Conception, Completion, or Recognition?

Daily Draw: Shining Tribe Tarot ~ 8 of Coins/Stones

Through our art we express reality and imagination and release.
Others may not recognize it as such, most of us aren't artists.
I have a quilt titled Tsunami, would you know it if you saw it?

I'm reminded by this card to honor other's art, as I do my own. No one can know the effort and feelings that go into something even if the result doesn't hang in a museum. Farmer's produce is art, as is the mason's brickwork and a parent's healthy children. Does it become art in conception, completion, or recognition?

"I was yelling at them to run, but they couldn't hear me." ~ Karin Svaerd, Swedish Woman.

Flaws

Daily Draw: Shining Tribe Tarot ~ Judgement/Awakening

Pollack says this card is about waking up to who and what we are ourselves, where we usually leap straight to harsh judgement mode.

I'm reminded by this card there is a million ways for us to berate ourselves for coming up short. Just for today, how about we concentrate on where we have excelled rather than on our flaws. It is only a short list when we are in blame mode, I expect it is fairly extensive if we open our eyes and apply a little self love.

"The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins." ~ Bob Moawad

Walk On By

Daily Draw: Shining Tribe Tarot ~ 6 of Trees/Wands

A walk through the forest of souls. Is she confident or in crisis?

I'm reminded by this card of the knowledge, skills, people we've known and lost. And of the knowledge, skills, people we've yet to take in. And how sometimes we march right past the obvious for years and then suddenly see and know. Funny creatures, humans...

 "A man's errors are his portals of discovery." ~ James Joyce 1882-1941

Fling Back The Lid

Daily Draw: Shining Tribe Tarot ~ Death

She flings up the lid.

She plucks all the flowers.

She swims in the evening.

She rests in the sunshine. Rachel Pollack, Death

Pollack finished her chemo treatment on the 23rd. I had five weeks of daily radiation treatments. I recognize treatment is key to getting health back, but it doesn't allow the mind time to seek mental healing, you just can't get away from the current reality.

I'm reminded by this card I'm now four years out from breast cancer and two and a half out from lung cancer. It isn't all consuming any more but I'm never far from reminders and fear. One of my dogs has started sniffing  my breath. He has been with us seven years and this is new behavior. My mind goes straight to the studies that have used dogs to sniff out cancer and I can't help but say every time he does it, it makes mind and heart lurch. Death is part of life, but I'm with Pollack, fling back the lid and get living.

Shining Tribe Tarot (revised edition) deck, art and 330 page companion book by Rachel Pollack. Published by Llewellyn Worldwide 2001. The first edition was titled Shining Woman.

The suits are elements: Trees/Wands, Rivers/Cups, Birds/Swords, and Stones/Coins.
The courts have been changed to Vision Cards: Place, Knower, Gift, Speaker. Place enters the suit, Knower understands the suit, Gift is able to use the suit, Speaker shares the suit. A few of the majors have been renamed: Hierophant/Tradition, Wheel/Spiral, Judgment/Awakening, World/Shining Woman.

Planning For Life

Daily Draw: Mandala Astrological Tarot ~ Sun

Bringer of light and life. Which sidetracked my info-junkie mind into ancient earth formations. I could spend all day looking at rocks and geologic sites. On our recent trip the thought struck me there must be geology tours, there are tours for everything else. Eureka! There are one day tours (and longer of course) all over the country. Holy cow, where have I been?

I'm reminded by this sun, in a year's time when we travel again, I may be blind or nearly so. So why make plans? Because the sun gives light and life, and if we don't plan for living, what exactly is it we are planning for?

"Plans are nothing; planning is everything." ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890-1969

One Dimensional

Daily Draw: Mandala Astrological Tarot ~ King of Cups

A.T. Mann sees his King of Cups quite in the negative zone; Ruthless, merciless, consumed by emotions.

I'm reminded by this card, courts in tarot can be tricksey to read. One dimensional in nature and action, which is seldom true of human beings. And like real life they often show up right where we don't want them. They can also be the most interesting cards in the deck because they aren't wide open to intuitive interpretation, and can seldom be bent to fit a wished for scenario. Part of the fun of this hobby.

"I can elect something I love and absorb myself in it." ~ Anaïs Nin 1931-1934

Skimming

Daily Draw: Mandala Astrological Tarot ~ 8 of Wands

Optimism. Perhaps the wind  beneath the wings of the world? More so than money, sex, ego? Or a knack for visionary thinking?

I'm reminded by this card the most common vision of the 8 of Wands shows eight sticks or arrows going up or down with great speed. Skimming. We skim or share bits of knowledge all day, most of it out of mind by the next. To stop and listen or think on a subject draws out the bits we missed or didn't recognize as applicable, as adding to the richness of our life.

"General jackdaw culture, very little more than a collection of charming miscomprehensions, untargeted enthusiasms, and a general habit of skimming." ~ William Bolitho 1890-1930

Emulate

Daily Draw: Mandela Astrological Tarot ~ Page/Princess of Wands

Heart of fire, life of enthusiasm, body of energy.

This card reminds me of two friends, whom I hold as examples to emulate, daily.

"A good example is far better than a moral precept." ~ Dwight L. Moody 1837-1889

Bi-Signed

Daily Draw: Mandala Astrological Tarot ~ 7 of Cups

Moon in Scorpio is me. Well not really, Mercury entered Scorpio during  my birth time, I wonder what an astrologer would think of my feeling of being bi-signed?

I'm reminded by this card there isn't much in life I take seriously because my bogus meter is always on, but I am also willing to listen long enough to form an opinion. That is possibly my salvation. Closed heart, mind, ears, eyes will miss the world entirely.  That would be a real shame.

"If you cannot be open minded, then you do not possess your ideas, your ideas possess you." ~ Bryant McGill 1969-

Getting Serious

Daily Draw: Mandala Astrological Tarot ~ 2 of Coins

A serious attitude toward material security and structure.

I'm reminded by this card being in charge of our own financial future isn't about how much we make, it is knowing how to keep and invest rather than spend. Paying bills is investing in someone else's future.

"Most people have enough money. It's that they don't know how to manage what they have." ~ Mary Hunt 1948-  Debt Proof Living

The Mandala Astrological Tarot, deck and 158 page softcover book by A.T. Mann, published Thorsons 1997. Distinguished by having no humans in the deck and being based on Egyptian temples of the mysteries, within a mandela or consecrated place. The majors are based on elements, planets, and zodiac.

Perception

Daily Draw: Songs F0r The Journey Home ~ 2 of Wands/Flame Songs

Do we have perception and intuition, or is it perception versus intuition? For being something we are born with, even as rudimentary humanoids, we often spend time arguing with intuition and even instinct.

I'm reminded by this card being politically correct has raised our consciousness but also bent our nature, making us loath to speak out on something that is so fundamentally out of true. I am thankful I was born in the land of the free, but I'm dismayed where that freedom has brought us.

"Intuition becomes increasingly valuable in the new information society precisely because there is so much data." ~ John Naisbitt1929-

A Blast Of Light

Daily Draw: Songs For The Journey Home Tarot ~ Tower

What a gorgeous Tower. What a blast of light we get when we finally make a move to clear up something that has been ignored, pounded down, run from.

I'm reminded by this card of procrastination. That task or project we've been putting off as too much to do never takes as long to finish as we've built it up in our mind. Big life changes, although knocking us for a loop, also minute by minute, day by day smooth out and work out. It's that first step...

"Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin. Once the battle is startled, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance.” ~ Robert Collier 1885-1950

Pig's Ear

Daily Draw: Songs For The Journey Home Tarot ~ 2 of Swords/Wave Songs

We've caught hold of an idea from the Ace, and yesterdays card and here we are, combining our knowledge and logic with perception and instinct. Is it time to go forward? Or is this a plan that needs to bake awhile, or let it go, let the fragments fly loose in the wind?

An idea came to me this week. Rob will be in Australia and New Zealand for a month...saayyy...what if I had a...Neck Lift while he was gone! My uber practical side laughed at the loon side. But I'm reminded by this card the loon side is sitting here tapping it's nails on the desk, looking at the ceiling and whistling softly. Oh dear...

Later that day: Loon loses. For now. But if I ever fall on a pile of money...

 "As the report notes, the old adage "you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear" had been used for years to discourage inventiveness and enterprise. "We resolved...to prove that it was false, and we have done so. We have made a silk purse of a sow's ear." MIT Institute Archives & Special Collections

Mojo

Daily Draw: Songs For The Journey Home Tarot ~ 10 of Wands/Flame Songs

We've been inspired, we've tore through our project or task..and then we lost our mojo.

Unfinished projects are a mental millstone. I'm reminded by this window to revisit the original idea; review the things that excited the imagination in the first place. And by the reading going on to refocus, identify where and why the energy left and lethargy set in.

"Lethargy breeds lethargy. The more you do nothing, the more you want to lie around doing nothing. Your limbs and mind feel so heavy it becomes a major effort just to lift your arm to channel surf." ~ Neal Shusterman 1962-  Dread Locks

Budgie Alert

Daily Draw: Songs For the Journey Home Tarot ~ 9 of Swords/Wind Songs

Do you suppose this is the 9 of Swords equivalent of the budgie down a mine? A budgie who could alert someone for help when desperate times were upon me?

I'm reminded by this card of how many ways I've thought up to commit suicide. I think it is/was a info-junkie exercise when everything was black, certainly wasn't something I planned on doing even then. Just the funny way my mind works, haven't we all made a list of the things we'd do with a $$ windfall? Suicide is just another list...

Regrets?

Daily Draw: Songs For The Journey Home ~ 5 of Cups/Wave Songs

How many life actions do we regret in leisure?
How many ways are there to regret doing something?
We  can replay them endlessly in our mind.
We can make a radical change in our habits.
We can learn from our mistakes.
We can doom ourselves by repeating, repeating, and repeating again.

I'm reminded by this card the things I regret doing are far far behind me. My brain kicked in somewhere in my 30's, and my 40's and 50's were too busy to get up to much mischief. Now that I'm retired who knows what I might get up to in the name of adventure...

“Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense." ~ Oscar Wilde 1854-1900

Songs For The Journey Home comes from New Zealand; 197 page excellent book by Catherine Cook, wonderful creative art by Dwariko von Sommaruga. My number one favorite tarot deck.

Promise

Daily Draw: The Brownies Oracle ~ Promise

Growing up, breaks involved fishing and camping within the state. The annual vacation involved fishing and camping across the border into Canada. In retrospect it sounds pretty boring but it wasn't much different from being home at the farm. Chores, reading, goofing off outside. Now retirement seems to have taken me full circle, but the circle stops at camping.

I'm reminded by this card life comes with no promises except the ones we make to ourselves.

"Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once." ~ Norman Vincent Peale 1898-1993

Rooting

Daily Draw: The Brownie Oracle ~ Clearing

Oh, the Ents are going to be cross. This is how  my father-in-law took out trees. I grew up on a forty acre stump farm so what did I know.

I'm reminded by this card to be really rid of something we do have to get down to the roots, real life isn't unfriending someone on Facebook.

 "Mr Podsnap settled that whatever he put behind him he put out of existence . . .
Mr Podsnap had even acquired a peculiar flourish of his right arm in often clearing the world of its most difficult problems, by sweeping them behind him." Charles Dickens 1812-1870

Industry

Daily Draw: The Brownies Oracle ~ Industry

The Brownie women... in all these cards I've only found two females. No wonder this boat is going together like gangbusters, there is a lot of energy to work off.

I'm reminded by this card I like to do all girl things and Rob enjoys all guys things, but our favorite is doing things together, industrious or not. Including rolling our eyes at the world's politicians.

"Politics is the entertainment branch of industry." ~ Frank Zappa 1940-1993

Jackanapes

Daily Draw: The Brownies Oracle ~ Wheel

At first glance it seems the big walking wheel has fallen over and crushed many Brownies. Closer observation sees many Brownies actually carrying the wheel across the landscape, toward a ravine.

I have to wonder why. Is this Palmer Cox's reaction to the wheel of fortune? Advice for drama queens? Response to crushing news or disappointment? General Brownie jackanapes? I'm reminded by this card of Ginger's proclivity for jaywalking. Her theory? Never look at oncoming traffic and they will never hit you. Maybe we are prone to take the Wheel too seriously.

"You oughta be thankful.
A whole heaping lot.
For the people and places.
You’re lucky you’re not." ~ Dr. Seuss 1904-1991

Injustice

Daily Draw: The Brownies Oracle ~ Injustice

I can think of three incidents of injustice, one in junior high school, and two at different workplaces. The fact that I can call them to mind after all this time surprises me. I would have thought they were so far behind me as to be dead and buried.

I'm reminded by this card my heart does still hurt, and my mind is angry all over again. Makes me wonder if Injustice isn't one of our longest memory anchors?

"In the face of unjust criticism we can become bitter or better; upset or understanding; hostile or humble; furious or forgiving." ~ William Arthur Ward 1921-1994

Peckish?

Daily Draw: The Brownies Oracle ~ Preparation

It indeed takes a village to get this pupae to the kitchen and up into the pot. Wonder how they get it back out, perhaps it is left trussed. Wonder what their ropes are made out of? Back hair?

As an info-junkie I often wonder how thing get done, how inventions came about, how many people it actually takes to fill a pothole. But nothing happens if the people are hungry. And good feelings well met abound when a team effort is rewarded. And...these Brownies are tiny, a handful would be a nice snack, and around it goes.

"High in protein, low in fat, delicious, ubiquitous, why not eat bugs? People can fall into a rut when it comes to food. We tend to get our protein from the same old sources—meat, fish, dairy—while an entire delectable kingdom lies untapped." ~ Marc Dennis

Nay To The Naysayers

Daily Draw: The Brownies Oracle ~ Obstacle

Generally speaking, what is our biggest obstruction? Could it be ourselves? Mired in low self esteem, peer pressure, laziness, unintentional molding via naysayers?

I'm reminded by this card to wonder what kind of world it would be if we all put our shoulder to the wheel rather than giving up before we get started?

"The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." ~ Walter Bagehot 1826-1877

No Yawning

Daily Draw: Brownies Oracle ~ Immersion

What is your immersion of choice? Mine is quilting of course, my sister-in-law's is golf, my dad's was rockhounding and associated lapidary, my neighbor's is all things Western.

I'm reminded by the little card when someone shares their immersion subject with me to stay alert and smiling...it is only common courtesy because then they can do the same while I go on (and on) about my own interests.

"Being solitary is being alone well: being alone immersed in doings of your own choice, aware of your own presence rather than of the absence of others. Because solitude is an achievement." ~
Alice Koller  An Unknown Woman

Rescue

Daily Draw: Brownies Oracle ~ Rescue

As a teen I've both run off the road in ice and run out of gas, easy rescues I'm thankful to say. But a few years ago I stepped out to feed the animals one morning at 12 degrees below freeing, and a foot or more of snow. Pulled the door shut and knew panic in that instant, it was locked, all the doors were locked.

I'm reminded by this card fortune or the Brownies were with me, although my coat and boots were light, gloves were in the coat pocket and my phone was in my jeans. I called the only people in the world with a house key, they called the police and the police brought up the key. Brilliant I think because the roads were so bad. Easy fix, but I can't believe how cold I was when I finally got in the house. And how utterly minor this seems in the face of world news.

"Now... all opposed to being rescued, raise your hands." ~ Felicity Heaton  Veiron, Her Demonic Angel

The Brownies Oracle which includes 60 large and 25 small cards is based on the art of Palmer Cox (1840-1924) and is from Duck Soup "Where Popular Culture Reaches Critical Mass"

Expectations

Daily Draw: Grand Etteilla Tarot ~ 7 of Swords

Expectations. Sometimes we create them and sometimes someone else has. "This is the best book I've ever read" we hear, so we read it and wonder what they were smoking at the time. We had a great restaurant meal, go again, and gag me with a spoon, who is cooking socks in the kitchen?

I'm reminded by this card we always need to work toward the best, but to assume the best isn't in our best interests.

"The best things in life are unexpected - because there were no expectations." ~ Eli Khamarov 1948-

Stick To Itness

Daily Draw: Grand Etteilla Tarot ~ Strength

Wonder what kind of animal that is? Monkey Buffalo? Sort of like blogs, they often start out one way and morph into something else. This blog was an exercise in learning something new. I've had seven or eight over the years for different purposes, but this one is the heart of me.

I'm reminded by this Strength this is my 3002 post on the cards. Had I thought it through and known I'd still be writing eight years later I'd probably have given up exhausted before even starting. Strength is often like that, not lifting cars off of babies, but just going along and going along and only in retrospect can we see our strength, which is mostly stick to itness. The following is one of my favorite quotations.

"Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." ~ Gene Fowler 1890-1960

Placid

Daily Draw: Grand Etteilla Tarot ~ 8 of Cups

Luck is with me for 15 days and I should go play Bingo. Come on now...do I really think those were Jean-Baptiste Alliette's words in the 1700's when he fashioned this deck? Ah...oh. Research shows bingo's origins date back to the 1530's, first organized as a national lottery, still going today, in Italy.

I'm reminded by this card how little I know but I'm always happy to learn something new. And really, my life is just a series of lucky stumbles, I could never say I planned and carried though any serious life plan. Yet I doubt my life transit wouldn't vary much from most of the women I know. Interesting that. Are we that placid, like cows in a field?

The appearance of ordinariness is an illusion, just below the placid surface, the world is seething." ~ Dean Koontz 1945-  Deeply Odd

BelAir Bantam

Daily Draw: Grand Etteilla Tarot ~ 7 of Cups

Pursuit of pleasure leads many directions.

Couple of months back I had the idea to find a small light hand crank sewing machine to take to the river or lake when Rob is fly fishing. My first think was a Singer SewHandy from the 50's, sold as a child's first machine, 6" high X 6" wide. The idea was workable for sewing but not so much for quilting, we use 1/4" seams and it was hard to do because of the way the foot was built and the thick chain stitch.

Back to the drawing board. Singer's 300 and 400 series were aluminum weighing in at about 16 and 18 pounds, but not belt driven so couldn't be converted to hand crank. Then I discovered there was one aluminum machine that came out of Japan in the 50's. (I have a 20's hand crank, but it weighs better then 40 pounds, not what you'd call portable or a lap machine).

Eureka!! A BelAir Bantam! Made in Occupied Japan, weighing in at about 15 pounds and belt driven so convertable to hand cranking and size-wise perfect, 12" X 8". I added a magnetic halogen light and I can machine sew anywhere anytime. I can use it on my lap, or park picnic table or wooden TV tray ($4.00 at junk store). Total investment? about $60.00. Hours of fun? About a million.

"I'd rather be known for my quilts, not my fabric collection." ~ Esther Aliu

Lumps On My Lumps

Daily Draw: Grand Etteilla Tarot ~ 10 of Swords

Lumps on my life lumps! Etteilla predicts news that brings great suffering, death in the family, household arguments. Good that I don't practice predictive tarot..

I'm reminded by this card I am what my grandmother would call 'stove up' and I just read Sue Garman's blog and think I should burn all my fabric. But I'm not crippled and my quilts would and have made perfectly acceptable dog blankets.  So it's all about a lighthearted outlook today isn't it?

"My doctor is wonderful. Once when I couldn't afford an operation, he touched up the X-rays." Joey Bishop  1918-2007