I own several tarot and spiritual decks of cards. Most of them I don’t know well enough to read without referring a lot to the books accompanying them. I know it’s a matter of familiarization, of using them, and committing to memory the meanings of the images. The Mythic Tarot deck is my oldest, and the book’s spine needs to be re-glued. It appeals to me most because I’ve always loved mythology, especially Greek, Sumerian, Norse, and Egyptian. I know the Greek stories better than any other mythologies because of my 3rd-grade teacher.

Our reading books were progressive pamphlets that you worked at mastering one volume at a time. I flew through them weeks before the rest of the class finished. She had a personal copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes on her desk and would hand it to me when the others began their daily work with the readers. The stories were written for adults, in adult language, so I kept a dictionary at hand, which I didn’t refer to all that much as I read.

Tarot and divination have always fascinated me. I have dabbled with it over the years. I don’t believe or disbelieve, but I do think the cards help me reveal my own mind and inclinations. So, enough about why I love my Sunday “drawing the card” ritual. Let’s get to today’s card…

Before I open the book, I know this is Jason of “Jason and the Argonauts” fame—you know, the guy who stole the Golden Fleece. Jason’s story is really cool. He was the son of King Aeson, but he was stillborn, so his father sent him to Chiron the Centaur to be raised. (It doesn’t have to make sense. 🙂 ) Anyways, when Jason reached adulthood, he returned to his kingdon, but his uncle had usurped the throne from his father and didn’t want Jason around causing problems. So, he sent him on an impossible mission—to steal the Golden Fleece from another king.

Jason didn’t argue. He accepted the mission then gathered friends to accompany him on his journey. Here in the picture, you see the twins, the guy in the lion skin, Orpheus with his instrument, and another king friendlier to his cause. They are carrying torches (the wands) and are celebrating the fact that his ship, the Argo, has been completed. He’s ready to begin his journey.

What does the card mean to me? He’s accomplished a lot, gathered his support, built the vehicle he needs to continue. This moment is one to celebrate. So, I’ve completed a set of edits, and am deep into two other sets of edits, plus I’m a third of the way through my next book. It’s time to pause today to celebrate my accomplishments, but also to get ready to plunge back into the “mission.”

Now, I’ll check the book: The four of Wands “augurs a time of reward for efforts made. A creative idea has yielded early fruit, and the individual has every right to celebrate…” Woot, so I will. Today only.

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Welp. This card isn’t helping me decide how my week will go, or am I wrong?

First, just looking at the card, what does it represent? This is the goddess Aphrodite. Her origin story is kind of grisly. Cronus castrated his father Uranus and tossed his testicles into the sea. The foam that erupted produced Aphrodite. You can see her stepping out of the foam. The goddess of Love is the embodiment of feminine beauty, but also the embodiment of all those stereotypical “female flaws” like jealousy, laziness, vanity, and deceit. Lovely, right? What does that have to do with me? Aphrodite is holding one golden chalice—the Ace of Cups. The Ace of anything represents the powerful “first” raw meaning of a suit. So, before I check the book, I think this means I may be looking at an emotional week. One filled with love, or the “eruption” of love, and one filled with events that will have me demonstrating all those feminine flaws. I have the kids heading to school this week, so I’ll lovingly push them out the door with their backpacks prepared and their lunch bags filled. I’ll feel regret that I don’t have them under my roof. I have a ton of work in front of me, and I may wallow a bit in my feelings while I try to tackle the stacked-to-the-ceiling tasks I have in front of me. So, I think that’s what this card means for me. I don’t like it, but I will embrace the positive meaning and hope I can tamp down my “weak” feminine faults to slog through the work.

Now, to the book. It boils it down, saying, it “heralds an outpouring of feeling” although “not yet differentiated” and can often be “overwhelming.” *sigh*

Why do I start my Sunday mornings with a tarot card? I guess I could just dive into my calendar, calibrate how many pages I have to write and how many I have to edit to get to The End, but I like adding an element of the divine to my day, whether drawing a card or placing my hand into my bowl of crystals and gemstones and pulling out whatever my hand finds compelling. The mystical and the pragmatic can reside in the same heart.

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This last week was such a cool one! Not temperature-wise, of course, but we did manage another movie day—we saw Haunted Mansion! It was a fun family-oriented flick. Strange New Worlds aired the “Subspace Rhapsody” episode, which we all watched and LOVED. It was a total blast. We swam multiple times, including two night-time swims with the tiki torches keeping the bugs at bay. And I did manage to get started on my new book and finish up one set of edits. So, it was a productive week. Today is the start of the last week of summer vacation for the kids, so we’re still trying to get ready for that and pack in some more fun—nothing big, but some “together” time. We’ll miss having them underfoot when they start school.

So, that’s the catch-up, here’s my Sunday Tarot card…

Sooooo…

Today’s the day of the week I always update my plans so I know what to hit hard and what’s going to get in the way of me reaching my goals (appointments, family events, etc.). I was shuffling my cards, asking whether I was going to “get my shit together this week,” and readying the deck to pull one when this single card fluttered to the floor from the deck landing face-down. So, I figured The Powers That Be intended me to have this card. I flipped it over and sighed.

It’s The Star. It’s a very pretty card, but it’s not the best to pull when you have a ton of stuff on your plate.

This card from the Mythic Tarot deck depicts Pandora. You know her, right? Zeus, being a bit of an asshole, had his smithy-god create a beautiful woman as a gift to mankind then had the gods give her gifts. Hermes, who I think understood the order best, gave her the “gift” of idleness and lies. She was warned by her husband (I forget which god, so I’ll consult the book once I’m done interpreting the card myself) to never open the chest that accompanied her. Pandora just couldn’t resist. She opened the chest and unleashed a host of unpleasant things out into the world; here they are the dragonflies and bugs flying away in the dark cloud. Also released though was hope, depicted here as the Star of Hope. So, while her own worst instincts had her open the chest, the Star of Hope is there, not to rescue, but to show Pandora that all isn’t lost. I think so, anyway.

Now, to the book. Yes! Her hubby was Prometheus’s brother, Epimetheus, who was warned by his brother not to accept gifts from Zeus. (Too late!) He did warn Pandora not to open the box. The bad things she released? Old Age, Labor, Sickness, Insanity, Vice and Passion. They all flew out into the world. Only Hope stayed. The card, according to the book, “portends faith in the midst of difficulties.”

All this means, I have my work cut out for me. I have to stay focused and not let my “idleness” cause me to muck up my plans.

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It’s Sunday, which is my planning day. Before I begin rejiggering my calendar, I like to pull a single tarot card from my favorite deck while asking what I should expect from this coming week. Last week’s Temperence card was exactly right. I held steady, worked hard, and I finished the darn book. This week, I have the Ace of Pentacles.

First, I examine the card and let my intuition tell me its meaning. Here’s Poseidon, ruler of the seas. Remember, he and his two brothers divided the realms. Zeus took the heavens, Hades the underworld, and Poseidon the seas. What else is important about the picture? See the grapes? They always seem to represent food and wine—a bit of celebration. Which fits for me, since I’ll have a book coming out on Tuesday! Plus, he’s holding a big golden pentacle. I’ll take that to mean I’ll get a nice payday. Not huge because, hey, it’s a single pentacle, but the card is telling me that my work will be rewarded. I should enjoy the fruits of my labor!

Let me check the book (because when I get into the numbered cards, I’m not up on all their meanings!). Ha! It tells me that there’s the “possibility of material achievement”—woot. So, I used many more words to describe what it meant, but I was right.

Nice to know, but what does that auger for this week? I can’t just eat grapes and drink wine. Guess I’ll head to my calendar and figure out how much work I have to complete to get to where I need to be by month’s end.

Do you ever reflect on your upcoming week? What helps you keep everything “on track?” Do you keep lists? A calendar? Do you look for guidance from something “otherworldly” (pray, tarot, meditate)?

As I began updating this week’s work plan, as is my custom, I pulled out my favorite tarot deck, shuffled, and asked my question, Am I going to finish this book?

The answer is: It’s all up to me! Of course. No, I didn’t pull The Star or The World, so there will be no shining, triumphant march to the finish. I pulled Temperance.

First, I studied the card. The picture’s pretty, right? A sunny sky, a pretty rainbow, a lovely angel. A lovely setting. But what is she doing? She’s pouring something from one cup to another. Perhaps measuring the liquid as she does.

Temperance, the word, means moderation and self-restraint. So, the cards are telling me, I have to be “measured” in how I approach the work this week. Follow the plan! Don’t expect some surge of inspiration or endless energy to push me toward The End. Take a solid, measured approach. I can live with that. So, back to my plan and figuring out how many pages/chapters I have to write each day until I’m done!

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*~*~*

It’s Sunday. The day I review my plans for the week, and I always start by first drawing a card from my favorite Tarot deck.

This morning’s card is the Four of Swords. Not pentacles for once. Something changed, hmm? Well, I’ll start by examining the card and trying to figure out some personal message the card has for me. I don’t recognize this mythological character, so that’s not helpful.  He is sitting on a flat desert plain. Sitting cross-legged, like he’s meditating. His swords are lying on the ground. The meaning I pull from the image is that he may be tired of the battle and in need of some introspection. The sky is blue and the overall ambiance restful but lonely. So, I’m thinking this card is telling me I need to take time this week, away from my usual frenetic pace of work and family, to contemplate where I am and what I want. Let’s see what my little book says…

This is Orestes. I don’t know who he is, so I’m going to Google him. Orestes is the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon (of Trojan War fame). There’s a long story about his father returning home after the war with Cassandra, the seer, as his concubine. His mother conspires with her lover to murder Agamemnon, and Orestes, along with his sister, Electra, flee. He ends up living in exile (this desert plain) until he returns to avenge his father’s murder by killing his mom and her lover. He goes mad after that and is tried by the gods for the crime of killing his mother, but is acquitted. That’s who Orestes was. A son avenging his father and who goes mad. But this card depicts him when he was in exile, awaiting his chance to exact revenge. Interesting.

Back to the book (The Mythic Tarot), it says simply, that this is a time for “quiet recuperation and introversion” while I “build up strength in preparation for further efforts.” So, am I supposed to stay off the Internet? Keep my door closed to family while I contemplate my life? The recuperation of my hand continues. That fits. Keeping my head down, focusing on what I need to do while ignoring the “noise” around me? I can make that fit. The meditation and contemplation? Well, I do kind of go inside myself when I’m writing, so I can make that work, too.

For a chance to win your choice of one of my downloadable stories, tell me whether you ever take time away from “the noise” and what that looks like for you.

UPDATE: The winner is…Wendy H. Vest!
*~*~*

I’m attempting get back to as close to normal this week as possible, starting with Sunday being my planning day. Before I begin, I always shuffle my favorite tarot deck and choose a card to represent the week.

There was no shuffling, of course. I cut the cards again and again, then chose the top card. I revealed the Queen of Pentacles. Pentacles, again. Hmmm. So, I study the card. She’s pretty and voluptuous. Mature. She holds a gold pentacle in one hand and grapes in the other, so I can assume she likes her comfort. Is she supposed to be me? I’m not wealthy, but I live comfortably. Is she offering the grapes to others? I offer my “grapes” to my friends and family. So, what does it mean for me? Perhaps the week is about seeking and sharing comfort with my family. I like that thought.

Now, I’ll check the book. This is the Lydian queen Omphale. She purchased Heracles in a slave market. He was a rough barbarian, and she coaxed him into wearing rich clothes and enjoying the “comforts” she provided. She shared her largesse freely with him. So, my reading falls in line with the book’s. I’ll continue with a limited work schedule while my hand continues to heal and enjoy time spent with the family. I’ll pop for takeout and coax them into some sort of entertainment—a movie night, perhaps? We’ll chill. So, back to my calendar…

So, my question to you is do you have some sort of weekly practice that helps you sort out your week? Do you open your journal or planner and jot down appointments? Do you check the local theater schedule or make reservations at a restaurant? Do you own a tarot deck to help you “meditate” or divine your week? Comment for a chance to win a hand-painted bookmark!