King of Wands reversed/Six of Cups. In an upright position, the task of the King of Wands is to find a new and effective direction, through a committed intention toward assertion and action, in matters of spirituality, vitality and quality of life. He is the Lord of Fire, and has learned how to make use of the benefits of the element without losing control of it. The Six of Cups tells of the ability to leave the troubles of the day behind for a bit, in order to take a mini-mental vacation from them. This card is about feeling good about the moment, and this feeling good could have something to do with the connections to those around me. Combined with that reversed King of Wands, I am being told that today is not the day for taking charge and expending efforts to make things better. Instead of adrenaline rushes and power surges that surround taking charge with authority, I should just sit back and allow myself to feel satisfied with what I have accomplished already, and maybe take some time to replay the “movies of the mind” that are memories.

My Thoth card is the Seven of Disks reversed. “Failure” reversed; in an upright position, this card tells of what happens when you combine the element of Earth and its focus on stability with the planet Saturn, which is about responsibility and discipline. Crowley sees this card as representing extreme passivity, and since the card is the number 7, that passivity could very well have been caused by the vertical and horizontal balance of the number 6. The card is reversed, thankfully, but it is there, so I need to be careful that it does not become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Pausing to assess is a good thing, but I need to be certain that I act on what I discover, so that I can prevent that stagnation.

My Legacy card is the Seven of Coins, flavored by the Ace of Cups. Another 7 card of the same suit as my Thoth card, but this one is upright. The basic advice of the Legacy Seven of Coins is to evaluate the work to be done in order to determine its value. The presence of two Sevens, one upright and one reversed, might indicate that a choice might be presented to me today, or a crossroad or intersection might appear, related to the physical world. Since this upright Seven of Coins is being flavored by the Ace of Cups (which is about the potential of strong feelings and/or emotions becoming manifest), I might want to consult my Inner Voice before making any choices or decisions.

My 6-digit date number is 11 (Archangel Uriel), which reduces to 2, the number of balance and polarity, and the concept of distance between.

My horoscopes: “Happiness reigns in the home, Sagittarius, as everyone seems to have reached a new understanding of one another. You could also experience a new sense of peace and quiet. Everyone is concentrating more on reading and working on their own projects and less on socializing. This could be a wonderful time for you. You're getting along with your family and the house is a peaceful haven. Enjoy!”

And: “Hopefully, you got happy hour out of your system last night, because you won't be in the mood for it today. Believe it or not, you -- yes, you -- will wake up in the mood to make lists, check them twice and get things done. No, that's not your usual M.O., but whoever said you were anything close to usual? Definitely not anybody who ever knew you for more than an hour or so.”

And: “You may feel a little worn out right now, as if you haven't been getting enough vitamins or rest. Or you may feel that you are losing track of issues that are important to you, such as your children's progress in school. That's what comes of being a modern woman who tries to do it all. Whether you want to or not,

Lots to catch up with.

While driving home yesterday morning, as I passed through the sun-drenched salt marshes of Cape May County and enjoyed the rich greens, blues and browns of a late Summer landscape, I decided to think about the Sacred Masculine. I also felt that I had been giving quite a bit of attention to the Sacred Feminine over the past few weeks, and since we are coming to the end of the time of easy connection to the energies of the outer world, I thought it was important to balance out the feminine energies within me.

It turned out that this was easy to accomplish. I visualized myself traveling on a path through an old forest. The trees were massive, and I needed to step carefully, for their roots often crossed the path on which I was travelling. But actually, the going was relatively easy, mainly because of the denseness of the overhead canopy. Very little light made it down to the forest floor, so besides some vines and mushrooms here and there, the undergrowth was almost nonexistent. The sun was high enough in the sky, though, to make the air pretty warm.

It did not take long for me to arrive at the clearing where I usually meet Cernunnos. As usual, there was the remains of a bonfire in the large firepit. The huge stones ringing the firepit were cool to the touch, but a little tendril of smoke still rose up from the center of the charred wood. I walked around the firepit three times, starting in the North and finishing in the North and facing East, with the intent that I cleanse the area of unwanted energies and create a circle of protection. Of course, my intention was that both Cernunnos and I could pass through that protective circle, but I thought it might act as a vessel for whatever energies or experiences would be presented.

I sat on one of the boulders ringing the firepit, and thought about all I had learned about the workings of the energies of the Sacred Masculine. Over the past months, I had been able to come to a real understanding of just what the Sacred Feminine was to me, LOL even though I still have difficulty putting into words just what those energies are and how they are connected to my life and the world around me. The Sacred Masculine, I felt, needed to be understood in context with the energies of the Sacred Feminine, as the masculine energies are directly connected to the feminine; after all, the purpose of the Sacred Masculine is to activate and manifest the energies of the Sacred Feminine.

I decided to start with a simple analogy. If I wanted to bake a cake, I would need to do more than identify and accumulate the needed ingredients. Merely combining all of those ingredients in a bowl and mixing them sufficiently will not bring that cake into being. There needs to be a catalyst applied, and in the case of a cake, the catalyst is heat. If the ingredients of the cake are the Sacred Feminine, then the heat of the oven would most certainly represent the Sacred Masculine; not the oven itself but the heat to be found within it.

Okay, that made sense to me. So, what is the common element to all life that could be our hot oven? One thing that all life does attempt to do is procreate, and much of the energy that is expended during life involves bringing the physical vehicle to not only a fertile state, but also to a point where the life form will be able to withstand birth, and if necessary (if the progeny needs care immediately after birth), to nurture and protect that new life. We humans are not alone in this need, and even a tree or a vine will strive to procreate.

Becoming mature enough to procreate could certainly be a part of the effects of the Sacred Masculine, but there must be more to it than this one aim or goal. Yes, some living beings die once assuring that the next generation will have a good start, but most living beings continue on after procreating. We humans may spend a lot of effort to attract and keep the right mate, but having babies is not the only pleasure to be found. Living long enough to reproduce may certainly be one effect of the Sacred Masculine, but surely it is not the only effect.

Perhaps I am being too sophisticated here in trying to label things (and I don’t mean that in an insulting way). Perhaps I need to view this in a more primitive fashion; after all, while as far as I can tell, Cernunnos is alive and well in our well-explored world and although He may still prefer to exist within those places that are less touched by technology, He does not seem to be having difficulty remaining vital and alive. Perhaps the energies of the Sacred Masculine are simply manifested through living. That would be the result of providing a catalyst; the cake does not manifest its purpose until after being affected by the catalyst. Our purpose may be in part to reproduce, but there is more to being alive than that; life is about **living**! The Goddess brings the potential of life, a noun, but the addition of the catalyst of the God brings the opportunity to live, a verb.

In trying to put all this into words, I realized that even though I was beginning to understand the effects of the energies of the Sacred Masculine, I had not yet had my aha! moment. But I could feel it out there in the dark, and I knew I would keep probing and circling around until I found it.

Suddenly, I realized I was no longer alone. Cernunnos had joined me; He appeared the age He should be at this time of year: still strong and virile, but with some flecks of gray in His hair. LOL, no young Cernunnos, so no aha! moment today. He told me that He approved of my efforts to understand Him, for true Balance cannot be achieved unless both He and His Lady are included in the mix; He reassured me that the aha! moment I was seeking would appear at the right time. He also encouraged me to continue my Quest to connect with the energies of the Sacred Feminine, and to not worry that He would feel slighted if this was a larger focus for me.

“You forget,” He reminded me, “that I have known Her and loved Her since before your kind was alive and aware. I chose to accept the pain and trauma of being parted from Her so that I could experience again and again the joy of connection to Her and reunion with Her. You need not fault yourself for being drawn to connect to Her energies in their most pure form, for I can attest to the pleasures of ‘intoxication by Sacred Feminine.’” He smiled and nodded, and then continued. “My energies are there, and you will connect with them more and more, but I am here through Her, just as She can only be, can only exist, through Me. We are connected, the Goddess and I, and cannot be alive except through each other. And your efforts should not be belittled; after all, you have chosen Us just as We have chosen you; as much as you yearn for a connection with Us, We yearn together for a connection to you.” He smiled, and said, “Rest assured, when you achieve these pure interactions with my Lady, I feel them as well, both through your pleasure and through Hers.”

Then Cernunnos showed me a new way to use the chakra/Reiki exercises He gifted me with at Beltane. He explained that once each chakra had been opened and cleaned and balanced, and once I had completed applying Reiki into each of them individually and then laced all the energies together, and once I had used the four lower chakras to bring my awareness into the catalyst of the throat chakra and the awareness of the brow chakra, there was a crossroad to be found. I started when He used that word (and He smiled knowingly, with a sparkle in His eyes), as I had been working with Hecate, at Hecate’s request, at dawn and dusk. Hecate would not tell me the purpose of my efforts, nor would she tell me how long and in what direction to focus. LOL, She just showed me how I should direct my efforts and told me to keep doing it “until you are done.” Now, Cernunnos was pointing out a crossroad that I needed to access. He explained that once I reached this crossroad, I could easily choose to either connect with the energies of the Sacred Feminine (by choosing the direction of the Divine energies), or the energies with the Sacred Masculine (by choosing the direction of my own personal energy field, and the connections to Him that He has already taught me), and that connection would be pure and very powerful once I learned to consciously choose to access it.

I’m smiling as I am typing this; I just looooove when synchronicity presents some new challenge and then validates that presentation. I am beginning the process of learning how to access other planes through the Watchtowers and Elemental Guides as they are used in a cast circle, and this, too, will be useful in that whole learning process. Once again, my Patron, Cernunnos, is offering an opportunity to grow.

How cool is that?! We shall see, once I get into all this.

Tomorrow, I will talk about family vacation.

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