Who else feels like January lasted four months? I can't wrap my head around the concept that the holidays were only about a month ago!
The miserable weather and lack of sun seems to have given everybody's mood a sour note; I am no exception to this. I'm cranky, tired, bored, restless, lazy, gloomy...you name it.
Please pause and think of this phrase: "New Years Resolution." Did you just role your eyes at me? I saw that.
I get it, this is the last thing you want to reflect on. But I'm hoping that I can aid in the process of shifting your mindset.
January was long and dreary, but it also served as a test run. If you're like me, you've repeatedly failed at a couple (if not all) of your 2019 resolutions. So I guess that's it, right? WRONG!
Remember that this is the year where we practice discipline when motivation lacks. Where we understand that the only true "failure" is giving in. Where we understand that fucking up is an unavoidable part of life; we just stand back up and try again.
Look over your resolutions and decide on what you want to tweak. After that, break it down further into some February intentions. Make your monthly goals achievable and manageable so you feel more capable!
For me, I typically read my Tarot cards to get a bit of insight on what parts of my life need extra TLC. I know this is where I'll lose some of you, and that's okay! I hope you've at least read until this point and are feeling some extra pep in your step for the weeks to come.
And if you're still reading, thank you!
I have been practicing Tarot reading for a little over a year now. There is still so much that I'm learning as I continue to research and dive deeper. But I'd like to do a simple spread to receive guidance for February. So let's go!
I've been experimenting with extremely complicated and detailed card spreads, but for the sake of my first Tarot post (and in the spirit of flowing into February with simplicity), I will be following this 3 card spread:
1. Main theme/focus of February
2. Roadblocks in February
3. Advice to harness February's theme/focus
So I just read the cards and I'm honestly shaking. I always have meaningful reads and more often then not, a lot of the cards relate to each other. But these three cards that I just pulled ALL relate to each other! #2 and #3 both refer back to card #1 in the actual description; I have goosebumps! Let's get into it.
Each card has a brief summary (which I'll share) and then an entire passage breaking it down. So I'll try to not ramble on, but it will be difficult because there's so many intricate paths in this read. And when I refer to "upright" or "inverse", that is referring to what direction the card faces when I flipped them because the book offers two summaries depending on the direction.
1. The Star, Upright: "Optimism, hope, return. Harmony between people, especially parents and children. New life in a situation, wisdom, individuality."
I've never pulled this card before, and there's so much backstory to it:
"The Star maiden is the Goddess Persephone, from the ancient Greek Eleusinian Mysteries of life and death." Basically, Hades stole Persephone to be his wife, but her mother threw a fit over it. Persephone was able to come back, but now must return to the underworld once a year. The lesson from the card is that I have been through my own dark times (my personal underworld) and I've returned, but brought back what I learned from those hard times. Now I transform myself from the pain, and share the light that has been discovered from the struggle. The card encourages me to focus on life, on opening my emotions (I always struggle with this), and be confident that I can always overcome the bad.
2. Four of Trees, Upright: "Making the most of the ordinary things in life. Finding special meaning in everyday experience. The card shows the unity of nature and imagination." First of all, the simple summary of the card hit home for me. For 2019, I've been making a conscious effort to be appreciative of the little things. But this last month has been super busy and I got a bit overwhelmed. I feel as if this card is a good reminder that I need to get back to that mindset. BUT THEN, shit got crazy; I read the in-depth analysis of this card and here is the exact sentence that I found: "The 4 continues the theme of gifts found in nature...The grain on the right represents the food that gives us life. It recalls the gift of Demeter and Persephone on the star." Wow!!
I've never had a card refer to a previous card that I pulled in the same read! I had goosebumps! To me, it all links together in the sense of appreciating life, being grateful for the little things, and not taking any experience for granted. I need to be living in the moment again!
3. The Spiral of Fortune, Upright: "Breaking out of old patterns. Change that liberates. Gaining a wider vision."
A couple things come to mind here. First, I actually pull this card often in my readings; it continues to speak to me. A lot of my readings over the last few months have been encouraging me to continue to dive deeper into my spiritual journey, particularly in my personal challenge of cleansing my chakras. Last year I started with my root chakra and have been moving up my body. The closer I get to my third eye and crown, the more bizarre things happen. The spiral on the card has red and blue toned flows, and is meant to represent the physical world and the spiritual world coming together. I feel as if I'm being told to continue in learning, and to continue tapping into my spiritual energies.
Something else that hit me hard was the discussion on "vision" in the card. This gave me tingles down my spine because of a recent purchase I made prior to this tarot read: I went to a crystal shop with my mom and we browsed the celtic knots together. One jumped out at me so intensely that I had to get it. It's the cross of St. Brynach, whose time was spent as a solitary hermit and he was granted angelic visions. Now I think it spoke to me because I have internal intuition, and I want to be more in touch with those feelings.
In my journal I went even harder with dissecting the meanings of the cards, but I don't want to ramble too much here.
I hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes of my tarot meditation! Lately I've been dealing with a creative block, and struggling with new content ideas for writing. But sharing the personal stuff in my spiritual world is sparking new inspiration! Maybe I'll start a new series about my chakra studies and walk you through the research that I've been doing for each energy point in the body.
If you have any requests for future posts, please let me know! I'd also like to point out that I have a poetry section on this blog that is slowly being added to. It's difficult because poetry is the most private, personal writing that I do in my life. But I want to get out of my comfort zone and share it with you.
Thanks for reading! See you next time!
"Comfort is the enemy of progress." -P.T. Barnum
*all photos used in this post are my own*