My blog--I pull a card--if it doesn't speak to me...perhaps it is for you? |
I pull a card...if it doesn't speak to me...perhaps it was meant for you? How to Read the Tarot Begin by brewing a cup of tea, a nervine, lemon balm or chamomile, this is after all, your future. A reading at the dark of the moon is best, before the night creatures crawl and bad humours fill the air. Pick a circular deck, with a fairy-tale motif, and no reversals. Hold a question in your heart, shuffle the cards and place them on the table. Choose only two. Like the ancient Israelites, these are your seer stones, Urim and Thumimm, black and white, yes or no. Isn't that all you were asking? |
Pope Francis Unafraid of schisms, he prays. unfelled by hate he prays. In homage to Francis, this doubter prays Herbcrafter's Tarot--Ten of Water--Red Clover--Serenity rises from the roots of gratitude. |
Mindfulness A panacea for everything breath in, breath out, be still Inner strength Outer softness Listen 24 syllables The Herbcrafter's Tarot--Ace of Fire--Mullein-Hear the voices of your ancestors. |
Dark Goddess Tarot--Amazon of Water--Scylla--accept yourself, be youself, but know that behavior has consequences. |
Amaranth Flower of immortality, earthy must no random, uncertain disorderly entropy. Herbal Tarot--Ace of Pentacles--Whole Grains--nourish your body, mind, soul |
Mangrove Salt excreted salt on leaves a mermaid's tears Form: the kural--4 above, 3 below I am fascinated by black mangroves that excrete salt through their leaves. Recently cooks from A Rosy Tomorrow farm collected the salt, and processed it for table use. Tarot of the Saints--Nine of Coins---Loaves and fishes.Multiplication and abundance. |
PachaMama Corvids are intelligent birds. My Pachamama was wiser than most ravens. She wasn't a pet, nor quite my familiar. She was simply, Pachamama, the Incan world mother, and my friend. She was a wild bird but would visit daily when I set out sunflower seed and cracked corn. She gifted me with street treasures: bits of glass, a lost bead, colored paper clips. I was creating a mandala of the bits and baubles she offered on my front stoop. It was January and the dry season in Florida and the design had remained intact for weeks. This afternoon I was placing a rare spotted owl feather on the flowers and stones already in position. I heard thunder and noted growing puffy moisture laden rain clouds. Pachamama landed for a daily visit a slip of paper in her beak that she carefully placed at the center of the mandala. It was a fortune cookie strip and read: All is impermanent. Just then the skies opened with a pounding downpour. Indeed, Pachamama, indeed. 184 words The Herbcrafter's Tarot--21. The World----Pachamama--weave a rainbow that makes the world whole |
Shimmy When you shimmy and you're old there are caveats I'm told. If you fall upon the ground 9-1-1 is found. A dodoitsu--Japanese form of 26 syllables--usually humorous. The HerbCrafter's Tarot--Two of Air--Chicory--Be receptive to guidance. |
Ocatillo The woman came to the desert to camp, and though I am prickly and poke and scratch she settled by me. I offered my blossoms, she carefully plucked and made a sun tea that she drank pouring a libation for my roots. I spoke with her beneath the clouds and the sky. "My thorns, defend my tender inner bark, as you must set boundaries to protect your heart." As the daylight faded and the coyotes began to howl the woman and I joined our harmonies to the world song. The HerbCrafter's Tarot--Adelita of Water--Ocatillo--Protect your heartwood, but let your love blossom. |
Hope In Tucson, in the desert, a friend builds a stone labyrinth. I pick a river rock from the Caloosahatchee to send her, palm-sized, flat, grey scribed with healing symbols. I will walk that spiral someday. Astronomers listen for signals of gravitational waves, census collectors of black holes in the invisible shaking of space. Labyrinths and signals all charms of hope, prayers to extend our finite knowing. We cannot know who hears us, but it is Someone. free form--16 lines Tarot of the Crone--Five of Disks--Hope--Move beyond isolation. Reach out with hope and faith. |
Love found me Love found me under a summer sky a full moon pulsing in the dark. I leave my bed and go to the window and grow still to hear whispering through the palms the stories and prayers my grandmothers offered to their Black Madonnas, Czestochowa and Bistrica, I humbly set my petitions to Guadalupe, Mother of the Americas for the migrants in camps asking for respite, for change, for justice. We are all immigrant souls. Love found me under a summer sky. Tarot of the Crone--Shadow of Disks--Bones--Sometimes life is just tough all the way, and you're forced to get down to the bones. |