Everything is Gestation

It's another cool, grey day here. I drew my cards in the early hours...

Father of Wands ~ Confirmation ~ Judgement

Visually these two decks work seamlessly together. I'm curious to see how they speak to each other on a more metaphysical level. I chose my oracle card first...

Confirmation ~ Alchemist's Oracle

~ Confirmation ~

Interestingly this is a card that randomly came up in yesterday's post and here it is today. A graceful swan floats on a clear surface of water, her neck arched like a poem. Behind her is a pale pink sky and encircling her head is an orb of geometric shapes. I'm reminded of how many iconic figures are depicted with a halo of some sort around their head and this mandala has a similar effect for me.

Before I go further with this card I'd like to post a pic of the card I drew last night before bed. My eye was wanting to take shape around some sacred geometry so I pulled a card from that eponymously named deck and chose...

Seed of Life ~ Sacred Geometry Deck

~ Seed of Life ~

Here we see the exact same shape that encircles the swan. It is subtitled, 'The Beginnings of Change'. About this shape the author of the Sacred Geometry deck shares...

This geometric configuration forms a beautiful six-petaled flower. It is sometimes referred to as the Genesis pattern with its biblical reference to the universe being created in six days.The Seed of Life is the key to understanding the expansion of new energy, information and light as it enters consciousness. Pulling this card marks the beginnings of change in the progression of your inquiry. You have left the security of the center, of home, of the known, and you are seeking a new way of looking at the world.





The Alchemist's Oracle card Confirmation, both reflects and supports the underlying message of Seed of Life and I was fascinated to see it show up this morning right on the heels of last night's draw. Of Confirmation, the LWB tells me...

By pulling this card, you are receiving confirmation that you are on track. You will know this because although your mind would like to second guess your every move, your internal knowledge speaks quietly yet confidently letting you know you are on the right path. Continue to balance your inner and outer worlds, trusting that still, small voice with each and every step.

'Right' and 'wrong' paths aside, what is most resonant for me in this card is the emphasis on the quiet inner voice and the awareness of it, the attunement to the place between the breaths, between the clamor of right and wrong, good and bad. And the swan, who glides so effortlessly through the water, is continually using her strong, webbed and very earthy feet to create such a dance of grace. Effort is required to embody the sense of equilibrium she manifests. The swan's halo with its Seed of Life echo is confirmation enough that effort combined with intention is a sacred and powerful tool. The author also assigns crystal correspondences to her cards and for this one the choice is clear quartz, carnelian and rose quartz which speaks to several of the chakras and how 'confirmation' might play a role in those points of energy within the body. Carnelian is the one that resonates with me speaking as it does to the root chakra, ground of our being. With this theme of effort towards inner and outer balance in mind I drew my two Tarot cards...

Before I begin analyzing them I am struck by their austere beauty and spend some time simply soaking in their visual loveliness. There is much power in such few lines and spare use of color.  And the three cards together repeat this theme so gracefully.

Father of Wands ~ Wild Unknown Tarot

~ Father of Wands ~ In this image a magnificent King Cobra rises up from a coiled body, hood flared and tongue revealed. He holds a branch, presumably his wand, and behind him through the ink-dark sky a fiery bolt of lightning descends to earth. We see one eye, his right, active eye and his body is covered in a  diamond-shaped pattern. It is a powerful image though his expression is not menacing despite being depicted in 'attack' mode. The snake imagery inspires thoughts of kundalini energy and here it is both coiled and active, suggesting this king knows just when to use his power. The orange-red lightning is the only use of color in this card and I spend a bit of extra time on this, feeling into its transformation quality.  If Queens tell us what to do, Kings show us how to do it. The Father puts into action what the mother has explained to us. In this sense this Father is showing me the skillful use of fire, of this creative and sometimes volatile energy.

Traditionally the King of Wands is depicted on a throne of some sort, holding his wand actively and supported by various symbols of fire. He is a dynamic leader, charismatic and full of creative energy. Those qualities are present for me in this Father of Wands card but in a more muted way. I can certainly feel the tremendous power of this card and allow that fiery snake energy to rise up through my central channel and out my crown center. It's very energizing and I resolve to do this periodically through the day. Feeling this dynamic blessing of energy I move on to Judgement.

Judgement ~ Wild Unknown Tarot

A large white dove soars high above a densely populated crown of black birds below. A few of the birds have broken free of the crowd and are soaring upwards into the brilliance emanating from the white dove. Black lines form an almost circle around this dove with empty space left for it to spread its wings fully. I have the sense of looking up from a dense forest to a place where the light has gotten through. The feeling as my eye travels up the card  is one of expansion, exhalation.

What is missing for me here in this card is the element of sound. Traditionally the Judgement card depicts an angelic figure blowing a horn of some kind with people responding to the call. Judgement feels more about an inner awakening, almost like the uncoiling of the eardrum into sound which, according to Buddhist thought, is how we all begin--"all beings come into form through sound." That said, these birds are clearly responding to a call of some sort.

There is a feeling of attunement in this card, alignment with a higher vibrational octave. The dove in the sky, the more temporal figures below are all in various stages of rising. The focus is very much on a vertical, upwards direction, towards the sky. In the dzogchen tradition one of the meditations done is sky gazing and this kind of open, expansive vista leads to similarly expansive and borderless inner vistas if done with heart, a reflection of our true nature.


These are all lovely, lofty and transpersonal qualities but for me today I think this card speaks to a more immediate concern, actual judgement on my part, inner judgement. I've been struggling with feelings of lack in my mothering. It doesn't matter how my husband points out the opposite or else reminds me that I'm human, that niggling negative critic is having her way with me these days. So I spend some time looking at all three of these cards together seeing what I'm being asked to synthesize.

I notice that the swan in Confirmation is swimming towards the dove in Judgement spurred on by the Father of Wands who looks towards them both with confidence. Perhaps she is even transformed into the dove. Or perhaps I'm being asked to bring some fire to those judgemental voices so that I can embody more fully the swan's ability to discern that still, small voice which is working hard to guide her. The Seed of Life card encourages me to feel that these small steps, this ability to recognize the critical inner voice as simply a voice, is the beginnings of real change, seeds that will ripen the more attention and nourishment I give them. I like the spaciousness with which Rilke approaches this inner critical voice in his Letters to a Young Poet...

Allow your judgements their own undisturbed development, which, like any unfolding, must come from within and can by nothing be forced or hastened. Everything is gestation and then birth. To allow each impression and each embryo of a feeling to complete itself in the dark, in the unsayable, the not-knowing, beyond the reach of one's own understanding, and humbly and patiently to await the dawning of a new clarity: that alone is the way of the artist--in understanding as in creating.