Quietly Changing Her Luminous Masks

Medicine Woman Tarot ~ Carol Bridges

Energy is a bit low today so I asked what medicine was needed. Teaching Lodge of the Arrows and Harvest were the cards that came forward. The Courts in this deck veer so wildly away from the RWS version that I have stayed with the creator's vision for them rather than to try and make traditional associations. The Courts are Apprentice (Page),  Totem (Knight), Lodge (Queen) and Exemplar (King). Each of the four Lodges is given an attribute so Harvest Lodge for the earth suit, Nurturing Lodge for the water suit, Power Lodge for the fire suit and Teaching Lodge for the air suit.

Teaching Lodge of the Arrows : Liberator shows a figure clad in golden-yellow raising hands high in salutation to the sun. She stands in a lodge made of birch poles forming an apex at the tip, an earth-colored triangle that houses the sun whose throne is an inverted triangle, symbol of the goddess. In front is an oval portal, doorway between worlds. Behind her sit three shamanistic figures--deer woman, wolf woman and buffalo woman. I feel drawn to these figures, to their transformative potential, their secrets. And in fact the message of this card is that of liberation through revisioning the world. The author suggests creating one's own Teaching Lodge by surrounding oneself with images, sounds, people, that inspire and uplift and to actively avoid things that bring one down.

The Wheel of Fortune card, here renamed Harvest, is a skillful use of the word. Harvest doesn't always imply bounty but rather reaping what we sow. If we've sown well, the harvest generally reflects that. If we've sown poorly, the harvest will be scant. In this card the harvest looks to be abundant with corn as high as en elephant's eye and lovely stars streaming out from the earth's  relationship with the sun. Below it all the fruits and vegetables rest in a rainbow of color suggestive of the many hands that have tended to them, the intention that shaped them. I'm aware of the thoughts and emotions I'm 'sowing' today and how they are being reaped through my actions and intention. One might even say harvest is a state of mind...

The Harvest Moon

No sky could hold
so much light–
and here comes the brimming,
the flooding and streaming
out of the clouds
and into the leaves,
glazing the creeks,
the smallest ditches!
And so many stars!
The sky seems stretched
like an old black cloth;
behind it, all
the celestial fire
we ever dreamed of!
And the moon steps lower,
quietly changing
her luminous masks, brushing
everything as she passes
with her slow hands
and soft lips–
clusters of dark grapes,
apples swinging like lost planets,
melons cool and heavy as bodies–
and the mockingbird wakes
in his hidden castle;
out of the silver tangle
of thorns and leaves
he flutters and tumbles,
spilling long
ribbons of music
over forest and river,
copse and cloud–
all heaven and all earth–
wherever the white moon
fancies her small wild prince–
field after field after field.

~ Mary Oliver ~

Inner Vistas

Medicine Woman Tarot ~ Carol Bridges

I'm very much enjoying my Medicine Woman Tarot, surprisingly so as this was a deck I passed by many times. Right now with its combination of earth-based imagery and pastel drawings it feels just right. The Inner Guidbook, as it's called, is full of lots of meditations, visualizations and exercises to do in relation to the cards. Some of them resonate others don't but there's a lot to choose from and I'm enjoying deepening with the cards when I feel moved to do one of the offerings. Today Eagle is the oracle card I drew and the Six of Arrows (Swords) from the Tarot.

Eagle ~ Medicine Cards

Eagle (shown here with my magnificent Raven's feather, the perfection of which can't be fully seen in this pic) is the first card in the deck, sovereign, masterful, encompassing, initiating. The medicine for Eagle is Spirit. To that I would add vision and perspective. The LWB says, If Eagle has majestically soared into your cards, you are being put on notice to reconnect with the element of air. If you've been walking in the shadows of former realities Eagle brings illumination. See the beauty in both...Eagle medicine is the gift we give ourselves to remind us of the freedom of the skies.

The air element is an element I'm comfortable in so reconnecting with it feels less applicable than does seeing all the ways it permeates my day to day. I've never had the gift of seeing one of these majestic creatures in the wild though I have seen them at sanctuaries and even there they lived up to their sovereign energy. I remember a particular scene from the movie 'Winged Migration' in which an eagle coming in to land on a crag was filmed in slo-mo. Being up close to the bird like that as it landed allowed the viewer to see the full extent of its body, its muscular strength and its grace. I could see so easily why so many cultures revered this bird for in that moment it embodied qualities that were both avian and human, a blending of which one might ascribe to a god.

Six of Arrows ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

The Six of Arrows carries on the theme of air today with the suit of Arrows replacing the more traditional suit of Swords. The Six of Swords is one of my favorite cards in a deck and there are certain elements I like to see. This has very few of them and yet, perhaps because it's been renamed and the whole deck veers away from the RWS version fairly consistently, I don't mind this representation.

We see a man clothed in the sun wearing a mantle of green over his back. Before him lies an ocean of possibility, a sun on the horizon is positioned in such a way as to illuminate his own head ascribing to him a state of haloed grace. There are mountains the distance with their promise of higher learning, of wisdom gained, new vistas. A broken arrow lies at his feet suggesting that he must leave behind outworn concepts that don't serve him anymore, that keep him from wholeness.

He is poised to step forward into the living stream, has taken the first step but needs to take that leap of faith to continue on his way. Both of these cards speak to new vistas, vison with perspective. Bridging them might look like something Rumi describes in one of his poems...

Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom
How do they learn it?
They fall and falling
they're given wings.

Every Idea is a Seed

Medicine Cards ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

It's hot here today, uncharacteristically so. We're all laboring under the humidity and high temps that characterize more southern climes but I have to say, I actually like it. This is the heat of my childhood though with less humidity. We used to only get a few groupings of several days like this over the course of the summer but now these mini heatwaves are becoming more consistent as global warming makes its presence felt, as Mother Nature yields and dances to maintain the balance of power. Which is pretty much how these two cards feel. I drew them in the cool(ish) of the earlier morning.

Horse and Bounty

Horse ~ Medicine Cards ~ Sams & Carson

Horse medicine speaks to power and its skillful use. Both my guys here at home are Horses in the Chinese astrological paradigm so I'm familiar with this somewhat boisterous, dynamic energy. The LWB speaks to the idea that understanding the power of Horse allows us to strive for balance. It goes on to say "True power is wisdom found in remembering your total journey. Wisdom comes from remembering pathways you have walked in another person's moccasins. Compassion, caring, teaching, loving, and sharing your gifts, talents and abilities are the gateways to power." 

When I reflect on my relationship with these magnificent creatures I feel a depth of muscular speed and grace, a keen emotional intelligence and sentience and the potential for a tremendous gathering energy when needed. They are bold and refined in the same breath. It's interesting to meditate on these qualities in relation to the medicine of power, perhaps inferences I wouldn't so readily draw if I were focusing on power in isolation, as a concept not bodied by Horse. Secretariat comes to mind as I look at the list of qualities I associate with Horse. He was an astonishing creature who seemed to be poised between the human and animal realm, moving back and forth between the two as needed, surely an example of magic/power if there ever was one.

Bounty ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

 My heart always lifts a little when this card comes up. Traditionally The Empress in the RWS system here it's entitled Bounty. The creator focuses primarily on the Mother Earth/Nature aspect of this card. I loved what she has to say about this card and felt my perspective was enlarged by the lens she views it through.

I like the way this Cosmic Mother is seated upon the Earth as her throne. Her back rests against the trunk of a great tree, her feet are large and bare and they straddle both earth and water. She has a nursling at her breast whom she nourishes with an ease that I recognize from my own days as a nursing mom when that was so woven into the day it was as natural as breathing.

Her basket is full, crops ripen and encircling it all is a rainbow and manifest sun. It's a lovely depiction of spirit in nature. Says the LWB...

"I recognize the laws of nature and work with them. This is my power. I live in the garden of delights. I choose my concepts wisely like the flowers I choose to plant. Every idea is a seed. I water what is beautiful. I am the womb of creation, through which the fullness of life flows into every thought I dwell upon, giving it life.  bear the children who are the arts of myself needing to be expressed. As the Cosmic Mother, I have given you life in order that you may blossom into your fullness."

The Empress as Immanence, a bounty that is articulate. The author includes visualizations and exercises to go with the various Majors and here she suggests, 'Think of your mind as a garden. What grows there?" What mental concepts am I watering, what visions am I tending to? What fears am I feeding? What dreams need light? I actually did most of the meditations for this card, something I normally skip, and found them helpful in accessing its different strata.

Epona

Together these make for a dynamic pair. The power of mother nature is the obvious inference to draw but reading along in the LWB I began to have a different sense of The Cosmic Mother/Empress in relation to power. Power as Her Immanence, the indwelling sentience that animates the living world, that quivers interdependently through all life, a numinous current. Her seat of power is her presence, undifferentiated. And of course one can't help but think of Epona, the Gallic-Roman horse goddess, protector of grain, goddess of fertility and leader of souls in the afterlife. In her we see Horse and Bounty merge seamlessly...

The Earth that is Dreaming Us

Medicine Cards ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

Today I'm using Medicine Cards by Jamie Sams & David Carson combined with the Medicine Woman Tarot by Carol Bridges. After a busy weekend with lots of driving and various duties I was left feeling scattered and not able to settle. I didn't want to read, or zentangle, or write or look at Tarot decks (gasp!) or watch anything. I sat for awhile breathing into my hara center to feel the earth of my body a little more solidly and then I decided to pull some cards, to see what medicine was needed.

Lizard and The Grandfathers.

Lizards move from sun to shadow and back again when needed to regulate their body temperature. I loved to watch the geckos when we lived in Hawaii and when I was pregnant with my son I spent a good part of that first nauseous trimester lying in bed watching the Jackson's chameleons lazily climb the trees in the jungle outside our cabin. The LWB gives their medicine as 'Dreaming' and reflecting back on my encounters with these creatures I can feel that connection.

Lizard ~ Medicine Cards ~ Jamie Sams & David Carson

Says the LWB, Lizard is the medicine of dreamers...dreams illuminate the shadow. If Lizard dreamed a space in your cards today, it may be time to look and see what is following along behind you. Is it your fears, your future trying to catch up with you, or is it the part of you that wants to ignore your weaknesses and humanity?

Hmm, perhaps that's some of the source of my agitation. Certainly there are selves that want a voice that I'm not too keen to listen to. Sometimes they come up in dreams, sometimes they come up in more oblique ways...short words, restlessness, wanting more, even fatigue.

Dreams are a natural way to work with this energy because the dreambody isn't as mitigated by the ego as the waking self is. In dreams we're often given a less distilled version of the shadow to work with. Sometimes I draw my dream images, sometimes I move them through authentic movement, sometimes I write about them. The key is to open up a dialogue with them and see what they have to say, where they want to go, who they want to be. The dream is just the beginning of the conversation. And as I write I'm reminded of a dream of several weeks ago that is awaiting my conscious involvement. Perhaps this is the day to work with it.

The Grandfathers ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

Last week I drew The Grandmothers and today I'm being visited by The Grandfathers. This is traditionally The Star card in the RWS deck. In the foreground we see several generations. They form a semi-circle suggesting the passage of time, cycles of life, transmission from generation to generation. The first two figures, to the right and center, are ghostly figures from the past. They're drawn in soft pastels, barely there color and line. The stream flows through them, telling us of the stream of timeless wisdom that is available to all of us. Available because it's not external, we are its flow, its current, its body.

Next a soft feminine figure acts as anchor, two beings on each side of her, her presence a marker, a doorway perhaps between the manifest and the hidden. The next figure is wearing the strength and solidity of earth tones, colors I associate with the present, the actual. He has his hand on the back, the heart center actually, of a young boy dressed in the green of beginnings, of growth and potential, the future. The boy stands before the clear stream that is winding its way through a sacred grove. The trees are mature, wisdom-holders in their own right. The source of the stream appears to be from the star shining above the mountains, its light spilling down to earth in a watery blessing, passing through the bodies of those who've gone before.

The figure points towards the star with his left, receptive hand while his right, active hand is on the boy's back. This simultaneous use of the left and right hand speaks of receptivity coupled with empowered action. Perhaps he's telling the boy, keep your eyes and heart on the star and your path will be clear. Perhaps he's reminding the boy of the blessings the star can bring. The overall feeling in this card is of transmission and inspiration and how the two go hand in hand. Where there is wisdom and experience, there is inspiration.

Today I feel I'm being invited to bridge two realms that are closely related--dialoguing with the shadow through dream while at the same time embodying the inspiration of those wisdom-holders who've gone before me. I like to think that the Earth is dreaming me into being as much as I'm dreaming Her into being, that She walks within me as much as I walk upon Her. Co-creatrix. This kind of co-creation might be as simple as bringing the realm of inspiration and dream into form on the page with color and line. I'm enjoying looking over at the cards throughout the day. The combination is peaceful, a gentle reminder that these elements are quietly here, engaging with me.

Medicine Cards ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

The Palm Opening

Rebirth ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

As I was shuffling this morning I had a jumper card. I picked it up off the floor to see Rebirth. Traditionally called The Sun in other decks it's certainly not one I'm going to reject when it comes my way. It feels like a good card to pull today. The kitchen gleams with the fruits of my labors, my body is feeling normal again and outside the sun is, in fact, shining brightly. Ds starts a new class today, always an opportunity to practice a sunny self. And I'm aware of the recent solar eclipse last weekend.

There are some underlying currents of tension that I could attach my focus to but seeing this card I feel like the medicine is to allow the sun to permeate my being, including all those nooks and crannies quietly sitting in the shadows. In this card a couple welcomes a tiny baby into the manifest world. The trees bear witness, silent and sentinel, the Sun rises in joy, animals attend to the ceremony playfully reminding me of my own animal body, that its presence is cause for celebration. The little child lies with arms wide open to receive the world, a gesture that implies both power and vulnerability. Try it right now, lean back turn your face upwards, breathe in and then open your arms wide on the outbreath. It's a sensation and gesture that doesn't get much play in an adult body. Perhaps I'll spend some time in that arms-wide-open position today. This baby looks as though it's arising out of a lotus, out of the perfection of an awareness that is rooted deeply in the earth but rests lightly on the cosmic waters. The couple are shining in their own way with love and tenderness, the hearts on the little blanket reminding me that love supports life.

I wonder who is being reborn in this picture. Certainly I felt my own rebirth when my son was born. That day I was born a mother. Children allow us that, it's one of the surprises of parenting. You learn to play in the sand again, run between raindrops, discover a frog for the first time, try the wind on, feel the sweet chill of ice cream on the tongue, fly in the swings, meet hands and toes as objects of fascination...This attitude of wide-eyed amazement at the everyday world is such deep magic.

I recall a profound teaching my son gave me when he was an infant. He'd been playing with one of his toys for a while, entranced, enthralled, delighted. And then just as quickly he was done. He simply opened his palm slowly and watched the toy roll out of it and onto the floor. He didn't push it away or throw it down, the simple act of opening his palm was enough to allow its release. So this is how it's done with what we hold onto, I thought. No effort required, just an opening, an outbreathing...a rebirth.

The Grandmothers

I awoke the day after my deep clean of the kitchen with equally deep muscle soreness and fatigue. Yet another pre-dawn wake up didn't help either. I still had a few tasks left to do in the kitchen, one of which was washing the floor, an easy and straightforward job but one that requires some physical energy. Doggie needed a hike, too. I felt exhausted as soon as I got out of bed, my body like a lead weight. What to do?

I dragged myself through breakfast-making for ds and myself then got pup ready to go for a long hike as she had gotten short shrift the previous day. Upon my return I was ready to go back to bed. To give some context here, my body is still recovering from a couple of years of serious depletion at various levels. I forget how sensitive it still is until I put out a lot of physical energy and then reap the consequences the next couple of days. I still need to be quite careful in this area as I strengthen which has been a long, slow and currently ongoing process.

I very much wanted to complete my task but I was finding it hard to move. I spent some time sitting, thinking I could gather my energy. Then I took a hot shower to enliven me. I made lunch for ds thinking I'd begin after lunch. But I just couldn't access the physical energy I needed though intention I had aplenty.  So I turned to the cards asking for guidance...

The Grandmothers ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

Seeing this woman sleeping deeply while a Grandmother sprinkles blessings over her felt like direct permission to tend to my own tired body. This day it needed rest, this was the wisdom of the grandmothers speaking. The central figure sleeps peacefully while her spirit is replenished with the blessings of the foremothers. She rests on her stomach, hara-center directly on the Earth to receive its nourishing energy. The Wise Woman wears a crown of earthy branches with blue yoni-shaped leaves and white moon-like discs. A band of blue with gold stars encircles her forehead across her third eye telling us she's in touch with her own cosmic intuition. She is crowned with the earth of the feminine giving her task a silent sovereignty. As the sleeper dreams a halo forms behind her, blue swirls supporting her in her dream journey and ennobling it. Traditionally this is the Moon card and in this depiction a waning crescent Moon looks down as silent witness. The waning crescent moon is associated with release, with tending to the inner realms.

This card made me think of my own grandmothers, one of whom homesteaded on the Prairies living in a sod hut the first year while the family built their house. She would not have had the luxury of a day off or of the hot running water, heat, inside toilet and electricity that I do. I'm sure she would have loved a day off once in awhile. This same grandmother, whose name was Beth, later felt determined to earn a living at a time when marriage and motherhood were the only expected roles for women. She rode by horseback through the woods in all kinds of weather to teach in a one-room schoolhouse.

She often told us the exciting tale of having to ride through a forest fire while on horseback because there was no other way to get to the school, so keenly did she feel her duty to educate. She was likely only 16 or 17 at the time. But my favorite story is one about her mother, my great-grandmother, which she always shared as if it were a deep teaching. In a poignant act of defiance against her husband, who felt beauty was frivolous and unnecessary in an environment where survival was a daily ordeal, my great-grandmother planted a small bed of pretty flowers. She tended these lovingly through all the hard times and I like to imagine the great joy and power they gave her simply because they were beautiful and they were hers.

My grandmother Beth {L} Great Grandmother Baldwin {R}

So, yes, I would rest my body and make of the rest an offering to all the grandmothers who were never able to have that luxury. Guilt turned to gratitude as I gave myself over to the wisdom of rest as an act of giving, a yielding to the intelligence my body understood far more intimately than my egoic self. The remaining hours in the day were peaceful because suddenly there was permission to simply be tired with no value judgements attached to it and no pressure to do anything other than what my body was asking of me. I slept deeply that night, the Grandmothers card beside my bed, blessing my sleep. And the following day I was able to complete the few remaining tasks in the kitchen with ease, fulfilling my visit with the Goddess.

When Mystery Comes Calling

Earlier last week I made a commitment to devote an entire day to a deep clean of the kitchen. Our kitchen is large, we've got two dogs and it's been a while since the last deep clean. I had some Miriam Makeba lined up, an assortment of hot drinks, and lots of sponges, soap, rubber gloves, mops, buckets and so forth. I was well-equipped.

Before getting started I decided to pull a card for the day knowing I'd need some help along the way, some guidance on how to sustain my enthusiasm. I drew Sunset aka Death. Not quite what I had in mind but given my resistance to the plodding nature of my work the irony wasn't lost on me. What was I hoping for, a Three of Cups kind of day? Well, yes, actually, yes I was. So with my intention firmly saddled up I took the reins and rode into the shining sunset in search of transformation...or I rode into transformation in search of shining. Either way works.

Sunset ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

I'm happy to say I found it and not just in the kitchen. My own attitude to the task felt remarkably changed as I kept in mind the guidance the cards offered me earlier in the week. As the day drew near the phrase, 'a rendez-vous with God' kept coming to mind. Mystery came calling and I was ready to receive Her. Added to that was a solar eclipse in Virgo. Even though my ascendent is Virgo I was unaware of this solar eclipse and it wasn't till I received some material in my inbox that I made the connection between the intention and detail I brought to my task (think q-tips to clean the cabinet and drawer grooves) and what was happening astrologically...

Solar Eclipses are profound turning points that bring endings, new beginnings, and major changes. This particular eclipse in Virgo will compel you to start living life on your own terms and let go of what's not working. Whether this brings renewed vitality or a crisis is up to you, so don't leave it to chance!

Well, I rather like that and though I find these kinds of predictive emails an overly generic sensationalizing of the possible highs and lows the phrase 'letting go of what's not working' feels like a theme paralleled in the Sunset/Death card. It was a good, productive day full of hard work, earth plane work and at the end of it the kitchen and I gleamed with care, intention and the fruits of elbow grease and suds. I finished all of the long-overdue heavy cleaning with just a few lighter jobs remaining for the next day. The altars in the space got a nice cleanse, too...

Green Tara

Climbing into Manifestation

Medicine Woman Tarot ~ Carol Bridges

Today I've been given the medicine of Ace of Stones from The Medicine Woman Tarot by Carol Bridges. The deck comes with two blessing cards. The one on the left invokes the blessings of the four elements as well as the blessings of the sun and moon as way of opening a reading. It begins with the words, "Welcome, energies of earth, air, fire and water." Whether spoken silently or aloud this intentional declaration of hospitality towards the elemental energies resonates. The card on the right is a general invocation of the Spirit of Guidance. Again the first sentence stands out, Great Spirit, Mother Creator, bless the Earth through my life. This is quite an invitation, to experience one's life as a blessing on the earth. While I wouldn't necessarily use these prayers specifically I do like their inclusion in the deck, examples of seeding intention before reading the cards.

Ace of Stones ~ Medicine Woman Tarot

In this Ace of Stones a figure climbs into a cleft in the earth from the heavenly realms. The cleft is surrounded by rock out of which are carved the faces of the grandmothers, the ancestors. The figure is climbing through this dwelling of wise women, claiming her earthly place in the lineage. She climbs on a ladder made of wood beneath a brilliant, sunny sky. All is manifest.

The seeker wears teal-colored clothing, the marriage of blue and green, earth and sky, body and spirit. Above her two angelic hands appear from the celestial realms holding a huge, gleaming crystal. The light shines off it in two directions, above and below such that the crystal is the link between these two realms.

The seeker's task in this card is to integrate the gift of this resource into everyday life. The presence of the ancestral figures suggests that this needn't be done in isolation, but rather by drawing on the wisdom and experience of those who've gone before as well as from family and friends. Looking at the ladder the phrase, 'climbing the ladder to success' comes to mind but with a unique twist, the figure is climbing down, climbing into manifestation. Success as climbing into the immediacy of the body, into embodiment.

I appreciate the simplicity of this card appearing today. Another very early wake-up has me feeling quite tired and short on emotional bandwidth. I'm glad to see the Ace of this suit rather than, say, the Three or Eight. This Ace, today, feels like a gentle reminder to notice the immediacy of abundance surrounding me--our garden, our dogs, the complexity and intelligence of my body, the luxury of food and a home--refuge for my family, a place to retreat to with dreams, with fatigue, sadness, joy...All of these are gifts of the earthly realm, all of these are manifest worlds to climb into.