Where is Your Lion?

Where Do You Turn?

   When you're feeling weak and silly, incompetent and lost, exhausted and annoyed, where do you turn?

My tarot deck was tucked into the bottom of my suitcase in the overhead bin.  Beyond access.  Babies were crying.  The bathrooms were full. The man across the aisle from me pulled gloves out of his pocket and spit a wad of chew into them.  I could still smell the chemical they used on the wings to de-ice them.  That's why I was an hour late to Dallas and missed my flight.

My angels were taking a nap.  A gang of faeries was laughing at the human condition.  My battery died on my tablet at a very intense part of the book I was reading and I was 30,000 feet above Mother Earth, not where any self respecting Capricorn wants to be.  I couldn't think of a single Al-Anon slogan.

So where does comfort come from?  Where was my mind?  Obviously drenched in an array of discontent.  I wanted to get up and offer to hold the baby but it didn't seem likely.  I sent Reiki energy and asked what I could do for myself.

That's when Strength walked down the aisle, peaceful with that little twisted halo over her head and Lion in her eyes.  I smiled.  Smile muscles always bring relief.  Yes.  Strength was on the plane with me, up in the air where everything was up in the air.  Lion passed the sleeping rag doll cat in a kennel under the seat and came right to me.  In Lion eyes with Lion breath, I communed with the great balance of the divine feminine and the essence of wild on the verge, steady, confident and ready for whatever happened.

I put on my sunglasses, pulled my hat down and took a cat nap.

Strength

Strength also called Fortitude

A collage of images fold into a kaleidoscopic overview of various decks:

Swiftness, energy expanding, open, kind, firm, oneness  act with the universe with clarity; reading the field, moving quickly on a moment's notice, spontaneous

Mindful between extremes of reality; four directions, internal/external; ingest my fear, my beast, everything I judge is mine to own

An angel, infinity always is with me, a halo: the crown chakra;  down to the spinal chakra; embrace the lion within; palm on third eye; eye the Sun, source of strength; strength is the source

Head held high; enchanted, power of instinct; unity, infinite, tao of wholesomeness, well of feminine mystery

Crystal vision, majestic, paw swipe to protect; serenity; flow like an eagle

Jupiter conjunct Lilith, our beast; the feminine we have not owned; Strength is Lilith in the darkness

Tame the wild boar; as Ariel, the protectress of wild things

This word collage comes from the Wisdom Women

of Rotarota: Tea & Tarot

#8 STRENGH

Me:  I am woman--hear me roar.  

Lion:  You don't have to roar.  I'll take care of that for you.  I'm known for my powerful voice.     Remember when you were seven, you went to the San Francisco Zoo and you stared and stared at that massive lion?  You willed him to roar.  When he did, you were startled, a bit afraid and you felt the connection.  

You've known the world of felines since you were four.  That day you began your shaman's ride into the unknown invisible magic of the world.

You talk to wolf, walk with him but I too am with you.  Imagine the depth of my purr, far greater than that pipsqueak cat of yours.  I am Lion, King of your Heart Center.  Allow me to help you open, walk with  balance from your baqua.  Know your stride is guided;  dress funky and fun and when you weave the elegant tapestry of life, your hand, close to my mane, your wildness flickers along the spinal pearls.  I am that close to you at all times.

Do not be afraid.  Just go.  Go on the path where the green grass is icy, go on the sand and smell the salt, follow your choices for I am with you.  Use my voice for your enthusiasm.  Be with me.

A Question for You

I am a font freak.  I like cool, funky fonts, lovely old manuscript fonts.  Garamond, for an upgrade from Times New Roman, makes me smile as does Baskerville Old Face.  (Do I imagine the hounds of the Baskervilles trouncing down a narrow forest path?)

Lucida Handwriting is a great I-wrote-it-myself font.  As if my handwriting were that tidy.  Still, I love the gracious flow of it.

My new computer's default is Calibri, a very simple, tight, persnickety little font that I tended to delete every time it poked its unembellished little head up.  However, I've come to rather like how many words I can cram in a line and for poetry it works some kind of simple magic, allowing the word to create image, not the style of font.

So, here's the question, in case you thought I'd gone off on a tangent...and I could...

Do you have a preferred font for a blog?
What is it?
Why?

I'd like this blog to be most user friendly and with your feedback I can improve it.

Thank you!!!

And now, for the photo of the day, taken on Lake Whatcom.

When the Goddesses Gather

When each blade of green grass is icy white and the sun hangs on a bleak thread in the sky, on this day, the second day of newness as the century becomes a teenager, we gather around the dining table near the wood burning stove to share tarot decks.  Wisdom unfolds.

Each person brings a wealth of knowledge, perception, insight and joy to share.  "What deck is that?" we ask and lean forward as the card is passed around.

Today we tackled the sublime issue presented by #8 and #11.  Which do you choose for the position of 8?  Justice or Strength.  We considered the history offered by Mary K. Greer in "Who Are You in the Tarot?"  Each woman considered their cards, and their own journey.  Most of us selected Strength for Number Eight.  I have straddled this dilemma for many years and finally settled on Eight as Strength so no matter what the deck says, I shift Justice if it is Eight to the 11 position.

Many decks as we ponder Strength

The position of Strength on the Fool's journey between the Chariot and the Hermit seems most appropriate. Do you have a preference and why?

Bright blessings as the cards guide us into a new year!!!

King of Swords Speaking

I was looking something up and happened upon the chart below.  I cannot tell you the delight to find the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) associated with the Tarot.  This is straight from Wikipedia but check it out.  If you are not familiar with MBTI, it is an excellent way to observe your own personality presentations and to understand where your difficulties with others arise.

Yes, ENTJ, at your service, The King of Swords, though you may call me Prince.

(I'm having trouble posting but will go for it and come back later and try to re-format.  Very excited to
share this infomration with you!!!)

Court cards and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Tarotists sometimes assign correspondences between the 16 court cards and the 16 types under the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality profile test. See Wikipedia article on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for a discussion of the MBTI and the 16 MBTI types.

It should be noted that there is no one single universal system of correspondences between the 16 court cards and the 16 MBTI types. There have been a number of different systems of court-to-type correspondences identified by tarotists.

[edit]Table of various MBTI correlation

#	Valet of Batons	Knight of Batons	Queen of Batons	King of Batons		Valet of Cups	Knight of Cups	Queen of Cups	King of Cups		Valet of Coins	Knight of Coins	Queen of Coins	King of Coins		Valet of Swords	Knight of Swords	Queen of Swords	King of Swords	source:
1	INFP	ENFP	INFJ	ENFJ		ISFP	ESFP	ISFJ	ESFJ		ISTP	ESTP	ISTJ	ESTJ		INTP	ENTP	INTJ	ENTJ

Oh, the joy of a new deck. There are so many to choose from, that your Christmas stocking should be heavy with variety.  Today Mary K. Greer, tarot icon, posted this on Facebook and I needed to share it with you!

Mary K. Greer

I'm very happy to announce that the new edition of Oswald Wirth's great classic, _Tarot of the Magicians_, is now out with an extensive introduction by me. This edition also contains a copy of the 1889 Wirth deck on card stock at the end of the book, which you can cut out. This is the first edition of the deck to be published since its initial printing of 350 copies. Of course, you'll want two copies of the book - one with the cards left intact and a second copy from which you'll cut out the cards to use.
http://www.amazon.com/Tarot-Magicians-Occult-Symbols-Inspired/dp/1578635314/

Tarot of the Magicians: The Occult Symbols of the Major Arcana that Inspired Modern Tarot

www.amazon.com

Tarot of the Magicians by Swiss occultist artist and author Oswald Wirth was first published in Paris in 1927, and a Weiser edition was later released in 1985.