Tools and Small Pools

From the Waking the Wild Spirit Tarot, the Three of Pentacles; from the Saltwater Reading Cards, Rockpool:

Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along. ~George Herbert

Poppy gives her Three of Pentacles the subtitle 'tools,' meaning our skills, resources and knowledge. Sometimes we learn how to do things differently with different tools - that is also part of mastery. It's easy to get comfortable with just a few and ignore the others. But such an expansion of our skills can help us not only be better at our craft, but to be more flexible if the project doesn't go as expected. Rockpool is is a shallow pool of seawater trapped in rocky depressions when the tide goes out. They are often homes for such animals as sea stars, mussels and small fish. The little pool separated from the ocean suggests taking a time out for rest, which can give inspiration a chance to arise.

Interrelated Structure

This week I'll be using Poppy Palin's Waking the Wild Spirit Tarot, published by Llewellyn, along with the 2nd edition of her companion book, Stories of the Wild Spirit, published by Slippery Jacks Press. I'll also be drawing from the Saltwater Reading Cards, created by Laura Bowen and published by Rockpool Publishing. Today's cards are the Dance of Life/Web of Fate (Wheel of Fortune) and Rockpool:

          Palin's description of the Wheel as being web-like points out that we do not move through our seasons in this world without altering what is around us. That interconnection is why it is so important for me to consider not just how my response to the changes and challenges of life will affect me as time passes, but the effect it will have on my web-mates as well. It also reminds me of karma, not the Hindu definition of it, but as Andrew Olendzki describes it: "It is common to think of karma as a sort of fate to which we are subjected, but it is more central to the Buddha’s message that karma is the opportunity we have each moment to choose what sort of person we are to become next." The habits I reinforce or change today will determine who I become in the not-too-distant future, and those patterns will either benefit or harm those around me. Rockpool, carved out over many years by the ocean's waves, provides a place of refuge from the pounding of the surf for organisms such as clams, mussels, and starfish. This card asks me to consider what I'm weaving with my life: a barrier to protect only myself and those I care about or a place of healing and nurturing for all.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.