On days when we get around to that not-everyone’s-favorite set of cards, I like to allow a bit more time and space because the definitions are so long. Today is no exception, but I also want to tell you how it felt to draw these three when I first go up this afternoon.
As you know by now, the card altar is in a bedroom, where my now-indoor-previously-garage-office station is set up. I begin each new 24 hour period by sitting down in there, checking to see where we’re headed today, and reflecting back a bit on what happened yesterday. I have my journaling area and one of my calendars to ponder over. And I have the cards.
Some days we just go around the rotation, and some days I am drawn to other decks. When I went to take the picture of this trio I noticed how all of them were Major Arcana. This is significant. So, it means the message is very important. Very.
“Lovers ~ VI ~ (r)
What we call love is really a whole spectrum of relating, reaching from the earth to the sky. At the most earthly level, love is sexual attraction. Many of us remain stuck there, because our conditioning has burdened our sexuality with all kinds of expectations and repressions.
Actually the biggest ‘problem’ with sexual love is that it never lasts. Only if we accept this fact can we then really celebrate it for what it is – welcome its happening, and say good-bye with gratitude when it’s not. Then as we mature, we can begin to experience the love that exists beyond sexuality and honors the unique individuality of the other.
We begin to understand that our partner often functions as a mirror, reflecting unseen aspects of our deeper self and supporting us to become whole. This love is based in freedom, not expectation or need. Its wings take us higher and higher towards the universal love that experiences all as one.
No-Thingness ~ V
….. the nothing is not just nothing, it is all. It is vibrant with all possibilities. It is potential, absolute potential. It is unmanifest, yet, but it contains all …..
Being ‘in the gap’ can be disorienting and even scary. Nothing to hold on to, no sense of direction, not even a hint of what choices and possibilities might lie ahead. But it was just this state of pure potential that existed before the universe was created.
All you can do now is to relax into this nothingness . . . fall into this silence between the worlds . . . watch this gap between the outgoing and incoming breath. And treasure each empty moment of the experience. Something sacred is about to be born.
Completion ~ XXI
This is the way of Zen, not to say things to their completion. This has to be understood; it is a very important methodology. Not to say everything means to give an opportunity to the listener to complete it. All answers are incomplete….. if someone is trying to understand Zen intellectually, they will fail. It is not an answer to the question but something more than the answer. It is indicating the very reality…..
Here the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle is being put into its place, the position of the third eye, the place of inner perception. Even in the ever-changing flow of life there are moments in which we come to a point of completion. In these moments we are able to perceive the whole picture, the composite of all the small pieces that have occupied our attention for so long.
In finishing, we can either be in despair because we don’t want the situation to come to an end, or we can be grateful and accepting of the fact that life is full of endings and new beginnings.
Whatever has been absorbing your time and energy is now coming to an end. In completing it, you will be clearing the space for something new to begin. Use this interval to celebrate both – the end of the old and the coming of the new.”
Taking these one at a time; first we look at The Lovers, in reversed presentation. I like to think that this is not direct because we are already seeing the true meaning of what the card is talking about. We KNOW that the actual essence of Love (with a capital letter) is more than the physical. Good for us, moving on then.
I really like the way this second card is explained in the guidebook. The Buddhist word for it is “shunyata” which is much more lovely, but has the same meaning. As the last line said, we are in for something big and something wonderful. Very good to hear.
And the final third, simply says so much. It is all about the continuing Universal concept of life/death, cycling through our lives. Combine this with our higher knowledge that relationships are ever-evolving, that the genuine Love of all is an open opportunity to create, and ta da! we have a validation from yesterday’s message. It’s a very comforting sign.
On the home front, and speaking of comforting, here’s Max.
It’s hot out right now,
he’s fine,
just basking.
After our pool time tonight, Dan and I went in search of some dinner. We walked, post-meal, of course. And saw two very large feathers, plus several fluffy ones, both grays and whites. We also saw this, independently of each other. And then had to tell the other one about it.
Virginia!
On our drive home he shouts out, “and what is that one with the big giant bear?” Add to these: BC (wave wave!) and Illinois. (We still don’t know what it was with the “big giant bear” but if you think YOU do, please be sure to tell us.)
Today’s Deck:
Osho Zen Tarot
Today’s Affirmation, from Louise Hay and Cheryl Richardson:
“For Prosperity
I prosper wherever I turn.
My income is constantly increasing.
I bless and prosper everyone in my world, and everyone in my world blesses and prospers me.
Life loves me, and all my needs are met at all times.
I gratefully accept all the good I have in my life now.
Life loves me and provides for me.
I trust Life to take care of me.
I am worthy of abundance.
Life always provides for my needs.
Abundance flows into my life in surprising ways every day.”
