The Shaman

My last daily draw from the Wildwood this year is The Shaman.

The Shaman - Wildwood Tarot

Being numbered 1 in the Wildwood Tarot (which is usually The Magician), its  good card for the beginning of the new world. The sun has turned and is headed back to the North, this is a time of stillness and deeper contemplation. Time to not just smell the roses but to feel them, sense them, connect with them and hear their petals unfurling. When I walked to the mailbox early this morning, I could feel and smell the sun already, it felt peaceful. The grass which I cut yesterday smelled amazing in the first warmth of the day and the goats definitely appreciate it.

I watch how my goats live in summer, they eat and walk at night, and sleep during the day.... in the mornings they are still eating, then they sunbathe on the lawn, totally relaxed and stretched out! They sleep through the heat of the day and in the evening they wake up and have a mad dash around the garden, playing with each other and the cats. Gypsy has been wandering off in the jungle of grass and tree's beyond the lawn recently. When he disappears, Moon comes to the kitchen door and asks me to go and find him! I love these two goats, they are totally amazing. That's Shaman magic, that connection I feel with them. They have this ability to make me happy, to make me smile, and they always come to greet me :)

Later in the day I love to feel the breeze blow through from the deck, I like breeze and prefer windy weather to still. But there was stillness today...... time to let life flow through me knowing that all will be ok. I am animal, I am peace, I am fire, I am emotion, I am mind. I am part of life's force and I live in peace and harmony with those creatures around me.

I am mother...

12 years ago today, on the Winter Solstice back in England, my youngest child was born.... Happy Birthday Phoebe, my Solstice baby xx

What Will End Today?

As it is that day today, I asked the Tarot to show me something that would end... or at least begin to end with the change in energy that this Solstice, and the end of the Mayan Calender will bring. No doubt I can feel something shifting on this planet, unless it's just within me.

I couldn't have drawn a more appropriate card.....

Six of Stones - Wildwood Tarot

The Six of Stones..... the Exploitation card in this wonderful deck. The card shows two starving beggers, broken tools at their feet. Behind them are six sad looking very damaged beehives, but no bee's buzzing in and out.  Further back is a dead tree, what looks like a dried up river bed and a sky full of fire and smoke, destroying the land and polluting the air we breathe.

This is a warning card...if we don't stop this raping and pillaging of our planet, we could end up like these beggers. Noone believes it will happen, but I do. Unless we stop it...now.

It is a brilliant card to draw as an ending card, and I sincerely hope this ending begins now. Please do all you can to stop the exploitation of our planet and all it's lifeforms.

There are things we can all do to make a difference. Be aware of where your food comes from, avoid factory farmed animals, and war funding multi national companies. Grow whatever food you can, even if you only have a window box! Buy fairly traded, tea, coffee, chocolate, sugar wherever you can, do not support the exploitation of workers. Shower less, its bad for your skin, use eco friendly detergents or baking soda. Avoid products tested on animals. Take less trips by car. Educate your children, friends and families! Tell them why you are doing these things and don't back down just to keep the peace... that kind of peace is too expensive!!

Recycle, recycle, recycle!

20 12 2012

I had to do a special 2012 spread for today.... what with the double 2012 date.. and all adding up to one which is pretty neat for the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. Then we have the Solstice coming up, when we in the South send the Sun back up to the North heading back the way it came 6 months ago.... it is all very exciting.

I don't believe the world will end tomorrow, but I do feel something will happen that has been building up for the past 9 years at least.... I have felt changes, getting stronger and stronger, but they are hard to put into words. It is almost a "knowing among" those in the world who are ready. A connection, some very strong energy connecting us... as I said, it is hard to put into words!

So here is my deliberately drawn 20 12 2012 spread:

The Wildwood Tarot 2012 Spread

Of course it is very different to the spreads where the cards are drawn at randon, but the cards here fit the date and the current changes going in perfectly.

The Great Bear is often called Judgement in the Tarot, but I prefer this version. This card is at the Winter Solstice on the Wheel of the Year which of course is exactly where those in the Northern hemisphere are about now. The bear sits guarding an ancient passage grave, ready for the winter sun to shine in and awaken the soul inside. Throughout the dark sleeping months they have had the chance to learn much wisdom, to help them with the next cycle of life. Behind the bear the constellation of the Great Bear is shown in the sky and what looks like the Northern Lights shine out around him. With the ancient yews the bear guards the grave. The only judgement is that of ourselves, and how we choose to live our lives. Nothing can be hidden or forgotten. This is the time of stillness, where we lie quiet, like the sun on the solstice, before moving back around the wheel.

The Mirror, card number 12,  reflects the inner secrets of the soul lying in the tomb, looking into the Mirror he can see his deepest fears and most hidden thoughts, nothing is hidden here, the Siren holds up the Moon to light the mirror and dispel illusions... maybe she scries with the Moon. A crane with a medicine back around its neck sits by the serpent woman, he looks old and wise and he guards the secrets in his golden bag. The body in the boat lies still, at peace and the boat heads for the Otherworld to rest between journeys. The transition cannot be hurried, the water in the lake represents our subconscious where healing takes place during sleep. Everything in this card seems to reflect what is going on in The Great Bear card.

 The past couple of days a Great Cormorant an NZ native, who looks very crane like has been hanging around my pond..which also has an island with three tree's. It has a boat too but the boat is out of the water at the moment...!

The 2 card, The Seer has many elements of the other cards, the medicine bag, the water which she appears to be drawing energy from or seeing visions in. She wears a Shamans cloak, evidence of meeting with the Shaman on the inner journey to the subconscious. She has gained wisdom and her will is set as signified by the carved staff which she holds in her left hand. She gazes into the water calling up the creative dreams and inspirations and guides them to take root in the earth with her right hand. The water represents emotions, all the feelings and emotional healing can now be put to good use in the earthly world if you know how to channel them.

The Wanderer, is another card which shows a time of stillness between the solid ground and the emptiness between the Wanderer and the forest. There is a rainbow bridging the gap hope for the future, and a means to cross the divide to the next cycle. The Wanderer has his arms open, welcoming that which is to come, the newness and unknown future.  He knows he has everything to learn and in knowing this he is the wisest of all. Although there is some slight hesitation there is no stopping now, one foot is ready to take the first step, leaving the old and entering the new. A time of new beginnings, new hope and another cycle.

Once again the The Mirror or 12 card, reflects the meanings of these two cards and the whole cycle is reflected back and forth. Each time we gain knowledge, wisdom, truth and courage.... if we take that leap of faith and allow it to happen naturally.

I have to do things now and want to get this posted while the date still holds, but I am sure I could get much much more out of this spread.

Today I have permission to.......

Inspired by a thread on Aeclectic Tarot I decided to draw one card and take from it everything I can see, and use it as a permission slip or gift voucher to do something nice for me..

Using the Wildwood Tarot I shuffled and cut the deck and drew a card from the top....... drumroll........

The card I drew was The Journey..... had to smile :) The Journey card in The Wildwood Tarot is number 13 which of course is usually the Death card, but we all know that Death isn't death, just change, and the Journey is quite a neat name for it I think.

The card shows a raven or crow eating the last of the flesh from as reindeer skull, high up in the mountains I think. There are five more corvids flying in silhouette against a huge full moon. There are a couple of huge old tree's in the background. They have no leaves, so either they are dead or it is winter. I think winter.

This is one of my favourite cards in the deck...the more I see of Will Worthington's art, the more I love it, but it this deck especially.

The Wildwood Tarot

The Raven is a very magical creature, and he warns of betrayal and danger. He is a guardian of those at rest, and ravens are still said to this day to guard the head of Bran in the Tower of London. Raven is excellent at crossing between the worlds and so is a great messenger. He not only protects the good but will instill fear in the heart of enemies. Here he is stripping the last of the flesh from a long dead reindeer skull, recycling, the alchemy of turning death into sustenance and life. The great deer who was a king in his day is still serving his land and its creatures even in death.

The full moon is another symbol of life's cycles, just as she will wane so will she wax again, the tree's will get new life and the mountain will see many more sunrises. The journey is never ending, the journey of the wheel... life to death and back again. Sometimes it is time for one journey to end and another to begin.

The skull being stripped to the bone is another message, looking deep into yourself and finding what lies there, what is essentially you, or me. A journey within. So many signs of the past and the future.

Somehow, I was guided by this card to finding an old poster that I used to have on my wall in the old farmhouse we lived in a few years ago. It was the best summer I ever had here and definitely the best Christmas. My children were still children, we were a tribe who survived, who stuck together. But now as things change and grow, two of those children are off on their own journey's, no longer at home. It is hard for me to accept the end of that stage of their journey with me, but sometimes, things have to end for life to carry on. I have thought a lot about when they were small, in England, how I loved this time of year. How I have come to dread it. Why?

I feel this card is telling me to reap the good and the joy from the past and bring it to life in the now.... So I have put up my old torn poster in my bathroom, it looks colourful and joyful. I am giving myself permission to accept the cycles of life, to embrace the joy in today and be thankful for my little people. I will read my old blog, and remember, when I look back on that wonderful magical summer, there were very hard sad times then too. But in my memories I only feel the joy of our family life then... this is what carries us forward. One day, these days will be looked back on fondly.. the dark times will be just shadows, necessary to allow the brightness to shine.....I know this..its the cycle of life.... the chiaroscuro of existence.

I just found a blog post from 7 years ago, showing that poster, in my old home.  I entitled the post "I trust....." I cannot think of anything more fitting to read now.... and ya know. that thing I wanted so badly back then, and that seemed way beyond my reach, was New Zealand residency, the right to live in a land we had come to love. We now have that, and in 6 weeks it will be permanent, forever! I did that... I achieved that, very much in the face of adversity and against all odds....and oh boy does it make me feel good!

Today I give myself the gift of celebration, and a huge pat on the back!!!

The Hare of the Wildwood

Since I did my reading yesterday, I have been getting more and more into this deck. I abandoned the Mystic Medicine oracle I had chosen this week as it still grates on me somehow!!! It needs more intense cleansing obviously.... next full moon it will be out there, and also for the Solstice, which according to what I have found on the web actually occurs here at 12.15am on Saturday 22nd... Phoebes birthday.....

So I laid out the Wildwood cards in the Wheel of the Year and it helped to see them like this and associate the different suits and Majors with their place in the seasonal cycle. The card I drew for my daily draw today was The Hare.... whose time in the wheel we have just passed through..... the days coming up to Midsummer. 

 Wildwood Tarot 

This gorgeous artwork by Will Worthington shows a magnificent hare standing in mountain terrain with the full moon behind him. He looks in command of his countryside, strong and alert to danger. He has a  Green man mask by his feet... symbolic of the continuity and fertility of nature and its cycles. What a beautiful and majestic creature this hare is! Wonderful art!

The Hare means a lot to me, I have been fascinated with hares all my life, I have hare art all over my home, I have done a Welsh pilgrimage to the Patron Saint of Hares and spent many years watching them back in East Anglia. A couple of years ago we had a pet New Zealand hare for a while who came to live with our beloved Snoopy. He was a wild creature, unlike our gorgeous wee mini lop bunny, and we called him Jerusalem. He got on really well with Snoopy who loved having him as a friend, but eventually as he got older, he left us. I cannot keep animals in cages. He didn't go far though and he would come back and visit sometimes, or we would spot him hanging out at the gate to our drive.

The Wildwood book has some beautiful words for the Queen of Bows:

"A companion through life, sympathetic and understanding, leading you to a deeper awareness of what is needed to bring success to your every enterprise. Wise and witty, gentle and kindly the Queen supports you and strengthens your resolve."

This a a fantastic companion for me at this time, I should know the Hare is always there for me and this is a great reminder of that energy. Hares are messengers, they cross through age and culture, bringing you to where you need to be. Their tracks in the fields are complex, but designed to be for them only to be able to follow. They have no underground homes like their rabbit cousins, and so they keep safe by their wits, their amazing senses and their speed. Those huge ears and big eyes are not just for show.

Hares are often related to the Moon and lunacy in mythology, and they are also shapeshifters. The Hare was said to have offered to lay down his life for Buddha in order to feed him with his own flesh. Buddha saved him however and painted his image on the Moon, to be seen forever by all who looked up, as an honour of his selflesness.

The hare will return here often.... as he has in my life...