Wedding Joy with Discipline

This week I'll be using the New Era Elements Tarot, created by Eleonore Pieper and published by U.S. Games. I'll also be using the Tao Oracle, created by Ma Deva Padma and published by St. Martin's Press. Today's draws are Nine of Water (Cups) and Hexagram Seven:

Pieper describes dolphins as creatures that move through their environment with ease, engaging with it in a playful manner. They are a reminder that chasing happiness doesn't work; we only find it when we let each moment unfold without trying to cling to it, shove it away, or hide from it. Our relationship with it is one of openness and curiosity rather than possessiveness, anger or indifference. Hexagram 7 is often called discipline, and involves being able to do what is just and beneficial rather than be pulled by one's emotions. Self-discipline won't pop up fully formed when chaos or challenges appear, however. Rather than allowing the mind to be swayed by outer circumstances, we practice staying open to what is, relating to it with compassion and kindness. 

I think self-discipline is like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

~Daniel Goldstein

Streaming into Daylight

This week I'll be using the Brady Tarot, created and self-published by Emi Brady with a companion booklet by Rachel Pollack. The oracle I'll be drawing from is the I Ching, illustrated by Klaus Holitzka with instructions by Marlies Holitzka; it is published by AGM Urania. Today's draws are Judgment and Hexagram 7:

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. —Terry Pratchett

          A golden eagle holding a viper wakes a colony of brown bats and sends them streaming into the daylight. Judgment is a card of summoning, yet not in the sense of dividing the sheep from the goats, but in awakening us from our personal viewpoints and from the many opinions with which we are constantly bombarded. Once we see the stark nakedness of reality, we are called to act from a new and wiser understanding. Hexagram Seven is given the title 'Collective Force;' while it may refer to a group, in this case it likely involves the many parts of a person working as a coordinated whole. Living from reality instead of an opinion requires the integrity of one's physical, mental and emotional being. It can be tempting to avoid acting if we're afraid we might upset someone. In such a case, it might be best to take the words of Philip K. Dick to heart: "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."