Monthly Muses by Flavia – April 2020
anthropology of the tarot
Monthly Muses by Flavia – March 2020
Monthly Muses by Flavia – January 2020
The outlook for January 2020 is looking favourable and prosperous. However, the key element is that we have to put in the work. And we have to be practical and scrupulous about it. Here we are working within the rules of tradition and within the pre-established structures. It requires us to apply critical thinking while adhering to a higher realm in morality and aesthetics. With the Six of Wands the year kicks in busy. And there is movement. There will be lots happening and conflicting assignments, commitments, opportunities, people and events will demand our attention. Our input will decide which way things are going to go, as well as our discernment to choose where we are channelling our energy wisely.
With the Six of Wands we are not just cruising in victorious – the card normally shows a nobleman on a horse in front of a background of sticks and crowned with a wreath symbolizing success – but our achievements are aligned per force with higher values. There is nobility of sentiment and there is a fight for noble causes that will gain us success and recognition. In this deck there is so much more to think about. There is partnership, serenity, a sense of fulfilment, and a tribe, a vast group of like-minded people, people with whom we share common ground that depend on us or look up to us for strength. So it is also a card about leadership of purpose. Others will look to us for guidance.
This is a sombre, serious month loaded with responsibility. But the gifts are coming. They are the rewards of our efforts and they will bring strength and further support to grow and develop outside our confines. The rewards will be tangible and they will come from the outside suddenly and unexpectedly. And they will compensate us in the material sense. As the Ace of Pentacles sits right in the centre of the spread we can only assume that this event, or series of practical and auspicious events, will actually dominate the month. It will be generous and absolutely depended on our own work and sense of worth, and it will lead effortlessly to the Emperor. The Emperor could be the person we become or a person who will turn up into our lives to lend us support. The Emperor is the paramount figure of knowing the self and of self confidence. The Emperor and the number IV represent structure as well. So initiation and structure is where this month is taking us. We are in for the long game. The Emperor is standing on a pedestal suggesting we better accept our elevated status and of those we associate with.
By the end of January we will find ourselves in a different place to where we started at the beginning. While looking towards the past, we are bringing it with us into the future. We are not divorced from our heritage or history or anything that has come before, because that is the basis of our strength and our security. This is clearly a process of maturation taking place throughout the month where we are standing alone in change, and responsible. The Emperor is the Masculine principle and symbol of experience.
We are looking to a dynamic and transformative month ahead bringing in experiences of higher rank and higher authority. The theme of the influencer and the presence of rules and regulations runs concurrently. Keep strong and don’t loose the focus. The gains have the potential to surpass any expectations for passion, power and wisdom.
Flavia
Weekly Wisdom by Mirasol – 9 December 2019
The Soma Goddess from The Mystic Sisters deck by Emily Balivet comes forward as our guide this week. Beautifully illustrated, the serene Soma Goddess is standing among three impressive red and white striped mushrooms. The ground beneath her and the horizon behind her are patterned with flowers. She rests her head to her left side, as if in a dream state, perhaps in deep meditation and/or in an exhilarating state in the psychedelic landscape.
Soma is a Vedic Sanskrit word meaning distil, extract, or sprinkle, and it is used in the context of rituals. In Vedic times, soma refers to a hallucinogenic or intoxicating liquid, made from a plant or fungus, consumed during ceremony and offered to the Gods. Soma is also used to describe the nectar secreted from the pineal gland during deep states of meditation. In yoga, soma refers to the crown chakra, opened by yogic insight, to release bliss throughout the body.
The message of the Soma Goddess is one of wholeness, integrity and being centred. She wants us to know that we are fully part of this world and all of its’ experiences. Every step on our journey is a path of growth and during this we remain whole, even if we may not feel as such. Wholeness is our birthright and knowing this gives us peace. You are exactly where you are meant to be at this moment.
With the full moon in Gemini arriving on Thursday, 12 December, we are reminded to integrate our two sides, the male and the female, the dark and the light, the receptive and the giving. The Soma Goddess knows how to flow between the wet and the dry, the solar and the lunar, the active and the passive. She utilises the knowledge through her body and soul to achieve wholeness and integration. Be alert and observe how you can utilise your own twin energetic supplies of female and male to navigate through the awakenings the full moon brings.
Meditation with the Soma Goddess
Try this meditation with the Soma Goddess and notice any messages you receive.
Sit down in a quiet space. Take a few deep breaths and relax.
Focus on the image of the card. Observe how the Soma Goddess remains tranquil in her standing pose, resting her head to her left. The stunning large mushrooms create a psychedelic effect and transport you into another dimension. The flowery ground and horizon attribute a sensual aura to your journey. Be still and enjoy.
Stay in meditation for 5 to 10 minutes.
After the meditation, journal about the below questions.
Are you balanced in your female and male energies?
How can you step through the barriers of either energy consuming your actions?
Additional practice – healing your heart with Mangano Calcite
Mangano Calcite is a calming and gently grounding opaque stone, a calcium carbonate, rich in manganese, which creates its’ beautiful pale pink colour. Mangano Calcite will help you to understand and unfold your heart’s desires. It will heal any on-going negative patterns in your ancestral feminine lineage and releases these by bringing a feeling of safety and grandmotherly comfort. Mangano Calcite connects the higher heart to the heart chakra and increases our awareness of spiritual love and self-love. It helps you to fully accept yourself as you are. Mangano Calcite brings love and compassion into you life and it will strengthen any area of your life where love is lacking.
For the healing ceremony, lie down in a comfortable place. Place the Mangano Calcite between your higher heart and your heart chakra. Imagine how the pale pink colour is calming your higher heart and your heart chakra, providing nourishment for this area. Sense how the lovely pale pink energy is spreading down your solar plexus, sacral, root and knee chakras, down to your feet and toes, connecting you to Mother Earth. Feel how the Mangano Calcite energy is travelling upwards through your throat, third eye, crown chakra and beyond, to your soul star. Sense how the vibration of Mangano Calcite is creating a loving feeling in your whole body. Stay in the comforting energy of Mangano Calcite and feel how your heart chakras are opening to a greater sense of belonging. Note any messages you receive at this point.
Take a deep breath and say thank you to Mangano Calcite and its’ healing gift.
You can repeat this practice when you wish to ground and heal anything that is on your heart’s mind. It will bring you a feeling of wholeness and peace.
Mirasol
Monthly Muses by Flavia – December 2019
Different deck of cards from November’s reading – same 4 of Pentacles appears. If anything, this feels even more sinister. The last week of November was full of activity and pleasure, almost indulgent, and yet by the end of the month the energies quickly change. December finds us, indeed, fearful and small, clutching our material possessions and holding on to our wealth for dear life. Because of it we are diminished figures. And all things that make life beautiful are missing too. It certainly predicts a time of anxiety where our lower urges of attachment to materiality and earthly goods jump in, robbing us of our potential to participate in something greater, something aligned with our authentic self and a wider good. It is an irony. What we are holding on to is itself depriving and restrictive. Bitter, looking angry, static, immobile and trapped in a small place by our inability to let go objects of wealth, while a wonderful world is all around us, is frontal and direct.
The stability that the number four represents here transmits a sense of being bound with ending, malignant feelings, negativity, corruption, of a sense of lack of proportion to things having outlived their purpose. All around blue skies and beautiful buildings. A small flag flying in the breeze. But we sit in an energy of grey and heaviness, crushed by our own gold. Happily, this is not terminal. It is incumbent upon us all to turn this situation around. We can do this by tapping into the energy of the Fool. The cards presenting both the challenges and the solutions to our situation. Optimism, a dose of naivete, a bit of risk taking, a sense of youthfulness and curiosity, an all encompassing desire for experiences and learning out in the world will be our guide.
By comparison to the 4 of Coins/Pentacles, the Fool is hardly carrying any possessions, but he/she is traveling light with a smile and with a jolly and faithful companion. Mountains in the distant and rivers flowing, the elements of air, water, and earth exude health and freshness. In tune with artistic flavor. Butterflies are all around. Even his/her clothes are full of color and uplifting patterns. There is no holding back in confidence or aesthetics. This attitude is very important because December promises to be the month of the unknown and shifting energies. So how we approach our more intimate and the wider world can change everything. And there is an urgency about it. We might need to lose something in order to gain something more valuable. We might need to completely transform our persona in search of truth.
One way or another this slightly unassuming persona will give us the power to become the King of Swords. A card representing a conscious and upright person. A person of power, strong mentally and physically, ready to defend. Here in this deck, the King of Swords stands amide clouds, dark skies, birds flying, fields and mountains. Clearly a wintry outdoors setting. He’s dressed beautifully in blue, wearing a warrior’s helmet with feathers and in a cape of stars symbolic of his positive and intuitive character. A mature person of higher consciousness, open to communication. Open and decisive at the same time. He feels confident in self knowledge from within.
December foretells entering a much more serious epoch. A season that we are going to be called to duty in some way, and where we need to stand solid. The openness of the fool can transform a miserly to an exulted person of merit. It is a lesson in how our perception, our mental disposition and attitude can, and will make all the difference. December 2019, will conclude a highly transformative year. A brooding year. We will need to have distance to judge situations clearly and objectively, without being aloof or cold. Ultimately, we can enter the new year as more conscious and empowered self, human and caring, but ready for challenges. Now we have to take charge.
Flavia
Weekly Wisdom by Mirasol – 11 November 2019
The card for this week is the Temperance card from the colourful and innovative Tarot del Fuego deck. The person in the image holds one hand raised, while the left hand is pointing, the hands seem to command the water and the fire, either flowing in or out of the cornucopias, the horns of plenty. Two red doves fly behind the person. There is a rainbow against a blue sky, with alternating images of the sun and the moon at each side of the card. A crescent moon is at the person’s feet and a sun rises behind the moon. A green hummingbird is drinking nectar from an exotic flower. The presence of multiple eyes in the card is a theme of the whole deck itself.
Temperance has a balancing presence, one which makes us look at both sides of a story. Our own life story is one which is in constant creation, fluctuating up and down as we find our own way. The rainbow indicates that we will reach our dreams and a more balanced way of life but we have to take command of the ebb and flow to magically transform and transcend the difficulties, like the elemental outbursts of fire and water. The presence of the many moons and suns suggests that the balance within us is paralleling the balance we have outside our bodies, our environment needs to be equally harmonious so that we can find the Temperance in our own lives.
This message is synchronised with the full moon in Taurus, which asks us to acknowledge our earthly needs, we need to ground and balance with the earth and communicate with people who support us. We are here on earth to be fully embodied and to find the way of life which suits us. Receive the healing of the Taurean moon and welcome the balance and the power of being here and now.
Meditation with Temperance
Try this meditation with the Temperance card and observe any messages you receive.
Sit down in a quiet space. Take a few deep breaths and relax.
Focus on the image of the card. Look how the person is commanding water and fire coming in and out of the cornucopias. Lose yourself in the colours of the rainbow and the deep blue sky. The hummingbird is fluttering its wings, perhaps carrying a message for you, while drinking the nectar from an exotic flower. The multiple suns and moons are alternating, their opposite, yet balancing and complementary energies are calling you to listen to them.
Stay in meditation for 5 to 10 minutes.
After the meditation, journal about the below questions.
What is your personal cornucopia? The secret abdundant source which you may have forgotten?
How can you nourish your body and soul with the nectar of life?
Additional practice – calling in joy with Girasol
Girasol is a lovely quartz crystal with a transclucent milky white blue colour. Girasol is named from the Italian gira sole, meaning to turn towards the sun, and originally used during the Renaissance in Venice describing the milky blue glass produced locally. The girasol effect is also used to describe the internal moving glow of a mineral under changing light. Girasol has a calming yet strong energy and it increases creativity in all areas of business, and also in artistic and practical issues. It improves communication skills and hence strengthens the connection with family, friends, lovers, partners and work colleagues. Girasol also increases high-vibrational love and passion, since it connects so well to the crown chakra.
Girasol will make you to see the truth in particular issues enabling you to speak more freely when sharing your own personal thoughts. It will help to neutralise past issues and return you to a neutral ground and to create balance. Girasol is perfect for meditation, it is relaxing and it helps to connect to deep meditative states. It is a crystal of clarity, inspiration and joy. Working with Girasol for a longer period of time will promote a fresh start and recharge the power and vitality of body, mind and soul. Other names for Girasol are moon quartz or moon opal, pearl quartz, foggy quartz and blue opal quartz.
For the healing ceremony, lie down in a comfortable place. Place the Girasol on your crown chakra. Imagine how the lovely iridescent white blue colour is illuminating your crown chakra. Feel the energy of Girasol spreading all over your body, spreading down from the crown to your face, all the way down your neck, abdomen, hips and legs, and to the feet and toes. Sense how the vibration of Girasol is creating a soothing and calming feeling in your whole body. Stay in the illuminating energy of Girasol and feel how your body, mind and soul are united. Note any messages you receive at this point.
Take a deep breath and say thank you to Girasol and its’ healing gift.
Repeat this practice as often as you wish to connect to your spiritual joy and to receive illumination and vibrancy.
Mirasol