Be Strong

I hope your week's been going well; ours was fine until this afternoon. Pooh Kitty (AKA Pooh Bear) didn't make it through the week. He really enjoyed eating baby food these last few days, but he finally was just ready to go.

We always called Pooh the Practically Perfect Kitty. He wasn't the best at purring, but he was second best. He wasn't best at remembering to use the litter box, but he was second best. He wasn't the best at grooming, but he was second best, etc, etc. On the whole, he outscored our other three cats (which is why he was Practically Perfect!)

Pooh had another endearing habit -- he was more like a dog than a cat. Just like a dog, he'd follow you around all over the house; he liked keeping you company. He always wanted to help -- if you were trying to cook, or do laundry, or type on the computer, he would jump into the middle of things to help (and of course, not helping at all!) Our other cats are all experts at hiding in various places, but we never had to search for Pooh. He was always sitting at our feet (or in our laps). If you didn't see him right away, all you had to do was shake a bag of kitty treats -- and he'd magically appear!

Enough for now -- Pooh will always be with us and the Wheel must keep on turning! Let's move 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.

Our cards this week are:


Strength (Reversed)




Two of Pentacles







Once again we begin with a reversed card -- again suggesting some correction be considered in order to move forward!

This week, we begin with a reversed Strength -- another Major Arcana card. This card doesn't really refer to physical or fiscal strength -- the ability to force our will upon others. Instead, this card speaks of a more available and universal strength -- one that we can all call upon to influence matters.

This inner strength we all have -- but don't always recognize. The strength of will, the strength of conviction, the strength of good example, the strength of good character, the strength of love and caring ... we all have all of these and more. When I think of Strength, I think of my mother-in-law -- a tiny and not-physically-strong person, but who affected every person she met by her good nature and honest and considerate outlook. She cared about people -- and cared about their feelings; she cared about goodness and honesty. She could barely lift a brick, but I know strong men who would have run through a brick wall for her. She exercised her strength by influencing others to be better -- by making them want to better themselves.

This is the sort of strength we all have -- but don't alway exercise. Let's check our second card to see what we might consider to correct this.

I always think of the Two of Pentacles in this way -- suppose you're trying to fill out an important business form before the deadline. Suddenly the phone rings; it's someone demanding you take care of an issue for them. About then you glance in the parking lot and think you see smoke coming from your car! As you get up, your sleeve catches on the arm of the chair and rips -- and the receptionist calls up and says "The delivery man wants to know where to put the 500 dead chickens -- did you order dead chickens???"

You get the idea? Distraction upon distraction upon distraction -- many demanding tasks all at once and only one of you trying to juggle everything!

It happens to all of us (well, maybe not the dead chickens!) and about all you can do is hang on and hope it ends soon! Unfortunately, it's sometimes hard to get out of this distraction mode -- we keep anticipating the next crisis and forget to pay attention to other more imporant things. We sometimes spend so much time reacting to things that we lose our quiet composure -- we abandon our inner strength and instead waste attentions and energy by leaping from issue to issue to issue.

The way out of this dilemna is to quietly back off -- take time to center yourself. Call upon your inner strengths; let others see your composure and draw their own strength from your example. Don't try to snatch moments of time to do this -- make time to do so!

The paradox here is that by taking time to attach to your core, you end out having more time to address issues -- and perhaps prevent them from becoming issues in the first place!

And that's about it for this week! Hope things go well for you till next time! I'll be posting this reading to my blog at http://www.woodsongtarot.blogspot.com and welcome your comments there! Have a great week!

Woodsong -
visit Tarot by Woodsong

Size Doesn't Matter!

I hope your week's been going well -- I thought I was going to have time to get this out earlier this week, but the days just started filling up at the last minute. Seems to be happening a lot lately.

Am off to San Mateo next week -- looking forward to it! I've been having some allergy things goings on and am hoping the change of scenery will make a positive difference. That's not why I'm going, of course -- I'm just hoping it will be a pleasant side effect.

One of our cats (Pooh Bear) has been feeling sickly. He had some cysts that added about 4 pounds to his weight -- we had them surgically removed earlier in the year, but they came right back. This time, the vet just drained them in the office. We now have a skinny cat (4 pounds less!), but he won't eat even though he's always hungry. We're now trying blenderizing his cat food into a soup -- that seems to be working so far. Not quite the same morning aroma as a pot of coffee -- but it does wake you up!

Let's move on to 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. Our cards this week are:


The Sun
(Reversed)





The Emperor






Just a couple of quick thoughts -- first, these are both Trump cards (or Major Arcana). Whenever I see a majority of Trump cards in a reading, I always listen a little harder; I figure they're trying to suggest something really important.

Next, we again have a reversed first card. This might make some sense -- a reversed initial card suggests we need to take some action or corrective behavior in order to enjoy the positive aspects of the card. Maybe since we're starting off again, we have some backed up work we need to do!

I find The Sun to be one of the easiest to understand cards of all the Trumps. I think of it like this -- imagine you're sitting on top of a hill and dawn hasn't come yet. It's still dark -- you can't see all that much, even though you know there are things around you. Dawn starts to break -- you can now see glimpses of your surroundings -- you can tell you're on a hill and you can see there's a valley beneath you, but the morning mist clouds things and you can't really make out details. As the sun fully rises, it slowly burns away the fog and you can clearly see, identify, and understand everything ... and that's what The Sun suggests to me! When things are hidden from you -- when the situation is murky and you can't really see the proper path to take, you really need The Sun to fully rise and make things clear and apparent.

This is a really good thing! A nice card to have in our leading position -- but we need to set it upright in order to see our path clearly.

And this is where The Emperor can help us. Think of The Emperor as a truly benevolent ruler. He's not in it for the riches or the palaces, he's in it because he truly cares for the well-being of his people. In the deck I use (the The Robin Wood Tarot deck), the Emperor isn't even sitting in a fancy throne in a palace. He's sitting outside in an ordinary looking throne -- suggesting that his cares are the well-being of his lands and people.

He takes his duties to his people personally -- they are his responsibilities. In fact, that's what motivates and drives him -- his responsibilities. That's how he views the world and his path -- in terms of his responsibilities.

And that's what we should do in order to realize the upright benefits of The Sun ... let ourselves be motivated by our responsibilities! We all have duties -- to our schooling, to our work, our family, our friends, and to ourselves. If we view our daily path in terms of "How does this help my abilities to perform my responsibilities", our path becomes clearer. Rather than blindly doing the same thing every day, we now view ourselves as making progress along the paths we've chosen.

If we really commmit to our responsibilities -- not view them just as things we have to do, but view them as things we have to do well, then our path becomes even more clearer and fulfilling. We being to enjoy putting in the extra effort to excel -- because we gain postive feedback immediately ... since we see how it improves our ability to perform the things we're responsible for.

Remember, we're not talking about changing the world ... just our own little part of it. If we do that one little part well, we'll feel just as fulfilled as does The Emperor.

And that's it for this week! Hope things go well for you till next time! I'll be posting this reading to my blog at http://www.woodsongtarot.blogspot.com and welcome your comments there! Have a great week!

Batty?

I hope your week's been going well -- things have been hectic here (things are always hectic here). I started a new job about a month and a half ago and am really beginning to get busy.

I have to apologize for the format of the reading last week. I was testing the HTML code I use for the reading and began with a really messed up copy. I made changes until it looked much better -- and then accidentally used the messed up version instead when I mailed the reading! I hope this one comes out better!

Am really whipped -- had to drive back to Houston late last night from Austin. I was at a meeting till about 7:30 pm, then decided to wait and see if I could see the bats. Austin has the largest colony of urban bats in the United States -- around 2 million of them. They live underneath a downtown bridge and swarm out at dusk in a huge cloud that envelopes the sky. It's a really impressive view of nature in action and is a big tourist draw. Well worth the wait!

How about 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. Our cards this week are:

Eight of Pentacles(Reversed)


The Hermit











The Eight of Pentacles suggests some sort of professional or educational activity -- basically something at your vocation (or avocation) or your schooling. Something you're learning to do, something you do for pay, or something you do for fun. This is likely a task where you've really got to concentrate or commit yourself in order to do it right.

This isn't really a bad thing -- if you get totally involved in a project, it's usually quite enjoyable. If you do a job or learn a difficult lesson well, it's very satisfying. The hard part is usually getting "into" the task to begin.

Since the card is reversed, we might think about work, school, or hobby areas where you might have trouble getting started -- or maybe trouble in maintaining the level of effort and interest needed to do the task well.

This is pretty common -- most of us seem to need a little jump-start in order to get moving! Where can this come from?

Our second card suggests an answer -- The Hermit. The Hermit's wisdom comes from his experience; he's been through this process a zillion times before. He knows the rewards waiting for us once we commit to the task -- and therefore, so do we know those rewards.

Rather than pushing us into action, the Hermit suggests we let ourselves be pulled by the reward. Wisdom consists of seeing the total picture, not just the immediate surroundings. Getting started can be tough because of the immediate conditions -- it's too hectic, I have too much to do and no time to do it in, other tasks may suffer, I'm so stressed, etc, etc, etc.

The Hermit takes the bigger picture -- the immediate conditions are really just excuses, not reasons. Life is always hectic, we'll always have our attention drawn in different directions, time is always dear -- but those are not reasons to sit on the sidelines! The bigger picture looks at the rewards at the end of the project -- the sense of achievement, the physical or fiscal rewards of completing the task, the personal growth, etc. These are all desireable rewards that should pull us into action -- all we have to do is act.

By the way, notice the similarity between this week's reading and last week's? Both began with a Pentacle and ended with the Hermit.



And that's about it this week! Hope things go well for you till next time! I'll be posting this reading to my blog at http://www.woodsongtarot.blogspot.com and welcome your comments there! Have a great week!

I'm Baaaaccccckkkkk!

And ... it's really great to be back! You know how sometimes, no matter how you've planned and scheduled and arranged things ... life just butts in and says "No, I don't care what you think, we're going to do it THIS way!" and you don't have a whole lot of choice in the matter? Well, that's where I've been recently!

I've been worse places before -- but I've been plenty better places also! It's been hectic, frustrating, and irritating ... I don't like having to react to situations instead of controlling them. I'll tell you more later about it -- but it was essentially just family issues that had to be handled and ate up most of my time and all of my energy!

But we've all been there before -- and we'll all probably end out there again at some point. The Wheel does keep turning -- but it's nice to finally get to the upswing!

I hope things have been going well for you lately. I know these are rough times recently -- I got caught up in them, too (got downsized and pushed out the door). But, like they say, for every door that closes, another opens. Just gotta keep your eye open to recognize it!

Enough of this -- let's get on on to the reading!

Just like we used to, we'll 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. Our cards this week are:

Queen of Pentacles



The Hermit












I always find face cards interesting in a reading. Many readers -- including some I really respect a lot -- claim that a face card ALWAYS refers to a person who will be involved. While I respect their opinion, I don't necessarily feel that way.

To me, a face card refers to a particular aspect or energy that we may exercise ourselves ... or that may affect us. Or ... maybe it does refer to a person we know!

In this case, we're going to look at the Queen of Pentacles. Like all Queens, we'll find this card really concentrates on emotions and feelings. This queen is very caring of others -- being a Pentacle, we're concentrating on fiscal and physical well-being. This suggests trust and belief in others. As you might suggest, this card is interested in helping folks in trouble.

Our second card, The Hermit, offers a good balance for the Queen. The Hermit offers experience and wisdom to help temper the enthusiasm of the Queen. For instance, an unbridled Queen might spend all of her resources assisting others; the Hermit helps her restrict herself to reasonable levels. By managing her resources carefully and wisely, the Queen can be more effective in the long run.

So what does this mean for us? Well, you might feel yourself drawn to assist folks in need -- or you might feel poorly because you cannot help out as much as you wish you could. Note that the "folk" in need may be yourself!

The Hermit reminds us to measure our success not by the amount of help required, but by the amount of help we can reasonably provide. If we do what we can -- even if it's only a small amount -- then we should feel good about ourselves.

In other spins, we might find ourselves sitting on the sidelines because we think "What can I do -- the problem is too large!" The answer is .. we don't have to solve the problem or complete the entire undertaking in order to be effective. We can be effective simply by being a small ... but helpful ... part of the solution. Every little bit helps. It helps those who need it -- and it helps those who offer it.

Whew! It's been a while since one of these -- and it feels kinda nice doing it! I'm looking forward to visiting you again next week with another reading. I'll be posting to my blog again soon (http://woodsongtarot.blogspot.com) and welcome your comments there! Have a great week!