Soul Searching

Working the Year of the Metal Cow!

Welcome to the Year of the Metal Ox or Cow!

The Lunar New Year celebrations begin on the new moon and finishes with the full moon two weeks later. In the previous post, Year of the Rat – in review, isn’t necessary before reading this post, it might be helpful. There’s likely to be some duplication in this post.

One of the things you’ll notice is that I like referring to the Year of the Ox as the Year of the Cow, this is because the Asian Lunar signs follows the yang-yin pattern. Yang is considered to be masculine and yin is considered feminine. Therefore, the animals of the yin years should reflect the female of the animal.

While I suspect that the naming convention comes from the days where men were the jewel in the crown because they had more muscles than women and therefore more physical strength. Physical strength which was required for battles and wars. Men born in a yin year did not want to be perceived as weaker and therefore chose to name even the yin years by the name of the male counterpart.

Reluctantly, there is logic to using the yang counterparts, especially where the female counterparts – when translated – could be confused with each other. Such as the ox and boar in particular. The female version for both can be called a cow. Although, Year of the Sow would work for the boar.

If the animals you are referring to is the Year of the Rabbit, then the female would be the Year of the Doe, which could get confused with the more common use of doe for deers and the year might get confused as being the Year of the Deer – oh dear! *smile*. If it’s the Year of the Goat, then the female can also be called a doe. If the year is being referred to as the Year of the Cat, then it would be the Year of the Queen (unsplayed) – possibly giving women ideas above their designated station. Note, I am not sure that the female versions would translate the same way into Chinese characters.

It’s all about balancing the yang and yin and honouring both, wherever I can. Honour the male in the yang, honour the female in the yin. Both are strong in different ways. In Year of the Rat – in review I mentioned that over the years I’ve made some observations about what might get you through each of the years. For details on what your year is going to be like you’re best off seeking out the latest, “Your Chinese Horoscope for 2021” by Neil Somerville or the like.

In the Year of the Rat – in review post, I referred to the characteristics identified by centuries of Chinese astrologers. Various authors have written their take but the ones that have gravitated to be were written by Paul Rigby and Harvey Bean in “Chinese Astrologics”, and a book written by Neil Somerville on the current year’s sign on your own. Somerville includes a bit of a personality profile for each sign before he talks to the impact which is what helps me work on what I honour for that year.

The Year of the Dog was always my challenge, it was the final year at high school (age group 17/18 years). At 18 you’ll encounter your opposite lunar sign for the second time, the first time is at the age of six and most of us don’t remember it too well – or I don’t anyway.

My 18th birthday was in the Year of the Dog and I was in my final year of school – this is the final year before University where I grew up. For most of my school life, I was fortunate to get through school using natural intelligence. If I wasn’t able to get a concept, I was able to “fake it until I made it”. At the time, my parents were going through a bitter divorce. My mother had to work long hours (double shifts at the kitchen – she was a Swiss trained traditional Chef) to get food on the table, and didn’t get much time to push us to do our homework. As children, my sister and I thought we were living the dream!

However, that meant hard work was a foreign concept to me – my sister was naturally more studious, probably because she’s smarter than me on many levels. In my final year at school, the lack of discipline around doing homework was a complete disadvantage. In short, I failed my final exams. There were a lot of reasons for this, in part, it was my stubbornness within an one exam to not do the whole exam (Physics) and in part because I hadn’t studied hard enough.

There were some mind games of rebellion against my father that didn’t help matters. Nonetheless, I failed and that’s what I needed to live with and within me I knew it was my lack of devotion and dedication to my studies. After all, what you invest your time in is where you will gain your rewards – right?.

By comparison, those that had dedicated themselves to homework, assignments, and study all did well. Those like me, got a rude shock. Not that I was an exceptional student, I wasn’t. I was good enough to pass most things either physically, intellectually or artistically better than most, but not as good as those that are gifted. The goal I had was to be average, people and everyone liked average! It didn’t attract too much attention either good or bad. Since, the earliest school years, I’d been a good all-rounder, or as they say, “a jack of all trades but a master of none”.

Dealing with the results were a kick in the teeth, guts, and emotions all at the same time! It was what started the questing for answers and possible ways to handle years like the Year of the Dog again. Some influence of the 60s still lingered in my parents and their friends enough that star signs played a part in my upbringing. Doing karate as a extracurricular activity also brought Chinese star signs into my life.

By 1994, I was at the very invested in how to deal with the Year of the Dog. That’s where I got Neil Somerville’s “Your Chinese Horoscope for 1994”. Someone had mentioned that you needed to honour and respect the year that you’re in. You honour it by including the traits of the year in your daily life and these things will attract favourable energy and outcomes. Somerville’s book provided me with the knowledge of the traits and I embarked on honouring those traits.

At the end of the 1994 Year of the Dog, regardless of the challenges faced in my working life. I made it through the hard work had been reflected in an appreciation award for the company. It was a much better feeling than that of failure 12 years earlier. From there, I continued to use Rigby & Bean and Somerville’s books as a guides around the traits to honour in each year. It doesn’t mean that my life is a charmed life but it does round out my ability to adapt and strengthen my weaknesses. Like that of hard work, I no longer solely rely on my natural abilities, knowing that I can work hard too.

At this time, I’ll point out that I have not purchased any of Somerville’s other yearly guides. Aiming to experience the years for myself. Sometimes, I absorb the guidelines too much and prefer to look at it in retrospect. Unsurprisingly, you’re unable to purchase last year’s predictions at the end of the year *smile*.

So, what are the traits for the year of the Cow that need honouring? Let’s take a look!

"... this is the year to achieve through hard work and conscientious endeavour. it is a time to put business and home affairs in order. It is not a year for flamboyance or hasty decisions."

Paul Rigby & Harvey Bean

For the short version of what to emulate in 2021’s lunar year, I would use the following paragraph from Somerville. From it I would pick out the traits of equilibrium, tenacity, conscientiousness, resoluteness, methodical, determined and dedicated to an objective.

The Ox is born under the signs of equilibrium and tenacity. Oxes are hard and conscientious workers and sets about everything in a resolute, methodical and determined manner. Oxes have considerable leadership qualities and are often admired for their tough and uncompromising nature. Oxes know what they want to achieve in life and, as far as possible, will not be deflected from their ultimate objective.

Your Chinese Horoscope for 1994. Neil Somerville

Personally, the words that I would keep in mind for the year are, “equilibrium and tenacity”. Everything else will fall into those to characteristics. For instance, the qualities listed in the Rigby & Bean book are:

Perseverance (tenacity)
Being practical. Avoid being too sentimental. (equilibrium)
Balanced (equilibrium)
Tenacious (tenacity)
No-Nonsense with a touch of cheekiness – it’s not all hard work (equilibrium & tenacity)
Aggressive (tenacity & equilibrium. Do not confuse aggression with violence, giving birth is an act of aggression, seedlings breaking through the ground is an act of aggression, chicks hatching out of shells are acts of aggression. These aren’t delicate matters but they are not of violence)
Family-minded family focused (equilibrium)
Devoted and independent (tenacious & equilibrium).
Cautious at first then resolute (equilibrium)
Actions will speak louder than words this year (tenacity and conscientiousness)

Being a yin sign, the cow is also nurturing (milk) and peaceful that likes equilibrium. Yin balances out the yang from the year before and prepares us for the next touch yang in the Year of the Tiger ahead. Being a yin year, it will favour the feminine and women. It will be beneficial to honour the women in your life and indulging in your own feminine side.

So, by being methodical and conscientiousness this year might win you favour with the year. When I say, “win favour”, I don’t mean that a cow will rock up on your doorstep and give you a reward. It’s simply saying that life will be that bit smoother.

Don’t take my word for it, try an experiment – a safe one! (remember number nine above: Cautious) In the first month you could try honouring the cow’s traits and then the next deliberately reverse your approach. Then compare the two month was easier. Of course, don’t try doing all the traits at once, just stick with equilibrium and tenacity as guide words with maybe methodical in there for good measure.

Special note to those who are born in the year of the Goat/ Rabbit/ Cat, where the appreciation of the finer things in life might be tempting as well as indulging in art. This is not a year where, “art for art’s sake” will pay off. If you are going to create something, make sure it’s “practical as well as being an artwork”. Lean into your strength of “diligence” for best results because this works in nicely with the conscientiousness of the Cow/ Ox.

Good luck!

References

Paul Rigby and Harvey Bean, Getting it together with Chinese Astrologics, independently published, link to a source is here but the site was “not secure” at the time of writing. Therefore, I do not recommend purchasing from the site until it has become secure, whitelotusbooks.com. If you do decide to purchase use a “burner” credit card (gift credit card).

Neil Somerville, Your Chinese Horoscope for 1994, The Aquarian Press 1993, ISBN 1-85538-290-3

Disclaimer

Advice given above is not professional and should be read with humour. Following suggestions does not guarantee results and information contained herein is based solely on personal experience and not factually recorded in anyway.

Michaela

Year of the Rat – in review

Welcome to the East Asian Lunar New Year!

Since China has been around for many centuries and developed what is today the Chinese Astrological signs. Like with most things with a mystical element, I enjoy watching to see what parts of assigned characterisations apply. The role I play is that of curious observer.

Like with anything there must be a time when it transitioned from, ‘not existing as a thing to being a thing’. Basically, from non-existing to existing. The next set of questions are: “what person/ people made these observations?”, “why did it take off?” and “why are they male when it follows the principles of yin and yang?”

The next thing I do when I’m looking at things like the astrology signs and the like, is that I assume that some of the belief is superstition and it is coupled with some astute observations. Let’s face it, looking up at the stars won’t tell you what they mean. It requires a degree of observation and memory of the stars placement and an observation of mankind’s for personalities of people born within or against that placement. Then it requires years and centuries to validate anything.

With the Chinese astrological cycle being made up of 60 signs, memory and observation needed to be good for a long period of time to even observe the cycle. Did the person who first started with the observations go, ah this is similar to what happened 12 years ago but the people are a little more forthright than normal, they seem to have …. ah… how do you say it? …. Fire!

If it were superstition by itself, none of these “beliefs or observations” would have stuck around for so long. And then there’s the part of environmental conditioning and being born into a world that observes it.

I became interested in Chinese Astrology back in the mid 1980s. At first, it was observing the year I was born in and those of my family and friends as objectively as I could. Then in the 1990s I managed to stumble across a couple of Chinese Astrology books made super simple and super fun. Nothing too serious. Surprisingly, two of these books have followed me around. When I want to know what a year is going to be like, I look up the “fun” version for the very concise advice on how to honour, respect and deal with the year. To-date the observations have been pretty on-point. For me at least.

For instance, Chinese Astrologics (p. 13, Rigby and Bean) summary for the year of the Rat was/ is:

"... this is a good year for commerce, speculation and the economy in general. It is a time for sensible investment and fluctuations will be beneficial. There will be some arguments and a few surprises!".

Paul Rigby and Harvey Bean

Did you just go… “Ha! How wrong is that!”. Not so fast Kimosabe! Last Lunar year was the year of the “Metal Rat”.

Metal adds a whole new dimension. It is associated with cutting tools. Metal is great if you are a chef, surgeon or lumberjacks for knives, scalpels and axes, respectively. When it comes to the economy we’d need to go back 60 years to look at 1960 for the last Metal Rat. It looks like the USA, at least, also had its economic challenges and like 2020. By the end of lunar 2020 year things were beginning to settle down. It’s probably fair to say that it should be worded that “this is a year for commerce, speculation and the economy in general”, omitting the word “good”.

As for the rest of the statement, it’s fair to say “bingo!”. Heads of state clashed with each other over how to handle the Coronavirus pandemic. Obviously, COVID-19 was a “surprise!” in and of itself. Other stuff the year focussed on were: energy, charm, self-control, opinionated, shrewd, social, congenial, clever, resourceful, and generous.

From my own observations over the years, if you exhibited and honoured the traits pertaining to that year, the year would look more kindly on you.

So, in a few quick words against each point from a general perspective:

1. Energy or energetic – There was certainly a lot of hustle happening around getting technology up-and-running for a work-from-home world. There was certainly a lot of activity in the medical and health sciences arenas too. Ah, what am I saying, it at some point you were expending energy to do something different in your life.

2. Charm – from a personal perspective, the leaders of each of the Australian states, mostly fostered or displayed charm. The states with leaders that began their communications on COVID with displays of positivity in the form of thanking people for getting tested and thanking others for isolating and following the health advice restrictions fared better than those when they were frustrated with parts of the population for doing the wrong thing.

3. Self-control – A big year for mental health. Self-control to me is all about mental health. It’s how you cope with change and pressure. If you’re charming and appear in control the year will reward you.

4. Opinionative – while every country had their share of rightful skeptics regarding the restrictions for COVID-19. Those who thought they were right and everyone else was wrong or those with strong opinions regardless of the correctness of the statements also got attention. This most prevalent in my world during the US election.

5. Shrewd – in a year like this year, you needed to be shrewd to survive. If you were shrewd you were most likely rewarded for your shrewdness or resourcefulness.

6. Social – definitely a focus for the year was the way we interacted with each other socially. Etiquette around socialising aspect shifted. In a year when socialising was hard if you socialised or found new ways to socialise you could avoid “cabin fever” for the most part.

7. Congenial – how often were we “in this together but apart?”. This year in particular if you were congenial, the year would by rights reward you with congeniality right back at you.

8. Generous – those with a generous spirit hidden inside came to the fore this year. Again, if you were generous with something you got repaid in kind. Caution: if you were generous with anger you that energy back just the same.

That’s it for the “Year of the Metal Rat”. It was a tough year and one unlikely to be forgotten in a hurry. Next we move on to the year of the Metal Cow.

References

Paul Rigby and Harvey Bean, Getting it together with Chinese Astrologics, independently published, link to a source is here but the site is “not secure” and therefore, I do not recommend purchasing from that site until it has become secure: http://whitelotusbooks.com/bookdetail.php?id=N2691

Random thoughts on Australia Day!

For those unaware 26 January in Australia Day in, you guessed it, Australia. This is when the European settlers claimed Australia as its own. Unfortunately, this neglected the thousands of years of occupation by the incumbent indigenous population, the Australian aborigines. To them Australia Day is known as Invasion Day.

Thankfully, society has moved from the barbaric actions of the new comers to finally acknowledge and treat with respect the indigenous population. There has been talk of moving the day, however, I think this is unlikely.

Australia Day is a day where the efforts Australians have made to Australia for whatever reason receive awards. The problem with this is when it comes to acknowledging the outstanding indigenous contributors who struggle with the day.

Now, I am far from an expert in indigenous affairs and therefore anything I put forward is not meant to be offensive to anyone at all. But there’s a part of me that has always thought that there should be two days for Australia Day. The 25 January celebrating the indigenous population’s contribution. Being on the day before Australia Day being symbolic of their existence before European’s landed.

Twenty-six January can then be for the celebration of landing on the wonderful soil that is Australia for the European settlers. Perhaps we need another day, the 27 January to celebrate the harmony between the two parties. But perhaps 13 February “Sorry Day” is a better day to celebrate the coming together of the traditional owners and the new settlers. It’s probably too messy for me to figure out.

Day 013 – Transforming a New Vision

13 January 2021

Today's Cards

Context

Welcome to Day 013!

My plan for today started simply, I was going to work on the Celtic Cross Layout, record it and post it on a separate info page on the website. First I would need to learn how to do some of those things. Luckily I enjoy learning. I also wanted to upload my logo at the very least so that the tab you see at the top in your search engine shows my little logo.

As Moltke the Elder has been quoted as saying, “no plan survives contact with the enemy” (Wikipedia) and for me “today” was the enemy. The morning began normally enough, but by 9:30-10:00am I discovered a cowering mouse beneath the water bowl. The bowl has a mouse-sized hole which before now I had not thought of as a mouse hole.

It was most likely brought in by Dobby (cat number 2) because it was alive. After a few seconds of thinking, I managed to trap the mouse. Valentine (cat number 1), our other cat, with more of a killer instinct was attempting to get at the mouse trapped in a clear upside down Tupperware lettuce container (the one’s with holes).

To prevent the creature from being harassed I needed to grab a brick – I hadn’t quite worked up the courage to try and move the mouse in case I lifted the container and it escaped. Then I’d be in an even bigger pickle! Long story short, this mouse stayed where I captured it and at the back of my mind all day, exuding a subtle tension. Kill it or let it go. Where do I let it go? Am I then potentially unleashing a future plague upon the suburb?

With mankind shifting the local eco system will the mouse go from hunted creature (birds, snakes, lizards, cats all eat mice) to a dominant species? Okay. So, I’m overthinking it just a little. It’s the whole an, “earthquake happens if a butterfly flaps its wings” thing.

Then a spot of lunch. After lunch I got a most welcome phone call from a friend, who here I will simply call Betty for writing purposes. It’s a safe name for me because I don’t know any one called Betty at the moment. Betty and I haven’t spoken in ages. At the outset, I got the impression Betty was having a glass of wine during our chat. This is not uncommon amongst my friends to have a glass of wine and chat.

So we pleasantly discussed COVID-19 (Corona Virus) its isolation impacts, the US election, its results, along with our hopes and fears. We talked a bit about physical aches, pains, getting older, her dog, her niece, her country of origin and relationships with husbands and people in general. There were a couple of emotional teary starts on Betty’s part but she assured me she was okay.

Somewhere, I must have missed a cue. Maybe it was the talking to an old friend, the inability of connecting when perhaps the cabin fever began to show. The conversation went from lightness to a deep probe question of, “who are you, Michaela?”. The conversation went from, “I miss you and you guys (our other friends) so much” to “I’ve just wasted two hours of my time talking to someone I don’t know and what I’ve learned in all my years is that I have choices and I no longer choose to speak with you”. It was the blink of an eye. Ouch! Betty then put phone down – not hung up.

This stopped me in my tracks. The typical reactions psyche fields will argue is that people go to the extremes of fight or flight response when shocked. My sits in the directly in the middle if those two were spectrums. Possibly because I can’t make up my mind which to do. The middle of that spectrum is “freeze”. I didn’t lash out with harsh words like I might have in my youth nor did I hang up the phone and flee. Instead, I paused waited to see what would happen. Kept the headphones on for a few minutes and when it was obvious the phone wasn’t going to be picked up again, only then did I hang up.

Of course, Betty’s a friend of 30 years and to some degree I got the frustration. Is this the end from my point of view? Certainly not. I’ll give her time to get over her hangover and send an email to test the waters. From there, it’ll be up to her how much of it was me and how much it was anxiety.

It reminds me how hard isolation can be. Particularly, if you are used to socialising and speaking with people. If you are not into technology, like Betty, life might be very hard indeed. Betty loves the intimacy of face to face in person conversations – like most of us. It’s probably something about other people’s pheromones (refer References) and their scent which you don’t get when technology is involved. I didn’t get to ask whether she used video chats but I suspect not. The video chats have made it easier for my mother and least she can see who she’s having conversations with.

On the upside of my hurt, I reached out to a mutual friend, to talk it out. Thank goodness for friends!

Enough, about that, what did the cards predict.

The Cards

First card Compromise in the Now position. Firstly, I can relate this to both situations today. Capturing the mouse and not doing anything with it was a compromise. The mouse didn’t win because it wasn’t free but it was alive; I didn’t win because the mouse was alive and I didn’t know what to do with this. This also sounds a bit like Schizophrenia’s rock and a hard place.

No-thingness was the second card out. This is a tricky one since I usually refer to No-thingness as “potential”, is Compromise threatened by potential creativity? Perhaps it’s a situation in which I needed to get creative about. Let’s assume it’s the mouse situation and that option one was “kill mouse” and option two was “let mouse go”. The compromise was let mouse go at the end of the day.

With respect to Betty maybe No-thingness can be interpreted best as “openness” as opposed to receptivity. Perhaps it’s being open to Compromise?

Conditioning was the third card selected and sits in the Goal position. Conditioning is an interesting card and in the Osho deck talks about the lion brought up by sheep and led to believe it was a sheep. That was, until one day it discovered he was a lion and not a sheep. Osho sees societal conditioning as the sheep and the individual as the lion. As a Goal, it might mean that it’s time for me to look inside.

For a moment, I’m just going to mix up the tarot deck and refer to The Mythic Tarot where its about battling your ego or lion within. The day certainly challenged my ego and it is without ego that I can say there has been some improvement to my early life’s reactions to a similar situations.

Next is the Distant Past position and Participation is its card. Previously Participation showed on Day 004 in the Future Energy position and the card is described as enjoying life and be a part of it. My thoughts on this one go to my interaction with Betty and how in the past we embraced each other’s company.

Again, talk of this threw the contact into stark relief and today’s interaction showed that she missed our past “girl gathering” interactions keenly. This stirred up the realisation that said style interaction would not be possible in the near future. Reinforcing the cabin fever she was already feeling (refer References).

Recent Past position has Schizophrenia – The personality split in two minds. Our being seeks wholeness. Betty’s dilemma reflected in part my thoughts and my actions. Entertaining the burden of what society requires at present; restrictions put in place for the safety of all to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. Divides us internally.

We as people who strive for togetherness are now more than ever forced to face ourselves and the choices we have made on where we live and who we live with. There are no more distractions to keep us from facing our immediate lives. Perhaps its millennia of conditioning that’s kept us from pursuing our dreams, bound up by a responsibility we don’t really want to understand.

Then there’s my frustration at not being able to reach out and simply exist in the same space as my friend.

Future Energy is Transformation – it’s not hard to understand why this card has shown up in the Future Energy position. If I had read the cards at the beginning of the day, I would have been clueless as to what my day would entail. As mentioned, my plan was so different to what transpired.

Transformation is the card that tells you that something has forever changed and is irreversible, akin to the moment of learning that Santa is not a real being. It’s the moment you lose your virginity – there’s no turning back. Sadly, so too was my interaction with my friend Betty yesterday.

It took me a while and a meditation to realise what the situation might be. Although I made progress on my immediate response it’s far from where I would like to be of responding immediately with compassion instead of stillness.

Feelings position is Adventure – Although this might sound a little haughty or aloof I am glad of the experience that Betty provided me. Although I hope that the interaction was not my last with her. It allowed me to look at my truth. Not in the analysis that I am doing here but at the moment of asking.

While I knew my response would have been, “I don’t know”. There are also so many facets to the question that hardly made a difference at the instant where I knew instantly then stumbled to articulate 10,000 words into sentences. This truth is what the Adventure card is all about.

On a literal everyday level, Adventure also reflects the adventure of the upcoming weekend away.

Other People’s Views is Possibilities – Here we have the Possibilities showing up again – that’s eight times in fourteen days. This time it’s how other people see me. Perhaps in chatting to my friends – they being the other – and talking about the plans for the website they saw creativity and possibilities ahead. Maybe it looks like keeping myself too busy to live.

The Hopes and Fears position is Inner Voice – This card is about being the same person on the outside as I am on the inside. The same person that speaks to you at home, at work and to my friends. Naturally, if I were to be in each moment I would be speaking my truth at all times. It is certainly my hope, my fear is not being able to attain or sustain it. This makes logical sense in light of Betty’s call.

Outcome position is New Vision – A popular card of late New Vision. Whenever it has appeared it has been about accepting the light with the dark, the good with the bad. This is exactly what my plan is moving forward it’s a slightly new way of being and certainly gives me reason to continue meditating and practising mindfulness.

Day 009 – The Compassion of Understanding

9 January 2021

Today's Cards

Context

Welcome to day 9!

Today was the first day of lockdown for the Greater Brisbane area. This means that excitement needed to be found around the home. It also meant that my interstate family who usually have trouble catching up with me on a weekend knew exactly where to find me.

The change in weather and our presence at home has meant that the slave drivers (our cats) have their slaves easily to hand. On at least four occasions my masters has me pinned to the seat preventing me from doing any housework. It meant, of course, that left my husband free to bring me food and drink until they deigned to let me off the seat. It didn’t all go my way, the reverse was true when he was pinned down.

You may ask, how did these felines (fiends) manage to get the upper hand on two strong capable human beings? Let me respond with my own question, “have you ever been purred at or on?”. It’s incredibly difficult to resist, just like a puppy that looks up at you with sweet brown eyes wanting a piece of that chicken stuff you have on your plate.

Alternately, we might just be suckers.

Before I go any further, I should categorically state that I love my family and friends and do not mind being contacted by them whatever the time or the cause. Those that know me, know that when I write about “escaping them” it is only because I know they know I’m not serious. In fact, I am honoured to have them in my life.

Now back to the jesting :).

The excuses I proffered were like, washing my hair at 2:00pm, brushing my teeth, filing my fingernails did not pass for suitable “doing things” to avoid a Zoom chat. I did manage to forestall the meeting by claiming that one of our masters, Valentine, was on my lap. Which was apparently plausible – he’s gotten to them too!. Waylaid by master Valentine, hair brushing had to take a backseat. The Zoom chat clearly demonstrated that I had not brushed my hair for days!

On the upside, I got some gardening done even if it was raining.

That said, let’s see how interesting the cards make lockdown sound 🙂

The Cards

First card is Ripeness in the Now position. As the name implies I am ready for the next step and that some degree of maturity has been reached. Indeed, I believe there has been but for most of the day I was stalling on progressing. Fortunately, I had already committed to deliver a document for editing.

Second card in the Influence position is Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia being that rock and hard place decision making or at the very least being in two minds about doing or not doing something is a blocker card. The rock was commitments to my family and the hard place was the commitment to send something through for editing in the morning. Both happened just the timing changed from what was originally planned.

The third position or Goal position has the Friendliness card. This is just having a good feeling of solidarity with my fellow humans being in lockdown together. Or could it be that I would like the website to come across as friendly?

Distant Past card is Celebration. The card of Celebration is moving in a predictable arc. What this technically means is that the moment of Celebration has left an imprint from which future decisions has been built off. This could be that I had some success with asking for help instead of trying to go it alone. The best part about it was that I was humbled and pleased by the positive response.

Recent Past card is Trust. The part of me that was reluctant to ask for help, apart from not wanting to oblige my friends to help, was that I get a bit scared having an editor look at my stuff. This is for two reasons: one is that I’m scared of the judgement on the poor grammar and two is that if the editor finds too much to change that it reinforces that I’m not very good at it.

Okay there’s a third reason, if the editor does their job well, it sounds as if I could have written it and therefore on some part robs the editor a little of their skill – which what I really don’t want to do.

That then brings us to what Trust is all about – letting go and trusting the people and the process without it there’s no growth.

Fittingly, the Future Energy position shows the card of Going with the Flow. The image is of a person floating naked on their back in a relaxed state, letting the water/ river take its body wherever it will.

This is “going with the flow”. It’s not fighting where you’re going. Not fighting the circumstances of what you’re in. It’s simply surrendering and accepting without fear. Note, this is not being blindly led, the figure is not being forced.

Going with the Flow follows on from the Trust and Ripeness cards to demonstrate that it is certainly time to put documentation out there to be tweaked.

My Feelings on the issue card is Silence. As mentioned yesterday when Silence appeared as a Goal of listening to an inner quieted mind. My feelings on being ready (Ripeness) are very closely aligned to Going with the Flow. I am at peace with the actions I have taken and am awaiting feedback, whether that be good or bad from an ego perspective.

The Other People’s Views spot has the Creativity card. The Creativity card is like the card of pregnancy it is something that comes from you but does not belong to you. Creativity can be all absorbing for a while and buoys enthusiasm.

Am guessing that family and friends can see that in me at the moment. Every second paragraph rolls back to my website. I pity them over the next year *smile*.

The Hopes and Fears card is Possibilities and out of nine days it has shown up five times regardless of the shuffle method. The last three days I have been using the “washing machine method”. The method entails laying the cards on a flat surface and then simply swirling the cards around clockwise and counter-clockwise to ensure they are well and truly shuffled.

So Possibilities is what I hope for, in that I would like things to progress and open up for me. At some point, I will need to get the other things that make up a business website happening. Oh, you know little things like, “comments”, “like” and “subscribe” options at the bottom of posts. That will then trigger another learning curve – scary!

The Outcome position has the card of Understanding. Many years ago I had a dream of being jailed. The jail didn’t have doors or a warder to attend it. The jail was like one of those “honesty boxes” you see by the side of the road situation next to random fruits or vegetables.

Unsure of my crime, I sensed in the dream that it couldn’t have been serious if there were no bars, doors or guards. Not even any other inmates. After some time I realised I could leave whenever I wanted. There was no-one there to stop me but me. But I was cautious about leaving nonetheless.

It was such a vivid dream. Analysing my own dream on waking made me understand that sometimes I punish myself for stuff that no-one else would even think was even punishable. It was stuff that if it was someone else I wouldn’t punish them for it.

So, I had to pretend I was someone else and treat myself like I would them. Usually someone I loved and/ or cared about.

This is what the Understanding card is about. It is about realising that constraints that were in place by me on me were really of my own doing. Understanding in the Outcome position might simply mean that I am ripe for this type of realisation or that the indecision found in Schizophrenia and the fears in represented by Possibilities are distorted by an inner unfair and harsher perspective.

With love, Michaela

Day 008 – Doing things Properly

8 January 2021

Today's Cards

Context

This morning I woke up, shuffled the cards laid them out and noticed that Thunderbolt appeared in the deck. Last time Thunderbolt graced my cards while I was on vacation I got back to work and discovered that my job had changed.

It meant that I was going to move physically but more importantly the result of the move and change of job would mean a complete stocktake of my life. Unfortunately, there was no extra money. The change prompted doubts, suspicion, and flattery all mingled in together.

You see, Thunderbolt is about a dramatic shift in the physical surroundings – that’s at least how I’ve always interpreted the card of The Tower – in some other decks this card is called the Tower. The imagery or how it is depicted is similar too.

As you can imagine, I got nervous. Without really focussing on the other cards and not wanting to until the day passed so I could form a retroactive perspective on events.

It turns out the change to my physical surroundings was announced on the news and to me when my mother and husband rang to advise me of the Premier’s decision.

Yep. It’s the greater Brisbane area of Queensland, Australia. We were going into level 4 lock down as of 6:00pm for three days. Thunderbolt card now makes complete sense sitting in the Future Energy position.

It also makes sense for yesterday’s Change card . And although I refer to the position as the Feelings position, the position has typically also covered on upcoming feelings. The timeframe I’ve read this at is within the next one to seven days. The duality of meaning was there yesterday, I just hadn’t had my precognition turned on :).

Now you have context, let’s see what the other cards had to say.

The Cards

Position one had Friendliness. The night before I talked with my husband about getting the dinners for the weekends. We had used all the HelloFresh meal kits for the week and decided that we needed a few things from the supermarket.

Not thinking the shops would get too busy for a three day lockdown I didn’t rush. But I did decide to go earlier rather than later so I could get back to doing things for the website. Kind of like, the sooner I go the sooner I’ll get back.

Glad I did, the line at the local supermarket was already quite long 200 metres, maybe. Anyway, in line which was the Now position when I did the cards this morning. While waiting there was a bit of solidarity. If you like, a Friendliness.

Totality as the Influencer in this circumstance meant that I need to commit totally to the shopping. But there is the subtle hint at the total lockdown to come. The nice part of going into lockdown was all the support from family and friends we received. Very touching.

Silence in the Goal position can be read as literal or figurative. The Osho book refers to Silence as a quietening of the mind. For me, it’s bliss. A time to turn inward. It is like a sense of being one with the universe.

The Distant Past has Postponement. So, there were certain things I was postponing yesterday; going to the shops, contacting the web developer and approaching a friend to help me out with some editing. Most of which I had dealt with.

Naturally, dealing with things that I’ve stupidly been postponing brought with it the cause for Celebration. And look at that, the Celebration card is in the Recent Past position. What else can really be said? Postponement overcome created the Friendliness I felt with my fellow line-upperers (yes, I know that’s not a word) which in turn is cause for Celebration.

Now, how does all this fit in with the Future energy position of Thunderbolt. Remember that the Thunderbolt card is about the change to physical circumstances and the trigger for a reassessment of one’s situation. Just because I know its coming doesn’t mean I’ve lived it :).

I fully expect that the Future energy card will last the three days. It will be interesting to see if Thunderbolt appears at all. Personally, I’d be surprised if it did since it’s the future position.

The Feelings position has The Creator. The Creator is about working on oneself to improve oneself. So, the card and position implies that I will be working on myself creatively.

On the other hand, I have found that this card can have the other kind of creator that works with nurturing something beautiful and physical into being. There is a plan to put together a media gallery tomorrow. We’ll see if I do any deep diving on myself.

Others’ views is Past Lives. Not quite sure how to interpret the Others’ views position when I’m reading for myself. It’s much easier reading this position for others. I find there’s more of a distorted view on anything I think other people might be thinking – as good a guess as it can sometimes be.

No! In the beginning I said that when I view Past Lives it is for this life time only. The cards or I know this. So, this is why it has come up to read with that interpretation. Others’ views then means that I am bringing back what I used to do. That’s for those that have known me for some time, that is. Makes sense. There’s a lot of my Past Lives cropping up at the moment.

This next card in the next position does not come as a surprise to me. Laziness is one of my greatest Hopes & Fears. Oh! To fully enjoy the contentment of being able to sit back and not worry about things slipping.

On a more serious note, I go into overdrive whenever Laziness crops up in a reading. There’s a make sure that I’m kicking myself off the lounge and cleaning, reading, typing, creating or just doing something. Then the fear sneaks in that I will miss something. Especially the thing the card is actually referring to, which is probably what I’m lazily avoiding because I’ve “been there done that”.

The title of this post is “Doing thing Properly” and the card of Morality’s appearance in the Outcome position had me pursing my lips. Had this post been written before the day had transpired the “irkiness” I felt at seeing it would have come through.

However, here is a situation where the card makes complete sense. The Morality card symbolises societal conditioning and conforming to expectations. Words that usually arouse the prickliness in me and whispers for me to see if the boundaries are spongy or breakable :).

It took quite a bit of self-discipline to quell that rebellious reaction. Luckily, I’ve learnt not simply to blindly rebel to something when someone says it’s moral and assess whether is has validity for me. Of course, in this case it completely makes sense to follow the “right thing”.

Yet the COVID lockdown announcement encourages people to conform to do things properly – social distance, wash hands, wear a mask. Ironically, by conforming and doing these things you are actually heroic. You are contributing to stopping the spread of the virus and potentially saving lives. All by doing things properly.

Morality from Osho’s intent, is about being sequacious (thank you Susie Dent – UK Countdown for the word of the day) and unthinking. It’s all about revalidating what the right thing to do is. From a Chinese proverb, “he who believes too long in something soon becomes wrong”.

It’s the “half life of facts”, if you don’t keep renewing the data you have it will become outdated. Basic mathematics is used daily and is tested for validity and is therefore kept up-to-date’ so too should morality be tested to retain validity.

Day 006 – Butterflying!

6 January 2021

Today's Cards

Context

Yesterday’s reading ended with Schizophrenia or being caught between a rock and a hard place with me thinking that nothing else but sleep could happen before I went to bed. How wrong I was! As I was preparing for bed I spotted a massive huntsman spider on the ceiling above the bedroom door. Link to image of about the size is in this article.

Normally, I would call my husband to relocate it down to the creek. When I was single I used to just leave it, but it was right ABOVE THE BEDROOM DOOR! And like in the article mentioned above, they’re safe but they do jump at you if you want to get into an argument about ceiling space.

My hard place was I wanted to go to bed and didn’t want to open the door because he might go into the bedroom and wake my husband. It’s also been a few years since I had slept with a spider in the room. I’d be a hypocrite to say that I don’t kill spiders, I just don’t kill ones this size and besides it’s not lethal. Just scary.

The rock was the spider and its location. I did not want to be jumped! So, I took a deep breath and let go of going to bed just at that moment and let go of trying to capture the spider but simply decided to wait until it moved. That illusive third option.

It moved. Over the dining table, then over the glass table where our small table top Christmas tree sat. The tree’s base was surrounded by cards, family photos, unwrapped presents and a bowl where my husband kept his wallet at night. Basically, not gettable, although I got the back scratcher and flung a few cards off the table.

One of our cats (Dobby) showed up, and thought he would be my rescuer. The cat would do what it would do and the spider would do likewise. It was an interesting game to watch. The spider knowing that hunters typically need movement to trigger the hunt, was amazingly still for quite some time.

All my attempts at trying to get Dobby to see the spider came to nought. To Dobby’s credit he did eventually spot a movement. Interestingly, the spider when it saw Dobby’s head turn toward me chose that moment to make its move.

Unfortunately for the spider Dobby turned back too quickly. Then the cat and spider chase was on. The spider won the battle, especially through the glass table – it was always on the other side of where Dobby was. It was really quite funny!

Of our two cats, Dobby is the better strategist. He lay himself down by the glass table and was content to wait. It was near midnight and this was like noon for him. On that note, I went to bed.

When my husband woke I warned him about sticking his hand in the bowl to grab his wallet – just in case spidey wanted to make a home in there during daylight hours. Turns out spidey lost the war, because by morning he was no more found dead on the floor.

For this reason, I am contemplating writing the days events before I deal the cards for the new day. This will give it a proper 24 hour cycle.

Anyway, today’s activities were focussed around my website again. This time more about how I could improve the image I had. There was a comment made on the image that I agreed with and it had been troubling me since I created it. There was just something missing.

So during the day I drifted from element to element and decided that I would obtain the services of a professional to help me round out the page. Realising that when I started this venture a year ago, that because I hadn’t started I hadn’t clearly identified requirements for the site. To some extent I still don’t, but by going live and posting, I’m discovering my real needs and can now put something together.

Another thing I started was doing either an “about me” page or rewording the text on the “home page”. This I will need to chat to an expert about. Nonetheless, I wrote the text and in the writing I discovered what was missing from the logo.

So today, I sent off the tweak to the logo to the designers for a quote to adjust it to fit. But I can tell you I’m so happy it ties in all the elements and a sense of who I am both in the text and the tweak to the logo. So happy even if I am opening by life up in it! But that’s the whole purpose of the blog isn’t it.

Okay, let’s see what the cards had to say.

The Cards

Firstly, the card of Beyond Illusion is a beautiful card. Today the butterfly overlaying a serene person’s face is attracting me. It makes me think of transformation and the caterpillar that came before the chrysalis into the butterfly. Based on my day I would say that I definitely applies.

Today’s Influencer card is Courage. This can be read as both influencer and blocker. It required courage for me to decide to open up in the “about me” area. Yet, the very lack of courage could have prevented the growth. Mind you I haven’t published it yet. One tender flat of the wings at a time.

And look the Harmony card has returned but in the Goal position. According to the Osho Zen Tarot book my goal is to “follow my heart whatever the stake” (p. 116). This too fits with my goal today. Both with my logo and the new addition to my page.

I think from the focus of today it has certainly come from the Rebirth of the website. Tick that off as the Distant Past card being accurate for today too.

Looking at the Recent Past and again based on what I have written about my day just the name of the card, Integration, sums up what I’ve been trying to accomplish. Talk about spot on so far.

Needless to say that I certainly hope that Sharing this with people interested in having a nibble or even interested a larger read of this site is exactly what I would like to do. Just deciding when to share it is going to be the challenge. Maybe tomorrow. However, looking ahead at the Hopes and Fears position, timing will be my challenge.

Well I am certainly feeling more playful with what I write and how I write it. Yes, the grammar isn’t perfect I will try and get better – there are still some mental landmines put in during my school years by well-meaning people that I need to diffuse before I get grammar completely.

Nonetheless, I hope to make the site fun in parts. If we’re going to do this for a year a sense of humour is definitely needed. So my Feelings position (see what I did there) for the site today is that it needs Playfulness.

The Other People’s Views position on the emerging butterfly is that it is all part of Experiencing life and growth. Fingers-crossed; not sure how the logo company are going to feel about the change in logo – again.

So position nine, Hopes and Fears is Patience. Aha. Patience and I don’t see each other often. Suffering FOMO (fear of missing out) at times pushes my patience to impatience quickly.

Funnily, if I don’t think about waiting patience really is its own reward. The question is, how long do I wait to engage the developer? I know I would like “right now”. Developer’s cost money and I want to make sure that I have enough to cover off on what I need. Not much I can do about it right now – tomorrow.

Breakthrough is a fitting Outcome card for the day. The one I’m particularly excited about is the logo one. Yippee!

Day 005 – Too Much Thinking

5 January 2021

Today's Cards

Welcome to day 5.

Firstly, yesterday I got out my yoga mat and decided it was time I started exercising to maintain flexibility. Turned on the Nintendo Wii and put in the Fitness First yoga disk.

Today, I had an exercise hangover from the exertion and the lactic acid in my muscles contributed to a headache. Even with a couple of headache tablets the thumping was still there chastising me for being so thoughtless not to continue yoga as part of my regular exercise regime.

On the whole I wasn’t feeling well and was keeping my activity to a minimum – basically sitting on the couch feeling sorry for myself.

Let’s see what the cards had to say about my day.

The first card out is the card of Maturity. As the card implies it’s a point of satisfaction or when one has reached a certain confidence in their abilities. For me that’s true because I can at least get a post onto a website now :).

It’s interesting to see the Harmony in the Influence position. This would mean that the maturity I have gained comes from a place of peace and ease instead of say… frustration.

In the Goal position is Morality. Because I am aware of my situation as opposed to reading for someone else, I’m going to differ from the Osho interpretation. Except Osho highlights that this card is about being prim and proper and following what is expected by society when it constrains who we are. Sometimes I read this card as someone wanting to do things “properly”.

For instance, I would like to edit my website in a proper way rather than winging it. As a snow ski instructor said to me, there are two types of skiers those that can survive the mountain and those that can ski the mountain. This was in response to discovering I was an Australian in a ski less that wasn’t my first lesson. The first lesson will teach you how to survive the mountain more lessons will teach you how to ski and control the mountain.

Apparently, Australians in Switzerland, had a reputation for being terrors on the slopes because they did one or two classes and thought that’s all there was to skiing. Unfortunately, it just made them dangerous to others … and not very popular – skiing wise.

This is where I think Morality can be a good thing. I want to build my website and I’d like to be doing it properly. Not because I want to conform and be constrained, it’s because I want to be efficient.

No-thingness appears in the same position as on Day 3. The events from today were also borne out from potential. Two days ago was Sunday and when I start an exercise regime it’s usually started on a Monday. That’s when I made the decision I had to exercise.

The Recent Past with The Miser in this position may resemble the fact that I had previously been stingy with my exercise. Also I’m probably too cheap to pay for a gym when my argument is that if I can’t get myself motivated at home, how is a gym going to be any different?

That brings us to the Future Energy which has another one of my favourite cards Mind – not! Luckily for me I did not really notice this card at the beginning of the day because it usually means mental turmoil. The Mind card itself is enough to induce the very situation it describes. Not noticing taught me that it doesn’t always have to be that, today my Mind was possibly simply a reflection of my headache.

That makes the next card easy to work out Healing. Certainly I felt that getting acquainted with the couch was a method of healing. I could not do much except binge watch something.

Now I’m not sure how the Projections card is to be interpreted. Based on what I said on day one, it’s about placing expectations upon another. Does that mean that those are put on me by others? Or am I doing that somehow with my healing? Thinking on it, it’s probably the latter. The only barometer I have is my own situation and therefore if I am feeling sorry for myself, I expect my husband to also do likewise :).

The Comparison card in the Hopes & Fears position is a caution against comparing myself to myself and others. For the last couple of days I have progressed quite nicely with my knowledge and in the background some future content.

Today was a quiet day by those standards and could be seen as disappointing. The fear when seeing this “lack” of progress is that I will give-up.

The card gives me pause and makes me recite my current mantra “I am not them and they are not me, I need to let each of us be free”. “Free” meaning free to each be ourselves without harsh judgment. Just because I can guess at what someone might be thinking doesn’t mean the person will act upon it. As Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot commented something along the lines of it being okay to kick a table when you are angry with someone but it is not the same as kicking the person.

Anyway, Schizophrenia card as the Outcome seems to indicate that I will be torn between a rock and a hard place. Osho’s suggestion for overcoming the difficulty is to let go of both things at once. Because I’m writing this at 11:00pm and the cards were done at 8:00am I can safely say that I was torn between doing little bits of work on the website while nursing my headache.

After five minutes of trying it became obvious that I was accomplishing nothing on the website and the thinking was delaying my headache from getting better. Thinking seemed to make concentration all the harder. This is what Osho’s Schizophrenia describes.

Did I mention I was stubborn? Well, I can be. I persisted a little longer to try and do both but the third option of self-pity won out. A good thing too, because I would have hated to miss writing this post.

Layout Summary:

Harmony allows Maturity around the growth that seemed so painful at first. However, the Goal of Morality, doing things properly has been set. From a past full of potential (No-thingness) to the tight constraints of The Miser putting limits on growth. Breaking free will cause confusion in the Mind.

Confusion is the beginning of new growth and the Healing of what was removed. Taking time to heal is necessary. Others’ Views are Projections of themselves or perhaps placing unrealistic interpretations on the questioner.

The fear borne of Comparison can be limiting but Comparison can be useful if it is with oneself and one’s personal growth.

Schizophrenia is an outcome where neither path can be reached and the solution it to let go of both.

Day 004 – Compromise is a Bitter Pill

4 January 2021

Welcome to day 4!

Not much to say at the moment, my day felt productive although there isn’t really much to show for it. More like working on the foundations. My advancement with respect to website development has stalled for the time being as I have a functioning post template.

Today’s apologies extend to you because the site is a little difficult to get around and there isn’t a lot of information filling areas of the site. I will get there – I promise :).

Before we progress however, I’d like to explain how I shuffle. After I layout the cards and take the photo I gather up the cards that have been laid out and put each one back into the deck separately. The theory being that if the cards show up together or close to one another it’s the results of shuffling not the result of them having to have been together when they started.

That said, let’s get go!

The first card of the day in the Now position was Traveling. The Osho Zen interpretation of the Traveling card it is about the journey not about the destination. Thinking back on the day, it was very much about enjoying the process of developing material about the layouts and finding out how to record the material. Although there is a destination in terms of I hope to have something to put on the website for you, dear reader, to view. However, the there is still more to do and more to learn.

The second card in the Influence position was Ordinariness. There were some things I needed to do at the post office. The post office being situated amongst shops, I took the liberty of moseying through some at a leisurely pace and simply enjoy doing everyday stuff.

My soul focus was to post a gift for my nephew, which due to COVID-19 I was unable to give him personally. Since this was something I wanted to get done it aligns with the card three, Completion and the Goal position.

Position four being the Distant Past has the card of The Miser. The Miser I suspect might be how I would normally be; get in, post the parcel, and go home. If needed there might even be a quick dash to the supermarket to pick-up something. There was no need to do any of this. So, The Miser that normally robs me of time or is very stingy with it has spurned the opposite.

Now the Recent Past card of The Dream is usually that of someone misreading a situation or putting romantic or unrealistic notions upon a situation. I confess, I did do this. Romantic notions of completing sections of work miraculously. Although, it might be around the unrealistic view of my yoga skills :).

The Future Energy position show Participation, which is all about enjoying life. It’s about noticing the beauty in which you exist. This is what the goal of Ordinariness suggests, being a part of existence rather than separate from it. Time not be be a spectator but a participant. Observe.

So, what are my Feelings on the issue? Going with the Flow. It’s a beautiful continuation of the current state, links beautifully with the Future Energy card too. There’s really not much more to say on this position. Not fighting the stream, going with the stream and finding it’s natural path.

Other People’s Views in position eight appears congruent with the goal too. I’m viewed as listening to my Inner Voice. I love this idea, although I know that it is a fleeting state like everything. It’s hard to maintain a position of clarity when so many voices can inhabit your head vying for dominance. When you or I manage to reach that state, however temporary, I am grateful. Please bear in mind that how others see me is not necessarily an accurate description of me from my perspective. 🙂

Moving to position nine and card nine reflecting Hopes and Fears, which is The Source. My hopes and fears are linked to The Source about finding it and what do I do once I have reached it. Might be prudent to remember the advice in the Traveling card of enjoying the journey. My fear of pain is knowing that the moment of connection is temporary.

Finally, card ten and the Possible Outcome position which is occupied by Compromise. I’ll fess up, I don’t like this card. I’m not sure about how a compromise can occur when you’re going with the flow or participating in life and enjoying each moment. If I take the situation back to the Now perhaps a compromise is needing to set a plan and providing discipline to meet it. Discipline in this case being contrary to Going with the Flow.

Layout Summary Reading:

Traveling with myself aided by Ordinariness of enjoying the journey, Completion occurs through Participation. Having learnt from The Miser of a distant past and overcoming unrealistic notions The Dream – an ethereal construct designed to distract from the now in a longing for the future made of rose-coloured glasses.

Seen as listening to an Inner Voice reflected in a Going with the Flow. There is the hope of connecting to one’s own source and connecting to the soul, The Source. However, all is not rosy and a Compromise may happen to ensure progress continues.

Day 003 – Full of Possibilities

3 January 2021

Welcome to Day 3!

If you were wondering whether things were looking up on how I post stuff on the site, they are. I learnt how to remove the duplicate headings I was encountering on Days one and two. Fortunately, I was able to update them without deleting the page – which is an added bonus. Also, things are looking a little less scary around the website today.

Now into the cards!

The first card is the card of Ice-olation. Osho typically identifies this as being a card where one feels alone due to pushing others away and not accepting help.

At other times, it has appeared for me when I had felt no-one amongst family, friends or co-workers could understand what I am going through. In part, because I didn’t want to burden them and in certain circumstances I chose to suffer alone.

Today certainly started with me feeling like that regarding my website. Little did I know that in the back of my mind things were ticking away happily sorting themselves out. This I would attribute to the Silence I was feeling around the knowledge on how to progress a situation which I thought was a dead end.

So, I set about my day and accompanied my husband to buy a new pair of work shoes. This is what the Ordinariness card symbolised in the goal or crowning position. It was something ordinary that I enjoyed. Although I dreaded the thought of shopping around for hours to find the right shoes, it turned into something incredibly quick with the shoes also being on a massive discount as a result of the January sales.

I also decided to purchase a COVID-19 mask to have on hand for those times I might wind up in circumstances where social distancing is a bit more challenging to maintain.

The No-thingness card, which sits blankly in black represents potential. Like an empty glass awaiting fulfilment, a blank canvas awaiting the artist’s creativity, it’s the ebb tide or the moment between the in-breath and the out-breath. Where the in-breath has finished but the out-breath hasn’t quite started yet. It’s just that moment of waiting – potential.

It is quite beautiful and as I type about No–thingness and thinking back on what I wrote above about my dead end, it was probably No-thingness.

That eases into the position of the Recent Past which is occupied by the card of Totality. The Totality card is about that moment when you completely surrender. It is the moment when the tide begins to turn and the out-breath begins, it’s the moment of letting go completely.

There is no progress without risk, the letting go is the risk. The out-breath is a risk that there might not be another in-breath, but we surrender totally because we cannot stay in a moment forever (even if we can forever live in the moment!). After we returned from shoe shopping, I sat and experimented continually on my website and risked losing everything.

Stupidly, I hadn’t backed it up beforehand mainly because I didn’t think I was going to experiment too much; but like pulling on a thread of an idea everything started to unravel – in a good way. Idea upon idea was triggering solution after solution, what’s more it was working. I didn’t want to stop working to learn something else because I would get distracted and lose my train of thought. Erh… like backups. They’re tomorrow’s problem :).

From the Recent Past we move to Future Energy sitting to the left-hand side of the question. Today’s card is the card of Completion. This card nicely completes the metaphor of the out-breath. The out-breath reaches its maximum point. The card shows a person’s face made up of jigsaw pieces with the final piece being put in place. It’s the moment of exhalation when you’ve been waiting to exhale.

The next card starts with what I usually perceive as the inner strip. In my view it deals less with the physical and more with the emotional aspects of the situation. This strip begins with position seven on how the questioner feels about the question.

Sitting above the seven is position eight and seeks to identify how others view the questioner or the questioner’s situation in relation to the questioner.

The ninth card, positioned above the eighth, aims to surface the questioner’s hopes and fears on the question. Finally, directly above position nine is the tenth card which is the possible outcome, given the other elements make sense.

Today’s position seven has the card of Compromise. Compromise in the Osho deck means a half-half situation. It’s when the final score of a game ending in a draw. It’s a non-plus or stalemate situation. It’s better than a loss but it’s not a proper win because each party has lost something in the deal.

Indeed, although I made progress with respect to the website and the creation activities in the background, there are elements that I’ve sacrificed in order to keep momentum. There’s also a little bit of sleep being sacrificed – but with improvement comes sleep. So, yes. I do feel like that my isolation has triggered some personal sacrifices. Talking about my life on the internet also feels a little scary.

Position eight is occupied by the card of Sorrow seems to indicate that my sacrifice isn’t going unnoticed. The card shows Buddha’s trusted companion Ananda crying on the first day of the year. It is the only day Ananda allows himself to cry for the people who haven’t reached enlightenment yet.

Perhaps my husband who has been witnessing my rants around the house has noticed sorrow – perhaps he’s feeling like Ananda because I hadn’t reached my learned enlightenment yet.

Moving to position nine and the card of We are the World. My hope is that everything would come together just like I want it to. That’s pretty much what is expressed in the Completion card with the last piece already in place. This then means that the next hurdle needs to be addressed. How to develop a dynamic stats page, a media library and getting the All Posts page up, not to mention the layout and instruction PowerPoints I’ve been working on. Oh… one step at a time!

That leaves the final position, position ten located directly above position nine. Most times I’ll be able to identify whether things have panned out, given that the photo of the layout happens at the beginning of the day and I write about my day and the cards at the end of the day.

The Outcome position has Possibilities. Based on today’s little bits of progress I feel that things have certainly fallen into place. Not everything, but more than I thought possible a mere fifteen hours ago.

Layout Summary:

Grounded in the distant past, No-thingness spurned a self-imposed Ice-olation blanketed by Silence. In reaching for and embracing Ordinariness, Totality arises and builds the foundation for Completion.

This Completion was obtained by Compromise that others felt as Sorrow not realising the inner hopes and fears were about harmonising We are the World. Without the Compromise Completion of Possibilities would not be possible.