The Queen Blogs

The Ten of Wands tells my tale today. Does it tell yours? Sometimes we take on too much. We are filled with enthusiasm at the beginning or maybe even fear. We fill our plates with responsibility, excited with the new plan or the ability to help and then time passes. We find ourselves tired. We are stressed. Our enthusiasm or wish to help is squelched. What to do? A person can’t back out now. Look for the wiggle room. Back out a little and breath. Rest a bit more while waiting for the inspiration to return. Breath some more so that some creativity can bubble up. Turn a new direction letting go of some a the same time. You can get it back. Or if you can’t, is it time to cut yourself free? Time will bring your answer.  “I will become a master in this art only after a great deal of practice”.  -  Erich Fromm

We live with our King of Cups constantly sitting on his throne. He is the support we all lean on. He is steady, strong and reliable. But what happens when the king falls apart? Yes, we can offer the king a shoulder. And we are just fine without his royal wisdom for the time being. But what we find most difficult is the change in energy around our relationship. Our brain says this is fine; we can adjust. Our emotions feel confused. A few things to remember: first of all this is the king’s crisis. This is not our own. Secondly, the king has always been there for us, we can go out of our way to be helpful to him, even just to listen. Third: feel the discomfort of change and move on in a new way.  “Expect your every need to be met, expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level, expect to grow spiritually.” - Eileen Caddy

I have tried to fix this problem every which way, I say. Then I draw the Hierophant. Ah, I say. I have not tried to fix this problem using the spiritual plane. So I begin my journey of problem solving using higher consciousness. I must meditate, keep my stress low and take walks alone. One cannot force the answer; it must come in its own time.  But it will come. “Trust in yourself. Your perceptions are often far more accurate than you are willing to believe.” - Claudia Black

I have drawn the Two of Swords. A confusing card indeed. This card shows a woman holding up two swords in front of her heart. I think to myself, this card tells of a threat and the two swords are warding off the threat. But then the card whispers to me no, the swords don’t hold something away, the swords hold something in. The swords are protecting my truth from the outside world and even from myself. We are ever so mysterious. My card tells me, my mystery will emerge when I am ready. “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”.  -  Albert Einstein 

Today we pull the Nine of Cups. Everything is good.Happiness is at your fingertips. Don’t stand so still as not to topple it. Your happiness is not that fragile! It comes from experience and time. Problems are solvable. A tipped boat can be righted. Life is good.  “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”  -  Anais Nin

This blogger pulls the Magician card just as she is needing to face her driveway full of snow. This blogger feels relief. Why? The Magician represents our ability to manifest. But how does this blogger through sheer mental power clear her driveway?  Good question. The Magician reminds me that I am both earth bound and spirit bound so I need to address both levels of the task. I need to do the earth bound job of going out with my shovel and starting to move snow. But as I shovel, I can picture the help that is coming, (there is more snow than I can manage) and picture my driveway cleared. I must muster a sense of happy anticipation as well as good works are attracted to gratitude. “Your desire is your prayer. Picture the fulfillment of your desire now and feel its reality and you will experience the joy of the answered prayer.” - Dr. Joseph Murphy

In relationships, sometimes we feel angry and hurt. If we are smart, we sit back, take a good look and work through our rough road. We may feel bad as we go through it, but really, it is good. We get to learn and grow. The Four of Cups is applauding us as we go through our process but he wants to offer us a little advice! He says, try not to punish your loved one while you are working your transformation. You may find in the end that the problem was all yours from the start. “Genuine beginnings begin within us, even when they are brought to our attention by external opportunities.” - William Bridges

It’s time to do art! Stretch your canvas, sharpen your chisel, tune your guitar! You may think you should be out Christmas shopping or putting up your tree but the Three of Pentacles says that self expression through art is the only way to go. Art can soothe the winter blues, light the outer darkness and replaced the lost love. Let your art come out to play! “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.” - Theodore Roethke

The Ten of Cups tells us that our heart is big enough for all those people who drive us crazy, but to watch our emotional reserve. Walk into your potentially draining visit with your heart open but shields up. Here are the Ten of Cups own guidelines for dealing with crazy-making loved ones. Share as little of your own life-controversies as possible; share only life changes that are fully completed. Keep visits short; have somewhere you need to go right after. Watch your own reserves; leave when you feel yourself weakening. Don’t try to fix, rescue or give advice to your loved one. Have your visit around an activity so it is not all talk. Keep your expectations low; don’t expect things to have changed. And be realistic if you really can’t have a visit right now. Be happy that you love. Be sad that things are difficult. “The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” - John Milton

Things get so busy sometimes! You don’t have to tell the Eight of Rods that. The Eight of Rods invented busyness. But this card knows something more. She has the secret to balance. The secret is, sometimes you be really busy to make time for relaxation later. Sometimes you pace yourself and do it all at a more relaxing  pace. And sometimes you chop away the extraneous in order to make time to relax. To determine the right route for you, you must take a few precious minutes to decide which serves you best. The wisdom to know the difference. “Wanna fly, you got to give up the crap that weighs you down.” - Toni Morrison

The King of Pentacles is solid like a tree. He makes sound business decisions and he owns a lot of things. And I’ll be damned if I am going to ask him for advice! So I sit with my small operation which could be bigger. In fact it has been a point of pride for me that my ways are small. But what if he could help? What if I could expand? What if I had success? And what is stopping me? I am afraid of the unknown. Afraid of how complicated could be to get help. So today this blogger admits she could benefit with his advice. And will pay whatever the fee is and will face the complexities of change. “There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls”. - George Carlin

I am the Two of Pentacles. I stand in the wind. Behind me are the waves and the sails of a tall ship. Do I go? Do I get on the ship with the promise of a new beginning? Or do I stay where I know my life exactly as it is? I know it is safe here. But what if things are great for me across the ocean? How do I choose? The balance between opportunity and safety. The balance between risk taking and complacency. Where is the optimal point to place the fulcrum? Luckily in life most decisions have a little wiggle room. It is often not an ocean we are crossing but a stream we can jump over and then always jump back. “I told the doctor I was overtired, anxiety ridden, compulsively active, constantly depressed, with recurring fits of paranoia. Turns out I am normal.” - Jules Fieffer

Today, I am the Ace of Rods. I have a great surge of creative energy pulsing through my veins. Today I can do anything. My body is strong and straight. My vision is clear. But what happens tomorrow when I wake up with doubt staring me down? I will keep the Ace in my breast pocket. I will commit to memory what that surge felt like. I will keep its precious light in my heart. “It is better to light one candle than curse the darkness.”  - James Kellar

Today, I bring my problem to the High Priestess but get from her only silence. How is that an answer, I ask. Thanks alot, I tell her bitterly. But her silence is an answer. It tells me that I myself know what to do! Thoughts, ideas and complaints jumble inside my head. Perhaps her silence is a double message my tired brain tells me. One message is, I know my own solution. The second message is, the way to find my solution is through my own silence. Good one High Priestess! So if I sit really still and be really quiet, I can find out what I really want to know. “The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Where toiling upward in the night.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sometimes things are just too much to handle! That’s what this blogger thinks and so does the Eight of Swords! Look at the poor woman blindfolded and tied up with ropes. How did she get into that muddle? Who knows, but let’s see if we can help her get out. What do you think is stopping her from shucking off her ropes and stepping around the swords? This blogger thinks fear. Fear is keeping her blindfold on and her ropes in place. She is running from her life experiences even as she stands still. If she were to truly look at her fear for what it is, she would see it is just an emotion. And if she were to look at what she is fearful of, she would see it is a life-path she would prefer not to take. Let’s encourage her to sit with the fear. Feel the discomfort. It won’t kill you, we can tell her. Once the emotion is out of the way, then there can be clarity of thought to plan the next right step. “A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it.” -  J.R.R. Tolkien