The Lovers: Be Impeccable With Your Word

Thanks to Victoria, from Eternal Athena, I have come to know the Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA (by Julia Turk), and have fallen totally in love with it, such that I acquired it in this past week! If I didn't know any better, I'd say that I didn't know it was possible to fall even more in love with a deck upon holding it, but hey, that's just what has happened. This deck is amazing, and if I hadn't already compiled my 3x3x3 Favorite Divination Tools post, this surely would have landed there! (Or maybe I would have just made it the 4x3x3 Divination Tools post) ;-).

I don't usually post regularly with the same deck - I like to switch things up according to my mood. However this deck is so detailed, so intriguing, I just might give it special focus for a while! So for today, I shuffled asking for a focus card for the day, and the Lovers flew out, calling for my attention. And here it is:

Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA
Julia Turk/U.S. Games Systems

Each card in the Navigators Tarot has a keyword. I'm not a huge fan of keywords, but I don't mind them so much here, and find that they give a very interesting take on various aspects of card meanings. Here we have the keyword "discrimination" which goes very well with the "choice" element of the Lovers card. In general this is a card of important relationships and of critical decisions - and sometimes of both, intertwined.

In the image on this card we see an orange male figure looking downward toward a pale female figure that looks upward, and their hands touch through the surface of the sea. He is connected to the sun, light, day. She is connected to the moon, dark, night. They represent balance, and the harmony possible when opposing forces meet.

One thing that stood out to me was the fact that the woman is perched in a crescent moon, in what looks like a pool of blood. This reminds me of the monthly menstrual cycle and its impact on my mood. Usually I'm very calm, peaceful, and relaxed, but in the few days surrounding the start of my "time" I can get pretty touchy and irritable. I don't always filter myself as I normally would, nor am I always as thoughtful as I should be. To one side swims a turtle, and to the other side a jellyfish that shows a theatrical sad/happy face. This suggests that when under the influence of hormonal fluctuations it's important to move more slowly so that I'm less likely to say something I don't mean. After all, despite the time of the month, we are always in control of what we choose to say - sometimes we just have to try a bit harder than others!

This is the aspect of this card that is most relevant to me today as I sit here typing. That familiar discomfort is blossoming in my pelvis, my skinned knee is really sore, and on top of that I'm particularly sleepy as my little son is dealing with an asthma flare-up (for the first time ever - scary stuff when the babies can't breathe well!). Last night, under the influence of all of these things, I was uncharacteristically grumpy and a bit coarse with my dear husband. The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was to kiss him and apologize to him. No matter what, like the golden circle binding the arms of the man and woman in this image, he's my counterbalance, my partner, my love, and regardless of what's going on within or around us, I honor that sacred bond.

Discrimination is about having the ability to tell what is of value, and what is not, in a given situation or matter. This goes for knowing what we want versus what we need, what has the ability to provide the greatest return versus what gives us only fleeting benefits. We can apply discrimination to outside decisions, and to our inner selves. Are you fair to yourself? Can you recognize your own inner impulses and how they manifest in the world? How do those impulses influence the decisions that you make? To be impeccable with your word (one of the Four Agreements by Don Miguel) means that you work to understand your desires and motivations, that you take time to identify the source of your emotions and that you use that knowledge to guide your actions and speech. This is about being as honest as possible with yourself and with others.

So when I'm grumpy and crampy and I'm on the verge of being snippy with someone I care about, the turtle reminds me to slow down, to be aware that my snippiness stems from what's going on within me physically and is unrelated to the other person, and allows me the brief moment necessary to respond more calmly, compassionately, and honestly. Thus, instead of creating disharmony, I allow room for open communication and the opportunity to be understood in return.

On that note, I'm off to brew up some raspberry leaf tea!!!