Four Of Swords: Having a rest.
Merry Christmas Everyone! I’m honouring the season by taking a break from this blog for the 12 days of Christmas. You might like to re-read some of the entries in my absence. The more you focus on the cards the more you will come to understand them. See you in the New Year xx
So. It’s Christmas Eve here in Australia and I’m writing my post early before heading off with the family to my parent’s house. My youngest daughter is beyond excited and is champing at the bit to open her first present which she’ll get to do when I finish this because it’s too darn heavy to lift into the car (it’s a rubber dinghy). But before she starts ripping into that wrapping paper I want to discuss the Christmas you want versus the Christmas you often get.
This card represents the Christmas we want…
I love this story. Apparently some woman in LA has created an image of ‘flipping the bird’ with her Christmas lights because she’s feuding with her neighbours. I love it ’cause with the best will in the world you just can’t be ho ho ho 24/7. Even at Xmas. It’s not normal. I like how she’s being honest about her feelings in this really creative way. That she was so committed to her anger she went to all the trouble to write it in lights. That she’s not giving into the pressure to be cheerful just because it’s Xmas.
I’ve been tossing up which Tarot card represents her actions and have settled on this one.
Five Of Swords: A man steals another man’s swords away. In this case, a woman has stolen other people’s Xmas joy by flipping the bird at them in lights.
Do you think this is the right card to choose?
P.S I will post a link to the news article on my Facebook page so you can see the lights for yourself.
It’s only a few days till Xmas and I don’t know about you but my life has suddenly sped up. Tonight I have my daughter’s high school graduation ceremony then I have to wrap my work KK present and my art room elves presents (not to mention wash my hair, lol.) I spent all day in a frenzy at work making bundles of name tags for my class next year. In Australia the new school year starts after the holidays so we have double the tasks to complete before breaking up for Xmas. Tomorrow’s our last day and I still have to finish cleaning up the art room, moving stuff into my new classroom and updating my art program before sending a copy to the principal and printing one out for the next art teacher. I’ll have about an hour tops to complete all these missions what with the school Christmas assembly in the morning, meeting my new grade after snack and the good-bye assembly in the afternoon. Yowser! I feel tired just thinking about tomorrow.
The Knight Of Swords is the guy who rushes around like an idiot trying to get a million things done. He’s in his element at this time of year. But there is a niceness about this crazy because it’s for such a good cause: Putting a smile on other people’s faces come Xmas morn. So long as you can keep your cool that is.
Are you feeling the Xmas rush?
After a few days of sad stories, a happy one:
Muslims in the United States have launched a public education campaign in the hope of reclaiming the word ‘jihad’ from extremists. At it’s heart jihad is not about terrorism at all apparently (I’m as surprised as you are!) It’s a personal spiritual quest. A struggle for justice, compassion, tolerance. All the good stuff. And it requires faith, courage and perseverance. Not bombs.
The campaign features Muslims describing their personal struggles on Twitter, Facebook, bus advertisements and a website: myjihad.org. Organizers are also working to spread the message to Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, London and Manchester. (I’m doing my bit right here and I’m not even Muslim. Just a believer that there is good in every religion and every person. Like Tarot suggests.)
One ad pictures an African-American man with a Jewish friend and the slogan: ‘My jihad is to build relationships across the aisle.’ It’s so exciting to see a public declaration that Muslims and Jews can be friends. This whole campaign hopefully signals a new partnership between the Muslim community and the Western world. FYI: New partnerships are represented in Tarot by the Two of Cups above.
I for one am glad to see the Muslim community speaking up in a positive way. More of it I say. What do you think?
I know. I know. I just mentioned the Ten of Pentacles the other day and here I am talking about it again. But once I start thinking about a card it seems to pop up everywhere. You’ll find the same thing happening to you as you get to know the cards.
I chose this card for tonight’s post because I’ve just come back from Grade Six Graduation at my school. Every year we hold a formal ceremony to acknowledge the achievements of the grade six students before they move onto high school. The students are given a key chain and photo to acknowledge their time at our school and some extra special kids are awarded prizes.
We talk a lot during the ceremony about what it is we value as a school and how the children have come to embody those values. And that’s why graduation is a classic Ten of Pentacles experience. It recognises an achievement that is valued by the community. The Hierophant card which represents tradition also comes into play. Especially when it’s graduation from a school. (Um, now I’m wondering if there’s any other kind. But there must be. You can graduate from riding a scooter to a bike right?)
Hopefully by going back to Tarot cards again and again you will gradually build up an understanding of the core meaning of each card. That’s the idea behind this blog. I’m learning too. As I write the post each night I’m forced to crystallize my thoughts about the cards. Just like as a teacher at school I’m constantly learning from my students. It’s the circle of life, lol!
As I said in another post, the Ace of Cups represents a gift of love. There were many such gifts given during the horror that unfolded in the U.S. yesterday when a gunman opened fire in a primary school in Connecticut.
First grade teacher Kaitlin Roig protected her class from the gunman by barricading them in a bathroom. She said to them, ‘I need you to know that I love you all very much and that it’s going to be OK.’ She thought they were all going to die and that was the last thing her students were ever going to hear. Afterwards she told reporters, ‘I wanted them to know someone loved them. I wanted that to be the last thing they heard, not the gunfire in the hallway.’
What a great gift to give to the children in her care. Not only did she save their lives she had the piece of mind to let them know what was truly important in that moment. That they are loved. Bless her and the other heroes of this terrible tragedy. Some gave their lives for their students and there is no greater gift of love than that. I salute them all!
I don’t know much about the tragedy that took place at a primary school in the United States this morning. I’ve been offline today. Living in the real world for a change. But what I do know is this: Nothing fills the soul with greater sadness than the death of a child. And the death of many children, the murder of children, is just horror piled upon horror.
There are many Tarot cards that would represent an event such as this one. Cards we have come across before: Death. The Devil. The Tower. The Star. Judgement. But the one I want to focus on is the Three of Swords.
The Three of Swords represents old pain, deep pain, childhood pain. The loss of these children resonates on a deep level because it touches on the vulnerable child within us all. On our fears for our own loved ones. Our trust as a community has been betrayed. Our trust that others will do no harm especially to the innocent. It’s like we’ve all been stabbed in the heart.
How are you coping with this terrible event?
It’s Friday night here in Australia which puts me in mind of fish and chips. When I was growing up it was de rigueur to have them for dinner at the end of the working week. Lots of families did. None of this ringing up to order over the phone either. It was like this ritual where you’d go to the fish and chips shop, place your order over the counter, then sit down on a bench with your back against the wall to wait for your ticket number to be called along with about 20 other people. You couldn’t see much. Fish and chip shops in Melbourne have a high serving counter so all the action is hidden. But you’d hear the sizzle of chips hitting the oil, smell the vinegar as it was poured liberally over your order afterwards and hear the paper crinkle as it was wrapped up like a present for you to take home. It was the only take away my family ever had which made it super special.
The Ten of Pentacles is the Tarot card which represents sweet family traditions such as this one. Pentacles are our values and a ten card is the ultimate expression of any suit. The things that we value the most as families are the things that become traditions.
My children and I don’t have fish and chips on a Friday night. It’s more likely to be McDonalds these days. But we do enjoy a good snuggle on the couch while watching rom coms and chick flicks. Or at least we did, until they got old enough to want to go out and party. These days our Friday night tradition is more likely to be me getting a phone call to go pick them up in the wee hours, lol!
What are some of your family traditions?
Today in the car my eighteen year old daughter informed me quite matter-of-factly that she’s going to have plastic surgery when she’s older. Botox as well. For her looking good is the most important thing. And I’m like yeeew! Yuuuuuk! Because (a) I think people who have plastic surgery on their faces look weird. Like shop window mannequins. Kind of not human. And (b) wrinkles can be beautiful. Especially on a kind face. They’re like a badge of honour in a way. A reminder that you truly have lived!
So there you go. Like many mothers before me have discovered I have a daughter who is chalk to my cheese. Always has been. From birth. And let me tell you, it’s a challenge. Because if I reject her values too much she feels like I’m rejecting her. And surely more than anything else my job is to make her feel loved.
The only thing to do is accept her for who she is. You know, not agree with what she says but acknowledge her right to have those beliefs and desires. Because otherwise I would be a judgemental bitch of a mother and I don’t want to be that.
I think the Two of Pentacles is the Tarot card that best sums up this situation. There are times in a family when you have to juggle opposing belief systems in order to maintain harmony. And boy, it can be a bumpy ride (a la the boats in the background.) But it’s what you do. Because family is the most important thing. And with Christmas just around the corner you have to keep this in mind more than ever.
What would you say or do in this situation?
The Tarot Teaclub 