getting back into the swing of things

 So, it's been a bit of a while. Things have been rather busy/stressful in many ways, and I ended up taking a bit longer of a break from tarot and blogging than I had expected to. Have started working with the cards a bit more again, not so much deck-hopping at this point as just sticking with my Navigators of the Mystic SEA deck...

I really enjoy working with this deck, especially using the accompanying book for clarification/deeper explanation of the images. Today's draw, like many I do with it, really got to the crux of things in terms of useful insight. See, I've been telling myself that the card break was because I was too busy, too stressed, to overwhelmed to stretch my energies to keep doing this, too. But that wasn't the entire truth. The fact is, busy as I have been, I still found time to do other things...lose myself in fiction books, watching episodes of newly discovered TV shows online, sleeping too much or too little...certain oher less positive coping mechanisms... gratification, in-the-moment self-indulgence, escapism, all those things that the moon so speaks to, as a concept...

What particularly strikes me in the image here is the harp at the forefront. Like the tarot, a harp can be seen as an instrument, a tool, something meaningful, something that can make beautiful music or messages, something that allows you to, at times, transcend mundane reality, search for something greater...and here it lies cast aside, choked even, gasping. And does the figure, lying surrounded by wine glass, poppies, dream-creatures, look better for this lack? No, not at all.

Time for some fortitude again, then. I have found time for tarot in times even more busy and stressful than this last weeks have been, and have been better for having something to ground me. Time to light the torches, blow the trumpets, and face whatever waves - internal or external - that may come crashing towards us. Time for facing reality head on, without illusion, without hiding or sticking head in sand or focusing on anything but the things that need to be dealt with most.