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!

First Footing....

This morning I received an email from Tarosophy advertising a new course called Tarot Life. The course runs for 12 months and each month is accompanied by an instruction booklet available on Kindle or as a PDF. I have been looking for a Tarot study for the New Year and this seems perfect. I have purchased the book and worked out the initial steps.. very exciting. I will use my blog to record my results now and then and keep ypou updated with how its going. Even if noone ever reads my blog, it can keep me updated and act as a reminder... well, in theory!

So its the last day of 2012. This time last year I was about to leave the UK and return to New Zealand. I was not happy about that. I looked forward to seeing my home again and my older girls and my goats and cats, but leaving my mum and my sister and Dilly my best friend, was not easy. Not to mention leaving the cool winter weather for the humid heat of Nelson. I have no idea where we were at new Year, what time zone we were crossing, it went by unnoticed, although I was awake the whole 26 hours we were in the air. I do remember the airport staff at Heathrow were lenient with our extra hand baggage, as a salute to the season though, so that was nice!

Today, reflecting on the year I thought I would devise a 3 card spread to give me a snapshot of this past year. I have called it First Footing after the custom in Scotland, my Motherland.

The spread was designed to show where we excelled in our life journey and personal growth in the past year, what we want or need to leave behind, and what we should pack in our rucksack to take with us when we go first footing!


First Footing Spread


1****2****3


1. What you will leave behind in your footprints as you leave the old year
2. Your biggest path of growth this past year
3. What you will take with you as you step into the new year 

So... these are the cards I drew for this spread. I used my Deviant Moon deck as it was one of my most used this year, especially in the first half of the year :)

5 of Pentacles, 9 of Pentacles & The Tower from Deviant Moon Tarot

 

1. What you will leave behind in your footprints as you leave the old year - Five of Pentacles


Leaving behind hardship and poverty seems like a good thing to me! Although this card seems to be about judgement from how I see it. The watching eye in the church, the female character sneaking around, as if ashamed to be seen. Also the Judgement card is number eleven and I cant help but see the two chimneys as an 11. The poor naked creature appears to be bathed in moonlight from her colour, which brings to mind Diana, the Moon goddess, who was also a goddess of chastity. She was also a patron of slaves, and they would always be given sanctuary in her temples. Interesting, so she could be seeking sanctuary, from judgement, the undeserved judgement of society who shunned her, because they only saw what they wanted to see. Far from a loose woman she could be running from the rape of society.

All these things are good things to leave behind, there has been judgement, but the strongest judgements have been self imposed... as they say, we are our own worst judges!


2. Your biggest path of growth this past year - Nine of Pentacles

This is a funny old card.... nine different Pentacles  hang in the sky, the masked creature is chained to a small skull that looks like it came from a gravestone... could this be mortality? The earthly life. And those Pentacles could symbolise riches in heaven, or in the spiritual world rather than the physical. She has had some setbacks in life, with no arms, and the loss of one foot. But the foot has been replaced by a wheel, which will enable her to move faster maybe. Kind of a built in scooter! In spite of her Venetian style carnival mask and lack of limbs, she does have an air of confidence. Her dress looks well made but with the moon buttons this could be illusion, like everything is not what it seems.
She may look well dressed and bodily incomplete, but she is actually more whole than many, as she is rich in spirit . Her mask could symbolise her lack of presence in the material world and like the moon carved into the stone she walks on, this turns the traditional meaning of the card on its head rather. Her robe could actually be that of a holy or spiritual order, and the mask be her veil, sheilding her from the eyes of the world. No arms could be a way of showing that she reaches out with her soul for wealth rather than grasps with her hands at happiness in material wealth. I see this card here, as being about the importance of enlightenment and spiritual growth.

Also of interest is that 2012 for me has been a 9 year, and the card is a 9....this could signify that the spiritual development that started this year will go on to become stronger in 2012


3. What you will take with you as you step into the new year  - The Tower

Here I see the breakdown of illusion, and falsehoods. The moonlight is burning through the tower causing it to begin its collapse. The tower itself is actually very small, and so the falling man could actually be in a dream or an Alice in Wonderland kind of world. Perhaps the moons light has set him free from the tower, and although it had seemed a huge thing, we now see how small is actually is. Like the line from the Eagle's song, Already Gone which I have quoted before:

"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains
 And we never even know we have the key "

Self imposed imprisonment has come to an end, and it may feel like you are falling and losing security but actually you are gaining freedom from a prison that was way too small and confining to fit who you really are. The other guy lying down could be the prisoner who is now being put to rest, .... he could represent self criticism, judgement..... like in the first card....Makes sense!

A very blessed and wonderful 2013 to you all......

Thanks 2012.. for everything.