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Feelings as paths to artistry – New Moon in Cancer tarot reading

June 26, 2017

“Emotion like water must be free to move and flow”

Pat Liles, from The Power Path

  artistry

The New Moon in Cancer invites us to flow with emotions. This tarot reading for the New Moon reflects on ways that feelings can be paths to artistry.

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

*NEW MOON* SuperMoon in Cancer on the heels of the Solstice, brings us an opportunity to begin again. She brings acknowledgement of our feelings and helps us uncover a deep seated remembrance that renews our connection with Source.  Her gentle Life Wisdom returns us back home to our hearts.

Being focused on water and emotion, this New Moon feels like it’s all about learning to flow with our intuition and letting our feelings wash over and through us. From this, we can learn what feels right and what doesn’t. We can identify what no longer serves us and move through to new beginnings and moving more fully into our creativity.

This Cancer New Moon provides an opportunity to set intentions around working with feelings: feeling any loss, disappointment, the ebb and flow, the rainbows of opportunity and the freedom of letting go of what no longer serves us. This way we can step openheartedly into a new beginning or continue on a more optimistic path to artistry.

New moon in Cancer tarot reading tools:

For my reading for the Cancer New Moon, I worked with:

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

new moon tarot spread

And I worked with the Sakki Sakki Tarot deck by Monicka Clio Sakki which is my favourite tarot deck especially for questions around creativity.

Tarot reading: The Star, The Fool, The Artist

So here’s the reading:

 

New Moon Cancer tarot reading

First up – I had to laugh in recognition at the Ten of Swords coming straight out the blocks around “Where am I right now in my life?” Yes, it is feeling a bit Ten of Swords right now, it’s true and I own my part in contributing to that feeling and getting stuck there. It’s great I can laugh about it now. Once upon a time, the Ten of Swords would freak me out with its direct imagery. But now I see it as a positive thing, a reminder to move on and through anything negative I’m focusing on that is holding me back.

It was so fabulous to see the The Star, The Fool and The Artist appearing in this spread with their individual and collective magic around artistry and creativity. I was especially happy to see The Artist arrive, a card unique to the Sakki Sakki deck and linked to the planet Chiron which focuses on artistry, doing our art and the process of creating our lives. And the Five of Cups, being a watery card, seems to be the key for setting intentions for this New Moon.

Tarot reading – card by card:

So here are some deeper thoughts, card by card, in relation to the questions. I worked intuitively with some key supporting words from the Mystic Mamma post above, the Sakki Sakki tarot guidebook, the The Nomad Guide to the Tarot,  Colette Baron-Reid’s The Good Tarot guidebook and Jessa Crispin’s awesome book The Creative Tarot.

1 Where am I right now in my life? TEN of SWORDS

Yes, I’m feeling somewhat back-stabbed, a bit low and yes, it feels somewhat overdone at this time through my own thought patterns. And yes, some things are over and best left behind. It’s time to take what I need from those experiences and move on.

The Nomad Guide to the Tarot reminds us around this card that it’s how we replay any betrayal in our own minds that creates the biggest impact. Remaining a victim does not serve us.

So, this card reminds me that the only way is up. I need to look at how I am complicit in my own negativity. Working through feelings and being optimistic, taking what I need and moving on seems to be the message from this card at this time.

2 What is blocking me for growing? What do I need to leave behind? The STAR

  • Worrying about others, comparisons and worrying about where I need to be.
  • I need to leave this behind and follow my own orientation and constellation, my own bright star and know that that is exactly where I need to be.

As Jessa Crispin’s ‘The Creative Tarot’ reminds us:

..at the end of that process is the Star. Orientation. You figure out where you are, you figure out how to navigate your way to getting there. It’s card of healing, of feeling perfectly placed.

It’s time to let go of that comparison focus, that measurement against others, that tracking against others’ constellations. It’s truly time to navigate by the compass points of my passions and feelings. The healing is in trusting your own inspiration and influences and bringing them together in your own unique, incomparable way.

3 What intentions should I set in order to grow? FIVE of CUPS

  • I should look at the full cups and not just the empty or fallen cups at this time.
  • I need to accept the loss of some things and find the hope and excitement in moving on.

Key words from Sakki Sakki Tarot: “loss of one’s dreams, disappointment, incomplete relationships, accepting loss, regret, finding hope.”

There’s definitely some releasing of grief to be done here. It’s more the grief of seeing how you thought life was going and then finding it’s not going that way. It’s not bad; in fact, it’s possibly fabulous. But it doesn’t mean that there’s not some grief around identity, the person you thought you were or that part of you that you saw shining in that way.

‘The Creative Tarot’ reminds us for the Five of Cups:

The only way is through. Feel the loss, but then eventually get over it so you can get back to work. (Page 157)

The Good Tarot Guidebook, in its affirmative and optimistic style, offers positive ways of reframing for the future and these ones speak to me:

I feel the fullness of my emotions as they wash through me.

The ebb and flow are part of life, and I am present in my feelings today.

I deserve the freedom that comes when I release what is no longer working for me.

Pat Liles from The Power Path suggests that this fullness of emotions connects right through to our deepest levels:

Under the influence of this water sign, our emotional, feeling bodies are opened up, we nourish ourselves at the deepest root levels, and we connect in new powerful ways to our ancestral roots and to our clans, tribes and families.

The image of a waterfall seems so apt now – that sense of being washed through with the freshest water of our emotions, feeling it at the deepest levels. I swam in a cool waterfall pool this week at the winter solstice and it felt so refreshing, like being washed clear but connecting deeply with what matters. This is what is called for now.

artistry

4 What knowledge do I need to gain to aid in the cultivation of my intentions?   THE FOOL

  • have a beginner’s mind, be open, see afresh, feel anew
  • let it all wash through so I can start again
  • embrace the unknown

Key words from Sakki Sakki Tarot: “blank slate, no mind, new beginnings, embracing the unknown, inner trust, naivete, leap of faith.”

As the Sakki Sakki Guidebook reminds us, it’s time to “follow unconventional paths into the unknown”.

So The Fool together with the Star and Five of Cups is suggesting that the knowledge needed is openness, a willingness to experiment and tread new paths. As with the reminder not to be focused on comparison, it’s about making new ground, new connections and not being afraid to be different.

Our own uniqueness can be a form of healing as Mark Nepo reminds us for the wisdom for the day I am writing (25 June) in The Book of Awakening:

We become so preoccupied with what we are not able to address, what we are not able to mend, what we are not able to leave behind, that we forget that whatever we are in the light of day is slowly, but surely, healing the rest of us.

It’s time to focus on what is rather than what is not.

5 What positive energy will emerge during this phase? The ARTIST

The Artist is a 79th card in the Sakki Sakki Tarot deck. It’s about the energy of creation. And it’s about process and the artistry of creating one’s own life.

Key words from the Sakki Sakki Tarot: “everyone is an artist, crafting one’s own life, living one’s truth, artist as a process, not a state. believing without knowing.”

It’s the card I chose to symbolise Quiet Writing when I launched my brand and business into the world in September last year with my new website. This post focused on The Artist and its message:

Quiet Writing is about the strength that comes from working steadily and without fanfare in writing and other spheres to create, coalesce, influence and connect. It’s an opportunity to muse and reflect on my core values and the interplay between them.  In this, I draw on and connect my various experiences and interests as well as connecting with others who share them.

Many of us have been on what Elizabeth Gilbert calls, in one of her wonderful Magic Lessons, ‘the long runway’ and it’s valuable preparation we need to acknowledge. I want to honour the process as much as the product here; the being, becoming and journey as much as the arrival; the artistry behind the closed curtains and doors.

The Artist card in the Sakki Sakki Tarot deck beautifully symbolises this potential and opportunity:

the-artist-artistry

This is not to say that publication, product and stage are not important and a desirable outcome; but we can focus too much on that external validation and not value our work and its process as it evolves in the present. The act of quiet writing and the solitude to capture ideas and craft them, especially for introverts who so need this, is the space from which so much can flow, connect and be created. The conditions, environment, relationships and influences which enable our creative endeavours to flourish are also crucial shaping factors.

I’m interested especially in the gift of writing and finding our unique voice to articulate our place in the world and express the artistry of everyday life.

So it seems this positive energy is about getting back to my original vision for Quiet Writing and honouring it in everything I do. Especially it’s about honing our unique voice to articulate our place and our personal artistry in the world.

As the Sakki Sakki Tarot Guidebook reminds us:

When you don’t know which way to go, focus on working your art, because this will show you the way.

Ways to honour artistry

So are your thoughts also around how we craft our own life, the process rather than the product and moving through the emotions that honour that?

If so, here are some questions around this prompted by the Cancer New Moon, the tarot spread by Sam Roberts and reflections on my reading.

They are around practically embracing artistry and moving through silencing the inner critic and being playful.

Journal, reflect or brainstorm around them to help your own artistry begin to unfold further at this time of opportunity:

  • How is your art or your creativity showing you the way?
  • How can you work further with your creativity to help you shift into the unknown in a positive way?
  • Where are you still remaining a victim or focusing on negative thoughts?
  • How can you move through this – waterfall and Five of Cups style – letting it wash through you and moving on eg journalling, unsent letter to whatever/whoever caused the pain, dialoguing with the pain, writing it all on a piece of paper and burning it or throwing it away?
  • How can you be present in your feelings today?
  • What are the full cups in your life – the ones you need to celebrate and nurture?
  • Where do you need to practise having a beginner’s mind?
  • How can you practically do this: vision board work, brainstorming, writing what’s in your heart, following your passions even thought you don’t know where they might lead?
  • What does “the artistry of everyday life” meant to you and how can you practise it?
  • What’s your intention, following your own journey, for this New Moon in Cancer?

Wisdom from The Star

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

the Star

May you follow the bright star of the constellation of you this New Moon. And may it lead you into prosperous and happier times. As Dante Alighieri reminds us, it can’t fail us.

Waterfall feature image from pexels.com and used with permission and thanks.

Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Facebook – Please visit here and ‘Like’ to 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. Free ebook on the books that have shaped my creativity coming soon for subscribers only!

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

You might also enjoy:

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Finding our heart path – Full Moon in Sagittarius tarot reading

June 11, 2017

“Be the flame and not the moth.”

Giovanni Giacomo Casanova

via The Creative Tarot – Jessa Crispin

full moon

The Full Moon in Sagittarius invites us think about how about our heart path. This tarot reading for the full moon reflects on ways to find our true story.

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

*FULL MOON* rising in Sagittarius asks us to focus on our heart’s pathway.

With so much swirling, we can easily feel despondent about our future but by narrowing our focus deeper into heart inquiry, we can access revealing truths to consider. Focusing our attention within can bring much expansion about.

As we work creatively in the world, we need to listen within to find our purpose, what to bring together, who to work with and what to leave behind. Focusing within, going deeper is highlighted at this time.

Here are a few key thoughts that resonated from Mystic Mamma’s curated messages on the Sagittarius Full Moon:

From Leah Whitehorse:

In our own lives, we are being asked to sift through the information we have to figure out the truth so that we can clearly define where we’re going. Right now it feels like there’s something we need to understand at a much deeper level than we do…

…Loss is hard and we must grieve but then we must write a new story, with better ending.

From Chad Woodward:

Saturn in Sagittarius suggests narrowing our focus and sacrificing anything superfluous to avoid getting lost in uncertainty, confusion, and vagueness of purpose.

From Pat Liles:

Neptune is also the apex of a Finger of God ~ look to intuition, the poetic, your dreams and what dances you to loosen the deep cultural deception that binds us to the old martyred ways…

This Sagittarius Full Moon provides the right conditions for expanding into our true heart path. It also helps us shed what is no longer relevant or holding us back from our potential, especially around old ways of thinking.

Full moon in Sagittarius tarot reading tools:

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

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

And for my deck, I chose The Good Tarot by Colette Baron-Reid. This was my first full reading with this deck apart from my initial deck interview. The Good Tarot is Colette’s newest deck, blending tarot and oracle, and it focuses on birthing our true selves, so perfect for this time. From The Good Tarot Guidebook:

It especially speaks to the joyful potential that is inherent in the journey through chaos and disorder to divine order, a journey that offers infinite opportunities to co-create your best life.

The deck focuses on finding light and positive affirmations and features the most beautiful illustrations by Jena DellaGrottaglia.

It was a quiet morning with my favourite lime, basil and mandarin candle and thoughts of how to bring together disparate aspects of my life and how to find a way through this new time.

Tarot reading:

So here’s the reading:

Sagittarius Full Moon tarot reading

First up – look at all that Fire! Three cards from the suit of Fire or Wands so there’s that focus on finding light, working with your passions and leaving some things behind you. Just before doing this spread, I was reading ‘An Abundant Life‘ by Dr Ezzie Spencer about the Full Moon and releasing what no longer serves. ‘Burn Baby Burn’ was the heading! Just look at that 10 of Fire with the all those papers of the past burning away.

There’s also a lovely touch of water, intuition and playing with creativity with both the King and Page of Water (Cups). And the grounding influence of the 9 of Earth (Pentacles) and Patience, representing moderation traditionally known as Temperance.

I’m drawn to these Fire cards as the dominant theme. ‘Passion’ is my word of the year for 2017 and the Queen of Fire (Wands) has been making regular visitations, including this Queen who I met in a guided visualisation in Susannah Conway’s In Our Element course, even before I saw the card.

With three Fire cards, one Major Arcana card, 3 court cards and the energy of 2 Nines and a Ten – it seems to be pointing to the ending of one cycle and the beginning of another and finding new ways to hone vision and creativity in the world.

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 Good Tarot Guidebook and The Creative Tarot by Jessa Crispin.

1 What is the area of my life I should be on high alert about? QUEEN of FIRE (WANDS)

  • creativity, opportunities, weaving magic, connecting ideas
  • bringing together passions so I can shine, collaboration with others
  • tapping into spirit to bring this together, tuning into signs, being receptive

Key words from The Good Tarot: co-creation, creative collaborations, soul connections

Key affirmations from The Good Tarot:

“I am capable of strong friendships that inspire me and encourage me to express myself in my own way….I co-create with others, dedicated to a vision of achieving the highest good of all.”

As the quote above from Casanova reminds us – “Be the flame and not the moth.” I love the thought that we can be the magnet, the light, the initiator, the one bringing the uniqueness of ourselves and others together in community.

2 What is the Full Moon illuminating that must be released? NINE of EARTH (Pentacles)

  • embrace a sense of abundance in new ways
  • shed outdated notions of myself as I take what I need into the future
  • leave the boring, tedious and soulless behind

Key words from The Good Tarot: the final stone, disciplined self-reliance

Key affirmations from The Good Tarot:

“There are many tools at my disposal, and I use my resources wisely…I am diligent and disciplined, focusing on completing the work I began long ago. I stick to my program, trusting that the plan is unfolding before me exactly as Spirit intended.”

3 How can I best focus on my thoughts in order to align them with my higher vision?

KING of WATER (CUPS)

  • be in flow, tap into spirit, creativity, combining it with intellect
  • swim with fish, be like a fish, observing, moving with spirit and day to day life
  • embrace what comes and look for creative collaboration and combining of ideas

Key words from The Good Tarot: generous, fair, a good listener

Key affirmations from The Good Tarot:

“I listen to other voices and blend them with my own wisdom before settling on an opinion, making a decision or taking an action.”

This card suggests it’s about combination: intellect and emotion; my thoughts with others; a fairness and gentleness in approach and a blending to a wiser place.

4 Where do I have to regain balance?   PAGE of WATER (CUPS)

  • be childlike, open, let go of some of the rigidity from old contexts
  • move with the flow, with intuition,
  • play, visualise, embrace newness, be that fish swimming through

Key words from The Good Tarot: be open-hearted, childlike, innocent, curious, playful.

Key affirmations from The Good Tarot:

“Life is a delightful dance, and I am here to frolic and play. I am ready with a big smile, and I have on my dancing shoes.”

Yes, a bit more dancing, time out, playing with ideas, envisioning, vision boards and feeling the lightness of this time will help with balance and transition.

5 What is my Self telling me that I need right now? TEN of FIRE (WANDS)

  • passion to set fire to all those ideas and to burn away what no longer serves me
  • to move ahead with what I love as the compass
  • letting go will create space for the new passions to flourish and connect

Key words from The Good Tarot: burning away, releasing the excess, endings clear way for beginnings

Key affirmations from The Good Tarot:

“All that I release will take new form and serve the greater whole, but I no longer need to hold on to it simply because it once seemed to have value for me.”

I so love this card and it’s graceful sense of clearing away the old and making space for the new. It’s a time for decluttering, releasing and saying goodbye to what no longer serves from a place of strength.

6 What is my life is being completely supported? NINE of FIRE (WANDS)

  • the ability to create magic, bring passions together
  • managing uncertainty and creating through this
  • being supported in breakthrough and getting to what matters

Key words from The Good Tarot: balance, uncertainty, reevaluating circumstances

Key affirmations from The Good Tarot:

“My sense of uncertainty is my inner wisdom telling me to bring illumination to my situation, to allow insights to arise before I take my next steps.”

I’m being supported to negotiate the uncertainty of it all and to just flow with it. I’m able to work with the alchemy of this time, focusing in, despite many things not being clear or certain.

7 How can I best stay grounded throughout this manifestation? PATIENCE

  • be patient and moderate, the vision is unfolding
  • trust that even though I can’t see all the links, I’m moving through just fine
  • know that I’m being supported as I patiently work, knowing it’s aligning to my higher purpose

Key words from The Good Tarot: patience, moderation

Key affirmations from The Good Tarot:

“This card reminds me that patience will bring me into recognition of and alignment to my purpose. All my needs are met even though I may not see it yet in the outer, visible world.”

This has been a message I’ve been receiving for a while. It’s so easy to get impatient and just want all the answers now. But the process is important too. Just working through it all with a sense of trust has a power all of its own in moving through this time.

Finding our heart path

So are your thoughts also around finding your true heart path at this time?

The narrative in this reading is in line with the focus of the Sagittarius Full Moon – that we need to be patient and go within to find our heart path. It’s there within us written in our passions, what we love and the people we are drawn to. We need to make the connections, be the flame, do the work and in this, the vision unfolds. Because it’s based on our passions and what we love, it’s so exciting and engaging, even if it takes time and is at times unclear.

It’s about playing with what we love and just enjoying it for what it is: seeing the combinations and working in a visual and light way, stepping back for the bigger picture. It’s about finding the natural connections, where there is magnetism and attraction with people, and ideas. It’s time to shed or better manage what no longer serves us: the people who drain us, the work that does not feel meaningful and the practices that make us feel soulless. This will make space for the new.

Prompts for honing on on your path and connections that might lead to it:

Journal, brainstorm or create a visual map around these questions to unfold your heart path further at this time:

  • What are your passions?
  • What do you truly love to do?
  • Why do you love them so much?
  • What’s the thread that connects them?
  • How can they come together in exciting combinations to create new practices or thoughts?
  • What can you do to bring out these combinations and connections more – create a vision board, a mind map, a Pinterest board? Who can you connect with to do this?
  • What no longer serves you – what do you need to write on a piece of paper and burn away?
  • What changes can you make to shift from what no longer resonates to what makes you shine?
  • What are three things you can do today to move you closer to what you love and what you want to do in your life?
  • Where can you be the flame for others, the initiator, igniting more fully what is in your mind and heart?
  • What’s the thing that’s deep inside whispering away that you can just hear? How can you bring it more into the light?

Wisdom from ‘The Heart Aroused’:

And here is some final wisdom from David Whyte and his beautiful book about finding soul and heart path in our work:

The river down which we raft is made up of the same substance as the great sea of our destination. It is an ever-moving firsthand creative engagement with life and with others that completes itself simply by being itself. This kind of approach must be seen as the “great art” of working in order to live, of remembering what is most important in the order of priorities and what place we occupy in a much greater story than the one our job description defines.

heart path

May your passions be the light that guides you. May you be the flame and not the moth, making magical connections and partnerships as you find your heart path.

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

Thought pieces

If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that I have been writing up my daily tarot and oracle readings as tarot narratives, discovering the deeper story in each reading and in each day. It’s become such a beautiful practice and connects with the thoughts arising from this reading also. Intuition is a muscle and flexing intuitive practice helps you make deeper connections of all kinds. I’m trying to work out where to take tarot narratives – a new and separate website linked to this one being the most likely.

Your thoughts? I welcome your thoughts on my tarot narrative work on a daily basis and for the Full Moon via comments, Facebook or Instagram (links below) – is it helpful? insightful? how would you like to see it unfold? I’d love to hear your thoughts, thank you. I know it’s important work but I’m keen for your input on how to work with it and what would serve you as readers.

Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Facebook – Please visit here and ‘Like’ to 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 personality including 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. My free ebook on the books that have shaped my story is coming soon for subscribers only – so sign up to be the first to receive it!

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

You might also enjoy:

An invitation to mastery – Full Moon in Scorpio tarot reading

Dance to a new beat – Full Moon in Virgo

The Empress: creativity, vision and patience

love, loss & longing transition work life

Finishing on a high note – closure, letting go and moving on

May 25, 2017

 Some of us think holding on makes us strong;

but sometimes it is letting go.

Hermann Hesse

 

moving on

Finishing on a high note is important. As one thing ends and we cycle into new beginnings, it’s vital to pause and reflect on closure and tie up any loose ends. And depending on the situation, it’s also a moment to restore, forgive, show gratitude, bed down our learning and celebrate what we have achieved.

Here are some thoughts on unfinished symphonies and opportunities for ending on a high note and shifting into a positive journey in moving on.

Unfinished Symphonies

The beautiful ‘Unfinished Symphony’ card from Colette Baron-Reid’s Wisdom of the Oracle deck has popped up for me a few times in the past weeks. Each time, it’s reminded me of the power of appropriate closure and reflection on what has passed before moving on.

closure

The first time it appeared, it prompted me to focus on some administrative loose-ends – paperwork, small things I’d been putting off that were hanging over my head and stopping my forward movement.

The next time, it was about finishing off an e-course that was very valuable to me that I was close to completing and hadn’t quite finalised. It was a reminder to thank the creator personally for what they had given me through the process and to take the lessons forward and integrate them fully into my life.

Most recently, it was about honouring my skills, my body of work, as I reflect on my next steps in my career and vocational life. Skills are transferable and we develop many in our lifetime. It’s so easy to close the door on skills that are valuable as we shift into different roles or environments. It’s important to take stock of all the varied knowledge, experience and values we bring forward as we recreate ourselves again and again in career and vocational roles and through our own businesses.

Closure, completion and finishing off

As we shift to the end of something and into a cycle of completion and restarting, it’s so easy to rush forward and forget the reflection phase, the opportunity to pause and integrate what’s just happened.

As the Guidebook for the Wisdom of the Oracle says for the Unfinished Symphony card:

Take inventory so that emotional and psychological closure can occur and the answers you seek will be found. You can’t move forward if you are leaving things unfinished. Reflect on what has passed so that the symphony can finally end on a high note.
Page 37

We might be leaving something or somewhere because we choose to. It might be retirement or the end of a relationship or a move of location. Other times, it may not be through our choice. It might be a case of redundancy, betrayal, just not fitting in any more or circumstances beyond our control.

Whatever the situation of finishing up or leaving something behind, it’s valuable to reflect on how we can leave gracefully with wisdom and a sense of completion. We can move forward with a spirit of reflection and learning, and with a practical attitude of taking what will serve us well on the onward journey. It’s important not to leave loose ends, unfinished business or pieces of ourselves behind.

Ways to finish on a high note

Here are some practical ways to finish on a high note:

Tie up the loose ends

As Colette Baron-Reid says: “Tie up loose ends so you can move forward with surety, knowing you’re on a prosperous path.” It might be paperwork, it might be some difficult task still to be done you keep putting off, it might be picking up some special belongings from somewhere where they no longer belong. But this symbolic tying up and finishing can be a powerful way of stepping through into a new purpose.

See things through to completion and celebrate that

If you’ve created something valuable and special, see it through. Finish it, see how it can be developed further, update your CV to reflect your achievement and apply your learning in practice for positive outcomes. See where whatever you have created can shine brighter. Publish it, write about it, adapt it, finish off its potential and bed it down into the fabric of the world. Celebrate your part in it and let people know what you’ve achieved.

Say thank you

If you’ve finished a course, a book or time in a job role, say thank you to those who created the circumstances or the work. Finish the work, then round it off with appreciation and gratitude, sharing the joy of what you learned, what will take you forward and why it was important. The end of your cycle will help fuel your own and another’s journey.

If it’s a challenging thing like a relationship ending, the thank you might be in the form of an unsent letter or journalling, but still take the time to realise the benefits of what was given to you. Don’t lose the good in the shadow of the bad. Even if you feel bitter, it’s better to brainstorm the positives about what the disappointment or betrayal taught you than to drown in the juices of your anger. Find the pieces to take forward and let go of what’s not helpful.

Forgive

Danielle LaPorte’s White Hot Truth has wise advice on forgiveness. When you’re ready, it’s a powerful thing and it’s often as much about forgiving ourselves and our perceived complicit involvement as it is about others. That’s where a lot of energy is being drained away as we carry it unnecessarily:

As Lady Ninja of the Light put it to me: “I see forgiveness as releasing congested energy that’s not needed by the energy body. No stories, no players, simply time to release and move on to brighter ways.”
You stop letting past hurt affect you in the present. You rinse down the story, you take what you want, and let the rest go up to the Light so it can be put to better use. You give yourself forward.
Page 119

The ways we forgive can be many and varied and don’t always need to involve the other party; sometimes it’s just not possible anyway. But diluting the negative impact of that story and releasing the energy is so important in moving on.

Take what’s valuable with you

Don’t leave what’s valuable behind and take what you can with you into new circumstances. Reflect on the transferable and portable knowledge and experience you can carry forward.

You might have been in an organisation for a while and suddenly there are changes which mean that they no longer value your skills and experience. But you can. Identify the ingredients, skills and experiences that make up ‘you’, your brand, that you can market to a new employer or use to build up your own business.

As Pamela Slim says in Body of Work:

No one is looking out for your career any more. You must find meaning, locate opportunities, sell yourself, and plan for failure, calamity, and unexpected disasters. You must develop a set of skills that makes you able to earn an income in as many ways as possible.
Page 4

Cycles, abandoned success and the Eight of Cups

The Eight of Cups tarot card has reappeared many times in the past year as I negotiate a time of transition and reflect on endings and beginnings. It’s a deep card that speaks of abandoned success and choosing to walk away but it’s also a reminder not to leave pieces of ourselves behind.

closure

The Rider Waite image of the card shows a figure choosing to walk away from the cups. As Benebell Wen describes in it in Holistic Tarot:

There has been an abandonment of past fruits, the Eight of Cups is about a soul-searching journey; ascending to emotional higher ground. The Seeker is leaving behind something he or she spent much effort and care to nurture and develop. There was disappointment in a past undertaking and this the Seeker has abandoned his or her previous work.
Page 167

There’s a suggestion of leaving on our own terms, but there’s that future we imagined, our identity we shaped there that we feel we are leaving behind. So there’s sadness and a kind of grief. As Jessica Crispin explains it in The Creative Tarot:

And it’s not just our work but our actual selves that we pour into what we do. Leaving it, admitting that the end result is no longer worth it, is difficult.”
Page 195

So there is often a sense of loss even if we are choosing to do the leaving or the finishing. Everything is so inevitably bound up together.

The stunning and wise Art of Life Tarot Eight of Cups reminds us that in each ending there is a new beginning. So let’s start as fresh, unencumbered and as energetic as we can, taking the positive and valuable learnings and leaving any baggage or drag on our energy behind.

closure

Resilience is as much about letting go as it is about moving through. Whatever the circumstances, let’s finish our personal symphonies as positively as we can, on a high note, with gratitude and reflection, bringing it home with the brightness of a new song.

And your unfinished symphony?

Would love to hear about any unfinished symphonies you can work on or are working on as you move forward into new times. Share in the comments below or via the Quiet Writing Facebook page or on Instagram so we can support each other as a community to move ahead positively.

Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Facebook – Please visit here and ‘Like’ to keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. There are regular posts on coaching, books, 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 tarot, MBTI developments, life coaching and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world.

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

You might also enjoy:

Movement, stillness and navigating challenging times

Shining a quiet light: working the gifts of introversion

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

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

Featured image by Roman Samborskyi via Shutterstock and used with permission and thanks.

2 Comments
coaching creativity inspiration & influence

Pro Bono Life Coaching – an opportunity to shine!

May 18, 2017

At the centre of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

Lao Tzu

Beautiful You coaching

UPDATE at February 2018: Pro Bono Life Coaching opportunities are now fully subscribed – thanks to those who have expressed interest. But do still read ahead about the launch of Quiet Writing Coaching and my background! You can go to Work with me to find out about current opportunities!

I’m so excited today to be officially launching Quiet Writing Coaching with a limited number of pro bono life coaching opportunities for women!

It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly four months since I started the Beautiful You Coaching Academy Life Coaching course and received my learning resources with the most gorgeous, handwritten welcome note from our lead trainer and CEO of Beautiful You, Julie Parker.

Since that time, I’ve been studying and practicing coaching and I’m now ready to commence offering pro bono life coaching. This marks the official commencement of my coaching practice in the world – something I have been planning now for over a year. And I’m very excited!

In this post I will share my journey to this point, explain what life coaching is and what this pro bono coaching opportunity offers. I also want to share what I bring to coaching and who I see myself best supporting.

My journey to coaching

My decision to gain skills and experience in coaching is linked to writing. Writing and coaching are twin skills that I want to weave together to form a new path in my life. Writing is my creative focus and raison d’être, an area of my life where I would like to do so much more. But teaching and supporting people to reach their potential, especially creatively, has also been an area I have engaged in deeply through-out my working life.

I’ve worked with coaches in the workplace especially in partnership as a leader to help support the growth of my teams. I’ve been a mentor and I’ve been mentored in my work roles. When I decided I need to start making a transition to a new way of living and working last year, I reached out to a coach to support me at a critical time. And this has made all the difference in shaping this time. Thanks to my desire to change and thanks to my wonderful coach.

And as part of my coaching journey through Beautiful You, I’ve been working with a buddy coach where we have shared powerful learning and coaching experiences mutually as we embark on this adventure. It’s challenging times as a I work on this journey; my beautiful mum is very unwell and I am supporting her which is an emotional journey. I don’t write so much about this here as it’s private. But I’ve worked on my self-care and wellbeing as I move through this time so I can be strong and well especially for my mum but also for myself and others in my life. I am now so much healthier and stronger after this short time – swimming in the ocean a few times a week and back to yoga classes twice a week. Thanks to my commitment to change and thanks to my wonderful coach. Here is a picture of me on the left with my gorgeous and inspiring coach buddy, Jeanette.

BYCA Coach buddy pic

Photo credit to Emma Louise Newby @emmalouisenewby

What is life coaching?

So as you can see life coaching can be an incredible support as we move through times of change and make a path to those goals that are in our heart. Especially those long term goals we have held very close.

Life coaching provides a structured and goal oriented framework to help you achieve what you want in life. It draws from a variety of disciplines including psychology, sociology, personal development and social development. Life coaching helps you move from where you are to where you want to be through supported and guided goal-setting and action. Importantly, it’s not the same as therapy or counselling; it’s more future focused and action focused.

People who choose to work with life coaches come from a range of backgrounds and work on goals as diverse as:

  • making a positive career transition to a more fulfilling job or way of working
  • driving creative projects such as writing a book or starting a blog
  • becoming healthier, fitter and stronger
  • having positive and meaningful relationships
  • improving self-confidence and self-belief
  • creating energising and nourishing self-care routines
  • living an inspired and balanced life.

Life coaching can take place in person or via technology such as over the phone or via Skype or Zoom. It can take place with individuals, in groups or in workplaces.

What I bring to coaching and where I want to focus

I’m choosing to focus on career and creativity coaching and I bring to that: extensive experience in adult and vocational education; certification in MBTI/personality type assessment; and a passion for creativity, writing and books that drives everything I do.

You can learn more about me here.

With my experience in leadership and creativity, I am interested in how coaching can be a form of self-leadership. Just as we can lead others and take the lead in situations, the most important form of orchestrating leadership is how we take ourselves forward and bring the pieces of our lives together.

My introvert qualities help me work from writing as a strength and I believe everyone can shine in their own way. We just need to find the threads that pull our unique story together. That’s what I am keen to do with my coaching and writing work at Quiet Writing – to support people to find the threads of their story and shine.

And I’ve done the work. I’m finding the threads of my story and weaving them together too:

  • I’ve sat in cafes and on trains before work, writing and studying poetry, to tap into that source and learn more.
  • I’ve walked into work and felt like I’m leaving large parts of myself behind, the most important parts, and felt so sad about it. So I’m taking that feeling forward to plan a different future.
  • I’ve woven creativity into my day job as much as I could, especially as a leader of innovative practice. I’ve learnt from this but there’s still so much more I want to be doing.
  • I’ve listened to so many podcasts and read so many books! That will always be the way as I love learning. But it’s time for me to take these influences forward into my unique brand of coaching and writing work and live the life I want.

I’ve studied and worked and read and I’m keen to bring all these pieces together and find the gold threads and from there to make a new creatively based lifestyle.

It’s time for me to be more whole-hearted and coaching and writing are the keys to that. So I’m working through it all and I’m on the journey. And I’m keen to support you also on your journey to work on goals that bring more heart to what you do and what you want to do.

So how about you?

So if any of these thoughts and experiences about creativity and career, about self-leadership and feeling more whole-hearted, about doing the work, are resonating with you, I’d love to work with you.

I feel especially called to work with women who:

  • want to be more whole-hearted about the work they do; by this I mean, feeling more whole – like all of your important and valued parts are in play and activated, not left at the door or buried somewhere;
  • are trying to find their unique voice and space in their career and creative world;
  • have skills and experience they wish to take as a foundation and recast into a new vision and path;
  • want to take the steps to create the life they want and to shine.

I’d love to have a chat with you if you’d like to feel more satisfied with your life and make more informed choices about how to be creative and make a living. Or if you’re keen on getting your creative projects moving and are trying to work out how to combine creativity and career more effectively. These are areas I care so much about and can support you in.

shine

My pro bono life coaching offering

So, I am so excited to be offering my first pro bono life coaching opportunities right now to a small number of women as I step into my future as a coach and a writer.

As a coach in training, my plan is to start with a number of limited pro bono opportunities now and focus on them for the next few months.

What I am offering now is:

  • the opportunity to work with me as your coach for a coaching series of 6 sessions over a 3 month period on areas that are important to you and your life path;
  • a 30 minute consultation upfront to start the process to ensure we are a positive fit and to identify areas of possible focus to ensure maximum value from our sessions. You will be asked to fill out a short questionnaire prior to this first discussion.

In return, and in lieu of any monetary exchange for this pro bono coaching series offering, you need to provide:

  • a (glowing) testimonial with a photo within one week of your coaching series finishing and
  • a shout out where you can about the great experience you have had with me as your coach.

Once we have the 30 minute consultation, we will identify the dates and schedule for our sessions so we can make them a priority once an hour each fortnight.

In practical terms, I’m in Australia but you can be anywhere in the world. We would work via technology based services like Skype for our sessions.

As you can see, it’s all about my learning, the benefit to you of a fabulous and productive coaching series with me and the opportunity for me to launch my coaching work as positively as I can, building on my current experience and yours. A super win-win!

Where to contact me:

So I hope you are excited by what this might mean for you!

If you are interested in being considered for this coaching opportunity, noting that they are small in number and only available for a limited time, please contact me:

  • via email: terri@quietwriting.com
  • or via direct message on social media – via Facebook or Instagram if we are already connected

I would love to work with you now or into the future in Quiet Writing Coaching!

Please feel free to share with anyone who you think might benefit from this opportunity.

Thought pieces

I usually finish my blog posts with thought pieces – related thoughts, symbols, references – being an intuitive with an associative mind, connections pop up and I like to include them here.

For today, it’s a tarot card – the beautiful Three of Earth – also known as the Three of Pentacles (Coins) from the recently released ‘The Good Tarot’ by Colette Baron-Reid.

I start my day with a tarot and oracle reading for guidance and sometimes I hesitate to do that first and feel I should get on with my work. Then I get the most helpful insights and the reminder from the cards that this is my work. The intuitive wisdom feeds deeply into my day and visions and what I can then share with others to inspire them.

Today’s question was about coaching, this pro bono coaching offer and how it fits with my vision and with yours.

So here is the beautiful Three of Earth:

Three of earth

How gorgeous are her butterfly glasses – transformative and seeing far into the future, grounded in the here and now, but lifting her gaze. Here are Colette Baron-Reid’s words on this card:

Teamwork, building on solid foundations, group efforts, dedicated collaboration

What I am building is grounded in a solid foundation, so I know I can trust it will not slip away suddenly. I am joined by others in coordinated efforts to bring forth what we have chosen to co-create. The architecture of my dreams is becoming tangible, taking shape before me, and I share my joy and pride with my partners and supporters. Teachers and students, we are all learning, growing, and building collaboratively.

It really is all about co-creation. My future and yours. Thank you for your support – it’s such a pleasure to learn, grow and build collaboratively with you. Let’s put on our butterfly glasses together and see our vision and shine!

Keep in touch

Quiet Writing is on Facebook – Please visit here and ‘Like’ to keep in touch and interact with the growing Quiet Writing community. There are regular posts on coaching, books, 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 tarot, MBTI developments, life coaching and other connections to help express your unique voice in the world.

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

You might also enjoy:

Shining a quiet light: working the gifts of introversion

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

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

Practical tools to increase writing productivity

2 Comments
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 ‘Like’ to 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 intuition planning & productivity

Movement, stillness and navigating challenging times

April 18, 2017

movement

When navigating challenging times, movement can help you find stillness and new ways to manage change and negotiate uncertainty.

Leaning into movement

The idea of keeping in movement as a way of managing change came to me about a year ago at the beginning of this time of transition. I sought advice via a tarot reading from Marianne at Two Sides Tarot. At the end of an insightful reading around managing change and uncertainty, the oracle card ‘Movement’ from the Vessel oracle deck by Mary Elizabeth Evans arrived, dancing its dynamic way into my consciousness.

Here is this beautiful card, courtesy of @twosidestarot on Instagram:


And the message in my reading: the best way to manage all this change, these Wheel of Fortune times, was to keep moving:

Strength and solace can be found in getting moving – both by moving your body, changing up your self-care practices, and embracing this process. The change itself, although not always easy, will be such a source of healing and fulfilment!

I was reminded not only to move but to make changes in self-care and movement routines – do new things, do things differently, mix it up. To soak in the ocean instead of the bath for example. To just keep moving and make subtle shifts as a way of managing uncertainty and leaning into it.

As Marianne reminded me via my tarot reading:

Making a few little moves in this area of your life will let you keep yourself grounded and full, while gently stretching your boundaries and exposing you to new experiences.

Moving to manage uncertain times

The message came to me again recently through guides in an Activate session with Amber Adrian. I’m feeling stuck, for a number of reasons but ironically with so many thoughts and plans. Words and ideas come and flow through me. I try to capture them and still them into an order I can understand and work with.

But there’s so many ideas on my desk and in my mind. It feels so Seven of Cups and so Ten of Wands with this card from The Art of Life Tarot summing up my inner and outer world right now.

ten of

There’s so much magic there but it won’t come to much if I can’t work with it practically. So it comes down to a kind of patience and fortitude right now.

I ask how to have that patience to wait intuitively for the inspiration of spirit instead of trying to force things. I want to know how to be able to read the signs and symbols and have the strength to integrate this time wisely into the vision I can see and feel. Again, the advice via Amber and our guides in the session is to just keep moving: “Keep going, keep moving through it, keep showing up for yourself and others, keep taking care of yourself in all this. It will get easier. Keep using everything, every tool you have.”

Ways to keep moving

And funnily enough lately I have been moving. You see, I’m training to be a life coach and I’m moving ahead with that course, and I’m now more than half way through. As part of my Beautiful You Coaching Academy life-coach training, we practise coaching and also undertake coaching ourselves. One of my key goals has been around self-care at a time of transition and challenge, especially around being stronger and fitter.

So I’ve been moving much more than I have for a long time. And I’m finding that movement is a metaphor for and tool to negotiate these times. I find that yoga, walking, swimming and feeling the body move can help move you forward in many ways: the rhythm of your legs. walking; the syncopation of your arms beating the water; the timing of your breath moving in, moving out.

Chi, flow, blood, breath, steps into the air, into the light, through the day like honey, like the flow of words on a page.

Streets of my village I meander, paths of sand and rock in the bush I step through, my feet sinking into sand at the edge of the water as I flex and pressure onwards. Yoga postures I move through – still, breathing easy, dynamic, active, my body moves through them, pushing boundaries. My mind stills and comes with it.

Moving through different terrain

I’m searching for different walks in new terrain. I’m exploring new places as I step out, finding freshwater pools with waterfalls and tracks with different vistas in my beautiful backyard.

The yoga classes I go to stretch me in different ways and I learn new names for familiar poses. I’m moving differently and there’s the yin of slow held poses that stretch me hard along my muscles. And there’s the yang of vinyasa flow that has me warm and energised as my limbs move. There’s balance and stillness. I sleep so well at night afterwards.

I’ve started swimming in the ocean with a local group here where I live. The beauty of the underwater world astounds me and I swim with schools of fish and sometimes feel like a fish. My arms stroke the water and I breathe in and out like the beat of a drum.

I don’t usually like to swim out of my depth but I am there, past the shallow water, circling the edges of the reef with fish beneath me and feeling relaxed. I’m embracing change and newness with a sense of wonder, seeing things differently.

My swim-mask fogs up early on and I need to learn how to stop that which I do. Sometimes I don’t swim straight as I am not used to ocean swimming. “You were all over the place,” says one of my swim chums. It’s true but at least I am out there, zig-zagging across the water and learning how to swim straighter next time. And when we chat about it over coffee later, I find many of my fellow swimmers also zigzag or have dealt with it and I am not alone. We share strategies for navigating the way into straighter paths.

It seems there are many benefits of moving with others as we track our separate paths together, learning from each other but going our own way forward to our unique destination.

The medicine of movement

So I encourage you to seek solace in the medicine of movement: take a walk in the silence of your garden, take a swim in the salt water of your heart, breathe through the yoga moves of your transition.

Balance those paradoxes: stillness and hurry, quiet and busy, calm and worry, slowness and the sheer act of getting on with it regardless of the speed. Yin and yang with it all and the moon, and realise that even resting can be an integral part of movement.

Breathe like waves as you move, negotiate the uncertain nature of the time, its alchemy threading through each word and act unknowing. It’s weaving a song you vaguely recognise. If you listen carefully, you might find that in the singing of birds or the waving of seaweed you are gently shown a sign that says, “This way.”

You pick up a shell and see the spiral of your life moving stealthily on, trusting that nature can take its perfect course, without you needing to tell it how.

You pick a card and it’s the Two of Wands reminding you that:

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.

two

From The Art of Life Tarot deck by Charlene Livingstone

So you jump into the water of your thoughts, you swim through the barriers of your mind and you stretch through the tightness of your joy.

You’re not staying where you are – you know that. And you trust the intuitive action of movement to take you where you know in your heart you need to be.

In movement, stillness.
In stillness, movement.

infinity

Thought pieces

For a rich and beautiful read about movement, yin/yang and flourishing with cycles of the moon, you might enjoy the new book, An Abundant Life by Dr Ezzie Spencer. There’s also a fabulous podcast with Ezzie over at the Secret Library Podcast with Caroline Donahue aka The Book Doctor.

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