Tarot Strategies for Life Change

Tarot Card of the Day

Today is Sunday, June 6, 2010. With Jupiter and the Moon entering Aries and forming a triple conjunction to Uranus, I decided to embrace the energy and begin posting my thoughts about the Card of the Day.

I had some mixed feelings about posting a Card of the Day. There are others who draw a card of the day and post it online. Ultimately, that CotD reflects their inner reality. On that level, you may resonate to it or not. 

So this CotD is mine. But as with all new beginnings, the path will take unexpected twists and turns. Especially when you begin with a triple conjunction to Uranus.

Over time I expect to see patterns. Which cards are being drawn, which are not? Is there a preponderance of a given suit or a lack? Same with the majors.

But unlike many who draw a CotD, I am looking for resonances with the current astrological weather. So consider the posts here along with the companion posts on The Astrologer Says to form a metaphysical weather report and provide guidance in the twists and turns of daily life.

I recommend that you also draw your own card of the day, note it and your reactions and see what happens over time. I assure you it will be most revealing.

Honor Your Body, Honor Your Spirit

Some of us who are spiritual seekers dwell on the otherworldly. But if you are here reading this blog post, you, like me, are firmly planted on the Earth plane. And that means we have to take care of all of the physical requirements our bodies require. 

So if you want to honor your spirit, an excellent way to begin is to honor your physical body. 

I was thinking about that when I was completing my daily walk. There is an abundance of literature exhorting us to exercise regularly. That spending as little as 30 minutes a day in a brisk walk 4 or 5 times a week can have a huge impact in preventing the onsite of diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. 

And since I am not getting any younger, and walking 30 minutes a day isn't going to kill me, I decided to give the regimen a try. 

At times, it is difficult to squeeze 30 minutes out of the daylight hours, but I've come to look forward these daily walks. 

Normally I walk late in the afternoon or early evening, but knowing that rain was coming, I decided to get my walk out of the way in the morning.

Aside from the timing, today's walk was like many others. It gives me a chance to explore the neighborhood. You see many more things on foot than you do from the windshield of a car, especially when you are driving.

So, I noticed the sign on the window of a local thrift shop saying that they will come to pick up donated items--an increasingly rare service in these parts. And I watch the progress of the new Walgreen's that is being built.

I observe the landscaping and the flowers of my neighbors whose houses are built similar to mine. I see neighbors with their kids on their stoops and patios. And I watch out for kids who ride their bikes on sidewalks designed for pedestrians.

This downtime, so to speak, is also a time to allow thoughts percolate. I let my mind wander, unforced. Often a stray thought comes up which contains the seeds to the solution of a problem.

And when I return, I feel more energetic, balanced, and connected. 

Opening a Bank Vault and Cleaning out the Garage

It's a funny thing about bank vaults.

Bank vaults open very easily at the right time; the time the bank programs them to give access. With the right combination, the heavy doors open with the push of a finger. Try to do the same thing at 3 am, and you'll need heavy explosives.

Life change is like that.

For months I had been dreading the necessary de-cluttering to reshape my house to serve my needs. The clutter depressed me and made it hard to be productive. Its sheer emotional weight and physical presence seemed insurmountable. 

Finally, I did what people eventually find themselves doing when sufficiently pressured by Pluto. I surrendered. I hired an organizational consultant.

Thus far, the bank vault analogy is working. We cleaned out a garage in 4 hours whose floor hadn't seen the light of day in 40 years. And the Gods were with me in helping me clear out one particularly large and heavy, but no longer useful, item taking up valuable space in the basement. 

A neighbor saw me hauling out an old, ratty mattress and inquired about it. He had just moved in and was sleeping on the floor. I didn't think anyone could want it, but you never know until you put it out for trash. He took it.

I told him about the basement item and asked if he would want it also. He agreed to move it out. By the time we were underway, his brother joined to help. We got it out after removing the door. By then they decided they didn't want it anyway. 

So it sat with the other trash. 

After returning from Thanksgiving dinner I looked out of my window. The item was gone. 

The gods were with me.

Life Change, Job Change, Bank Vaults and Timing

Life change is a funny thing. 

You can feel the necessity to change and then you feel resistance. When the change is large the obstacles can seem insurmountable. 

I remember being in my late 20's working at a job that I hated. It didn't start out that way. For the first few years I worked at the company, the management was enlightened and it was an oasis for a young woman trying to build a career in a predominantly male industry. 

But then, for a variety of reasons, there was a turnover in management and the new management made life very unpleasant. This period coincided with a retrenchment in the industry so few jobs were available. Not having other employable skills at the time, I felt trapped. 

Finally I began to investigate other fields and so began my three month odyssey in real estate sales. That's another story.

In my spiritual development circle, I kept receiving messages that my guides were working on getting me out. It was happening, but not yet down in the Earth plane. Just chill, they said. It will happen for you when the time is right.

Think of a bank vault. When the vault is locked, its heavy doors will keep anyone out that didn't have powerful explosives. But at the time when the vault is programmed to open, you can open its heavy doors with your pinky finger. 

So I whined and waited.

Then one day there was a call from a headhunter. It led to a phone interview, then a face-to-face interview, then a job in another state that was a big step up from the one I had.

And, it, too, ran its course.

De-Cluttering Continued

The Pluto/Saturn Gods smiled as my professional organizer worked with me to clean out the garage.

You couldn't walk from front to back without climbing over things. And there was all kinds of stuff in there. Two old pay phones circa 1980 when my Dad and my younger brother went into a less than successful venture trying to generate some income by installing pay phones in various locations. And then there was old medical equipment that had to have been at least 15 years old. Old school photos of relatives who died before I was born and whose names were not known to me.

Truth be told, I had grown up in that house and the garage was always full.

There were treasures, too. Such as an aluminum cookware set in excellent condition. And then items with some value, but which I didn't need. Those made it to the GoodWill location later that afternoon.

We divided the items into three sections. Section one were the keepers. Section two were the throw away items. And Section 3 was where we put items to be donated. 

The pile of trash bags grew and grew. Finally we had sorted through everything. We moved everything out and, for the first time that I ever remember, the garage was truly empty. 

I felt joyous and light to be free of the burden of all of this stuff.

The metal closet that blocked the garage opening, was moved to the very back. It would have a second life as a storage container for my art supplies. A small number of items lined the side. These were items that would be dragged out on trash pick up day.

But for the first time, the garage could take on its primary function--as a place to park the car.

Scorpio and Clutter Continued

It felt good to sign the contract with my personal organizer. It felt like a big step. Now I could go back and blog and tweet about it while patting myself on the back.

I managed to pick away at some items in time for weekly trash pickup. But nothing substantial. Still every paper that is shredded and every item that makes it out the door is a step in the right direction.

Tomorrow I face reality. My organizer is coming and we are going to attack the garage. To echo my inability to run away, the moon is traveling through no-nonsense Capricorn while the Sun continues its journey through Scorpio. The combination echoes the Saturn/Pluto square now in force.

To be continued.

Even spiritually focused people need to concern themselves with healthcare reform

No matter how spiritual we think we are or may wish to be, the simple truth is that we are physical beings. That means we have to deal with the reality of caring and maintaining our physical bodies and dealing with those other physical realities such as paying the bills and keeping a roof over one's head.

In the US, there is much debate in now over the broken health care system. Because most Americans depend on private insurance to pay for their care, the ability to access medical care is based on the health insurance coverage the person has or doesn't have.

With the push for reform much of this sorry state can change. Currently, health reform legislation is being debated in Congress.

But the health insurance industry, feeling threatened, has pulled out stops to blunt changes that would be detrimental to their bottom line. As for profit corporations, their duty to their shareholders is to maximize profit and they do that very well.

Unfortunately, their tactics have serious social costs. The consequence is that many people lack health insurance and many more have coverage with such big holes, that they face financial ruin over the prospect of a hospital stay. One study concluded that approximately 50% of people who go bankrupt do because of a medical problem and of those who do, 75% start out WITH insurance.

Some tactics are rather questionable ethically. Bill Moyers showed a clip on his show of a woman testifying before Congress of her experience. She had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer and was scheduled to go into the hospital the very next day for a double mastectomy. She had been a long-time customer and had cleared the procedure with her carrier.

The day before she was scheduled to be admitted, her carrier called her to say they were dropping her coverage. Her hospital demanded $30,000 upfront-well beyond her means and she was forced to postpone her surgery.

After fighting for several months, her congressman called the president of her carrier personally. With that call, she was put back on the rolls and was able to get her surgery. But in the meantime, her tumor had gotten larger necessitating more extensive treatment.

This practice, of dropping a paid up insured at the time of major illness or the need for and expensive procedure is called recission and it is used by all major carriers. They comb through the insured's records looking for some evidence that the insured hid some condition at the time of application. Often the condition is very minor and unrelated.

The bottom line for us now, if you live or work in the US, is to speak up forcefully to your senators about the need for insurance reform. In Bill Moyers interview this past Friday, Wendell Potter, the former head of CIGNA's PR operations details the tactics the industry is using to derail reform efforts.

It is an eye opening program and I encourage you to watch it and take action. Taking care of yourself physically is the first step to taking care of yourself spiritually.

Leymah Gbowee: An Ordinary Woman Changes a Country by Aligning with her Inner Strength

Sometimes, it is only when you are pushed against the wall that you discover just how powerful you really are. But by connecting to your spiritual core there is nothing you can't do and no obstacle you can't overcome. The story of Leymah Gbowee is an excellent example. 

Lynn Sherr interviewed her on Bill Moyers Journal along with Abigail Disney creator of the documentary film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell which tells her story. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html 

Leymah Gbowee was an ordinary woman from Liberia who inspired and led other women in a non-violent movement to unite against despot Charles Taylor and restore the rule of law in her country. As a result Charles Taylor left the country, the daily unspeakable violence, fear, and corruption had ceased, and Liberia now boasts the first woman head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. 

In 2002, Liberia was gripped by civil war between the government of the corrupt, ruthless dictator Charles Taylor and various warlords who sought his overthrow. Over 200,000 people were killed and one-third of the population was homeless. Young children were kidnapped to become unwilling conscripts, killing and other unspeakable horrors were commonplace and rape became a weapon of war. 

Day-to-day life became hellish as ordinary citizens woke up in the morning not knowing if they and their families would survive the day.

Leymah Gbowee prayed for an end to the hunger and the violence. One night she had what she called “a crazy dream.” She was instructed to bring the women of the churches together. 

It was not a role she accepted readily. In fact she describes her initial reaction as terror. As a single mother in a church that looked down upon unmarried mothers, she felt she was unworthy of any leadership role.

Nonetheless, after speaking to her friends and contacting women from other churches, she mobilized a non-violent movement of women. She focused on market women who were in a position to observe strange movements and could talk to the fighters.  

Her actions in such a war-torn country took tremendous courage. Backed by her supporters, they resulted in a public meeting with Charles Taylor and later a sit-in in Ghana when Charles Taylor met with rebel leaders for peace talks. The women blocked the doorway to the conference hall where the talks were being held.

When Security came out to arrest Leymah for Obstruction of Justice, she began to strip naked. In Africa, it is considered a curse to see the naked body of your mother.

That act, coming from her core power as a woman and a mother, changed the dynamic in the room and broke the stalemate. The resulting changes culminated in the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first woman head-of-state.