Get Moving

This week I'll be using the Urban Tarot, a deck and book set created and self-published by Robin Scott (though now published by U.S. Games). I'll be pairing it with an oracle I created called "Principles to Live By." Today's draws are the Chariot and Gratitude:

Ignorance is bliss. Wisdom is blisters.

—Brian Spellman

Planning and preparation are essential for any big task or project, but at some point, we must stop making lists and start taking action. It's time to start gaining ground before our way is blocked. I live in the bottom corner of the state of Georgia. Tonight, we have been warned that an Arctic blast is arriving that will keep nighttime temps in the low 20s (F) accompanied by 25 mph winds. It will stick around for a couple of weeks and likely bring sleet and possibly snow. Now in Canada or North U.S., this is simply called winter. But in an area that rarely drops below 30 F, we are sorely unprepared. Yet we have been hurriedly doing our best to get ready anyway. [By the way Southerners do NOT know how to drive in sleet and snow, so avoid this area until it thaws.] Gratitude is a reminder of the resources we do have, including a home in which to harbor from the storm. It's a principle that can warm the heart, no matter what the weather.

I Will NOT Make a List

From the Urban Tarot, the Eight of Cups; from the Principles to Live By Oracle, "Gratitude:"

          Since Scott's Urban Tarot is Thoth-based, she's given this card the keyword "indolence." Now on the outside, this looks like inertia, laziness and sloppiness. But these are just external symptoms of an internal cause. If you were to peer inside the head of the person who owns this work space, you would find the emotional roots. It might look like the darkness of depression or the desperation of being overwhelmed. Professor Taima Hendler, of TAU’s Sagol School of Neuroscience recently did a study that showed how exhaustion affected the brain's reaction to emotional images. She described her findings: "The ability of the brain to tell what’s important is compromised. It’s as if suddenly everything is important." Add the adrenaline of "it's all important" to an already stressed person, and it's no wonder we give up trying and shut down.
          The cornucopia disc represents Gratitude; to be grateful is to be deeply appreciative of what I have received. The first suggestion I usually hear when I tell someone how I feel is that I should make a gratitude list. But if I am in a such an exhausted, emotional state of despair, I'd probably respond with "Fu*k that." Joan Chittister wrote, "Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight." Perhaps instead of making that list or lying in the bed I could examine what is going on with my body and mind. Just maybe I will be able to follow the roots back to the seed of the cause. Then I could renew both body and mind by following the advice of Gary Kowalski: "Feelings of awe, reverence, and gratitude are primary, and these can never be learned from books. We gain them from sitting high on a cliff side, gazing at the sea, lost in reverie and listening to the laughter of children."

Grievances or Gratitude

From the Touchstone Tarot, the Hanged Man:

The man in this image is taken from a painting done of St. Sebastian by Tiziano. Sebastian was a captain of the group of bodyguards used by the Roman Emperors. When it was discovered he was a Christian, he was tied to a tree and shot with arrows. Although left for dead, a widow nursed him back to health. Unfortunately, Sebastian later confronted the Emperor about his treatment of Christians and was clubbed to death. I truly understand Sebastian's desire to change another person's ideas, attitude or actions. But there are just some things over which I have absolutely no control; my only option is to surrender to reality rather than fight it.

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

What do people normally do when they feel powerless in a situation? Some feed on their anger and imagine scenarios when they will get their revenge. Others choose the role of a victim, and tell their pitiful story over and over to whomever will listen. But this card gives me a third option: gratitude. While I'm in a holding pattern, I can count my blessings instead of listing all my grievances. My life might be far from perfect, but I'm sure there are many people who would swap their lives for mine in a second. And gratitude has a way of putting things in a new perspective, which is exactly what the Hanged Man would like for me to see.