Curveballs

From the Touchstone Tarot, the Four of Swords; from the John Waterhouse Oracle, Ophelia:

Many of us have minds that are constantly planning and prepping, trying to stay one chess move ahead of whatever curveball life might throw at us. We're often not aware we're on automatic pilot while performing these mental gymnastics. At times we need a sanctuary from all of our intellectual efforts. As the acronym HALT reminds us, we need to make sure we don't get to hungry, angry, lonely or tired. Ophelia was a Shakespearean character who was innocent and naive young woman until she was driven mad by Hamlet discarding her and killing her father. She slowly drowned after falling in the river while picking flowers (making no effort to save herself). Our mental and emotional health do not depend on external events, but how we take care of our own needs. When we practice self-care, we'll be much better prepared for life's curveballs. 

Counter with Integrity

From the Touchstone Tarot, the Queen of Wands; from the John Waterhouse Oracle, Ophelia:

          Kat Black describes this Queen as confident and passionate, a woman who has the ability to draw others in (like a moth to a flame). Watching the U.S. this past election year, I've seen people lose their common sense and their common decency. It would serve us well to reflect on our strong attraction to certain people and what that magnetic pull says about our character. As Matthew Gindin stated, "There is an essential connection between truthfulness and personal integrity. If one goes, so will the other." Ophelia is depicted right before she drowns (either by a broken willow branch or by her own choice). Scholar Tina Packer argued that this dutiful daughter was trapped in a world of noblemen, and the only way she could escape was to lose her mind (and eventually her life). Yet we all have a choice, even when those around us try to tell us otherwise. 

Complacency is countered by integrity, which is an unswerving love of the truth and a willingness to live it. —Jack Kornfield

Finding Your True Self

This week I'll be using the Touchstone Tarot, created and self-published by Kat Black. Along with it I'll be using the John Waterhouse Oracle, created and self-published by Elaine Wilkinson (aka Seven Stars). Today's draws are the High Priestess and 'Ophelia:'

          With a book, scroll, and pomegranate in her arms, this High Priestess seems to beckon us into the darkness without speaking. Her manner illustrates the word 'quietude' - the state of being quiet, still, and calm. The symbols she holds promises hidden knowledge that once revealed will be fruitful. She asks only that we become open and receptive; in the words of Rainer Maria Rilke, "Make your ego porous." At the other end of the spectrum sits Ophelia by a pond of lilies moments before her death. She drowned herself after Hamlet killed her father and deserted her. Without a porous ego, it is impossible not to be bound by the many ways we define ourselves. When these labels are ripped from us, it can be as if we've had the rug of reality pulled from beneath our feet. The High Priestess implores us to see beyond this limited sense of self.

'Finding yourself' is not really how it works. You aren’t a ten-dollar bill in last winter’s coat pocket. You are also not lost. Your true self is right here, buried under cultural conditioning, other people’s opinions and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a kid that became your beliefs about who you are. ‘Finding yourself’ is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you.

—Emily McDowell