One

New Year, New Month, New Day....

New Cycle.... I am now in a 1 year, right at the beginning of a new cycle in my life!

From Creative Numerology :

The 1 Year Cycle

A journey of change,
new beginnings, independence
and becoming who you really are!

Not everything that is faced can be changed,
but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
James Baldwin

No matter how familiar things may seem, you are on an entirely different road now. The 1 year is the first year of a brand new nine-year cycle of your life. It urges you to create a more satisfying existence by recognizing the new potential that is developing. It is a time of change and new beginnings. Last year brought an entire nine-year era of your life to an end and was probably emotional and confusing. However, those experiences were necessary so that this year's new beginnings can occur. The past is over, but you will need to release the feelings and beliefs that are still anchoring you to it. Then, instead of being shocked or confused by this year's changes, you will more easily understand their purpose.

This is a year of new interests, experiences, goals, and understandings: about life, about you, where you have been, where you are now, and where you would like to be. And, because so much drastic change is required, you will also be learning the meaning of courage. You will gain self awareness this year. You will learn about individuality, and the vital changes that must take place within you if you are to attain what you need. You will be learning about independence, leadership, and originality, and you will need great faith in yourself in order to take appropriate action. You will encounter situations involving your deepest feelings, your unique mind and talent, and your need for greater freedom.

You will be learning to adapt to the changes taking place inside you and around you, while your ability to lead yourself and others gets tested. Your progress will be helped along by new opportunities and understandings. Just remember that 1 is also the number of individuality, and that no one can define freedom for another without limiting freedom.

Accept the need for real and significant change. Develop a realistic sense of your own self-worth. Listen to and follow your feelings. What you do this year will set the course for the next nine years. This should provide all the incentive you need to make your decisions carefully and realistically. And by accepting the reality of your past, you will become more aware of who you really are. If you think you already know your true identity, be prepared for some astonishing new truths to emerge.

You may start to doubt beliefs and attitudes you held dear, as you realize they are no longer appropriate to current circumstances. You may start to feel out of place around people with whom you have always felt comfortable, and may question their continuing role in your life. Doubts may arise as to how you can be free when responsibilities or circumstances seem to stand in your way. Feel every feeling that arises around such issues. At some point, you will instinctively know that it's time to move in a completely different direction, even if it means doing so alone.

Never forget that this year you are learning to be independent. Attaining independence often brings feelings of isolation and loneliness. Those you thought you could count on may become unavailable to you. Attaining independence always produces guilt which must be seen for the destructive force it is, otherwise you will become stuck in a painful rut of resentment, confusion, and blame.

Welcome new activities. Change monotonous routines. Without change - drastic change - you may find yourself being buffeted around with no Will of your own for a long time to come. The 1 year cycle gives you the opportunity to fix your bearings and choose the direction you want to take. It enables your Will to emerge as the only alternative to guilt and fear. Problems will arise for as long as you resist change. Stay flexible. Your firmest goals may be diverted into unexpected new directions.

The only thing you can reliably expect this year is change. One change will lead to another, and then another, transporting you physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually far from where you thought you would be. Consider what is best for you, and then go ahead in that direction. Start afresh. Decide which direction you want your long term future to take and, even if it means starting small, take decisive steps toward these goals.

Your various relationships are vitally important. So much love and happiness can be experienced there. However,  you cannot depend on anyone else for your happiness or success. Rely only on you. Try to surround yourself with realistic, freethinking people who do not judge and criticize your every move. Have the same consideration for them.

Although the emphasis is on you this year, guilt will tell you that you are wrong to focus so keenly on yourself and that ego is the problem. It is not. The solution is to stop judging yourself. This will enable you to balance your ego between overblown or deflated.

You may have to break free from people who habitually disapprove of you or your plans, or those who want to control you. Know what you want and believe in yourself. If your abilities are lacking in some way, take the time to learn what is necessary to fulfill your intentions.

As you strive toward freedom, you will notice that others become less dependent or critical. The more self-accepting you are, the happier everyone will be. Confidence is not an 'act' that hides your fear or ignorance. It is a natural feeling that comes from your acceptance of reality. Once you accept the reality of your desires and potentials, and what you have to do to fulfill them, you will know that although you don't know all the answers yet, they will come to you because you have a genuine intent to learn, and an openness which can utilize new information. Confidence is the ability to accept change as it occurs, and it will occur this year.

Always be aware of what is going on locally and globally, and plan accordingly. Begin something substantial. Failure to start a new project, activity, job, hobby, or even a new attitude, will result in a directionless frame of mind which will keep you tied to undesirable people, places, and circumstances. At least, start a new phase of an existing situation. If you do not make changes where they are needed, they will be made for you.

Without change, we struggle to hold on to fruitless situations. As 1 is the number of independence, you will be aware of your various dependencies this year. Imagine the freedom you would enjoy without them. These may include a dependence on others, a need to keep others dependent on you; a need for approval; on substances such as food, tobacco, alcohol, drugs; or distractions such as 'entertainment', computers, or extravagance. You may be disguising your addictions so that they are unrecognizable, even to yourself. The key is to trace the emotional cause of why you need certain things so badly.

It could take years for you to achieve certain results, but projects or ideas started three years ago can materialize as accomplishments this year, leaving you pleasantly astonished as loose ends from the previous nine-year cycle are finally tied up. Understand the need for time to pass between one experience and the next, and you will enjoy many pleasant surprises this year. Aim high, believe in your goals, and never give up the pioneering spirit that is essential in the 1 Year Cycle. Remember that learning from mistakes is how experience is gained.

Work through your fears instead of denying them and you will be able to explore humanity's journey with an open mind and promote your own desires and interests along the way. Much of what occurs this year will be reflected back to you through events taking place elsewhere. Once you make that connection, you will be able to see exactly where you and your talents fit in. This year, you will learn that life is not meant to be a struggle but a continuous free-flowing journey of energy that moves, shifts, vibrates, spirals, and evolves through cycles of learning.

I also drew the Number 1 card from Frouds Faerie Oracle, this card is called Unity. It also came up in the first reading I did for someone else this year!

Unity - Frouds' Faerie Oracle

Unity is the first card in the Faerie Oracle, Unity is all, beginning and end. I will share with you a story which is one time in my life when I know I experienced total unity and pure joy and wholeness outside of childbirth.

17 years ago I was confirmed into the High Anglican church, in Norwich Cathedral in England. I still to this day don't believe that it was the actual choice of the faith I was confirmed into that brought the wonder into this experience, but it was *FAITH* full stop. I had total trust in the Universe, I felt complete, like I could fly.... I truly felt that if I stepped off a high rooftop I would be saved by this thing I had found that loved me... I felt so high, so whole, so light..like pure light and energy..truly one with all around me.

That experience reminds me of the very nature of the Unity card in this Oracle. It is a beautiful card, the skull of a deer with full antlers seems to be illuminated and transformed into a dance of life, infinity and pure light. The antlers are like spiritual antennae, pulling in the energy of the universe, directing it through and around you in an infinite wave.


Wonderful card for a new year!

Seven of Cups

Another delightful card from the Victorian Romantic... I am loving this deck more and more. Funy if I saw half these images in a book or gallery, I am not so sure many of them would catch my eye, but the artists who created this deck have done wonders with them. Bringing them to life as a Tarot Deck full of symbols and possibilites and magical pictures... well its totally transformational. Real alchemy!

Seven of Cups - Victorian Romantic

This guy reminds me of The Fool...... just by his appearance really. I wonder what he is doing. Is he using his treaures as bait to catch the fairy folk below the surface? He could have been taken in by the underwater creatures, for they could be like the Sirens who led men to their deaths crashed up rocks.
He could end up with nothing left, like the gambler who throws it all in against the big prize. Of courser with gamblers there never is a big prize, it is always just out of reach... that being the nature of the beast. Is he being taken in by the Sirens or is he fooling them? Are his treausures merely illusions which will disappear when they try to touch them? Someone seems to be playing a game in this card. If the fisherman falls in he could be caught in those tentacle things and trapped... drowned even.

I read somewhere that this card is sometimes know as Faery Favours... because like Faery gifts they could just be illusions which fade after time. There is much illusion as this card is associated with the Moon, and emotion of course... shown in the water. I just thought of being drowned in emotion.... deluded... tempted to believe that which is not true but only imagined. Very much a Seven of Cups energy.

Faery favours makes me wonder if I should turn to my Faerie Oracle for help.... or will I only become more deluded?! I do like this particular Seven of Cups though..... I like dreams... even if they can be only castles in the air.

Strength in the Shadows

Today's cards cover the energy of today and yesterday, as I didn't get to do a daily draw yesterday. I was trying to get some of my online work completed and Firefox kept crashing. I have tried everything but it is still crashing, have sent in reports but doubt I will hear anything. It's been happening constantly for the past 4 days, on many different sites. So.... I shall have to try either Chrome or Safari. Just checked and woohoo... I can get the Evernote Web Clipper for both these browsers :) I *LOVE* Evernote!

I feel very connected to the messages on today's two cards. From The Faerie's I drew Lys of the Shadows, and from Tarot of the Sweet Twilight I got Strength.

Lys of the Shadows, is a true light in the darkness, one of the Sidhe, whose energies can be used for good or for negative purposes. We as humans have the choice of how we use this assistance. The light coming from this faeries' person is gentle warming and healing.... which would give us a clue of the right way, but the Fey do not judge... free will is all, even when it goes wrong. All we can do is to shine a light on the right path, by example.

According to the book by Jessica Macbeth Lys of the Shadows appears when someone is ready to be healed... a lost soul to be found. Lys gets down among the needy folk and is not afraid to get her wings torn or her hands dirty, even though it may hurt her sometimes. In this instance I believe that I am being given the energy I need to help another soul in this world, whom I had almost given up on, to find the path back to who they were, before they got lost in the darkness. It feels far too big a job for me, but maybe I can help.  I feel this is how it is. I feel honored to have drawn this card today, when thoughts like this were already in my mind. I need that energy. Let me use it with the wisdom of the Fey. Thanks Faeries.

Lys of the Shadows - Faeries' Oracle, and Strength - Tarot of the Sweet Twilight

Strength from Tarot of the Sweet Twilight is the most wonderful card.... I think my favourite strength card so far. It has so many dimensions and truly conveys the meaning of strength as I see it. A woman faces a lion with his mouth open, teeth bared, she holds her mask away from her face so she is showing him her true self, her very inner being. Only when we are most ourselves, without pretense or pride can we be truly strong. Strength comes from a place deep within us, where the light is great enough to outshine fear, if we let it come through. So often I hear people who talk only through their Ego, not from who they really are, and I feel sad. It must be true bondage to be afraid to be you.

There is what looks like a very old stone Goddess figure in the background of this card, she carries two pots in perfect balance. She is the background, the roots of the strength of this female who looks into the eyes of fear without flinching. The strength of the female is in gentleness, not attack, in standing steadfast in the light of who you truly are. The Goddess shows the strength of women throughout time, the balance of energy. This wasn't achieved by trying to be like men, but by balancing their energies with ours. It seems so much of this wisdom has become lost in today's world.

One more character in this amazing card is Yoda ..the ancient wise Jedi Master from Star Wars. He appears here as an origami figure... another symbol of strength, the deceptive strength of paper, and a message that being small of stature is no judge of your true strength. The quotes below, from Yoda, all have a message relating to both the Strength card and Lys of the Shadows.

To answer power with power, the Jedi way this is not. In this war, the danger there is, of losing who we are.

When you look at the dark side, careful you must be..... for the dark side looks back.

To be Jedi is to face the truth, and choose.  Give off light, or darkness, Padawan. Be a candle, or the night.

The Jedi use light sabres as their weapons, to cast light onto the dark, it all just goes so well with these two cards and their messages. It really feels like they came up at the exact right time, just when I needed to hear this advice.

These two cards also strongly relate to something else that has changed in my life too. Especially the shadowy side of Lys, which is bondage and addiction. I used to drink almost every day, maybe a glass of wine, maybe a bottle, or a beer or two... never heavy stuff but escape all the same. The past couple of months, not only have I not wanted to drink, I haven't been able to! It makes me feel nauseous and very unwell, depressed and out of control of my life. I just don't need to escape from my life right now... gotta be good!

The Magicians' Song

The Magician from Tarot of the Sweet Twilight and Ekstasis from The Faeries' Oracle.... Interesting to get two cards numbered one and two in their respective decks. Could this mean new energy is beginning? Both cards are good energy cards, especially Ekstasis... so it looks like a good turn up to me.

The Magician in this beautifully jewel coloured card looks as if maybe he ended up where he is without quite knowing how he got there. His is surrounded by the cosmos and all her secrets. Also around him are his books of learning, his globe of worldly knowledge and his magical pentacle. A little green kitty holds the pentacle, he is looking at it as if wondering why on earth the human Magician would need such a thing! Pah! doesn't this dude realise that the magic is within us? Meowwwww... who needs shiny things! Especially when you have such an obviously clever familiar!

Although he has his wand, his sword and chalice and his cat has the pentacle,  all the magical and elemental tools of the Tarot, the only magical item the Magician is using is his crystal ball, and he is looking straight into the readers eyes as if wondering whether or not he should pass on what he has seen. Is the viewer ready to hear what he has to say?  He looks very kindly and humble. He has a feather in his hat like the Fool, but then of course the only wise man is the Fool. I like the Magician and the Fool both being represented in one card.

Ekstasis - The Faeries' Oracle and The Magician - Tarot of the Sweet Twilight

Ekstasis is the song of Unity, the higher being, and the connection between us and all that is around is. It is the moment of joy we feel leap in our hearts when we feel that supreme trust in the Universe. Ecstasy... this brilliant burst of pure energy that lights us and lifts us somewhere beyond this world.
A great companion to have around. This card like the Magician is about going for it, being on the right path, and a new beginning. It also has the effect of empowering the cards around it and intensifying their energy. The transition of the blues to sparkling silvery white is uplifting in itself and feel very calm. Usually when I feel those moments no effort is needed except to accept and to be. I see this card as permission  to be as me as I can be... with no apologies to Dr Seuss ;)

After yesterdays Full Moon reading about endings and cycles coming to a close.... it seems very auspicious that I get these two cards today which are so clearly about new beginnings....!

A Devil and Two Friends

The Devil card from the Sweet Twilight looks familiar...  but nothing like my goats apart from the hoof maybe!! Gypsy can be a bit devilish at times though and one friend did call him a Devil Dog!!
I like his wings. The sun and moon are both in this card which could mean he can appear as total opposites...as like day or night, whichever serves his purpose best. He can try to charm with his Elfin ears and snazzily clothed side, but then when you glimpse the tail and the serpent around his arm you start to wonder. Sometimes we can only see one side of a person, no matter how much we try to see the whole, we see what we want to see, because we are standing too close. When we step back we see the whole picture, as others have always seen it. It can come as a shock. He has his trident at the ready.... the LWB says of this card:

The Devil watches carefully as you approach, scanning for chinks in your armor. What use he wonders, is this person, to me?

Yes I have met this guy more than once... stood too close, got burned.... but he never got my soul on that trident of his. I am guessing he is here today in this card, to warn me.

Friends from Froud's Faerie Oracle and The Devil from Tarot of the Sweet Twilight

The Friends from The Faerie Oracle are a total contrast to The Devil! Here we have Faery Nuff and Laochan the best of friends....! Faery Nuff stands up high with his many lights to show the way forward through the dark skies. Laochan supports him they both use their wings to power their flight. Just how friends should be. I have been spending more time with friends recently.... and they are a great support, and they do help shine the light into my life. I am not surprised the Devil is looking at them as if they and their behavior are totally alien to him. he just wouldn't get it would he?

Twilight Faeries....

This week I have chosen to work with Froud's Faerie Oracle, and Tarot of the Sweet Twilight.... I know I used it last week but I can't bring myself to put it back on the shelf yet.. it is such an amazing deck to work with, and I love the artwork.

Today I drew a helper and guide faerie called Honesty.....a wonderful looking character with eyes that see everything. His head seems to glow with enlightenment and knowledge while his body is almost transparent, apart from what looks like a silver cord joining the Chakra points. It seems he is about the inner being the pure centre of ourselves where nothing hides from nothing. Once you are stripped down to the core, only the truth remains.

This card tells me today, to be true to myself. It is a Monday, Moon Day and Honesty is a plant that is often called Moonwort because of its gorgeous round silver seed pods. I love the idea of Moon seeds and Moonflowers. The Moon can be about illusion and deception. I thought about this and how I am probably deceiving myself in some way by not being true to myself. Things have been foggy recently, with not knowing what to do about this house etc. Since I put it on the market for rent I have been uneasy, but I didn't really know why. Now I do know .... I don't want to give it up, or let someone else live in my home, I don't want to leave my goats ...it all feels so wrong! This helped me decide to take it off the rental market and look for a flatmate instead. Now I just need the universe to send me the perfect person :)

From Tarot of the Sweet Twilight my card is the Ten of Swords. This is one of the nicest Ten of Swords I have seen. It shows an angel or leastways a creature with wings, kneeling on a shore. She is holding flowers as if in offering to the lost ones who are buried in the graveyard before her. The swords are stood around in the graveyard like crosses on graves. One sword lies in front of her, as if barring her way.  There is a black bat like shadow behind her, which her shadow is joined to... she is nocturnal like the bat, a creature of the darkness......the twilight of the decks' name. Another way I can see this is the bats wings are actually her wings which are waiting to set her free, once she has laid to rest whatever is holding her down.

The card speaks of sorrow and yearning for that which is lost, but also of peace, it is a very calm card. She could be yearning the dancing statue on the grave, maybe it is something she has recently lost and she is bringing the flowers to make peace and lie it to rest. I can relate to this, I am going through something very similar. She could be mourning her youth, that carefree dance of no responsibilities except to have fun. I can relate to that too! All the crosses or grave markers have shadows. This shows me that nothing is ever totally gone.... even a grave casts a living shadow on the present.

Honesty - Froud's Faerie Oracle and Ten of Swords - Tarot of the Sweet Twilight

Something is changing, something that brings some sorrow to me, but also peace and ultimately a new dawn. It has come about as a result of being honest and true to my inner self.