Ego Tells

This week I'll be using the Granny Jones Australian Tarot, created by Granny Jones (Rebecca Jones) and published by Kangaroo Press. Along with it, I'll be drawing from the Button Oracle, a set I made myself from a collection of buttons. Today's draws are the High Priestess and the Ram:

          Granny seems to have pulled out every divination tool she has, including a familiar and two dragon spirits. But how do we know any information that comes to us is from our luminous mind rather than the egoic mind? There are certain 'tells' of the ego:

•  The ego's main purpose to protect me physically, emotionally and mentally. It looks to benefit me only, not caring about anyone else (unless caring for them benefits me).
• The ego wants me to be in control of things and likes to stay in its comfort zone. If it's not pleasurable, then it's not worth doing.
• The ego is an expert at justifying and rationalizing by pointing out external causes and fixes rather than internal ones. 
• The ego's logic is often based on emotion or opinion, rarely reality. It prefers to see reality from one small angle rather than viewing the whole.

Bighorn sheep (like the one on the Ram button) have split hooves with rough bottoms that can firmly grip two-inch ledges on a mountain. They don't fear steep climbing because they know they can do it. The Ram's advice is to follow the wisdom of the luminous mind, even when it requires us to move out of complacency mode and onto ledges of the unknown.