Natalia Lee

A nest of sorts

Difficulties and growing

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The Pips

I have been looking inwardly recently, at how I approach parenthood and how I express myself within this modality and identity. Honestly, it has served to reveal the multiplicity of my imperfections and ineptitude. In the face of all this, my child is too young to judge, to measure, he loves me unconditionally. Everyday I wake up and strive, focusing on attempting to be a better parent, to be a better person for my child, everyday is one step forward, and occasionally two steps back, but I still try. All this inward introspection has got me thinking about growth, and patterns, and how we face the phases of life. I started thinking about the troublesome suit in the Minor Arcana of the tarot, the swords. In somewhat Dawn Jackson’s words “the suit of growth and learning through adversity.”

Deck used: Jean Noblet Tarot de Marseille reproduced by Jean-Claude Flornoy, France.

Throughout the progression of the suit numbers, the message is hardship, strife, and limitations. It is no wonder that the suit is associated in a corporeal sense with the skeleton, that which limits us to the ground, to the earth. There is a poetic message here, as the numbers progress, anxieties and grief heighten, and complications get nuanced. From 1 to 5 I see anxieties contained, small losses, frustrations, petty disagreements and health problems. From 6 to 10 the road opens to grief, obstacles, tears, torment, and alienation. Life is never without these difficulties, the question lies with us, in how we face them.

Deck used: Jean Noblet Tarot de Marseille reproduced by Jean-Claude Flornoy.

In a tangible way, it is through difficulty that we hone ourselves, it is through our limitations that we strive evermore to excel, to overcome. Call it the zeal of the human spirit, the fire of survival, it is within this dynamic that we polish ourselves, that we learn and grow. Growth certainly does not come easily, and it is not painless.

As I look at my child and see myself mirrored, I learn the beauty of true patience, of love beyond the bounds of limitations. I learn the importance of approaching each day with vigor and passion. Every day is a chance to start anew, to change, to reorganize, and redirect the boat. In this way, if we approach everyday as our last we take full advantage of the potential for growth, for seizing opportunities, for living from the heart, for showing kindness, for baring oneself, for fighting, for resisting. This is the masked message of the suit of swords, this is the gamble, the dare encased within the 10 cards. How do we approach growth? How do we face adversity and limitations? How do we face our own imperfections and failures? How do we fight? Do we cower or start anew with determination?

Truly the sword is meant to be gripped, and with it one fights and presses onward in the face of whatever monsters face us, even if it is our selves, our own monsters.

Seize the day like the hand grips the sword hilt.

As always, happy reading.
The 8 of Cups on the Feast of Janus

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Musings

Hello all, my wonderful little folkloric almanac reminds me it is Janus’s Feast Day, fitting as this first week of the new year has ended. I have been vacillating between the last couple of posts about thresholds and gateways, well today we cross the threshold, pass the gate. Today, and the rest of the week as well, is good for planning, preparing, mapping, thinking and organizing our new year. How do we want it to flow?

Of course, surprises are always a part of the planning, as life never fails to give us quite a decent dose of surprises and unexpected happenings. Going along with this idea I want to talk about the following card in the suit of cups, the 8 of cups. If you have missed my previous explorations with this suit you can refer to the pips category in the list below and have a look.

Deck used: The Spanish Tarot published by Fournier.

After much deliberation, walking the path, encountering obstacles, slashing them aside, re-evaluation and being ushered to the crossroads, now we actually cross the threshold, and enter into a new panorama. Numerically, the eights are about ideas and thoughts. As opposed to the communication indicated in the 2s, which is one-on-one, the 8s involve a network of communication. As the suit of cups is the suit of emotions, the heart, water, the 8 of cups can be transformed into a family gathering, reuniting with loved ones, or a party with conversation and drinking. As for me, I also add a personal note to the 8s, which is that they denote organization. The suit symbols here can be seen evenly distributed and ordered. Therefore, as always, depending on what cards lie around the 8 of cups, this card could also indicate arriving at some type of applicable method or system with regards to, in this case, the cups (the heart, loved ones, or emotions). Expressed differently, this card may signify a preparation of the heart after having crossed the gateway, a sign of maturity and readiness to take on new emotional, or passionate engagements. Effectively navigating relationships with an even head, and a clear vision.

New beginnings are never ending, as are endings. With this new beginning and the initial unfolding of 2017, how do you prepare for what lies ahead, especially when it comes to the heart and those closest to the heart. How do we bring favor in all our endeavors this new year? As for me, how do I prepare for the expected and the unexpected in like measure?

Deck used: The Spanish Tarot published by Fournier.

Changes and endings should always be expected, as life is a constant flux of rising and falling. Always remember to gather your seed, to store what you can, while always taking the time to relish in the pleasure of it all, of good company, good conversations, and of all the tangibles and intangibles that pertain to the heart and the waters of the soul.

As always, happy reading and be blessed.
Enchantment for pleasure this new year

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Enchantments

A new year looms near and as is customary one looks back, evaluates decisions, experiences, hardships, and accomplishments, while making plans for the upcoming year.

This time I wanted to look at myself and where I stand with pleasure, and what brings me joy. Oftentimes I get so involved in all the immediate happenings going on that I forget to factor my joy. I stop finding pleasure in the moments, and focus on the density of burdens, souring my outlook. Therefore, this time around I have the following to offer myself and anyone that passes by.

I want to share an enchantment with the cards and a poem.

The Birth of Pleasure

At the creation of the Earth
Pleasure, that divinest birth,
From the soil of Heaven did rise,
Wrapped in sweet wild melodies–
Like an exhalation wreathing
To the sound of air low-breathing
Through Aeolian pines, which make
A shade and shelter to the lake
Whence it rises soft and slow;
Her life-breathing [limbs] did flow
In the harmony divine
Of an ever-lengthening line
Which enwrapped her perfect form
With a beauty clear and warm.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1862

And the cards responded in like form, weaving poetry with images.

Deck used: Tarot de Marseille Jean Dodal reproduced by Jean-Claude Flornoy, 2009.

Cut away all bitterness and regret, divesting yourself of excess to stand under the rays of the moon and feel the coursing of your blood, the flow of life and the pleasure of the moment. Be in the moment, howl, bark, speak, laugh, cry, yell, in the moment letting pleasure and joy flow through you as well. After everything is said and done, we have very little control in this life, no matter how hard one tries to grip the sword, direct, cut, and solve. Do what you must and leave the rest to the waters. Life is meant to be lived and experienced, detach from control and live passionately, with the heart.

As we cross the threshold of 2017, may pleasure and joy flourish in all that we do and experience.
Good tidings this holiday season

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Enchantments

I am breaking away from my previous post, where I was laying down the foundations for myself as a card reader, setting the tone and things of that nature. I want to continue here with the pips and tie that to the season.

Decks used: The Spanish Tarot by Fournier, and The Ancient Italian Tarot by LoScarabeo.

If you have been following along, we have arrived at the 7 of cups. In general, the 7 is quite a magical number. Personally, I am averse to even numbers, for some odd reason I prefer prime and odd numbers, 5, 7, 9 are my favorites. In reading the pips of the tarot, 7 is a number of fate, two roads converging to meet head on, an unavoidable meeting with fate. Oftentimes, these cataclysmic collisions reveal we are now at the crossroads, and we find ourselves bare and vulnerable. If you add up the pips in each suit including the courts, there are fourteen, then 7 is the halfway number, the crossroads. Here at the crossroads we meet the Gatekeeper, Papa Legba.

Some say his ancestor is the long Ju Ju of Arno in eastern Nigeria, the man who would oracle, sitting in the mouth of a cave, as his clients stood below in shallow water. Another story is that he is the reincarnation of the famed Moor of Summerland himself, the Black gypsy who according to Sufi Lit. sicked the Witches on Europe. Whoever his progenitor, whatever his lineage, his grandfather it is known was brought to America on a slave ship mixed in with other workers who were responsible for bringing African religion to the Americas where it survives to this day. His father ran a successful mail-order Root business in New Orleans. Then it is no surprise that PaPa LaBas carries Jes Grew in him like most other folks carry genes.

–Mumbo Jumbo, Ishmael Reed

This was my first literary encounter with Papa Legba, the mediator, the keeper at the gates, arbiter. In reality, Papa Legba appears at pivotal moments throughout life, those moments when the ground shakes underneath your feet and you find yourself upon the threshold, sweat dripping down your face, hands shaking uncontrollably, uneasy foothold. The road to the crossroads is not simple, one arrives there through many circuitous routes and once there there are hard choices to be made. How does one proceed? What is the fee to pass onward?

This is the realm of the sevens in Tarot, the crossroads. Here we have the 7 of cups. Cups being of a watery heartfelt nature, we should ask ourselves where we stand in this whole emotional business, especially this holiday season, as another year winds down. As we stand upon the crossroads, heart in hand, take account of the sacrifices made, the blood spilled, the tears shed, also the devotion sustained, give due. The 7 cups asks us to face hardships head on, all the while keeping the flame alive, after all nothing lasts forever. Attend to where the heart is better served, and be fearless in all matters of the heart, risks and losses are part of life, as well as gains. The gatekeeper asks nothing less of us.

As this year ends, as we stand upon the precipice of another year, the unknown before us, consider where you stand at the crossroads. Hold your heart in your hands and deliberate long enough to reach your answers.

Deck used: Uusi Pagan Playing Cards by Uusi.

Agitated with worries and the burdens of the work and the struggle that is living, I feel the edges of the fours walls surround me and force me to make decisions “The best way forward, through the gates,” says the Gatekeeper, “is to let go, renounce the weight, be weightless and continue moving forward. Your best bet is change. Therefore, empty your cup and make space for new and refreshing waters.”

The art of letting go.

Happy Holidays everyone.