Identification

This week I'll be using the Hezicos Tarot, created and self-published by Mary Griffin. Along with it I'll be using the Way of the Horse, an oracle deck and book set created by Linda Kohanov with Kim McElroy and published by New World Library. The two cards drawn for today are the King of Cups and 'Believe:'

          The King of Cups offers emotional support and wisdom. He suggests we look at our emotions mindfully and points out the spiral on his shell-crown. "We usually travel over and over in the same circle, feeling happy in one arc and depressed in another.Yet if we pay attention from an objective standpoint, we can travel in a spiral upward, finding insights along the way rather than staying stuck in a loop." The Believe card from the Way of the Horse refers to how we (our egos) carve an identity for ourselves like a statue. Unfortunately, as the companion book states, "What we carve in stone threatens to turn our minds to stone." I was reading Jan Karon's latest book from the Mitford series, and came across a line that hit me between the eyes: we don't have to define ourselves by our wounds. How often has the pain of the past become a permanent way to identify myself? Yet choosing not to do this doesn't mean I close the door on what was and pretend it didn't happen; instead I can look back to gain wisdom from lessons learned and open to gratitude for what was good and beautiful. If I'll travel in a spiral rather than a circle, I'll realize that I am much more than an event in the past. I am what I am only in each moment.