This week I'll be using the Daniloff Tarot, created and self-published by Alexander Daniloff. I'll also be using the100 Poems of Kuan Yin with Stephen Karcher's book, The Kuan Yin Oracle. Today's draws are the Chariot and Verse 35:
(Kuan Yin painting by Li Peixuan)
If we don’t have any restraint, we don’t have any control over where our lives are going. Anything that comes our way immediately pulls us into its wake. —Thanissaro Bhikkhu
We have an objective for which we plan and prepare, and then we take off, thinking all we need now is movement. But the armless charioteer lets us know this ambition is going to take resolute mental discipline. The griffin (vigilance and guardianship) and unicorn (purity and fidelity) that pull his vehicle alert us to an important attribute we'll also need - restraint. This quality means we can forego certain pleasures, not because we have to, but because they go against our principles, aspirations and priorities. The 35th Kuan Yin verse says:
A well-lit street stretches out before you,
where once there were thistles and thorns.
Many of the challenges and obstacles we face are because we become distracted by what we want or don't want that we notice. This verse tells us to clear our mental street and focus on what we value. As author Nir Eyal explains, traction is what moves us toward what we genuinely want, and distraction moves us further away from it.
