the importance of small victories

Enjoying a nice, quiet day. Once again taking advantage of scanner access to get a deck digital for future blogging purposes. This card kind of...jumped out at me while I was doing that...

Got an email from my professor, earlier, with the grade and feedback for that memorandum I spent so much of last weekend driving myself nuts trying to get done. I did Well, and improved from my first memo, which itself I did not do badly on. Given how much stress and difficulty came with trying to get done, I was a bit surprised. Pleasantly so, of course.

So there's that. A useful reminder here, about small victories, about what is possible if you insist on trying no matter what. No matter how difficult things are - do not give up. Try, try, keep working at it. I love this little deck and look forward to working with it in the future. There isn't any of the traditional symbolism here: not the square shaped chariot, not the horses or the sphinxes, black and white, held tightly under the control of the charioteer's reigns. Instead we simply have the wild energy, the motion of the penguin. Is he swimming? Is he trying, despite all odds and laws of anatomy and physics, to fly? Does it even matter, when push comes to shove? I am reminded, by this card, of the importance of celebrating small victories, of taking pleasure in little accomplishments. It's too easy to discount them, to say 'well, what's the big deal,' but sometimes, the best thing for yourself is to really just say...yes, I did it, I succeeded in this one thing, and it feels nice.

Then keep moving forward. Keep swimming, or flying, or whatever it is you want to do, need to do, must do. Don't let those obstacles, no matter how big they may seem, discourage you. If you give up, the result is a certainty. If you keep trying, no matter how difficult, impossible it may feel at times...you may just surprise yourself with what you manage to achieve.

Tarot's Take on Election-Time

So, in a fit of whimsy I decided to do something I ordinarily do not do much at all: read directly about current events; and do a reading with a predictive aspect to it. That is to say, amateur fortune-telling (ha!) about the upcoming US Presidential elections. Decided to use the Master for this as it has a kind of 'wordly' feel to it.

(A note: a am unabashedly biased liberal and this reading will reflect that. This is just for fun, and I'm really not even trying to maintain some semblance of political neutrality.)

So starting from the left, we have the page of wands. This card makes me think of the current [Republican] contenders for the nomination/potential opponents to the President in the election. The page is young, inexperienced - he may have a lot of passion and ambition and ideas, but mostly his ideas are still just that. He wants to prove himself, his message. There is potential there, certainly. However, he is quite young, and looking at him, the word 'childish' comes to mind. Combine that with the dog behind him, which makes me thinking of the dog in the Fool card and well...let's just say this is a pretty close approximation to my feelings regarding the Republican candidates in general this year. Ego driven, immature, ignorant - hell, the fact that candidates that have no realistic chance of winning are still in the running, weakening their own party's chance rather than withdraw and consolidate support is just so...the childish me, me, me impulse. But, less negative take on the card, this seems to be showing the current stage of things, the untried with 'fresh' messages proving themselves...

The center card, which going in a kind of chronological fashion would seem to represent the election in full swing, is the six of swords. The six goes back to the Lovers in the major arcana, a card of choices and decision-making... interestingly in this deck the Lovers card shows a blind-folded cupid about to release an arrow...which I think is a rather interesting metaphor given the fact that imperfect access to information is such a major component of democratic elections. No one really knows what candidates are going to do once elected - some level of obfuscation if not outright dishonesty seems to be expected these days, where you have candidates blatantly tailoring their position to their audiences and, well. So choice of ideas, a battle of ideas which yes, seems to describe this political season rather well. Idea against idea,words, communication battle which is so much of what elections are these days, with imperfect information and someone will win but who and at what cost? Look at those swords stabbing downwards through the victory-wreath...

Lastly we have the Chariot...to be honest, I have a hard time trying to read this removed from my bias because...well, the Chariot is about winning a battle, short term victory, success and to me, the only outcome I would consider as such would be a re-election of the current President. Backing me up in this assessment, at least, is that well...it's the chariot, rolling forward. Victory that has momentum of time, not a sudden shift or change...even though this card has no horses in sight, the old phrase about not switching horses mid-race comes to mind. Also, the Chariot tends to be about uniting opposites, harnessing the power of black and white, masculine and feminine, yin and yang to your advantage; in politics, that kind of uniting requires taking on some semblance of a moderate position, which, in the primaries at least, seems to be the last thing the Republican candidates are concerned with. How can unite all those forces if you are spouting racism, misogynistic, classist, vitriol? So yes, I am - tentatively - predicting a re-election of President Obama...

If anyone disagrees with my read of these or has anything they want to chip in, feel free :]

My Favorite Majors: The Chariot

The Chariot is a pretty cool major. It brings an interesting mix of concepts to the table, because on the one hand, it means good things: victory, success, battle won, good job! But on the other, it is a BATTLE won, not the war, and it was won because of your ability to take control of opposing forces within and without. It comes as an interesting place in the progression of the arcana, and of course, the association with Cancer... ;]

Anyway, though, it took a good bit of thinking and pondering for me to settle on my favorites for this card...a good number of decks did not have Chariots I found particularly interesting, while those that did...it was hard to choose between them. But well, here they are.

VI. Chariot

Favorite:
I surprised myself with this one, because this wasn't originally a deck I thought to look to when considering my favorite Chariot card. Once I saw it though, I really did like the concept. The idea of a buddha type figure as the charioteer makes a LOT of sense given the conceptual ideas associated with what's necessary for the success described by this card. There's something about the way he is sitting in that lotus position, cradling the crab that just says, YES, YES, that is what this card is about to me. The way that the chariot is drawn, the perspective...is funky, but in an intriguing way. I like that the chariot is pulled by the bull and the...actually i'm not sure what the second beast is, exactly, but the juxtaposition of those two, and the black and white contrast...its a very interesting card, visually, and it really captures the essence of this major for me.

Runner Up:
This was one of several very pretty Chariot cards from among my decks that I had a really difficult time deciding between. Ultimately though, there's a lot I like about this one. I really dig the water association, the fact that the Chariot is riding over the waves...interesting metaphorical significance there, and ties with the cancer associations quite nicely too. Again I really like the perspective...the way you can see the castle and clouds above in the distance, the chariot, and also beneath the water, the patient turtles and the cancer crab aglow. Love the capricorn-like beasts pulling the chariot as well, aesthetic appeal there for me too. The attitude and posture of the chariot figure is spot on for me too, a kind of self-assured, I don't even need to hold the reigns right now because this chariot WILL do what I want...and like that it is a lady here, too. It's traditionally a male figure in this card, but why shouldn't a lady be able to do just the same? So yes, lovely card, lovely art, lovely composition and use of color.

dealing with disappointing others

A while ago I did a reading about dealing with being disappointed. While that is definitely a useful subject, it occurs to me, due to some things going on right now, that I also have definite issues with dealing with disappointing others. Not with being a disappointment, but with taking specific actions that are likely to result in someone else being disappointed.

Essentially, this is a kind of conflict between my INTP/Queen of Swords type logical nature and my Cancer side...because the more I think on it, the more it seems just due to empathy. The INTP in me doesn't like to think of myself as empathetic, per se, but...it's really not about people 'hating' me. Yes, I try to be nice and please people when I can but...not at all costs. If I am being reasonable, and someone isn't happy, their problem, eh? And in some cases, this is in dealing with people who I don't even particularly like/am not impressed with/have clearly shown they don't care all that much about my needs/feelings. And yet...I still feel a bit guilty disappointing them. Why? Because I know how crappy that feels and I can't help but want to...not inflict that feeling on others if I can avoid it. But the INTP in me says, you need to take care of yourself too. This is what you need to do, regardless of the possible effects. Inner conflict inner conflict so let us draw some cards then, eh?


What's interesting here, of course is that it's a three card draw of all reversals. That's always something to take note of. I know a lot of people don't read with reversals but for me, with the exception of a few decks where it just feels wrong to do so, I do. Always have. See, when I first started reading, and found out there was the option - well, being the slightly masochistic must challenge meself person that I am, of course, new to Tarot, I would choose the option that meant learning twice as many meanings! Lol, but really, at this point it feels natural to me, and reversals just add....shade and nuance to readings that I appreciate. But nonetheless, an all reversal reading is still a bit 0__o. In context though, it does make sense.

Here's the message I get from these cards - sometimes, you just can't really win. You can't have it all, you can't somehow magically synthesize two opposing desires and make everyone happy happy and please yourself and please others and get what YOU need to get done, done while also doing the thing that someone else wants you to do for them, and you will drive yourself crazy if you insist on trying.

If you want to look at it from that kind of perspective, either way there's a negative - either you are 'selfish' and 'flakey' or you are making yourself miserable and stressed being 'flakey' regarding other things. If you try to please everyone someone, and possibly even everyone, will end up losing anyway. You really do just have to pick one or the other and accept the opportunity cost/loss and move on, stop dwelling and feeling needless guilt over doing what you need to do. Which is not to say the choice is necessarily the same in all situations - if it's a choice between spending a day relaxing and de-stressing, a nice planned mental-health day as it were, and doing a much-needed favor for a good friend, perhaps you do need to sacrifice the me-time; if it's a choice between getting through some of that huge pile of academic obligation and house cleaning/organization and errands that's looming over you, or making time to meet with someone who has shown very limited interest in your needs, well then, looks like it's time to just focus on doing what you need to do for you.

Use logic to make the objectively best decision you can given the limitations of your situation.

Empathy is a good thing. Compassion and consideration are all good things. Need to remember to apply them to yourself too, though. Sometimes you need to put your needs aside and really help someone out. Other times, you needs to put yourself first. Both are perfectly legitimate decisions. Your needs are worthwhile too.