Buried Treasure

We’ve all been there, tarot lovers, that is.  A new deck comes out and we just have to have it so we click that buy button. Shortly thereafter, another one comes out and we buy that one too.  There appears to be a cycle of new decks being released all at once and then there is nothing for a long time. During those down times, we discover decks that were previously released, and darn it!  We have it to have those too!  I, personally, wouldn’t know about that. Uuuuhhhhh.  Yes I would. HA  There are so many beautiful decks (tarot and oracle) that once we get started, it can be hard to stop and before we know it, we’ve spent all of our self imposed deck allowance (or more) on new (or new to us) decks. Can you say “buying spree”?   

There comes a point when you know you absolutely, positively have to stop or you will be reading your cards in the dark because you didn’t have enough to pay the electric bill.  Now, I haven’t actually experienced that but it has definitely been tempting at times. LOL  If you are anything like me, and I know I am (yes, I did that on purpose), you usually don’t have money to spend on decks and you just have to wait until you have the extra cash.  But what if you are craving new deck?  You know what I’m talking about.  The need to experience the excitement of getting a delivery, opening it with the wonder and excitement of “what will I think of this deck?”, “how will we work together?”, or “I wonder what the so and so card will look like”.  What if…you didn’t have the money to purchase a new deck and you really want to fulfill that need of a new one? 

I have 2 answers for you.  The first one is this…trading for one.  I’m sure there is a deck or two that you really don’t connect with that someone else would absolutely love to have.  There are Facebook groups that are specifically for trading decks and it can really be a fun and inexpensive way of getting a new to you deck with spending only the price of postage.  You do have to be careful here because you have to be sure that you can trust the people that you will be dealing with.  I recommend being in a group for awhile and watch the participants.  You will be able to tell who you can trust and who you cant and while I’ve only traded once, there are some really fabulous people in the tarot community and you more than likely wont have a problem, but there is always that chance that it wont go well.  I do have to say, I have not heard of any problems where I hang out.  You will also need to decide if you want to partner up with people who live in another country than you do because postage can be quite high.  Sometimes shipping from one country to another can be just as high as a $25 dollar deck.  This is not a problem if you’ve been looking for your Holy Grail for a long time, however, that is not generally the case.  Trading is how I got my Tarot of Trees deck by Dana Driscoll that I had been eyeing for a few years but never pushed that buy button.  No regrets.

The Tarot of Trees by Dana Driscoll

 If you don’t really care about the delivery part of the process (Not sure who this applies to though. Who doesn’t like receiving deliveries??? It’s like Christmas!), then you really don’t have to look any further than your own collection.  Raid your own collection!  There’s buried treasure there!  Remember when I was talking about buying sprees?  Well, when you have purchased 4 or 5 decks in a short amount of time, when they arrive, inevitably 1 or 2 of the new decks gets pushed aside, just for now,  so you can check out a couple of the other new ones and before you know it, you have forgotten about them.  It’s kind of like choosing kids.  Ok, not really, but sorta.  Tarot peeps understand.  Anyway, there they sit, on your tarot shelf, collecting dust.  It’s not just the newbies that get that treatment.  It happens with decks that you get but you don’t have an immediate connection with so on the shelf it goes.  You know the one.  The one that you drooled over for, in some instances, months, and you finally got it.  You open it up and you love the art.  I mean LOVE it but then you start reading with it and….nadda. zilch. zip.  It’s like the first kiss on a fabulous date gone wrong.  You are really attracted to them and you are having a great time.  You get to the end of the night and you kiss and there’s nothing.  No chemistry. Great big dud (insert fizzle noise here). It’s pretty similar.  Anyway, no connection, so on the shelf it goes to be forgotten about.  There have been decks that I have completely forgotten that I even had! No joke!  Recently, because funds were low and I had that craving, I dusted off my shelf and dug out a couple of my decks that I had completely forgotten about, the Transparent Tarot and Oracle of Proverbs.  

Transparent Tarot by Emily Carding

 The Transparent Tarot was a gift from my kids for Mothers Day when it first came out.  It fell into the category of “no connection” so I put it away. I pulled it out after being reminded about it on Facebook (Total enablers. Not complaining, I’ve found some freaking awesome decks this way). Holy cow!  I wish that I had pulled it out sooner!  Its freaking awesome!  I’ve been working with it for several weeks now and it’s my main deck for reading for myself right now.  I get some amazing depth by layering it 3 cards at a time.  WOWZA is all I can say.  Transparent Tarot by Emily Carding.  Check it out. 

Oracle of Proverbs by Delphine Sutherland

The Oracle of Proverbs by Delphine Sutherland falls into the category of “received a lot of decks at the same time so it got pushed aside”.  Obviously, this is a deck of proverbs, some I know and others that I’ve never heard of before.  There’s a reason those proverbs have been around forever. I’m telling ya. There is sage advice in them.  I’m more of a tarot gal, more than oracles but there are some that I just love.  This one is at the top of the list now.  Again, WOWZA!  I have been using it as an additional info card in my tarot readings and it provides so much more depth.  I use it as a “what else does the client need to know about this situation” and it has either shed just a bit more light on the subject or it has been a source of comfort for the client.  Right now, they are out of print, but if she gets enough people interested in the deck, she may put an order in.

I went on a lot longer than I had planned to but it has been so much fun revisiting old decks that I had to share. 

So there you go….a couple of different ways of getting that new deck feeling when you are on a tight tarot budget.  Don’t be afraid to raid your own stash.  Give an old deck a try that that you didn’t connect with at first or trade with a trusted new friend on Facebook. Please remember that I’m not recommending that you never buy another deck (I’m not crazy), but digging in your own tarot stash can be just as exciting as hitting that buy button.

Tarot on!

If you are interested in any of these decks, the links are below

Tarot of Trees
Transparent Tarot -this is the link to Amazon but you may be able to find it locally
Oracle of Proverbs
 

 

 

Finding Success

 

Card from Gaian Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert

 

 

Today I started out writing about a completely different subject for my weekly blog but I decided to change it.  Yesterday’s card of the day, Gaia The World, really got me thinking a lot more about it so I wanted to expand on it a bit more because I think the message is important.

 

I realize that the message of things falling into place with The World card doesn’t resonate with everyone but sometimes it’s not always readily visible.  Sometimes, we have to look at our lives a lot more closely and take stock of what we do have and appreciate that, rather than hoping and wishing that things were better.

 

The thing is, The World card can always be applied whether we want to believe it or not.  Is your family healthy?  Do you have a roof over your head?  Do you have enough food to eat?  There are plenty of people in this world who have none of these things and yet they can find happiness in their lives.  Just the simple fact that they woke up makes for a successful day.

 

It’s easy to get wrapped up in our life issues and feel the “whoa is me” syndrome.  Nothing is perfect and let’s be honest, it’s hard to feel successful when you have no idea how you are going to make your mortgage or how you are going to feed your kids, but things always have a tendency of working out.  So why let our worries take over our days?  Simple.  We are human, but that doesn’t mean that its healthy for us to do or that we can’t change it.  We hear all of the time that we should be grateful for what we do have in life and the more grateful we are the more great things that we attract.  We see the meme’s all the time and everyone clicks the “like” button or makes comments, but does everyone really thank the Universe, or God, or whomever on a daily basis?  Probably not.  We see the meme’s, we are grateful for the day and then life takes over and we forget to be grateful; until we get another reminder.

 

We should be grateful every day, no matter what is going on in our lives.  If we aren’t grateful, our negativity attracts more negativity and before we know it we end up in one great big crap storm.  There is something to celebrate every day of our lives.  Every single one.  Even in the middle of a crap storm.  Sometimes it takes a bit to find it but even if its just “I got out of bed”, celebrate it.  If you had a great cup of coffee or tea to start out your day and then rest of the day turned bad, hold onto the fact that you had a great cuppa.  Hold onto the good of the day rather than the bad.

 

I’m not saying anything that you haven’t heard before so just consider it a reminder and try to be grateful a little longer than the last time you were reminded.  You may find that you are a much happier person more often than not.  That’s what I’m trying to do. 

 

Have a blessed week!



The Fun and Agony of Empathy

 

 Card courtesy of Tarot Illuminati by Erik C. Dunne and Kim Huggens

 

Welcome to your next stop on the Tarot Blog Hop!  Your previous stop should have been John Marani's blog.  I hope that you are seated comfortably and are enjoying your journey so far. 
 

I have always felt an affinity to the High Priestess card because she represents receptiveness, intuition, and information coming to light   She is a perfect representation of my gift, empathy.  If you are not familiar with the term, an empath, very simply put, is someone who is highly sensitive to the feelings and vibrations of other beings.  An empath will take on the feelings of others that are around them but it isn’t always feelings for some people.  I have been an empath my entire life only I didn’t really know what was going on for a very long time.  In my family, I was just known as being over sensitive and I have struggled to find a way to shield myself so I can better discern my feelings from everyone else’s.  There are varying degrees and while some people have a handle on putting up a shield to keep other feelings at bay, others have a difficult time doing that.  Not only do I take on other peoples feelings, but I can take on other people’s ailments as well.  Let me explain….I can physically feel what someone else is physically feeling. 
 

Several years ago, I was having some very bad leg pains.  I went to the Dr. to get checked out and they found absolutely nothing wrong.  The pains weren’t consistent but they were very painful.  Now, at the time, my mom and I weren’t really talking but I felt that I needed to call her (not having to do with the leg pains) so I called my dad to see how she was doing.  As it turned out, she had clogged arteries in both of her legs and needed to have bypass surgery in them in order to fix the problem.  She would wake up in the middle night because the pains in her legs were so intense.  After I talked to her, I realized that it was her leg pains that I was feeling and that I was being told to get in touch with her. 
 

For a long time I just took the pains as they came, most of the time not knowing where they were coming from.  It took awhile before I figured out that I could tune into this gift so I started testing and practicing.  A couple of years ago, a few friends and I went to a cemetery to walk around and visit the deceased and to look at the head stones.  We came to one headstone and one of my friends stopped and asked us if we could feel anything from the person that was buried there and she didn’t let anyone see the front of it.  I felt a pain in my chest, felt as though I couldn’t breathe and when I closed my eyes I pictured a bubble.  As it turns out, we were at the grave of a man that had drowned when the Sleepy Hollow mine flooded in Central City, Colorado in 1895.  

 

Now the absolutely fun, and practical, part of this gift is that I knew when my kids were faking being sick in order to stay home from school.  They, of course, did not know this until very recently when I was telling someone about it and my youngest did a double take.  The look on her face was absolutely priceless.
 

Empathy helps me tune in as a tarot reader and a Reiki healer.  When I am with a tarot client, I can tell if they are testing me or if they aren’t being honest with me.  I also have a way to be able to get to what they really want to know about and I can access their feelings, knowing what they are really feeling rather than putting up a front, enabling me to react to a situation appropriately.  My empathy helps me to get more in touch with my Reiki clients, being able to scan them to see where they may be having health issues so I can spend more time on that part of their body if necessary. 
 

It can be a difficult gift to wrangle but it can be amusing and extremely interesting. 
 

A fun tarot spread to try, if you are not so empathic inclined and you like to cruise cemeteries (like I do), is to take your cards and use them to read one of the residents.  Here is simple spread that you can utilize on your next trip.  Once you have results, you can always take it a step or two further and do some research on the person that you read to try to verify your findings.

 

    4

    1                      2

    3

 

1. What did this person do for a living?

2. What was this person like?

3. How did this person die?

4. What legacy did this person leave after their death?

 

If you happen to try out this spread, please drop me a line and let me know how it went. 

I do hope that you are enjoying your journey through the Tarot Blog Hop.  Please be sure to continue on to Sharon Cumming's blog.

 

Happy Litha and happy hopping!!!

 

 

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Resolution Detective

 

 

 

Now that the holidays are behind us and 2013 is fast approaching, most people are working on (if they haven’t already) their New Year’s Resolutions and/or their goals for the upcoming year.   Resolutions are usually about improving ourselves: losing weight, quitting smoking, exercising more, and reducing stress are a few of these resolutions but what many fail to work on are the shadows that are buried down deep that could possibly be keeping them from reaching their goals.
 

If you have made your list already, take a look and see if they are the same resolutions that you put on the list for 2012.  Did you put them on the 2013 list because you need to continue to work on the change this next year or did you go back to your old habits so you need to begin working on them again?  If it’s the latter, are there some items that are on your list every year because you give up on them for one reason or another?  If this is the case, there could be some underlying reasons why you aren’t able to make those changes.  These reasons could be an aspect of your shadow self.  Let’s face it, making changes can be extremely difficult.  Habits are hard to break and it takes perseverance and hard work to chip away at those habits in order to make new ones but sometimes the obstacles go deeper. 
 

If you find yourself constantly trying to make the same changes over and over again without any success, you may want to look at one of your shadows.  The answer could be something that you already know but didn’t really give it a lot of thought or it can be something that escapes you and you have to be your own detective and search for clues.  If, for example, your resolution is to make better food choices and you find yourself reaching for food that has in the past comforted you but is not necessarily healthy, you may need to analyze why you need to be comforted.  Are you eating out of loneliness or sadness?  Maybe you are stressed out?  Instead of eating more healthy options, maybe you reach for something quicker that is not as healthy.  Why are you reaching for the quicker option?  Is your life so hectic that you can’t take time to make better choices?  Why is your life as hectic as it is?  Can you make different choices to create more balance and achieve a more manageable schedule?  Do you thrive in the chaos or does it deplete your energy? These are only the first level of questions that you can ask yourself and those answers can reveal more layers.  These questions can be difficult to face, which is why they are shadows in the first place.  We don’t want to face them so we push them down so deep so that we don’t have to think about them but the problem is that they come out in other behaviors that we don’t expect them to, seemingly having to do with nothing until we start looking at them and peeling back the layers.  If you are not sure what shadow it could be or have no idea where to start looking, meditate on it, journal, or pull a tarot card to give you clues as to what the underlying problem could be. 
 

Does every failed resolution have an underlying shadow?  Of course not, but if a shadow is the cause, it can be like beating your head against a brick wall until you look the shadow in the face and tell it that you will not allow it to block your progress any longer.  You owe it to yourself to do the detective work and work on every aspect of yourself that you want to improve.  You deserve it.
 

I wish you all an abundant of blessings for 2013! 
 

Happy New Year!!