(I tried to put this post up, for the past hour, not happening. Let’s try again. Shit I hate Mercury Retrograde.)
First of all, thank you all so very much for your beautiful birthday wishes. They truly are so meaningful to me.
I’ve decided to do this over a few days (there are quite a few pictures and tales to tell). On Saturday I began my official day by not moving very quickly, took my time getting going, and had the most leisurely afternoon. Daniel and I wandered in a nice downtown neighborhood, started at an antique mall and then went about gathering a bunch of my favorite foods.
Why yes, that is a feast of fabulousness from The Taco Palace. (Fine, it’s just some value meals from a fast food chain, but they are yummy to me, and I don’t believe in “guilty pleasures” as a term.)
We went across the street to the fish market and got crab cocktails and crab cakes. I made everything into sammiches. Because it was my day, and I could.
Then we went around the block for dessert. The smiley face treat is a Key Lime Tartlet. Below that is a Black Bottom Double Chocolate Muffin. Next to that is a Chocolate Raspberry Torte. And the last one is an Everything Brownie. (No, we did not eat it all at once, we paced ourselves.) When the guy found out that it was my birthday, he threw in a free candle.
We took our goodies back to the car and then went to Sweet Skins, where Dan bought me an amazingly soft and lovely organic cotton/hemp blend shirt (which was on sale).
Tomorrow will be The Fair Day, with bad photos (and hopefully no technical difficulties). But for now, let’s get back to our cards.
Raven ~ Bran ~ Healing, Initiation, Protection
Bran offers initiation, protection, and the gift of prophecy. What is meant by initiation in practice may be as formal as actually undergoing an initiation ceremony, or as informal as being initiated into the mysteries of a new post or profession or group. It marks the death of one thing, which gives way to the birth of another. The power of Raven can also bring you the very deepest form of healing, which is achieved through a process known as “the resolution of the opposites” -giving you the possibility of resolving conflicts that have long lain buried in your unconscious or perhaps in your past.
By being able to travel from this world to the next, the Raven symbolizes also, the power of healing. On one level, it can be the type of healing that comes about through radical confrontation with the unconscious, with the hidden, with the Shadow, and with the darker, potentially destructive aspects of the psyche. The Raven’s association with death becomes an association with the depth and thus, with the transformative powers of initiation, for such a moment marks to a greater or lesser extent the death of the old self, and the rebirth of the new self.
Bran has been seen as an oracle for thousands of years. And this connection reinforces the healing aspect as well as recognizing Raven as a bird of prophesy and divination, integral facets of the healing arts.
