Tarot Meditation Card for the Day - Osho Zen Tarot - Ace of Water, Going With the Flow

The Ace of Water is always a positive card to draw, even if executing the message is difficult

This card is difficult in its simplicity because we often do not want to accept certain flows of emotion, especially if a situation calls for us to let go of and emotional situation that is obviously flowing away from us.  Drawing this card at this time in my life is profound because I have been battling anxiety that arises from my constant worries about the state of the world.  You would think that, as a child of the 80s, and thus a child living at the peak of the cold war and the constant threat of nuclear annihilation, that I would have used up my worry quotient a long time ago.  There was no movie quite as frightening as Wargames even though it was a story told mostly as a comedy.

Little did I know or could I know what real worry feels like until I became a parent.  And now, I would have to say, this time is different.  At no point in human history have we actually come close to having a profound negative impact on the entire biosphere, but we are reaching that point.  And for all my Zen studies and "trust the universe" spirituality, I have been acutely attuned to  the out of control behavior of our species at a truly global level.  I am, to say the least, having some trouble going with the flow when it looks like the flushing of a toilet.  But, if it is ... the flushing of a toilet ... then I need to get on board with the flow and try to enjoy the swirl.  More to the point this card asks us to look at how we placed ourselves in life.  I, for example, did not choose to be a policy decision maker, either as a corporate CEO or politically elected official.  I have no designs on the White House or even Mayor of a small town.  I will be buffeted by decisions out of my control because, spiritually speaking, I didn't come here to make the effort to play at that level.

When I sit with that knowledge, I begin to see more clearly the real flow of my life, as a father, a teacher, a counselor (through Astrology and Tarot), a partner, a son, and a friend.  Drawing this card tells me not only to go with the flow, but to go with my flow and I like my flow very much.  When or if a flush comes, I'll adjust my flow, but trying to satisfy worry over the untold future really is a pointless endeavor.  Find your flow and go with it!

Tarot Meditation Card for the Day - Osho Zen Tarot - Ace of Rainbows, Maturity

I am glad I drew the Ace of Rainbows, Maturity, today.  The card is beautifully positive.

"The distinction between the grasses and the blossoms is the same as between you not knowing that you are a Buddha, and the  moment you know that you are a Buddha.  In fact, there is no other way to be otherwise.  Buddha is completely blossomed, fully opened.  His or her lotuses and petals have come to completion ..." (159).  Interestingly, in the Osho Zen Tarot, the Ace comes at the end of the sequence, not the beginning.  When you draw this card you are asked to think of all the completions you have attained at this time in your life and how they have blossomed.

Specifically, for me, I relate the card to my journey in education.  In 1996 I earned my PhD in English from UNC-Greensboro and began a career that spanned 11 years and, apparently, concluded in 2007 when I retired from UNC.  In the three years since, and actually two years before my retirement (2005), for a total of five years, I have not taught in a university setting.  I had considered that my teaching career in that venue was likely finished.  However, about six months ago I decided to dust off my Vita and polish it up in an attempt to look for a teaching position.  I knew, without a doubt, that it would be a long shot for me to get a position having been out of the classroom for five years and out of the academy for three.  Fortunately, several of the local community colleges allow you to put your Vita on file, giving one the opportunity to be contacted in a time of need instead of seeking a standing position.  Such was my luck.

About two months ago I got a call from the head of Wake Tech's Division of Continuing Education to teach a GRE Seminar.  I was most thankful for the call and very interested in the opportunity.  Since retiring and going through all that I have gone through, I felt and currently feel that I have a much more profound understanding of my profession ... a greater Maturity ... if you will.  I was 24 when I taught my first college class, Beginning Composition at UNCG in 1992.  Looking back, I can hardly believe the university turned me loose on a group of students, several of whom were older than me at the time.  In all, and on the whole, I think the experience was positive for everyone, but now, with so much more life under my belt (a marriage and divorce, retirement from a career, the birth and primary care of my daughter) I feel just mature enough to be teaching :-).  My GRE course was a great pleasure to teach and now I have two English courses out in front of me for the Spring semester of 2011.  

I am glad that teaching is not done with me, and feel, instead, that maybe now I'm mature enough to really do great work in the classroom.  It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.

Tarot Meditation Card for the Day - Osho Zen Tarot - Breakthrough XI

"To transform breakdowns into breakthroughs is the whole function of a master." (25)

This card has a powerful meaning for me today and reading the description has been especially profound.  "It is the greatest adventure in life to go through a breakdown consciously.  It is the greatest risk because there is no guarantee that the breakdown will become a breakthrough.  It does become, but these things cannot be guaranteed."  Boy how I have been feeling for this card ... feeling around as if I have been trapped in a darkness and unable to find any kind of purchase that would allow me to escape.  I can only have faith that my wandering around and groping is actually progress in some, as yet, unknown way.  I am hopeful that drawing this card is my soul's way of sharing the possibility that a breakthrough is, in fact, happening from my breakdown.

The description goes on to say, "your chaos is very ancient -- for many, many lives you have been in chaos.  It is thick and dense.  It is almost a universe in itself.  So when you enter into it with your small capacity, of course there is danger.  But without facing this danger nobody has ever become integrated, nobody has ever become an individual, indivisible."

"Zen, or meditation, is the method which will help you to go through the chaos, through the dark night of the soul, balanced, disciplined, alert."  Today I woke very early and stretched on the floor beside my bed.  After taking my daughter to school, I went to the park and practiced my Qi Gong and Tai Chi and felt my practice deeply, felt the energy move from earth to sky and back again.  Recently I have talked to my partner, Betsy, about losing faith ... losing my way.  I want to find a way again, but I don't know what that way is ... and I think right now, I'm not supposed to have a way ... such is the lesson of the breakdown.  But deep in my soul I do not think I am supposed to stay broken or broken down.  I am trying to be Patient (my previous draw).  I am trying to listen and still keep persevering.  This card was a good draw today.

Tarot Meditation Card for the Day - Osho Zen Tarot - 7 of Rainbows, Patience

I appreciate the Osho Zen tarot because the imagery so often perfectly communicates the concept described by the keyword on the card. This card, the 7 of Rainbows (Patience), has one of the best pictorial representations of all the cards in the set.

When you draw this card you face the task of accepting that some things in life have a rhythm that you cannot speed up or slow down!  Hence the card shows us the phases of the moon and the woman who is pregnant.  These natural processes follow predictable cycles, especially the phases of the moon.  The human body is not quite as predictable, reliable, or hard to manipulate as the Moon orbiting Earth orbiting the Sun.  We all have situations in our lives where we want things to either speed up or slow down and we have trouble seeing the optimal process.

This circumstance is especially true when two or more people are involved.  We want someone to "get it" so we can move forward, trying to ignore the process of the other person in favor of what we want.  Or perhaps we are the person trying desperately to "get it" and we cannot make the process accelerate.  Maybe we "get it', but don't "want it" and we do everything we can to slow or stop the process.  Patience is not just a state of right activity, but also a state of right understanding.

On a personal level, as I have been on the journey of a spiritual awakening, I have had many a day of impatience, wishing I could "get on with it" and "be done" with the drama and struggle of being thrown completely out of my comfort zone.  I know what a comfort zone feels like and many days wish I could get back in one, not the one I had before, but the next one I'm moving towards.  Unfortunately, the transition often has its own agenda and sometimes what is best takes time.  Drawing this card is often very calming for me, a message from myself to myself to "settle down" and let things unfold as they will ... because they will.  Trying to force the issue before the right time or out of the right rhythm almost always results in negative outcomes.

As you read this post, think about any area of your life, any situation you feel impatient about and take a step back mentally.  What is the lesson in the "not happening"?  What is the cycle and how are you out of step with it and how do you get in step?  Where in your life do you need patience and how can you support that patience in your actions and thinking?

Tarot Meditation Card for the Day - Osho Zen Tarot - Fire to the South, Sharing

When I make a one card draw the question I like to put in my mind is "What do I most need to contemplate today?"  The card I drew today is Fire to the South, Sharing.

The Osho Zen Tarot Deck makes a number of changes to the traditional Western deck and the use of directions to mark the "court" cards is one of my favorites.  Instead of using the Queen of Wands, we see a triangle pointing downward in the Southerly direction.  When this card is drawn you are asked to think of what you can share "without tak[ing] inventories or put[ing] aside for later."  You "dispense your treasures without limits, welcoming all and sundry to partake of the abundance ..." (50).  Perhaps what you have to share is material: the opening of your home to guests, feeding and entertaining them, or giving money to a charity or people in need without prompting.  Perhaps you have knowledge you are willing to share freely, in a blog or talking openly among friends and strangers alike.  

The more you give, the more you may receive.  But if nothing comes in return, it does not matter.  There is such a thing as "right giving" and it entails no expectation of any thing in return, not even a thank you and certainly not a gift.  However, it has been my experience that the more I give, the more life gives me back in return, especially, sometimes when it may seem hard to give.  During those times I do my best to give my trust to the universe that good energy out will invite good energy in.  How and where do I share openly, am I doing enough sharing, and what are the things, talents, or knowledge that I have to share with a sense of abundance of, "giving it away without expectation or concern"?  How have you shared today and in your life?

Of all the "things" we can share without concern for "running out," Love is the unending abundance.  This card also asks of us to open our Heart Chakras completely, a process that often happens for men via Kundalini rising during the Uranus Opposition at 40 to 42.  The birth of a child can also burst open the Heart Chakra and completely shift our view of the world and how it operates.  In this time of recession, emerging austerity, and future scarcity of world resources (oil, water, food), our sharing will be most crucial, downright necessary in fact for our species to avoid some very painful consequences.  We will need to become abundant with our time and our care of others, family and strangers, wherever they need care.  We are all the Buddha and nothing we own is permanent, so why not share as much and as often as possible.  Share your smile, share your laughter, share simply and at grand level if possible.

Tarot Meditation Card for the Day - Osho Zen Tarot - The Master

The Master is a card unique to the Osho Zen Tarot Deck because it is not a card of the Major or Minor Arcana, giving this deck 79 cards instead of only 78.

When you draw this card, you are reminded that your life is about your own mastership.  People can teach you, people can guide you, people can even tell you what to do (and you can give them all your power); but, ultimately, you are supposed to determine your own destiny and understand your own story.  In Zen Buddhism one tries to follow the Eightfold Path, which involves: the Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.  In all situations in life there is the Right choice or solution, not too much and not too little.  Not perfect, but optimal ... the best at any given time.  Finding your Zen is about finding your Right Path in life and through life.

Drawing this card raises the question of "where am I?" in my life drama.  What does your mastership look like.  In my own story, at one time, I thought it involved teaching knowledge at the collegiate level.  Currently I am trying out a destiny as a full-time parent, which is a good fit, but only part of the story still unfolding.  I certainly feel in Mastership when working with the Tarot and helping others transform, which was really the basis for my pursuit of my degree and my desire to teach.  What is your Right Path and when you face decisions, do you make them with Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration?  Who is the person in the world you most admire, look up to, would trust to guide you ... well, then you should become that person  or use and leave behind that person because you are meant to be a Master in your own right.

This card is also a reminder, by being outside the standard number of cards, that the Tarot is a tool we use and not a tool that uses us.

Tarot Meditation Card for the Day - Osho Zen Tarot - 6 of Air, The Burden

In the Osho Zen Deck a number of the Air cards are not what you would describe as "happy" cards (2/Schizophrenia, 3/Ice-Olation, 4/Postponement, 7/Politics, 8/Guilt, and 9/Sorrow); not surprising in a deck based on Zen Buddhism, which considers the mind the ultimate source of suffering in life.  So, when you draw the 6 of Air, the Burden, look at your life and see where you are taking on the burdens of others.

Life can be an uphill climb much of the time and doing it without extra weight on our backs is certainly the way to go.  Here the figure on the bottom represents the querent who is trying to climb the mountain of life with someone riding him, and as if to really drive the point home, there is a rooster on top of the Fop unwilling to make his own climb.  The card, though, has a double meaning.  It is very possible that the Fop being a burden is the querent as well.  Are you burdened or a burden to others?

In either case the card expects us to refuse to continue to accept the burdens of others or to stop being a burden to others.  This challenge can be very personal, especially if family members are tied to the reading or the first thought that crosses the mind of the querent is of a family member.  This card is not about helpful support but the clear abuse of another person's goodwill and strength.  If we immediately think of a person in our life when this card appears, then that person needs to be challenged as does the expectation to carry that person's burden.  In essence, we all get one life to make as our own in this lifetime and we should not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of ... and this card is about ALLOWING.  Nor should we take unfair advantage of others when we can "walk on our own."

Tarot Meditation Card for the Day - Osho Zen Tarot - New Vision XII

New Vision is the 12th Card of the Major Arcana:

When you draw this card, you are "now presented with the opportunity to see life in all its dimensions, from the depths to the heights.  They exits together, and when we come to know from experience that the dark and the difficult are needed as much as the light and easy, then we begin to have a very different perspective on the world." (Osho Handbook, 26)  Recently I have been engaged in a blog discussion about an Astrological reading done by Jamie Partridge of Darkstar Astrology about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Jaime's interpretation of Ahmadinejad's chart is very thought provoking and I recommend reading it to understand why this card resonates so powerfully with me, especially if you read all the blog comments.

As a professional astrologer myself, I am certainly feeling a heavy dose of the heavy-handedness of the universe right now.  I just finished a blog entry myself about Saturn and Pluto and it doesn't get much "darker" than talking about those two energy points in some kind of relationship.  The most recent aspect was a square (Saturn in Libra to Pluto in Capricorn).  Steven Forrest does not mince words about this aspect in the Inner Sky, where he states flatly that the square is about combative, enemies energy.  On its best day the square probably would describe two hard fighting gladiators, who, at the end of the contest, if both are still alive, respect each other for going all out against one another.  On the lower vibration, you get gridlock in Washington and little real forward movement on some very big problems.

This card reminds me that we need Recessions and Depressions when we go too far and we have clearly gone too far.  Just yesterday, I heard that temperatures in LA, Ca peaked at 113.  This morning, while doing my Tai Chi, I had the thought that global warming is the Earth's equivalent of a fever to get rid of an infection.  And you know who/what the infection is!  Fevers serve a purpose; Ahmadinejad is serving a purpose; the Great Recession is serving a purpose.  That purpose is to help all of us attain a New Vision.  For me the New Vision involves some old concepts mingled with new technologies: Intentional Communities re-localizing food production/consumption while having access to knowledge and people from around the world via the Internet and Mobile Phones.  We need to slow down our material consumption to speed up our spiritual growth.  We need more time with family and friends we choose/intend and less time looking to be "entertained" or "meeting obligations" that clearly do not help or support our own personal development.

In traditional decks, this card is represented as The Hanged Man, which I always describe to clients as "Knowing Sacrifice;" something conscientious parents understand all too well.  I knowingly and happily sacrificed my academic career for my family; I have a long vision for the future that sees great gifts in wise sacrifices in these current moments.  We need New Vision and it may take some darkness for us to see the the light we cannot currently see because of all the "glitzy" lights trying to distract us that have been part of our behavior since 2001 and Pluto's journey through Sagittarius.  What does your New Vision look like?

Playfulness, Still Needing to Get the Message!

Do you ever feel like you are in a cartoon and you are the character getting whacked over the head with the frying pan in an attempt to "be given the message"?  Well, that would be me and I got another whack yesterday just before a birthday party where I was going to be reading Tarot Cards for the guests.  Often, before an event, like the Body/Mind/Spirit expo or the Expo at Journeys, I will draw a card to "get the energy flowing" in the deck.  Last night when I drew my card, once again, I drew Playfulness.

That draw made it 4 times in the last month.  In one aspect of interpreting the card I feel like I'm making progress.  I am trying to take the world "less seriously" in the face of some pretty serious Astrological energy and world events.  I am trying, as Betsy would say, to "be the duck"!  All that is unfolding is as it should be and will be and I am more and more confident about my role and why I've chosen to be here now.  I understand about "unwinding my seriousness" and not taking myself "too seriously," which is no small task after you've been through a PhD program and you've worked for the "flagship" university of the North Carolina system.  But it can be done and a little spiritual crisis goes a long way in realigning your perspective; well, at least, it has for me!

For some reason, though, it is the actual playfulness that I'm struggling with and probably why the card keeps trying to "whack" me upside the head.  Tangent alert!  The drawing of this card, repeatedly, is also one of the reasons I find any esoteric system fascinating.  I'm sure a mathematician or statistician might be able to crunch some numbers and "explain away" the repeated draws, but not to a level of satisfaction that would have me dismissing the meaning I find with each subsequent draw.  And I'm not making many draws in between each appearance of the card.  The settings are different, the cards are more than adequately shuffled, and so on.  If you make a draw the way I've made the draws, you cannot help but "pay attention."  But paying attention is not the same as embracing the card.  So when I sent Betsy a text about the card and she sent me a text back asking, "what makes you feel playful?" I was honestly stumped.

You would think someone with so much energy in Aries (6 energy points) would have a playful streak, but I know its not that simple with my Astrology since one of those energy points is Saturn, my rising sign is Scorpio, and I was born during a Lunar Eclipse, which happens to be conjunct my South Node (past life work).  In most of my past life regression work, I continue to find life time after life time as a Priest or Priestess and have already been ordained, once again, in this lifetime.  I'm pretty confident my daughter is here to help me, and every so often she does.  This morning was a great example.  I went to wake her up and she was definitely not feeling the get up and go, so I decided to lay down and try to roll her out of bed by rolling her over me.  She is not a small child and is very strong physically.  When I tried to move her, she worked effectively against me and I started to laugh at how well she was keeping me from rolling her over.  Then she started laughing.  We tugged of war for a few good minutes, laughing back and forth each time I tried to move her and failed.  Finally, I had to put some real effort into it to move her, but she was, by then, fully awake and we were both smiling.

Sadly, I suppose, when I look back over my life, I can easily say I was happy ... but playful?  No, not really.  Silly definitely is way outside my scope.  And I wonder, can you be playful alone?  The card certainly seems to communicate that message, so how do I unlock this very apparent need for playfulness in my life.  Should I go to Wiii Bounce and jump around?  Should I get a toy for the cat and see if he can help me out as well?  Maybe I just need to keep working on the "not too serious" part, no small accomplishment for me.  What do you do to be playful?  

Clearly I need more guidance from my daughter.

Tarot Meditation Card for Today - Osho Zen 10 of Air - Rebirth

This past weekend Betsy and I did a small fair at Journeys Spiritual Center in North Raleigh.  She brought her paintings and crafts and I set up to read tarot cards.  Before the show got under way, I drew two cards individually.  The first was the old standby, Playfulness, but the second card was new, Rebirth:

The 10 of Air was a very appropriate card for me to draw at this time.  As you can see from the image, each life time is a time of Rebirth and within a life time there may be several rebirths.  The 10th card in each suit represents the end of a cycle that will begin anew with the Ace.  When you draw this card you are directed to think about Rebirth within your life and present moment.  Perhaps you need a rebirth; perhaps you have recently completed a rebirth.  For me, the card makes me think of my Spiritual Awakening at the end of August 2009 that has led to a period of rebirth stretching over the last 2 years actually.  All of 2008 was the setting of the stage of the death of my old spiritual self.  That self truly ended and my new self emerged when my Kundalini Rising struck with full force on August 28th of 2009.  An old self burned away, making room for a new self that I have been slowly cultivating for the last year.  The process is ongoing.

I think the Playfulness card drawn prior to this card really represents the kind of rebirth I should be embracing.  I have been a very serious soul most of my life.  I study serious matters ... the fate of the world, the fate of this country, the destiny of my clients, and the destinies of my family members.  But now I feel charged with several new perspectives ... trust instead of fear, gratefulness instead of entitlement, compassion instead of arrogance, and wise judgment instead of unhelpful criticism.  For almost 9 months I did not laugh inside or out; I had to relearn how to laugh.  All that is happening in the world is part of a bigger picture of rebirth and we each have our own personal rebirths likely to occur during a global time of rebirth.  Hopefully with each rebirth we gain wisdom, courage, and understanding.  I certainly enjoy this new journey and appreciate it more and more each day.

Tarot Meditation Card for Today - Osho Zen 5 of Rainbows - The Outsider

I drew the 5 of Rainbows after writing about the two Major Arcana cards, Existence (1) and Change (10).

This card resonates with me on many levels and, I think, is very appropriate as a global expression regarding the state of the world and our role in it.  From the book, the description points out: "The small child is standing on one side of the gate, looking through it.  He is so small, and so convinced he cannot get through, he cannot see that the chain holding the gate is not locked; all he has to do is open it." (146)  We have a magnificent world we can enjoy and co-create, but instead we believe ourselves blocked.  The gate can be a metaphor for any difference that separates us from the natural world and ourselves (war, ethnicity, culture, gender).  We believe we need a gatekeeper to let us out to the other side, whether it is a politician, guru, teacher, parent, or any other authority figure.  In fact, we do not.

I am responsible, and so are you.  Guides, acting in the best interest of others, will help each of us attain authenticity, humanity, and connection.  To draw this card is to "feel yourself an outsider.  This is good.  This is a transitory period.  Now you have to be alert not to fill yourself with pain and misery.  Now that God is no longer there, who will console you?  You don't need any consolation.  Humanity has come of age.  Be a man, be a woman, and stand on your own feet ..."  It certainly helps me to read the words "be alert not to fill yourself with pain and misery."  The behavior of our people, all people, generally, is not at its best.  I have had my own challenges with greed and am constantly feeling the need to be vigilant against scarcity thinking.  Such thinking has created a global crisis in economics and resource management.  And the paradox is this: we perceive scarcity in this world today because we want more than we deserve, are willing to work for, be patient for, or the world has to offer.  The world is fully abundant if we do not make demands beyond its abundance.  As one writer on the economy put it, you cannot change the weather by adjusting the thermometer and you cannot increase the amount of oil in the ground by adjusting the instruments recording our consumption of it.

I feel an Outsider most days because what has been normalized has become very foreign to me.  And so I find it very interesting that a new phrase from economist John Mauldin, The New Normal, is gaining ground.  I am hopeful that the new normal will be more and more of what is on the other side of the gate ... that we can leave behind the behaviors that have brought us to a period of significant transformation and bless this transformation.  I think we can make the changes if we embrace sustainability and throw away growth as our mantra for existence.  I think we can make the changes if we slow down and take care in life instead of trying to move ever faster and consume in greater quantities.  I think we can make these changes if we share openly and transparently our knowledge and experience, instead of trying to privatize everything and act as if we own anything.  I am trying to do my part each day :-).

Free Will and Fate in Tarot - Osho Zen - Existence (I) and Change (X)

Hello all, I am back and settled in after the Body, Mind, Spirit Expo this past weekend at the State Fair grounds.  If you were able to attend, I hope you had a wonderful time.  Today I want to write about Free Will and Fate, two very hot topics in any metaphysical practice and study.  The cards I want to explore are Existence, the number 1 card, and Change, the number 10 card, of the Major Arcana of the Osho Zen Tarot.  In traditional decks these cards are better known as The Magician and The Wheel of Fortune.

 

Life, I would put forth, is a dialectic with a back and forth between Free Will and Fate, but how can that be if Fate is involved.  I would like to present the idea that Fate and Free Will move in and out of one another, taking and giving stage at different times and for different intervals, very much like wave/particle theory regarding energy.  In the above card Existence, we are shown the "smallness" of our place in the vast universe and the "immensity" of our uniqueness.  Nothing else in existence occupies the same "place" or space as you do.  For this reason, Astrology loves twins, triplets, and so on.  How better to show the flexibility of a birth chart than to have 2, 3, or more individuals with same exact birth chart out in the world.  They will not express themselves in the same way because they do not occupy the same space in the universe, nor will they experience the same set of events.  To draw the card of Existence is to remember that you are unique and you have a unique impact on the world, whether it is small (early death after childbirth) or large (Ghandi, Lincoln, King Jr, Mother Teresa).   To exist is to be able to choose, even if the limits of choice are great.

To draw the card of Change is to remind yourself that many events happen outside you that you must choose how you will react or find yourself forced into certain directions because there is only one choice (funny how we forget that when we say, "I have no choice, but to ...", we really mean to say, "I have only one choice and this is it."  I often explain the Change (or Wheel of Fortune) card this way in my seminars.  Imagine that you drove here (as most people do) and you go outside and find your tire is flat.  Fate has stepped in.  You were moving along, with faith, that you would be able to go out to your car get in it and drive away only to find out that now you must react to the unexpected.  How you choose to react is the choice offered by acts of Fate.  And acts of Fate are usually choices we made spiritually to be present in so we can test ourselves.  As the saying goes, "no one gets their character tested when things are going their way."

Over the weekend a new astrologer I met through Facebook provided me with a reading of my Uranus transit in exchange for me reading his Neptune transit.  In his fantastic interpretation of this transit, he had many deeply insightful things to say, not the least of which was to remind me to stay positive and hopeful while presenting some pretty tough knowledge and insight about current and future events.  The globe, and thus everyone personally, is going through a major shift.  I have written about two major aspects of this shift in my blog on transiting planetary Ingress involving all of the outer planets and the recent T-square involving Saturn/Uranus/Pluto.  Big change is happening and more big ... even bigger change is coming, and with these changes there will be a lot of hard work (which will be interpreted by a great many as hardship).  We need this change; the planet needs this change.  What matters most is how we choose to react, and there will be plenty of reactionary action.  

Deep down, I'm an optimist, though it can be hard to see past my Scorpio Ascendant sometimes ;-).  Jupiter and Uranus will both be direct in Aries soon enough and we, as a people, and individually will have the opportunity to choose how to express the expansive/creative energy of these to points moving through Aries.  In many ways we are going to have to deal with the Change card first, as the Present Moment, and Existence as our crossing card, our challenge.  Housing prices are going to continue to drop, services will be cut, taxes will rise, government/bank/corporate corruption will try to keep doing business as usual and all of it will result in a truly "Brave New World" shift.  The question for each of us will be how will we play our role.  Will we move in the direction panic and doom or see these changes as the necessary steps to forge new intentional communities, re-localize our food and services, restart manufacturing, and make healthful behavior changes.  In essence, it will not be changes in technology that "save us," but rather changes in our behavior.  

Understanding the fluid relationship between Free Will and Fate (wave and particle); the quantum"ness" of life helps us be more capable when our times of choice come and more flexible when our limits of choice come.  I hope my work in the world and through this blog reaches the higher vibration of hope even as we move through an impending lower vibration of scarcity, which will really be a true vibration of re-balancing.  Astrology and the Tarot are just the ideal tools to help us move through these powerfully fluctuating times.

As I prepare to leave to pick up the girls from school I have drawn a rather fitting card, which I will write about in my next entry.  I will leave it for you to contemplate:

Tarot Meditation Card for Today - Osho Zen Major Arcana - Thunderbolt (16)

Drawing the Thunderbolt card is not for the weak of heart; in a traditional deck this card is represented as the Tower.  I find the card a fitting one to draw on the anniversary of what I want to henceforward refer to as my Spiritual Awakening.  And for me it was very much a Thunderbolt event, a lightening strike that utterly obliterated who I was previously.  I am still sifting through the rubble and building a new self.  I definitely feel the fire burning in my heart chakra from day to day as the natural kundalini awakening and subsequent rising occurs with the Uranus Opposition.  If I were to designate a card as the Uranus Opposition, this card is the one I would choose.  The lightening strike is the awakening and the fire burning at the base of the spine upward is the rising.  Since most of us in the West have no knowledge of kundalini, and thus no preparation, we get a Thunderbolt experience.

Again, I will refer to the Liquid Light of Sex: Kundalini, Astrology, and the Key Life Transition by Barbara Hand Clow.  This book is a must read for anyone between the age of 35 and 40 in preparation for the Thunderbolt that will be the Uranus Opposition.  What does it mean to have a self decimated in a single extreme moment?  And how do you choose to move forward.  As Clow points out in her book, many people return to the former self, failing to take full advantage of the kundalini opening and opportunity.  If it is particularly frightening, then a return to the familiar is not surprising, but it is spiritually devastating.   We, in the West, have largely lost touch with or never even had a eye on spiritual development and the natural phases of the process.  Astrology shows us a map of development.  Whether it is the 12 year cycle of Jupiter or the nearly 30 year cycle of Saturn, there are Spiritual key moments.  The only one we deign to recognize these days is the yearly Solar Return, on our birthday.  And we don't recognize it spiritually as much as we do materially (how many gifts did I get, what gift do I want).  The first Saturn Return (28 to 30) is a tune up for the Uranus Opposition (40 to 42), which is a tune up for the Chiron Return (49 to 51), which is a tune up for the second Saturn Return (58 to 60).

The story of the Major Arcana is the story of spiritual development.  After Thunderbolt comes Silence:

More contrasting cards could not appear next to each other in the story.  After Thunderbolt, you need Silence; only through obliteration can you hope to hear true Silence.

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.

Two Card Tarot Reading - Osho Zen Tarot

This post contains a video demonstrating my two card tarot reading technique that I use at the Body, Mind, Spirit Expo each year in Raleigh. 

The first video is an introduction explaining the process.  The second video is the reading. I will draw two cards randomly and read them as the Present Moment and the Challenge to the Present Moment.  Once I have completed the initial reading, I will reverse the cards and re-read them.

Tarot Meditation Card for Today - Osho Zen Fire to the East - Playfulness

Here's a card I really need to get into my soul these days.  For some reason I'm having a hard time feeling the energy down to my toes, but it keeps reoccurring, trying its best to get me to feel the feelings shown in the image.  For me, at the moment, the card is one of contrast; what I want but am having a hard time finding.  Trust me when I say, having Neptune in Scorpio conjunct my Ascendant at 28 degrees of the sign really lays a heavy energy over my chart.  Sensitivity is very high and the dark energy of Scorpio's connection to death, the Underworld, and transformation can really worm its way into my days.  Add to the fact that Neptune is currently performing an ingress from Aquarius to Pisces (at this time Retrograde in Aquarius until 12/6/2010 and not permanently into Pisces until after 2/2/2012, with another Retrograde period from 6/2011 to 12/2011) and we all get some emotional turmoil as Neptune dissolves ideals and community structures (think of all the services being cut from state and federal budgets, with deeper ones likely to come in the second Retrograde period).  It can be hard to find playfulness in these times.

In many ways, however, that is the very reason this card is important and revelatory during these times.  In the book that comes with the deck, the description says, "The serious man had made the world, the serious man made all the religions.  He has created all the philosophies, all the cultures, all the moralities; everything that exists around you is a creation of the serous man."  In response, "Zen has dropped out of the serious world.  It has created a world of its own which is very playful, full of laughter, where even great masters behave like children."  I am no great master, but I think I could use a visit to the claw machine today or the park to play.  I find myself very easily caught up in the serious world; I worked very hard at one time in my life to become a serious man (re: my PhD in English).

My daughter knows how to play and I am trying to learn her lessons, though today doesn't feel like a day I will "earn a good, serious grade."  That thought almost makes me chuckle.  I need a good belly laugh today.  Maybe Youtube will have one.

If you are feeling the seriousness of the world, try to find some play today.  And if you succeed, please share your story.

Tarot Meditation Card for Today - Osho Zen Major Arcana V - No-Thingness

I want to introduce readers to the Tarot by pulling a card to meditate on from time to time.  I do not use this process as a daily practice, but you can, especially if you are learning the Tarot.  The card above comes from the Osho Zen Tarot, an Eastern Zen Buddhist influenced deck.  It is good that this card is the first one I pulled because it shows the very different direction this Tarot deck takes from the traditional Western deck.  In a traditional Western Tarot, this card would be the Hierophant (or Learned Scholar).  In the West the pinnacle of the development of the mind is to "fill it up" (PhD's, JD's, and lots of other letters after your name).  This cards shows that the pinnacle of development in the East is to EMPTY the mind.  This card was a good draw for me and an excellent card to use to demonstrate the helpfulness of Tarot in your personal life.

Before I write about the specifics of my day and how this card proved helpful, let me point out that I prefer to use the cards as a psychological (and not psychic) tool.  Others may use them in a psychic capacity, but I use them as, essentially, Art Therapy (or sophisticated pictograms).  The cards present me with an image and a meaning (from the study of the deck) and I let my intuition take flight and see where I go inside myself, with the card or cards as my guide(s).  I am a "practical" Tarot reader, and not a mystic.  When I read for others I help them follow a similar process to get them to pay attention to the card and not me, the reader.  So, here's my story with regard to this card today.

As usual, my day begins fairly early.  I was up by 6AM and started blogging and visiting Facebook.  In my home there are 3 children, my daughter, who is 5 and my friend's daughters who are 5 and 10.  Her 5 year old pops up like popcorn at 8AM sharp, and was up almost 2 hours before her sister came down stairs.  Not long after her sister came down, my friend came to tell me she thought she heard my daughter crying upstairs, but wasn't sure.  I rushed upstairs to check on her and she was indeed crying.  When I asked her what was wrong, she told me her leg was hurting and it was painful to stand.  She was very upset and a little scared, so I asked her some questions to try to determine how it felt and were it hurt.  She told me the front of her leg was bothering her and I could see a bruise from what looked like, most likely, a charlie horse rough housing with the 10 year old.  As it turned out, they had been playing hard yesterday and she had actually cut the bottom of her foot.  The cut did not look like anything deep, but it did have the appearance of a puncture and the leg that was hurting was the one with the injured foot.  So, I'm concerned immediately about tetanus.

I ask my daughter if she would like to go to the doctor and have him/her look at her leg and her foot.  She says she would, so off we go.  Needless to say, my stress level is up a few notches wondering if she's going to be in need of a tetanus shot and if I missed something regarding her foot injury.  My mind can go to some pretty dark scenarios pretty fast.  We went to the doctor and they did confirm it was a puncture, but he did not see any debris in the wound or increased redness around the cut.  He also agreed that the leg was most likely sore from a deep bruise or strain.  He could not say 100% she did not need a tetanus shot though and left it to my discretion.  Thanks, right?!  I've chosen to observe her and see if the wound has any problems by tomorrow and if she starts to show signs of a fever.  I suspect its just a basic cut and bruised leg.  Even so, my mind was off and running.

So, when I drew the No-Thingness card, I knew I needed to empty my mind.  From the book of the deck, "In the beginning is nature, in the end is nature, so why in the middle do you make so much fuss?  Why, in the middle, becoming so worried, so anxious, so ambitious - why create such despair?"  Why indeed did I create such despair even as I worked to find answers and the answer so far is just a little life ... a little cut, and run of the mill bruise on the thigh.  Why couldn't I hold a lower level of concern until I had reason to hold a higher level of concern?  I do not mean to imply that I wish I had not taken her to the doctor, but to question how I LET MYSELF FEEL through my thoughts as if she had tetanus already.  It's not easy in a world filled with fear-mongering; we get conditioned to go to dark places before we even now if we need to go to dark places.  It's a shame really.  After I drew the card, I took some deep breaths, breathing out the negative assumptions and the worry. 

My daughter has spent the rest of the day resting at home and playing gently, which is very hard for her.  She likes to go, go, go, and go hard.  She also informed me that "ice cream would make it feel better," which I am sure, it did :-).