Do WHAT?

Daily Draw: Tarot of the Origins ~ Fool

Every first day on every job we've ever had. Simple or difficult, we first have to absorb company policy. First paycheck job, Swansons. Bring Frankie fresh coffee and a clean ashtray. Ostensibly to get orders for the day. Never happened. She just liked a little recognition.

I'm reminded by this card a lot of company policies over the years ticked me off. A few I quit over. But it can never be said I had a boring work life. For my Tibetan Oracle exercise I came up with sixteen different job types. And if I run across anyone who is obviously experiencing first day horrors, I always tell them they are doing a great job.

"Everything I’ve ever done has claw marks on it." ~ David Foster Wallace 1962-2008

Etched

Daily Draw: Tarot of the Origins ~ Ace of Wands/Nature

Earth Rock Tree. All etched by time.  As rock and tree are worn away or destroyed they become earth that nurtures us. Simplistic?

I'm reminded by this card to be able to step back and see the whole picture is critical in the life we choose to lead. Are the things we allow to etch our life beneficial and beauteous or pointless and useless?

"Do not spread the compost on the weeds." ~ William Shakespeare 1582-1616  Hamlet

That Crepe Thing

Daily Draw: Tarot of the Origins ~ 4 of Wands/Nature

The reality of life.

Hard to see, tough to bear, no way back.
My skin is starting to do that thin creepy crepe thing.
Yikes.

Past is Waste Paper,
Present is News Paper,
Future is Crepe Paper.

Stuck

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ 7 of Coins/Discs

Stuck in a gluey mess. A bit like trying to run in a dream.
One coin has struggled free and floats above the rest.

I'm reminded by this card we seldom realize what a hole we've dug ourselves into until we stop digging. And then still have trouble admitting to ourselves what is wrong and recognizing some amends are in order.

"There are two ways of meeting difficulties: You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them." ~ Phyllis Bottome 1884-1963

Unpushed

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ Knight/Prince of Wands

Is he surging forward on his own or does he need to be shot out of a cannon to get going?

I'm reminded by this card, we've all been there, myself, quite often...because I'm thinking. Given time I can come up with a better solution. At that point pushing is not required. Just get out of the way, no fartin' around will be occurring.

"Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator." ~ Robert Francis Kennedy 1925-1968

Unintelligible, Unbirthed.

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ Hanged Man

Pupa, cocoon, chrysalis. This guy looks about half hatched. Like many of our ideas. If we don't wave our brains about and strengthen our lightbulb ideas, they will just slip in the water and be washed away, unintelligible, unbirthed.

I'm reminded by this card of some of my bright ideas. Luggage To Go was a fun one. I invested in four full sets of luggage, put cards in every Portland travel agency within ten miles of me, and rented them to travelers.
Parting out personal estates on Ebay, way fun. I concentrated on quilters but did a number of interesting collections. My advice to you? Never think you are 'investing' in anything in the back of the Sunday paper magazines like Bradford collector plates.

"It was a pity he couldna be hatched o'er again, an' hatched different." ~ George Eliot  1819-1880

Whoop

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ 3 of Coins/Discs

Material works. The foot is strength and determination. Coin one, work yet to be done. Coin two, steps taken. Coin three, fruit of our efforts.

All very well and specific. My foot is weak. Or more probably lazy. Or conflicted. While I've sat here typing (whining) this post my working wall brain has arrived at a win/win plan plus one big job vanished, someone else has already done it. Whoop Whoop...adapt. adapt.

"Life not only consists of yes and no, but a lot of yes, but and no, but." ~ Vann Chow

The Strange Forest

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ Queen of Coins/Discs

DuQuette likens our Queen to a cross of Jane Austen and Joan of Arc. With a bit of Richard Nixon and Joseph Stalin. Plus Stephen Hawking and Catherine of Aragon. Wow.

I'm reminded by this card we are complex complicated creatures. No wonder we alternate from black hate, indifference, and fiery passion. All in a day.  We hardly recognize ourselves, let alone understand how someone else works.

"This is what I believe: That I am I. That my soul is a dark forest. That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest." ~  D.H. Lawrence 1885-1930

Frivolous? Nay.

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ Ace of Coins/Discs

Did you ever play the game What Would You Do With $5000.00? In our 20s this would come up ever so often. We were all struggling newlyweds and that much money was deemed a huge windfall.

I'm reminded by this card in each decade of our life how differently we would have used this amount over the years. What seems frivolous now,  always seemed perfectly logical at the time. Today? I'd move my Grandma Pearl from her alone and lonely plot, to the family plot we've created at the Wynooche Cemetery. Frivolous? Never. Come on windfall.

"Do not assume that because I am frivolous I am shallow; I don't assume that because you are grave you are profound." ~ Sydney Smith 1771-1845

Eternal Optimism

Daily Draw: PetraK Tarot ~ 5 of Cups

Disappointment. Events don't live up to anticipation. Investing too heavily in an unsure outcome.

We've all been there, bug eyed with amazement as we are hoist and flung from our own petard. Books and movies that were raved about. Family and class reunions. First dates. But we bounce back, one of the nice things about being human, we can choose eternal optimism.

"Disappointment seldom cures us of expectation, or has any effect other than that of producing a peevish exclamation." ~ Samuel Johnson 1709-1784

Reconcile

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Dancer of Reconciliation

It would be interesting to have a third party interview both sides.
What we think is wrong may be nowhere near the true seed.

I'm reminded by this card sometimes reconciliation means accepting what is, is.

"The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us." ~ Quentin Crisp 1908-1999

Pillage and Plunder

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Hunter of Conflict

Early armies were mostly a  matter of employment for a large portion of the population. Like pyramid building. Or gladiator games, always a good income, as long as you lived through it. Armies could be self sustaining too, pillaging and plundering, ships sending home the goods, bringing back payday coins of the realm.

Armies don't pay their own salaries now, they just suck the home economy dry to maintain high profits for arms dealers. The last time I saw someone sending anything home it was a M*A*S*H* character mailing a jeep one part at a time.  But still, the world seems destined to spin on conflict.

"Let me throw the bricks through the front window. You go in at the back and take the swag." ~ Ezra Pound 1885-1972

Green Cross

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Spirit of Healing

On the road, observing small and large towns I've found a conundrum. The shiniest new businesses offer Green Cross merchandise, have three digit numbers in their name, and or the word glass, and they are everywhere.

In my lifetime I've known exactly two people who used marijuana medically.

"Researchers have discovered that chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the brain as marijuana. The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two but can’t remember what they are." ~ Matt Lauer 1957-

Gift

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Hunter of Gifts

I had an amazing gift yesterday. Dedicated research, and even recognition of my eye disease has only be ongoing very recently. Frank Lowy has funded a number of institutes around the world because his son is afflicted. John Moran has come onboard and financed the University of Utah Moran Eye Center. Dr. Paul Bernstein, one of the premier eye specialists in the world. Who said twice he will be hand carrying my chart to next week's world summit.

As part of the clinical trials my eyes were examined thoroughly. Dilated and numbed, tapped, blasted with light, injected with dye, scanned from side to side, up and down, and behind. If I discover any other family members have the disease they will fly them in. They took blood looking for the first genetic strand that will lead to the common factors, and from there to treatment. It was nice to be treated like royalty, but the real gift is being part of the infant stages of exciting research. And maybe down the road a recipient of the outcome. And of course my eyes will go into to the pool of research when I don't need them anymore.

"Light tomorrow with today." ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861

Limits and Expansions

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Ancestor of Boundaries

We begin to recognize boundaries from birth, when to eat, when to sleep. When to study, when to play. Early on rewards and consequences show up.

Then we spend the rest of our lives in the shadow of the auroch. Either drawing strength to carry on or to bull our way through and out.
My cards are an example. ooOoo sinful vodou devil yadayada.
Having cancer twice is another example. "I thought you were dead".
No belief in gods or heaven or hell is an example; relief and freedom for me, amazement and horror the general reaction. On the other hand we treat motel rooms with respect. You should hear the stories.
Drive within the law of the states we are passing though.  I know..weird isn't it? Perhaps at root all those expansions and limits are just self-image?

"Our firmest convictions are apt to be the most suspect, they mark our limitations and our bounds." ~ Jose Ortega y Gasset 1883-1955

Frosted

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Spirit of Initiation

The introduction via spirit to the skillsets required to cope with fresh problems and situations.

The author means via shamanic visions. A skillset few have. But we do have a good brain that scans and files every experience we see and have. Combined with inborn instincts we begin to process what the new situation offers and negates. A piece of cake..frosted with millions of bits and bytes from our own font of wisdom.

"Ideas pull the trigger, but instinct loads the gun." ~ Don Marquis 1878-1937

The Secret In Plain Sight

Daily Draw: Shaman's Oracle ~ Hunter of Death

Book: Death to dullness and routine, Hunter of new possibilities.

No doubt there are billions of people who would consider my life dull. I know that, and in my own way, I pity them. I get up every day excited; what new kernel of knowledge can I uncover, what new creative endeavor can I explore, what familiar tree or flower can I rediscover today. It is a good day if I wake up alive, and I recognize that secret in plain sight.

"It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely on it. It's my partner." ~  Jonas Salk 1914-1995

Sun

Daily Draw: New Earth Tarot ~ Sun

Have to get cracking on the weeding before it gets too hot.

"Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing." ~ Lao Tzu 600 BC-531 BC

Sharing

Daily Draw: New Earth Tarot ~ Page/Child of Coins/Mirrors

We learn value at an early age. It's mine. Then we learn motivation. It's my ball my rules. Then hoarding. Too bad you ate all of yours, I still have mine left.

I'm reminded by this card children are the cruelest creatures on earth. But that is when we also learn the pleasure and benefit of sharing, teamwork, and generosity. When it is all working it is a treat to watch young Coins at  life.

"Share everything. Don't take things that aren't yours. Put things back where you found them." ~ Robert Fulghum 1937-   All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Focus

Daily Draw: New Earth Tarot ~ Adolescent/Knight of Swords

A daily practice with discipline and dedication,
or a fighting spirit without focus.

Which door? Odd how often I choose the second option.

"Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days." ~  Zig Ziglar 1926-2012

Eyebulbs

Daily Draw: New Earth Tarot ~ Hanged Man/One

Sometimes we end up in this position in spite of our best intentions. And like this round tree, we'll eventually evolve upright without even realizing it has happened.

This card makes me think of the blinding headaches of the last half year or so. But four or five weeks ago they stopped. My brain quit trying to see the old way and accepted the reality of the new bent way. My tree has revolved and the only work I had to do was keep my eyebulbs open.

"I am determined to have the headache Thursday, if I have to hit myself with a rock to do it." ~ Patricia C. Wrede 1953-  The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

Coolly Strange

Daily Draw: New Earth Tarot ~ 6 of Cups

I wonder how many people have more affinity relatives than blood relatives?

I'm reminded by cups full of memories, my life has been a good one, starting from day one, but many of my current cups are empty, all taken by death. I honestly don't know how to go about filling them up again. On the other hand I'm getting my first pedicure today, how coolly strange is that? Think that's enough to fill a new memory cup?

"When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not." ~ Mark Twain 1835-1910

It's A Girl

Daily Draw: New Earth Tarot Deck ~ Page/Child of Cups

My hair was white blond and fell into natural Shirley Temple curls.
The cat was Fitzwilliam, Fritz for short, he loved soda crackers.
The bear was small, yellow and white, who lost favor after mother sent him through the wash, he smelled musty thereafter.
The tea party dishes were blue willow china.
My first grade teacher lived to break me of sitting on my legs.
The river in the background was the East Hoquiam.

I'm also reminded by this card I know how fortunate I was as a child.
I was never tied in the backyard for days with a broken arm.
I was never wrapped in plastic and shoved in the freezer with other frozen siblings.
I was never swung against a railroad car by my feet, to smash my head.
I never walked with my mother into a gas chamber.
I was  never left outside to die because I was a girl child.
My father was so excited the day I was born he came home and put the paper in the refrigerator, where mother found it a few days later when we came home.

"The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out of his nose." ~ Garrison Keillor 1942-

Removing Bulk

Daily Draw: New Earth Tarot ~ 6 of Swords

Awareness, clarity of mind. The cards lately, at root, have been all about this. And my watchword of the year, adapt. I/we have made a lot of long term choices this year. Not because we set out to do so but because one decision leads to another.

I'm reminded by this card, if you  have a hill of rocks or a mountain of hay, when you start removing bulk, at some point the whole collapses and becomes another form. Or simply dissipates and is no long blockage but path.

"Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in." ~ attributed to Confucius  551-479 BC

New Earth Tarot, Art by Kate Silver, digest by Charlene KeLong. Self published 2012. Ancient and modern symbolism drawn from multiple traditions.  Suits are Mirrors/coins, Cups, Swords, Wands. Several majors have been retitled.

Clarity

Daily Draw: Rainring Cards ~ Clarity

It is clear to me:

It is pointless for us to join in on a neighborhood garage sale this summer. Our decade of clearing, and refining the useful and beautiful has resulted in nothing left to clear except the things I've dedicated to ebay. I'm impressed and surprised.

I'll always struggle to get the twelve debit card uses that qualify us for 2% interest at the credit union. We aren't shoppers.

I like the Rainring deck. It has been sitting on my desk for months because I didn't quite understand how to use it. Solution? Use it like I've used every other deck. My way.  Thank you Peter Ryley, super job.

"Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what he loves." ~ Blaise Pascal 1623-1662

Positive Or Negative?

Daily Draw: Rainring Cards ~ Form

My current quilt is totally simple. One shape, tumbler (narrow top/wide bottom). Half aboriginal prints Rob brought home from Australia and half solids inherited from a friend. I've done much ripping out because my brain isn't accepting what goes up and what goes down to connect with the already finished strips.

I'm reminded by this card, just because something looks simple it doesn't mean it is. We assume much in our life because mostly we glance off the surface. Some time pondering what we believe brings us to the surprising and sometimes painful place of what we don't believe or didn't see.

"Being not very spatial doesn't make you any better or worse in spatial kinds of things. You probably just get the wrong answer more quickly." ~ Howard Gardner 1943-

Evacuation

Daily Draw: Rainring Cards ~ Action

This post is dedicated to Fort McMurray Alberta.

There is a natural gas pipeline running north to south just below our property line. It exploded about a mile north of us. It sounded like we were in the backwash of a jet.

When the word came to evacuate, I crated the cats, put them and the dogs in the back of the Jeep, and for myself, my broken down gardening shoes and a bottle of pain medicine I hadn't needed in years. And three sewing machines.

I've thought many times about thought processes under pressure and what possessed me to take the pills and those shoes. I'll never know.

Apprentice

Daily Draw: Rainring Cards ~ Formation

A mentor teaches an apprentice tracking. When the student has passed his tests he will have learned much more.

I'm reminded by this card learning anything requires patience, practice, and attention to detail which brings self confidence on many levels.

"The joy of learning is indispensable." ~ Simone Weil 1909-1943

May

Daily Draw: Rainring Cards ~ Beauty + Deflation

I was drawn to both these cards this  morning. The first because we are in the full blast of spring here. It couldn't be prettier and the weather has been perfection. If that doesn't put me in a good mood nothing would!

But behind that, is the angry woman. Me and my hair trigger temper. I gave a rictus grin when I saw her, because I'm very close to doing something basically irreversible which at it's base is cutting off my nose to spite my face. I'll look at the beauty and let the mad dissipate, what does it matter anyway?

"Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures free to explore the larger experiences of life." ~ Ralph W. Sockman 1889-1970

Alone In A Crowd

Daily Draw: Rainring Cards ~ Exhibition

Rainring doesn't have suits but sets of nine grid cards based on type of behavior, with umpires and ex-grid cards. To acknowledge this is a different system than tarot or oracles, I'm choosing cards this week rather than shuffle fan draw at random. All that to say this, I don't know why I chose this card.

If I had to label myself I'd say introvert, unconcerned with anyone's opinions yet comfortable being a extrovert when called upon.

I'm reminded by this card I like who I've turned out to be. Mostly.

"I am rarely bored alone; I am often bored in groups and crowds." ~ Laurie Helgoe 1960-

Turning Tides

Daily Draw: Rainring Cards ~ Tides

While reading Ryley's take on this card I didn't cry.
Yet his words struck my mind and heart and should have, would have had me weeping into the ruff of Churchill's black dog anytime over the last some years.

I'm reminded by this card, and a word search of this blog for suicide, I've made sixteen posts on the subject. Rather above the norm...but I didn't cry today, perhaps I'm finally an odd shade of puce rather than flat black and the tide is turning.

This 94 card deck and 270 page soft cover book are the heart's work of Peter Ryley.
Illustrations by Mary Jane Ansell, Ellen-Marie Kristiansen Richie, Ian Richie, and Vikki Yates.

Peter Ryley has built a cohesive system for his deck, with depth for self observation, a teaching tool to balance the psyche, and a playsite on his webpages. Peter is quick to respond to email which sets him a bit above the average deck designer. Try it, you'll like it...I'm not using the deck as intended, a blog platform can only dip in and out of decks due to copyright.