Unfocused Focus

Daily Draw: Tarot of the Sephiroth ~ 8 of Wands

Directed energy. Goals reached, time accounted for.

Unfocused energy. Wished for goal after goal kicked to the curb. Out of sight out of mind.

"Do you remember the things you were worrying about a year ago?" ~ Dale Carnegie 1888-1955

What A Hoot

Daily Draw: Santa Fe Tarot ~ 8 of Wands/Rainbows

Look a bit like cell antennas. Used to take months for a pony express letter to arrive in the untamed western US. I did a lot of letter writing in the 80's, took five days for a first class letter to go across country. And we used onion skin paper and special envelopes to cut weight for overseas air mail.  Now communication is instant yet I hardly send mail/messages of any kind.

I'm reminded by this card of all the ways sudden has changed just in my short life. Tasty produce and gorgeous roses from the opposite end of the world. Fish sticks take about 30 minutes in the oven, 2 minutes in the microwave, tasting unpleasant both ways. We used to wait for TV to warm up before we would get a picture, from our choice of 3-5 channels and we changed channels with a knob on the set. We had to get up and walk to the set, isn't that a hoot? And they went off air about 1 AM.

 What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree." ~ Sigmund Freud 1856-1939)

Give And Keep

Daily Draw: Santa Fe Tarot ~ 6 of Coins/Buffalo

Philanthropist vs. Hoarder, what are the flip sides of this card?

Having just read through pages of modern day philanthropism plus pages of  people of great wealth with Collyer brothers syndrome, it seems to boil down to the former know it takes a nation and the latter think only they can care for something, often with dreadful results.

"We are hoarding potentials so great that they are just about unimaginable." ~ Jack Schwartz

Common Phrases vs. Original Thought

Daily Draw: Santa Fe Tarot ~ Ace of Swords/Lightning

Self destruction? Or success based on determination?

Oh those swords. The rubber hits the road already and we are just getting started. No shades of gray in the Swords suit, best to be thinking ahead rather than resting on our laurels. Clear the decks, sharp thinking ahead.

If you must quote anonymous sources, make sure they say something ~  Jack Shafer Reuters

But Never Passive-minded

Daily Draw: Santa Fe Tarot ~ 2 of Cups/Water

Like-minded. Open-minded. Narrow-minded. Close-minded. Absent-minded.

I'm reminded by this card I can probably be all of these, right here, on the same day. Really kind of amazing when you think about it. If you think like me that is...

"I am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else." ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton 1874-1936

High Five

Daily Draw: Santa Fe Tarot ~ 2 of Swords/Lightning

Balance. Stalemate. Breakdown.

I'm reminded by this figure and yesterday's powerful image, nearly everything in our life is about balance. which isn't a vacuum, which requires a strong base. A core of reason, a central moral code, an instinct for right and wrong. I'm impressed so many humans actually think about it and get it right.

"Harmony makes small things grow, lack of it makes great things decay." ~ Sallust 86BC-35BC

Bend A Little

Daily Draw: Santa Fe Tarot ~ Hermit

Pollen Boy on the sun. His mission was to befriend the sun and allow it to take a rest, giving crops and living things also an opportunity to rest without being burnt up.

I'm reminded by this card to remember strong people also need a rest and to offer a hand wherever possible, allowing them to bend a bit instead of breaking.

"Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop."  ~ Ovid 40BC-17AD

Buyer Remorse

Daily Draw: Santa Fe Tarot ~ 5 of Cups/Water

Incomplete relationships...marriage without love, one-sided friendships, buyer remorse about commitment.

I'm reminded by this card of a friend who has been married eight times, and usually in the wind by month six. Perhaps he is in love with love and has an aversion to the actual daily grunt work of of life in a pairship.

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one'. " ~  C.S. Lewis 1898-1963

Punica granatum

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ 6 of Coins/Discs

Amazing where you get to when goofi researching. I couldn't remember if I'd written about Grama Ruth and pomegranates so searched my blog. Which lead to a 2008 post with links to personal finance blogs.

Two dead links, two still live and working their program. I wonder if the first two became so adept at financial stewardship they didn't need the help of blogging about it? Or if they fell off the wagon like so many dieters, and are now eyeballs deep in debt. I hope for the prior not the latter.

"I envied women with signature hair-dos, signature perfumes, signature sign-offs. Novelists who tell Vogue Magazine: "I can't live without my Smythson notebook, Pomegranate Noir cologne by Jo Malone and Frette sheets". In the grip of madness, materialism begins to look like an admirable belief system." ~ Emma Forrest 1976-

Easy It Isn't

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ Adjustment/Justice

She isn't just standing there static, expecting perfection, but rather showing us the way to balance via constant adjustments.

I'm reminded by this rendition of Ma'at with her heart and feather, well and good are moving targets. Life changes can happen instantly, and what was balance yesterday or five minutes ago, now requires a whole new equanimity toolbox. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

"What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want." ~ Mignon McLaughlin 1913-1983 The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

Interest-ing

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ 8 of Coins/Discs

Oh we of little brains. Looking back our biggest poor stewardship of our finances was buying a  new car every two or three years. What were we thinking? Why weren't we thinking? That came to a screeching halt in the early 90's when the word interest finally sank in.

I'm reminded by this card of my first certificate of deposit CD. Mid-80's, A gift of 5K, earning 13%. The memory makes my knees weak,  I hadn't a clue what that meant. Today, CD's offering .50% to 1% are being touted as high earners.

Daffy Duck puts it in a nutshell...

Expand and Contract

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ 2 of Coins/Discs

Ever had a pair of shoes or a shirt you wore until there weren't enough tatters left to hold them together? The Thoth two is like that. Squeeze and expand until we are forced to take action.

I'm reminded by this card of being squeezed into action. I've culled  my quilt book shelves many times over the years and I thought what I had left was the true crux of the genre. But in my go overboard manner this spring I culled again, can't read 'em can't keep 'em, right? But since that time I've had all the pulled books, maybe a hundred, stacked to the right of the computer, ready to go up on Amazon or Ebay. Except I haven't done it. I'm going to push back and put them away in the bookcase. They aren't hurting anyone...and it will make the office look like I've cleaned. Win win to me.

"Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives." ~  Anthony Robbins 1960-

Carry On, Carry Through

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ 5 of Wands

Pressure builds and seeks release.

I'm reminded by this card there are some serious weapons there, well within reach. Do we strike out for short term release or do we focus on seeking the relief, success, and victory of the 6 of Wands? Much depends on what we learned or didn't learn in childhood. Carry on, carry through has a learning curve some of us never even recognize.

"Passion and strife bow down the mind." ~ Virgil  70 BC-19 BC)

Placeholder

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ Knight of Coins/Discs

Mellen sees this Knight as the one that takes problems, makes them manageable, and betters the overall purpose. And remembers better is not a static place but a temporary placeholder.

Ah, the slippery slope. As the Knight it is up to me to acknowledge my limits and adapt as necessary to live through the day. I'd be hanging over the ceramic throne or flat on my back paralyzed if I glommed my brain on France, North Korea, China, Brazil...the politicians, radicals, nutjobs, the neighbor's cattle. I've voted in every election since I was eighteen. I minimize terror input, and work on better over all in my reach. My worry box allows my Knight to stop and rest.

"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door." ~ J.R.R. Tolkien 1892-1973

Half A Squidget

Daily Draw: Tabula Mundi Tarot ~ 5 of Coins/Discs

Strikes me as a bit of a shrine. To a revolving mental loop that never quits running. The republican that thinks he has found the key to out is pretty funny though.

I'm reminded by the center contraption of my worry box. Holds three things, if something new has to fit in, something old has to leave. Except do I count the eyes as in the box? I don't because if  my eyes are open I'm surrounded by the problem. Can I get half a fourth problem in the box because I could say technically I have half a squidget of space because the eyes aren't in the loop, they are the loop?

"Worry throws daily another loop of fine wire around our souls." ~  Adlai Stevenson 1900-1965

Struck Dead

Daily Draw: Green Witch Tarot ~ Death/Lord of Shadows

If you had to make a list of who should be struck dead what kinds of crimes and people would you consider?

Pedifile and cruelty to animals would top my list. The first because I can observe in my own extended family the harm never goes away, it is carried forever. And the current cruelty locally? Strapping firecrackers in animals mouths and lighting them off. Yes, I think struck dead is too good for them

"He lives down in a ribcage in the dry leaves of a heart." ~ Thomas Harris 1940-   The Silence of the Lambs

Particulates

Daily Draw: Green Witch Tarot ~ Ace of Wands

Cherries for creativity, wren for activation. Reversed it could mean stagnation and blockage.

I'm reminded by the background sky, sunrise and sunset colors are richer the dirtier the air. Which led me to Pompeii, what creates more particulates than a volcano? A place of ruin and death, peopled with 2.5 million visitors per year whose cash, hands, and feet will be the ultimate downfall of the site. Does that make this card upright, or reversed?

"The Arrius Pollio Apartment Complex
owned by Gnaeus Allius Nigidius Maius
FOR RENT from July 1st.
Street Front shops with counter space,
Luxurious second-story apartments,
And a townhouse.
Prospective renters, please make arrangements
with Primus, slave of Gnaeus Allius Nigidius Maius."
—Roman rental notice from Pompeii, 1st century AD

Color The Glass

Daily Draw: Green Witch Tarot ~ 3 of Cups/Chalices

Healing, good fortune, sharing the joy.

I should be preparing for a family reunion this weekend. It is close enough I could go just for an afternoon. But I won't because I see the dark side of the glass, all the people who are gone. It surprises me sometimes, all the ways depression can color my life, even while I am healing.  Perhaps another time...

"My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the heck she is." ~ Ellen DeGeneres

Spark of Yellow

Daily Draw: Green Witch Tarot ~ Ace of Cups

Productivity and fulfillment. Choose the best plan and run with it.

My niece asked me to make her a quilt. Hooray! Had a plan made a wad of blocks put them on the working wall. Yikes! How can this not be amazing? So I've spent a couple weeks fooling with the blocks in different settings.
Yesterday I put the original plan back up on the working wall, but removing the yellow. Holy Smokes Bullwinkle, we have lift off. Sometimes the best most successful plans just require a little simplification to get off the ground. And just a spark of yellow, not a river of it.

"Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful." ~ John Maeda 1966-   The Laws of Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life

Toads?

Daily Draw: Green Witch Tarot ~ 2 of Wands

Moura says this figure has researched a new career of weaving, produced her first shipment of rugs, and all portents set for success, waves it on.

I'm reminded by this cards of newspaper help wanted pages 20-30 years ago. When we lived in Portland there were 10-12 pages full every day, and when I was job hunting I read every one of them. Unlike this woman, I'd take the job then prepare. Is it any wonder they were mostly untenable for the long term? On the other hand I did not know toads carrying wands were good luck.

"Mole: You know, I really am worried about Toad.
Rat: Oh, don't you worry. It's just another one of his passions. He'll grow out of it." ~  Kenneth Grahame  1859-1932  The Wind in the Willows 
Edited to add: Carolyn and I have been busy planting good vibrations for her search for something better suited to her massive capabilities.

Edited to add one more for Carolyn from Ellen 

and one from Bev, who said "May you find a job that puts food on the table and a joyful peace in your heart! "

Whoosh

Daily Draw: Green Witch Tarot ~ 8 of Wands

Something is going to come together or arrive with a whoosh. She is prepared but I'm not buying into it.

To each his own.

J. Wellington Wimpy

Daily Draw: Green Witch Tarot ~ 5 of Coins

Bit of a self imposed pity party going on here. There is warmth in the circle of the Standing Stones, coins within reach, and the lizard warned of potential loss.

I'm reminded by those bandaged feet and empty purse of
blah blah family blah can't pass drug tests blah blah.
A choice with consequences they swear is always someone else's fault.

"We are our own prophets for we constantly project our future state by the seeds we plant in the present. - Cheryl Canfield

Transition

Daily Draw: Haindl Tarot ~ Death

Pollack writes this card isn't about being dead, but our feelings about death. I know people who won't even acknowledge it exists. Which in turn often creates a type of death of family as endless battles go forward over who gets great-grandfather's pocket knife.

I'm reminded by this card we fall at the opposite end of the spectrum. It is such a sense of peace to have wills in place, beneficiaries on all accounts, plots and stones paid for and in place. And to know death is the end. I love my life, but I've walked hand in hand with death enough times, when it comes I'm fine with that too.

"Life is pleasant.
Death is peaceful.
It's the transition that's troublesome." ~ Isaac Asimov 1920-1992

Constance + Cataclysmic

Daily Draw: Haindl Tarot ~ 9 of Coins/Stones

The sea, boulders, and ancient tree roots.
Consistent change paired with minimal.

I'm reminded by this card and the way material life ebbs and flows, of the cataclysmic Missoula ice age flood that swept through this area over a five day period leaving a rippled and scoured landscape with enormous boulders in areas where no boulders should be. Prepare for the worst, appreciate the best, gather ye boulders while ye may.

 "The human mind seems doomed to believe, as simply as a rooster believes, that where we are now is the only possibility." ~ Barbara Kingsolver 1955-

Perfect

Daily Draw: Haindl Tarot ~ 4 of Wands

The eye in the bubble in the hand supporting four perfectly balanced wands.

I'm reminded by this card hard work pays many benefits. Not the least being the pleasure in a good job well done.

"The biggest reward for a thing well done is to have done it." ~ Voltaire 1694-1778)

Mind Games

Daily Draw: Haindl Tarot ~ 5 of Swords

The minors in this deck are small sections of Haindl's larger works. This card is titled Defeat, in the Thoth method. The bubble is meant to signify technology, blood on mechanical hands. The Unicorn feels and sees the swords impaling it, all things ancient are also passing away.

I'm reminded by the hexagram chosen for this card oppression and exhaustion are part of life and the simplest childhood teaching is good and bad go together, in out, off on, light and dark. And what wonders must have existed over the 4.5 billion years of this spinning sphere.

"Don't sweat the small stuff... and it is all small stuff." ~ Richard Carlson 1961-2006

Whose Truth?

Daily Draw: Haindl Tarot ~ 8 of Swords

What is the truth and whose truth is it? With this 8 a bitterness, a poison, an internal wounding is setting in.

If blame is laid it needs to be at our own feet. It is so easy to believe what we want, to make invisible what we don't. To ignore what needs work, to claim what is easy.

"Hindsight is not necessarily the best guide to understanding what really happened. The past is often as distorted by hindsight as it is clarified by it." ~ Amos Elon 1926-2009   The Pity of It All

Wait

Daily Draw: Haindl Tarot ~ 9 of Cups

How long does it take water to wear through rock?

I'm reminded by this image to wonder when we entered the realm of instant gratification. Value is worth the wait.

"In retrospect, all these exercises in self-gratification seem pure fantasy, what Pascal called, licking the earth."  Malcolm Muggeridge 1903-1990

Eureka

Daily Draw: Haindl Tarot ~ 8 of Coins/Stones

On this card I see a basilisk and auroch exiting the gate of the temple. Perhaps stuck in the doorway Meathead and Archie style.

I'm reminded by this card spontaneous action and preponderance of thought seldom exist on the same plane. There are times though where the thought processes are in the background unnoticed until we shout Eureka! and spring into action. Thought and action coexisting.

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go." ~ T.S Eliot 1888-1965

Beigey Greyish

Daily Draw: Haindl Tarot ~ Ace of Wands

I'm seeing this card on it's side today, neither reversed nor upright.
I'm just mentally neutral and it isn't a pleasant place to be. And it isn't such a terrible place to be. Just neutral.

I'm reminded by this card of the constant screaming thrashing nightmares since I started a new med. The waking results are wonderful, but I've come to the conclusion the sleeping results don't balance the good. Now the nightmares are gone but so is the joy. Not good not bad, neutral. So be it.

"Nature is neutral." ~ Adlai E. Stevenson 1900-1965

Endless Scroll

Daily Draw: Personal Oracle ~ Endless Scroll

Still scrolling messages from people he doesn't know.