Queen of Wands reversed/The Hermit. Now that is a clear message! Time to suspend my natural tendency to have an effect on my world, and turn my focus inward to examine the “big questions.”

My Thoth card for today is The Emperor reversed. “Use all thine energy to rule thy thought: burn up thy thought as the Phoenix.” This card looks like fire and transforming heat, and it represents the power of thought to rule and control and bring order. However, it is reversed; I am being told that my focus should not be outward. I sense that this reversed Emperor is supporting The Hermit!

I am having an interesting discussion with another Sacred Mists student, MysticTigersEye (now Mystery) as she makes the transition from First Degree Dedicant to Second Degree Dedicant, involving Merlin and divination and the search for a new name (and the lessons and challenges that are a part of that search). Mystery’s searching was directed at some point towards the Thoth Tarot in general and the three Magus cards to be found in this deck in particular. I had read that those two extra versions of the card were included because of the peculiarities of printing; eight cards per page and ten pages equals 80 cards, so there are always two extras, usually filled with card meanings or advertisements. Mystery had found some information regarding those two other images included with the Thoth deck. In this regard, The Magus card that is a part of the actual deck is ruled by Mercury and is said to indicate communications problems, and is known as The Entrepreneur; the second image is said to be ruled by Neptune and indicates a need to go within and communicate with the self, and is known as The Bear or The Dreamer; the third version is ruled by Uranus, tells us that unreliable people are deceiving us (or we are deceiving ourselves) and warns us to be careful, and is called The Trickster. Since I have the deck, I asked Bob to scan the three versions and I sent them to Mystery. We both were able to instantly identify the other two cards. Now comes the fun part!

Once I realized that these cards had originally been included with the deck as a curiosity only, I never gave them too much thought. But now, thanks to Mystery, I will look at them and try to discern the meaning of the symbolism of each version. I get the feeling that my recent exploration of alchemy happened for a purpose, as well as my connecting with Skylark at Saturday’s Student Counsel Bonfire (which, by the way, was such a great experience and a useful opportunity for the Student Counsel Members to informally interact with students), who is studying astrology. I think I will email Skylark the three Mages as well, and see what she sees in those images.

I did my “supercharging the chakras and the aura” cleansing again today, with two additions that have added to the effectiveness of the exercise. I added the mudra that encourages the voiding of extra fluid in the body (which can have effects beyond the physical), and once I began allowing the energy to wash my aura clean (before I closed the bottom and began to “fill the tub”) I did some core muscle stretches. Wow!! Talk about supercharging! Once I actively plugged into my own energy field the effects seemed to be tripled! I feel quite a difference today after that exercise! Not quite back to normal yet, but great strides in the right direction have been accomplished. Hooray for Sacred Movement!

It dawned on me last night that the energies at this particular Litha are certainly interesting. This year the Summer Solstice, the longest day at the peak of masculine energies, takes place on the night before the New Moon, or in other words, the peak of the dark feminine energies of the lunar cycle. No wonder I have been feeling so energetically discombobulated! I am curious to see what I experience over the next few days, now that I am aware of the conflicting energies swirling around me.

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