Tarot BlogHop MidFall/Samhain 2017

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This season's topic suggestion from Jay Cassels was too emotionally charged for me to work with publicly. So I decided to take a different approach. I turned to a tarot spread developed by Carolyn Cushing to gain insight into how best to navigate this season. This reading allowed me to explore what sacred path I should follow, which contemplative practices would aid me on my journey, and which attitudes and behaviors would be most beneficial in undertaking these practices at this time.

To perform this reading, I divided my tarot deck into three piles: one containing the Majors and the Aces, another containing the other Number cards, and the last one containing the People cards. I shuffled each pile separately and drew one card from each to answer the following questions:

from right to left: 

The Teacher, the Ten of Earth, and the Explorer of Air

from The Gaian Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert

1. What sacred path would best serve me this season?
The card drawn for this question was 5 - THE TEACHER. The image suggests embracing a mindset of continuous learning and growth. It encourages me to seek guidance by spending time contemplating nature, engaging in introspection, and learning to trust my insights. This season, the focus should be on personal development, embracing lessons from life experiences, and cultivating a deeper understanding of myself as well as a sense of oneness with creation.

2. What contemplative practice will help me move along this pathway?
The card drawn for this question was THE TEN OF EARTH, which symbolizes reflection on the cyclical changes of the seasons, ancestral wisdom, and my own legacy. It suggests engaging in practices that foster introspection and connection with my roots, both ancestral and experiential. Reflecting on the cyclical nature of life, honoring traditions, and contemplating the impact of my deeds on future generations can provide insights and a sense of purpose.

3. What attitudes and behaviors will be most helpful in undertaking this practice?
The card drawn for this final question was THE EXPLORER OF AIR, which represents curiosity, courage, and mental clarity. This season calls for achieving a mindset of openness to new perspectives and a willingness to explore different paths. By cultivating a sense of curiosity and embracing uncertainty, I will be able to navigate challenges with resilience and creativity. Focusing on my highest values and rising above negative thought patterns will be necessary to foster personal growth and self-awareness.

Since I chose to use The Gaian Tarot for this reading, it's no surprise that the reading emphasized spending time in nature as a way to experience this season. I've shifted from Carolyn's more mystical interpretations to more practical ones that can help me in personal development. This reading reminds me to reconnect with the natural world, learn from it, and trust in my own inner wisdom. Somehow, awareness of nature will go hand in hand with self awareness. I will reflect on how to develop resilience. As the season unfolds, I will keep these insights in mind and strive to walk the sacred path of learning and contemplation. 

If you ever find yourself wondering about the season ahead, perhaps a tarot reading like this one can provide you with the guidance and clarity you seek.

Click on the links below to read posts from other participants in the Tarot Blog Hop!

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Balance at the Threshold - a Reading by Carolyn Cushing

Carolyn Cushing offers New Moon Readings throughout the year. In this season, her readings address what you need to leave behind now, how to find your balance, and what can emerge for you.

Carolyn’s readings are always insightful. I am preparing for a journey and have been so busy that I haven’t had time for personal reflection. So her invitation to spend time with her and the cards seemed propitious.

A recent personal revelation and Carolyn’s reading suggest that there is something I must reclaim before I continue with my current plans.

LEAVE BEHIND: What would be beneficial to leave behind in winter’s dark mystery?

Elder of Water

What is the story unfolding in this card?

What is he leaving behind? What is he heading toward?

How does he know which way to head?

How is this a picture of you?

This card makes me want to ask you…

What emotions are you ready to leave behind?

“Who” helps you to do this?

The story is about movement over water, through feelings and memories, to a new place and time. The man in the card is leaving terra firma and stagnation, carried safely in his “ark.”

(Is that mountain in Oregon? My rabbi is in Lake Oswega and another rabbi I might like working with is nearby-- should I take soul retreat in Portland before making aliyah?)

The man in the card cannot see where he is going; he trusts the hints from his intuition and just rows his boat. Although he sits in an awkward position, he holds the oars with practiced ease. This is a picture of me, moving toward a future that I can’t see or guess. I am listening for guidance… and trusting it.

The otter watches the Elder with playfulness and spontaneity, gratitude, and caring. These are attitudes that might aid me.

BALANCE: How to find my right balance at the threshold?

The Tree

What surprises you about this image? What troubles you? What delights you?

Describe the places of balance in this card. How are they maintained? What example do they offer to you for your own balance?

How does the season balance in the whole of yearly cycle? What lessons does it offer to you about balance at this time in your life?

This card makes me want to ask you…

Are you taking time to pause, to contemplate, to meditate as you make this transition?

I can’t answer any of Carolyn’s questions about The Tree, but I wonder if the card represents a need for stillness. As one finds balance in yoga by focusing inward and responding to imbalances, I should seek balance in everyday life, without fear or comparisons, but by responding to each moment and internal movement. (And maybe I should start doing more yoga, too.)

EMERGE INTO: What can emerge for me as I step into the spring’s new light?

Elder of Earth

What is happening here? What came before to make it possible?

What symbolic element most captures your attention? What meaning does it hold for you? What does it invite you to emerge into?

How is this a picture of you?

This card makes me want to ask you…

What would it mean to think of yourself as a master of change?

A woman, who may be both older and wiser, is spinning a tale, weaving together the threads of her past. This is helping her, but ideally, the story she tells will also help other people.

What happened before: dissolution, losing herself and her path.

The land in the image makes me feel secure, but the presence of the deer prevents it from being static or stagnant. The deer speaks to me of grace, gentleness, trusting one’s instincts, caution, and freedom.

The card invites me to regain my confidence and to release fears for my security. I can emerge into creativity. I can transform myself.

Carolyn’s thoughts on the cards are similar to my own.

LEAVE BEHIND: This card offers an interesting visual on “leaving behind.” The Elder is leaving behind the great wide ocean to head toward the shore, his home. He can’t actually see the shore and moves from skill and trust toward this destination. Moving from these ideas to your life, you might think of it as you are leaving behind a vast and seemingly endless sea of emotions to trust your movements toward a new shore, a new life. You are invited to leave behind the emotions that are linked to the place where you have been, perhaps a few happy ones to mark and celebrate and most certainly the deeper murkier ones.

BALANCE: One of my favorite meanings for this card comes from Rachel Pollack where she talks about the Hanged One as surrendering to the spiritual, to one’s highest purpose. To make such a surrender requires sacrifice, but also a grounding in what is most important. That which is most important or compelling, our highest spiritual calling perhaps, is the Tree that supports us as we do this odd looking working. So even as your life is topsy-turvy from making a big change, keep going back to grounding yourself in this calling. The card suggests that taking mindful moments of meditation (specifically yoga if that is already your practice, but if not that, then the form of meditation that grounds you the most) as you go through the transition.

EMERGE INTO: Wow, I love this image here. The Wheel of Change is being used as a tool for creating a life that is abundant nurturing, and beautiful. You’ve met the Wheel of Change and learned its ways. Now you will emerge into the rewards that it offers.

OVERALL: As a story these cards show you shifting from an Elder focused on emotions to an Elder spinning her own Wheel of Change. The point of power through you must pass to make the transition includes: surrendering to your highest calling, meditation, and daring to turn your life upside down.

Blessings on you for the journey!

Contemplative Tarot - Carolyn's Question

On her blog, Art of Change, Carolyn Cushing recently offered this question for contemplation: What is the dark offering me in this season of long nights?

…an opportunity to learn from the holidays...

8 of Earth – celebrating outdoors before newly harvested fields. Celebrate as winter approaches, accepting every season as a gift.

After the High Holy Days, came Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah, nine days of celebration and tradition.

During Sukkot, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, many Jews celebrate outdoors, living in temporary shelters representing the structures that the Israelites made during the harvest moon so they could remain near the fields at night; these sukkahs also represent the temporary shelters in which they lived during forty years of wandering in the wilderness. 

Shemini Atzeret is an extra day of festival and seems to have neither agricultural nor historical significance. When describing this holiday, some say that god is like a host asks his guests to… (what's that melody?) stay… just a little bit longer. It is an extra day of togetherness.

Simchat Torah "rejoicing in the Torah." We finish reading D’varim (“These are the words” or Deuteronomy) and begin again at B’reishit (“In the beginning” or Genesis) and begin again. Jill Hammer calls Simchat Torah the Solstice of the Torah because the cycle of readings continues.

These holidays represent celebration of the season's harvest, the passing down of tradition, and a pause to reflect between summer and winter.

Death – the sparkling light on the water draws our attention from the decaying boat to a place of new hope. Be eager to change. 

Shortly after Simchat Torah, we observe the yahrtzeit of Rachel, the anniversary of her death. Later, near the winter solstice, we observe Chanukah.

The Matriarch, Rachel, died giving birth to her second child whom she named Ben Oni, “son of my sorrow.” Her husband, Jacob, sadly buried her by the side of the road. The image of Rachel, crying for her lost children is powerful. Her tears moved god to bring us home.

The Festival of Lights remember the re-dedication of the Temple and encourages us to rededicate ourselves. The Temple was captured and desecrated, but then regained and renewed. Perhaps the seven-branch menorah becomes a nine-branch chanukiah during this holiday because light may sometimes grow brighter after destruction.

These holidays teach us to hold on to hope. Rabbi Alan Berg, currently of Beit Chaverim in Oregon, spoke of breaking a glass at Jewish weddings, "If in the moment of your greatest joy, you can remember your greatest sorrow, then in times of sorrow, you will remember joy."

10 of Fire – combines the imagery of life and destruction. You never know what is next.

Everyone knows there’s spring after winter and light after darkness, but we should not to be blind to the destructive forces that come again and again. The fire represents the Tenth of Tevet, destruction. The trees represent Tu B’Shevat, renewal in spring. The smoke represents Purim.

Purim, observed very near the beginning of spring, is a dark, dark holiday on which god is hidden from us and only chance preserves us. The cycle of the year is not simple or clear. Destruction can come at any time and it may only be chance that averts it.

And yet... it will still be springtime.

Be sure to see Carolyn's blog, here.

I Don't Always Pull A Daily Card...

… so for this Tarot Tuesday, I am re-blogging Carolyn Cushing's  cards from her "Week of April 21st Practices." (Read Carolyn's interpretations of these cards on her blog.)

Nurture the small actions that bring structure and meaning to your life

Embrace every moment and every person you encounter with celebration.

Behold the world through the eyes of a child, filled with wonder and discovery.

I love hearing back from my readers so please

leave a comment. I read each and every one. 
Be well!

Contemplative Tarot - Nine of Air, Seven of Air, and Four of Fire

Each week, Carolyn Cushing offers a set of cards for tarot contemplation and weekly practice. I was also inspired by Jason Ash’s use of the Gaian Tarot to deepen his prayer life.

Here, I begin my own contemplative tarot series—an invitation to pause, reflect, and enter into a quiet dialogue with the cards. This weekly practice is both spiritual and intuitive, blending tarot meditation with poetic prayer.

Below are three cards for reflection. May they inspire you to turn inward and consider your path. Feel free to share your insights or personal reflections in the comments—I would love to hear from you.

Force and Source of Life,

May I embrace the darkness
    and hold it as gently as I would a newborn child.

As I contemplate my journey,
    may I bravely envision a wondrous future.

May I forever dwell in awareness,
    rejoicing in the abundant blessings around me.

I’d love to hear your reflections—please leave a comment below.
I read every one!

Carolyn's "Wild Wisdom on Wednesday"

Carolyn Cushing, whose blog is Art of Change Tarot, has begun a new practice and is sharing it with her readers.

Each Wednesday, she posts a nature photograph accompanied by a tarot-like passage: what the image means to her, questions to ask yourself, and a contemplative practice.

The first image is beautiful! And the words are worthy of meditation.

Take a look at her nature awareness photos!

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