Swimming and Dancing

This week I'll be using Songs for the Journey Home, a deck and book set created and self-published by Catherine Cook and Dwariko von Sommaruga. I'll also be using the Raven Cards, an oracle created by Gabi Bucker and published by AG Muller. Today's draws are Wave Awakening (Knight of Cups) and Dance with the Stones:

          This knight dives into the ocean, embracing the wave of water headed his way. Though he might dive deep, at some point he's going to have to come up for air because he doesn't have gills. I've been taking a course with Sharon Salzberg, who is discussing the Four Immeasurables (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity). Each attitude has both a 'far enemy' and a 'near enemy,' meaning the opposite quality and a masquerading quality. Compassion's far enemy is cruelty, but it's near enemy is similar to grief and despair (think of burnout). If we immerse ourselves so completely in someone's suffering, we become of no use to them. We can't skillfully respond to their pain when we are marinating in our own anguish. The Raven Card suggests I go outside and commune with nature. It can remind me of the impermanence of things, of the inevitability of change. Its beauty and wonder can lighten my heart.