by StillSmallVoiceTarot | Oct 25, 2021 | Daily Tarot
Today, I am continuing with the creative #Actctober2021 Tarot Challenge hosted by @GlitterbyInk and @LivingJivaWell
The prompt: Today, how will I act with honesty?
Decks: The Urban Tarot by Robin Scott and Kim Tsan’s The Spread Machine + Oracle
I took a slightly different approach today because, well because I felt like it and because I can. I decided to consciously draw an extra prompt card from The Spread Machine + Oracle Deck and then let the Tarot deck decide what cards to show me.
Conscious draw – Truth
What do I need to recognise right now?
What tough love messages do I need to hear today?
How can I gain more clarity and insight?
Unconscious draw – Ace & the Prince of Swords
OK. Isn’t it just utterly f•cking fascinating that on a day when I am consulting the Tarot on how to act with Honesty and Truth the cards that come up for me are the Ace and Prince of Swords?
Well, it’s fascinating to me not least because, when I drew up a list of my conscious card choices for the #Actober2021 Tarot Challenge right at the beginning of the month, the Ace and King of Swords were the two that I was considering for this day.
Of course, I’ve experienced synchronicity like this with the Tarot many times before, but it never fails to blow my mind.
Mind. Blown.
And with all that said, I really can’t not pay close attention to this card combination, can I?
The Ace of Swords is a symbol of truth and clarity, the Prince, a truth seeker. And a truth speaker, even at the risk of being a little cold or cruel.
Right now there is a dark cloud gathering and threatening to disturb the relative peace and quiet of my life. An imminent change of circumstances for someone whose life touches mine threatens to upset the fine balance that has existed between us for a while now. That this fragile peace has existed at all is mostly due to geographical distance. All this may be about to change.
The Ace of Swords can be a signal of big change. Huge.
The truth is I am totally avoidant when it comes to confrontation and speaking hard truths. I’m great on paper and clearly brilliant ? at telling other people how to handle difficult conversations and situations, but not so much in my own life.
So there have been many things left unsaid. And I am stealing myself, have been for a while, because I know that if I’m to handle this next little chapter at all well, I am going to have to speak some truths. My truth. Or at least some of it.
And stand my ground.
Find the words and stand my ground. Lay down my boundaries. I’m notoriously bad at this, folks. It’s not that I’m entirely unboundaried – quite the opposite. It’s more that I don’t articulate my boundaries very well and then I get very upset when people encroach or ask too much of me (why can’t they just feel my boundaries?) and I am forced to speak, or, God forbid, say “no”.
Or, I suffer in resentful silence (muttering all the while in my head) and then, of course, it all comes out somehow and that can be awful – like a not very well controlled explosion.
I suppose that the whole point of boundaries is that they are clearly marked for all concerned. No good left unspoken. No good expecting people to somehow intuit them.
Although, that would be great, wouldn’t it?
Anyway. F*cking Yikes.
I am going to have to weather this storm that’s coming. If it comes. It might not. Sometimes I am surprised by this person, but mostly not.
I need to find a way to speak my honest truth and stand my ground. Clear the Air.
I also need to take a good long look at myself and my part in all this bad weather we’ve been having.
The truth is a double-edged sword.
So, how will I act with honesty today?
Today, I speak my honest truth and I stand my ground. I set down my boundaries and I do so in good faith, with love and respect and with the intention for the highest good for myself and those whose lives touch mine.
by StillSmallVoiceTarot | Oct 21, 2021 | Daily Tarot
Today, I am continuing with the creative #Actctober2021 Tarot Challenge hosted by @GlitterbyInk and @LivingJivaWell
The prompt: Today, how will I act with fearlessness?
Decks: The Thoth Tarot by Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris and The Urban Tarot by Robin Scott
I’ve been sitting on this post, not writing it for days. I think that’s because right now I am fearful. I am the mother of a nearly teenage daughter and I am fearful for her. She is just starting to gain a little independence but, with so much going on right now in the news and in our local area concerning harassment and violence towards women and girls, I feel I must rein her in. Curb her independence. Keep her safe.
I’ve been feeling angry and sad and fearful and have struggled to know how to write about fearlessness without writing about all the ways that the world is not a safe place for women and girls.
I’m angry that when it comes to being safe, the onus continues to be on women and girls, their behaviour and what they can do to avoid or mitigate catastrophe, rather than on boys and men and addressing their behaviour.
And I’m angry that now I must have these conversations with my daughter and encourage her to be anything less than her firey, passionate self as she steps out into the world.
But in the interest of just cracking the f*ck on, I’ve decided to simply sit down and write about the cards as they come and see where it takes me. I rather suspect that I’ll be circling back to fear and anger… but here we go.
Conscious draw – The Princess & The Queen of Wands
Here she is, Princess of Wands, fearless and feisty. She is The Girl with the Tiger Tattoo.
When The Princess of Wands comes up for me she often represents my daughter – the passionate little firestarter that lives in my home. The one that wants to get out there and do and have everything and to grow up so fast. The one that calls me out all the time for not being quite as fearless and feisty as some of the other ballet mums.
The Princess of Wands serves as a little prompt to be brave and to go out and grab life – to feel the fear and do it anyway.
But I don’t feel very brave most of the time. In my work, I worry that I’m not good enough, that I don’t know enough, that I’m going to be found out… blah, blah, blah, imposter syndrome, nope, not today thank you very much…
Motherhood is one job that pushes me to put myself out there for my child when I might not do it for myself. Because that is the job. Keep ’em alive, dammit!
As a mother, I just can’t afford to be fearful. I have to go for it when it comes to providing for my child and protecting her.
For this prompt, I also pulled out the Queen of Wands, who for me represents the fierce and fearless mother (sister, daughter, friend, woman) that I aspire to be.
And when this particular Queen in the Thoth deck comes up for me in a reading she represents the strong females in my life. A while back, when I was going through a very difficult period and making some of the bravest decisions of my life, just as my friends and family helped me through it, this Queen more or less took up residence in my 11th House of friendship and community.
I like to call her the Queen of as Dangerous as F*ck! And when I look at her, I also see a towering force of righteous feminist truth and fury. I wouldn’t want to cross her, would you?
She looks after her own and if you are inside her circle of protection you will feel all the warmth, support and safety that she provides. To be anywhere else is to be out in the cold.
For the third card, I let the deck decide.
Unconscious draw – The Aeon/Judgement
Otherwise known as Judgment or Awakening, The Aeon is for me a flag that goes up when it’s time for me to wake up, stand up and speak up for what is right and what I believe in.
This card calls me to channel my inner Queen of Wands and be fearless in my pursuit of a life that is full of passion and freedom… not just for myself and my daughter but for all our daughters and sons, of course. To strive for a world that is fit for the next generation.
How will I act with fearlessness today?
This combination of cards is a shout out to all the strong women in my life and to every strong woman who fearlessly puts herself out there every day in the face of a thousand minor annoyances and micro-aggressions to outright physical danger and institutionalised misogyny.
Today, I show up, stand up, speak up for myself and my daughter and all the women in my life with courage, passion, integrity and love. Here’s to all those trail-blazing Queens, past, present and future, who pave the way and offer support, protection and inspiration for the fearless Princesses of today and tomorrow.
Today’s post was brought to you by Princess and Queen of Wands and The Aeon from The Thoth Tarot and The Urban Tarot by Robin Scott
