Backed-up Emotions

This week I'll be using the first edition of Kat Black's Touchstone Tarot published by Tarot Connections. This morning's card is the Queen of Wands:

Though she sits demurely, her red dress and flushed cheeks suggest this queen radiates passion. Her rod has green leaves sprouting from it, indicating she is a woman who believes in taking action when she is motivated by a cause or idea. Her personality is quite like her cat, who may look calm, but at any second might take a swipe with his claws, rub and purr against you, or meow pitifully. Basically, both will prod you in whatever way will get their objective accomplished. The stare the Queen of Wands levels at me seems to say: "Have you neglected what you're passionate about and let the what used to excite you grow cold? Stir the embers and get that fire burning brightly again!"

The oracle deck I'll be using this week is the Oracle of the Grail Code, created by Amy Sophia Marashinsky and published by Barnes and Noble. Today's draw is "Emotions:"

Notice how the Queen of Wands in the first card looks straight ahead, never daring to look out the window? I can be that way when it comes to my emotions, particularly those intense, "messy" ones. I won't talk about them or express them in any way; instead I just try to distract myself so I don't have to deal with them. But like a backed-up toilet that eventually overflows on the floor, they will affect me nevertheless. In fact, trying to keep a lid on them will drain away all my energy. No wonder what I once was so passionate about burns so dimly now. Guess I better pull on some rubber gloves and deal with the mess I've ignored for too long.

I Know Nothing

From the Touchstone Tarot, the Wheel of Fortune:

The wheel in this card is from a painting by Fra Angelico called The Vision of Ezekiel.  The outer wheel contains prophets from the old testament of the bible with words from the first few verses of Genesis: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  The inner wheel includes people from the new testament with the first verses in John around it :"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  The wheel within a wheel helps me to remember that when I uncover one mystery, another waits in its place.  Things will unfold that may help me understand, but there will always be dozens of more doors to open when that understanding arrives.  As the paper at the top of the wheel implies, I'll never graduate from learning.  Not only is change constant in the outer world, it is also present in my inner world as well.

     From the Oracle of the Grail Code comes "Emotions:"

This appears to be a lovely scene until the bars on the window are noticed.  This painting was created by Evelyn De Morgan and entitled The Prisoner.  Fearful emotions have held me in a prison these past few days, sucking the energy from my body and mind.  Yet when I look at them realistically, I find that 99% of my anxiety comes from assumptions, expectations, and projections.  Basically, they are not real.  And even if my worst fears come true, do I absolutely without a doubt know that the result could be a terrible thing?  No, I don't; it might even bring a type of freedom...