Tarot Meditation Card for Today - Osho Zen Major Arcana - Conditioning (15)

"This card recalls an old Zen story, about a lion who was brought up by sheep and who thought he was a sheep until an old lion captured him and took him to a pond, where he showed him his own reflection.  Many of us are like this lion - the image we have of ourselves comes not from our own direct experience but from the opinion of others.  A 'personality' imposed from the outside replaces the individuality that could have grown from within." (Osho Zen handbook, 32).

Whenever I draw this card or a client draws this card, I and they must look at all the aspects of our lives that do not reflect who we truly are or want to be.  I have been writing quite a bit about a spiritual/mental break that occurred to me almost a year ago to the date (8/29).  I was thrown into a state of chronic anxiety that I am still managing with greater and greater success each day.  I drew this card in a reading the next day while in the depths of the initial attack.  It is fitting that I would draw it again so close to the anniversary of my deep shift.  Who I was before that day and who I am now and still becoming feel very much like the image of this card.  I accepted and embraced many roles that did not suit me, especially the one of husband, and surprisingly, the one of academic/professor (a role I thought I prized above all others).  The transition to my truest self is still unfolding and really began when I initiated my separation in 2002.

I can image now what it must be like for the lion in the story to have to learn to be a lion and let go of all things sheep.  It is also no coincidence that the animal images involved are the lion and the sheep.  If you were to draw this card or it resonates with you at a deep level as you look at and read this blog, then think of all the things in your life you are still doing sheep-like that need to be cast off so you an have more time for your true lion-hood!  There is even a fantastic book I found in the used bookstore that reflects the depth of this card; I recommend you put a copy in your personal library: Facing the Lion, Being the Lion: Finding Inner Courage Where It Lives by Mark Nepo.

We must all act authentically.  The universe, this world, your community does not need duplicates or clones.  Isn't it interesting that only the simplest of life forms reproduce by cloning, while the more complex develop by means of increased difference.  Even twins do not occupy the same space and time in life and thus develop their similarities differently, uniquely.  We may all be part of a great "Oneness," but in the three dimensional, linear time existence we are all enjoying, we do so to explore and express our authenticity and individuality.  I like to call it finding my Zen.  My Zen is to teach and to help others along or find the start to their authentic paths, which I found I could not do as well in a University as I can reading Astrology charts and Tarot cards.