The Creative Tarot Archives

Taking a leap of faith with structure + the gift of surprise

June 4, 2018

We can’t learn to see if we can’t keep our eyes open. In just this way, staying open to the unexpected expands the openness of our heart.

Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk

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: taking a leap of faith with structure + the gift of surprise

Theme for the week beginning 4 June

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #45 Take a leap of faith with your ideals

After last week’s message – choosing the best thoughts to make a lighter way – this week is all about taking risks and a leap of faith. We’ve had a time of Introverted Intuiting and working on our work in the world in a more visionary introverted kind of way. Now it’s time to do something with all those thoughts and maybe all that behind the scenes work. It’s time for taking a leap of faith in many different ways and also seeing what can support and inspire us.

This message of taking a leap of faith has come to me twice in 24 hours: via the Life Design cards deck and also the Goddess Guidance Oracle Cards. So I pass this message on to you here. Aine, the Celtic goddess and fairy queen, says: “Take a risk, and put your heart’s true desire into action!”

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook for #45 is:

Expand your awareness through the gathering of unfamiliar experiences.

Today’s narrative, led by the synchronicity of these theme cards, encourages us to take a leap of faith. Elements of structure and surprise are in there as we navigate the unfamiliar with some safe supports.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 4 June

Tarot Narrative:

It’s time to take some risks especially on work you’ve been imagining and planning for a while. Put in some structure, order and plans to help control your fear and manage any risks. Also to achieve progress over time, step by step. This will build confidence and help fight any inner or outer challenges. Work out what’s important to you as a source of strength and guidance. And take a leap of faith now for surprise learning and inputs!

Cards: The Emperor and Seven of Rods (Wands) from the Morgan Greer Tarot and #45 Time to Go in protection (reversed) position from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Taking a leap of faith with support

Last week we had the Nine of Swords and Judgment and it was all about watching our inner thoughts and trying to lighten them. This week we head into taking our creative thoughts and projects out in to the world in some way. Having potentially worked on our self-talk and self-love in a big way this past week and moved on and through, it’s time to take some risks and a leap of faith in our creative projects. This week begins with a yin energy focus as we intention comes in to being more. Taking risks to get our work out in the world is highlighted this week.

The tarot cards drawn along with the focus on a leap of faith provide guidance as to what will help us make that leap positively.

Firstly, the Emperor encourages us to work with structure and an overall plan. In Jung/Myers-Briggs terms, some Extraverted Thinking – some frameworks, logic and order will help us make a leap of faith with support.

In The Creative Tarot, for The Emperor, Jessa Crispin talks about C.S. Lewis and his approach to writing the Chronicles of Narnia series. Lewis plotted out the whole series in advance which led to increased consistency of his work. An INTJ personality type, he was weaving together his Introverted Intuiting with his Extraverted Thinking.

If you are planning a leap of faith in getting your creative work out in the world, use structure and a plan to help you. This was you will know where you are going in some senses so that leap of faith in writing or creating something new and innovative is supported.

This image via pexels.com

A leap of faith and self-belief

Another key support in the process of taking a leap of faith is self-belief. As the Seven of Wands reminds, sometimes we need to fight for what we believe in. This might be fighting for time, space and attention to get our work done. It might be working through issues that arise or countering naysayers. Perhaps it is shoring up our sense of belief that our work is needed in the world. Sometimes “you have to fight yourself down too” as Jessa Crispin reminds us for this card in The Creative Tarot.

As you craft your creative projects and take a leap of faith, see how you can strengthen self-belief as a key ingredient. Like putting in some order and structure, strengthening our self-belief is another valuable support as take risks and leap into the unknown.

This image via pexels.com

Book notes: A leap of faith and the gift of surprise

Our capacity for surprise is often an unused blessing.

Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk

A leap of faith can also bring with it surprises. Staying open to the unexpected means we can make the most of any leaps of faith and their gifts. But we need to keep our eyes open and we need to keep our heart open as we move.

Mark Nepo highlights ‘The Gift of Surprise’ in his book ‘The Exquisite Risk’. Taking a leap of faith also implies we are letting go a little to see what comes. Whilst we might put some structure around our leaping, like a safety net, still we can move from the known to the unknown.

It might be putting down the first words of that novel that has been in your heart for years once you finally create a tentative outline. This structure helps you have the self-belief to be able to get those first words down, knowing they will go somewhere. And in that, the surprise of what appears can arrive. The seeds of ideas have the chance to grow.

How can you leap ahead with structure and surprise?

So how can you actively leap ahead, honouring both structure and surprise?

For me, these Tarot Narrative readings are a way of doing that each week. I have the basic structure of a tarot reading, a blog post, the tarot narrative work I have developed over time. But I never know what the message is or what I will write about until I do the intuitive work.

I’m working on my Jung/Myers-Briggs Personality Stories personality assessment and learning. I’ve had this plan in my head for over 18 months now. It’s new territory in many ways including for me as a new way of working. Recently, I’ve put my head down and created the container and structure. I’ve done the work and am now testing it with fellow creatives, coaches and Jung/Myers-Briggs professionals. The somewhat scary leap of faith in putting this work out into the world is next but the structure has helped me make that leap. Beginning to talk about it has brought some surprising linkages I hadn’t thought of and offers of help.

Tips for leaping ahead with structure and surprise

Some tips for leaping ahead with structure + surprise:

make a transition plan for where you want to be; that guide and safety net will help you move
create a plan for your creative project so you can make a start eg an outline, a timeline, a visual map
work with Instagram challenges that provide some structure but also some freedom. I am going to join in with Quiet Writing Wholehearted story author, Shalagh Hogan for her monthlong Creativity Challenge #OurCreativeJune this month. But any time on OG there are great challenges that provide structure while you provide the surprises!
go to an event you are interested in that breaks new ground for you – an Instameet, a conference – or message more directly an online creative whose work you feel a connection with.
go outside your comfort zone and natural preferences – if you usually do your social media lives outside, go inside and vice versa. See what arises for you! Go to an event if you are introvert. Stay inside and explore your creative thoughts more if you tend to want to go out a lot.

Thoughts for this week

Leaps of faith don’t have to be entirely without support. Use structure and order to help you. Shore up your self-belief so you feel strong inside and can counter any challenges. Value the element of surprise and new learning that comes from stepping outside your comfort zone.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how this message of taking a leap of faith with support and surprise resonates with you this week.

All best wishes for a week of going outside your comfort zones and stretching your creative projects and business. In the end, that’s the value fo being creative – enjoying the process and seeing what comes up for you – and for others.

May you find that a leap of faith can be an exciting way to progress your creativity and life passions. It also can be an important way to help others in their work through our example and what we create.

As Steve Pressfield reminds us on what of my favourite quotes of all time from ‘ The War of Art’:

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.

And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

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

You can work with me to help tap into that inner wisdom and magic guidance. Free 30-45 minute coaching consults chats are available so please get in touch at terri@quietwriting.com to talk further. I’d love to be a guide alongside to help you conduct creativity and magic with spirit and heart in your own unique way. And to help you ignite the psychological links in your passions!

You can download my free 94-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.

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Start work, ignite magic from your unique passions

May 21, 2018

If you’re waiting for divine inspiration, you might be waiting forever. Start the work and see what happens.

Jessa Crispin, The Creative Tarot for the Ace of Coins

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: start work + ignite magic from your unique passions

Theme for the week beginning 21 May

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards deck – #41 Seize the moment to creatively direct raw energy.

After last week’s message of retreating within especially to find approval, we are encouraged this week to get out of the gate. Just look at all that fire and strength in this gorgeous card! And the language: “seize the moment”, “raw energy”. After the regrouping of the oast week, it’s time to create and be outward in our work. The energy to start work we may have been planning or imagining is highlighted now.

Advice from the Life Design Cards Guidebook is:

Express your personality and create outward symbols of your inner state.

Today’s narrative, led by this theme card, encourages us to ignite our passions into action and start work. The moon phase also is in favour of this as we move from a yin to a yang state tomorrow.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 21 May

Tarot Narrative:

It’s time to ignite those passions into action. You have been feeling between worlds for a while now but having regrouped, start work. Whatever magic you have been imagining, whatever creativity you have been contemplating, shift into active work with it now. Just start, learning as you go. The pleasure of creating and learning will lead to mastery and expressing your unique passions in the world as only you can.

Cards: King of Wands and Ace of Coins from the Spolia Tarot and #3 Between Worlds from Wisdom of the Oracle. My first draw from the magic Spolia Tarot!

Start now to master passion and creativity

Last week we had the Knight of Wands focusing our attention on pursuing our passions and creative projects. But we were encouraged to hunker down a little and work out our direction and priorities. I know the last week has been a big one for me in working out my priorities. I’ve been concentrating on how to swim in my own lane and not to try to do everything at once. I had to spend some quiet time reflecting to make progress. Now I am clearer and this week is the time to start work.

Do you have ideas you are very passionate about that you have been putting off? Or have you been finding it hard to get to that one thing that is so important? The one that expresses your unique passions exactly? I know I have. It’s not been without good reason and there have been other competing priorities. But sometimes you just need to “seize the moment”, sit at the desk or go to the cafe and start work.

The King of Wands is all about the mastery of our passions and creativity, bringing together our take on our influences. As the Spolia Tarot Guidebook tells us for this King:

He is in command of his passions, but he is not at the mercy of them. He can always step back and determine what might be needed.

This spirit of moving ahead knowing you can make changes later is powerful. It helps us counteract the fear to even start work on what we treasure and value. Sometimes it can seem so precious or special, we never start. We are reminded this week that the ability to start work has a power and strength all of its own.

Seeds of action and first days

The Ace of Coins highlights the power of starting. The Spolia Tarot Guidebook says for this card:

The Ace of Coins is a seed. It is the first day of work on a project.

So this energy is all about seeds and planting energy into what we may have started thinking about a long time ago. Both the Ace and Between Worlds from the Wisdom of the Oracle emphasise that we may not know what the seed is or what it will grow into. It might even be different from what we anticipate. There’s an invitation to be curious and see what comes forth.

Last week we were encouraged to “gather our thoughts, make lists, mind-map, distil, make a plan, unravel, walk or free write can all be valuable ways to use this time of retreat.” I did a lot of that last week. It was very valuable and I learnt two things:

that I can’t do all that I want to do right away, and
which one is the most important now.

So I have begun to start work on what is the beginning of an exciting new offering. I made videos, I’ve been creating content and I know where I want to go with it. It’s all about personality so I love the synchronicity of the words from the Life Design Card:

Express your personality and create outward symbols of your inner state.

We are reminded we need to tend the seeds and work of our unique personality. Investing the care and energy, seizing the moment will yield power and strength we can learn from as we go.

This image via pexels.com

Book notes:

The King of Wands examines everything that sets him aflame and will find its psychological source. This understanding makes his passion sustainable, keeping him from burning out.

Jessa Crispin, The Creative Tarot

Today’s theme is all about how to fearlessly start work but it’s also about sustainable mastery of our passions. We can make many starts, but how do we combine our unique passions into something for the creative long-haul. I am grateful to everything that sets me alight and I love the link with psychological sources that The Creative Tarot mentions for the King of Wands.

The work that I made a big start in today is all about personality and psychological sources. It’s all about our cognitive preferences and what makes some things more natural than others. One of the major learnings for me over time has been about my personality and what makes it tick and honouring that. Valuing my intuition and my work with tarot and oracle cards as tools to tap into my intuition has been a huge part of that. I look forward to sharing my unique passions in these areas with the world.

So today I celebrate Jessa Crispin’s The Creative Tarot which has been something of a companion guide on this journey. I love that my first draw from Jessa’s gorgeous Spolia Tarot deck featured the King of Wands and the Ace of Coins. And reminded me again of the power to start work on our unique passions.

Start work on your unique passions

So where can you start work on your unique passions? Journal or reflect on these questions to ignite the flame of your creativity. Reflect on the Spolia King of Wands image as you do – look at that flame!

What seeds can you plant now, even if you do not know what they will grow into?
If you did retreat a little, hermit style, last week, what did you learn from that?
How do your unique passions come together?
What is their psychological source or link?
What is the thread that weaves through your passions?
How can you start now and how can this passion be sustainable over time?
How can you move wisely, step by step, not rushing to do all the things at once?
What might anchor you as you start?
How can you avoid burning out as you ignite and combine your various passions?

The Between Worlds card suggests “It’s a good time to bet on your skills and talents in new and different arenas.” What might these be?

If we don’t start work, we will never know.

How might you start work? You will know your own ways to do this but here are a few ideas:

step out of your comfort zone and do the thing that you have been putting off or that scares you
write the outline of the book, blog post or course you want to offer to the world
begin the first draft
get out the paints or pencils and see what emerges
reach out and make connections where you see some synergy
make time in your schedule this week for your number one priority
set a goal to start work and achieve a critical milestone this week
align action better with your priorities

Thoughts for this week

Making the start work in various ways is highlighted this week. It’s time to plant the seed, seize the day, make hay, write words, bring your passions into being in the world as only you can. The sooner you start work and plant the seed, the sooner those strong roots can grow.

These words are a great accompaniment for the energies of this week:

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it,
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated, —
Begin it, and the work will be completed!”

John Anster, 1835, inspired by a passage in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Faust”.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to how this message of being in action and finding a way to start work on the union of your unique passions resonates with you this week.

All best wishes for a week of igniting magic and connecting the sources of your work.

May you find joy in finding new ways for your talents and passions to connect and find a voice. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

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

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.

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Endurance – going the distance with truth, patience and strength

March 26, 2018

Remain true to yourself. Your authenticity alone will keep you in alignment with the energy of miracles.

Colette Baron-Reid, Wisdom of the Oracle – #47 Go the Distance

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: endurance, going the distance with truth, patience + strength

Theme for the week beginning 26 March

The underlying theme for this week to guide our overall focus is from Lisa McLoughlin’s Life Design Cards – #47 Resist coercions of your culture.

This week is about being authentic and true to ourselves and others. It’s about the freedom of standing our ground and working from the truth of our heart.

Advice from the Guidebook is:

With a loyalty to truth, say what you see, regardless of the consequences. Stand firm when your freedom is challenged by direct coercion or insidious persuasion.

This reminds me of Brigit’s message, ‘Don’t Back Down’. Brigit is my guiding goddess for life. She sits on my desk here, as she has for quite a while, with her message of staying strong. “Stand up for what you believe is right.”

This week’s guidance is about endurance and going the distance. It’s wrapped around a core of strength in truth, authenticity and patiently pursuing our goals. How do we know what’s worth enduring for? This is a key underpinning theme this week. Staying strong for ourselves, for what matters and what we believe in is highlighted. It’s worth persevering and going the distance for what we believe is right. In this, we can resist tendencies to conform, to worry about being different and to give up when under pressure.

Tarot Narrative for the week beginning 26 March

Tarot Narrative:

You can go the distance with whatever is challenging you now. It might feel daunting or endless, but know you have the strength and endurance for the long haul. Whether it’s creative projects, relationships or other life challenges, know that this strength is about authenticity, being true to yourself, receptivity and above all, patience. Open your heart, dance and be in touch with your intuition as you make your path.

Reading notes:

Cards: Strength and Page of Water (Cups) from The Good Tarot and #47 Go the Distance from Wisdom of the Oracle.

Book notes:

Then there are times when we need Strength, which is getting what we want by standing perfectly still, by being open and by daring to be vulnerable. We want the lion to come and sit in our lap, and so we will sit very quietly and wait for it. We can’t overpower it, we can’t force it to do what we want, so we will sit here patiently, calmly until the lion feels safe enough to approach.

Jessa Crispin, The Creative Tarot (p58)

I’ve written before about the endurance of quiet strength. This sort of strength is not brute strength, it’s a patient, waiting, developing over time kind of strength.

It’s the type of endurance you need to write a book, to parent, to see a much-desired project through and to counter resistance in all of this. Battling things head-on doesn’t always work. Sometimes it’s about being receptive, knowing when to wait and being patient.

The ‘Going the Distance’ card energies were exactly mirrored in the Strength card. Note too that both the Life Design card about resisting coercions of culture and the Wisdom of the Oracle ‘Going the Distance’ card are both number 47. Such synchronicity!

So in this reading, I see connections between going the distance and being true and authentic to ourselves and what we believe in. I see connections too between endurance and a receptive kind of patience. It’s all about staying the course, finding a way through and waiting when the time is not right to move.

In my writing for long-haul projects, I have found that sometimes I just need to wait until more information comes on board. I don’t always realise at the time. But later I can see that I had to wait, go the distance, be receptive rather than act for a while. This can apply to many aspects of life as we wait for the right time.

The gifts of patient endurance

Patient endurance is inspired by the authentic truth of what we believe in. This fortifies us and gives us stamina for the journey. It enables us to sit back and gather ourselves, research, wait for information to come to us, be intuitive.

This is a yin kind of strength just like yin yoga strengthens us through holding poses quietly for a time and breathing into them. We can feel our bodies become more resilient as we stretch gently over time.

Just like this we too can become more resilient as we quietly practice endurance built around the spine of our authenticity and truth.

Keats comes to mind too with his ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, that great poem to stillness and waiting:

Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,

Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

He reminds us at the end of this ode to quiet strength:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Throughout this reading, the spine of truth, waiting for truth and authenticity and believing in it, breathes through. Whether it be campaigning for what we believe in, writing our truth, trying to get to the bottom of something, waiting for others or having the persistence to carry on.

Endurance through quiet strength

It’s all about finding our way to endure through patience, receptivity and quiet, resilient strength.

Reflecting on ways to build quiet strength is a valuable practice at this time. This might include:

reading and researching more to understand
breathing exercises and finding ways to create rhythm in our days
yin yoga and other practices that help us with core quiet strength
writing, journaling, morning pages – whatever we call it, to help us anchor in quiet moments
intuitive work to sharpen our noticing and ability to make connections
exercise to enact building endurance over time.
allowing others space and time to come to us
being playful and opening up to childlike innocence (Page of Water)

We are encouraged to be a bit more playful with it all when we can and dancing helps too. As Vivian Greene reminds us:

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.

This is a great week for uncovering endurance through the authenticity of what makes you come alive and keeps you going! Regardless of what is coming at you, learn to dance in the rain of circumstance.

Love to hear your thoughts!

I’d love to hear if you are feeling these energies around endurance through quiet strength, truth, patience and authenticity.

All best wishes for this week of endurance through realising your truth. And dancing in the rain.

May the lion of quiet strength and Brigit guide you to gentle, receptive endurance whatever the weather. And let me know what you think of this post and this weekly Tarot Narrative!

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

You can work with me to help tap into that inner wisdom and magic guidance. Free 30-45 minute coaching consults chats are available in March + April for a May coaching start so please get in touch at terri@quietwriting.com to talk further. I’d love to be a guide alongside to help you conduct creativity and magic with spirit and heart in your own unique way.

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.

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Transforming into the new – Capricorn Full Moon tarot reading

July 10, 2017

“We surrender our old snakeskin, old forms and institutions and await our transformation and expansion into the ‘new’.”

Pat Liles, from The Power Path

The Capricorn Full Moon invites a practical transforming of our lives. This tarot reading reflects on how we can enact and be comfortable with this change.

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

FULL MOON* coming into bloom in Capricorn brings core issues to the forefront of our consciousness. This is a time to strengthen personal boundaries and time to honor our feelings as we carefully navigate the delicate shores of our relationships.

This Full Moon has powerful energies for valuable insights about transforming ourselves. It’s time to tap into our personal story to find the way forward.

Chad Woodward says:

Distance and solitude may be your best tactic in dealing with these energies. In fact, this is a good time to step away from any developing, external drama to assess your own life position to gain insight into the changes that need to be made at this time..”

It’s a big picture shift. There’s an emphasis on understanding our story and the threads that connect it at a deep level. This Capricorn New Moon provides an opportunity to set intentions around creative and life practices that will help us break through, especially self-discipline.

It’s a time to ground ourselves through supports such as community. This practical restructuring is an opportunity to move into new ways of being and feeling less hamstrung. In this way, we can be more comfortable and authentic in new levels of work, service and creativity. It signals the opportunity to shed what no longer serves us in a dramatic way.

Full Moon in Capricorn tarot reading tools:

For my reading for the Capricorn Full Moon, I worked with:

This FULL Moon tarot spread by Sam Roberts aka @escapingstars on Instagram:

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:

So here’s the reading:

There was definitely a big smile of recognition as the Three of Coins (Pentacles) arrived first up in the “Where are you in life right now?” position. I had already pulled this card earlier the same day as part of my daily Tarot Narrative reading and linked it with creative solitude. And it’s the card that featured in my launch of Quiet Writing Coaching as the beautiful Three of Air. Remember the butterfly glasses? It was linked to building a solid foundation and co-creation. ‘The architecture of my dreams is becoming tangible, taking shape before me’ as The Good Tarot puts it.

STRENGTH has also popped up a lot lately, three times in a row the week before. So strength, and how we recognise it in our lives, jumps out as a key theme.

Then there are the big cards of DEATH and THE WORLD – some huge transformational energies and directions there! The NINE of COINS and KNIGHT of CUPS also provide clues around realising dreams and recognising gains already made. They provide guidance about being comfortable and pragmatic with these next steps of change.

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, the Sakki Sakki tarot guidebook Playing with Symbols, Jessa Crispin’s fabulous book The Creative Tarot and Rachel Pollack’s Tarot Wisdom.

1 Where are you in life right now? THREE OF COINS (PENTACLES)

This signals a level of reaching a special place whilst still building the foundations and working out the creative architecture. I have written about this card in my Tarot Narrative series as like building a cathedral, an image drawn from both Jessa Crispin’s commentary in Creative Tarot and Sage Cohen’s book, Fierce on the Page.

There’s a sense of laying the foundations, connecting the critical pieces and combining the essential ingredients to do our big work in the world. It’s about restructuring our practices and priorities to achieve what we want. We’re investing time and solitude to work out the collaborators, the values and the skills. As Rachel Pollack reinforces in Tarot Wisdom:

Thus, practical knowledge and spiritual awareness help to produce work of the highest level.

So, this card reminds me that I’m in a good place and working on my deep work in the world.

2 How do you project yourself to the world? What is the truth of your relationships in your life? STRENGTH

My sense of this card is around realising our own brand of strength. Strength flows from so many places: our inner resources, our family, our friends, our community, our online connections, the kindred souls we connect with each day, our ancestors, our guides, our mentors, our teachers. All of these resources combine to help us forge our way. We can focus on the lack of strength we occasionally feel, but we can also draw on these immense resources and feel strong for the transformation journey.

Part of this is realising and embracing our vulnerabilities as well. They make us authentic and strong in our own way – our learnings, our challenges and our resilience.

As Monicka Clio Sakki reminds us for the Strength card:

Inside our soft spots, where we hold our greatest weaknesses, confusions and fears, we can find hints of how to transform ourselves and manifest our ideals.

So being strong involves being grateful for and marshalling significant support and resources. It also involves embracing vulnerabilities as a source of growth, communication and authenticity.

3 What is blocking your desires and goals? KNIGHT of CUPS

The Knight of Cups arrives with his gorgeous romantic nature to remind me to be grounded and to balance self and service. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in our own work. It’s important to remember the gift of practical service and translating things into the real world. I need to make sure I am connected.

An excellent article, Bridging the online business and humanitarian worlds from life coach and human rights activist, Naomi Arnold, popped into my Twitter feed today to say exactly this:

I hope we can stand firm in our integrity and always be mindful of how we are balancing serving ourselves and others.

And Jessa Crispin reminds us:

Whatever the inspiration or connection the Knight of Cups carries, if he or she cannot translate that into something that can exist in the real world, it loses its power.

4 What do you need to do to overcome these obstacles? NINE of COINS

The Nine of Coins suggests the need to realise gains, celebrate and recognise the riches. It’s important to operate from an environment of abundance not lack and to know our worth.

Ironically perhaps, one of the best ways to overcome the obstacles of being focused on the self is to realise the successes and what comes with that. Having reached a certain point of comfort with strengths realised and foundations built, there’s pride and also a responsibility. And with this comes a sense of moving on with the work and not concentrating on the paths to get there so much.

We can stop the machinations and get on with practical and genuine service, stepping into our power and sharing it. It’s about knowing our true worth in every sense and tapping into that to be of service through our creativity and insights. It’s a higher level view we can now shift to.

5 What can you do within yourself in order to help achieve these desires? DEATH

Finally committing to transforming means looking at what no longer serves to supports this higher purpose. Whether it be old habits, contexts, institutions, self-images or patterns, this is the opportunity to shift up a gear and beyond what might hold us back. If we are moving on, we are moving on. It’s time to get real with that and throw overboard any heavy weights keeping us slowed down.

As Jessa Crispin puts it so beautifully:

Death allows us to bid farewell to the way we were working or living before, and that change can have great inspirational impact on us.

6 What can you learn from the outside world/others to help you manifest your goals/desires? KING of SWORDS

In line with that grounding of being in service and community, it’s important to be disciplined and focused in meeting the needs of others. I need my ideas to coalesce with others, forming a connection in creativity.

There’s so much strength in community and support of all kinds as the STRENGTH card showed. It’s seeing how we can work together to achieve mutual goals. This also might mean opening up our work and platform to others.

This is exactly what I started doing last week with offering an opportunity for guest blogging on Quiet Writing via my Creative and Connected post. It’s the first time I have opened up my blog and platform in this way. I have been so excited to make the offer and for the heartfelt responses that have come forward. This shows me that our work is about collaboration in so many ways and our collective voices can strengthen each other.

The whole philosophy of being creative and connected has become a driving force for Quiet Writing. I am so looking forward to this being an ongoing, bigger and transforming part of its focus and service. I hope you’ll be a part of it!

7 The projected outcome? The WORLD

A lot of the messages I’ve received lately via tarot and oracle intuitive tools have been about the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. This card shows a culmination step, a pause in gathering and reflecting, but also one of mastery and self-actualisation. It’s really happening! It’s time to shine!

As Monicka Clio Sakki tells us:

The World represents the last step of the journey – the completion of a full cycle. We have traveled along our worldly path with discipline and devotion, joyously gathering the lessons and gifts given to us. We are now ready to dance our own Dance of Life, understanding that true freedom is commitment to a cause or goal. It is time to be whoever we wish to become.

That balance between self and service arises here again to remind us that we go through cycles of personal growth. We withdraw and skill up, working on our intuition, creativity or other talents. Then comes a time to see how this links with practical service and being of value to others. The learnings from our journey with all its vulnerabilities can be shared to help others likewise shine, share and transform. It becomes a kind of collective transformation that gathers strength from its community and moves in new directions, taking an organic life of its own.

Ways to step into the new

So are your thoughts also around transforming and stepping into the new: comfortably, practically and with a balance between self and service?

Here are some practical questions prompted by the Capricorn Full Moon and reflections on my reading.They are around realising our own brand of strength, our progress and steps into the new. They also focus on being comfortable with this so we can move on and foster increased community and value.

Journal, reflect or brainstorm around these questions to help maximise your personal change management at this time:

Where have you been working to build strong foundations in your work and growth?
What have you achieved?: What skills or products have you developed? Which courses have you finished? Which goals have you reached?
How have you celebrated or marked your achievements?
Where are you potentially focusing on self too much or at the expense of service?
When are you being a little too self-indulgent and it’s maybe not helping?
Where can you extend any significant change and learning processes to others?
What vulnerabilities might you share to help others on their journey and how might you do that?
What are the sources of your strength – people, skills, guides, spiritual support – and how can you strengthen these strengths?
Where can you connect up with others in service? How can you share your platform or skills to support and foster the growth of others?
Where can you choose to feel more comfortable with what you have achieved?
What creative practices can you put in place to lead a more self-disciplined life?
Which negative self-images or associations can you now let go of as you move on?
What can you build? What’s the blueprint for your big plan?
What does this new world look like for you and others?

Wisdom from The World

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

May you build your new world on strong foundations with the help of those who can support and strengthen you. And through that, may you be of service to others and have a fun and productive learning experience!

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

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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

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:

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