Daily Draws (Dark Angels Tarot) – 10/27, 10/28, 10/29/12

I’ve been drawing cards but due to hurricane preparations haven’t had time to post. Now that we’re hunkering down and the office is closed, I am home all day and can catch up! (We are well-prepared, not terribly concerned about really severe damage, but we definitely could lose power or have ceiling and window leaks.)

Saturday ~ 8 of Cups

The card of loss-yet-moving-on; admitting there are things you can’t hang onto, can’t control, so you let go and move forward with a lesser burden. There is regret but also hope in this card for me. We have to determine what we most needed to preserve and put it all in the safest possible places, and not everything in the house fits into one windowless room or one ice chest! So there are things we could indeed lose to the storm, but we are making preparations. It would be worse NOT to face the reality of the storm and possibility of loss, to cling to everything and pretend it’s all going to be fine if we don’t prepare. Maybe it will be fine but we can’t assume that. So knowing what’s most important and looking clearly into the future are the most helpful things now.

Sunday ~ Lovers

The storm hits today; the mayor has declared a state of emergency to start at 5 p.m., and by 2 a.m. this morning all mass transit will be shut down and no one is supposed to be on the streets unless they’re driving an ambulance, police car, or fire engine. I don’t know if I’m reading the card correctly, but the feeling I get, with the angel presiding over the rather frightened-looking couple, is that the higher powers (both spiritual and literal, our angels and the city government) are in control and the public, including me and my family, should stay together and hold onto what’s really important (each other, mostly!). If the choice aspect of the card is considered, I again think that it’s about choosing what’s important … staying together, not running off and leaving the home/family behind to pursue something else while it’s dangerous out there.

Monday ~ 10 of Coins

Oh, I like this card here. We’re currently under the leading edge of the storm, with heavy rain and gusty wind, but it’s going to get worse before it gets better…still, the 10 of Coins is the “family unity” or “domestic tranquility” card in my mind, it seems to be saying that my family and I will stick together and be safe, and the damage to our homes from the storm will not be impossible to handle. This being the Dark Angels deck there IS some destruction implied but nothing that can’t be fixed when the storm has passed. We won’t lose everything (this is especially reassuring considering my parents have a house near the ocean! – they aren’t staying there though, they’re inland with my brother’s family). The best thing we can do, as all the previous cards this week have been saying, is count on each other, stay indoors, and know that we’ve build the strongest foundation we could.

Daily Draw (Dark Carnival Tarot), 10/19/12

wo of Duckets (=Coins/Pentacles)

This day was my 10th wedding anniversary, and I was initially a bit disappointed that I hadn’t drawn one of the Major Arcana, but the more I looked at the 2 of Duckets, the more I appreciated it!

Description: A tightrope-walker crosses the uppermost heights of a big-top circus tent, carrying a Duckets symbol in each hand like a tambourine. Flowers (lotuses, pinks and what looks to my botanical eye like smartweed) burst from the rims of the tambourines and spring into bloom on the rope beneath her feet. Far, far, FAR below we can see one of the rings of the circus, with two tiny figures – I suspect it’s the lion tamer and the lion from the Strength card. The tightrope walker is confident, smiling, grinning even; there’s a net below her, but I get the feeling she’d be just as happy if it weren’t there. She’s performing a balancing act but it’s one that she loves, and there’s nothing she’d rather do.

Interpretation: First of all, I have to get the huge numbers of coincidental (???) numbers and symbols out of the way. The more I looked at this card, the more it WAS our relationship. Ten rungs on the ladder for ten years. She’s carrying two tambourines – we were married in 2002. The pole holding up the tightrope has six white stripes and six red stripes for a total of 12 – this year is 2012. Lotuses bloom all around her – the name of my engagement ring stone, the padparadschah sapphire, literally MEANS “lotus flower.” Wow. All that aside, people sometimes say marriage is a balancing act; balancing the needs and desires and difficulties and strengths of two people isn’t easy, and it hasn’t been an easy ride for either of us. We’ve definitely done the “in sickness” and “for poorer” more than “in health” and “for richer”, for one thing! But the heck with that. We’re grounded in strength and mutual understanding and respect (that lion & lion tamer team at the foot of the tightrope pole). We’ve learned to do the balancing act (we’re actually both jugglers, literally!), and although the first steps may have been rickety, we’re confident and those flowers are blooming all around us now. We made it through the fear and confusion. Our eyes are straight ahead at the future together, not down at the fragile net or the distant ground. I could not be happier than I am with him, and vice-versa, and this was the perfect daily draw for this day and for the end of this Deck of the Week cycle.

Daily Draw (Dark Carnival Tarot), 10/15/12

3 of Duckets (=Coins/Pentacles)

Description: A young graffiti artist spraypaints three Duckets symbols onto an ivy-tangled (and already graffitoed) brick wall. He seems to be perched on a ledge, but not all that high from the ground. Around the corner of the building is a police car, red and blue lights flaring. The seats of the car are empty – the cops are out of the car and looking for malefactors. The ledge he’s on is low; he can jump down and run easily. He doesn’t look worried about being caught, just grouchy that he has to hurry his art!

Interpretation: Performance under pressure. Unlike the traditional card where the artist seeks approval from the authorities, he knows he’ll be in trouble if the authorities find him here – but he is also determined to do his best, he’s not running before he finishes painting! My day has just taken a turn for the “gotta hurry, do everything by noon because we have to leave” worse; I thought I’d have a full day to relax and enjoy a vacation, but the person driving me has to return home sooner than she expected. Time to cram everything into the next few hours….the souvenir buying is going to be a rush trip, not a pleasant browse, for instance. On the other hand, maybe that’s a good thing. I can linger too long over something; a kick in the pants to finish Project A and move onto Project B isn’t necesssarily bad. The young graffiti artist might have spent all night painting one wall if those cops hadn’t shown up. He’s been forced to say “I’m done here” but the night is young for him, just like the day is young for me. Heck, I might get something interesting and enjoyable done this afternoon that I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise!