It's Just Energy

From the Legacy of the Divine Tarot, the Queen of Cups; from the Tea Leaf Reading Cards, Handcuffs:

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions...

—Oscar Wilde

This Queen is at ease with her own and other's emotions, flowing comfortably among them as her koi do in their watery environment. She knows that emotional energy operates as a messenger or signal, alerting us when we need to be aware, helping us build relationships, and allowing us to process our experiences. But even she knows that when we self-identify with an emotion (as if the feeling is us), we can easily drown in despair and fear or become intoxicated with anger. But our emotions are simply like a phone call - they are an exchange of information that is not always accurate and will end when we quit talking (ruminating) about their source. Handcuffs suggest being restrained, and imply that we may attempt to ignore or suppress our feelings. But then we become like an insect trapped in amber, cutting ourselves off from the good in our world and from our wholeness as a human. In the words of Henry Shukman: "We all know both rapture and despair: the first may drop us into a vast love, while the second asks us to face our own deep wounds. It is useless to ignore either. The whole soul must know both light and dark, suffering and awakening."

The Experience of Water

This week I'll be using the Legacy of the Divine Tarot, created and self-published by Ciro Marchetti. I'll pair with it the Tea Leaf Reading Cards, created and self-published by Karin Dalton-Smith. Today's draws are the Ace of Cups and Handcuffs:

          A chalice sits on the bottom of an ocean floor, and represents the potential for love and emotional fulfillment. While love is most often thought of as a feeling, it is created by actions such as kindness, patience, and selflessness. In a letter explaining this to his daughter, Richard Dawkins wrote: "All through the day when you are with somebody who loves you, you see and hear lots of little tidbits of evidence, and they all add up. It isn’t purely inside feeling...There are outside things to back up the inside feeling: looks in the eye, tender notes in the voice, little favors and kindnesses; this is all real evidence." Yet the Handcuffs card suggest there is restraint or blockage to such fulfillment. The two fish around the cup remind me of a story. One fish asks another, "How's the water today?" The second fish looks at this first and says, "What the heck's water?" Just being on the receiving end isn't a relationship of love - that's only narcissism. The real deal isn't about how I feel, but what I do. Can I recognize opportunities (the water around me) to act from the heart, especially when someone isn't very kind? Or am I so preoccupied with how everything affects me, that I fail to see beyond my own orbit? My cup will be filled when I offer tenderness to others without expectation; this softens my heart and makes it capable of gratitude. Then I'll begin to understand what the experience of water is all about.