of Loss helps us to understand why some things must pass away, why we sometimes lose our path, and why at times all sources of nourishment seem to dry up.

I've been struggling with this for some months, Rob wants to retire and everything from my viewpoint is colored with cancer. Yesterday's card helped me glean a small light that may show the path to becoming wind in the sails of change rather than drag chain and anchor.  As always, when we can begin to imagine the whole we can begin to make a path through change and loss.

"Loss is nothing else but change, and change is nature's delight." Marcus Aurelius AD 121-180

Clock and Compass

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Shaman of Song

One thing we have in common with the civilizations that have gone before us is the song of nature. Ocean waves and creek riffles, wind across the grasses, rain on the tree canopy.

I'm reminded by this card how very little has changed across the eons. Take away electricity and we'd still be the proverbial grasshoppers and ants and daily priorities become simple once again. We'd be guided by our internal clock and compass...think of the peace of it.

"We do not have a money problem, we have a values and priorities problem." ~ Marian Wright Edleman 1939-

From the mind and pen of John Matthews and paint brush of Wil Kinghan my deck this week is the Shaman's Oracle, Watkins Publishing, London England 2010. Beautifully slip cased with hardcover 88 page book and 52 cards based on ancient cave art. Five suits of ten cards each: Spirits, Ancestors, Dancers, Hunters, Shamans; plus the two Journeyer and Companion cards.
John and Wil have a new deck/book set coming out shortly, The Lost Tarot of Nostradamus.

Safe House

Daily Draw: Minchiate ~ 5 Swords

5's are evolution and the power of change. When sitting in the middle of something it is hard to discern any change, but step away for a few weeks and change can be seen everywhere when you return.

I'm reminded by this card I had to put one of my little hens down yesterday, that leaves just three from the original ten. The reader boards at Del's and Tractor Supply are saying Chicks Coming! so it must spring when change seems to come over the land hourly. Do you suppose this little building with the pretendy dog is a safe house for chickens? Something that might have been common in the 1700's? Things change...

"The reason why the universe is eternal is that it does not live for itself; it gives life to others as it transforms". ~ Lao Tzu 600 BC - 531 BC

Long Term

Daily Draw: Minchiate ~ Air

One of the four Minchiate Elemental cards, Air. We know when we have an Air sign in front of us. Regardless of their astrological birth sign, when in Air mode we are somehow beyond the normal gravitational pull of 'real life'.  The absentminded professor doesn't remember to show up at the wedding, the artist forgets to eat, the ascetic hasn't a clue to date and time.

I'm reminded by this card I, a humble Scorpio, have been there, just as you have. It is an amazing experience or feeling to be so full of whatever we are wrapped up in as to be walking on air. I wouldn't want to live there full time though, I don't think the human heart could stand the altitude long term.

"All such actions would cease if those power elemental forces were to stop stirring within us." ~ Albert Einstein 1879-1955

The Case of the One Legged Piper

Daily Draw: Minchiate ~ Judgment

Her feet are what catch my eye, no shoes. She is Way over dressed perspective-wise, plus those big wings, and no shoes. I could say who needs shoes if they have wings, but who needs clothes if they are an angel? Then it could be she only has one leg and couldn't get anyone to sell her just one shoe.

I'm reminded by this card there are a million ways we pass judgement daily, most harmless thinking or observing, and all to the good as far as keeping our brain active. Far better in my book than being oblivious to our surroundings.

"There must be a happy medium somewhere between being totally informed and blissfully unaware." ~ Doug Larson 1902-1981

Knightly Knight

Daily Draw: Minchiate ~ Aries

The knightyist of the knights, the tilter at windmills, the bravely goes where no Aries has gone before.

I'm reminded by this card, without our Aries companions, we'd still be huddled over a smokey campfire in a cave. To go forward someone must stand up on their hind legs and get the ball rolling.

"We are no long the knights who say ni! We are now the knights who say ekki-ekki-ekki-pitantg." ~ Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1974

Thar She Blows

Daily Draw: Minchiate ~ Water

Hey, an Elemental card turns up! Fairly choppy water, a ship that could be commercial, military, privateer, pirate; ahead lies smoother water and a distant ship. And a 'Thar she blows' in the lower right. Given the time this was set in the rainbow flag gave me a smile...

The Minchiate era would put this ship dead center in whaling, the slave trade and the exodus from Europe to North America with return hauls of lumber and cotton. It would have been at the pinnacle of shipbuilding trade, little would they know the end was in sight with the coming motorized steel behemoths.  I'm reminded by this card of the one time I was on a wind powered vessel, the incredibly peaceful silence, broken only by the creak of vessel and rope. Lovely. And my dad's perpetual promise, "when my ship comes in, we'll..."

"For the truth is that I already know my fate. The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze." ~ Richard Bode, First You Have to Row a Little Boat

Gimme A Little Sugar, Honey

Daily Draw: Minchiate ~ Sun

I'm trying to think of a nice spin to put on this card...lovely day, a little canoodling in a sylvan glen...

But I see that house of government in the background and all I can think of is the men who would be president. Who think a woman that uses contraception is a slut yet have revolving doors on their own bedrooms. Insurance whobe's who ok Viraga being paid for by insurance, but not contraceptive pills. It's still the same Sun, still the same bigoted narrow minded men who want it all, but not for her.
This is a beautiful deck, but it's era pushes all my buttons...because nothing has changed.

"If I am to be a chauvinist pig, I want to be the number one pig." ~ Bobby Riggs 1918-1995

Do The Right Thing

Daily Draw: Minchiate ~ Faith

Have faith. Keep the faith. Faithful. Faithless. Faith was one of the three theological Virtues (along with Hope and Charity) and all seven Virtues were systematically broke into subcategories so no sin was too small to go unnoticed or unpunished. What was deemed virtuous conduct and suitable penitence were major occupations of the time.

Makes me tired just thinking about it. The holier-than-thous pointing fingers, reporting slips, sharing the 'news' with other perfect sinners; we are all the same thee and me, and it must have been a miserable time to live, and to be punished by the rules of old white men.

"No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary." ~ William Occam 1288-1348

Street Cred

Daily Draw: Minchiate ~ Emperor of the East

A new title for the Hierophant in the Minchiate, Emperor of the East but still retaining the ideal of wisdom, combined with truth and common sense leadership.

I wonder if that has any street cred these days? Are admirable qualities admired or even desireable any more? Is the only thing keeping any kind of moral compass in this country the fact that boomers outnumber everyone else? Can't be that, we are the most apathetic generation in history, can't be bothered to vote. Funny old world this, there are parts of it I won't miss at all when I'm gone.

"Braking promises don't upset me. I just think "why did they believe me?" ~ Jack Handey 1949-

Feeding Potential

Daily Draw: Minchiate ~ Aquarius

A number of mythical gods have been associated with Aquarius over time, the jug pouring forth various substances accordingly. The whole of the Nile; beverage to the gods; fire to the people; elixir of life.

I'm reminded by this card I choose to believe nourishment for potential is being offered freely, I'd like to be showered please. Yet the hook of stunted vision*, pruned imagination*, and stagnant mediocrity* is also on offer and apparently the oft chosen gift of Aquarius.

"There is only one thing that can keep growing without nourishment, the human ego." ~ Marshall Lumsden 1922-2010

*recently admired wordsmithing, not mine.

Charity Clarity

Daily Draw: Minchiate ~ Charity

One of the four classic Virtues, Charity. To tell the truth, I'm not sure what defines charity, for me. Is it anything that is tax deductible? Is it charitable thoughts rather than judgmental or gossipy ones? Is it pennies and pounds and rubles to a cause regardless of the cause's intent? 

I'm reminded by this card much of my mind is a muddle which is why I show up here every day, it makes me think. Look for the need, rather than a cause?

"Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity." ~ Albert Camus 1913-1960

edited to add later: Wondering what the Virtue Charity meant in context when these cards were designed I find Charity had more to do with extreme godly devotion and much less to do with sharing bounty.  Bundle priest business was no doubt very good indeed. My first uncharitable thought for the day...