Imbolc Blog Hop: Biakendai

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Welcome to the 2017 Imbolc Tarot Blog Hop! Please navigate to the other wonderful blogs in the circle by using the directional links at the top or bottom of this page. Our wrangler is Arwen Lynch Poe from Tarot by Arwen, and the theme she chose for us all is posed in the form of a question: 

How can I best foster the energy of the Aces in my life?

In northern climates, the month of February is a liminal space. Winter still embraces the land, but the sun is becoming ever brighter, and stays longer in the skies each day. Though the ground is still frosty, spring is on the way, and there is a restless energy in the air: a readiness to dig in to the fields, to prepare the ships for sailing. There are many festivals to welcome in the spring, and most include fire in some capacity, as a dispeller of the cold and ice. 

One little-known February festival called Biakendai (Biikebrennen in German) is held on the island of Amrum each year on February 21st. Amrum is a small island in the North Sea, just off the coast of the borderlands between Denmark and Germany. It is part of the North Frisian islands, home to a branch of the Frisian ethnic minority, and speakers of the Frisian dialect Öömrang. It was on this island that my great-grandfather, Gerret, was born into a rich community of family and close friends, and it was from this island that he emigrated in order to establish a new life in New York City. He and his family would have celebrated Biakendai by lighting a massive fire near the sea, and by blackening their faces with the soot of its ashes. It is said that the intention of the bonfire has shifted over time - that long ago it was meant as an offering to the ancient gods and goddesses, and with the coming of Christianity its significance focused more specifically on the more secular celebration of winter's departure.

Here is a newscast about the festival. Even if you don't understand German, you may enjoy the images:

For families of immigrants, reconnecting to lineage and ancestry can be a deeply rewarding experience of becoming "rooted." There is profound Ace energy in that, and this is one way I have been fostering that energy in my life.

Ace of Fire: Biakendai is primarily a bonfire festival for dispelling winter (and any lurking bad spirits!) and inviting in the springtime. The festival is held on neighboring islands and in the adjacent south of Denmark, where it is called Pers Awten/Pers Aften (Gerret's wife, my great-grandmother, Emilie, was a Dane from the ancient South Jutland trading town of Ribe, and probably celebrated that). Islanders gather their combustible refuse (tree branches, cardboard, etc.) and contribute it all to a mountain that will be lit on the 21st. Effigies named "Peter" are thrown on the fire to symbolize the burning away of the dark (both literal and metaphorical), the flashpoint where winter dies and the spring is born. The bonfire festival also served as a time to see off sailors and whalers as they began dangerous ocean voyages. This will be the first year that I celebrate this holiday in honor of my ancestors, and so this is my Ace of Fire.

Ace of Earth: In the Tarot, the 10 of Pentacles is a beautiful symbol of traditions that are passed on from generation to generation. But when traditions are lost due to immigration, an effort must be made to reclaim them. Thus a seed of "new" tradition is planted. I hope that the honoring of this festival will become something that my children look forward to in coming years, and if nourished and sustained, that it may even pass on to their own children. This is my Ace of Earth.

Pagan Otherworlds Tarot - Uusi

Ace of Air: Radio Öömrang is a shortwave radio station on Amrum that holds a very special broadcast each year:

Radio Öömrang broadcasts once a year on the occasion of the Biakendai to the descendants of immigrants from the island of Amrum. Öömrang is a North Frisian dialect and is still spoken on Amrum. Biakendai is an annual celebration where a great bonfire is lit to dispel winter. (from the website)

They are reaching out over the airwaves on this traditional holiday in order to bridge the great space between Amrum and its diaspora. The broadcast lasts for one hour only: my Ace of Air. 

Ace of Water: Quite some time ago as I began to explore more in depth my Danish, North Frisian, and German heritage, I pulled a card about what the process would be like. It was the Ace of Cups. Indeed it has been like drinking from a hidden well, refreshing a parched aspect of my soul. Embracing my family history has been an act of love, not only for my ancestors, but for myself, and for my own children as well. This is my Ace of Water.

My great-grandfather Gerret (lower left) with family - Nebel, Amrum

Here is a festival song for Pers Aften. The video shows images of Biakendai/Biikebrennen/Pers Aften celebrations, including some from Amrum (look for the red/white lighthouse):

"And immediately about the fire were people in the crowd,
they danced and partied and went wild.
I asked a girl who approached me
'What are you doing, and what is it about?'
She smiled at me and she said:
'We celebrate the light, it's what we believe.
We sacrifice to Odin and Freya and Thor
and cry to heaven, where the gods live:
Weadke tar, Weadke tar,
Weadke tar, Weadke tar, Weadke tar,
Weadke tar, Weadke tar,
Weadke tar, Weadke tar, Weadke tar.'"

Thank you for reading, and Happy Hopping!

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Samhain Blog Hop: Guidance From Our Ancestors

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Welcome to the Samhain Blog Hop! Louise Underhill, from Priestess Tarot, is our trusty wrangler this time around, and she has asked us to open ourselves to the guidance and advice of our ancestors in honor of the present time of year. So here goes!

Last Samhain Blog Hop I chose to focus my post on my Grandpa Malgeri. This time around I decided not to choose, but to let any grandparent(s) come forward that wished to. I pulled three cards to help describe the person, and another three cards to form their message to me. Interestingly, I found my Grandpa Malgeri here again!

Pagan Otherworlds Tarot

The King of Swords is the anchor card, and my mother's dad was a Libra; I think he was a good father in his own way, but he made choices that ultimately led to many years of considerable geographic separation from his kids. The Page seems to trying to show his pentacle to the King of Swords whose attention is diverted toward the Lovers - he's even gesturing toward them. My grandmother left Italy and returned to the U.S. with her kids after she learned that my grandfather had been having an affair.* So here I see my grandfather nestled between two rather significant areas of family life: his love relationships, and his children. I will underscore the fact that I don't judge my grandfather and the choices that he made - life and love are complex and messy at times. Given that he died when I was a baby, these are some of the sparse details that I know about him, which means that they are particularly helpful themes to touch on for purposes of helping me figure out which grandparent was "speaking."

I love that he is letting me know that he is still here and present in my life.

The message along the bottom - the 6 of Swords, Fool, and Ace of Wands - speaks of movement, new adventures, and opportunity. This is indeed what my astrology reports have been hinting at lately, too! And I see evidence of it in my life - the sense of wheels turning, of new paradigms waiting to be born, of branching out (no pun intended!) and exploring new territory, especially as it relates to my professional life.

Thus it is a comforting confirmation of the small wonderings that clamor for the attention of my waking mind. I'm ready for what may come.

This is a peek at my ancestral altar which has been seeing quite a bit of action lately.

May your Samhain, Halloween, may your Winter Nights, be blessed.

To continue around the circle of blog hoppers, use the links at the top or bottom of this post!

*Interestingly, in a reading I did recently (for Shadow Work October on Instagram) about the "wisdom of the female lineage," I saw my grandmother's story there, too!

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Samhain Blog Hop: Honoring Giuseppe

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Welcome to the Samhain Blog Hop! Please use the links at the top or bottom of this post to navigate to the other wonderful blogs in this circle. This time around our wrangler, Arwen Lynch-Poe, has asked us to "commune, communicate, and commemorate." We might choose an ancestor or notable historical figure to discuss, to read for or about, or to celebrate, in one way or another.

I ultimately decided to honor my grandfather for this Samhain celebration. Giuseppe Giovanni Amerigo Malgeri was born on September 23rd, 1900 in Pigüé, Argentina, the son of immigrants from southern Italy. As a young adult he left South America for Italy to earn his teaching certificate, and eventually enlisted in the Italian military. In 1924 he traveled to the United States for the first time, where he met and married my grandmother, with whom he had three children. They moved back to Italy which is where my mother spent her early years, but my grandmother ended up returning to the U.S. with all of her children after some waywardness on the part of my grandfather. He died a couple of years after my birth so I never had the opportunity to know him (or my paternal grandfather either, as a matter of fact), which over the years I've come to see as a true and mostly irreparable loss.

An extendable table crafted by my grandfather

I never knew a lot about Giuseppe, and what I did hear could be held within a single, cupped hand: he was a woodworker; he was a teacher; he was a traveler; he was a soldier; he was multilingual. He loved his children in his own way. As I thought about what court card my grandfather might be, I settled on the King of Wands. Though he was a Libra, his essence feels more like fire to me, and as it turns out he has quite a bit of Sagittarius in his chart! I had pulled my husband's Mary-El deck out the previous day, and decided to sift through it for the King of Wands. When I found it I immediately noticed an interesting resemblance to my grandfather:

Mary-El King of Wands and Giuseppe Malgeri

Yesterday on my way home from work I was contemplating what to have for lunch and had settled on eggs all'inferno (eggs in Hell) because we had a really nice tomato sauce that needed to be used. And then I realized that this dish is part of the small legacy that I have from my grandfather. We have relatives in Argentina still, some of with whom I speak. We have family in Italy as well. But one of the most consistently present, always-accessible, fully tangible remnants of his is this simple egg-and-tomato-sauce dish that I learned from my mother. As she would throw eggs on top of bright red sauce in a pan, she would say, "Time for eggs all'inferno, one of my dad's favorite foods!" So for me, this is a direct line to the grandfather I never had a chance to know in this life. Now as I prepare it, I tell my own children, "This is your great-grandpa Malgeri's favorite dish!"

Giuseppe's eggs all'inferno

For those interested in the recipe, it goes a little something like this:

Giuseppe's Eggs all'Inferno

Put some tomato sauce (a cup or two, to your own liking) in a pan (non-stick is best) and crack as many eggs as you like on top. Put on a cover and let it poach until the eggs are cooked to your preference. You can add cheese if you like - throw some on to melt during the final minute or two, or grate some parmesan or romano on top after you serve it. It's great with buttered and toasted bread. As an alternative method, you can pan fry the eggs first, and when they are close to done you can pour the sauce over the top and let it heat through!

I decided to do a reading to ask some basic questions about my grandfather: How did he see himself? What was his passion? How would (or does) he see me, his granddaughter? The results provoked more questions than answers, but were interesting nonetheless:

Stone Tarot/A. Stone

1) How would you describe yourself? 8 of Pentacles reversed. I wonder if he ever felt contented with what he had accomplished in life. Was he a perfectionist that never seemed able to reach the top of the mountain? Was he perpetually dissatisfied? He certainly wasn't a "stable" man in the sense that he didn't stay in one general area - even country - for the majority of his life. He traveled, but more than that, he was an immigrant. He had many different interests, skills, and occupations. He had a family, and then he didn't. Did he ever feel that he'd been "enough"?

2) What was your passion? Wheel of Fortune. In some way this card seems to answer certain elements of the previous card. After I pulled this from the deck I was singing "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" for the next hour. What I like about this card is that it tells me that my grandfather was truly a wanderer by nature. He thrived on change and newness. My mother always said that we come from a nomadic family, in the sense that at least the recent generations have never stayed put. My grandfather moved around a lot, and so have his children and their children. It's nice to think that he pursued change at least in part because he found it exhilarating. And it's interesting to see those qualities in myself.

3) How do you see me? Page/Princess of Wands. I was just writing the other day about "signficators" in Tarot and I mentioned that the cards that most often come up for me are the King and Queen of Cups, and the Page of Wands. In fact, the Page of Wands is specifically the card that tends to represent the work I do in divination: an emissary and messenger, a go-between and interpreter. An underlying question here was one that Arwen had mentioned in her original Blog Hop task for us: How might your relative feel about your card reading? In that light, I take this as a positive confirmation that he approves of what I'm doing. And I like the idea that he sees me as a "princess" (that's very grandfatherly, I think!).

Last week my husband and I were dealing with a pretty difficult and challenging matter regarding our car that had suddenly broken down and left us in quite a conundrum (I discuss it in more detail here). As we were strolling through the dealership parking lot in search of a new vehicle, I had a "moment" where I was very aware of both of my grandfathers. I imagined what it would be like to have their help and support in that situation. I thought about how I never had known them, had missed out on the opportunity to experience the grandfather-granddaughter bond. But I welcomed their energy in, and asked for their advocacy.

It's funny that I never thought about it at the time, but as I wrote this post I naturally thought about that invitation in the parking lot, and then it suddenly dawned on me. We ended up purchasing (via a lot of mysterious and fortuitous circumstances) a car that I'd never imagined I'd ever own (and still can't believe it, really): a Fiat - the most popular Italian car brand.

So I send a big "thank you" to my grandfather-in-spirit, Giuseppe Giovanni Amerigo Malgeri. May you always be with me, and may I always be open to your love and guidance.

Happy Samhain, everyone!

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Mabon Tarot Blog Hop: Princess of Cups

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Welcome to the Mabon 2015 Blog Hop! Please use the links at the bottom or top of this post to navigate to the other wonderful blogs in this circle of divination thinkers, writers, and creators.

For this second-harvest festival hop, our wrangler, Maureen Aisling Duffy-Boose, asked us to think of a Tarot card that embodies this time of year for us, and then to create our own card using whatever materials suited our fancy. I am a drawer and painter primarily, so my first thought was to head for the canvas and acrylics. But then I thought about trying out a new (to me) medium - digital/photographic art! So here goes.....

When asked to consider a card that highlights the harvest season, autumn, most completely, I immediately thought of the Princess of Cups from the DruidCraft deck. In fact I will never forget how I felt the first time I laid eyes on it after having purchased it several years ago...the colors in rich, deep reds, the orange leaves preparing to fall into the brisk breeze...the golden fields in the background, and the cool calmness of the water. I love autumn, I'll just clear that up right now. It's my favorite season, and one of the more difficult adjustments I've had to make with living in the near-tropical south has been losing the earthy charm of this time of year. I have rediscovered it to some extent in the Florida winter, which is quite like autumn in the north, complete even with certain trees that change color and lose their foliage (usually in mid-December).

Still, the apple-cinnamon-orchard-pumpkin-chill-campfiresmoke-mystery is a little bit harder to find.

DruidCraft Tarot/W. Worthington

That said, the minute September 1st rolls around I start to feel an undercurrent of excitement - the thrill of the impending change in season. It's subtler down here, but it's still noticeable if you pay attention. Even in the at-times-oppressive 90-degree heat, I am thinking of baking, cider, and pumpkin pie.

So I knew that I wanted to recreate the Princess of Cups in honor of this second harvest festival of Mabon. Interestingly as I went a-researching I found (thanks to my trusty Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot, by DuQuette, 2003) that the season of the Princess of Cups begins at the Fall Equinox and rules Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius! Coincidence? Synchronicity? Perhaps!

Princess of Cups/O. Destrades

I chose my daughter, Lourdes, to be my Princess, and I used my iPad and an art app to create the effects over the photo. While her Sun sign is Taurus, pretty much everything else in her chart is water, and she is certainly the most sensitive of my three kids. In this image the core color scheme highlights autumn: oranges, reds, browns and black. Representing the pure essence of water, streams of the element shoot from her finger and hand, arcing up into the sky and then down and around her body. She is young, and carries the innocence of this Court, but her expression is calm and knowing.

Inspired by the process of working on the Princess of Cups, I also created the Princess of Disks using the image of my oldest daughter, Isabella, who is a triple Earth (Capricorn, Virgo, Taurus)!

May your creativity always flow! Happy Mabon!

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Lammas Tarot Blog Hop: Rediscovering Our Joy

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Welcome to the Lammas 2015 Blog Hop! Please use the links at the top or bottom of this post to navigate to the other wonderful blogs in this circle.

Our wrangler, Joanne Sprott, has asked us to discuss the influence of the Sun in the Tarot, and/or of Mercury from a favorite Tarot or Oracle deck. I've decided to focus on the Sun (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the sun called me to focus on it!).

One morning, recently, I was looking out my kitchen window in the early hours of the morning, enjoying the glint of the rising sun through the green landscape. I thought about how interesting it is that the angle of light can bring out so many lovely details in even the simplest of things. This spurred the thought:

How does the illumination of the sun invite us to see things in a new light?

New Orleans Voodoo Tarot/S. Glassman

On a mundane, earthly level, the sunlight filtering through green leaves, flowers, and grasses imbues nature with a golden glow that can be absolutely breathtaking. My favorite time of day to "take in" my back yard is in the early morning during the time of year between early June and late August. The rising sun lifts into the sky at a precise angle that lights up the tall bushes and shrubs along our fence line such that it looks as if a magical door has materialized. Golden beams glint off emerald hibiscus leaves just outside my window, and long shafts of brilliance stretch over the lawn, leaning into secret crevices in our maple tree. It's a beautiful sight to behold. And just as fast as it appears, the magic is gone, the sun rises high into the day-time sky and the back yard looks ordinary once again.

A golden arch opens as the sun rises

In the Tarot, the Sun can symbolize success, health, and happiness, even enlightenment - not the sudden revelation of the Tower, but a softer, joyful clarity. In the New Orleans Voodoo Tarot, Trump XIX Gros Bon Ange represents our immortal essence, the spark of divinity within us, and as such reflects our capacity to experience and express all-encompassing love and joy. There is deep power in that.

How does our ability to experience these two profound emotions influence the way in which we perceive our environments, our relationships, and our Selves? 

Stone Tarot/A. Stone

Many depictions of the Sun card show children because they are, generally speaking, great emissaries and teachers of both joy and love. But this symbol also represents the children that live inside of us, the aspect of our being that is purest, most innocent, and most joyful.

At times along our earthly paths we experience great difficulties that cast long shadows over our hearts and souls, and challenge or inhibit our ability to know love and joy. It is in these moments where rediscovering our connection to Sun energy is most crucial.

The Dalai Lama said: "Seeking joy and freedom from suffering is the birthright of all beings."

Interestingly, my cousin, Junior, posted a quote the other day that read: "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional." I really appreciated the root of that message, and decided to investigate its origins online. This brought me to an article from Psychology Today, written by Dan Mager, M.S.W., wherein he discusses how mindfulness and positive thinking mark the difference between the healthy management of (and recovery from) physical and emotional pain, and the experience of suffering. In other words, it's about how we respond when "bad shit" happens.

Vision Quest Tarot/Tarot De St. Croix

At the start of the article the author quotes Dr. Viktor Frankl (Holocaust survivor, among other things):

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

I had just been thinking about this very idea several days prior after having heard an argument where one party reacted strongly, bitterly, and rapidly to a perceived affront. When asked, "Why do you act that way?" the person replied, "I can't help it, that's just how I am!" I thought, That way of thinking is how we choose not to do or be better. There is a moment immediately following the occurrence of a difficult situation, a brief, liminal space, where we decide how we will respond, and there is wisdom in slowing down just enough to allow that moment to touch us.

Becoming aware, or mindful, is important, but not necessarily easy (none of the things in life that are truly worth it are particularly "easy"). So how do we open our Selves to experiencing the love and joy that are our birthright? How do we increase our awareness of, our capacity to experience, Sun in our lives? To address this, I've created a spread:

Card 1: In what way do I feel limited in my ability to embrace joy?

Card 2: How can I help open myself to receive joy?

Card 3: In what way do I feel limited in my experience of love?

Card 4: How can I become more aware of the love in my life?

Card 5: What is my deepest longing?

"We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves." -Buddha

Happy Hopping!

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Tarot Blog Hop: The Magician

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Welcome to the Summer Solstice Blog Hop! Please use the links at the top or bottom of this post to navigate to the other blogs in this circle!

For this Solstice Hop our wrangler, Alison Cross, asked us to choose a card from the Major Arcana and discuss any aspect about it that calls to us, and then, if we like, to put any sort of creative twist on it (a drawing, a poem, a spread, a story, a recipe). I chose to discuss the special gift that the Magician offers, and at the end of this post I've laid out a simple spread that highlights its energy.

This Major Arcana card, as all do, covers a wide range of possible elements. There is the Magician as a manipulator, or trickster, or in a more positive light as a person who has the ability to make desires reality ("you have all the tools you need!"). There is the Magician as the doctor or shaman, the teacher and student, and the diplomat. The Magician is known to have the ability to unite all elements of his/her environment through Will.

New Orleans Voodoo Tarot
Destiny Books

If we distill the essence of the Magician into a concentrated offering, it is: manifestation through absolute self-confidence and focused intention. This is not about crossing your fingers and hoping for the best; rather it's knowing that you will accomplish what you set out to do, and it is the ultimate realization of that desire.

In magical traditions, doubts can be damaging to the efficacy of the work being performed, and it is often not even enough to simply hope that a working will be effective. You carefully select your resources and materials, you create a space conducive to concentration and communion, and you know that your work has reached gentle, energetic fingers out into the universe to help to influence your goal.

World Spirit Tarot
Llewellyn Publications

In the book A Practical Guide to the Runes (1989), Lisa Peschel writes:

Why does magick work? It works because you believe it works. It doesn't just happen, however. You must make it happen. The way you make it happen is through belief and understanding. You must have belief in yourself and in the operation, and you must understand the operation thoroughly. 

Aleister Crowley wrote in Magick in Theory & Practice: "Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will," and anyone who has ever performed magick of any kind can attest to the truth of that statement. Magick is not "supernatural." It is a well-thought-out and self-willed scientific exercise in which the results are known before they actually happen. 

You will find your magick becoming more effective as your understanding and confidence grows...

(pg. 130-131)

Even if you do not practice a magical art or tradition, the energy of the Magician can be channeled into any area of your life, into any situation that would benefit from unwavering self-confidence, focused intention, and personal empowerment. To this end I've created the:

Magical Roadmap Spread

1) Point A: Major circumstance or issue in my life
2) Point B: My goal for this circumstance
3) Magician: How I can best focus my resources and Will to manifest my goal

May your inner Mage always be with you!

Happy Summer Solstice, and Happy Hopping!

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May Day Blog Hop 2015: Hard is Real

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Welcome to the May 1st 2015 Tarot Blog Hop! Please use the links at the top and bottom of this post to navigate through the circle of bloggers. Our wrangler, Morgan Drake Eckstein, has asked us to discuss the "difficult" cards in the Tarot deck, such as the Tower, Death, 10 of Swords, 3 of Swords, and the Devil. How do we work with cards like these? What do we tell clients? 

Last July I wrote a post about Death which covers the essence of how I feel about this topic. I'd like to repost it here, but first I want to mention some additional thoughts I have about why these cards are so important, and how versatile they really are:

Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Deck
U.S. Games Systems

1) It's a slight misconception that receiving "difficult" cards in a reading is always a turn-off; sometimes it’s cathartic to receive a card like Death, or the 3 of Swords, in a reading because it acknowledges where we’re at. Sometimes all we really need is to know that we’re not struggling in a vacuum.

2) Without light, there is no shadow. We feel relief because we struggle. We hurt because we have loved. The dawn can only come after the night has passed (you get the idea). We read for the whole story, not for an idealized version of reality. Grief is part of life. To erase, or minimize, the difficult cards would be to ignore and gloss over the deeply real, painful, important parts of what it is to be alive. (I'll talk more about this in regards to Death, below)

3) Cards have degrees of intensity (even upright). Sometimes the 10 of Swords signifies a painful ending, but sometimes it’s back pain or exhaustion. The 3 of Swords can mean heartbreak or betrayal, but it can also highlight a sense of disappointment or subtle loneliness.

4) Change isn’t always external, or relationship-based; it doesn’t always mean that your house is going to burn down, or that job loss is imminent. Sometimes it’s about our inner worlds, our perspectives on life. The Tower can represent sudden illumination, a breakthrough that changes your understanding of a situation, or of yourself. It can be transformative and exhilarating, surprising, maybe, but not necessarily disastrous. And if it covers a short span of time, it can be perfectly mundane (the Tower was my weekly draw once when my cell phone fell and broke and my car battery died).

These cards are here for a purpose. They are just as crucial and necessary as the Star, the Sun, and the 2 of Cups. We should not edit the Tarot deck (as we discussed last Hop); if anything we should edit, or clarify, our intentions, release our expectations, prior to requesting, or conducting, a reading.  If we can approach the reading process with an open heart and a discerning mind, great insight, truth, and healing is available, no matter what cards appear in our spread. 

Silver Witchcraft Tarot - XVI Tower
Moore/Rivoli, Llewellyn Publications

Now I want to share a post that I composed specifically about the Death card, titled "Death Isn't Just a New Beginning":

"I've read several times recently (and it comes up quite a lot) that Death is nothing to be scared of, it simply means a new beginning, and isn't that wonderful?

I think this happens because of the over-vilification of Death in the past, especially on television shows or in the movies, where the card was played up as a symbol of impending doom, and usually physical death. There are many readers that want to make the card more friendly by now playing up the "new chapter" of life that is a natural result of big change, but I think that mindset, while understandable, robs the work that Death does, detracts from the importance of its process in our lives.

Because Death is a process. It's not called the "New Beginning" card because before something new (regardless of how wonderful it is) can begin, something else has to end. And with endings comes mourning, struggle, fear, and loss. And those are challenging emotions to experience, but there is great catharsis in allowing that grief to unfold. Anyone who has experienced the energy of the Death card understands that there is far more to it than a nice new start (even though if we have any awareness of what that new phase might be, it may serve as a nice focal point for us while we're in the trenches). It's work! It's sad, and it hurts, and at the same time there is a touching beauty to it because it's a sacred aspect of the experience of being alive, and of growth.

Vision Quest Tarot
Winter/Dose, U.S. Games Systems

I hope that all readers honor that sacred space if Death should appear in a reading. Rather than rushing to the "happy ending," place value on the journey involved.  It's true that having to convey difficult messages is a skill readers must work on (and one that takes time to develop) and sometimes it's easier to play up the sunny part - the new start - but it's really an art worth honing so that the full and powerful message that Death symbolizes isn't lost in translation.

I read a wonderful quote today that quite honestly made me cry, and it's the truest definition of the Death card (and some many recognize the Tower here as well) that I've ever read, and I want to share it with you:

“Whatever can be threatened, whatever can be shaken, whatever you fear cannot stand, is destined to crash. Do not go down with the ship. Let that which is destined to become the past slip away. Believe that the real you is that which beckons from the future. If it is a sadder you, it will be a wiser one. And dawn will follow the darkness sooner or later. Rebirth can never come without death.” 

― Robert M. Price"

Finally, in honor of all of those "difficult" cards, here is a powerful, soul-piercing song from Ulali about death, healing, and honoring our ancestors:

Happy May Day, Happy Beltane, Happy Hopping!

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Spring Fling Tarot Blog Hop: Saving the Hierophant

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Welcome to the Blog Hop celebrating the Vernal Equinox! See the links above, or at the bottom of this post, to continue navigating through the circle of blogs, and should you lose your place, you can always access the Master list.

(Please note! The URL for this blog has changed to www.firstearthtarotandroot.com)

Our hop wrangler this time around is Ania Marczyk, and she has set a cool task for all of us hoppers: 

"The standard Tarot deck is over 500 years old and the cards are very much a product of that time, particularly the Major Arcana and Courts. So I am asking you to consider which cards you think need to be updated, removed or added to reflect our modern society?

Are there any glaring omissions? What is redundant? Which card has you scratching your head wondering where it fits in today? Or do you think that archetypes are so universal that there is still a relevant place for all, be they Hermits, Pages, Knights or Emperors?"

My basic answer to this is: no, I don't think the deck needs to be changed, updated, or altered in any way. But if I ended on this note, it'd be a very boring post! So I'm going to talk about a card that I know that many people struggle with: the Hierophant. I understand that some people are turned off by this archetype due to negative experiences with organized religion, or because they resent the idea that a spiritual authority figure might hold the only key to the divine. Setting aside the role of the Hierophant as representative of higher education, therapy, and the like, I want to focus on the role that this archetype plays specifically in terms of religion and the spiritual journey, using my own life as an example.

Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot
U.S. Games

I always felt a bit unmoored in terms of spiritual practice, as a kid and young adult. I didn’t have a tradition or framework in which to map my mystical experiences, or spiritual elders (aside from my mother and step-father) to whom I could go for deeper understanding of the mysteries of life. I knew that God existed, without a doubt, and was raised with various aspects of religion and spirituality such as Christianity, indigenous mythology and practice, and Buddhist ideology. I always had some level of sensitivity to "other worlds." I appreciated all religious paths, recognizing all of them as having beauty and truths to offer, while simultaneously understanding that none of them were the “one, true way.” How could they be? We arrive at the sacred in a multitude of ways, we pull it from inside our bodies, surround ourselves with it like an embrace from the sun, consume it with every breath we take. Yes, the divine is within us. However I was deeply missing a sense of anchoring in a specific tradition, a form of practice, and a community.

I came to Lukumí in a roundabout way. When my husband, Jorge, and I first moved in together a decade ago our altars sat side-by-side: my buckskin covered with sage picked from Pine Ridge, stones that carried special significance for me, a small vessel of earth, feathers; his Elegua and Ogun and Ochosi with honey and candy and jacks and pennies scattered about. I never thought much about it (except for once when the cable guy came to fix a cord and I realized that he had a prime view of our pair of altars, and must wonder what he’d gotten himself into by coming into our home!). It was a few years later when we’d moved on to a new house, that I decided to teach our older daughter about the Orishas (divine, saint-like beings). I created a binder for her, and each page contained therein covered a separate Orisha, and all the meanings and associations attributed to him/her. It’s funny – I distinctly remember quizzing her on them - “And Ochosi? What are his colors? Tell me about him.” - and yet I didn’t have any particular impulse at that time to practice Santería; I simply wanted my kids to understand elements of the tradition. To this day I have no idea where that binder ended up….

Wildwood Tarot
Will Worthington

I dove back into card reading more intensively in about 2006 and the years passed. Elegua and Yemaya and Ochun and Obatala, Ochosi and Ogun, had come to feel like family members to me; I cared about them. When my husband went through a difficult time in his life, it was I who lit the candles and put out alpiste for Elegua, who sat at the oceanside and quietly beseeched Yemaya to help heal him. When he took a distant trip, I was so anxious that I prayed with Ogun to protect the car. I didn’t really know what I was doing at the time; I only knew they were part of me, of our household, and that we were part of them, and I did what I could.

It was probably a year later that I had my first consulta with a babalawo in Cuba, and five months after that our close friends from Cuba came to Miami, and we reconnected. The young boy my husband had last seen in Cuba years earlier was now a young man and babalawo, and he would become my padrino in Ifá.  On the night of Ochun’s feast day, September 8th, I dreamed that Elegua, my best friend, came to me and told me that he would help organize my initiation into the religion. It was immensely touching. About three months later I received my Warriors, and two months after that I received ikofá along with my daughters, and my son (who received awofakan).

New Orleans Voodoo Tarot
S. Glassman

The religion of Lukumí has given me a deeply rich and satisfying focus, tradition, and practice for my spirituality. My relationship with the saints is humbling, empowering, strengthening, grounding, and above all, loving. I have a community of practice in Florida and Cuba, family who, along with me, experience the tapestry of life through which Santería/Lukumí is woven. My younger daughter comes to me and asks if she can take a dollar from her birthday stash and give it to her Elegua; I consent, moved by her desire. When she peeks over my shoulder to see what I’m doing online, I tease her: “Mmhmm…. Just like your sign from your itá said, too curious for your own good!” She laughs and walks away.

In Tarot, the card that always pops up in regards to my relationship to my faith community, or to initiation, is the Hierophant. The Hierophant represents tradition, knowledge, group experience, learning, and guidance. All of those are elements of my path in Lukumí. The Hierophant does not say “my way is the only way,” or “I am your only connection to the divine.” The Hierophant is simply a bridge – one of many – to help us understand our lives and explore our faith within the context of a deeply rooted traditional and mystical practice.

Vision Quest Tarot
Gayan Silvie Winter, Jo Dose

In my extended family the Hierophant manifests in many ways: my sister’s love of her Islamic faith, my cousin’s Hindu customs that she has passed on to her children, my brother’s deep Catholicism. All of us coexist harmoniously together. There are touches of Buddhism, indigenous American practices, ancient pre-Christian European influences. All of these are woven into our fabric of life, our spiritual journey, our communities of practice, and the Hierophant’s energy permeates it all.

Call it what you like - The Hierophant, the Shaman, the Master of the Head, the Ancestor, or the High Priest. In all of its forms, it has a sacred and universal place within the Tarot.

Happy Equinox!

(Please note! The URL for this blog has changed to www.firstearthtarotandroot.com)

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Yule Blog Hop: The Joy of Gifting

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Happy Yule 2014, and welcome to the Tarot Blog Hop! Please use the links at the top and bottom of this post to access the other wonderful blogs in this circle.

Arwen Lynch, our joyful wrangler for the Yule hop, asked us all to focus our posts around a spread that she created about gift giving, and freed us up to use whatever type of oracle we pleased. Normally I use Tarot for our hops, but I felt moved to go a different route this season, and have used the new Game of Hope 2.0 Lenormand deck instead (to learn more about the deck, click here).

I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, so I drew three cards for each question. Here we go!

1. What gift would you give the world if you could?

Rider - Letter - Clover

Fortune telling! Perfect, on to number 2! Well okay... just kidding (sorta)! These cards tell me a lot of things:

I see this line as a message that we should all start sending more letters, increase our communications with fellow humans, visit each other once in a while. After all, unexpected correspondence is a joy! Just a few days ago my long-time friend Danica sent me a lovely, hand-created Christmas card with pictures of her family. I thought, "When is that last time I sat down to create holiday cards?" Too long. Then this morning she wrote me a lovely, touching note. We don't speak nearly as often as we should. I think in this era of email and Facebook and nomadic lifestyles it's easy for us to become silos. We have to remember how to reconnect with the people that really matter to us.

I see this as a message about helping others. Do you have extra material goods? Reach out and share with others, send support. I recall a time when my cousin was struggling financially. I didn't have a lot either, but I went online and bought a book by an author she loved and had it sent to her as a surprise. I think at times we tell ourselves that we simply don't have enough to truly help someone else, so we don't. But we don't have to limit our giving in those ways. Find a cause you can get behind and make a donation. If we all focused on the small ways we can help each other perhaps we would go far in helping improve human relationships and our greater sense of community.

Finally, bloggers, keep using those writing skills to spread positivity throughout the blogosphere!


2. What gift would you want from the world?

Heart - Fish - Sun

Well isn't this an easy one to interpret! Love, money, success and joy - boy my cards sure do know me! Ha!... Honestly these cards each embody an energy that is important to me, but let me actually string them together:

Fulfillment of a desire for financial success. Deep love and joy. A heart that flows with happiness. Yes, there is nothing more precious in this world than to love and be loved, to experience profound joy.

3. What gift have you gotten that has brought you joy?

Sun - Rider - Ring

The first thought I had upon seeing this line was the gift of being able to share goods news in my marriage. My husband and I entirely support each other and cheer each other on. If I experience success I can express that with Jorge and I know that he'll feel that joy along with me. That is a precious gift.

This line also reminds me of the moment when we moved to Florida. Within a month of deciding to look for work in the south, and sending out resumes, I had a couple of interviews, and we packed up our cars and our kids and started the move. Everything was hanging on the final word that I would be hired, but it wasn't until we were at a rest stop in Georgia that I finally got the news that I had successfully leapt through all of the hiring hoops, and I was "in." That was immensely relieving and rewarding.

Finally, the only jewelry I regularly wear on my hands are two golden rings, one on each ring finger. One is my wedding ring, representative of a grand gift - my marriage - and the other was a gift I received for mother's day - another immensely joyful gift being my children. My rings are constant reminders of these two shining elements in my life.

4. What gift have you given that has brought you joy?

Bouquet - Fish - Anchor

I saw this line and read: the gift of financial stability. After relying primarily on my husband for financial (and emotional!) support for the years that I was working on my Master's degree, I was able to reciprocate. Once I secured a good and regular job, he was able to leave his old career behind in order to work on developing his passion: photography. Watching him explore and develop his talent, watching how engaged and passionate he was about his art - that brought me great joy and satisfaction.

5. What is one last thing you would like to share about this season?

Cross - Stork - Clover

This too shall pass. Our burdens are temporary. Life is change, and even our hard times won't last forever. We will have relief, and fortune, perhaps in ways we would never expect, and when we're least expecting it. It's amazing to see, in retrospect, how our challenges can lead to wonderful opportunities. Never lose hope and faith!

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I thought it was pretty amazing how the Clover, Rider, Sun, and Fish all appeared twice throughout this series of mini-readings - very fitting for the topic of joy and giving! 

I wish you all a beautiful holiday, a splendid Yule, a marvelous Christmas, a Joyous Kwanzaa and very Happy Hannukah! 

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