February 2021

Day 059 – Preparing for cast off!

28 February 2021

Context

Welcome to Day 59!

My day started with me being queasy, the same as one of my guests yesterday. The day was spent staying indoors with our good friend, Pity. Fortunately, we found a relaxing neutral show on Netflix called Good Witch. It wasn’t loud and didn’t compete with anyone’s ability to communicate. It suited the herbal tea and plain biscuits we were consuming.

On my mind was the cast removal day tomorrow. I’m anxious. There are so many fears playing around in my head, all of which are unfounded. There’s also the “hurry up” and get it over with! Questions plague me: will the cast stay on? Is it coming off? How will they take the cast off? How much weight will I need to put onto it? At the hairdressers, the manager was excited at the prospect of moving from one crutch to no crutches for eight weeks! Two crutches and cast, one crutch with moon boot, no crutches and moon boot… whaa..t? Everyone has such a different tale to tell. All I know is that the best case scenario I’ve heard of has been twelve weeks from break.

Moving from one form of agony to one I haven’t noticeably experienced. Everyone I’ve spoken to has commented on times when itchiness inside the cast has been unbearable. It’s why right from the start, there have been warnings about not putting things down the cast. At what stage is this meant to happen? To-date, I’ve had a couple of itches but I’ve had worse when on Vipassana meditation retreats, when you get to the day in the retreat where you try not to move to become comfortable. At those times, you definitely learn that the itch passes.

Perhaps, meditation discipline helped overcome the times I’ve been itchy under the cast or it really didn’t get bad. Maybe it will be during the moon boot phase. Wonder if you can take the moon boot on and off regularly – they look removable. Did I not get itchy because I hadn’t waxed my legs for about six months before the slip? (It’s true!). That doesn’t make sense, men have spoken about unbearable itchiness too. Oh no! What is my leg going to look like, hair wise, when the cast is removed? How badly will the peeling be? Just when the peeling toes were finally starting to look reasonable.

Way too many questions! I know. Where did all the questions come from? No wonder I’m queasy. Just writing them down has made me realise, I’m more concerned than I’ve believed myself to be. We’re here! My ankle has healed and cast removal is about to get real! Oh, how I hope the ankle has healed. Work, housework, yard work and less rest 🙁. Am I ready?

Let’s see what the cards have to say!

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

Now is Understanding that The Dream has had an Influence on me. The Goal of Inner Voice means listening to what is right for you without reference to anyone else. Distant Past of a Thunderbolt saw a change in physical circumstances forcing an emotional and metaphysical shift to create the Recent Past of Breakthrough. From Thunderbolt’s push for a Breakthrough in Understanding to generating an environment for Experiencing life from a different perspective.

Understanding that we are The Creator and that the Thunderbolt was generated by us to develop that Understanding. Others’ Views of the circumstances and coming through the experience is that of Success. Our Hopes and Fears are Projections and both our Hope and Fear are not necessarily the reality of what is. The Outcome of Past Lives suggests that Understanding will show the situation to have deeper roots than the recent past.

Translation against my day.

While I have a crude Understanding of what to expect when the cast is removed from the broken ankle, there is a part of me that wishes for me to get up and walk immediately. There is also a part of me which thinks there will be an eternity in a moon boot. The bit where I can walk away relates to that “happily ever after” of The Dream.

The Inner Voice card is for me to trust myself when it comes to my healing process.

When it comes to the Distant Past position and the Thunderbolt card I’m interpreting this as the same event just spawning multiple changes in different areas. Have you ever had the notion of tidying up the spare room, only to realise there’s a domino effect like needing to tidy the garage, and before that needing to empty the garage of rubbish and taking it to waste or recycling?

Well, this can also happen on a mental and/ or internal level of healing. Before you can heal what’s actually wrong you need to heal some of the areas that are possibly less important, but underpin the area you need to tackle. As previously stated, the my broken ankle was a symptom or external manifestation of a crossroads situation with respect to what I want to do with my life as I get closer to retiring. Thunderbolt can refer to both the cause and the symptom which are, in this case, interchangeable.

In the Recent Past, I’ve had a Breakthrough. The Breakthrough was the realisation that I have time to make that decision and I am able to have both. The directions are not mutually exclusive, they are able to happen either sequentially or concurrently. Although knowing this, the ankle break gave me the time to look at and sort through the issue – possibly on a subconscious level because I can’t tell you when I resolved the issue. As the healing continues I can attest that the new direction is a little difficult to manage at present but I’m confident things will get easier.

So, by Understanding this aspect of change and healing I can move into the Future Energy of simply Experiencing the change and fully appreciated the change with fascination.

Understanding that I was The Creator on a metaphysical level does not absolve the local council for their lack of anti-grip material or at least a warning that the steps were slippery. The sign may have given me pause long enough to weather the moment of “existential crisis” and potentially avoid the extended healing I am now experiencing.

Others’ Views I’m going to pick those in the household at present and believe that getting the cast off is a milestone and a measure of Success. It’s been hard fought and comes with a temporary celebration.

Hopes & Fears being Projections. There have been a lot of people projecting their experiences on to me and my circumstance. Indeed, I have done likewise many times. My fear is that some of the more horrific components will come to pass. The flip side of that is that I hope my experience is not a combination of them.

The Outcome of the situation is interesting because it has the card of Past Lives moving forward suggesting that there are still some things unresolved.

References

Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7

End Day 059

Day 058 – Trying to Meditate

27 February 2021

Context

Welcome to Day 58!

Quickly, my day was incredibly dull to write about. There was a lot of lying about watching Netflix with family and in the evening playing Rummikub.

There was a little bit of discussion around how I was setting up a meditation group as part of work’s wellbeing program. The funny thing is, I was pushing so hard before COVID hit to get a meditation room setup, the location even managed to hand over a few metres of musty, air-conditioning free space together with support for some ottomans for people finding the ground too far away when dressed in business clothing. Then COVID hit.

This led to me thinking of just how important meditation or mindfulness is for mental health. How I see meditation and mindfulness as being the mental equivalent of brushing your teeth. Getting into a habit let alone a daily habit of meditating, even for five minutes, can be hard. It’s like trying to get a child to brush their teeth.

Have you ever met a child that willingly goes to brush its teeth every time? Have you also tried to have a discussion with a child on the benefits of brushing their teeth? Did you have any success on the second try at getting them to brush their teeth? First time is easy, it’s a novelty then. It’s the second time and onward where it gets more difficult. From there the resistance seems to get greater with every instance when they have to pick up the toothbrush.

If you’re like me, you have tried both the patient and impatient approach to communicate the benefits of brushing those pearly whites; with varying degrees of success. On occasion, you’ve also surrendered and let fate take its course with the teeth go a couple of times – especially in the pre-permanent teeth ages. As you and they get used to brushing teeth on a daily basis, going a day without brushing seems strange. Now, how’s that flossing going?

The same goes for meditation, mindfulness, and maintaining your mental health. The patient approach is to display copious quantities of research demonstrate the benefits of meditation and/or mindfulness on and for mental health. Benefits like: concentration, living a fuller life, happier relationships, less stress, easy sleeping, and better health are just a few. And yet, like a five year old, we insist armed with a variety of excuses like, “I find it almost impossible to sit still … I have too active a mind for that stuff… I don’t have time ….”. There’s my personal favourite, “I’ve gotten to this age and I’m okay”, while swallowing a handful of tablets to help sleep. Hey! I’m guilty of it myself – all… the… time 😐!

Other excuses are a little more difficult to argue with because they’re also beneficial for body and mind: “but I meditate by running/ swimming/ walking/ listening to music/ watching TV/ dancing … et cetera”, these are all incredibly therapeutic and have a detoxing effect on the mind and body, but they do not teach the mind to obey or heel. One could argue that the discipline of getting out and exercising is disciplining the mind, and it would be difficult to disagree … but if that were the case disciplining yourself to get dressed for work would also promote relaxation.

Nonetheless, all these activities, are externally focussed or are inputting new data in addition to old data or simply regrooving/ travelling along existing safe territory in the brain. It’s good, but it’s the equivalent of swishing your mouth out with water instead of brushing; it cleans out most of the sugar and some of the bigger food remnants but it doesn’t tackle the bad plaque areas, or the gaps in between teeth.

You may be asking if activities are water swishing, what is the difference between mindfulness and meditation? Glad you asked 😊. Think of it this way, mindfulness is brushing your teeth (control), and meditating is flossing (getting to the tough to reach spaces where bad stuff tends to happen).

Now meditation does not have to mean physically turning yourself into a pretzel – even though I wish I could do it voluntarily and easily at will. You can sit comfortably on a chair, you can lie down, stand up. Your posture and core get benefits if you can sit up straight while you meditate, but it’s not mandatory. Grab an app like Headspace, or whatever you prefer and give it a go. Over time you won’t really need the app beyond a timer and to assist in the same way as a personal trainer.

As a good friend of mine’s grandmother used to say about clearing her mind, “oh, it’s easy! All I do is sit there and think of nothing”. Never quite knew whether she meant think of “nothing” and what nothing was about or whether it was pushing all thoughts aside so there would simply be nothing? Sadly, June’s no longer with us to ask.

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

Today the Goal of We are The World creates the Influence of Possibilities which encourages The Fool to take a leap. The Fool is tired of being bound by the habits from the Distant Past of being confined and obeying unseen laws that restrict rather than promote doing the right thing.

The Recent Past supports this view by showing that the constraints have caused the personality stress and anxiety within while Fighting to keep control for the sake of others. The potential to explode with the slightest provocation. Moving from the Recent Past using the soul of The Fool the Future Energy shows Letting Go which is the leap of faith displayed on the card of The Fool.

The leap is not one of blindness but one taken of full awareness and full Consciousness. Others’ Views think the leap of The Fool and Letting Go are a result of me comparing myself to others. Participation could go either way, the hope is for positive participation the fear is that there will be the reverse either negative participation or no participation at all.

With Consciousness and Letting Go it seems that I am moving from illusion to Beyond Illusion by consciously Letting Go of the past and transforming it into something beautiful.

(There’ll be a bit of fleshing out of the analysis to come, I ran out of time).

With my soul embrace,
Michaela

References

Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7

End Day 058

Day 057 – Memories

26 February 2021

Context

Welcome to Day 57!

My father and I had a complicated relationship. Today would have been my father’s birthday. He passed away about five years ago. It’s taken me several attempts to write of my feelings about him. Yes, I loved him and it’s also a yes for I hated him. Toward the end of his life, I felt more centred around him and less like I lost myself with him. I used him as my barometer to see how effective my meditation and mindfulness practises were. Initially, it wasn’t very long.

Over time and with practise, the length of composure became more and more effective as the parental triggers, put in place when I was younger, no longer had the desired effect. This helped unearth triggers that had been hidden, like landmines placed in unexpected locations of my soul. Yes, it was probably because we were so alike. Was that the result of parental influence, his ability to gaslight, or were we alike innately. Darn, that’s the whole nature versus nurture thing, which I’m going to avoid at this point.

Getting into the memories of my father is a very long and complex story, which I will write about one day. For now, suffice it to say that I am having a wide range of emotions on the topic. This post was initially called “Memories”, because I had hoped to write to some experience or other on something which I had learnt from my time while exposed to my father. Interactions with him were certainly opportunities for personal growth.

Moving back to work, a lot of progress was made. On Day 055, a situation arose where there was fallout from something that I hadn’t finalised properly six months ago. From the fallout, I made a commitment to get something in place by the end of the week. Today is the end of the week. A solution has been substantially documented, the next step is to get the components into the relative areas while “delegating upward” on the issue that caused the stop last time.

While putting the solution in place, it became apparent that there were a number of existing areas which were going to benefit once the new process was in implemented; it wasn’t confined to just to my project. Now that feels like job satisfaction.

Let’s see what the cards say!

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

From the Now position of Maturity there lies the potential of No-thingness, with the Goal of having to pursue Politics, when in the Distant Past I was open to Receptivity. In the Recent Past of Turning In I was able to form the Future Energy of The Lovers.

Okay, this is how this looks to me: I have learnt and matured both in knowledge and self-assurance in the last six months to reach a point of Maturity. My Maturity is Influenced by the blank slate of opportunity and potential to make whatever I want to happen come to fruition. To make my mission a reality I will need a Goal of handling the Politics of the situation carefully.

The Distant Past showing the card of Receptivity is most likely when I embraced the opportunity of an unexpectedly receiving a new position (same money, different role). If it weren’t for the new role, the Maturity I needed to complete the solution satisfactorily might not have happened.

Day 055’s incident of an IT officer suffering in part because of me caused a Turning In. A meditation on what needed to be done in order to get the solution across the line.

Although The Lovers card is in the Future Energy position, I can tell just from comments received about some of the automated changes, that it will create an environment of mutual respect, understanding, and harmoniously working individuals.

Day 055’s Feeling position had the card of Awareness, which represents the tantalising thought. Today’s is Consciousness which is a full awareness of the situation, it’s the mature state of awareness come from a Rebirth experience.

Others’ Views are that of Projections where they believe that I’m wearing the guilt of a situation not fully my own. Okay, I have no real basis on how to interpret this card. Whatever I’m feeling, I believe is me projecting my hopes, fears, successes and failures upon others. This is too close for me to be able to discern which it is exactly.

The Hopes & Fears is easy because what is required for Politics to succeed and Maturity to hold is Courage. The approach I’m using could be misinterpreted if not handled carefully. My biggest fear is that the solution goes nowhere and causes more frustration.

The Rebel is the Outcome. While the method to putting the solution in place is a little unconventional, the process itself isn’t unusual. The Rebel is about the unconventional bit, and that’s the bit unique to me.

References

Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7

End Day 057

Day 056 – Celebrations

25 February 2021

Context

Welcome to Day 56!

It was a busy day today because it was my husband’s 50th birthday. Coronavirus restrictions late last year turned what was going to be a big event into a small event with husband’s father. There was a pleasant surprise for husband when he received a posey of Australian Natives in hessian.

Australian Natives are beautiful but not in a frilly way, to me they’ve always seemed appropriate for a masculine bouquet. The colours are slightly more dusky lending them beauty, style, and simplicity.

On the other hand, it might be because the Australian natives come with a subtle appearance of danger. Perhaps it’s the spiky leaves on the banksia with it’s almost cactus like appearance, or the velvety tarantula look of the petals of the protea, or could it be the out-of-space look of the dryandra, which lends itself to be versatile enough to be given to both sexes. I’m sure it’s the danger element. Why not? According to one author everything else in Australia is out to kill you, except a couple of sheep… oh and maybe those too? (I’ll find out the author and populate the References with it as soon as my husband wakes and I can quiz him for the details. Found out it’s Bill Bryson).

Husband, father-in-law, his wife, and me went to dinner at a traditional Italian restaurant nearby. We hadn’t been there before and since our favourite modern Italian restaurant hadn’t opened due to coronavirus restrictions, we settled for traditional instead. The meals were okay, but the salad dressing was on the unpleasantly salty side. This could be the restaurant catering to the Australian habit of adding salt to a dish before they even try it. The amount of salt added makes you wonder whether the ocean is missing some salt! Not a single person in the restaurant needed to add salt to their meal.

There’s a saying in Germany that goes: if the meal is salty the chef must be in love. Meaning the chef isn’t concentrating on cooking but thinking of their sweetheart. This chef must have really been infatuated! All up, it wasn’t a bad experience because the service was excellent, and the environment had a romantic feel with “fairy lights” all over the restaurant.

The company was also lovely. After the meal we went home and had some Belgian Chocolate cake which did not disappoint – quite the reverse!

These days my husband and I don’t typically buy each other birthday presents, mainly because anything that’s in the birthday present price category, if we want it we buy it for ourselves most of the time. Nonetheless, it’s important to mark the occasion, particularly a birthday that has a zero at the end of it.

Anyway, other activities for the day were, the issue spoken about yesterday where a piece of work landed in my lap for which I had no responsibility – it went right back. Contrary to expectations what I thought was going to be a hard sell, went back easily.

The issue of leaving project operational handover activities to find their its own home gained traction up until I bumped into the same roadblock as six months ago. Prepared this time, I devised a cunning plan to overcome said obstacles (yes, that is a Black Adder TV series reference). The plan will take a little longer but there is less chance of it biting back.

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

Different reading tact today. Experiencing Existence has set about the Goal of The Lovers which is about two whole persons working together, each knowing their own boundaries, strengths as well as understanding and respecting the other’s individuality. Together the result is beneficial not just to the parties involved but also to everyone who comes in contact with them. This is Experiencing Existence with companionship.

The Distant Past shows that it hasn’t always been easy, because there has been some confusion which has led to the Suppression of self. The Suppression was necessary as it was like the cocoon state which later opens to expose the naked self. A Creativity Future Energy can assist is continuing the growth that begun in the Distant Past.

The Creativity gives way to Feelings of a Rebirth or a shedding of an old skin into a new way of being. Other People’s Views believe that I am under the spell of The Dream where the romance will end and the happy ever after only exists in fairy tales.

Dominating the Hopes and Fears is the The Miser who is afraid to give for Fear that there will be nothing left. The mindset of scarcity shrinks perception and the world becomes a little darker and suppressed. The Hope is that The Miser is not what moving forward will look like.

Activities with guests, celebrations and existence can all become wearying, when it happens in a day, and at the best of times this can lead to Exhaustion, but in a good way.

References

Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7

Bryson, Bill, Downunder (In a Sunburned Country).

End Day 056

Day 055 – Surprises! (edited)

24 February 2021

Context

Welcome to Day 55!

It was back at work. The day was full of surprises – some helpful, some pleasant, and some unhelpful. It’s my husband’s birthday tomorrow and a gift rocked up at the front door today. Please don’t be the one I ordered for him come early. Opened the door and phew! It was a parcel from his mother, which he’s conscientiously not opening until his actual birthday. Sheesh! Such an angel 😇.

Another pleasant surprise was realising that there were two work meetings organised for the same thing scheduled back to back, meaning one needed to get cancelled – yay. This freed me up to get something done that was on the todo list. Getting back time is such a bonus!

The next surprise was a frustrating one, it involved me making a mistake. To explain, because of the broken ankle I’ve been working from home. Working from home makes my life easier. Especially since I can keep the leg elevated and get to the bathroom more easily. However, on the odd occasion when I need to be in the office, I need to lug the laptop between the office and home. Although the docking station transports easily enough, with the broken ankle it’s more complicated fiddling around with cables and power outlets which are just out of comfortable reach. Simply taking the power pack avoids this complication.

Here I was in two minds about whether to take to pack home or leave it in the office. The benefit of leaving it in the office would be that once the power ran out on the laptop I would be forced back to the office. Alternately, taking the power pack home would save me the trip into the office and worrying unnecessary movement while my broken ankle needed to remain elevated.

For the record, I went with the take power pack home, but thought I left it at work. This meant that husband, at home on vacation got a surprise trip to my office. He took me to work to collect the power pack that wasn’t there, because I hadn’t checked the laptop bag thoroughly. Only when we got to work, did I realise my error! Yes, poor husband. Fortunately, he’s amazing!

Why didn’t memory serve or at the very least why didn’t I check the laptop bag? The majority of my work can be done on my home desktop. The laptop is there for timesheeting, recordkeeping and project scheduling. Also, I thought the laptop bag had been checked, several times at that! Turns out just not in the obvious compartment! Doh!

Then there was the surprise of my father-in-law and his wife arriving a couple of hours sooner than expected. That last minute cleaning up will just have to be crammed into 30 seconds instead! Just kidding – kinda, sorta. Father-in-law got lost, so got extra cleaning time – bonus. After all, you keep cleaning till the guests rock up at the door, right?

It was actually a pleasant surprise to have father-in-law and his wife visit. Beautiful people, easy going and wonderful to have around. The coronavirus events of last year had meant that catching up with them had been a challenge, and this opportunity to catch up physically was not one to be sneezed at or missed.

The next surprise arrived from left field in a meeting, when someone added something to to my scope which was not in it previously! Surprise, extra work. This bit of scope is heading back to where it came from, if I have anything to say about it – I hope.

Later a team meeting added more work to my growing list of responsibilities. This, however, was to be expected. There was a mention of getting time back – it wasn’t this much time! There’s still the need to handover the projects that I had started before I left my old role, which I am still doing in addition to the new activities in my new role.

Then came the surprise that shamed me 🙁! It was a part of a project that needed handing over. The hands that needed to accept some operational responsibility for support were unwilling to take it on. At the time, I thought the activities I had already done were good enough to hand into production – believing that the bits that didn’t have a place would find a natural home.

Since October 2020, things had hummed along without incident until six months down the track – surprise! The consequence of me not acting back in October, now meant that one of the IT support specialists was accused of not doing his job. The IT support specialist wore the brunt of my strategic laziness. I felt bad for the support person and the other support people that needed to rally to fix what should have had a safety net put in my me.

For all the good surprises, this last surprise was the one that stuck with me the most. My goal is to have the safety net in by the end of the week, even if it does have a few holes in it. There might need to be some creative wrangling to ensure support areas are aware of their responsibilities.

Let’s see what the cards have to say!

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

1. Now – The Dream. The Dream is about romantic notions or idealistic thoughts. This I’m going to put down to the assumption/s I made that have caused the unpleasant surprises to appear in my life today. That is, the assumption of support finding its own home.

2. Influence – Politics. There is a chance that this has come to my attention because someone was trying to make a political point.

Look at it like this: The Dream represents my notions of if “I leave it alone”, support will find its home and everyone will live happily ever after. The Politics come into play around changing responsibilities in a COVID shrinking workforce. My workplace isn’t hiring people, to save money for the state. That extends to even replacing people who leave due to retirement, job movement, maternity or sick leave. This means teams are trying to ensure they do not have more work than the team can handle.

The repercussions of having too much work on your plate is: stressed staff, poor delivery to customers, and poor reputation with superiors. Hence, when a project finishes and needs to be handed over, support teams push back. With nowhere to hand a product over to and the next project chafing at the heels of the project manager, handovers get dropped to find their own way. Except, when teams are trying to make a point to show they’re understaffed; that’s when pushing back on a project manager might get traction. If the project manager let’s it slide then support failure or repercussions highlight the issue just as well. Ah… the frustrating joy of Politics!

3. Goal – Patience. Patience is about waiting for the right moment. If the ideal in The Dream is coming undone due to Politics, a Goal of knowing when the right time to act to resolve the issue might be displayed in the card of Patience. The way I’m reading this card right now, is that a period of time has passed for the situation to be resolved.

4. Distant Past – The Master. The Master is about being above and unaffected by the circumstances and taking an objective yet not dispassionate approach to the situation. It was stepping back to break the cycle of Politics and waiting.

5. Recent Past – Sharing. Sharing implies not giving to one but giving to many. When the situation arose with the IT Support person being abused, I made a commitment to get something in place. Instead of shifting support to one area I divvied up the work and shared it amongst a few groups. It would lesson the burden on any one group. An option that was not present six months ago. The trick is to do this without revealing my hand before I have all the components are in place. This means that I needed to create a few automated processes first. Once done, life might be easier for everyone.

6. Future Energy – Ice-olation. Going to the last point in the Recent Past, of doing this without revealing my hand means I need to push people away and do this in Ice-olation.

7. Feelings – Awareness. The Feelings position is about how the questioner (me) feels about the situation. In other words, how do I feel about discovering that The Dream of support sorting itself out didn’t happen like I imagined it would? I am developing an Awareness of the repercussions of not fully seeing something through. I’m also realising that at the time (Awareness), there were no options available to me. Only the passing of time (Patience) has opened up a new path.

8. Other People’s Views – Laziness. Certain elements of the unpleasant surprises could be perceived of as Laziness. Laziness in the Osho view, means resting on your laurels and accomplishments. Indeed, I am certainly guilty as charged in the “handover” incident. The person advising me of the lack of support probably thought I had been lazy. Also, anyone reading this post might justifiably think it too.

9. Hopes & Fears – Maturity. Quite simply, I Hope that in this situation, the recipients of the handover activities and me, have all reached a level of Maturity. The Fear is that the Maturity isn’t there and the situation is unsatisfactorily resolved.

10. Outcome – Healing. This is a positive outcome for the situation. It shows that the situation is fixable (Healing) and with some dedicated hands-on focus it can recover and have a healthy solution.

References

Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7

End Day 055

Rate this post:

 5/5

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

Day 054 – Resting for renewal

23 February 2021

Context

Welcome to Day 54!

Day 54 saw a lot of running around, from picking up a lounge cover we’d organised in June last year, to a much needed haircut and colour to visiting the pet barn for fish tank supplies, then onto a homewares store to pick up shelving suppliers before we get visitors. In amongst all that, I managed to get in a meditation session just to slow things down and recentre. It was a busy day!

Speaking of completing things, I’ve been trying to get the the Year of the Cow/ Ox and what to look out for. It’s been started but the time hasn’t been there to finish it, which I had hoped would be. So, for that post to exist, this post will need to be shorter.

It’s with reluctance that I will finish writing this here so the other post gets off my “to-do”. If it doesn’t get launched today, my fear is that it won’t get published while the Year of the Cow celebrations are in swing.

Please accept my thanks and my soul embrace until tomorrow.

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

Now – The card of Completion indicates that the day was going to be about completing things and getting things done. Makes sense with the activities I wanted to get done.

The Rebel sitting as an Influence position was about wanting things to go my way. Not doing things my way would have reduced the number of things that needed to be completed today.

Goal – Not completing some things will create a degree of Sorrow. Let’s put it this way the Goal I set for myself at the beginning of the day went like this, “do stuff equals happy – not do stuff equals sad”.

Pasts: Distant Past – Adventure sitting in the Distant Past position means that the list of things to complete were probably generated when I had a few “light bulb” moments. In the Recent Past I needed to get a tight rein to Control on the list and the order in which things had to happen.

Future Energy – The completion of the planned activities brings about an inner sense of peace and Harmony. Particularly by the reduced stress created by the sense of accomplishment.

Feelings – Feelings were about getting the space to meditate which looking at the image on the card very appropriately indicates Turning In. Oddly, Turning in happened after I had completed my goals rather than before to promote clarity to complete’s today’s tasks.

Other People’s Views – I’m not sure how No-thingness (potential) would factor into how other people saw me but the No-thingness card being that of potential, it in completing things I it free myself up to do other things?

Hopes & Fears – In order to get my hair done, I had the day off work and so took advantage of my husband’s vacation time. At the beginning of the day, I was hoping that I was going to be able to accomplish my list of things and get to bed early. My fear and likely reality is that Slowing Down wouldn’t happen due to old habits.

Outcome – The Outcome from today was that of playing Politics at the shopping centre (the mall) in on particular store. There was a different shopkeeper at a regular store I go to. This was a blessing, because the regular shopkeeper I inherited was lovely but doesn’t quite listen to what I would like.

The new person, listened and I got exactly what I wanted – I was blown away! This change went onto a customer record sheet meaning next time the chances of my regular person serving me correctly is greater. It’s a win-win. To change what I had been getting on file I had to “change my mind” and want to try something new because I didn’t want to offend or get anyone in trouble.

It was a tactical move over the minorest of changes. Note, I had previously requested subtle changes which were being made over time. There was just one tiny sticking point and perhaps it was just the way I communicated it, but never quite got there until now. The new shopkeeper had different (older) knowledge and therefore understood the terms I was using.

It worked out and nobody was saddened or missed out.

References

Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7

End Day 054

Day 053 – Consequences

22 February 2021

Context

Welcome to Day 53!

This post began with me wanting to write about that unreachable itch and the satisfaction you get when you are able to scratch it. However, the words for that post are still in the ether or in my brain percolating. So, instead, the post is about lack of motivation and consequences.

There was a very cheeky part of me that wanted to just leave it at the end of the last sentence. That would communicate the concept of a lack of motivation and consequence quite clearly. However, it’s not a lack of motivation it’s more a lack of doing.

For instance, if I chose not to wash the dishes – they’d still be there tomorrow. In addition, there would be the additional day’s worth of dishes. The additional dishes further discourages me to do the dishes. It can be a vicious cycle. Likewise, in the workplace, if you leave something until later there’s the added stress of disappointing the boss. The consequences of that can vary greatly!

When did this sense of duty become part of us? Many times I’ve heard, myself, friends and colleagues lament about the loss of our teenage daring. With the lamenting inevitably came stories of our teenage bravery. The stories of our stupidity from those same years weren’t far behind after the bravery ones ran out.

Clearly, when we are children or have children it’s clear that they get a sense of consequence when they are being disciplined and tend to avoid some of the greater punishments. Although, when two of my godchildren were 9 and 11 and asked to do the dishes (one to wash the other to dry), the stalling and avoidance went on for so long that it was time for bed when they finished.

Unfortunately, this further increased their dislike of doing the dishes the next time and created more reluctance. The two would then turn washing the dishes into a passive-aggressive game; the washer would drop dishes into the sink to splash the other and the dryer would flick the tea-towel at the washer.

It wasn’t always the same actions, the dryer would occasionally put a “dirty” dish back saying it needed rewashing (particularly when he noticed the washer was outpacing his ability to dry). The bickering would not stop until adult intervention, usually in the form of a frustrated raised voice, refocused the activity.

Those with adolescents will be very well aware of similar style incidents. In the end, it proved to be a good bonding experience for them as they are able to laugh about it today and even re-enact the tea towel flicking “competitions” on the odd occasion. They’re now aged 30 and 32, but the difference is they no longer need adult intervention to refocus them to get the job done – mostly. *grin*

According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, it has to do with the development of the amygdala which doesn’t fully develop until well into adulthood. Full development occurs in women about 1.5 years sooner than that of men (reference 2 & 3). So, the fully developed amygdala is what happened to prevent further stories of bravery and stupidity, of the teenage kind anyway.

What happens then when adults enter dangerous situations understanding there could be dire consequences. There is so much in this space, however, it suggests that those workers on the frontline tend to suffer more greatly from PTSD, depression or other mental health issues brought about by “triggering” the amygdala. The amygdala is the thing in our brain that tells us that we’re in danger (reference 3).

There has been quite a bit of research into dealing with this but the parts that attract my attention is the research into mindfulness for frontline workers. The Huffington Post reported that the Peel Regional Police Force, were participating in mindfulness research (reference 4) and The BMC Psychology had conducted research on Australian Firefighters both with positive results.

An article I read a little while ago when I was researching for support to help me establish a space for meditation at work, was also incredibly interesting. It was about reducing crime in the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia conducted a project where transcendental meditation was practised for two months to see if there was a discernible impact on the crime rate. The research showed there was, which I thought was truly amazing.

In short, taking the time to practise some mindfulness and/ or meditation will help deal with stressful situations. Whether those situations are on a large scale or a small scale. Who knows just one person practising in the household may make the household want to do dishes… Too much to hope for? Okay, maybe the reason the amygdala hasn’t fully developed is so that sibling bonding can occur!

Now, there’s a small thunder and rain storm which I am going to safely enjoy listening to and after the hot and muggy day, the relief is a balm for the soul.

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

The first card in the Now position is Existence. Existence is about being one with yourself and simply being still. It’s also about understanding and appreciating your own uniqueness in reality.

The second card in the Influence position is Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is that two minds thing that I was talking about. Fortunately, in this case, if I let go of writing I still get to listen to the rain. Perhaps, the card is telling me to go to bed earlier. This way I would miss out on the storm and not get the writing done.

In the Goal position is the card of Ice-olation. When I’m lacking motivation, I tend to want to be alone. It’s usually a sign that I’m going through something emotionally that isn’t meant to surface but needs to resolve at a deeper level. Withdrawing a little helps the process. It may only need half an hour but it needs to happen.

The Distant Past position has the card of Harmony. Harmony is another card saying something similar to Existence. The past experience of having harmony in my life has led to the Now experiencing of Existence.

In position five, the Recent Past, is the card of Conditioning. Yesterday’s card of Intensity has led to a change in how I see my own Conditioning and ego. As the card Intensity possibly suggests the act was intense and yesterday’s intensity and change have probably triggered a shift in how I see things and is possibly why there was a lack of motivation today. It was possibly more exhaustion. Every period of intense change needs a spate of rest afterward, even if you don’t know what the change was.

The Future Energy position has the Integration card. This suggests that the lack of motivation has something to do with taking on a new concept or idea which will become integrated into my being moving forward.

In the Immediate Future position (or Feelings), is the card of Traveling. When Traveling shows up in this deck, for me it means that I will be busy running around from physical location to physical location. This is true, as tomorrow it my husband’s first day off work and there are a few things we need to do before his father arrives for a visit.

Aside: normally I would use this position as a Feelings position, however, the Traveling card is more conducive to being read in the physical sense and therefore more receptive to being interpreted as the Immediate Future.

The How Others See Me position is the card of The Miser. This is a fair assessment since today, I was talking finances with the air-conditioning servicing company. It was an area where I could certainly appear miserly, particularly when they quoted the amount for the service! *Smile* See what I mean. Now you too, can see me as The Miser :).

In the Hopes & Fears position is the card of The Creator. The Creator has the power to use their inner strength to manifest energy. Oh, please! It’s certainly my Hope. The Fear is that I won’t be able to and that I’ve burnt myself out.

The Outcome position has the card of Guidance. Guidance is about that inner drive that pushes you even when you feel you don’t know why you’re doing something. It’s about connecting to your dharma (soul’s purpose) at the deepest levels. Perhaps that’s where motivation comes from.

References

Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7
2016, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, Teen Brain: Behavior, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
Uematsu A, Matsui M, Tanaka C, Takahashi T, Noguchi K, Suzuki M, Nishijo H (2012). “Developmental trajectories of amygdala and hippocampus from infancy to early adulthood in healthy individuals”. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3467280/
2016, Huffington Post, Meanwhile In Canada, Peel Regional Officers Meditate In A Temple
2019, BMC Psychology, Mental health and mindfulness amongst Australian fire fighters
Hagelin, Effects of Group Practice of the “Transcendental Meditation” Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington, D.C.: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June-July 1993

End Day 053

Day 052 – Prejudice or Slow to Change?

21 February 2021

Context

Welcome to Day 52!

My day started out as a typical Sunday morning for a person confined to raising a leg with a cast on it. It’s funny how synchronicity happens, Julie rang the day after I had been speaking to Chantelle. While talking we came upon the discussion of the US election and the falling out I had had with Betty. When I mentioned that my motivation, inspiration and courage had improved with Biden being elected. Julie mentioned that she missed Trump’s entertainment value and her courage had taken a nosedive since the change of government.

After we chatted for a little longer, I began to wonder why our experiences of the US election from this remote vantage point in Australia had been so different. Julie and I had grown up together and therefore had a shared upbringing. We were adolescents in the 70s and teens in the 80s. Sexual revolution for women although happening in the 60s was still slow to take hold (and still is to some extent today).

It’s taken a long time for women to be accommodated in the workforce and longer still for coloured men and women to be accommodated. Acceptance and appreciation of the elderly had dropped off as well. There are signs that this has finally shifted. Men have slowly accepted the change and for me in Australia sexism is still alive but at a smaller level.

Julie and I went to schools in an area where “pure Australians” were only a fifth of the classes demographic. The rest were made up of Maltese, Polish, Irish, English, Egyptian, Hungarian, Slavic, German, Italian, Mauritian, Chinese and various South Pacific islanders. Sadly, at the time there were very few indigenous Australians at my school but Julie’s had a larger contingent. So, race and colour were never really something that made the social news for us.

There was a bit of tension surrounding people from Japan, Germany, and Vietnam. This was because grandfathers and fathers of people in the class fought against them in the wars. For instance, having been born on German soil to non-German parents drew malicious comments of me being a Nazi, when I was in primary school (primary school covers children aged 7 to 12 years old). It was par for the course if you were the token German regardless of the specifics.

We weren’t oblivious to the racial differences, they just didn’t matter or factor into anything. Of course, being adolescents and teenagers we poked fun at the cultural differences but no-one was immune. The numbers of any particular group were never large enough to provide a degree of confidence to make comments that were too offensive, that the recipient could give back as good as they got. It’s an Australian thing.

By the way, if you ever want to be accepted by an Australian, you just need to prove you can take an “offensive” jab. It’s not meant offensively, not by a long shot; it may just appear that way because in polite company it wouldn’t get raised. The best way to think of the comments is that the comments are coming from the mouths of babes. For instance, when a child under ten makes a comment on something that most people politely avoid. For instance, if you let a stinky but noiseless fart go, most people will politely ignore it and strategically move away.

A child under ten of speaking age may quite happily ask in all innocence, “was that you? That was really stinky.” If your response is to get flustered and growl at the kid for mentioning it – you’re immediately set yourself up for further testing. If on the other hand you own it like, “yeah mate, not as stinky as the one I let go last week!”, you’re on the right track for acceptance. Even if this is made amongst the poshest Australian personalities. Your company might think you crude, but it shows you can handle and embarrassing situation well and is likely to earn respect.

Back to school, cultural differences factored in for us when it came to scripture lessons. Quite often we would declare we would “faith hop”, this is where would declare that were of a different faith so we could accompany our friends into or out of scripture. Particularly, if it was a faith that didn’t have a denominational representative attend the school. This is where students would sit in a classroom doing something like quietly reading or “whatever”, while those of faith attended their scriptures.

Unfortunately for those of who had their “standard” faith written on their school records, we had to attend our respective scripture classes. Standard at the time were: Protestant, Catholic, Lutheran or Baptist. It’s not that the other faiths were excluded, there just wasn’t a close denominational representative available. Again, there was no prejudice toward any particular faith.

The faiths at the time were very traditional and preached that love between a man and a woman was the only love that could be found. All other forms of love were wrong. In their view there seemed it seemed that love and sex were synonymous. They can be but they don’t have to be. The roles of men and women were also clearly implied and defined and suited a patriarchal view. Anything other than that was “wrong” or there was something “wrong” with you. The same scripture was reinforced at home by trusted authority figures and those you loved, it’s a wonder that anything ever changed.

So, what does this have to do with Julie’s feelings of disempowerment and the a change of President in the USA? Here, I’m speculating on possible reasons for Julie’s feelings, which Julie and I haven’t discussed at all – so this is all on me. Trump was clearly anti-same sex marriage or relationships in general – at the every least, that was the public persona. This leant a certain amount of courage to those struggling with the shift from conservative scriptures to the more open scriptures of today.

This was hard for most people, initially I suspect. As a people we are quite paradoxical when it comes to change, on the one hand we’re like, “woohoo! Let’s change this and let’s change that (providing the change is in our favour). On the other hand, when it’s not a change directly affecting us it’s or we don’t understand how the change will affect us we’re, “what happened to the good ol’ days?”.

For me, the presidential change was an inspiration. Here was this man in his late 70s going into the top job in America. It wasn’t a smooth election or transition to power. It showed me that even at that age you can be dynamic, make a difference and not be invisible. A complaint I hear from some people that have gotten older – Betty and my mother have sometimes complained of not being listened to or being invisible. Indeed, it’s a topic covered by the Netflix series, Grace & Frankie.

So, are my mum and Julie prejudiced or are they simply slow to accept the change? I think so, the change is here whether they like it or not. Providing they show tolerance, a little I think we afford a little patience while they slowly come on board.

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

Today the Intensity card sits in the Now position. Intensity is about moving forward with a passion on your own mission. Breaking free of your own constraints on an idea only you can see. That idea I was talking about yesterday, arrived this morning. It will still require investigation to see if there’s a market for it. Chances are it’s something no-one else wants, just me. But it holds my attention for the moment.

The Influence position has the card of Adventure. Maybe it is Adventure influencing Intensity and the new idea and perhaps I’m so caught up in the adventure that I am failing to realise the full potential of Intensity.

Understanding sits in the third position of Goal. In speaking to both Chantelle and Julie, I wanted to understand a different point-of-view and look at an issue from a perspective. In order to do this I had to develop an understanding of another perspective. The Goal certainly was Understanding.

In the Distant Past lies The Rebel in position four. The Rebel is likewise free of some of the shackles that used to bind him as can be seen in the broken chain at his feet in the picture. The Rebel’s message is breaking free and Intensity’s message continues the thread in moving it forward with intensity. The difference in the major and minor arcanas is that one is the destination and the other the journey, respectively.

The Recent Past shows that there was a Slowing Down. Slowing Down is a time to take stock. If you were driving it would be slowing down for a Give Way sign; prepare to stop but stopping may not be necessary if the road is clear. At present, the ankle is certainly slowing things down – particularly since Day 050 Pushing Too Hard.

Future Energy shows the Possibilities card. Possibilities is about surveying the land ahead for the new idea and seeing what opportunities are available. Guess, we’ll learn about that one together, when the time comes.

In the Feelings spot is Aloneness. Aloneness is about pleasant solitude, it aligns nicely with the cards of Intensity and The Rebel and I guess Understanding as the Understanding of the idea that was playing around in my head yesterday today became a known idea. Knowing that the idea is mine and that I can see it but it’s unknown whether I will be bringing the idea to fruition on my own is unknown at this stage.

It appears that the Politics card is something that is being associated with me a lot lately. While I don’t dislike the card per se, it’s not something that I want to portray on a regular basis. However, since my husband is the only person that I have been speaking to today. He may very well believe that I sent him to the laundromat arguing that the doonas needed cleaning before the guests arrive. He may have suspected me of having ulterior motives, like quiet time for writing *smile*. So, today the Politics card seems a little playful rather than malicious.

Hopes & Fears has the Flowering card. The concept is simple; new idea to fruition equals Hope and new idea research showing new idea not worth pursuing equals Fear.

Ah.. the Change card in the Outcome position is such a ambiguous card! Look something’s coming around the new idea but I’m not going to tell you. Oh dear. That’s what I’ve been doing to you, as reader. Please accept my apologies for not sharing the idea – it’s probably just something stupid.

With a warm embrace, enjoy your day!

References

Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7

End Day 052

Day 051 – Misspeaking!

20 February 2021

Context

Welcome to Day 51!

It was a quiet day without experiments! At least those that test the physical capability of a broken ankle. There is an idea kicking around in my brain that is just sitting there waiting to be picked but I just can’t reach it. It’s like having something on the tip of your tongue but you just can’t quite identify its exact shape. Hopefully, it won’t go away because it hasn’t been grasped.

The day was pretty quiet expect for a call from long time friend, Chantelle. Chantelle and I caught up and spoke. It was lovely. Conversation with her is always easy and her perspective on life keeps me constantly questioning my current stance on things. It’s not that we agree on things. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don’t. If we all thought alike we’d be robots. The difficulty relies on each of us keeping our need for approval from those we love in check.

There seems at times to be no greater desire than to belong in a community or group that accepts you for who you are. Even if we don’t know who we are! This is even more so when it comes to family and friends. It’s that whole acceptance thing.

When we misspeak or realise we’re out of alignment we can feel guilty. This could be for no other reason than perhaps the person you’ve been speaking to pauses a moment too long. You know that they have just realised that they’re on a different side of an issue to you. But out of respect for each other, you both wrangle your inner need to make the other person understand your perspective. It can be hard work when you’re out of step.

Sometimes, my mother levels the accusation of, “why are you never on my side?!” at me. I’m not sure why it is, but this happens to me quite a lot. It’s frustrating having independent thoughts that conflict with those you love. This probably applies to everyone. How did we wind up with that weird juxtaposition?

When independent thoughts align with our own values it’s even worse. The chances of misspeaking are greater, and if you have the courage of your values, mix in a passionate nature, ego and different personal histories it’s a recipe for conflict. No wonder wars have littered mankind’s past.

It’s hard! If you don’t want to make waves or cause wars – even little social or family ones – you tend to follow the path of least resistance or try to become THE PATH of least resistance. Chances are we are suppressing who we are for fear of recrimination or ostracism. Do we want to avoid adversity because it’s a form of self-preservation? Or is it because it’s the path more frequently trodden? I’ve found meditation helpful in finding my balance and not suppressing who I am (most times).

Anyway, let’s see what the hards had to say about today.

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

Integration sits in the Now position. Given the perspective today, Integration is about dealing with the two sides of myself that hold opposing perspectives but need to be able to fit together somehow.

Transformation sits in position two, the Influence position. Transformation is the card that in other decks is known as Death. In a sense, it’s the moment when you move from one state of being to another. It’s going from seeing, hearing or feeling something that you know you cannot un-experience. Thus the Integration that is occurring cannot be unintegrated in the future. Like ingredients in a cake, disassembling the cake into its original parts is not possible once the cake has been cooked.

In the Goal position is Ripeness. It’s time for my perspective to change and the opportunity for an idea sitting on the edges to make its way to the fore.

The Distant Past has Morality in position four. Morality is the card that wants everything done properly and doesn’t let a child go without brushing their teeth or without a bath for a day (or two!) to save the battle. Looking back at parts of myself, I have certainly and still am in some respects quite set in my ways. Is it possible to be set in your ways about trying to be open-minded.

In position five of the Recent Past is Intensity, and means doing things your own way. This card looks dynamic and is spearheading with clarity at the head. Roadblocks pale into the distance by comparison.

The Future Energy card is Guilt. When I recognise that I have misspoken I feel guilty. The Guilt card is appropriate. Guilt is not a productive emotion if left festering. If you can channel the guilt into learning what about yourself feels guilty or better still what makes you react to a situation that makes you do something to feel guilty in the first place, that’s at least making use of guilt.

Feelings toward Intensity is reflected in position seven and has the card of Abundance. Having the idea makes me feel more alive, makes something that was a struggle perhaps have an avenue of relief. It’s even money based, something that aligns with my morals and values!

Other People’s Views is that my Intensity looks like an Adventure. The venture becomes and Adventure! My husband has had to chauffeur me around, where normally he would get a few moments to for himself with the PS5. He’ll be glad when I can drive again. Initially at least, he sees the journey as an Adventure!

The Hopes & Fears position has Exhaustion. The problem with new ideas that require physical effort or effort on my part is that sometimes adding the work required to give birth to a new idea is exhausting. My Fear is that I will hit Exhaustion at all levels of my being in the form of burnout by pursuing the idea. My Hope is to avoid such and the effort will be less than I fear.

The Outcome has the card of The Outsider. The very description of the card tells you that at times we all feel like outsiders. If only we’d accept the one truth and eliminate the other, we’d be happier. I cannot be the fox in Aesop’s fable of Fox and the Grapes all the time. The matter of changing or reinventing one’s truth no matter how much I long to be accepted just doesn’t work at times.

Thus, The Outsider card was created by Osho, for everyone will at some point not be unable to change in order to be accepted. Fortunately, at times we are willing to do so because the moment is ripe for us to do so.

References

Osho, Osho Zen Tarot – The Transcendental Game of Zen, St Martin’s Press, ISBN 0-312-11733-7

Aesop, Fox and the Grapes, Library of Congress Aesop Fables, Link

Cognitive Dissonance, Wikipedia Link.

28 February 2021

Context

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

References

End Day 059

27 February 2021

Context

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

References

End Day 058

26 February 2021

Context

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

References

End Day 057

25 February 2021

Context

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

References

End Day 056

24 February 2021

Context

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

References

End Day 055

References

Disclaimer

23 February 2021

Context

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

References

End Day 054

22 February 2021

Context

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

References

End Day 053

21 February 2021

Context

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

References

End Day 052

20 February 2021

Context

Today's Cards

The Cards - Analysis

References

End Day 051