In each loss, there is a gain as in every gain there is a loss. And with each ending comes a new beginning.
Shao Lin via The Art of Life Tarot – Eight of Cups
A Quiet Writing deep-dive Tarot Narrative each Monday to share intuitive guidance, wisdom and insights from aligned books – for the week and anytime…
This week: opening your heart to inspiration of a different kind
Theme for the week beginning 7 May
The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #19 Design from patterns to details
We’ve hard this card before not so long ago! Last time it reminded us of the value of strategy and the higher order of connections. This week the message is similar but with a particular focus on moving through and not letting details get the better of us. We are reminded to look at ideas, patterns and getting our ideas and feelings out without getting stuck.
Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:
Are you concentrating too much on the details whilst missing the bigger picture, or vice versa?
Today’s narrative, led by this theme card, encourages us to step back a little and see the whole. Looking at patterns rather than flaws or minor issues will serve us well at this time.
It’s about being positive and macro focused rather than micro. We are encouraged to reflect on how working at a higher order of life design can serve us and others well now.
Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 7 May
Tarot Narrative:
Moving on from the tyranny of details, you open your heart to inspiration of a different kind. You want to take your ideas forward but get stuck on the pieces which breaks your movement. So focus on higher order things: patterns and designing from a higher place. With spirit as your guide, work on manifesting your ideas in form and flow without obsessing about every small thing. It will all find its place.
Cards: Daughter (Page) of Swords and Eight of Cups from The Wild Unknown and #40 Co-create from Wisdom of the Oracle.
Book notes:
It is the same with our minds and hearts. For our very self is the one window we have into this life. And so often, we suffer the mood of a dirty window, believing the brilliant world gray.
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening (for May 7)
Mark Nepo reminds us for today’s reading in ‘The Book of Awakening’ of ‘The Ordinary Art’. This is about keeping our minds clear and not seeing life through a dirty lens. One way of keeping things murky is to get caught up on the detail – the one piece of dirt on an otherwise clear window, the one thing that is not right. So much can get lost in obsessing about detail before you even make a start or begin opening your heart.
Mark Nepo goes on to say:
Perhaps the purpose of authentic relationship is to help each other keep our minds and hearts clear. Perhaps inner work is the ordinary art of window washing, so that the day is fully the day.
Opening your heart
The Page of Swords can often represent “a great idea with no outlet” according to Jessa Crispin in The Creative Tarot. It can remind us that it’s “time to grow up and see a project through to completion for a change.”
Do you have a project that never seems to get going or even make it through to the draft stage? Do you close your heart down before you even start as the details cloud over you?
This reading starts with the Page of Swords as a weather report card telling us to get on with our work or relationships. Too much focus on the detail and the tyranny of perfection can stop us from even starting work or communicating.
One way of opening your heart is embracing the overall pattern of your work rather than obsessing with the details. Just as Mark Nepo reminds us, seeing our work or loved ones through a dirty lens is just not going to be helpful.
Inspiration of a different kind
The Eight of Cups reminds us to let go of what doesn’t serve us. It might be painful but letting go and leaving things behind can be positive. We might, for example, let go of an obsession with detail to finally get our work done. Walking on the beach, we might see the one stone or shell that speaks to us instead of being overwhelmed by many. We might let go of a way of thinking, a person, a job or an attitude that stops us achieving higher order goals like love, creativity or connection.
The Wisdom of the Oracle card Co-create also reinforces this message by encouraging us to see our life as art co-created with spirit:
Connections of the heart serve to inspire you, opening you up to new ideas you would never have had on your own.
This Tarot Narrative work I do is an example of that. I never know what these weekly posts will focus on until I do this intuitive work in partnership with spirit. It is a unique practice of mystery and manifestation that is larger than me. The tarot and oracle cards are tools for me to connect with my intuition. For this week and beyond, focusing on higher-order patterns and a clear view of my work and relationships will serve me well. And I share this in a spirit of co-creation with you.
Details, endings and beginnings
As the Art of Life Tarot Eight of Cups reminds us, endings and beginnings and losses and gains are often intertwined. Especially when big life transitions or events happen, it’s easy to lose the larger picture in the details. We feel hurt by small things that feel magnified. It’s easy to dwell on these upsets. We are encouraged to see the cyclical nature of life and to move beyond getting stuck through an obsession with detail.
Working with our intuition, seeing the bigger picture, working with patterns, choosing to see through a clean window can help us. It is as if we need to erase the details that can trip us up or hold us back. Defining ourselves or others by small events or a few words said can be limiting. Just as not developing the unique creative ideas that come to us because of a fear of not achieving our ideal will limit our productivity.
“Done is better than perfect” is a maxim I have embraced more this year. There is no point having such high expectations of ourselves or our work that nothing gets started. Or ever sees the light of day.
It’s a great week for opening our hearts to inspiration of a different kind.
- How are we embracing our creative ideas rather than stifling them?
- Where are we be generous in our relationships rather than fault-finding?
- What have we learnt about the ways we stop ourselves from moving and how can we action this?
- How can we find a higher order pattern to work from rather than getting stuck on details?
- What can we do to invite inspiration in and take it through to completion?
- Where can we work in partnership with intuition and spirit and the spirit of others to further our work and relationships?
Walking away from practices that no longer serve us can help us feel more inspired. Take some time to journal on how you can lift your eyes to see the positives without the details becoming a barrier this week.
Love to hear your thoughts!
I’d love to how you are working from design and a different kind of inspiration this week.
All best wishes for this week of seeing the big picture to guide us in moving forward.
May you find inspiration in opening your heart and seeing new beginnings. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!
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OMG I’m just reading this today at the end of the week and this is exactly what I’ve been doing all week. I’ve been obsessing so much with the details, and every word, and how I’m going to say it, that I forgot the intention, and couldn’t get anything written in the end. I have two full pages of opening paragraphs but nothing that can be an opening paragraph.
I’ve been obsessing over each word, and is it good enough and clever enough, and all kinds of stuff, instead of just saying it from my heart in any way that the words come out and remembering that this is my first draft and than I can go back and make changes and delete and add and… Thank you for this weeks inspiration.
Thanks, Masha, for sharing your thoughts and I am glad this message resonated with you! I found this too as I went through the week. There was one moment when I couldn’t see the bigger picture because of a spelling mistake for goodness sake! It’s been a good reminder for me this past week and one to take with me as I move on. I hope it helps you too as you move forward in your creative work x