Come into the light

One of the best things I got from working for Lynne Franks in the UK was the introduction to Bliss, aka Lucinda Drayton.  Her story is pretty amazing - she had been a successful popular singer and got drained from the whole music industry world.  She decided to quit it all and become independent, writing her own music, producing her own records, and playing at mind/body/soul types of festivals.   She's made it work, and is a complete inspiration to me.  I used to listen to her 100,000 Angels album when I was trying to remember to breathe during the crazy Lynne days, and Come into the Light was particularly good for my spirit.  I highly recommend you check her out on youtube, and even better, buy her album.

So tonight I did something I haven't done in years - I read my tarot cards.  Now before anybody starts worrying that I'm into the occult, I'm not.  When I was a kid in Amish Country I remember everybody was all freaked out by ouija boards, and I always wondered what the big deal was with a piece of cardboard.  I mean, seriously, it was mass-produced in a factory somewhere.  People sometimes get all worked up over inanimate objects, and then wind up giving those objects much more power than they deserve.

It's a fact that we use a tiny infantesimal part of our brains; and more than tapping into the supernatural, I think that tarot cards are a way to get access to the giant part of my brain that I don't ever use.  It's kind of like meditation.  It helps me focus my mind into a specific question, and lets me explore different ways of looking at that question.  When I was younger, in college and just after, I used to read my cards almost every week.  I don't believe that the cards can actually tell me what's going to happen in my future.  Let me be clear about that - they're cardboard.  They're not magic.

You could pull up almost any card and figure out a way that it applies to your question or situation.  But that's where the coolness comes in; they offer dozens of ways of looking at a particular situation, and you could get perspectives and insights that you've never considered just by applying the card to your question.

The thing I want to share is my Final Outcome card in my reading tonight.  My question wasn't particularly specific - I wanted to focus on how I could create something meaningful in my life now that we've been through the death of our baby.  How could I take that and turn it into something more, something that would last and make a difference in the world.

So I did a 10-card spread, with cards to represent your current situation, the conflict in the situation, past influences, future influences, etc.  There are ten cards you draw, out of a deck of 78, and each one goes into a position that represents a particular aspect of the question you ask.  The Final Outcome card doesn't mean that it's definitely how your life is going to go, but just that if you continue on the path your're on, it's probably where that path will go.

My Final Outcome card was The Star.  The book explains that, 'the Star, when it appears in a spread, portends the experience of hope, meaning and faith in the midst of difficulties.  Though it can be ambivalent and warn against blind hope without the necessary action to build upon it, the Star is an augury of promise, a welcome experience for one who has passed through the collapse of everything which he believed to be of value in life.'

The rest of the reading suggested that I will be having a period of solitary withdrawal, starting my new projects on my own and building up strength before going back out into the world.  It's called winter and hibernation, I guess.

I'm pretty stoked that I'm on track to be even more of an introvert for a while.  It's time to be quiet and cozy for a while before spring brings me back to life.