for today - goodbye and hello

So yeah, today is one of those occasional days where I actually feel like doing a 'daily draw' type thing - you know, picking a card for the day. I'm also about the switch off the two decks I'm working with, so I figured it'd be interesting to pull two cards: one from one of the decks I'm about to put away that I really connected with, as a kind of goodbye message, and one from one of the decks I'm looking forward to working with, as a kind of hello message.

The Swedish Witch, a deck I always thought was cool, and which I was quite happy to be able to go on an adventure to buy when I was in Sweden, ended up being an even better reading deck than I could have hoped. I really enjoyed working with it, and with all that symbolism, I feel it'd make a great deck to study/work with exclusively, one day...

Anyway, my daily message from this one is the King of Swords...a card of action, of passion, of in control kind of DOING. We have two horses here, ready to move things along, and flames to add urgency to the situation. There's a horse on the King's helmet too...a card of movement messages indeed.

Very apt, in fact. This wasn't the best of weeks for me in many ways, including very poor sleep patterns, and as a result I didn't wake up until 1pm, which is VERY late for me. It's after five in the evening now, and I still haven't done anything meaningfully productive. Don't plan on going to sleep until very late, so there's still plenty of time, but I think this card is a very CLEAR message to get my arse up and start doing things. Run to the store, clean, laundry, schoolwork...the list is long. In fact, this being a King and not a knight, and thus subject to more organization and discipline, makes me think I ought to update that list and then really make myself start doing things on it and crossing it out. Get moving, this card says. Now.

Yes, I posted about this deck before, when it first came, and the time has now come to devote some time to getting to know it. There are many reasons why this deck really calls to me, though there are some drawbacks too - a few years ago, the very simple, uninspired pips might have been a major challenge to me. Fortunately these days, I can work with unillustrated pips just fine, and the majors and courts more than make up for it, methinks. We shall see.

In any case, the message from here is the lovers...an interesting take to be sure. We have the Marseille tradition image of a man surrounded by two lovely ladies to choose between...one is dressed in the fashion of the Islamic conquerors of the region, Islamic culture, North African variant (makes me think of the ladies on the streets in 'Battle of Algiers') while the second lady wears traditional North African Berber dress. Sun shines brightly behind them all. Of course, there's an interesting component here, not present in the European tradition, of the fact that If the dude is Muslim as well, he COULD actually marry both of these ladies...

In any case, choices choices, eh? Overwhelmed with choices. In this case, with what to do. This is one of the reasons I've been awake for several hours and haven't gotten anything significant done. What to start with? The mess that is my floor, my desk, my bed? The lost debit card I need to try to locate? The readings I need to do for my classes on Monday? The Arabic homework? Spinning around and everywhere a something that needs to get done and I get dizzy from it all so I say, in a bit, and go back to trimming some cards. Choices choices. Neither of these ladies is a bad option, right? Just pick something and start with it. Whatever you get done, that's progress, thats one less thing on the To Do List. Choices choices - sometimes any decision is better than indecision.