Tarot Tuesday

The Devil

The keywords of the Devil include...money matters, feeling the burden of the material side of life and the desire for physical and material things. Feeling of frustration and oppression. A tendency to collect and hoard money and material objects... lust and sexual obsession. Wow, that's a heavy list! 

The lesson the Devil  tries to teach us is one of simple awareness and human empowerment. Once we begin to realize that darkness or the potential to do evil is a natural part of each and every member of the human race, we can then begin to gain mastery over it. All human beings have the capacity to get the upper hand over this by tapping into the goodness that also dwells within us all. 

Once a person becomes properly self aware to the point where they are no longer controlled by the pull of addictions, wants and greed, it  allows them to gain freedom from fear of being controlled by other people, as well as other forces that are always at work in the world at large.

When the Devil card makes an appearance in a tarot spread, it is typically letting the querent know that he/she is currently in a situation that has robbed him/her of control over their own life in one way or another... most likely through their own mistakes (or perhaps mistaken perceptions). However, the appearance of this card also signals the possible start of a chain reaction that can lead to no good if it's not nipped in the bud sooner rather than later.  

Poorly thought out actions lead to loss of control and loss of control in turn leads to insecurity, depression, and further inactivity. Once elements like that set in and begin to affect a life, it can be very difficult to turn things around.

The solution to this problem is for the querent to reclaim control over his personal power and identity. The Devil can only conquer you if you believe it can. This is a call to leave ignorance, indolence, and materialism behind. True happiness and success results from getting in touch with the spiritual being at one's core and realizing that strength comes from within... not without.

Tarot Tuesday

I have a little Yahoo widget on my  computer desktop that randomly pops up a new picture from my photo's folder ever fifteen minutes. I was sitting at my desk the other day...staring off into space and musing absent mindedly when the Four of Pentacles  (from my Deviant Moon Tarot)  popped up in the top left of my screen. I glanced at it, looking at the figures on the card when my eyes suddenly zeroed in on the little clock on a chain around the demon-looking creature's neck.

I've drawn this card and written about it a couple of times but I was struck by a sudden insight  as I have been lately with any card from this deck...There is a time issue here, slightly reminescent of the character Ebeneezer Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol". The Four of Pentacles is typically the card of the miser. Thoughts of material possessions fill his head, leaving no room for anything else. He is not free to do anything with his life... he can't go anywhere because he is too busy holding on to his coins.

 In the Deviant Moon Four of Pentacles, we can see this demon-looking creature linking arms with a rather frightened looking man (clinging pathetically to his Pentacles) and it appears to be pulling him from an empty street into a doorway filled with flames.  The frightened man is looking behind him as if  seeing his life in retrospect and realizing much too late that all his worldly possessions mean nothing and his whole life was for naught.

There is a lesson here...many people catch on but many do not...Life is too short, too precious to get caught up in possessions and greed,  worrying about how to get more, to keep what you have to the exclusion of all else, forgetting that which is of real importance. People are important, loved ones, family, time well spent...kind words that need to be spoken, acts of random kindness perpetuated...where are the areas in which you have been miserly...? How often do you make the time that you can spend with those you love and create wonderful memories?

Four Of Pentacles

In this card we see a little fox looking as if he might be clinging tightly to what he has. He fears that if he lets go even a little that he may lose everything. That mindset can lead to conditions of limit and lack. Where we shift our focus determines what we perceive. This little fox serves as a reminder to focus on abundance not lack. Time to surrender that false sense of control that comes with centering ourselves too much around the material world.

Focus on gratitude and abundance, not only on an intellectual level - but partake in prayers and ritual that allow you to feel that abundance and gratitude in your heart... these are the things that we need to cling to...not to conditions or things of the material world. By focusing our whole being on abundance we draw it to us on all levels materially, spiritually, emotionally, and we become a vessel of true wealth.

Sometimes we have to move into the new and unknown even when it is scary if we want to further our growth and progress. Sticking with old ways out of fimiliarity is stagnation. Don't be so hard on yourself over "failures" that you talk yourself out of getting up and trying again. Release the need to try to control situations out of fear. Let the Divine will step in and lead you into the proper direction. Now is not a good time to become to fixated on the material world... doing so will keep you in a perpetual state of feeling that "something's missing"

I usually find that if this card appears in a reading for myself, I need to focus on what I can do for others. By focusing on this aspect, things beggin to unstick and flow much easier.