fbpx
Category

inspiration & influence

inspiration & influence introversion work life

Shining a quiet light – working the gifts of introversion

May 15, 2017
quiet light quote

As a proud introvert, I am keen to promote quiet voices speaking in the world.

I’m sharing a piece here that was originally published in Issue 1 of The Introvert Effect Magazine edited by Katherine Mackenzie-Smith in February 2017.

Just because you are quiet by nature, it doesn’t meant you can’t speak out and influence. You might do this a little differently to what feels like mainstream approaches. And it can take a little while to learn how your skills can best be played out.

My piece is an account of how I learned to understand and work the gifts of introversion. I hope you enjoy it and I welcome your thoughts especially if you have had similar experiences.

Evolving as an introvert

I’ve always been aware of a sense of feeling a little different, a bit quieter, slightly outside the mainstream. Not necessarily in a bad way, but enough to feel at a distance from what was happening at times and to not say as much as I wanted.

As a young adult, I was drawn to the work of Carl Jung, to his visions, dreams and insights and to his writing on symbols, synchronicity and personality.

I found some of his Collected Works volumes with images of mandalas that I would gaze into as if they held something secret.

I became a teacher of adult literacy and then over time, a leader in adult education, heading up large work groups, honing the vision for my teams and business area, delivering educational programs that made a difference and developing the people that worked with me.

I’ve always been interested in personal development and creativity, mine and other people’s. Learning to me is paramount and even if the terrain is tough, there’s knowledge, experience and strength from that. I incorporated and shared these lessons in my work as a leader and in more personal writing on my blog.

Do you ever close the door?

With all of this, it wasn’t until I worked through my Jung/Myers-Briggs psychological type type with a coach that I began to truly understand myself and the key to how I work.

I identified as an INTJ personality type – Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging – with a very strong preference for the I – Introverted.

I remember a single moment in the debriefing conversation when my coach said to me:

“Do you ever close the door?”

I can remember my stunned silence.

It seemed so obvious and still does. But the words were like a permission slip that I clearly needed to be authentic in my work in the world.

Leadership in our 24/7 world, filled with social media and electronic devices, implies always being available and accessible. These simple words about closing the door as my source of power and learning to respect this, ironically, opened the door to so much.

After that, I did start to close the door briefly and found it so valuable in getting peace and focus. I still do whatever I can to breathe, to collect my thoughts, to envision, to put the pieces together in a mind-map, to research, to craft words and to prepare for the next interaction.

Shining a quiet light

A few years later, I read Susan Cain’s ‘Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking’. It was another watershed time and I understood myself more deeply as the words unfolded.

These words from Susan Cain spoke to me:

Everyone shines, given the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight, for others, a lamplit desk.

It’s true: I shine most brightly from the light of my desk or from the shade of trees at the beach where I sit writing, feet in the sand, staring out into the water and sunlight. All the incandescent ideas and visions flow from that inward space.

It’s not better than a Broadway stage, it’s just different. But it has taken me years to realise it’s just as significant a power as the brighter magic of a more extraverted and colourful performance. And it’s also taken me time to have confidence in this quiet strength as a source of expression and wisdom.

I’ve been told in my professional life, as I’m sure many introverts have, to “speak up more” and also to consider “voice coaching”.

There are times when this might be helpful and to some extent there’s truth in there. However, I gained the ability to speak up and influence more effectively through learning to work my introvert by sharpening up my practices of how I prepare, strategise, listen and write.

From this base, I can speak to large groups without undue stress and have impact in challenging negotiation contexts.

Gifts of introversion

I can follow the flow of discussion in a meeting that meanders and then sum up the main ideas into a distilled message for future action.

I can listen in a very focused way and ask the right questions to help others move ahead. I can use my strategic writing ability to bring diverse ideas together to influence an outcome or argue for a position.

I have always had these skills to some degree. Over time, I have had to learn to recognise them as assets and to deploy them more appropriately and with confidence.

The linchpin has been the awareness of knowing the symbolic and practical power of the closed door and the lamplit desk, working from the wellspring of private moments however I can find them.

And it’s not that other people are not involved or important.

Connecting with critical others, listening to others’ ideas, engaging with creative communities and working with coaches and mentors are all part of the rich mix of input.

But it’s the quiet moment of distilling all of this knowledge and experience to its essence that is the vital catalyst for action.

We are all on a hero’s (or heroine’s) journey.

As Steven Pressfield says in ‘Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work’:

In the hero’s journey, the wanderer returns home after years of exile, struggling, and suffering. He brings a gift for the people. That gift arises from what the hero has seen, what he has endured, what he has learned. But the gift is not that raw material alone. It is the ore refined into gold by the hero/ wanderer/ artist’s skilled and loving hands.

You are that artist.

For the introvert, this important work of refining, distilling and reworking is more likely to happen if we can find space in our days.

And if there are silent walks along the beach, or elsewhere, collecting thoughts like shells.

And if we remember that the gentle light of ideas can be just as radiant as any stage performance, illuminating dark corners with presence.

Next steps in my personal journey

The next step in my personal journey is to take this learning forward. As an INTJ, my dominant function is Introverted Intuition and I’m activating this power now with more awareness.

I’m combining my passions for learning, teaching, writing, Carl Jung’s ideas and MBTI tools to support people to harness their particular brand of brilliance to express their voice in the world.

Learning to work our introvert strengths to deploy our gifts ensures that the unique voice of what we love, who we are and what we have learned is not drowned out.

We can never know the difference our influence can make or the impact we can have on another’s life journey.

Recognising our abilities, crafting the raw material of our lives and then communicating the gold we find can be the greatest offering, enabling others to likewise shine.

shine a quiet light

About the author, Terri Connellan

Terri Connellan is a certified life coach, author and accredited psychological type practitioner. She has a Master of Arts in Language and Literacy, two teaching qualifications and a successful 30-year career as a teacher and a leader in adult vocational education. Her coaching and writing focus on three elements—creativity, personality and self-leadership—especially for women in transition to a life with deeper purpose. Terri works with women globally through her creative business, Quiet Writing, encouraging deeper self-understanding of body of work, creativity and psychological type for more wholehearted and fulfilling lives. Her book Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition  and the accompanying Wholehearted Companion Workbook were published in September 2021 by the kind press. She lives and writes in the outskirts of Sydney surrounded by beach and bush.

Join the Quiet Writing mailing list and receive your free Chapter 1 of Wholehearted or my Personal Action Checklist for more Meaning and Purpose. Just click on the link to choose and it will be with you in no time plus I’ll receive inspirational insights and connect with a community of like-minded people.

Book your Self-leadership Discovery Call with Terri here.

Read Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition

Want to learn more about personality, creativity and self-leadership for positive transition to the life you desire?

Head over to read about Wholehearted and the accompanying Companion Workbook now.

Available in paperback and ebook from retailers listed here:

Wholehearted

Companion Workbook

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

You might also enjoy:

Introverted Intuition: Learning from its Mystery

Self-leadership as the most authentic heart of leadership

Being a vessel or working with introverted intuition

Working your introvert

How to make the most of recruitment opportunities as an introvert

Introverted and extraverted intuition – how to make intuition a strong practice

Background photo for featured image from pexels.com and used with permission and thanks.

creativity inspiration & influence intuition

An invitation to mastery – Full Moon in Scorpio tarot reading

May 12, 2017
full moon scorpio

The Full Moon in Scorpio invites us think about how we move towards mastery. This tarot reading for the full moon reflects on ways to embrace our power.

Here are some thoughts on this Full Moon in Scorpio from Mystic Mamma to set the scene for the energies available to us:

*FULL MOON* in SCORPIO opens a gateway to our truest depths, where we can really tune in to our hearts deepest desires, and gleam our truest reflection.

If we can take this time to sit with ourselves, and be truthful about all we reject and deny, we can uncover, untangle and reclaim ourselves in our fullness.

We are both light and shadow, dancing and meeting each other in each other, to be ultimately reconciled within.

This dance is one of mastery, a blossoming and continuous unfoldment…

Scorpio reminds us to take pleasure in the journey and allow our watery depths to surface, cleanse, heal and empower.

I love the words “this dance is one of mastery”. The word ‘mastery’ has been floating around me for a while now, especially around ‘invitation to mastery’. This is a phrase from Colette Baron-Reid’s The Enchanted Map oracle guidebook that spoke to me deeply some time ago and has stayed with me.

This Scorpio Full Moon provides a fabulous opportunity to work with our intentions, our long-held goals and to step into our power. It seems to be about light and shadow, reconciling opposites and moving on and through.

Full moon in Scorpio tarot reading tools:

It’s important to get the tools that feel right for the journey to tarot guidance. Though of course your intuition and the Full Moon itself are a fabulous start and the most essential ingredients!

For my reading for the Scorpio Full Moon I worked with:

This Scorpio Full Moon tarot spread by Sam Roberts aka @escapingstars on IG:

Full moon Scorpio

The Sakki Sakki tarot deck by Monicka Clio Sakki which is still my favourite tarot deck especially for questions around creativity. My overall thoughts and questions for this time were focused on entrepreneurship, creativity and success. So a perfect match!

It was a quiet morning with a lime, basil and mandarin candle and lots of thoughts of how to make this creativity of mine into a new career, life and lifestyle.

Tarot reading:

So here’s the reading laid out on a beautiful piece of linen, hand sewn by my mother, because she is all important right now, it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday, and I’m thinking of her love and strength.

tarot reading

I pulled the cards one by one as I like the mystery of discovery and interpreting each card in itself and then putting the narrative together. But first up – look at all those Swords! Three cards from the suit of Swords and five of the cards have swords featured. And I’m sure The Chariot driver might even have a sword hidden somewhere in his belt!

Swords are all about the intellect, strategy, cut through, getting the story together – the mastery of it all. As an INTJ in Myer-Briggs personality preference, swords (closely followed by Wands) are my favourite suit in tarot. And the Queen of Swords who appears here is the card that most aligns to my core personality. Introverted Intuition is a dominant gift for me but it’s combining that intuition with the intellect where I can really shine.

And with three Major Arcana cards also: The Chariot, The Emperor and Justice – there’s some really strong energy here to work with about breaking through, taking leadership, getting organised and balancing competing energies to get something really special happening.

Tarot reading – card by card:

So here’s some deeper thoughts, card by card, in relation to the questions. I mainly worked intuitively with some key supporting words from the Sakki Sakki tarot guidebook.

1 Which area of my life needs to be valued more? The CHARIOT

  • bringing together diverse interests
  • balancing light and shadow
  • managing polarities positively
  • driving forward with strength

Key words from the Sakki Sakki tarot: combining thought and feeling: “how conflict can be resolved positively through struggles in our own psyche”

One of the key things I have been experiencing and working on this year is this managing of polarities, especially between thought and feeling. This card says it’s time to work those opposites and harness them into something that is uniquely me and values this.

2 How can I best get my needs met? The EMPEROR

  • bring in some of that yang, masculine energy!
  • be organised, take control, practice leadership, self-leadership
  • be active, not passive or waiting for others, take the lead
  • marshall my resources, call the shots
  • get those organising principles sorted, set the framework
  • get some order and structure in place

Key words from Sakki Sakki tarot: “The Emperor is the rational mind controlling creative flow and emotions, maximizing their potential within a framework.”

It’s true – I need a framework for my days and routine even if it’s a flexible one. I need to work out how to manage and balance my different needs and those of others. I need structure to reach my vision and goals as well as meet my own self-care needs. And it’s about taking the lead more in my life, that self-leadership, that will enable me to do this and get my needs met.

3 What depths within myself need to be explored in order to move forward?

PAGE OF SWORDS

  • listening to myself, those thought bubbles and creative ideas that come
  • dance with them a little more, play with the intellect and ideas to connect them
  • bring forward new opportunities by being agile and tapping into my sources of knowledge and using them in new ways
  • creative innovation

Key words from Sakki Sakki tarot: alert, versatile, quick-minded, well-informed, charming inside and outside

This is interesting. I know that the INTP from Myers-Briggs is the sort that has eight books on the go – with lots of ideas and opportunities to connect them. And I do feel that energy right now. I need to tap more into this well-informed body of knowledge, the intellectual and emotional value built up over time from all that I have read, experienced and learned. And I need to work out ways to share that to move forward. It’s things like combining books, coaching, MBTI, writing and tarot in unique ways to serve and support other people as well as myself on this journey.

4 What aid comes from the Universe to guide me?   QUEEN OF SWORDS

  • energy of thought, intellect, discernment, power of the mind
  • ability to cut through to what matters, to weave a path through a thought jungle
  • ability to create a strategy for creative entrepreneurship
  • success through clarity of thought
  • trust, stop doubting and commit

Key words from Sakki Sakki tarot: wise, intellectual, independent, courageous, learning through painful experiences.

It’s always exciting when a card you strongly relate to comes in as aid from the Universe to guide you. Perhaps it’s always so but I do need the Queen of Swords and her INTJ thinking about feelings right now. It’s about digging into my own brand of unique wisdom and thought but feeling into it as well. I need to let my intellect take the leadership in this self-leadership journey as all the swords are suggesting. But it’s wisdom from spirit and strength to cut a swathe to balance those polarities into a life and creative path that is uniquely mine. It’s intellectual ideas and playing with them creatively, Page of Swords style!

5 What boundaries must I create for myself ? SIX OF SWORDS

  • energy at a time of transition
  • knowing what to take forward, what to leave behind
  • moving on through grief, sadness so that positive energy can come through
  • keep water around me, space around me so can travel creatively where I need to go
  • space for creative spiritual journeys
  • boundaries and supports around balancing self-care whilst caring for others

Key words from Sakki Sakki tarot: spiritual journey, travel, release of anxiety, progress in spite of past difficulties, advancement through detachment

The Six of Swords is the card that symbolised this new life journey in my Welcome message to my new Quiet Writing site. It’s a beautiful card of transition and crossing the water, and taking some things on board and leaving others behind. It’s a time of creating boundaries around energy and self-care too. These are all things I have been experiencing and learning through coaching and through working with intuitive healer Amber Adrian. It also reinforces that home, where I am surrounded by water, is healing and critical to my health and creative wellbeing.

6 What needs to be done NOW to lay the foundation for my higher vision of my Self ? JUSTICE

  • getting balance and alignment in my life
  • using that energy of the swords to create discernment, strategy and cut through
  • make the path and settle any transition issues that I can resolve so I can move through
  • decide on portions of time and focus, adjust priorities and restore balance in line with my goals

Key words from Sakki Sakki tarot: balance: “Justice is Wise, and holds the Sword that slices up everything into fair portions. To achieve balance and fairness, sometimes you have to give something up – other times you have to accept more.”

Justice suggests it’s time to work with the swords to identify the best apportioning of my time in line with my priorities. This is a theme throughout this reading. It suggests that it’s a fluid process in line with this Scorpio Full Moon energy and that I need also to remember to enjoy it all. Do the work, set the framework and identify the priorities but include joy and fun in there as well. Creativity is joyful and as the words from Mystic Mamma above reminds us,

take pleasure in the journey and allow our watery depths to surface, cleanse, heal and empower.

Ways to embrace mastery

So are your thoughts also around mastery of a skill or project and how to make your creativity into a new career, life and lifestyle?

If so, here are some questions around this prompted by the Scorpio full moon, the tarot spread by Sam Roberts and reflections on my own tarot reading.

They are around embracing mastery and getting back into the driver’s seat in creativity and entrepreneurial plans.

Journal or brainstorm around them to help your own dance of mastery begin to unfold further at this time of opportunity:

  • What is it you want to master and why?
  • Where do you have comprehensive skill and knowledge and how can you step into that more?
  • What will help you be the leader of this creative project – Emperor-style?
  • Where can you practice strong self-leadership?
  • What polarities or diverse qualities can you balance or bring together in a unique way?
  • Where is the light and shadow in your life and what can they bring out in each other in your project or creative work?
  • What areas of your life do you need to value more, Chariot-style, where you might be breaking new ground?
  • Where are you not trusting your strong natural or developed knowledge and skill? How can you tap into this more?
  • How can you best get your needs met and set some boundaries? Is it more structure or less? Is it a rigid or flexible framework? Do you need more routine?
  • Danielle LaPorte has a series of wisdom paradoxes in her new White Hot Truth book and summarised here. Think about paradox as a key to mastering a project or skill and feeling balanced: How can you have vision and go with the flow? How can you be open-hearted and have clear boundaries as you work?
  • Where you can take pleasure in and enjoy this journey to mastery?

Wisdom from The Chariot

And here is some final wisdom from The Chariot via the Art of Life Tarot:

The Chariot

May the unique vision and value of what you love be the energy that propels you to new places of mastery. May you share your loves with us and may you enjoy the dance.

Full Moon image from pexels.com and used with permission and thanks.

Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Facebook – Please visit here and ‘Liketo keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. There are regular posts on tarot, intuition, influence, passion, creativity, productivity, writing, voice, introversion and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

Subscribe via email (see the link at the top and below) to make sure you receive updates from Quiet Writing and its passions in 2017. This includes MBTI developments, coaching, creativity and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world. New opportunities and special offers coming soon including probono coaching opportunities.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

You might also enjoy:

Healing with words of gold: The Empress, Kintsugi and alchemy

The Empress: creativity, vision and patience

Dance to a new beat – Full Moon in Virgo

creativity inspiration & influence intuition

Intuition, writing and work: eight ways intuition can guide your creativity

May 5, 2017

“And you can keep flexing your intuition (because it’s like a muscle) to feel into the next right step.”

Danielle LaPorte, White Hot Truth

intuition

“Standing all this while
Makes me realise I am alive
And I won’t settle.”

Vera Blue, Settle

Intuitive night thoughts lead the way

I wake in the night with the words of the song, Settle, running through my head. It’s true, it’s hard to settle into a rhythm now with so much creativity and opportunity running around my head. And now these thoughts… I hop up to note them down as I know I won’t remember them in the morning.

The night thoughts connect up and there’s a triangle with three threads spinning a story about:

  1. the lyrics of the song, Settle, linking to my swimming in the ocean, feeling alive amongst fish
  2. the novel I’m reading ‘To the Sea’, by Christine Dibley about women and daughters, ancestry and relationships to the sea, featuring swimming as a central metaphor; and
  3. movement, yoga and that sense of keeping moving right now amidst a touch of fog and uncertainty but with so many quiet lights of myself shining.

It’s interesting how things come together, in your life and in your mind. The synchronicity of choice, the noticing of this, the connections that you make, the influences that you choose and attract. If you’re paying attention, attuning to the energy and the signs, things come together, messages and a way of working with them emerge in your life.

The guiding hand of intuition

Intuition is a guiding force for me. It’s a dominant MBTI function and gift I’m learning to work with more. It’s one of my five Core Desired Feelings, defined as a result of working through The Desire Map.

It used to be just a vague sort of gut feeling, especially coming in a work context when something just didn’t feel right. But I know now it’s so much deeper. It’s how I want to feel as I work and write. I want it to be the engine of my writing, the heartbeat of my days’ rhythm, the light that guides me one step at a time, knowing the overall destination but with the journey itself as the real discovery.

It’s about feeling it as I go instead of thinking it all the time. Softening into it, being receptive and independent, organised but flexible, influenced by others but allowing my authentic voice and loves to combine and come through, clear and shining.

It’s knowing that my unique collation of experiences and expression may be exactly the ones to strike a light in another and trusting that. The learning I uncover can be shared to help others strike up their own special connections and spark of genius.

Knowing what to do next

I’m finding that I’m writing and working this way more now. For example, I’m finding that I’m reaching out to read what is right for me when I need it.  The novel I’m currently reading, ‘To the Sea’, speaks of women, daughters, ancestry, movement and swimming as all these areas align to assume pivotal places in my life.

‘The Butterfly Hours’ on transforming memories into memoirs is a library book picked at random and opened recently at random. I find the perfect words about fiction and memoir writing there that have helped me delineate more clearly what I want to write and how.

Sure I chose these books because they are my interests but it’s about tuning into what I need to know or experience right now, sometimes let it work unknowingly.

It’s also about what I’m choosing to listen to and when to listen, to songs for example, and which ones, which random playlists and what they ignite, the words that run like a stream in the night fuelling creative thoughts.

It’s the podcasts or audiobooks I choose to listen to. Just yesterday, two podcasts acted as perfect counterpoints around the two themes of intuitive writing and intuitive working.

The first from Caroline Donahue’s The Secret Library Podcast was a conversation with Madelyn Kent about sense writing and building connection with body and movement as a way of opening up possibilities in writing. It was about being in movement in the body as a way of connecting with flow in writing and relaxing into new awareness. Deep and rich, I let its insightful messages wash over me as I listened.

The second from Sara Tasker’s Hashtag Authentic was a fabulous chat with Jen Carrington about creating the ideal work week. They talk honestly about being entrepreneurial breadwinners and how to create a work week that honours both self-care and productivity. They get work done in their own ways, following their body’s messages and their spirit and not buying into traditional work structures like measuring effort in hours spent. I felt so refreshed from listening to these women with their distinctive northern English accents talking so comfortably about breaking new ground and not settling for others’ definitions of how to work. They both create outstanding content and entrepreneurial work that supports others to shine from working intuitively with sense and feeling.

Intuition as a guide: Eight ways to work it

So it seems intuition can be a quiet guide in so many ways if we listen to its magic. Here are eight ways to work with intuition that I have discovered are working for me and some questions to prompt you into how to put it into practice. Granted there might be some thinking and sensing work in there too. But it’s not a brick wall, it’s a continuum, so shift to letting your intuition do the talking for a while and see what happens:

  1. What to read next – What do you need to read now – is it fiction, non-fiction or a combination of both? What does your heart need – to rest with a book, to learn or to be inspired? What do you need to know? What do you want to feel? Are you limiting to yourself to just one book when you could be more spontaneous and read more randomly, picking up pieces of wisdom that way?
  2. What to listen to and when – Do you need music right now or to hear the spoken work like a podcast? What are you tuning into? What do you need to be learning? What random playlist, podcast or subject is calling you or popping up consistently for your attention?
  3. Which project to work on next – Of all the projects waving at you for your attention, which one can you work on now with ease and which will be harder? Which one feels right? Even though one might be harder, does that need to be done first even though you are not sure why?
  4. When to move and how – Which form of physical exercise will get you moving in the right way to free you up? What environment will ignite your feelings and inspire you? Is it walking to the local cafe, being by the beach, wandering through the bush or walking around the city? Is it yoga, walking, running or cycling? What type of exercise might free up your writing eg free-writing, making a list or colouring in first?
  5. How to structure your week to best reach your goals – Whether you have a day job or are self-employed, how can you manage your work week best to manage self-care and reach your goals? How can it be both enjoyable and productive? Is there anything you can do to find the creative space you need? Which days are best for which projects? How can you reach your goals in ways that work for you?
  6. What rhythms can you bring into your life to support flow – When do you work best and how can you take advantage of that? How can exercise and movement help establish a rhythm you can take into other areas of your life? What time of day do you work best and how can you make the most of that? What about working with the moon and other cycles to facilitate a balance between receptivity and action?
  7. What intuitive tools do you choose to help guide you Which tarot or oracle decks or cards are speaking to you? What about lunar cycles, astrology, spirit guides or quotations that inspire you? How are you working with them and how can you harness their power more effectively?
  8. Which rich combination of influences will come together to make you shine your most radiant light to help others along the way? Take the time to dream, journal, mind-map, brainstorm, draw, draft, blog, write a poem, to bring together connections for new insights and share them with others to inspire them.

Intuition, discovery and seeing anew

So taking these learnings and reflections, I weave a new narrative through an intuitive and creative work week.

Rebecca Campbell, in Rise, Sister, Rise, talks of needing to learn what her subtle mental, emotional and spiritual bodies needed:

…I have discovered that my subtle bodies most yearn for meaningful, flowing, physical movement where I can move and express myself freely. I find that my creations actually depend on it. As I allow my body to release and fluidly move it’s as if I am both strengthening my ability to be moved by my soul and unlocking wisdom within my spiritual body.

 

intuition

That is the case for me also and I feel the flow of: my arms stroking the water steadily and stronger; my breath acting as an anchor as I stretch into yin yoga moves; and words arriving at night and then shaping them into a rough draft in the daytime.

I feel the rhythm of what a new work week could look and feel like – how to balance my creative desires and serve others in the best way I can whilst also managing self-care and the all important care of special others.

I feel, I feel, I feel the rhythm of the sea, of movement, of words on a page calling me to a new sense of home and being settled.

It’s also about learning to balance this intuitive flow and be practical and of service:

  • writing in a way that reflects and expresses me but is helping and encouraging for others, not just self-focused;
  • managing my self-care so I can support the care of others and not fall over in the process; and
  • honouring the influence of others in informing and finding my own unique, creative path.

It’s not about abandoning goals. We need a roadmap, we need to set goals so we know our overall direction and the three most important things to do this quarter, this week to help us get there. But knowing we can be flexible in our creativity, not working so slavishly, can be immensely freeing.

As Danielle LaPorte says in ‘Wisdom is Paradoxical‘:

Have a vision and…Go with the flow.

The Knight of Wands card arrived this morning as my daily weather report and he captures the feeling perfectly. Via the Art of Life Tarot, this Knight reminds us:

“The real voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

intuitive writing

 

Thought Pieces and key references:

Books:
To the Sea – Christine Dibley
The Butterfly Hours: transforming memories into memoir – Patty Dann
An Abundant Life: Flourishing with the cycles of the moon, Dr Ezzie Spencer

Songs influencing post:
Settle – Vera Blue
Awake Me – Rosie Carney
Mercy – Duffy (this was for the movement part!)

Podcasts:
The Secret Library Podcast with Caroline Donahue (@thebookdr): #48 Madelyn Kent Unlocks Writers block within the Body, 27 April 2017
Hashtag Authentic with Sara Tasker (@meandorla): Podcast 14 Creating your ideal working week, with Jen Carrington, 3 May 2017

Blog posts:
The problem with consistency (aka the beautiful wabi sabiness of it all) – The Mojo Lab with Victoria Smith
The 3X3 Project – Week 10 – Crone Confidence with Diana Frajman

Feature image from Shutterstock.com and used with permission and thanks.

Keep in touch + read about the 36 books that shaped my story

You can download my free ebook on the 36 books that have shaped my story – just sign up with your email address in the box to the right or below You will also receive updates from Quiet Writing and its passions. This includes personality type developments, coaching, creativity, writing, tarot and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world.

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

You might also enjoy:

36 Books that Shaped my Story: Reading as Creative Influence

Overwhelm, intuition and thinking

Music, intuition and the messages of songs

Healing with words of gold: The Empress, Kintsugi and alchemy

The Empress: creativity, vision and patience

inspiration & influence reading notes

“You are the authority on you” – a review of Danielle LaPorte’s ‘White Hot Truth’

April 4, 2017

white hot truth

 

“I’m a seeker who writes about what I find. And maybe, on just the right day, I can help you flatten your learning curve. If I’ve got anything to say, it’s this: you are the authority on you.”
Danielle LaPorte – White Hot Truth: Clarity for keeping it real on your spiritual path from one seeker to another

I am a huge fan of Danielle LaPorte. I love her clear, crisp, grounded, heart-filled way of talking and thinking. Her work is concurrently suffused with spirit and light whilst being grounded in experience and day to day living.

She speaks directly to my heart, and I’ve been listening for nearly 10 years now since I first came across her work when I was somewhat completely brought to my knees with the open-hearted surgery that is grief.

Back then, Danielle’s web-site was called White Hot Truth, something I needed at a time when each day had the consistency of mud I tried to swim through. “Yes, I’ll have some of that ‘White Hot Truth’ please“. I read and followed, a gentle disciple of the heart, as Danielle spoke to me of hope and self-compassion.

I’ve since followed her work and when I saw that White Hot Truth was coming back in another form as a book, I signed up to read ahead, review and be part of the ‘White Hot Truth’ launch team. I knew from experience this would be something very special, a honed diamond sparkling its message for me and others to catch.

The light in White Hot Truth

White Hot Truth is this diamond, each chapter a facet of light, grounded in a memoir-kind of reflection, distilling experience that heads straight for the heart. I alternated between reading on-screen and listening to Danielle’s voice via the audiobook. This made the reading process all the richer as I shifted between my voice engaging directly with the words, and Danielle’s voice reading her own.

The book traverses so many realms – it’s deep and wide but its terrain is clear and sweeps away any barriers to understanding in its path. The essence of the book is to become aware of the lies or unhelpful blocks that may have found their way into our trusting hearts including the “really big lies” of inadequacy, authority and affiliation. And to recognise that we are able to take in so much influence and so many ideas and still be the authority on ourselves, the one to make the decisions with wisdom, the one to set boundaries with an open heart.

Some quotes from White Hot Truth

Danielle draws from wide sources to find the most perfect quotes to place strategically. And then sprinkled through like stars sending their energy through the text, there are Danielle’s own quotable quotes and truthbombs.

A few of my favourites of so many I have highlighted:

On flow: “It was too much flow and not enough restraint. I was a river in need of some riverbanks.”

On forgiveness: “The heart runs on its own clock, untethered from calendar days or years.”

On self-help: “The best self-help is self-compassion.”

On approval: “Working for approval takes up a lot of energy, and it can be a huge distraction from seeing the gifts that you already hold in your hands.”

Wisdom, paradox and authenticity in White Hot Truth

A key piece of wisdom threaded through-out is that of paradox. White Hot Truth shows how with clarity, you can take both perspectives and find a path. For example, you can lead with your heart and your head. You don’t have to choose. How many of us have shut down one side of the equation because we fear losing the other, when really it’s a false dichotomy. I know I have. This book opens up paradox as a kind of wisdom.

I read White Hot Truth concurrently with Marrow by Elizabeth Lesser. In Marrow, Elizabeth talks about ‘Authenticity Deficit Disorder’, how we tiptoe around those things we really want to say or be, those things that really matter as we go through our days. It seems that sometimes it takes a tragedy, serious illness or terrible grief to make us go there to the marrow. And even then we can manage to side step it.

In White Hot Truth, Danielle speaks directly, supporting us to honour our authenticity and love who and what we are. She encourages us to recognise where we may have inadvertently blunted our ability to cut through. She shows us how to speak up without fear, through being a voice and model for how to speak up.

Being real and who we are as influence

Mark Nepo in The Book of Awakening talks about the energy of being real, of ‘mana’, of the extraordinary power of being who we are to influence others:

In this way, without any intent to shape others, we simply have to be authentic, and a sense of ‘mana’, of spiritual light and warmth, will emanate from our souls, causing others to grow – not towards us, but towards the light that moves through us.

White Hot Truth made me smile with recognition and more than once, I held my heart as my eyes filled with tears as something broke through, probably self-compassion.

At times laugh-out-loud funny, other times shocking and sobering, it’s a ball of bright authentic light offered as a guide from one seeker to another to illuminate our path. I’m so grateful for its warm and passionate influence. Like ‘The Hierophant’ card in tarot, this book is a teacher and a reminder that:

….we are not alone; we can actually take someone else’s advice and methods and recast them to meet our own needs

Playing with Symbols, Monicka Clio Sakki

In fact White Hot Truth encourages us to do exactly that and for you to be the authority on you. I know it will shape and guide my own inspired path now and for years to come.

Review and Publication notes:

White Hot Truth will be published on 16 May 2017 and is available on pre-order. Because I am part of the White Hot Truth Launch Team, I got the advanced digital copy. You can get a chance to listen to the book before it’s in stores with the free audio book. Find out how here: daniellelaporte.com/whitehottruth/

Keep in touch & free ebook on the ’36 Books that Shaped my Story’

You can download my free 95-page ebook on the 36 Books that Shaped my Story – just sign up with your email address in the box to the right or below You will also receive updates from Quiet Writing and its passions. This includes personality type, coaching, creativity, writing, tarot and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world.

Quiet Writing is on Facebook and Instagram – keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

You might also enjoy:

Influence, gratitude and choosing to shine – Danielle LaPorte

 

20 practical ways of showing up and being brave (and helpful)

Intuition, writing and work – eight ways intuition can guide your creativity

white hot

creativity inspiration & influence intuition

Healing with words of gold: The Empress, Kintsugi and alchemy

March 24, 2017

kintsugi

When we draw the Empress, the time has come for change and renewal in the sense that it is the right moment to dare to come out with our ideas, plans and insights.

Tarot as a Way of Life: a Jungian Approach to Tarot, Karen Hamaker-Zondag

The Empress connects us with this new dimension of awareness; for is it through her intuitive understanding rather than through masculine logic that the spirit leaps forth into outer space to connect with celestial insights.

Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey, Sallie Nichols

The Empress – Part II

This is the second in a two part series on The Empress tarot card which has been appearing lately in various guises. These posts explore The Empress, her powers and how she is showing up for me right now as a guide.

In the first post, The Empress: vision, creativity and patience, we explored her appearances recently in tarot spreads and the symbolism of The Empress in various tarot decks as an insight into her meaning.

In this post, I’ll be sharing thoughts and intuitive writing on the messages of the Empress to help channel growth in creativity and healing at this time.

Activating heart energy

I’ve been working with gifted channeller and intuitive healer, Amber Adrian for the past six months as part of a transition process to focus on creativity as a way of life. Amber’s Activate program is about switching on your wisdom, power and light more, especially (for me) around creativity.

It’s all about connecting with our higher selves, integrating what needs to be integrated and showing up with what we learn and experience. It’s powerful and healing work, hard to describe, but my role it seems is to put my experiences into words.

In a session recently, guides stepped through for each of us with a message. For me, the guide was a woman with red hair, goddess-like. She was there to help me connect with my heart. She put her hand over my heart. With gold from her palm, she filled in any wounds with gold, so it was like my heart was made new again. She released shadows and energies, removed cords from my heart and filled the holes left by my heart wounds.

And she gave me a special message:

 Your heart is ready, put it on the page.

I am not sure who this goddess or guide is, but I am feeling the energy of both The Empress and Pele, goddess of fire and irrepressible passion who is guiding me this year. I’m feeling the power of both as they appear around messages of vision, creativity and passion. They are a couple of mighty female consorts with transformative energy I can tap into and channel creatively.

The empress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My superpower – writing

The guides in this Activate session also came forward with messages around our superpowers: how we want to be seen as we truly are. This included messages around learning how to mother and care for ourselves.

When anyone has ever asked what my superpower is, I would (and will) always say it’s writing. It’s a strength I rely on for so much: in my work role, in my personal life, strategising ideas, processing pain, capturing beauty and sorrow to experience, move through and on. It’s helped me navigate so much and words are my life-blood and heart.

So it was with a smile of recognition that I heard the words from Amber that the guides were activating channelling gifts as they come through writing. The gift being activated, once I cycle through some layers of self-care, is an ability to sit down and receive writing as a divine conduit to words – “beautiful, entertaining, what’s needed in the world.”

I am blown away by this but it seems right. It means opening up through resistance and fear to this and I note also, requires actually sitting down to write. Important.

Later we are encouraged to let our guides show us where they would like to connect and how – for example, ceremoniously, through exercise, afterwards, when you sleep. Journalling is a way we can do this, asking guides to speak to us or come through as we sleep.

In this spirit work, we need to flex and move through our own paths. The guidance and support is to be accessed. It’s a gift we need to learn. We are reminded:

It’s a muscle like anything else.

Like a muscle, we need to use it.

light person fire

Message in a Bottle

The next day while all this is settling, I receive the ‘Message in a Bottle’ card from The Wisdom of the Oracle deck, in protection position (reversed). This card is all about communication and signs from spirit and guides pointing to your highest good. In protection position, it’s saying:

Don’t ignore the signs. Spirit always has your best interests at heart and will draw your attention to what you are overlooking.

With its image of a telephone in a bottle, there’s a sense of messages coming and not being able to get them or read them. The Wisdom of the Oracle guide book says this is also about allowing yourself to “become fluent in the language of symbols, oracles, and omens.” But in protection position, it’s about maybe not acknowledging signs because they don’t fit our world view. We are tending to want them as we want them. Or we are missing them altogether.

So I’m listening, opening up and working to become fluent in this language of guides, signs, symbols and intuitive writing. It’s natural ground in one way, but the signs are flagging a richer and deeper connection with spirit and channelling of words.

This is welcome but there’s that resistance I can feel around what this means. Channelling, for example, is a concept I am not entirely comfortable with and it seems a big step into an unknown world right now. In my mind, are the inevitable thoughts of “What will (insert anyone you like) think about this?” with all the dark power and shadow that such fruitless thinking can muster.

message in a bottle

Night thought visits

I head to bed with an open heart, inviting guides to speak to me in the night as this seems to be the way I am currently receiving information and inspiration.

In a wonderful interview on The High Priestess podcast, Julie Parker speaks with guide and psychic, Helen Jacobs, about intuition in the most down to earth of ways. This was such a balm for my soul at this time. They discuss how the way we access intuition and information from guides is different for everyone. And it can also change from time to time for each of us. Talk about keeping us on our toes!

The way my intuition and guides seem to be speaking to me now is through what I call night thoughts. They are words, symbols, signs or lines of songs that come through clear as a bell when I wake in the early hours of the morning.

So I wake in the night with wavy haint blue lines that I know from the Spirits card in Marcella Kroll’s Sacred Symbols deck. I know it means that spirits are calling offering wisdom and help. I draw the wavy lines with my finger in the air as I can feel them so strongly.

spirits

I look at the time and it’s 3:13am. Those numbers speak to me too – I’ve been noticing lots of number sequences lately especially 111, but this sequence 313 seems significant so I take note.

I know I will need to get up and write this down so I don’t forget. And I know I need to write. Here is an opportunity to harness the spirit of guides and channel any messages, despite my uncertainty about this. It’s a gift, a present, a presence and a guide. It’s there for me to access and it’s there to help me channel love and light. It’s not all about me it seems.

Journalling night thoughts

I have a Night Thoughts journal – I’ve had it for a while – and I capture all the thoughts that come in the night there. They are so rich. I open the journal and I write this message:

I’m waking you in the middle of the night to say I’m here, spirit, 313, helping you to see and hear the signs that come to you. Ask and you shall see. You need to ask.

(I then insert three of the Spirits wave symbols as in the card above)

The Empress, orange cloak, golden hair, is guiding you. Plant the seeds, heal the wounds, feel the gold inside the cracks, go there. It’s a gift you’ve always had from very young to see and feel the cracks and fill them with gold. The gold in your heart is what can help heal others’ cracks and wounds and your own.

You’re called to help heal, to hold the hands and hearts of those who hurt. In many ways, like a kindred soul, standing in healing, standing side by side, in the trenches of the heart. But healing with words of gold, from your pen and from your mouth.

Number 313

Afterwards I check about the number 313. And what I read again blows me away. Joanna Walmesley of Sacred Scribes explains in this post that it’s an angel number:

Angel Number 313 is a message from your angels that the strong connection you have with the angelic realm and the Ascended Masters is assisting you with staying positive, light and optimistic about your life…It is time to live your truths and express yourself with clarity, purpose, passion and love. Be a positive light to others.

I’m encouraged just like the ‘Message in the Bottle’ to pay close attention to intuition and inner wisdom, that guides are there helping me with the next steps along my path.

313 is made up of the attributes and vibrations of 3 appearing twice. Then I recall that 3 is The Empress’s number also, she who has appeared twice recently in my tarot readings, with 3 linked to creativity, self-expression, talents and skills. Number 1 is about self-leadership, intuition, fresh beginnings and approaches – all in line with The Empress and her messages of creativity, intention and patience. I love the term ‘self-leadership’ and this number emphasises that:

 we create our own experiences with our intentions, thoughts and beliefs. This makes 313 the number of optimism, enthusiasm, communication, creativity and expansion.

Kintsugi

After all this beautiful light and energy that has flowed from The Empress appearing in various guises, I keep reflecting on that palm of the hand holding my heart and filling it with gold. It feels so warm and positive. I know that sense from somewhere.

Then I remember the Japanese art of Kintsugi (or kintsukuroi). A representation of the idea of wabi-sabi, it’s a method for repairing broken ceramic pieces with a lacquer mixed with gold or other precious metals with the philosophy behind this:

to recognize the history of the object and to visibly incorporate the repair into the new piece instead of disguising it. The process usually results in something more beautiful than the original.

In a piece on kintsugi, wabi-sabi, the beauty of scars and her son’s repaired heart, Amy Basken says:

kintsugi pieces are prized precisely because they have been broken. They are said to be more beautiful, more unique, and “stronger at the broken places” (to quote Ernest Hemingway)

I’m feeling like my heart is a vessel, a sacred object, cracked from wounds and hurts but healing. As I reflect, I realise there are 3 significant times in my life when my heart fractured and hurt intensely with deep grief, loss and pain.

I feel my heart wounds fill with gold and heal. I’ve had enough suffering from these wounds for now. I can move on. I can communicate the lessons and emotions to help others heal, to feel they are not alone or to acknowledge and honour these feelings as part of moving on.

How often do we hide these wounds and experiences with a sense of shame instead of realising they are what makes us strong, beautiful and able to support others with what we have learned.

Not that we would ask for these experiences. But if they happen to us, Kintsugi and The Empress remind us that breakage and repair, wounds and healing, are natural, not something to be concealed but there to be held up to the light with love. And love mostly for ourselves.

Seek and you shall find…one layer of Truth at a time. Every experience we have in life, even the missteps, and especially the bliss, is a step closer to that sacred radiance. We are all waking up in the same direction.

Danielle LaPorte White Hot Truth: Clarity for keeping it real on your spiritual path from one seeker to another (forthcoming May 2017)

Alchemy: the power to transform things for the better

I leave the draft to this point overnight, asking for guidance to clarify and make sense. The words that come in the night are:

This is alchemy, you are experiencing alchemy.

Yes, I realise, that’s it. Alchemy: the power to transform things for the better – that would be a relief and something I can work with, a healing thing for me and others. I relax suddenly, snuggling into the warmth of my loved one and cuddling my little stuffed bear in the dark, smiling. I relax into this knowledge, this beauty, and lean into its wisdom, embracing whatever is to come.

Thought pieces

You can learn more about Amber Adrian and her brilliant work in activating creativity and healing at AmberAdrian.com – she is also a fan of stuffed animals and is the most beautiful writer.

Dee at Archangel Oracle – Divine Guidance explores The Message in a Bottle card in more detail. These thoughts resonate on becoming fluent in reading signs and symbols.

For more reading and beautiful visuals on kintsugi and its processes visit:

Kintsugi: the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery

Kintsugi: the art of broken pieces

Image acknowledgements:

  • The Empress card is from the Sakki Sakki tarot deck; others as noted in the text
  • Other images from pexels.com and used according to licence with thanks to the creators.

Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Facebook – Please visit here and ‘Liketo keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. There are regular posts on tarot, intuition, influence, passion, creativity, productivity, writing, voice, introversion and Jung/Myers-Briggs Personality Type.

Subscribe via email (see the link at the top and below) to make sure you receive updates from Quiet Writing and its passions. This includes tarot, personality type developments, coaching and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world. New opportunities and special offers coming soon.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

You might also enjoy:

The Empress: creativity, vision and patience

Dance to a new beat – Full Moon in Virgo

creativity inspiration & influence intuition

The Empress: vision, creativity and patience

March 17, 2017

The empress

The Empress – from the Sakki Sakki Tarot Deck

The Empress

The Empress has been appearing lately in my last two full moon tarot readings for Virgo and Leo. And she is popping up in other ways as a guiding goddess right now. I’m still working through all this wonderful energy! So thought I’d do a deep dive into The Empress, her powers, how she is showing up for me right now and share this with you as I work through.

In this first post of two on The Empress, we explore her appearances recently in tarot spreads and the symbolism of The Empress in various tarot decks as an insight into her meaning for us.

In the second post to follow, I’ll be sharing thoughts and intuitive writing on the messages of the Empress to help growth in creativity and healing for me and for you at this time.

The Empress appears – Full Moon Leo, Jan 2017

The Empress has been appearing pretty frequently in my daily guidance draws but has made cameos appearances in my last two Full Moon tarot readings – for Virgo and Leo.

She first appeared in the Full Moon in Leo Reading with the Sakki Sakki tarot deck in the final position around:

What positive energies will come to fruition from this Full Moon?

full moon Leo

I made some intuitive notes around:

It’s the right time to birth creative potential and plant seeds for the future.

It was also a lunar eclipse coinciding with the Leo Full Moon so the shadow side of creativity and self-expression and our doubts were also in there.

Revisiting the insightful Leah Whitehorse’s writing for this Leo Full Moon accessed via Mystic Mamma, these words jump out and sing to me:

Sometimes you have to go out there and show what you’ve got or stand up for what you believe in. The skills and talent you have are yours and yours alone. No one sings or paints like you. No one has your own special way of seeing the world. That’s what makes you unique and extraordinary…

Sometimes it’s about showing what you’ve got regardless of all the fear. Shine as you were meant to shine. This isn’t a rehearsal. Giving the best of yourself can be a great gift to the rest of humanity.

This thought is part of the DNA of Quiet Writing and my life’s work and passion – shining a quiet light, shining as we are meant to shine, helping others to do the same. And writing this and into this. So it’s a great message to come from this reading and confluence of the constellations.

The Empress reappears – Full Moon in Virgo,  Feb 2017

Leah Whitehorse notes about the Leo lunar eclipse:

As Leo often represents the entertainer, I feel like this eclipse is like a pilot episode of a new drama series – a taste of things to come.

So it seems to have turned out with the Empress appearing again in my Full Moon in Virgo tarot reading in prime position, now setting the scene and focused on:

How can I seek the greatest vision of myself?

full moon virgo

My intuitive notes:

So I can seek out that greatest vision of myself just by being myself, celebrating what I love, relaxing into the creative process. I can connect with nature and spirit, allowing the vision to gently emerge over time, living it as I go.

Along with the other cards from the reading, I worked up a page with the cards and key messages with these words as the summary:

raw

 

visual collage

Raw, yes, – I never could cut in straight lines, and it’s messy but that is not the point. Or maybe it is – just being raw, real and ready, authentic not perfect! I love those words that connect with uniqueness, shining and showing up. And patience to self-nurture, learning as I go, feeling into my vision as it emerges.

Exploring The Empress and her many guises

I love seeing how the symbols and imagery of The Empress plays out in different interpretations and I use this to guide and weave in with my impressions and intuition. It’s rich fuel for the fire and such brilliant learning. And I’ve developed this sense further through the fabulously wise and rich 78 Mirrors e-course I worked through recently with Susannah Conway.

I mainly work with six tarot decks so here is The Empress in her guises across these six decks:

1. Rider Waite Tarot
2. Robin Wood Tarot
3. Sakki Sakki Tarot
4. Fountain Tarot
5. Dame Darcy Mermaid Tarot
6. The Wild Unknown

Here is The Empress as she appears visually in each of these decks:

The Empress tarot card

Top row left to right: Rider Waite, Robin Wood, Sakki Sakki

Bottom row left to right: Fountain Tarot, Dame Darcy Mermaid, The Wild Unknown

Here are the standout images, symbols and thoughts for me from these different decks and their interpretations:

Rider Waite

The Rider Waite tarot Empress is solid, front facing, with a mature growth and sharing focus around her. Pomegranates feature on the robe of the Empress, symbolising the “eternal renewal of life” according to The Book of Symbols. In ‘The Pictorial Key to the Tarot’, Arthur Edward Waite refers to The Empress as “the fruitful mother of thousands”.

Robin Wood Tarot

In The Robin Wood Tarot, The Empress is spinning, with images of green and gold and a basket of produce at her feet. The imagery symbolises fertility, growth, competence and security, weaving a sound future.

Sakki Sakki Tarot

The Sakki Sakki Tarot Empress, speaks to me directly with her orange robes and richness. According to the Sakki Sakki Tarot guidebook, she symbolises the “mother of all, creativity, femininity, fertility, abundance, Mother Nature.” In essence, the mother of all creations whatever they be: “a baby, business or the world itself”.

Fountain Tarot

The stunning and ethereal Fountain Tarot Empress appears to be standing in a pond or pool, cloaked in gold, her rainbow energy around her. She is abundant creation and from the Fountain Tarot guidebook…

invites you to water your new creation with love and patience.

Again that theme of creativity, passion, what you love, nature and patience connecting. I love these words from the Fountain Tarot accompanying book:

As the ultimate mother, she will nurture you through the unique moments of each particular stage of growth – through the cycles of life, death, create and destruction. Relax into the safe glow of her embrace, and begin what there is to begin. Now is the time to act.

Dame Darcy Mermaid Tarot

The Dame Darcy Empress is all about mermaids, feminine energy and the pearls of wisdom to be found in the depths of the sea and elsewhere. It’s a message about exploring those depths, going there and speaking of them.

The Wild Unknown

And in the beauty of The Wild Unknown – a deck I have been working with a lot lately – the energy is all about trees, growth, reaching out branches, creation, nature and the mother. The Empress is described as:

the mother, or goddess of the tarot

She emphasises maternal relationships, connecting with our feminine side and especially nature, encouraging us to get outside to ground ourselves and activate our senses. I am finding this is really critical to forming vision, needing that quiet space in nature to find myself and hear my inner voice.

The Empress

Image from Shutterstock via pexels.com

Stay tuned for the second post on The Empress….

…in which we weave all this rich material together as she starts to appear more actively to me through channelled messages and night thoughts with intuitive writing guidance! Exciting times!

Your turn – would love to hear your thoughts about The Empress…

  • What’s your favourite Empress image and symbolism?
  • Has The Empress appeared for you with any special messages?
  • Has this piece stirred anything for you?
  • What card is showing up for you lately with special messages?

Would love to hear your experiences and thoughts here or on Instagram or the Quiet Writing Facebook page where I’ll post a link to this post.

Do share to stimulate this beautiful and powerful feminine energy in the world!

Thought pieces and references:

Symbols in The Empress Tarot card – Janet Boyer – is a fabulous deeper dive into the symbolism of the Rider Waite Smith Empress card – fascinating reading!

Leah Whitehorse’s beautiful blog Lua Astrology

Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Facebook – Please visit here and ‘Liketo keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. There are regular posts on tarot, intuition, influence, passion, creativity, productivity, writing, voice, introversion and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

Subscribe via email (see the link at the top and below) to make sure you receive updates from Quiet Writing and its passions. This includes tarot, personality type developments, coaching and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world. New opportunities and special offers coming soon.

If you enjoyed this post, please share via your preferred social media channel – links are below.

You might also enjoy: Dance to a new beat – Full Moon in Virgo

PRIVACY POLICY

Privacy Policy

COOKIE POLICY

Cookie Policy