2 Aug 2018: Strength

 Card of the Month as in Please Give Us. I actually drew this card on the 25th of June, but before I could write about it my long-suffering 2012 Macbook Pro finally, after the latest OS update, heaved and died. I’m afraid there was no more we could do. I’m glad the old girl is free from pain. Her missing-teeth broken keys, her revving and grinding too loud to record anything for months anyway,  her heating up the whole damn house, she just couldn’t take one more f****** update. RIP, we had a good run.

Sun and Moon in Virgo, of course I’m backed up.

Although I haven’t in a long time, on a good night I shoot a mean game of pool, or billiards, if you like. Many years as a touring musician with no money and a lot of downtime in between soundcheck and doors gave me many opportunities to work on my eye-hand coordination and win many free beers.

I imagine the current clusterf*** that is our solar system as planets on a pool table. Call it barroom astrology if you want, but sometimes you have a sweet angle and it’s all symmetrical and a straight bank into the pocket you CALLED, and sometimes you look down and shake your head at the antipodal orbs and the vast green space between them and realize there’s nothing you can do but point and shoot and hope for the best, and if the planets align, maybe sink a lucky shot (you didn’t call the pocket but what the hell, we’re friends, nice one).

But when the opposing planets (solids) get in the way of the happy planets (stripes) we have all kinds of problems, all kinds of weird angles, all kinds of potential to sink the wrong ball or make an ill-considered, wild shot, lose the 8 or the cue, and the game altogether.

Simmer down.

So it’s been a week of updating and going through old files on the old 2011 Acer, and the rest seems to have done her good. Quiet, cool, and only 1 key missing.

If there’s anything more appropriate for a Mercury/Mars retrograde, this is it…and it’s actually been very inspiring. A couple of old programs I miss, and of course bits and pieces of things started or forgotten – some worth dusting off, some not.

Strength is a patient, quiet card, and very Leo, whose hot, sunny influence we’re under right now (more fire, anyone?). But this is all about controlling fire. We see a woman who just to  look at could lower your body temperature, she’s so cool. Her expression is calm and she wears fresh flowers in her hair and a gracefully flowing gown as she somehow manages to easily tame a potentially dangerous lion seated beside her, gently closing its snarling jaws. Soothing voice, soothing hands. Even her surroundings are ‘cool’: palm trees, green mountains (Morgan-Greer).

Those familiar with the Cards of Destiny (Robert Camp) which is a system I refer to in a lot of readings recognize the 52 days before your bEarthDay as the Neptune period, influenced by that oceanic God of everything watery, dreamy and foggy. I love this period of my year as it does coincide with the surreal, foggy monsoons, and except for the potential element of illusion or deception (try not to sign anything legal until Neptune takes off your rose-colored glasses after your b-day) I love ‘diving in’ until then.

And so I shall.

This retrograde is perfect for what I need to do right now, seriously finish up work by Fall. Since you’re probably going to feel like you’re slogging through mud anyway, may as well re-do, re-build, re-sort, re-think, re-lax, re-read, re-visit, re-write, re-do.

 

Re-hearse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

24 July 18: Eight of Cups

The well’s gone dry. This sad card of disillusionment is associated with Saturn, the heavy, serious planet of restrictions or limitations and the flowy, dreamy water sign of Pisces who is all about emotions as are the other water signs Cancer & Scorpio, all   represented by the suit of Cups or Hearts in a regular deck.

This is an emotionally unfulfilling or limiting situation. I feel for this guy, he had some big dreams but for some reason it’s just not happening here for him. Looks like he picked the wrong location, or has simply outgrown it.

We are shown a human walking along a rough shore under a waning moon. It is a mysterious picture, only a hood and long red cloak blowing behind him or her as they  make their way along the rough terrain of a rocky shore following what looks like a beautiful blue river that eventually opens up into the ocean.

He leaves behind 8 gold cups, stacked unevenly on a dry, brown strip of land. 8 is an even number, he had it all figured out, yet they’re odd and empty. It’s not right. Even if he manages to complete his matching set of gorgeous gold goblets they will never stack up evenly. He can see that now, and even if they did stack up evenly, and even if he did find 2 more gold cups , there’s nothing to fill them with where he’s at.

The cups sit on what today to me looks like a receding shoreline. A thin, blue-green bit of water we can barely see in the lower right corner of the card (Morgan-Greer) ripples slightly and we see a dry, brown beach.

Empty cups are as useless as loveless hearts, and our scarlet-caped hero is taking his or her passions elsewhere – what little he has left.

This may have been at one time a drive, a dream, but now the well is dry and there is no more love – for something he once loved very much.  Maybe he’s retiring somewhere else, or even running off with someone and leaving a whole lot behind that doesn’t seem so important anymore. Who needs 10 empty cups in the end?  Maybe he’s been made a job offer that won’t restrict him and that will be emotionally and spiritually more satisfying, where he can reach his full potential…’water’ him enough for him to really ‘bloom’.

A new path altogether, a renaissance or rebirth in retirement.

Disappointment. It all meant so much, and seemed so important at the time – for possibly a very long time.

Gotta ramble, babe, I’m meant for bigger things. 

..or they’re just telling me to head back up to the lake for a nice cool hike, it’s hot as f***.  The cups sitting on the beach on this card remind me of the boat slips sitting on the dry ground off the marina, the water is so low.

 

23 July 18: Eight of Coins, reversed

Get back to work.

The earthly, practical suit of Coins/Pentacles is only interested in practical matters, and in this case we’re taking about our work, craft, or education.

This card shows us a human at a workbench, head down, intensely working on carving gold discs (Morgan-Greer). There is a whole wall of completed discs behind him, so he’s obviously been working long and hard to knock these things out – but this card is  not so much about ‘knocking things out’ as it is about perfecting a skill – staying at it until you’re the best, making each disc finer than the one before. This card can mean an apprenticeship or possibly working for less money than you’d like, but you’re learning so much on the job from the people you’re working for or with that it’s well worth it. The power of the number 8 gives us strength and drive. We have a goal and we’re going for it.

There may be a deadline here and our dedicated worker may be pulling another overnighter to get ‘er done. Wow, you finished all those already? He doesn’t hear you, his head is down and he’s working away.

Reversed, the work is suffering. Now we’re almost back to the 7, the card of re-assessment, the ‘is it all worth it?’ card. With the 8, it most certainly is worth it, but something is blocking us. Could be day to day mundane, petty annoyances or even people keeping us from what we’re trying to achieve.

The devil is in the details, and we may be working inefficiently. Too slow, too fast, too many hours or not enough so that the quality of our work is slipping. The 8 wants a strong, even flow – steady and consistent – and that’s not happening here.  The thrill is gone. The care, the commitment. The discipline, the drive.  Somebody’s dropping the ball, apparently.

This could be someone at a computer desk putting in overly long hours to the point of burnout only to fall asleep on the keyboard and delete it all anyway. The suit of Earth (Virgo/Capricorn/Taurus) is all about the physical body which needs to be regulated and well maintained to be productive.

Our friend has lost his passion for his occupation. He thought he’d love it, or used to love it, but is now finding out it’s a lot more work than he thought it would be. He’s tired.

This could even be someone working for you in some sort of capacity, maybe a carpenter or someone doing some construction on your house and they’re doing an inferior job and/or taking way too long.

Back to the 7 – stand back and re-assess.

 

 

 

21 July 18: Ten of Cups

Love, joy, and contentment. As good as it gets. The suit of Cups, of course, represents us as emotional beings and correspond with the suit of Hearts in your poker deck. Feelings, nothing more than feelings – warm and fuzzy, happy, life-loving feelings.

Traditionally this image is of a couple with 2 happy little children dancing in a green field in front of a lovely home we assume is theirs (they always reminds me of ‘The Sound of Music’). They stand with their arms around each other marveling at their beautiful home and family knowing they are truly blessed as a rainbow and ten gold cups or chalices arch over the entire scene. Idyllic.

On the Morgan-Greer card the rainbow is the star of the show. With many more colors than on the older versions of the card, it’s brightly colored and arches out of the sky  ending up in a single large gold chalice held up by the two strong arms who reach into the picture from either side. There is no beautiful house but instead a calm, peaceful lake surrounded by peaceful green hills and trees. We see no one else in the scene but these two anonymous people who, together, catch the rainbow in their cup. 9 more golden goblets float in the sky (9 of Cups is often called ‘The Wish Card’) and it seems whoever these 2 people are they have found perfect peace and contentment in each other.

The rainbow became the official symbol of the Gay Community in 1978 when (tragically assassinated) openly gay San Francisco Mayor Harvey Milk commissioned an official flag to be designed by Viet Nam Vet and drag queen Gilbert Baker.

The Morgan-Greer deck was ‘illustrated by Bill Greer under the direction of Lloyd Morgan’ in the 70’s, but it has been noted that when U.S Games Systems published the deck they left Morgan’s name off.  Don’t know about this and curiously, can’t find a hell of a lot of information on either of them except a book on 20th Century Design by Bill Greer (feel free to school me).

So of course if there’s a mystery or unsolved crime I’m all off into it, and these arms on this heavenly, beautiful, happy, peaceful, loving 10 belong to – whom? Both strong, we can see that, one slightly more muscled than the other and wearing a red armband – meaning passion and masculine energy – and one arm wears a pale sleeve edged with pearls.

Do they belong to the creators of the deck? No nice house, no 2.0 children, just sharing and celebrating life together on the shore of a nice lake under a beautiful rainbow with the world all to themselves. May the moment last forever.

No matter who they are, they obviously have found complete happiness in each other and nothing and no one else matters.

10 = 1 + 0 = 1.

 

It’s inspiring.

 

 

20 July 18: The High Priestess & The Queen of Cups

I hear a voice. Not one but two very psychic, intuitive characters – one on this plane and one, well, not necessarily visible to the naked eye.

This is the emotional, compassionate Queen of Cups at her best. Of the emotional suit of water (Pisces/Scorpio/Cancer) she is gentle and understanding. Poetry in motion, she is a ‘safe harbor’ to others and holds her gold cup up in front of her as if to catch your tears should you need a shoulder to cry on – or her own, as she can be moved to tears easily. She is blonde and wears an unusual crown of seashells and pearls and pulls it off with style. She’s artistic, quirky, and writes down her dreams and premonitions.

The High Priestess of the Major Arcana is seated on her throne with a crescent moon as her footstool and another as her crown and holds a mysterious scroll in her lap. What secrets, what knowledge does she hold? Like her Greek alter ego the Goddess Persephone who was abducted and stolen off down to the Underworld by a horny Devil, she is able to regularly move between two worlds and does with ease. It’s seasonal, she summers down there and winters up here – or the other way around – in accordance with some kind of arrangement with Persephone’s mom, the Goddess Demeter, who didn’t approve of the relationship at all. Oh hell no.

So The High Priestess knows something – everything –  we don’t. She is the inner voice, the subconscious. She wants you to seek the truth. 

Well what can I say. For some reason for the last day or so I’ve had documentaries running nonstop on YOUTUBE as I putter around and I’m really stuck on the Princess Diana ‘accident’ so I think the ‘room is tuned’ as it were.

Princess Diana was a Cancer herself, and the Queen of Cups of the Morgan-Greer deck actually looks like her.

Famously predicting her own death, down to the how and who, it’s way beyond conspiracy.

Her birthday month is this month and next month is the anniversary of her death and  these cards together aren’t subtle. She knew the Queen’s secrets and had to go, ‘done and dusted’.

 

 

I wouldn’t fuck with that old lady, she’d have me dead by teatime.

 

 

 

19 July 18: Three of Coins & Four of Coins

Pooling talents and resources. An uneasy combination, but a good one. Of course when we talk about Coins we’re talking about Earth and the material world (Virgo/Capricorn/Taurus), aka money. One of these two has a lot of it, the other may be working for very little of it.

The 3 of Coins is all about teamwork and collaboration in the physical world to create something of lasting value or to ‘make your mark’ as this stonemason is doing under the red diffused glow of the  stained glass window of a church. Unlike the traditional card which usually shows a team meeting –  2 monks consulting over a scroll with an architect or stonemason – the Morgan-Greer deck and other more modern decks show only one human on the card working away with a chisel on in a stone and stained-glass building   obviously not built by any one man in any one lifetime, so he continues or finishes the work of others – yet is still considered part of an elite ‘team’ who take a great deal of pride in what they do, and probably for not much money. In fact, artists in olden tymes often had no choice but to slave over church commissions…literally.

I decided to check with Dali’s deck to get his take on it. He shows us a bearded, colorful figure holding a book wearing what looks like a Christmas wreath on his head with a city in a tree growing out of his ass.

Well that’s clear.

The 4 of Coins is all about saving, stability and security. To a fault, some might say, but this miserly looking person clutching at 4 large gold coins so tightly he looks like he has cramps is no fool. No fun, maybe, but no fool. I notice with the cards side by side the stone wall of the castle or chateau of the ‘miser’ of the 4 is made of the same stone the stonemason is carving on the 3. So it is interesting that these 2 cards basically form the same image as the single 3 does in older decks: the worker and the boss(es). But there is  respect and cooperation here, each need the others’ skills – or money, and recognize the value in the collaboration.

If these two aren’t a team already, they certainly should be – but, like the image on the olde tyme cards, this is also more of an investor/worker relationship, or a commission of some kind.

As a team they would add up to 7, a rather unstable number that requires a lot of faith in any mutual undertaking. They both believe in what they’re doing even if nobody else does.

A loan for home improvement could also be forthcoming, or someone may be doing some fixing-up or restoration themselves to save money or even building their own beautiful home meant for generations to come (the 10 of Coins).

This is about considering partnerships in long-term investments, finances and general sustainability. ‘Art’ people and ‘money’ people don’t always see eye to eye, but this looks like these two could be on the same page. We see bright yellow sky on both cards, but neither character is out in it. The 3 has his head down in the dark intensely focused on what’s he’s doing and the 4 has his back to the yellow sky outside the castle wall and the world altogether, so concerned is he with holding on to his money. It looks like they may even live in the same stone mansion, but not as equals – yet both work for the same ‘team’ or ‘house’.

I hope the worker/artisan is being paid fairly for what he does and not being ripped off or taken advantage of.

 

Cheap f******.

 

 

18 July 18: Temperance & Ace of Wands

Let’s talk about sex even though I know you’d both rather discuss taxes, dental work or traffic conditions. Do we have to talk about this? Yes, it seems you do. Somebody sure does. Oh no. Not the ‘what is this relationship?’ conversation…

I drew Temperance, the card of time, patience, and balance. Simmer down, says Temperance, here in the form of a rather stern angelic winged being pouring liquid steadily and slowly between two gold cups. Back and forth, back and forth. Taking the time to get it right. This card is all about controlling emotions, not losing your cool, keeping it together. This could be an inner dialogue or a calm, careful conversation or communication. It’s a good thing this is a Major Arcana, a strong card, because there’s a lot of fire here: Sagittarius is associated with this card, its element Fire. For all we know there could be gasoline in those cups, liable to explode if not handled with care.

So what is it talking/warning us about today?

I drew the extremely flammable Ace of Wands, or, as it is also universally known, the Boner Card, also of the Fire suits (Sagittarius/Aries/Leo).  The Universal SkyHand once again reaches down through the clouds to present us with a straight, strong staff sprouting with new leaves. This card has so much passion, so much desire it would spontaneously combust right now if not for Temperance.

So: is it water or gasoline? This is a gift, as all Aces are – whether you want it or not. Heaven knows boners are miraculous mysteries and many museums, parks, shrines and works of art pay homage. Rightfully so.

Looks like self-control is in order here no matter what the situation.

I like these two together. The fiery hot-to-trot Ace is a strong, inspiring card giving us passion and drive. The ever-mindful angel of Temperance gives us control over our emotions and reminds us to be patient and wait until the time is right.

Maybe things – or you – had to ‘simmer’ down before starting over, but you’re rarin’ to go now.

This could be any new passion or project that may take some time – or the realities of what’s involved as far as time and sustained effort may threaten to ‘dampen’ your ‘fire’, but don’t let it.

The time is right for this new start, but will call for a lot of communication and cooperation.

 

Or: it could take some time to put out all these California fires, and you can bet there will be a new one.