Balance

Back to the week -- I hope your's has begun well. Don't know if you celebrated Mardi Gras yesterday or not -- I live in Houston now, but grew up in Louisiana so I know what the party can be like. We decided to have a traditional New Orleans meal to celebrate, but had problems agreeing on what was a typical New Orleans dish.

I lived in New Orleans for several years and my vote was for Red Beans and Rice. Red Beans are traditionally served on Mondays in New Orleans; the story goes that Monday was always laundry day in the old times. Back then, laundry took all day to do -- no modern machines around at all! So, housewives cooked a simple meal that could sit unattended on the stove all day while they took care of the laundry -- and that meal was Red Beans and Rice. For the traditional New Orleans flavor, you need to use some pickled pork in the beans. Southern Louisiana used sausage instead, so the New Orleans style was unique to the area.

On to the reading ... we'll again pull two cards -- the first suggests something we should focus on for the week. The second suggests things we might consider in order to fully benefit from the attributes of the first card.

The cards are:

Ace of Cups (Reversed)

The Magician

Aces of any suit typically suggest the beginning of something new; Cups particularly zone in on emotional areas. This might suggest a new beau, or perhaps a new friendship or even a new emotional attitude towards topics that interest you. Maybe it's a new interest in a favorite singer on American Idol (although I thought most of the guys were uninteresting last night)!

The reversal twists this message, though. Instead of a new beginning (or a renewal of a stale interest), it likely suggests some hindrance that's keeping you from being able to realize this aspect. Let's take a peek at out next card to get some things to think about that may help us move forward.

The Magician normally suggests the power of our individual will. We all vary in physical capabilities ... but the physically weakest of us all may have the strongest willpower. Our will may even be our most defining personal aspect. While this is normally the view of the Magician, I'm getting a different twist this time, though.

Another aspect of the Magician is that he is able to use all the aspects of the Tarot suits -- Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles -- when he enforces his will. There's a balance implied here -- no one suit is more important than any other, they're all equally important ... and all equally necessary. (In fact, I find balance or imbalance a recurring theme in many of the readings I do.)

I'm wondering if perhaps the Ace of Cup's reversal is because of an imbalance -- a tendancy to focus strongly on the emotional aspect while neglecting the other equally important aspects? In order to fully realize new emotional enjoyment, we also have to address our physical, mental, and spiritual (or energy) wellbeing. I'm really stretching the spiritual part here -- Wands really refer to the interest and energies we use to fuel ourselves -- but I guess you could term it spiritual well-being in a way.

Anyway, what I'm thinking is that we'll be best able to upright that pesky Ace if we also keep an our on other facets of our person. Keep balanced, and you'll find it easier to stride down the path!

And that's about it this week; I look forward to seeing you again next week.

Woodsong --
visit Tarot by Woodsong

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