Ostara - Dancing Between Light And Darkness

My Limited Understanding Of Ostara

Today, some of my friends around the world celebrate the major Sabbat of Ostara, or the Spring Equinox. This is the time where the length of day and night is equal.  It’s an appropriate topic for the 2^nd Tarot Blog Hop for 2013.  However, I hadn’t the faintest clue what Ostara meant.  I had a good laugh when I remembered asking the Ostara Bloghop wrangler, Morgan Drake Eckstein http://gleamingsfromthedawn.blogspot.com/2013/03/between-light-and-darkness.html to be clearer with the topic although he tried very hard to explain that in the Northern hemisphere, people celebrated Spring and in the Southern hemisphere people celebrated Autumn.  I was thinking at that moment, “Oh dear, I am in Singapore, where we never have Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter, it was just hot, hotter and hottest.” 

So one of my friends very kindly sent me a text to share how she celebrated Ostara with fresh spring flowers, hot cross buns and painted eggs.  The light bulb came on in my head immediately, “Oh! Like Easter!”  So for my lack of understanding about Ostara, please forgive me and do visit the blogpost of my fellow Tarot bloghop neighbour, Alison Cross at http://tarot-thrones.blogspot.com/2013/03/tarot-blog-hop-ostara-2013-snowdrop.html whose blog post on the same topic, was posted before mine.

From my limited knowledge about Ostara, I will share my perspectives about the significance of Ostara as a festival that celebrates the balance between light and darkness.  If you get even more confused about Ostara after this blog post, please visit the blogs of the rest of the wonderful Tarot bloggers in the master list at http://gleamingsfromthedawn.blogspot.com/2013/03/ostara-2013-tarot-blog-hop-master-list.html  for a clearer view on the topic

Dancing Between Darkness And Light

When Morgan themed this Tarot Blog Hop topic as “Dancing between Darkness and Light”, I thought immediately of how I had begun to understand the conflicts within me and the balance I have been attempting to create to harness the right energies of my light side while embracing the opportunities to learn from the negative energies of the dark side of my character.  I had discovered more about myself through an Astrology course I had signed up for with Christiane Hayes at www.cosmictarot.co.uk .  The course was possibly the most rewarding one I had ever done because I discovered how I could turn my challenges into opportunities, and my negative traits into a positive learning experience.  The course uncovered my internal struggles between the mix of fire and water elements governing my Sun and Moon signs.  

Interestingly, I have begun to make my Tarot readings with clients more robust with what I had learnt at this course, providing more advice-centric readings to them, with the aim of turning their challenges into opportunities too.

Sun Sign Zodiac And Persona Cards

As I was born on 1^st August 1969, my Sun sign zodiac card is Leo/Strength.  The character traits of my Sun sign are not unfamiliar to me.  I am self-confident, bold and have a big personality.  However, I can be aggressive, opinionated (I can’t help being right all the time) and arrogant at times (Like I said, I can't help being right all the time!) and quite persevering.

The Sun Sign persona card is the King of Wands.  I do like the bloke.  He’s charismatic, full of energy, a born leader but can be opinionated.  I need to harness the positive energies of this King more.

Moon Sign Zodiac And Persona Cards

My Moon sign zodiac card is Pisces/Moon, which uncovers my highly sensitive personality prone to displays of overly dramatic emotions (Should I go slit my wrist now?).  As a perfectionist, I always worry that everything around me isn’t perfect enough.  That usually motivates me to push myself to work harder, but it drives everyone around me crazy as well.  I do repress my true feelings, often showing my hard exterior but am actually a big, soft teddy bear inside. Christiane added that this trait helped with nurturing my intuitive nature which in turn, helped in my Tarot reading, I guess.

My Moon Sign persona card is the Knight of Cups.  I don’t like this bloke.  He’s such a lame softie. So here’s where it gets interesting when I assessed the fine balance I needed to create within myself. 

As the Knight of Cups, I am a dreamer; I am highly sensitive, sometimes insecure and often crave attention or recognition.  How could I have not seen that coming!  This was an eye-opener for me because I found bits of my shadow self creeping up on me.  I worked extremely hard, and put every passion into what I did.  However, I get thrown into the deep abyss of dejection that impacted my motivation, when I don’t get that requisite “pat on the back”.  The conflict of the fire elements in my Sun persona card of King of Wands and the Moon persona card of Knight of Cups have actually been a major issue plaguing my life. 

I always thought that I am a self-confident go-getter who was hard as nails.  However, I had never accepted my insecurities as a Tarot reader. Every Tarot reader out there seemed so much better, more knowledgeable and more experienced.  I often wore a hard exterior of stoicism but within me, I sometimes fill myself with doubt, questioning the science of Tarot and questioning my skills as a proficient Tarot reader.   When I re-read past postings of my blogs, I saw a trend with most of the postings spent wincing about not being taken seriously as a Tarot reader, or about arrogant Tarot readers who slapped me in the face with "So what you've got a CPTR from the TCBA? I've got 30 years of tarot reading experience under my belt." Yet within the same breath, I talked with great passion about my undying love for Tarot, the fulfilling mentoring work I do with my protégés and the relationship I have built with my clients.

Man, am I mixed up!

Charting My Shadow Cards

Interestingly, I then decided to chart the opposing sign on the zodiac wheel, opposite my Sun sign zodiac card of Leo/Strength/King of Wands and I encountered the Aquarius/Star/King of Swords cards.

Now I am intrigued.

When I tried to look at the negative influences of the Aquarius/Star/King of Swords combination of cards to learn something from it, these cards alluded to the fact that I am unbending, not willing to change, impractical, emotionally repressive and quite detached.

How true. With my insecurities, I am quite repressive and would never reveal how I truly felt when I am hurt, disappointed or afraid, yet I would be upfront and honest about most things.  I had an opinion about almost everything in fact.  I am also averse to changes, and tend to cling to my comfort zone, although my King of Wands personality meant that I am a dynamic person unafraid of challenges. 

I was very proud of how I have helped to make a positive impact to the lives of my clients through Tarot, yet often, I catch myself biting my lip when I am faced with skepticism from friends and acquaintances.  I then end up not giving Sun Goddess Tarot the full marketing effort it deserved.  Recognizing this helped stop me in my tracks when I unwittingly allowed the negative energy to get the better of me.

When I charted the opposing sign opposite the zodiac wheel from my Moon sign of Pisces/Moon/Knight of Cups, the Virgo/Hermit/Knight of Pentacles showed up.  Cool!  I see the opportunities of turning the negative influence of these cards around.  The pragmatic, cautious and diligent energies of the Virgo/Hermit/Knight of Pentacles cards are balancing the dreamy, highly sensitive and emotional traits of my Moon sign.

Getting To Know Myself Better

I would like to think that when this Tarot Astrology course fell on my lap, it was the Universe’s way of trying to tell me that I could help my clients better only when I knew myself better. 

Life, like Ostara, is a celebration of balance between yin and yang, positive and negative, light and darkness.  The universe throws us the mega challenge of this balancing act so that we can hone our skills to turn every challenge into an opportunity, and turn every opportunity into a reason to live life with joy and gratitude for the abundance that surrounds us.

If you don't already think that I am schizophrenic, I am grateful that you're interested in reading my perspective on Ostara.  Don't forget to visit the blogposts of my fellow Tarot blogging friends. The master list to their blogs was appended earlier within this blog post..

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 was recently certified as a numerologist in Singapore. 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.   She can be contacted at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot or www.sungoddesstarot.com