Energies for Travel

Starting out on a month of travel, I chose a couple of cards from the Mythical Goddess Tarot by Sage Holloway and Katherine Skaggs. My focus as I shuffled and drew: What Energy/Energies go with me as I head out on this journey?

The first card was the 8 of Seas with the title Depletion. My initial reaction was that I'd somehow made a mistake. I hadn't been concentrating on the 'right' thing. We all know the truth of those kinds of reactions. Sometimes what we fear, what we draw away from, is precisely what we need to understand.

I grabbed the guide and read:
Saturn in Pisces
Beached whales lie ashore on gray sands under dull skies. There is no vitality, no light, ... in this landscape. This card is a caution against burnout and emotional depletion.
Your heart must have the nourishment and attention it needs, ... It is a top priority for you to nurture yourself and pay attention to your feelings ....

My jaw nearly dropped in amazement. Then I began to chuckle. Obviously, there was more to this draw than I'd appreciated on first glance. I'm growing past an experience that left me with a degree of PTSD. Even though I've been feeling better and life is going more smoothly, there is some residual angst. My journey is to visit friends who have always been supportive and uplifting. This card reassures that I am going to the right place for my continued healing.

The second draw was Uzume on the Fool. She looks exuberant dancing on the drum head. I love the Fool.

From the guide:
Air
Uzume is the whirling Japanese Goddess who lured the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, from her dark cave. ...
The Goddess Uzume dances to the whirling cosmos, without regard to the rules and restrictions of the physical world. Like the air element she represents, she has no agenda and no baggage. Uzume draws forth the child-like innocence in everyone she meets. She is the essence of Spirit. She embodies nonconformity and the transcendence of the earthly realm. Uzume is the archetypal Wild Woman. ...
Uzume as the Fool reminds you to be free in your expression and the way you view the world. .... Be like Uzume and free your inner radiance into expression, by being true to your genuine essence, released from the restricted limitations of your genetics and the world around you.

This brought home to me the other reason for my trip: to fully embrace the wildness and wonder of life. I have the opportunity to dance in a way that I haven't for awhile. I've felt this urge growing in recent weeks: the desire to move more freely, and with more joy, in my journey through the world. What an incredible pair of cards to draw!

How are you moving through the world? What saps your vitality? How does depletion show up in your life? What do you do when you feel the urge to dance, in whatever way that shows up? How does it show up in your life? When was the last time you opted to do something that had an element of the wild? What did you do? If it hasn't been recent, what can you do to encourage your own joyful nature?

Gemini Full Moon, December's Rose Moon

© 2016 Mary-Lynne Monroe

As I watched this moon grow to full, I found myself growing happier, as though the brighter the moon, the lighter my mood. Walking home on the eve of the Gemini Full Moon, I spotted a rose bright with life in the freezing December air. It's leafy tendril reached out to caress the brilliant orb of the Moon. I was awestruck.

Sometimes life presents us with shattering, breathtaking moments of beauty. I relish recognizing it. I love wresting images of those moments. It makes my heart soar!

This rose should not be so vibrantly alive after the recent snow, rain and ice. Yet... here it was, revealing its delicate beauty, honoring the Full Moon.

Joining this Gemini Full Moon is Pluto still reigning in Capricorn ~ the god of the underworld ruling in the middle world ~ who draws us deeply into our social and economic structures. Those structures shape our collective purpose as we engage with the dynamics of transformation in the areas of fairness, justice, honor, beauty and art. We are called to create it with our art and our actions.

We need to immerse ourselves in our own creative actions, our personal art, as well as support and honor the creatives among us. The Archetype of the Artist serves as a healer and teacher for the entire community. Artists always point the way when transformation is needed.

In the Light of this Full Moon, Gemini demands that we communicate the truth that Sagittarius calls for us to see and experience. We continue to be confronted by the Shadow side, ours as well as the greater community's. It's important to face and confront the Shadow and to to learn what it has to teach us. Saturn requires that we take responsibility for our beliefs, our thoughts and our actions. Saturn asks that we reconnect and rediscover who is responsible for our lives, who is writing our story.

As this year draws to its close, this being the final Full Moon of 2016, I am drawn back to the Rose of vitality where there should be none as it reaches for the glorious Full Moon. May 2017 blossom with your Rose always finding the Light.

What part of the general mindset no longer serves the greater good and goals of the collective? What truth are you called to communicate to others? What art or creative action calls to you for the healing of the community? How will you bring that forward in 2017? Who is writing the story of your life?

Only One of You

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost.
The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you.

~ Martha Graham

In all of creation, there is only one of you, only one of me. Only one who can do the work you or I are in this world to do. Sometimes I forget that.

One reason is when I stop believing in myself. I lose sight of the vitality that makes me special, individual, one of a kind. More than that, I see my uniqueness as a detriment, as something that negates rather than adds to life. Those are the times when the 'cultural norms' seem almost large enough to attack my soul.

A second reason arrives quickly on the tail of the first: I pause in my belief in my own worth. I forget that there is a reason, a soul purpose to my being in this world. I may not always know what it is or see where it's going, but that purpose drives my life force onward and forward, upward and outward. I forget that it does not always show itself or define itself in terms that the world understands. It does require that I remain open and with a crystalline belief in myself.

It's okay when we lose sight of that, when our view is the diminutive version of who we really are, as long as we allow for the moments when that clarity shines through again. During our low times, we need to remain open to connection with the people who believe in us, who encourage us, who love us, and let them buoy us into the next moment of awareness and openness.

How do you view yourself? What vitality do you bring to the world? What unique gift do you have that no one else can bring to the world?

Your Unique Expression

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost.
The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you."

~ Martha Graham

In all of creation, there is only one of you, only one of me. Only one who can do the work you or I are in this world to do; only one who can be the fullness of expression that you or I embody. Sometimes I forget that. In my rush to make my world conform to the way I think it ought to be, I punch down and deflate the clay that defines me.

Think of what the world would have missed if Martha Graham confined herself to a box that did not include dance. Or if Mohandas Gandhi continued to live the way South Africa had told him he had to live instead of non-violently defining how he wanted to live. Or if my maternal grandfather had not left Poland to work in the steel mills of Chicago. Or any other number of people had allowed themselves to remain as they were told their lives should be.

I choose to march to my own drummer, to be a nonconformist. I choose to follow the star-strewn path of the dreamer, the storyteller, the myth-maker. What do you choose? In what direction will you point your life? Whose path will you follow?