Prudence, Please

This week I'll be using the Cosmic Tarot, created by Norbert Losche and published by U.S. Games. I'll also be drawing from L'Oeil de Lotus (Eye of the Lotus), created by Colette and Gérard Lougarre and published by Vox Arkhana. Today's cards are the Six of Cups and Caution:

Don't think I've left you all behind,

Still love you and Tennessee

You're always on my mind.

And mama, every Saturday

I can hear your southern drawl a thousand miles away.

—Chappell Roan

It's funny how we think our parents are so out of the loop when we're young. Then we grow up, make a lot of bad choices, and figure out they were much wiser than we thought. This young girl seems to be having an epiphany in the middle of the young man's romantic moves. Can she hear her mom's voice warning her of those who promise the world then leave you with nothing? Caution urges us to pay attention to the warning signs around us. We can be so blinkered by what we want (and how quickly we want it) that we ignore all the red flags waving in our face.  There's a reason for those stupid caution labels on everything these days!

Because It is Holy

This week I'll be using the Gill Tarot, created by Elizabeth Gill and published by U.S. Games. The oracle deck I'll be using with it is The Circle, created by D.R. Taylor and published by Versation Publishing. Today's draws are the Prince (Knight) of Swords and Caution:

When I fix a person I perceive them as broken, and their brokenness requires me to act. When I fix, I do not see the wholeness in the other person or trust the integrity of the life in them. When I serve, I see and trust that wholeness. It is what I am responding to and collaborating with.

—Rachel Naomi Remen

The Prince/Knight of Swords acts on what he sees as a miscarriage of justice or a perversion of truth. His ideas of how things should be (the yellow light of his sword) are made manifest (the yellow light from his hand). Yet the Caution card suggests a pause before acting. Are we trying to help when we don't really understand the circumstances and situation? Homeless people living in a car don't need us to buy them a new TV. To truly serve others, we must see them as equals, not as people who need to be fixed. As Remen wrote, "We serve life not because it is broken but because it is holy."

A Lesson from Trees

This week I'll be using the Alchemical Tarot Renewed along with the book Alchemy and the Tarot, both created by Robert M. Place and published by Hermes Publications. Paired with it will be the Oracle of the Radiant Sun deck and book set, created by Caroline Smith and John Astrop and published through Eddison-Sadd Editions. The draws for today are Death and Caution (Mercury in Virgo):

I realize there’s something incredibly honest about trees in winter, how they’re experts at letting things go. ―Jeffrey McDaniel

In alchemy, putrefaction meant decomposition, a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone. In life, we also have things to let go of if we want to move on to something better. Hatred makes no room for love in the heart, and shame's decree of unworthiness gives us no space to grow. Nothing that causes us to suffer is worth clinging to, especially when there is something better for us on the horizon. Caution (Mercury in Virgo) warns us not to run for the first thing we see after we drop what we've been grasping. It would be prudent to investigate and see the whole picture, knowing what such a commitment means.

Lifting the Anchor

From the Nigel Jackson Tarot, the Six of Swords; from the Wolf Pack, Caution:

I finally realized that we don’t get over it. In fact, trying to get over it isn’t even a rational thing to do. We will, ideally, move through it and move on, but it will always be something that happened to us. We are forever changed by our experiences. 

~Crystal Jackson 

I was talking to a friend the other night about an incident that happened years ago that she's stuffed deep inside; every now and then the shame overwhelms her. We often respond to anger, grief and shame by trying to cover it up or ignore it, by attempting to find a reason it happened or see the lesson in it. We simply (and reasonably) want to get away from what we feel. But the Caution card suggests that dealing with such emotions is a process. We must acknowledge and accept what happened, realizing that we can't change it. There may be some action or ritual we could do to honor our experience. We can then feel our feelings without the story around them, allowing them to pour through us and out of us (a therapist might be helpful). Eventually we will be ready to move on without dragging that anchor behind us. 

Warning: Emotions without Intellect Ahead

From the Gill Tarot, the Five of Cups:

The challenge of grief and sadness shows itself in the tears and sad face of this card.  But the bright red background makes me think there is some hidden anger as well.  Whether the loss is the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or a career that's come to an abrupt halt, there is something that seethes underneath the the outward expression of anguish and sorrow.  It is the role of victim that can keep me in my deep, dark hole, making me stay in the past instead of being attentive to the present.  The heart locked away inside the stem of the glass indicates using various techniques to wall off my feelings in a vain attempt at never being vulnerable again.  And in that isolation, I'll just get more of the same instead of the encouragement and support that will be my ladder out of that hole.

From The Circle comes "Caution:"

A traffic light turns yellow, warning all oncoming vehicles to slow down and prepare to stop.  Good advice for me when I am running on emotion and the logical side of my brain has taken a sabbatical.  A crash is inevitable with someone else, because I'll react instead of acting to situations, making me behave and shoot my mouth off in ways that would be out of character for me otherwise.  Time to apply the brakes...
  

Moving with Caution

  From the Golden Dawn Tarot, the Wheel of Fortune:

In this version of the Wheel, the Sphinx rests above it and Cynocephalus (the dog-faced ape) below it.  Thoth/Hermes was associated with the ibis and the ape - he appeared in ape form when he was associated with equilibrium.  As our lives move in cycles, we can choose to continue the same patterns and make the same mistakes or learn from them and do something new.  The Sphinx and Cynocephalus don't touch the Wheel, implying that they do not interfere but allow our choices to influence our destiny.  These creatures represent the lessons of wisdom and balance we can learn as we travel in these earthly bodies.  We can replay and repeat until we replace our thoughts and behavior, enabling us to experience all the colors of the Wheel instead of just one.

     From The Circle oracle comes "Caution:"

A traffic light changes to yellow, warning drivers to slow down.  This card is an admonition to realize all I know could fit in a thimble in the big scheme of things, and that the more I learn, the more I have to learn.  Intellectual humility will help me survive and succeed much more than being an opinionated know-it-all.