May Day and the Traditions of Beltane

"May I make my fond excuses for the lateness of the hour;
But we accept your invitation, and would bring you Beltane's flower.
For the May Day is the great day, sung along the old
straight track.
And those who ancient lines did ley will heed this song 
that calls them back."
                              
                                                                     Ian Anderson
                                                                    Jethro Tull, 
                                                                   "Songs From the Wood"



If you've never listened to Jethro Tull's "Songs From the Wood,"

The Green Man

you must download a copy from your favorite site (legally, of course) and allow yourself to be transported back to a time when men and women danced and frolicked to honor the transition of Spring to Summer.  With the harshness of Winter behind them, the long hours of sowing and planting done, people went into May hopeful. They symbolically chased away the specter of famine and disease.  May 1st marks the beginning of the ancient Celtic Summer and was considered to be a time of great energy.  Psychic powers were said to run higher during the last full moon before the first of May.

The origin's of what we now call May Day began as an ancient

The Hierophant from Stephanie
Pui-Mun Law's fae deck, "Shadowscapes"©

Druid fire festival celebrating the 'death' of Winter and the 'birth' of Spring.  The Druid festival morphed into the pagan celebration, Beltane,  celebrating the marriage of Mother Earth to her male consort, the Green Man.  You've seen the Green Man's image as garden art - the face covered in oak leaves, his mouth open as if exhaling the breath of life.  The Earth's marriage to the Green Man was symbolized by the planting of a large pole into the earth.  We can all get the symbolism of that.  The villagers danced wildly around the pole clockwise, celebrating the Mother and the Green Man whose union would ensure an abundant harvest of fruits in the Fall.

Beltane also kept the Druid tradition of setting bonfires ablaze at midnight.  Historically built on hilltops, these fires were constructed from nine pieces of wood, gathered by nine different men from nine different trees.  Fetching the hawthorn blossoms was called, "bringing in the May." Villagers would go into the woods on Beltane Eve (April 30th) to blow cow horns and gather hawthorn blossoms to bring back to their homes.  The revelers stayed out all night, probably enjoying cup after cup of May Wine, a wine flavored with herbs and blossoms.  They returned home with their blooms in the wee hours before dawn.  Eventually, Christian church doctrine outlawed the wild over-night trips into the woods.  I'm guessing because of the significant increase in unwed mothers nine months later.

This oracle card comes from "The Druid Plant
Oracle"© by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm,
illustrated by Will Worthington. Beautiful depictions
reads great!

On May Day, the villagers declared the prettiest girl in the village "Queen of the May," She sat on a throne decorated with flowers and her Green Man sprang out of the bushes to claim her as his dancing partner at the May-Pole.  Beltane, or May Day celebrations as they became known, were outlawed in England during Oliver Cromwell's time along with just about anything else that sounded like fun.

May Day returned to England with the return of Charles II- a historical player whose exploits in the bedroom were the stuff of legend.  However, the festivities were more sedate - at least in mainstream society.  The May-Pole became a fifty foot log with long ribbons attached to the top.  Dancers wore costumes and though they still danced clockwise, they twisted ribbons down the pole in what was probably a much more artistic way than anything their forefathers designed.  Soon May Day became a day for children to tie garlands of flowers to willow sticks and take them from houses to house for people to admire.  Sometimes their efforts were rewarded with cakes and coins. The garlands eventually gave way to baskets of flowers left anonymously on doorsteps and even today it's not unheard of to honor special friends and neighbors with flowers on May Day.

I think it's a nice tradition to celebrate May Day.  I make up my

April 30, 2014 adds up to #14,
Temperance - seen here in the fae world
of "Shadscapes"© by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Watch your consumption of May Wine!

own traditions to celebrate the coming of May, borrowing as I please from various cultures along the way.  You can do the same.  On April 30th why not go out and bless your garden.  Give thanks for the growing season yet to be.  You can do this whether you live on a farm,  have a container garden on a patio, or just a couple of houseplants.  Claim and celebrate the fertile spaces in your life.  Sometimes the smallest ideas yield the largest results.


The Beltane Fire Festival in an international celebration hosted in Edinburgh, Scotland.  Here's a link to explain the history and majesty of this event.  Enjoy!

Did you know?

Beltane is considered to be the biggest moving day in the year for the fae world and the time of year when fairies are the most active.  Legend says that they move between the fairy mounds at this time.  If you have a fairy mound around you, or suspect their are fairies at the bottom of your garden, put out a dish of cream and a piece of sponge cake for them.

Other names for May Day:


Rood Day, Rudemas
Beltane
Walpurgisnacht






LADY ORACLE


Disregard the following "Green Man" product links, as they have been de-googlized

Abundance, Prosperity and the Garden of the Empress

RWCS #3, The Empress

It's lush and green outside and every weed in my garden has taken a self-actualization seminar.   I can still find evidence of former order, or as much order as I ever allow in my garden.  There's the promise of fragrant summer blooms and for now there's enough for me.  We are approaching the end of April and Earth's miraculous transformation from the colder months to the warmer months will be complete.  At least in this hemisphere.  Let's mark the coming of May 1st and a waxing moon cycle with a visit to the Empress' garden.

The Empress is card number three in the Major Arcana.   She, herself, is lush and filled with sensual pleasure - life-giving Mother Earth who sustains her children by connecting them to the natural world.  And although her world has rules and order, it can never be as tightly controlled as the finite world of her male counterpart, the Emperor.  Where the Emperor demands  adherence to rules, the Empress is wildly abandoned in her acts of creation.  Her garden is a riot of colors and textures that stir the senses.

Are you seeking to create a new project, to manifest a more

"The Goddess Tarot"© Kris Waldress
#3, Fertility - The Empress

abundant life?  Then spend some time with the Empress.  Allow her natural fertility to spark your creative drive.  During the waxing moon, we concentrate on what we want to expand into our reality.  Take time to walk in the park or work in your yard and allow the Earth's natural, life-affirming rhythm center you.  Be the sponge.  Use your senses to take in everything around you.  Now, create.  What fires your soul?  Music, dance, sewing, cooking, wine making? You decide.  Allow nature's flow to energize your creativity.  Discover your passion for being alive at this time of year.  It's been a long winter.  Allow yourself to bloom.  Your roots run deep into the earth and you are never too old.

"Steampunk Tarot"© Ally Fell and
Barbara Moore, #3 TheEmpress

We often think of abundance and prosperity solely in terms of material success.  Today take a minute to recognize the bounty you have in your life that's not tied to the material.  Feel gratitude for the abundance of family, friends, ideas, knowledge, and for your connection to Source.  This is the "new" time of year and what better way to make a new start, than to commit to yourself.


LADY ORACLE

Nine of Cups - Let the Good Times Roll!

9 of Cups from RWSC by US Games©

My single card draw for today yielded none other than the 9 of cups, or as we call it in tarot reading, "the wish card."  In Rider Waite, the 9 is depicted by a rotund gentleman - I think of him as a merchant prince - seated on a bench in front of a table holding 9 goblets.  It's any one's guess what's in the goblets, but the self-satisfied expression on the merchant's face sure says wine to me.  Also, the suit of cups has a spiritual aspect and wine is the breakfast of champions, spiritually speaking.

The 9 denotes fulfillment, satisfaction, obtaining goals and being contented.  Dreams coming true.  That's only the surface message.  As with all tarot cards, there is layer upon layer of subtext from which we can detect the card's particular significance in our own lives.

Looking beyond the keywords for the 9, we ask ourselves, what is it that people always tell us about wishes?  Be careful what you wish for.  If you for working to manifest your dreams, be certain about on what and where you focus.  Scientific principle dictates that for each action there is an opposite and equal reaction.  Does that mean if we act for our own good we will eventually accomplish something that is bad for us?  Not at all.  What it means is there is effort and reward.  And there is a consequence.

Millions of individuals act each day without thought to consequence.  The most dramatic acts make the nightly news.  Nevertheless consequences happen even when we're engaged in consciously working on our own behalf.  We want a new job.  We set our intention, we move forward by acting on that intention and we're hired for a new job with more money and benefits than we expected, however, we have to relocate across the country.  Maybe not such a bad deal, but still a consequence.  Have a clear idea in your mind what consequences are acceptable to you and what are not as you set your goals.

And what's with 9's smugness?  Is he showing off all his cups

9 of Cups from Lo Scarebo's
"Tarot of the Pagan Cats"©

basically to say, "I have all, you have none?"  Joan Bunning, in her book, "Learning the Tarot," likens 9's smugness to the proverbial cat swallowing a canary.  Bunning cautions that sooner or later people notice all the feathers around the mouth and the peculiar lack of canaries in the area too, I'd wager.  Nobody likes a gloater.

There's no harm in being pleased with the results of your hard work.  However, there is harm in gloating that you were smart, quicker, more ambitious, etc., than everybody else and therefore the prize is yours.  Gloating is for the insecure, who don't see themselves attaining a goal simply because they choose to attain it.  A goal isn't a race, or a bet.  It's a commitment to and an extension of your centered self.

The 9 of cups offers us the assurance of our dreams as fact.  How we take that assurance is determined by who we are.  By making conscious decisions, weighing their consequences and finding the risks acceptable, we can make room for ourselves at 9's table.  Go ahead, take a drink.  He's got plenty.


Lady Oracle

A Circle of Friends - Working With The Goddess Oracle

I have several decks of oracle cards that I use in conjunction with my tarot decks.  My favorite oracle deck though, is the Marashinsky and Janto Goddess Oracle.  I use what I call my "Circle of Friends" spread with the Goddess Oracle.  This spread will also work with tarot cards (use Major Arcana cards only), but I prefer to use it with oracle decks.

Tarot is about your energy and how it relates to the energy of the people and situations surrounding you.  An oracle deck, in general, will  take a look at the energy you're drawing to you through the particular archetypes used in the deck.  The cards show you how you interpret and interact with the world around you.  Granted, sometimes it's a fine distinction.  In the Marashinsky and Janto Goddess Oracle, the female archetypes are depicted as Goddesses from worldwide myths, each carrying the legendary attributes from their respective cultures.

"Circle of Friends" is a six card spread.  Shuffle the Goddess Oracle until you are guided to stop.  Lay them out like this:


                                 4                       5
                                         
                                              1
                             
                                 3                       6
                             
                                              2


Number 1 is your signifier card - the one that most closely embodies the energy you're currently     transmitting. The rest of the cards go clockwise from the number 2, forming a circle around your signifier.  Here's an a spread that I did for myself yesterday using the Goddess Oracle.

1) Tara  -  Indian Goddess, centering, go within (not surprising during the dark moon)

2) Coatlicue - Aztec Goddess, grief,  healing through grieving ( a dear friend has been diagnosed with a serious illness and I am sad and worried)

3) Lilith -  Sumerian Goddess, power, connecting to and taking your own power (establishing that connection to my higher self to center)

4) Changing Woman - Native American Goddess, cycles, honoring your cycles and your own unique process (again the theme of connecting and centering)

5) Sedna -  Inuit Goddess, victim (Negative thoughts can spiral you down to the 'all about me' state.  Don't fall for it)

6 Hestia - Greek Goddess, home and hearth (coming home to myself and spending time in my space - very nurturing)

In order to learn how to alter or augment an energy aspect, cross the particular card with another card.  The crossing card symbolizes the energy or attitude you need to encourage to change the essence in the underlying card. In the above case, I chose to work on  # 2 and 5.  Good decision.

2) Coatlicue - crossed with Sheila Na Gig, Irish Goddess, opening ( expand my into the universe - time to play and have new experiences)

5) Sedna - crossed with Nut, Egyptian Goddess, mystery (Nut is depicted in this deck with three spheres and I spent the morning with my three crystal spheres and pink quartz.)

The cross cards worked beautifully to adjust my attitude and hence, adjust my day.  Knowing what energy, or in this case, being able to put a face to the energy that surrounds you, will help you to make conscious choices about how you want be.  Consider using the Goddess Oracle if you haven't and try the "Circle of Friends" spread.  Let me know how it works for you.  I'm happy to report that today my energy has completely changed.  This morning's reading reflects being centered, creative, filled with laughter and nourishment.  Well, dah.  I'm writing.  Life is abundant and I am grateful.  I hope it is the same for you today.


Lady Oracle







                                     

I Feel A Dark Moon Rising - Meditation With the High Priestess

Corrine Kenner and John J. Blumen's
depiction of Lady Moon, or tarot's
#2, The High Priestess from "Wizard's Tarot"©

Wasn't it bad enough to coping with Mercury Retrograde this month?  Now we have to endure (cue the organ music please) the dark of the moon.  Today I received several emails and calls from friends and clients who confided that they were having an 'off' day.  Some flat out said they felt weird.  Considering it's three days before the new moon, I'd say that's fairly typical.

What exactly is a dark moon and what good is it?  Glad you asked.  From new moon to full moon we say the moon is waxing and from full moon to new moon it's waning.  As the moon turns in orbit, its illuminated surface turns to directly face us (waxing to full) and as it completes its rotation the unlit side reappears and the lighted portion disappears (waning to dark) once more.  The last portion of the waning crescent moon disappears completely to the naked eye about three days before the new moon.  This month, Saturday, April 21st marks the start of a new lunar cycle, so for 18th, 19th and 20th we're in the dark, so to speak.

We feel more introspective during the dark of the moon.  We're

#1 The Magician from "Wizard's Tarot"©
by John J. Blumen and Corrine Kenner

more prone to retreat from friends and family and do a little soul searching.  That's a good thing too, because we need a chance to center ourselves for the manifestation opportunities that come during the waxing moon.  The dark moon can effect everyone differently on different months.  Some months pass and you wonder what all the fuss was about.  Other times you will feel like your skin is too tight and your aura is sore to the touch.  Whatever happens, honor your feelings.  That's not giving you permission to be rude, mind you, but a little retreat is good for the soul.

In the tarot deck, The High Priestess represents unconscious thought and intuition.  Where The Magician's colors are bright under the direct light of the sun, hers are more subdued by the indirect light of the moon.  She sits quietly in her chamber in meditation and contemplation, yet it's during the dark of the moon that she makes her strongest connection to her psychic gifts.  Her example can guide us on the moonless nights.  When you feel edgy and restless don't seek to escape, go inside yourself.  You are after all, your own best friend.



LADY ORACLE

A Case for Divine Balance # 11 - Justice

#11, Justice - Divine order and
universal fairness - RWCS deck

September 4, 2014 = #11, Justice
Here's some things for your consideration 
on this day of universal balance...

Justice sits squarely upon her throne, the chaos of the universe discretely hidden behind the scarlet drape at her back.  She knows the fundamental truth lying at the heart of all matters.  Her judgment is never clouded by her own perceptions.  We know this because her right hand holds her sword upright, straight and true, not tilted to one side or the other by her personal bias.  Never confuse justice with judgment, because one has little to do with the other.  Judgment is about decisions based upon facts, happenstance or personal preference.  Justice is about balance and fairness.  Justice is karma.

If # 11 has shown up in your reading ask yourself where you need fairness and balance in your life.  Did something happen in the past that has caused you regret?  Is the universe sending you a message that it's past time you forgave yourself and moved on?  Life has a way of balancing things out, sometimes in a straightforward manner and sometimes in a pattern that may take years to unfold.

I told you all that to tell you this...

This past weekend was miraculous and I was there to see it all unfold.  At the beginning of the month (see post - "The April Fool")  I told you the story of the sailboat my husband and I bought to rebuild on April Fool's day, six years ago.  Before this latest project boat, "Enchantress," there was another sailboat, a wooden, ketch named "Jenny."  Jenny was our first major project boat.  She'd been the victim of a fire set as revenge for a tattoo gone wrong.  I know... but that's a story for another time.  We bought her and painstakingly repaired her.  Once Jenny was complete, we said goodbye to our home in the city and took our children cruising among the San Juan Islands of Washington and into Canada.

When we returned, circumstances forced us to sell Jenny.  It wasn't easy, especially for my husband.  He knew every bolt, every plank in her by heart.  We all loved Jenny, but she was part of his soul. Sailors will tell you that wooden boats hold a spirit, a life force all their own because they are made of organic material.  They're right.  Each of us could feel Jenny in our own way, but my husband, felt her more than any of us.  For him, he was losing a piece of himself.

 

Ciro Marchetti's more yin and yang
view of Justice.  Works for me.
"Legacy of the Divine Tarot"©

The last weekend she was ours, we took her sailing, spending one last night with her.  We were all pretty miserable.  We said our goodbyes, thanking her for all her gifts to us and for protecting our family on the ocean.  As the years passed (16 of them) we heard tales of her, but never saw her again.  Frankly, it would have been too painful.  Just after we purchased Enchantress, we heard Jenny was for sale, but our commitments were elsewhere and so we let her go again.

Jenny often drifted into our thoughts as we undertook the momentous task of reconstructing Enchantress. We rebuilt her hull, purchased a galley stove and an engine, along with hundreds of miscellaneous parts.  Then trouble hit.  The engine we purchased for her refused to work correctly.  Now bear in mind that during the past 6 years I'd heard my husband say, "If we only had Jenny's engine.  That would have been perfect," no less than a hundred times.  And now that we were in need the cosmic tumblers started clicking with blinding speed.

Last week we saw an ad for a used engine that was the same make and model as Jenny's.  The seller said the engine had been pulled from a wooden Tahiti Ketch - just like Jenny.  Long story short, when we saw the engine my husband was suspicious and seeing the boat's title only confirmed what he knew at first sight.  It was Jenny's engine. She'd found her way back to us.  The seller told us he had other parts from her as well.  He produced a pair of brass reading lamps, lamps I'd turned on and off a thousand times.  We bought them.  I held them in my lap as we drove away, tears streaming down my face.  Our girl had never given up on us and in the strange balance of the universe, she'd found her way home.

A lot of things had to happen quickly and in a certain way to make

#5, The Hierophant from
Ciro Marchetti's "Legacy of the Divine Tarot"©

this all come about.  This story is so much more than just a story about replacing an old boat engine.  My husband's year card is #11, Justice.  Amid the chaos of life, the universe has restored balance for him at least in this piece.  Karma.  If Jenny had a heart, then surely that's what this engine is.  I believe it.  We will transplant Jenny's heart into Enchantress and we will have many new adventures with both of them.
Numbers 11 and 5, justice and faith.  It's a darn good year.



(I originally posted this blog in 2012 and it looks like we'll have a launch this summer! You can be sure I'll keep you posted!)

Lady Oracle

2012 - The Year of the Hierophant

In terms of the Chinese calendar, 2012 is the year of The Dragon.  In terms of tarot 2012 is card number 5 of the Major Arcana, or the year of The Hierophant.  This year we will deal with belief systems, ours and other peoples, as well as issues surrounding conformity and group identification.  Just what you wanted to hear in an election year, isn't it.

If we are curious by nature, we will seek answers and perhaps question the validity of our beliefs.  Some of us will prefer to seek comfort in time-honored rituals and embrace cultural concepts as a means of fitting in.  The challenge to all of us this year is to ask ourselves what we believe and where, or in what, have we placed our faith.

Linda Jane Becker, in her book, "Living with Soul," states, "We are spiritual beings having a human experience." It is within the essence of our spirituality that we house our faith - or it should be, because faith without understanding or compassion swiftly turns into blind obedience.  Where there are no questions, there can be no answers and hence, no growth.

This year use The Hierophant as a guide to greater insight into yourself.  After all, another aspect of card 5, and to me the most significant one, is that of teacher.  The Hierophant imparts hidden knowledge to the querent who's willing to look.  Mirrors can be scary things, but let the opportunity to expand your awareness push your fears aside.  Each step we take towards consciousness as individuals helps humanity as a whole.

Here is the formula for for finding a year number:

2+0+1+2= 5     (Not rocket science)     Do not reduce the number unless it is 23 or more.    2+3= 5

Did you know that you also have a yearly tarot card just for you?  To find it add your birth month, birth day and the current year.

      6
    27
2012
_____
2045   =  11   Justice


Use your personal year number to help you understand where you fall in the 22 year cycle (22 is the number of The Fool).  Look for the significance your card number holds for you and how it corresponds to the general year number. Post or email your comments and questions, and I'll be happy to respond.


Please review the April 4th post - "Numerology and Tarot : Finding Your Birth Numbers" for a complete list of the Major Arcana cards and their corresponding numbers.  Cross-reference their meanings with your favorite tarot guide.  Also, feel free to ask here.

For those of you in the greater Portland (OR) area, I will be teaching a workshop tentatively called, "Inner Journeys Through Tarot"  in late Summer or early Fall.  Email me and I will be happy to put you on my mailing list for the event.

Reading recommendations from today's blog are "Learning the Tarot," by Joan Bunning,  "Tarot for Yourself," by Mary K. Greer and "Living With Soul,"  By Linda Jane Becker.  Also, Ms. Becker will be teaching meditation classes in the greater Portland (still OR) area this summer as well.  A great opportunity to learn techniques for your life journey.


Lady Oracle




ladyoracle56@yahoo.com

The Crystals Every Person Needs - Part 2 Claiming Yourself

Back in the day, when people used to use punch cards to program computers that took up entire rooms, they had an expression, "Garbage in, garbage out."  It meant that whatever you put into a system is exactly what you took out.  An updated version of "Sow, shall you reap."  Think about those two expressions.  In more than 5,000 years the only thing that changed was the social reference, not the actual message.  Human experience is more consistent than we realize.

Each day we are influenced by our contact with other people and situations.  Our energy fields bush against each others and as Lucard's Principal states, whenever two objects come in contact, there is an exchange of matter.  Granted, he was talking about the physical plane, but in actuality, the same transference occurs energetically.  People's negative, or low vibrational energy effects you and it's much easier for them to pull you down to their frequency than it is for you to raise them up to yours.  Always keep in mind that no one has the right to determine your day and that by learning to clear and ground yourself you are taking responsibility for who you are and who you wish to become.

The following is a list of stones that can help clear and balance to your energy flow.  You can meditate with them, wear them or sometimes its simply enough to be around them.

Apatite  -  Clears away mental confusion and weariness.  It offers good balancing energy and can be      
                 used to activate you in the direction of humanitarian pursuits.  It can also be used as an aid
                 to making healthier eating choices (yay!).

Amethyst - Opens and activates the crown chakra.  This is a stone a spirituality and assists in divine
                   meditation, assimilating new ideas and understanding the links between cause and effect
                   within yourself.

Ametrine -  A blend of Amethyst and Citrine that induces mental clarity.  It clears a pathway between
                   physical form and your highest self.  This stone is self-clearing.  It balances male and female
                   energies, assists in the development of consciousness, releases blockages and disburses
                   negativity from your aura.  I call this stone, "one stop energy shopping."  Ametrine will help
                   you bring buried issues into the light and is an very strong protector.  It also guards against
                   psychic attack.

Aqua Aura Quartz - Stimulates the throat chakra and releases stress.  It assists you in speaking your truth
                                 and releasing negativity. Think of it as the stone that helps you find your voice.

Rose Quartz - This stone is the stone of unconditional love.  It will teach you the nature of love, how to
                        express it and how to receive it.  Rose Quartz opens the heart chakra, comforts you in
                        grief and draws love and relationships to you. I have a huge chunk of it sitting in my
                        house and it's wonderful.

Citrine  -    Brightens the dark corners in you and banishes fear.  It promotes inner calm and natural
                  wisdom.  Citrine will not hold negativity.  It's a stone of personal power and attracts money
                  and abundance.  Place it in a cashbox or carry a chip in your wallet.

Moonstone - One of the great emotional balancing stones.  It brings calmness and awareness. Moonstone
                     is also known as the "traveler's stone," offering protection during trips.  I wear it to balance
                     moods and bring serenity.  Its energy can also be used to suppress appetite (double yay!).

Carnelian -  A stone of action.  It increases your ability to analyze and aids in precision.  It can awaken
                   your talents, protect against anger, envy and rage and it can lift sorrows.  Carnelian is also
                   a great hearth and home stone.  It houses a gentle, loving energy akin to nurturing, yet it
                   dispels apathy and passive avoidance.


These are the basic crystals I choose to have around me.  Others might chose differently.  Please remember that each of the crystals named above have other attributes and uses and likewise there are other crystals that hold similar characteristics that you may prefer to use.  Also, where Ametrine and Citrine do not require clearing, the other stones mentioned can be cleared by running them under cold water or burying them in brown rice for twenty-four hours.

If you are experiencing issues and you are not certain of the origins, i.e. a feeling of sadness or malaise, a short temper, confusion.  I recommend doing a tarot reading and seeing what suits you pull.  For instance, an abundance of cups could be an emotional imbalance, swords, mental fatigue, stress and so on.  Think about what your reading might mean in terms of what crystals can best support your needs.
If you have any questions please email me.  I'd love to hear from you.

Life is abundant and if we focus on fear and stress, fear and stress is what we will create.  If we focus on joy, hope and prosperity we will see our world expand to fulfill our desires.  This is not a new concept.  Ask any motivational speaker and they'll tell you that.  Tarot and crystals are not an end unto themselves.  They are merely the tools you can use to open up your existence and develop the new skill set you need for your journey towards living a conscious life.  The universe is knocking.  All you have to do is open the door.


Lady Oracle

The Crystals Every Person Needs - Part 1 Claiming Your Space

It's Spring, the traditional season for cleaning.  And nothing needs cleaning more after a long, closed up Winter than your energy field and the space around it.  We've just completed a retrograde cycle that a lot of people found particularly disruptive.  So break out the vacuum cleaner, mop, dust rags and sage smudges.  If you're lucky enough to live where there is actually some form of sunshine in the spring, run your crystals under cold water (only if appropriate) and put them out in the sunshine.

If you are new to crystal use there are basics you need to know.  I'll go over some of them here, but I recommend that you invest in a good crystal book.  There are several out there.  Among my favorites are, Melody's, "Love Is In The Earth," and Judy Hall's books, "The Crystal Bible" and "The Crystal Encyclopedia."  Melody's book is very in-depth, discussing factors of hardness, vibrational frequency and formations.  The information is excellent, but the only draw back is that there are no pictures to use as guidelines for identifying crystals.  Hall's books are great from the perspective of not only giving you good, scientific information, but also it has color pictures of each crystal for easy identification.

So how do you determine what crystals are right for you?  One

Peach selenite tower - wonderful source of white light

simple rule.  They will find you.  No, seriously, you ask, how?  I repeat, they will find you.  I have an enormous Pink Quartz that I found at an estate sale.  I'd been looking for one like that for months and there it was, shoved in a cardboard box, overlooked by fifty other people, just waiting for me.  I picked it up and as weird as it may sound to some of you who've never experienced the phenomena, we recognized each other immediately.  It now happily resides in the middle of my kitchen table activating my heart chakra and sending beautiful, calming energy throughout the room.

Spring cleaning, or clearing as I call it, should start with the space around you.  If you can't smudge due to allergies, I suggest gridding rooms by placing four, cleared Black Tourmaline and four Selenite stones in each corner of the room.  Black Tourmaline, repels and transmutes negative energy and also acts as a protector against the the ill-wishes of others.  It's also excellent to keep you from being drained by energy vampires, people who we may love, but who tend to syphon off our energy to keep their lives in balance.  though they are not nearly as sexy as Twilight's Cullen family,  we all know people who feed off us, leaving us weary and wary of dealing with them.  Black Tourmaline will stop the suction in its tracks.

A milky crystal cluster and my old friend, Ametrine

Keep in mind that Tourmaline does not clear itself and must be cleaned regularly.  It will store negativity.  Let me give you this cautionary tale.  I'd loaned a particularly nice piece of Russian Black Tourmaline to my daughter who planned to visit an extremely haunted location for EPV work.  (Yes, we're all like this in my household) She had other items with her as well and although she remembered to smudge herself and them when she got home, she neglected to clear the crystal.  I figured it out two days later when the car started acting up, the washing machine  jammed in mid-cycle and our cell phones began picking up static in the house.  Chaos isn't just a theory as it turns out.  When I asked my daughter about the tourmaline, she remembered it hadn't been cleaned.  I located the offensive little rascal on her vanity table and when I reached for it, I could feel its energy vibrating before I even picked it up.  Not a good sign in this case.  I cleared the stone and the washer cycle re-engaged (hasn't malfunctioned since) and the cell phones returned to normal.  The car however, needed oil.  My bad.  Clear Black Tourmaline by running it under cold water, or smudging.

Selenite holds high vibrational, white light.  Unlike Black Tourmaline, it never needs clearing and can actually clear other stones around it.  That's why I like to use it in conjunction with other crystals.  Selenite brings great mental clarity, enhances telepathic communications and will deepen you mediations.  Holding a large piece is a wonderful experience.  You immediately feel lighter in both mind and spirit.  Just one caution - do not clean this stone with water.  Selenite is a soft stone and is not meant for immersion.  And as I said before, it does not need to be cleared.

The two most common forms of Selenite are tall, white to peach colored pillars or rods and the incredible Desert Rose structure.  The crystal actually forms like the petals of a flower.  They are both beautiful and useful.  These stones work wonders in clearing your space and keeping other stones clear as well.  I keep mine off the floor because I have pets and if your stones are small, they can present a choking hazard to small children and animals.

Once you've cleared your room, think about what other crystals you'd like to introduce to that space as well.  In the second part of this blog we'll discuss crystal additions and what crystals can help clear and balance you.


Lady Oracle



                                   

Dream Symbolism – "I Know I Was Wearing Pants When I Left the House"

"OSHO Zen Tarot"© #1 Existence by Deva Padma
If your going to dream your naked,
it's best to be somewhere splendid like this.

I love Alice in Wonderland, the book, the various movie incarnations with their amazing dream sequences - the whole shooting match.  We watch Alice's travails and then find it was all a dream on a lovely summer's day. We face ourselves in dreams.  There's no hiding from your hopes and fears in them - not for us, not for Alice.  Often we convince ourselves images in dreams have no real significance.  We wake up in the morning confused as to why on earth we dreamt about painting a fence using a goldfish as a paintbrush.  Must have been that 7-Layer Taco Dip before bed.  There's an old wives tale that says if you eat Welsh Rarebit before bed, you will have nightmares.  I think that's a safe bet for anybody who has ever experienced acid reflux.  I know dreams mean a great deal.  They can be a warning, a chance to say good bye to a loved one who's crossed over, or a reminder from the universe that you shouldn't take yourself too seriously.  I get that last one a lot.

Much of dream interpretation is common sense.  A dream about crossing a bridge is clearly a dream about transitioning from one aspect of life to another.  Past to present, present to future, or even an actual change in locations.  Building a bridge can be about constructing an exit strategy for a situation, or re-directing your life to reach a desired goal or benefit.  What we see in dreams can be a portent of some future event, but it is often a representation of our attempt to deal with an issue.

The Lover's from "Shadowscapes Tarot" ©
by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
Romantic dreams are the best.

A few weeks ago, my husband received a promotion.  The night before his meeting, I dreamt I was standing on a hillside under a bright and sunny sky.  The wind was howling past me, rippling the flowers and grass to waves.  It wasn't a cold wind, just very, very strong.  I woke up with one phrase echoing in my head. "The winds of change."  That evening, I learned of my husband's good fortune.  However, the significance of the symbolism introduced in my wind dream didn't end there.  Earlier this week, I learned that changes in my husband's world could result in some pretty big changes in mine.  And, you guessed it.  The wind came back.

This time, like Dorothy Gale about to head for OZ, I was

The Tower from Ciro Marchetti's
"Legacy of the Divine Tarot"©
Let the winds of change come. They simple
give you a fresh start!

standing in a quaint little cottage with casement windows.  Outside, the sky was stormy grey and the wind at hurricane force.  The casement began to rattle and I grabbed onto the latch.  Suddenly the wind ripped the entire window out, casement and all.  I was pulled halfway through the hole trying to pull the window back into place.  Two strangers stood behind me shouting, "Let go! Let go! You'll hurt yourself trying to hold on to that!"  I let go, the wind took the window and it blew across my new car without even damaging it.  The moral: Resistance causes suffering i.e. my arm being yanked out of its socket by trying to halt a change in the wind.  Let go and perhaps the damage you fear will not materialize at all, or will be much less than you expect.

I told you all that to tell you this.  In tarot readings, people fear the appearance of The Tower, or as Hollywood loves to describe it, The Tower of Destruction ( insert appropriate organ music here).  The lesson of The Tower is not the, sudden and dramatic change indicated.  It's about how you deal with that change.  Do you fall screaming, muscles tense in resistance, or do you fall acrobatically, arching and turning your body for the best advantage in landing?

Below is a pretty generalized list of dream symbols.  See how they fit for you and start thinking about how your dream images can reflect your inner feelings. Check out some books on the subject and above all, have fun with it.

Lady Oracle


Car Out of Control - Passenger, feeling powerless to alter an event or situation.   Driver, unable to control the direction of your own life.


Cat -  Power and independence


Key - A secret


Apples - Fresh and firm, good fortune.  Rotten, goals not being realized


Hammer - Building/forging new opportunities


Burial - Saying goodbye to the old.


Hawk - Keep an eye on something. Bird's eye view


Deer - Gentleness, beauty in motion.


Butterfly - Transformation and beauty


Fountains - Emotions (water is always emotionally based)


Flying - Happiness and freedom.  Escaping restriction


Mirrors - A vision of yourself.  this can be unsettling as our self-perceptions frequently are.


Ships - The unconscious mind and the realm of emotions (what is the water like?)


Climbing - An attempt to move past obstacles


Clocks - Schedules and control.  Timeliness.


Stairs - A rise or fall of social or economic status.


Lightening - Sudden awareness.


Thunder - Calling your attention to something (what else is happening?)


Elephants - Memories or the importance of remembering something


Castles - Rewards and praise for achievements