Weekly Card, First Week of June

I thought we needed kittehs this week, so I busted out the Baroque Bohemian Cats.

So. We have The Hierophant, holding the keys to the Kingdom, standing there in his fine robes. I can’t help but think of the ‘Impressive Clergyman’ from The Princess Bride: “Mawwiage… is what bwings us togeva… today.” Ok, no marriage in sight, but he’s pretty impressive.

He indicates rules and regulations, respecting established order and institutions, particularly religious. I always bristle at the sight of him. I dislike knuckling under and following authority, when I don’t always agree with their teachings or methods. It feels restrictive, having to conform and follow traditions. He can also indicate a need to look deeper at a situation, and find a new meaning, uncover wisdom. It’s a time to pay more attention to spiritual matters, learn more. I have been neglecting things lately, perhaps now is the time to take a little time to study more and expand my understanding.

My understanding of my vampire novel has been greatly expanded, in the best way, thanks to my beta reader. I have a lot of work to do on it, lots of work. I don’t know, at what point do you decide it’s just too much to fix and move on to something else? But, I grow as a writer, learning as I go.

Wishing you all a week of growth, but not in a painful way!

Strength

I had a request to use this deck so this week’s card is from the Baroque Bohemian Cats deck (3rd edition) from Baba Studio. This is a wonderful, whimsical deck of anthropomorphic cats dressed in rich garments, with backgrounds taken from locations in and around Prague. Cats, sumptuous fabrics and Prague, what more can we ask for?

The Strength card. Typically on most decks Strength features a woman subduing a lion, or sitting contentedly with one. The Strength card is about our inner strength, subduing our own baser instincts and becoming better for it. I found a couple of quotes I liked about strength and wanted to share them.

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

 

This one made me a little misty-eyed:

Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”
― Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum LP

I feel like I’m going off to battle every day when I go to work now. Somehow I have to believe I have the strength to get through this.

Be strong, be brave.