Tarot Tip Tuesdays - Designing A Self Care Package

Whether you are new to Tarot and in the throes of building a connection with your Tarot cards or an advanced Tarot reader diligently honing your Tarot reading skills, I am putting out a Tarot tip a week to help you to consistently make Tarot a part of your everyday life. This Tuesday's tip is focused on using your cards for advice about designing that "Self-Care Package" that Tarot readers might find useful.

In the last few weeks, I decided to give myself a break from writing my weekly Tarot Tip Tuesday posts.   I made a little readjustment to some of my commitments to give myself permission to take a break in between.  This is the self care I kept writing about because I truly subscribed to the notion that psychic empaths like myself, who often take on the emotions and other energies of others within our environment, need to frequently recharge and surround ourselves with healing energy. I was terribly exhausted, trying to do so much with so little time, and the amount of readings that I was doing in the last few months suddenly spiked to an extent that I could sometimes take in 4-5 face to face readings in 1 night, then get home to continue with Skype or email readings. I definitely needed to take stock of how I was managing my time, and I needed to step back to take a breather for awhile.

Just before I took that break, I felt so guilty about leaving my Tarot cards for awhile.  it had always been a part of my life, almost an extension of my limb and I never left home without it.  If I truly relied on my cards to provide my clients clear advice and direction, then I should rely on my cards to do the same for me.   The following is a spread I had created to design my "Self-Care Package" that I sorely needed.  

If at anytime you feel that you need to recharge yourself but not sure when, how and what would be the best way to do it, I hope this Tarot Spread helps.  This spread is meant to provide advice on how best you can take care of yourself when it gets all too much.

Caring For My Physical Self - Queen Of Wands

The Queen bodes so much positivity around health. It is a card charged with vitality. Looking at the Queen of Wands from my Radiant Rider Waite deck, I saw passion, radiance, beauty, confidence, and energy.  It beckoned me to do what I can to revitalize myself, bring back the energy into my life with a rigorous fitness regime and a sound diet. So that was what I did.  I made a conscious choice to not just "go to the gym ever so often to do my thing" but instead,  to focus my time on Muay Thai (Thai boxing) training.   I made arrangements with 4 coaches specializing in their respective areas of expertise who could help increase the intensity of my Muay Thai training with the goal of competing in the ring perhaps next year when I am ready.    I spent 6 days a week in the gym going through rigorous training sessiojs of boxing drills, strength conditioning, pad work and heavy bag exercises.  The Queen of Wands approaches life with passion, so like the Queen, I developed my passion for Muay Thai and gave it 100% commitment.  I got fitter and stronger as a result.  Most importantly, because I was fitter and stronger, I had more energy everyday!

Just last week, I paid a visit to my cardiologist for my regular checkup that I did every 6 months.  He was amazed at the weight I had lost and how toned and fit I looked.  The results of my medical tests also improved so much that he reduced the dosage of my hypertension medication even more.

The Queen nudged me wth her wand to remind me that if I wanted to extract the full benefits of an activity I had chosen to support in my health and fitness goals, I had better  be passionate about doing it right.

Caring For My Mental Self - The Empress

The Empress was an interesting pick.  It threw me back a little because I often associated the Empress  as a card associated with fertility matters when it came to a health reading. However, this was not a health reading! I reminded myself that this was about the advice the Empress was trying to provide to help calm my mind.  I realized then that she was telling me to take some time off to spend time with myself, enjoy the great outdoors and get in touch with nature again.  So I did that with long walks along the riverside, not purely for physical fitness but to enjoy the lush greenery around me, the sights of dragon-boaters rowing their boats along the river, lying on the grass to decipher shapes from the clouds and sinking my feet into the earth to feel the healing earth energy coursing through my body.  

The Empress also represented creativity.  So I focused my time on writing.  This time, instead of writing about Tarot related topics, in tandem with my recent love for martial arts,  I chose to write about sports!  I started re-using my skills learnt from my University days when I took up English Applied Discourse as a minor subject, focusing on journalistic writing.  Due to my love for Muay Thai and martial arts in general, I had decided to focus my writing on mixed martial arts.  I enjoyed it so much that I started writing for various sports media and was also invited to cover mixed martial arts events as a sports writer.  I even got my own byline with Asia Sports Network! I was so chuffed  because I was doing something I love - writing, about another topic that I truly enjoyed over and on top of Tarot.

Now that certainly was the best care I could give myself to enhance my mental well-being.  I deployed creativity through my writing skills to stimulate my mind around a topic I never was an expert in but learnt so much about.  It brought me so much happiness when I could chat on end about a sport that I loved.

Caring For My Spiritual Self - Knight of Swords

 This was a classic manifestation of the issue I had been dealing with right from the start.  I had so much going on in my life, juggling between a full time career in a fast-paced industry of finance, heading up a marketing and PR team.  At the same time, I was managing a Tarot business that was growing beyond my capacity.  I was engaged in private readings, corporate events, workshops and talks.  I was not managing my schedule  and not pacing my activities well enough that I started to lose touch with my spiritual self.  As a psychic empath, not having time to meditate and offload the. Negative energies that I absorbed during my readings led to my being extremely exhausted  and swaying precariously through mood swings.  I was badly in need of some semblance of stillness and solitude so that I could reconnect with my spiritual self.  

The Knight prodded me with his sword to do something about it quickly.  So I made the conscious choice to limit my face to face readings to only a couple of days a week.  Email readings were allocated  only one night a week.  I taught Tarot and Numerology lessons only a weekend of a month and I accepted reading engagements at corporate events only once a month.  I also decided to write my blogposts when I am creatively guided to share a topic and not because I was pressured into delivering on a schedule I had set myself on. These activities alone were already plenty for me to work with but the way I paced them  gave me time to meditate and reconnect with my spiritual self.

As I started to unshackle myself off my own expectations of who I was as a marketing and PR professional and an owner of a Tarot business, I threw myself into a Devotion To Self  course conducted by Jen Saunders from Wild Sister Magazine and a 30 -day Chakra Bliss Challenge conductive by Danielle Dove.  As the weeks went on, there were times I could not follow the pace of the course of the challenge, but I forgave myself  because I wanted to take my time and let my spirit lead me to whatever I needed to do to get me to be more connected with my spiritual self.

Eventually, i felt so grounded and my intuition was switched on whenever I needed it to do so, even to the extent of tuning into my clairvoyance during a hectic business trip, and providing the right advice when a friend hollered for help.

 How Can I Unite My Body, Mind And Spirit? - Temperance 

So now that I knew what I needed to do to recharge my body, my mind and my spirit, how could I ensure that I supported these 3 pillars of my life to get me back to a happy place?  I picked the Temperance, and I was not surprised by the message from the card. The Universe was very clear about the fact that whatever I pursued to help myself physically, mentally and spiritually, I had tocreate balance and moderation in order to achieve a sense of purpose and fulfillment with everything I put an effort towards.

I revisited my interpretation of the Queen of Wands, the Empress and the Knight of Swords and saw what pulled the three together - my spiritual path as an intuitive. 

 My effort and commitment into Muay Thai would be critical in helping me "offload" all that negative energy I absorbed as a psychic empath.  At the same time, by building my fitness and my strength, I was able to have more energy to take on more challenges as I continued to serve my purpose.  

 My foray into sports journalism was an alternative outlet for creative self expression which revitalized my love for writing again. I had spent months before suffering frequent writers' block with both my Sun a Goddess Tarot blog and my personal blog.  Now that I had regained my energy and passion for writing, I started an unconscious ideation of topics in my head that I wanted to write about within my Sun Goddess Tarot blog.  

I also gave myself permission to slow down, turned down some reading requests, took a short 'vacation' from writing my Tarot Tip Tuesday posts and generally just 'took a chill pill'.  

Temperance reminded me that the ultimate way to caring for myself, was to balance all these elements as I juggled my priorities.  This Self-Care Tarot spread is very small, and quite simple, but it empowered me to make positive changes to my life.  When I can learn to love myself and take good care of myself, then I can take good care of my clients.

May your Tarot cards provide you with a full deck of possibilities throughout your day.

If you like this blogpost, do follow my blog at http://sungoddesstarot.blogspot.com and LIKE my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot

About The Writer:

The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and an intuitive reader by accident who deploys the combined modalities of a Tarot, Numerology and Astrology overlaid with her Clairvoyant and Clairsentient skills to deliver her readings with authenticity. She was awarded a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and is also a certified numerologist.  She is currently running a consultancy based in Singapore called Sun Goddess Tarot,  which provides confidential intuitive readings combining the metaphysical disciplines of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology via face to face and emails as well as readings at corporate and private events and workshops.  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 mentors Tarot protégés on behalf of the American Tarot Association

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com
Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot

Muay Thai training with my Thai coach in Phuket, Thailand.
Photo courtesy of David Ash, www.singaporemaven.com

Meditating at the beach.  The ocean speaks to me.

There Are Never Too Many Cups For A Career Reading

Picking Cards From The Suit Of Cups For A Career Reading 

Yesterday, I did a career reading for one of my clients who was a novice Tarot reader. She had played with the Tarot cards on and off on a social basis and got her few months of Tarot education from that little white book that came with her barely used Tarot deck.  I often found it satisfying to read for novice Tarot readers as it gave me a chance to turn that session into a lesson in intuitive reading as well. 

For her Tarot spread, the majority of cards that I picked were cards from the Suit of Cups.  Cups corresponds with the Water element which govern emotions, relationships, imagination, fulfillment, dreams, creativity, and intuition.  With this basic knowledge, Emmanuelle immediately exclaimed, "Oh my! I am not having an affair with him! There must be some confusion because this is a career reading."  Poor Emmanuelle.  She looked genuinely astonished and might have thought for a minute that I was a Tarot reader from "Quacks-ville".  So I began explaining to her that what she had learnt about the Suits of Cups is correct and just as these traits of the suit could impact relationships between people, they could also impact her situation within her job.

I thought to extend that explanation to the rest of my blog readers as a way of helping novice Tarot readers have a deeper understanding of the interpretation of these cards. So, with permission from Emmanuelle, I am sharing my interpretation of the cards that  I had picked to her question "What is the outcome of my job, given a trying work relationship with my boss?"

Interpretation To Emmanuelle's Tarot Spread

Self - 9 of Pentacles:

The 9 of Pentacles depicted Emmanuelle as a highly successful and financially independent woman who had worked hard to achieve what she enjoyed in her life today.  She held the position of a Regional Director of Marketing at a private wealth management company and led a fast-paced life of work travels and expensive dinners juxtaposed with late nights at the office. Emmanuelle came this far through sheer hard work.  Her company remunerated her well but every cent she got, she paid for with a lot of hard work.

Situation - 2 of Cups Reversed + 4 of Cups:

 Her work situation unfortunately was riddled with a lot of tension where she did not see eye to eye with her boss.  There was lack of harmony within the manager - direct report relationship and through the months, she felt increasing dissatisfaction with her work as she had to do what her boss demanded and was not allowed to leverage her own creative talents to lend more meaningful support to the projects she was working on.   Increasingly, Emmanuelle felt disengaged and uninspired by her boss and consequently it affected her job.  She was ever eager to book her next flight out to anywhere in the world that could get her out of the office.  She told me that she took long lunches where she worked on her laptop as she ate, and the Starbucks along a remote street within the  central business district was her 2nd office because she could not stand the sight of her boss within the office.  She seemed to be gradually retreating into her own world and enjoyed pursuing her own interests outside of work when she had the spare time.  I knew this personally as well because I was invited to many of her exquisite home-cooked dinners where she spared no expense in providing her guests with the best home-dining experience!

Obstacle - 2 of Swords Reversed:

The 2 of Swords reversed was a manifestation of what was hindering Emmanuelle from moving forward and growing in her company.  The card suggested that she was crippled by indecision about what to do with her career.  She enjoyed her work as she felt she was well-skilled for the role, and she was indeed paid a good salary that afforded her lifestyle.  However she truly disliked her boss and resentment for the latter was gradually welling up inside her, to the point of  Emmanuelle constantly building negative thoughts about her boss.  She often suspected that her boss dished out the most difficult and least fulfilling projects to her.  She also thought that her boss was out to find ways to "trip her up".  Yet,  she could not see any other options before her.  To stay within the job was to subject herself to continuous mental abuse from her boss.  To leave the job now was to throw herself into a world of uncertainties which could impact her financial outcome negatively. Emmanuelle felt stuck in her situation and it was causing her increasing mental anguish.

Development - Knight of Cups:

In the next few months,  the Knight of Cups suggested that Emmanuelle would throw herself into a new creative project that had the potential of fulfilling her for the long term.  To this Emmanuelle admitted that she was in the throes of establishing a wedding planning/events planning company on the side as she had in the past helped her friends organize complex wedding events at beautiful vacation resorts located in other countries.   No wonder,  Emmanuelle often spent extended periods of time at a country she visited for work meetings, to establish a network of contacts that could help support the purpose of her consultancy.    Her sideline business would offer her the opportunity to utilize her creative abilities and I could see it giving her much satisfaction in the long run.  In fact, this business could be her retirement job at some point when she had decided she had enough wth the corporate world.  This passion was also her way of taking her mind away from the unhappiness she was experiencing with her boss.  Smart lady!

Outcome - Page of Cups:

As an outcome, the Page bode a positive sign that Emmanuelle would not need to be afraid of losing her job some day because of a bad relationship with her boss.  She also need not fear that she could not find a job at other companies.  Within or without this job, she would have an opportunity to use her creative talents anyway.  In fact, as she continued to work hard, honed her skills and just kept her heart and mind focused on building her creative skills, she could find a job offer coming her way at some point.   Emmanuelle was advised to approach any new opportunities coming her way wth gratitude, knowing that the Universe would always present her with a new opportunity if and when she was ready.  Should her boss hand her any projects which seemed initially boring or not meaningful enough, Emmanuelle was advised to find opportunities within these projects to make a difference with her creativity.  If the Page was a reflection of herself Emmanuelle had to open her heart and mind to learning opportunities within every challenge, and use her creativity to find solutions to bridge the gaps.  Her relationship with her boss was one such challenge.

Advice - Ace of Cups Reversed + The Fool Reversed + King of Pentacles Reversed:

Yes, Emmanuelle had a huge hurdle in their path to job satisfaction, her boss.  The reversed King depicted Emmanuelle's boss as a highly rigid and authoritative boss who never gave Emmanuelle any room to come up with refreshing and creative ideas.  He saw himself as boss and Emmanuelle only but the subordinate who had to do his bidding.  However, instead of acting on impulse and antagonizing her boss with her flippant attitude, Emmanuelle had to learn to curb her emotions and fight the urge to talk back and  make her boss look stupid.  

If Emmanuelle was tempted to jump at any job offer that came her way just so she could get away from her boss, she should not be reckless  but instead, be religious with her research about these offers, so that she would not end up going from the frying pan to the fire.  I told Emmanuelle that leaving a job because she no longer enjoyed the job and was not learning anything new, was a good thing to do. However to leave a job because of not being able to get along with someone else, was really a bad idea.  She could end up at another company with the same character dynamics there as well!  With diverse personalities within any given environment, frictions caused by differences of opinions, and attitudes was to be expected.  Emmanuelle had to learn to manage these along the way.  That was part of her career growth.  And if she found a hobby she loved and provided her with a chance to turn her creativity into something that could provide a meagre income on the side as she managed her full-time career through to retirement, that was a bonus.

In summary, Emmanuelle's main issue was in her search for job fulfillment.  With this reading, I helped her see the difference between seeking job fulfillment by turning work challenges into opportunities and job fulfillment that was totally driven by her relationship with her boss.  She should not be blinded by the latter and instead be grounded enough to balance her heart and mind about what she could reap from applying her creativity to every situation good or bad.

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 is also a certified numerologist.  She is currently running a Tarot consultancy based in Singapore called Sun Goddess Tarot,  which provides confidential intuitive readings combining the metaphysical disciplines of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology via face to face and emails as well as readings at corporate and private events and workshops.  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 mentors Tarot protégés on behalf of the American Tarot Association

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com
Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot.

The Tarot Cards Used For This Career Reading Were Taken From The
Radiant Rider Waite Tarot Deck Updated By
Virginijus Poshkus And Published By U.S. Games Systems

Welcome Spring Through Tarot, Healing And Creativity

THE IMBOLC TAROT BLOG HOP

This blog post was written as my contribution to the Imbolc Tarot Blog Hop which incidentally, would be the first Tarot blog Hop for 2014!  Christiana Gaudet, the wrangler for this particular blog hop had decided on this topic "Tarot, Healing And Creativity".  To visit the blog posts on the same topic written by my fellow Tarot bloggers, please visit the links below:

Blog Before     |     Master List     |      Blog After 

IMBOLC WELCOMES SPRING

Imbolc, was celebrated as an ancient Celtic fire festival that marked the mid point in between the seasons of Winter and Summer.  The festival was a celebration of the renewal of the earth when prayers were focused on welcoming Spring. Bonfires and candles were lit to hark back light, longer and warmer days.  Hopes were placed on creating abundance, from planting seeds that could reap crops in a few months, to the birthing of  cattle, lamb and other farm animals.   At Imbolc, Brigid was celebrated by my Pagan friends as the Goddess of fire, healing, creativity and fertility.  

The Christians celebrated  the feast day of St Brigit of Kildare. St Brigit was honoured for her devout faith and support of creativity.  A testament to this was when she founded a school of art and nurtured skills like metal work and illumination.   Another testament to her creativity was when she approached King Leinster for a piece of land upon which she could build a convent.  The King laughed at her and promised her that she could have a piece of land as big as her cloak could cover.  When Brigit spread her cloak on the ground, it grew miraculously to cover acres of grounds.  The King,  having experienced this miracle, gave her the land as promised and became a Christian soon after.  In more ways than one, she should be honoured for the new beginnings she had established through her creativity.

TAROT, HEALING AND CREATIVITY

I saw Imbolc as a period that celebrated new beginnings.  Most people would have come off the year-end festivities with renewed vision of what they wanted the new year to hold for them.  It was a time when farmers started to plant new seeds, and people started to plan for the for the rest of the year.  As they prayed for light and warmer days, they wanted to embrace the future with optimism and looked forward to manifesting their goals with all the past experiences they had garnered.  It was exactly the same with my clients, who kept me extremely busy these few weeks because they were in the throes of 2014 planning and wanted guidance on career and relationship so that they could navigate challenges through the year.

 I have always believed that my purpose was to use my intuitive skills to support the journey of healing that my clients took through the creative Tarot spreads that I enjoyed designing when I read for them.    However,  beyond the creative Tarot spreads that one could design, I wanted to explore the nifty idea of telling a story through Tarot.   I worked in Public Relations, and in that profession, it was all about story-telling for a purpose, and I see that same synergistic skill I had been using to do my Tarot readings.

I was quite inspired by Arwen Lynch's work when I attended one of her presentations at an international tarot conference a couple of months ago.  She spoke about Tarot for writers, and that was where I got the idea.  She also wrote a book called "Mapping The Hero's Journey" which aimed to help aspiring writers  finish writing that book within 33 days.  I would not attempt to tell a story here using my Tarot cards.  I would  instead be writing a poem guided by the Tarot cards that I had picked as I wrote this blog post.  I also had the  immense help of a few glasses of wine. 

This poem is called A New Beginning because the focus of my work this month, was to help my clients heal from their negative experiences in the last year, so that they could move on to embrace a better and more positive 2014.  Bear with me as this was my first time writing poetry by randomly picking my Tarot cards.


A NEW BEGINNING


STRENGTH

A laboured walk through darkness
I leave painful footsteps within the snow
With my last vestige of strength
I fight my weary way through the cold

KING OF CUPS

Where am I going
I don't quite know
Perhaps to find a place of calm
Or a clear path for me to run

KNIGHT OF PENTACLES

But I know that soon dawn will break
This journey is one I have to take
Even when the burden weighs heavy on my lap
As I struggle to take my next step

TEN OF SWORDS

With eyes fixed upon the horizon
I shall release all disappointments

ACE OF WANDS

To a new beginning I approach
When I am guided to find the right road

 ~ Joanna Ash,  Sun Goddess Tarot


Thanks to Christiana and Arwen, I learnt to be slightly more experimental with my Tarot cards and took them beyond my client readings.  I managed to write poetry with them too!  However, that book has to wait though, I now have a headache from the wine. 

Again, here are the links to the wonderful posts written by my fellow Tarot bloggers. 

Blog Before     |     Master List     |      Blog After 

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 is also a certified numerologist.  She is currently running a Tarot consultancy based in Singapore called Sun Goddess Tarot,  which provides confidential intuitive readings combining the metaphysical disciplines of Tarot, Numerology and Astrology via face to face and emails as well as readings at corporate and private events and workshops.  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 mentors Tarot protégés on behalf of the American Tarot Association

Website: www.sungoddesstarot.com
Email:  Joanna@sungoddesstarot.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/SunGoddessTarot
Twitter: www.twitter.com/SunGoddessTarot

I picked these cards randomly to help me craft this poetry called A New Beginning.
These cards were taken from the Morgan Greer Tarot deck
created by Bill Greer and Lloyd Morgan.
The cards were laid out deosil around a candle used for my Imbolc prayer.

Searching For Faeries This Summer

Celebrating The Summer Solstice With Faeries

When fellow Tarot blogger, Sharon Cummings volunteered to wrangle the 3^rd Tarot Blog Hop of the Year to coincide with the Summer Solstice or Litha, she helped me grapple with the topic of faeries. During Litha the earth tilts closest to the Sun, flowers are in full bloom, skies are blue, birds are singing, days are warm. She also said,” The Summer Solstice is for the faeries to come out and play, to give and receive gifts and to create mischief.”  This painted a picture of the stories told by Enid Blyton when I was younger. These stories were magical.  Many of these stories had faeries hopping from flower to flower written into the storylines.  Some of my friends, who connected with the fae folk, swore that they actually did.

While I understood that Litha was a celebration of the Summer Solstice, harking longer and warmer days, I still had difficulty grappling with the concept of faeries prancing about the garden on a hot summer’s day. 

Some of my fellow Tarot bloggers might enlighten you better on the topic, so I strongly encourage you to visit the blog posts of fellow Tarot bloggers lined up before or after me:  TABI’s (Tarot Association of the British Isles) post on the topic is at http://tabitarot.blogspot.com/2013/06/summer-solstice-blog-hop.html  and  Alison Cross’  is at http://tarot-thrones.blogspot.com/2013/06/litha-blog-hop-spread-embracing-your.html  

What Faeries?

I was brought up in a strict Asian household where I was made to understand that Santa Claus was a concept conjured by adults to enforce good behavior in kids throughout the year. I also believed that faeries were creatures conjured by Mum to prevent me from plucking her flowers in her garden that she had painstakingly nurtured over the months. 

 I had done some research about Litha and learnt that Litha was celebrated as a faery festival that honoured the arrival of longer days and the blazing sun.  It celebrated abundance, nature, revelry, fertility, healing, beauty and creativity.

My Midsummer Search For Faeries

So as my friends around the world revelled in the warmth of the Litha sunshine today, I went in search of faeries.  I felt like a deprived child combing the internet to ascertain what they looked like.  I re-read Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream to get inspired; I lighted candles the night before to illuminate my home so that the faeries could find a safe haven for rest.  I even left some honey chamomile tea and a bit of my famous Asian spiced pineapple compote on half a scone, out on my dining table the night before Litha, in the hope that faeries might enjoy a midsummer night’s snack (I did wonder if the faeries would appreciate my Asian culinary skills but figured that at least they were spared from my curry).  I was obsessed about looking for the magic these faeries purportedly brought.

By this time, David and Joel were ready to call the men in white coats to take me away, fearing that I had absolutely lost my mind.  Well, the faeries did not eat my compote and scone.  David did.  The candles were blown out by Joel, amidst his grumbles that I could accidentally burn the house down.  I still did not see any faeries.

What The Fool Card In Tarot Taught Me

Disappointed, I began to shuffle my Tarot cards and just randomly picked a card to the question "Where can I find my faery?".  The card that showed up was The Fool from my Radiant Rider Waite Tarot deck.

Upon further meditation, I heard what the Fool had to say to me.  Like the Fool, I should be giving free reign to this journey of exploring my creativity.  My eyes were transfixed on the rising sun within the image of the Fool’s card, encouraging me to look further and beyond my basic comprehension of the significance of Litha.  

The Fool took on a youthful perspective of the world and explored his surroundings in childlike wonder. He held a white flower, a symbol of purity and innocence, and he held it out as if to ask me to take a whiff of that flower. I knew he was encouraging me to step back and smell the roses some time.  

He was happy being led by the Universe to his destiny, with just a wee pack strapped across his back and his little mutt Toto beside him.  The Fool and Toto looked so happy traipsing along the path that I could almost hear him whistling while Toto barked in sheer joy. They seemed to be soaking in the abundance that surrounded them and just walking their journey in gratitude for every little thing that they have experienced along the way.  He was urging me to live my life with joy and gratitude every single day.

I realized then that I missed the point about Litha.  Litha was a magical festival. It honored the magic of summer and the life-giving energy that the Sun provided.  While my friends were celebrating Litha in all that fun, warmth and revelry, I was busy looking for faeries under the cushions.  Litha was about creative self expression afforded by a beautiful, flower-filled and lush environment with warmer and longer days.  This provided inspiration for my creative self expression. I was inspired to share a bit of creativity with my friends and family, in whatever form that creativity took.

Summer was also a time of fun, and I needed that after being hit by a period of stress-related health issues.  I needed to get out more to enjoy some sunshine with the family.  I wanted to start doing what I used to enjoy doing when I had more time, like cooking and baking.


A Bit Of Summer Creativity

So, like the Fool taking a leap into the unknown, I had decided to experiment with a bit of poetry.  Please don’t laugh at it. I have many talents but writing poetry definitely was not one of them.  So this was my first attempt at writing poetry.

Like a Queen, she glows with radiance

Adorned in robes of emerald, gold and ruby,

Her scepter casts light in all its brilliance

Ruling the summer in all her glory

Shrubs and flowers, a-blooming

Covering fields in rainbow hues

Birds embrace the winds while singing

As the clouds part to reveal the skies so blue

Flowers sway gently in the breeze

As faeries dance hand in hand

Watching the unfurling of the leaves

While the Sun warms our land

I have also decided to share some of my “faery” food – my Asian spiced pineapple compote, which would make a wonderful tea-time snack when served on toast, biscuits or scone. As I wrote this, I planned to pack some compote into a picnic basket tomorrow morning so that the family and I could enjoy some sandwiches by the beach.  It was indeed time for some sunshine.  The recipe is appended below:

Asian Spiced Pineapple Compote

Ingredients:
·         2 pineapples - peeled and shredded manually ( do not use a blender)
·         1 1/2cups water  - scented with juice of 2 oranges and a tablespoon of orange zest)
·         1 cup brown sugar
·         2 sticks cinnamon, 4 cloves and 2 star anise

Directions:
1.After shredding the pineapple, put the pineapple, water and spices in a pot and cook over low to medium heat until the pineapple mixture is soft.  This takes about half an hour with intermittent stirring.
2.Stir the sugar into the pineapple mixture and continue cooking till the mixture thickens over slightly higher heat for another half an hour. Once the mixture has thickened, remove spices and leave mixture to cool in pot. 
3.When sufficiently cooled, spoon the compote into sterilized jars with tight fitting lid and store in the refrigerator. 

 May this compote add a touch of sweetness to this bountiful summer.  And while enjoying my compote, do explore other Tarot bloggers' perspectives on Litha. The link to the other participating bloggers is at http://sharoncumming.blogspot.com/2013/06/tarot-blog-hop-litha-2013-master-list.html 

About The Writer:

The writer of this blog post is a marketeer by trade, and a tarot card reader by accident. She currently runs a Tarot consultancy called Sun Goddess Tarot, based in Singapore.  She has obtained a Certified Professional Tarot Reader qualification from the Tarot Certification Board of America (TCBA) and is also a certified numerologist. A member of the American Tarot Association (ATA) and the Tarot Association of the British Isles (TABI), she is also endorsed as 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

The Fool from the Radiant Rider Waite deck was my Fae taking me up that path of Summer creativity and fun.

My Asian Spiced Pineapple Compote made a perfect tea-time snack in the Summer
that even the faeries would approve.

Not to be outdone, the hubby joined in the culinary fun by baking these
 raisin scones to complement my pineapple compote.

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