Creating Abundance This Chinese New Year

Welcoming The Lunar New Year Of The Snake

This Chinese New Year, we welcome Spring and celebrate the Lunar New Year of the Snake.  I thought it was quite apt as it reminded me of the stories friends told me about how snakes, a symbol of fertility, would appear out of their hidey holes to test the weather, some time after Imbolc, which celebrated the midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.

Chinese New Year is the most important event in the Chinese festive calendar as the food cooked for the all-important reunion dinner, the cookies and cakes hand-baked for visiting family and friends, the home decorations, and indeed right down to the cultural gestures of giving mandarin oranges and  red packets filled with money to children and the oldest, nearest and dearest, were all geared at ushering in abundance and prosperity. 

Every symbol and gesture during Chinese New Year is not only about hopes for good health, great wealth, career growth, and better business opportunities, it is also about upholding the Asian values of familial piety and respect.

For more information about the significance of Chinese New Year, please do read my other blog post at http://thecrazyangmoandhisangrywife.blogspot.com/2013/02/chinese-new-year-is-family-thing.html

The Abundance Tarot Spread

As our traditional customs at Chinese New Year is geared to ushering abundance and prosperity in our lives, I had decided to create a Tarot spread in the hope of getting advice about how I could create abundance around myself.  For this purpose, I used the Tarot of the Pagan Cats deck.

The Significator - The Empress

Central to this spread is my significator, the Empress, chosen to represent abundance.  Within the card, the image of the Mother cat wearing a golden crown lying luxuriously on a red cushion, reflected an archetypal Earth Mother surrounded by lush greenery, little kittens and flowers in full bloom, all symbols of fertility, prosperity and abundance.

I loved the Empress card and it is always a reminder to me to appreciate the love and abundance around me by nurturing my familial relationships with care and support and inject postive energy into everything I do.

Khalil Gibran said," You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance."

Creating Abundance In My Career - The Fool

The Fool is a card promising of unlimited potential.  It encouraged me to take on my career with an entrepreneurial spirit, inject it with an overflowing stream of creative ideas as well as a boldness and courage to try new things, and treat each project presented to me as a new learning curve.   The Fool is unconventional, passionate and enthusiatic.  Most importantly, he doesn't cripple himself with unnecessary worries and anxieties but would trust in the universe to guide him on his journey towards his goals. 

I will need to harness the energy of the Fool, remembering always that sometimes, it is not all about that goal.  Rather it is all about the efforts that I put into every step I take to achieving that goal.

Harry Callahan said," Experience is the best teacher of all.  And for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist.  Only the journey matters."

Creating Abundance In My Finances - Four Of Pentacles

The Four of Pentacles reminded me to not be too attached to material gains.  With financial security as one of my goals, I had to plan to slowly and steadily build long-term savings.  I was advised by the card to continue to be prudent in my expenditure.

In my younger days, I spent years indulging in irrational spending on branded handbags, shopping trips in New York and London, expensive dinners at posh restaurants.  When I grew up and had to take on life as a single mother right after my divorce, build a stable career at the same time,  financially provide for my elderly parents and grandmother too, I realized this irrational spending and moments of instant gratifications had to stop.  I have been paying the price for the years of irrational spending since.  Today, I am slowly but surely trying to grow my savings.  In fact, after a life wrought with difficulties, I grew up to dislike the trappings of a lifestyle of luxury.  My main goal is be happy and be financially secure enough, just enough, to provide for the family, pay the bills and maybe have a little extra to buy more Tarot decks (LOL!)

Suze Orman said, "A big part of financial freedom is having your heart and mind free from worry about the what-ifs of life."

Creating Abundance In My Family - Six Of Cups
The Six of Cups is a card of past happy memories, nostalgia and childhood. The card must have appeared because Chinese New Year is a time that I try to connect with the happy memories of the past as a child.  Mum and Dad used to dress me in the prettiest frock, tied my hair with the cutest bows and take me out for home visits.  I loved collecting the red packets filled with money because it meant I could have more money for candy, ice cream and chocolates.  It also meant I could save up to add bits and bops to my doll's house.

The Six of Cups reminded me to create abundance within my family leveraging my happy memories.  I had to create opportunities for Joel to share the same when he grows older in the future.  As a family, I thought we had been leading our individual lives way too much.  Joel is now at the age where he spends more time at his school than at home.  Having a girlfriend didn't help hence my possessiveness of his time with me.  David is always busy with work, meeting clients and practising with his band mates.  I am the worst culprit when it comes "doing my own thing".  I juggle my time between my work projects, nurturing my team, studying for my various courses, mentoring my Tarot proteges, and doing Tarot readings for clients and at events.

So the Six of Cups advised that I should bring back the happy memories of my childhood and bring these happy moments into my own family now by creating opportunities to have more quality time with David and Joel.   Mum used to prepare a picnic basket full of food and took me out to the beach for a swim and a fun picnic.  I should be doing that more.

Charlotte Davis Kasl said, "Happy memories become treasures in the heart to pull out on the tough days of adulthood."

Creating Abundance In Myself - Three Of Pentacles
The Three of Pentacles is a card that signifies the manifestation of a goal through hardwork, cooperation and inspiration.  The card encouraged me to continue to work hard towards achieving my dreams, always fanning the fire of enthusiasm without the fear of failing.  In due time, prosperity and success will naturally come to me. 
As this card assumes that success can come quicker with teamwork and collaboration, it advised me to leveraged the skills, experience and knowledge of the people around me to guide me to my success.  As a Tarot reader that treads a neverending road of learning, my mentors, my proteges and my friends within the Tarot community worldwide are key to holding my hands along my journey with Tarot.  I see this spiritual journey as a combination of individual efforts  from amongst us, Tarot readers and fellow light workers in our respective spiritual paths, walking towards a common goal of bringing clarity and assurance to the people that matter.

I am well-stoked with this card because I also foresee a future of opportunities, working with my Tarot reading and Numerologist friends here in Singapore, creating unique individual and corporate coaching sessions and workshops using Tarot and Numerology.

I am assured myself, that I will never walk alone.

Henry Ford said, "Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success."

Abundance 

Finally, before I end this blog post to go stuff myself with Chinese New Year goodies, I'd like to bring you back to the true meaning of abundance.  We will indeed be surrounded by abundance, only when we are ready to recieve it with an open and a grateful heart.  Never forget that gratitude is the mother of abundance and that life is a cornucopia of gifts waiting to be recieved.

Joel Osteen said, "When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance."

About The Writer Of This Blog:

The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade and a Tarot card reader by accident.  She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and a Tarosophy Tarot Diploma from Tarot Professionals Ltd.  She is also a certified numerologist, hence her reading style blends numerological significance with Tarot card interpretations. 

A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also a reader for the Free Tarot Network (FTN) and is a mentor for both the ATA and the FTN.

She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com

Sun Goddess Tarot: Nurturing Light This Spring

Sun Goddess Tarot: Nurturing Light This Spring: The First Tarot Blog Hop of 2013 Having had so much fun with a few Tarot Blog Hops last year, I had very quickly put my name down for the...

Nurturing Light This Spring

The First Tarot Blog Hop of 2013

Having had so much fun with a few Tarot Blog Hops last year, I had very quickly put my name down for the first Tarot Blog Hop of 2013, themed to celebrate Imbolc.  The topic conceived by Maureen Aisling Duffy-Boose is titled "In The Belly" and we were tasked to explore the ideas we were nurturing during a season that celebrated new beginnings.  I am grateful that you are reading this post to get my perspective on what Imbolc means to me.  I would urge you to visit the blogs of my fellow Tarot Blog Hoppers whose blog links can be found here http://tarotwitchery.blogspot.com/2013/02/tarot-blog-hop-master-list.html.    If you have hopped onto my blogpost from USGames's blog at http://usgs.typepad.com/blog/2013/02/imboc-tarot-blog-hop.html welcome. 

Imbolc

Imbolc is also known as Candlemas and Groundhog's Day.  As a Roman Catholic, I celebrate this day as the feast day of St Brigid of Kildare.  It's also called Candlemas when referenced to the commemoration of the presentation of Jesus at the temple as a baby when he was proclaimed as the one true hope and light.    In Celtic celebrations, Brigid is revered as the Goddess of healing, writing, poetry and prosperity.  As a solar goddess, she represents the fire and light that burns within us.  When we nurture this light, it  creates inner healing and revitalizes one with energy.  Coincidentally, Chinese New Year, the festive season that celebrates Spring is just around the corner too.  So my friends and family are in the throes of cleaning out the old and welcoming the new, with every effort focused on creating a more prosperous Chinese New Year.

Celebrating New Beginnings

Imbolc, Candlemas or St Brigid's Feast day occurs on February 2nd. It marks the mid way mark between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. Traditionally regarded as the beginning of Spring, this is the time the first stirrings  of Spring can be seen.  Seeds that were planted a few months earlier will start to see signs of life. Farmers celebrate the return of fresh milk with the birth of the first lambs.  Daylight starts to get longer.  The warmth of the Sun is being welcomed back again.  For some of us, we celebrate it as a rebirth and a new beginning.  It is a period we nurture new creative ideas as we make concrete plans to achieve our goals. 

As we nurture new ideas, the thing I had asked myself was, "Just like the changing of the season from Winter to Spring, what changes did I want to make moving forward?"

Finding Light

Last year, due to my love for writing, I had decided to start writing a book to mark a milestone in my journey with Sun Goddess Tarot.  However, with distractions, I never got to finish that project and my scripts were left filed away in a folder called "Stuff".   As a New Year's resolution, one of my goals was to finish that book.  I also wanted to enhance my skills as a Tarot reader to provide even more depth to the readings that I did for my clients. Last year, as I was fueled with enthusiasm for Tarot, I attended so many courses and was constantly studying.  Juggling these courses, studies, my work as a volunteer reader, my mentoring programs and undertaking professional readings at the same time, all started to cause a burn-out in me. Taking on the book project was just all too much that I started getting writer's block.  I literally could not face my scripts mid way through that project.  Moreover, as I was exhausted, my creativity in doing the business development work for my Tarot consultancy started waning.  In truth, the light within me was threatening to snuff itself out. 

That needed to change.  I needed more focus.

The Imbolc Tarot Spread To Nurture Light

Imbolc presented a perfect time for me to rethink how I wanted to approach my Tarot business and what other creative ideas I could nurture to make this year even more meaningful to my clients.  Being a festival of light, I decided to create a Tarot Spread in the formation of a Candle Wheel or Sun Wheel, to get some insights to help me start the "birthing" process critical to re-charting my plans for the year.   I used the Tarot of the Pagan Cats for this spread.

1)  What can I do best to bring light to my clients? – Lovers

2) What can I do best to bring light to myself? - Ace of Cup

3) What can I do best to fan that light to keep my creativity burning as I work on rolling out my plans? - King of Pentacles Reversed

4) What must I do to prevent that light from waning so that I can carry my plans through to full term? - The Hanged Man

5) What final advice can the cards offer to ensure the successful delivery of my plans? - Queen of Swords

What can I do best to bring light to my clients? - The Lovers

The Lovers card represents mutual attraction, trust, passion and harmony.  For me, it was an affirmation to continue bringing light to my clients who trusted me and my work leveraging something I am most passionate about - Tarot.   It is also a card  that represents the process by which I establish what's important  and what's not in my life, because of Tarot, and sharing that personal belief system with my clients so that they can let go of what no longer serve and continue to pursue the goals that they are meant to pursue. 

Through Tarot, I have helped them to make important decisions in their lives and will continue to do so this year. That's how I can best bring light to my clients.

What can I do best to bring light to myself? - Ace of Cups

The Ace of Cups offered me an opportunity to do something that fulfilled me.  Tarot did and it still does.  The reason why I started getting exhausted was that I lost sight of something that fulfilled me even more, and that was using Tarot to do even more and better projects that could help my clients.  The Ace of Cups sees me starting a new creative venture. And it asked me to have faith, follow my heart and listen to my intuition. My intuition told me to go back to the scripts of that book, tear them up and restart my book again, taking the topic in a different direction.  My intuition also told me that while I had nurtured a business idea to take my business into the corporate space last year, I should start making plans to see the idea to fruition this year.   The Ace of Cups is a dare to me to drink from the cup of opportunities that will fulfill me this year. 

 I have a strange feeling, that book and the efforts around corporate coaching are actually a single project that will come together to build something even bigger.

What can I do best to fan that light to keep my creativity burning as I roll out my plans? - King of Pentacles Reversed

The King of Pentacles upright, represents financial security, commitment, diligence and an enterprising disposition.  In the reversed, this King warns me that it is not enough just to work hard, but I had to work smart too.  Working smart means being practical and flexible about the way my Tarot business is run.  

In order to keep the light of passion for the business burning brightly, it was essential to not just come out with creative  ideas to take the business up another level.  It pays to cooperate with fellow light workers too who have skill-sets in which I have gaps.  In that way, I can create even more interesting yet relevant opportunities leveraging the different strengths of my fellow colleagues.  With this card, I got suddenly inspired with so many great ideas to organize events, workshops and coaching sessions with fellow light workers.

What must I do to prevent that light from waning so that I can carry my plans through to full term? - The Hanged Man

The Hanged Man was an interesting pick for this question.  I gleaned 2 interpretations with the card.  A few weeks ago, I fell out with someone who termed my work around Tarot as "Mambo Jambo".  I was extremely upset by that prejudicial assault on my spiritual pursuits that I spent a week driven to depression and bound by anger that wasted away my energies which could have been better used for the purpose of helping a client.  

The Hanged Man reminded me that sometimes, I still grapple with worries about the skepticism of people who don't know me well.  As such, I don't actively market Sun Goddess Tarot beyond my circle of friends and behind the safety net of facelessness afforded me by my social network platforms.  The Hanged Man is an advice to give birth to my creative ideas freely and without worries about how others see me. I needed to have more self confidence and not allow skeptics contribute to my being "suspended" and not being able to move beyond my creative boundaries.

As a second interpretation, the Hanged Man also warned me that I needed to be willing to invest time and energy to pursue my spiritual and personal goals with Tarot.  While I was devoted to the cause I would need to consider how I should be planning my time and efforts and juggling them with my other priorities.  Last year, I was exhausted beyond words because I wanted to do everything at the same time out of enthusiasm to devour more knowledge and pursue exciting projects.  This year, I planned to take a step back and focus on just a few but bigger projects in a bid to prevent the light within me from waning.  As I write this, I am starting to feel the stirrings of a new theme for that book within my heart and my mind.

What final advice can the cards offer to ensure the successful delivery of my plans? - Queen of Swords

The Queen of Swords advised me that the seeds of the projects that I had aimed to plant this Spring would require my making business decisions not with my heart only but also with my head.  I also needed to carry my projects through with clarity of purpose and a sound, logical plan. The Queen also assured me that as long as I maintained my honest and upfront disposition, I should never worry what the skeptics have to say about my love for Tarot and I should never allow them to curb my creativity and my passion.

Nurturing Light This Spring

The one big take away from the interpretation of my Imbolc Tarot Spread above is that the light of creativity and passion within me, can only be nurtured by me and me alone.  It gave me a clear direction to be more focused with my pursuits and to let my intuition guide me to do only what will eventually fulfill me.  It taught me that it’s okay to step back and re-evaluate and re-chart my goals when I am “not feeling it”.   It taught me never to fear skepticism because only I can determine the positive outcomes I want to influence.  It gave me hope and assurance that I can continue to keep the fire of creativity within me burning to warm the hearts and lives of my clients and myself through Tarot.

On that note, may I take this opportunity to invite you to read my Tarot Blog Hop neighbour, Christiana's perspective on the significance of Imbolc at http://tarottrends.com/content/divining-brigid

About the writer:

The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and a Tarosophy Tarot Diploma from Tarot Professionals Ltd.  She is also a certified numerologist; hence her reading style blends numerological significance with Tarot card interpretations. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also a reader for the Free Tarot Network and is a mentor for the ATA as well as the FTN.
She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com