Wide Open

This week I'll be using the Badgers Forest Tarot, a deck created and self-published by Nakisha VanderHoeven. Along with it, I'll be using my Gemstone Oracle (with actual stones). Today's draws are the Kit (Page) of Cups and Sunstone:

Anticipate the day as if it was your birthday, and you are turning six again.

~ Michael Dolan

At what age do we cease to keep our heart open and armor it instead? Pema Chodron tells the story of herself as a young girl, feeling angry, unloved and lonely, kicking whatever she encountered. An elderly woman saw her and said, "Little girl, don't you go letting life harden your heart." Both Chodron and this Page of Cups would tell us that we can constrict our heart, becoming more resentful and afraid. Or, we can let our experience soften us, keeping our heart open and tender, developing kindness and compassion (for ourselves and others). Sunstone suggests we look for the joy and beauty inherent in life and cease taking everything so seriously. The Page would encourage us to stop looking at the sky through a straw - there's much more space and other possibilities than what we're currently seeing. 

Grow the Good

From the Badgers Forest Tarot, the Hermit; from the Gemstone Oracle, Sunstone:

Nakisha uses an opossum for her Hermit and describes this card as a time of solitude for soul searching. I personally think a spiritual inventory is a good idea; I can use my own past as a yardstick to see if I've grown or stagnated. If I take an honest look at my behavior and thinking and compare them to the principles I want to live by, I will discover when I've gone off track and when I've maintained my course. The phrases assigned to the Sunstone are 'playfulness,' 'seeing the joy and beauty inherent in life,' and 'not taking things so seriously.' This stone's quote comes from Michael Dolan: "Anticipate the day as if it was your birthday, and you are turning six again." Any spiritual inventory would be unbalanced (and probably lead to self-indulgent pity or morosity) if it didn't include the beneficial things I've done. This is not an exercise in self-flagellation, but a way to grow the good in me.

A Cure for Sadness

From the Badgers Forest Tarot, the Kit of Foxes (Page of Cups); from the Gemstone Oracle, Sunstone:

          Is the little kit watching a flight of birds, or is he watching the changing shape of clouds? If you begin to talk about how you feel, this Page will search your face in the same way he attends to the changing sky-scape. He looks for clues to what you don't say, and his intuitive empathy allows him to pick up on what churns beneath the surface. His sweet sensitivity is sincere; he is only interested in making you feel better. The Sunstone's quote comes from Michael Dolan:

Anticipate the day as if it was your birthday, and you are turning six again.

This quote suggests that beginning the day with a positive attitude and an open mind can be immensely helpful. "Come stand on my hill," the kit begs, "and see all that is beautiful and wonderful around you. Look with fresh eyes at what is good." Being a poetry lover, he quotes a few lines from Mirabai:

I know a cure for sadness:

Let you hands touch something that makes your eyes smile.

I bet there are a hundred objects close by

that can do that.

Look at beauty's gift to us -

her power is so great she enlivens the earth, the sky, our soul.