Weekly Card – The Star

Star light, star bright

First star I see tonight

I wish I may, I wish I might

Have the wish I wish tonight

I could have sworn I’d pulled this one recently as the weekly card, but I dug through my posts all the way back to March and nada. This is The Star from the Victorian Romantic Tarot. The Star is associated with Aquarius, The Water Bearer, which is an Air sign. The element of Air is associated with the mind and thought, mental processes. It’s a card of faith, hope, optimism. It’s a sign that now is the time to try again, not to give up. Let go of negative thoughts, any anger you’ve been carrying around. Transform yourself, focus on things that have real meaning in your life. Take control of your thinking and channel it in a way that will do you the most good. Have courage, renew your efforts.

Thinking good thoughts for you all for a brighter week.

Weekly Card – Temperance

Temperance from the Victorian Romantic Tarot 2nd edition from Baba Studio is our card this week. This deck is exquisite, with many beautiful cards, but this one is transcendent.

Temperance is precisely that, in the sense of moderation, not total abstinence. It speaks to us of keeping things in balance in our lives, avoiding overindulging in food, drink, even the need to remain faithful to a sexual partner. It’s combining opposites, symbolized by the two different goblets held by the angel, one silver, one gold. One for the subconscious and one for the conscious, a blending of the spiritual and material worlds. In order to be at peace with ourselves we have to come to terms with our dual natures as both physical and spiritual beings. Easier said than done. Some try to eschew the physical and focus solely on their spiritual lives, giving up most interaction with the world, and denying themselves any sort of physical pleasure. Others do the opposite, denying their spiritual sides in pursuit of a hedonistic life.

Most of us fall somewhere in the middle.

Temperance is the alchemical blending of opposites, refining and distilling them. The blending of fire and water. Temperance is the synthesis of the Empress and Emperor who have sacrificed their egos and joined into one being. When we let go of our egos we can transform ourselves.

Wishing  you a week of peace, healing, and transformation.

 

Weekly Card – Justice!

 

Justice from the Victorian Romantic Tarot. Justice is a card of…well, justice. Balancing things, weighing them evenly. Possibly being called to account for your actions. A judgement in your favor. Fairness and the rule of law.

Time to think logically, but balance rigid logic with the intuition, perhaps some compassion. Don’t let the letter of the law defeat the spirit of the law.

Here we have the Angel of Justice vanquishing a fallen angel. Under her left foot is a broken sword with two doves of peace close by. The original painting was by E. Butler, entitled “Angel of Peace” and she originally held an olive branch rather than scales. She wears a crown of laurel leaves, an ancient symbol of victory.

Not much time tonight, so I’m keeping this short. Just remember: the sword of Justice cuts both ways. Here’s hoping everything will go in your favor this week.

Looking Back, and Ahead

So. Trying to get back into the groove here and get something posted. I imagine most of us are still reeling from Friday’s events in Newtown, Connecticut. I’ve found it hard to think about much else, myself. So this afternoon I indulged in some escapism and watched “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Not one of the cheerier films in the series and possibly not the best choice, maybe I should have stuck to Jane Austen. And did I mention today is Jane’s birthday? (It’s also the birthday of Arthur C. Clarke, and Philip K. Dick.)

The world was so much simpler then, wasn’t it? Jane never traveled more than 20 miles from her home and yet what a legacy she left.

I love the piano piece in this scene from the 1995 Emma Thompson film version of “Sense and Sensibility’. Bizarrely and inexplicably on the movie soundtrack CD it’s played by a full orchestra, destroying the charm and simplicity of the piece. Sometimes I put the CD on just to listen to this beautiful melody. It’s called “My Father’s Favorite.” Most of the renditions I found online of someone plinking it out on the ivories was less than satisfactory, hence the movie clip.

Anyway, let’s have a card for the week ahead.

The Six of Wands from the Victorian Romantic Tarot. Seems to fit in with the time period of Jane’s life. Soldiers returning in a triumphal parade, clearly victorious, being cheered by the watching crowds. Wands are Fire, creative energy, with the balance of the six here. The white horse is indicative of purity of intent. This could mean recognition of efforts, being admired, basking in the attention of others. Just don’t let it go to your head.

I drew this card first, wasn’t happy with it and tried shuffling and pulling a couple more times before I decided to go back to this one and go with it. I was hoping for a less martial image, but I find it’s usually best to go with what the cards decide to talk about. It’s a good card, no doubt about that.

Wishing you all victory and success this week.

Dispatch from the Zone – My Excuse

It’s been an odd couple of weeks for me. Starting with the Thanksgiving holiday, where I grumbled about having to take Friday as personal vacation because my company doesn’t give it as a holiday (as my previous companies have done), all was well until that Sunday night. I’m only telling this now because a lot of you know already and if you don’t it will no doubt be mentioned at some point in the future and I can get all the explanation out of the way now.

In short, I laid the bike down that night and sliced my leg open, resulting in six stitches and a couple of missed days of work. I spent Sunday evening in the ER, hence no post last week. It was a fairly deep lacerating and “heavy bleeding” according to the paperwork I got. I took one quick look at the gaping hole in my leg and that was enough.

I’m not posting icky pictures here of the wound, there’s not much damage to the bike so nothing to see there. It was a low-speed accident, luckily, and no other vehicles involved. I jumped a curb, hit a small tree and went down. I didn’t even realize I was injured until one of the kind people who had stopped to help me saw the blood. I thought it was just mud on my pants (which by the way are still intact). So, long story short, I’ve been hobbling around for the last week, and getting grumpier about it by the day. Another week and the stitches should come out.

At any rate, I made it in to work that Tuesday, and managed to get around well enough. I was supposed to have had my review that Monday, but it was rescheduled to Wednesday. After that I got grumpier. It wasn’t horrible, but I am still steaming over being reprimanded (in the nicest way possible) for not being ‘helpful’ enough to some entitled bitch who ran into the office looking for some conference that she had no information on (no title, room number, who was putting it on – nothing), and felt I should simply have known where it was. Well, there are a lot of conferences and symposiums and lectures that go on there, and sadly I am not an electronic display board that lists them all. So she bitched to someone in my department, who in turn came to my manager to express their displeasure over this. I am told I did not ask enough, or the right, questions to figure out where this self-important nobody needed to be. This wasn’t the only criticism sandwiched in with praise, but it was the biggest one (I was also told I wasn’t displaying enough enthusiasm for the job. I’m an admin assistant, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to express enthusiasm for this). The interesting thing is I never heard a word about any of this until the review the other day.

To sum up, I am more desperate than ever for a new job.  Maybe it’s my paranoid imagination, but it feels a little like they’re building a case.

All that aside, I’m back to polishing the vampire novel with the goal of having it ready to start querying agents in the new year. I need to get on with this. I need to at least say “I tried” even if it never gets published.

Getting back to our weekly card draw, this one ‘jumped’ out as I was shuffling.

The Ace of Pentacles is the Root of the Powers of Earth. Aces are beginnings, and pentacles deal with money, and material concerns. This is good, some new venture kicking off, hopefully a lucrative new project. I have some ideas for a new venture, I hope this is a good omen.

So, that’s where I’ve been and what I’ve been dealing with for the last week. How’s it by you?

Feeling Creative?

Here’s our lovely card for the week, the Ace of Wands from the Victorian Romantic Tarot by Baba Studio in Prague.

The Ace of Wands is the root of the creative powers, a beginning, fire energy. This could be good. A new creative undertaking about to take off? Maybe Prometheus has some fire from the gods for us all. The LWB suggests “Bravery and courage in the face of something new.”  How apropos. I’m about to get saddled with a new duty at work, one I truly dread (I’ve already seen my ‘revised job description’ so I know it’s coming). Six more months and I can bail. I can’t believe I’ve been at this job nearly six months already. By Zeus, there has to be a better way to make a living. I really need to get moving on the escape plan.

I’ll Take One World, Please

The World from the Victorian Romantic Tarot

Served up with a lovely side of flowers.

The World card indicates pretty much what you see: Being on top of the world, having things come out in your favor, your plans coming to fruition, cause for celebration.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart. — Helen Keller

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. — Oscar Wilde

I wonder if Wilde really thought of that as a punishment. Some of the most compelling moments in my life have been watching the sun rise. It was one of the things I loved about my commute to my last job, cresting the hill in the road and seeing the sun about to rise above the hills, the different and stunning clouds in the morning, or the fog laying in the fields below. I always meant to pull over and get some pictures but never did, in the rush to get to work on time. Plus that stretch of road was two-lane, and there really wasn’t any place to pull over except into private driveways. Alas. Maybe some weekend on the bike.

Have a great week, everyone!