Starting At The Bottom

Daily Draw: Etteilla Tarot ~ Page/Valet of Cups

Once you know what this page is really doing the image makes perfect sense. Boys and girls from good families were sent to serve the king or queen in return for being educated with the royal children. An  amazing education it was, gaining deep knowledge in subjects never even touched upon until college today.

I'm reminded by this card the privileged still have a leg up the ladder ahead of the hoi polloi, but it only gets them in the door. This young page/valet is chamberlain to the royal bedchamber. His chamberpot bib means no one looks upon the royal leavings. That is starting at the bottom, everything is up from there.

From Yahoo Finance, 2015, Top 10 worst jobs. (I don't agree but it wasn't my job to make the list)

1. Newspaper Reporter
Income: $36,300

2. Lumberjack
Income: $34,100

3. Enlisted Military Personnel
Income: $44,300

4. Head Cook
Income: $42,200

5. Broadcaster
Income: $29,300

6. Photojournalist
Income: $29,300

7. Corrections Officer
Income: $39,200

8. Taxi Driver
Income: $23,100

9. Firefighter
Income: $45,300

10. Mail Carrier
Income: $41,100

Worry Box Duex

Daily Draw: Etteilla Tarot ~ 5 of Wands

In 2013 I shared my worry box. I think today is the first time I've thought of it since. I can barely picture what it looks like.

I'm reminded by this card, have I eliminated all my worries? Have all my worries exploded my small box to smithereens? Have I learned to deal with them better? Did I make a bigger box?
My biggest worry today is the list sitting beside me of where to find papers and accounts to give to my nephew who is our personal representative at death. I've had it for years, with as many cross outs and new numbers as there is original information. It needs to be cleaned up, rewritten. It's been there for three weeks or more.
If that is the extent of  my worries, I should be out dancing on the roof.

"What, me worry?" ~ Alfred E. Newman

Will It Come?

Daily Draw: Etteilla Tarot ~ 9 of Cups

Etteilla was a firm believer in fortune telling. This card gives fortunes by age group; a new attachment in love will soon enter my life.

Maybe. Three years ago August I lost both my cats and my little Pom. It is unheard of for me to not have a cat. I bought a dozen tins of kitten food a few months ago. I have the cat carrier by the garage door. Will it come?

"Cats are connoisseurs of comfort." ~ James Herriot 1916-1995

First Impression

Daily Draw: Etteilla Tarot ~ Justice

Would that knife and ball on a chain be Etteilla's version of a flail and scepter? And what an enormous cloak or is it a blanket?

I'm reminded by this card and first impressions, of jury duty. It is never about first thinks, it is about the story behind the story. And probably why sentencing is all over the map for basically the same crimes.

"Justice has nothing to do with what goes on in a courtroom; Justice is what comes out of a courtroom." ~ Clarence Darrow 1857-1938

Overboard

Daily Draw: Etteilla Tarot ~ Prudence

I do try. But being an all in or all out person,
I sometimes go overboard...well, I often go overboard...

"All enterprises that are entered into with indiscreet zeal may be pursued with great vigor at first, but are sure to collapse in the end." ~ Publius Cornelius Tacitus 55-117 AD

Miserable

Daily Draw: Grand Etteilla Tarot ~ Misery/Poverty

The lengths people will go to get something cheap or free.
The pervasive sense of entitlement to something not earned.
The blind belief government should provide, not seeing it is us picking up the tab.

I'm reminded by this card misery and poverty are often two different things, a state of mind and  a state of being.

"Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon." ~Woody Allen 1935-

It Is All Relative

Daily Draw: Grand Etteilla Tarot ~ 10 of Cups

Where is home? If I'm downtown, up the hill to the nub is home.
On Mars Earth is my home.
In Mozambique the United States is my home. It is all relative isn't it?

I'm reminded by this card the best part of going anywhere is coming back home.

"May this house stand until an ant drinks the ocean and a tortoise circles the world." ~ Jonathan Carroll 1949-

Precision

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Tarot ~ Ace of Swords/Air

Dimmi: What are your intentions?

To put the things I can no longer use or have no intention of using again, directly into the hands of those who will. Yesterday I pulled the box associated with the quilt that had the biggest impact on my life.
Seems bizarre to say that about bits of fabric, but that reproduction of the Jane Stickle 1865 quilt led me to skills and friends I'd never have known otherwise.
Small sized blocks (4.5"), many with 20-30-40 pieces required a new precision in cutting and piecing to achieve the correct end result. I'm a better person for having persevered, and I hope my box of book and tools find use with another quilter.
Front and back of Two Sides of Jane, pieced in three months, took about four years to quilt it, I used gold metallic thread.

Flowing And Sprouting

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Tarot ~ Star/Way Shower

Dimmi: Where are things flowing, what hopeful shoots are sprouting in this matter?

We own a Volkswagen TDI Jetta Sportwagen. 42-45 miles per gallon. Quiet, efficient, we loved it. Sang it's praises to anyone even remotely thinking about buying a new car. Is our face ever red.
It is one of 8,000,000 VW autos world wide with a factory installed defeat device. When tested it shows correct epa pollutant standards. Once off the check equipment, it goes back to exceeding pollutant requirements.
They've missed several fix-it deadlines, including yesterday's. Oddly enough the Mitsubishi company came up this week with an admission of another type of auto cheat.

What's sprouting? Haven't a clue, but the heads are still getting their annual bonuses. 70 million euros for 2015. Funny that. I'd like to hide the Jetta under a tarp in the deep woods.

 "The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum." ~ Larry Niven Finagle's Law

Life Skills

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Tarot ~ Ace of Cups/Water

Dimmi: What is irrigated or blocked?

This is a query with a different answer for each year of our life. This year I irrigate or block whatever I want, I answer to  no one.

I'm reminded by this card water and emotions both swirl, change, move along, back up. The ability to adapt or reform is one of our most used life skills, seldom recognized as such.

"What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup." ~ Boris Pasternak 1890-1960

Predicated

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Tarot ~ Emperor

Dimmi: Where is the authority and boundaries of your life.

My mind went first to all sorts of complicated mazes of not accepting either one in my life. But I sat back and thought about the base of the dimmi and the truth shot to the top.

I'm reminded by this card my own life is predicated on growing up in my parents home. Honesty, civility, hard work, respect laws, love, trust.

"When solving problems, dig at the roots instead of just hacking at the leaves." ~ Anthony J. D'Angelo

Gold From Scraps

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Enigma Tarot ~ Ace of Wands/Fire

Dimmi: What creative plan are you beginning?

At base my eye problem is what I see is bent. At some point fairly soon I won't be able to cut fabric with precision. So I've been doubling down on pre-cutting 1.5", 2", and 2.5" squares from my smaller pieces of fabric and scraps. The quilts I make are scrappy so this plan is like having a bank full of money, creative-wise. I wish I had other quilters scraps too!

"The true joy of life is being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one ... being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown to the scrap heap ... being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances." ~ George Bernard Shaw  1856-1950

Hiding

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Tarot ~ 10 of Swords/Air

Dimmi: What do you have to relinquish?

The idea that I'm not sick? I just canceled a 9 AM doctor requested appointment. Tough noogies. I have enough on my plate without someone digging into my brain. And the lawn needs mowed.

"Never relinquish the initiative." ~ Charles de Gaulle 1890-1970

Ambivalent

Daily Draw: Da Vinci Enigma Tarot ~ 2 of Coins/Earth

Dimmi: What makes you feel ambivalent?

Two subjects pop up immediately. Religion and politics.

They both create more bad than good but mankind doesn't seem capable of living without someone telling them what to do and how to do it.

"I need not present my actions, my words, myself for somebody else's approval. Basing my decisions on somebody else's approval only postpones what I really want." ~ Jan Denise

Do You Bub?

Daily Draw: Personal Oracle ~ Forgotten Library

Last summer, before I realized I was actually losing my sight, I put three different books in the donate to the local library pile. I thought publishers were penny pinching by using a smaller print in order to use less paper. I thought it was short sighted decision. Joke was on me.

This image reminds me of my own bookshelves upstairs. Gaping spaces where the books are already gone, most sold on Amazon in the past year.

On the plus is the Kindle app on my iPad that allows me to up the print size. And via BookBub I've read authors and types of books I'd have never chosen in a real bookstore. R. S. Belcher, Carolyn Jourdan, Mo Yan, Cathy Glass, Alan Gordon, Miklos Nyiszli, C.S.E. Cooney. I can't feel the covers or hear the page turn to expose words I've never read before, but I can read. Hundred per cent good deal.

"The more that you read
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you'll go." ~ Dr. Seuss 1904-1991

Perspective

Daily Draw: Personal Oracle

My favorite thing to do when on the road is observe the geology flashing by along side the road, and passing in stately manner in the distance. It takes about seven-hundred years to make an inch of material in the strata. Helps put the mad monkey of the mind in perspective.

"Beneath all the wealth of detail in a geological map lies an elegant, orderly simplicity." ~ Tuzo Wilson 1908-1993

The Invisible Staff

Daily Draw: Animals Divine Tarot ~ 8 of Wands

Active cooperation.

Required in the public areas of our lives.  This is never more apparent than when traveling. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people along our route, most invisible, ready to make our day perfect. Motels, cafes, drivers, police, rest areas, shops, utilities, maybe I should bump that up to hundreds of thousands. This is an amazingly cooperative country, I'm freshly impressed with how hard Americans work and how nice they are while they do it.

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving." ~ Albert Einstein 1879-1955

Direction

Daily Draw: Animals Divine Tarot ~ Magician/Cerridwen

Giving our desires and energies direction.

In this anything goes world, this is a problem for me. I set goals and limits and work to abide by them, particularly since retirement. A task that took thirty minutes before leaving for work can take all day, very easily. So I ride myself. Which can take the fun out of whatever I'm working at. The cunning of the fox, the speed of the deer and the patience of the boar are what is offered here.

"Objectives are not fate; they are direction. They are not commands; they are commitments." ~ 1909-2005

9 of Autos

Daily Draw: Animals Divine Tarot ~ 9 of Swords

Worry, fear of loss.

I've driven in big cities, lived in one for 20 years. But six lanes of traffic, going both ways, at a dead stop, on a Sunday is a little over the top. And don't get me started  on when the traffic gets to moving again...welcome to San Francisco. Where all  the cars are on the road because there are no parking places. Love this town, hope I live.

added three days later:  We drove into San Francisco three days in a row during morning rush hour. Piece of cake. Wonder what was with Sundays traffic?

"Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic." ~ Dan Rather 1931-

Sticky Wicket

Daily Draw: Animals Divine Tarot ~ Spider Woman/Hanged Man

I'm on the road this week and have the master plan to use the iPad Animals Divine tarot app rather than a paper deck. Alas, I'm not smart enough to do it. Or, there must be an easier way than the spiderweb I'm trying to use...

I'm reminded by Spider Woman when I practiced capturing the image from  the iPad, emailing it to computer, than saving to photos, then uploading to the blog, I got it to work twice.  Today? Nada. Won't come into my email.  I think it might be the size of the image and the iffy connection I have here in the northern California high country. So I borrowed the image from the artist, Lisa Hunt's blog. So much for getting hung with today's effort.

"The stars, that nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil, give due light to the misled and lonely traveller.”
 John Milton ~ 1608-1674

Lump Coal

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ 6 of Coins/Spheres

Lump coal = fetus diamond. I think we were taught that in school. Turns out to be not true.

I'm reminded by this card our personal adaption, refinement, continuity isn't formed instantly. It is a lifetime process as nodes of anger, prejudice, love and peace are formed, honed, compressed into personal jewels, broken off.  We are what we am..a work in process. I can live with that.

"It is an immense loss to have all robust and sustaining expletives refined away from one! At moments of trial refinement is a feeble reed to lean upon." ~ Alice James 1848-1892

Tireder

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ 7 of Wands/Flames

The wall in this image represents the sudden jerk we get with a life changing event. It sets us aside from the norm and we suddenly are faced with making decisions we probably aren't prepared for,

I'm reminded by this rainbow, most often we hear, 'it made  me a better person'.  And I don't doubt that is often true. Me, I want to throw a tantrum and shout 'take it back, take it all back'. I'm no better or stronger or wiser than I was ten years ago. Just tireder.

"Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied." ~ Douglas Adams 1952-2001

Melding

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ 2 of Flames/Wands

If we started our day as a blank canvas and were introduced to a simplified concept of science, art, religion, where would we be at the end of the day? That is the action of the 2 of Wands.

I'm reminded by this card we are melded each day of our life. We reinforce what we know and believe and push away what we find unpalatable.

"A word is a bud attempting to become a twig." ~ Gaston Bachelard 1884-1962

Any Fool

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ Fool

What can I say?  I've already frittered 45 minutes of my self allotted two hours of on-line time. No time to do a think piece today...

"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.”
 Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862

Agreeably Agreeable

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ 9 of Coins/Spheres

Perfection in all things. Perhaps for today we can agree to agree.

Oh, sorry. This card reminds me we'll never all agree to agree, but we can accept there are some days when all is well in our own world, as well as it ever gets. Remembering some of those days, it didn't take much to make them perfect, mostly a little attitude to bump them from ordinary to extraordinary.  Face to the sun, small smile, namaste.

 "Be what you would seem to be - or, if you'd like it put more simply - never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise." ~ Lewis Carroll 1832-1898

Persistence

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ 9 of Flames/Wands

It's too hard, too much work, getting boring, nobody else is doing it...

Free will is also about taking it to the next level. If it were easy everyone else would be doing it.

"Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity." ~ Louis Pasteur 1822-1895

On The Menu

Daily Draw: Ananda Tarot ~ Princess of Flames/Page of Wands

Will.  Free will. Don't think it has much to do with will power. If it did my slacks would be single digit size.

I'm reminded by this card, once again, despite bitter railing against that which calls itself humanity, I am utterly and completely thankful to have been born in this country. Where free will and thought is always on the menu. Or is it determinism throwing rocks at my illusions?  No..that would imply I'm not responsible for my own actions.  This Princess believes in Will. Free will.

"Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will." ~ Jawaharlal Nehru 1889-1964

Ananda Tarot, Thoth tradition; art and 292 page soft cover book by Kurt Pilz, Published by AGM AGMuller 2003.

Gift of Think

Daily Draw: Chinese Tarot ~ 6 of Coins

The warrior tosses coins to reckon his next moves. As if.

I'm reminded by this card of the gift of 'think' my cards give me.
To focus, then think logically, then recognize and implement my own decisions. Anything that makes my brain cogitate better is a clear win for me. But nothing tells fortunes.

Fortune cookie says: Suppose you get what you want?

Skimming

Daily Draw: Chinese Tarot ~ 5 of Coins

This card depicts a corrupt official being outed. He is certainly getting stuck in the rolling coins. Is there a nation that has incorrupt officials? I doubt it. It is too easy to get swept up in the daily deals when the paycheck barely covers expenses. If all the corrupt people were fired would it leave enough money in the exchequer to pay better wages? I doubt it, those at the top would reward themselves with a 15% raise.

I'm reminded by this card being cynical isn't necessarily the best place for me mentally, but history tells on itself. And faced with fixing, those who might try are overwhelmed in the end. The octopus has a million tentacles all skimming off the top.

"The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means." ~ Georges Bernanos 1888-1948