Ten of Pentacles reversed/Knight of Cups reversed. The Ten of Pentacles (Mercury, reason, intelligence, education, communication, in Virgo, “I serve,” practical, analytical, work and service oriented) is actually a very heavy card whose energies can weigh you down. Because it tells of the completion of a cycle of the suit, it also tells of the successful accumulation of Earthly riches and blessings. The challenge of the Ten of Pentacles is to **do** something with these riches before they become a ball and chain. Because the card is reversed, I am being told that there is still some momentum within my physical world, but I need to be warned that there is a potential for me to focus not on what I can do with my blessings, but rather solely on those blessings, as possessions rather than as catalysts. The Knight of Cups (cusp of Aquarius, “I know,” friendships, the group, cause-oriented, and Pisces, “I believe,” feelings, duality, suffering, soul growth) in an upright position tells of a person who focuses intensely on feelings and emotions and the Inner Voice, which can either be a good thing, or it can tell of a time of imbalance with too much emotion and not enough grounding. When I see reversed Knights, I usually see them as presenting the negative possibilities associated with a pure application of the correspondences of the suit, so I need to be sure to focus on balance today as far as my emotions are concerned.

My Thoth card is the Queen of Disks. There’s the balance I need! The Queen of Disks (cusp of Sagittarius, “I seek,” philosophic, fun-loving, blundering, and Capricorn, “I build,” ambitious, cautious, authoritative, cunning) is practical, and she focuses on nurturing the body and the surroundings. Crowley sees her as representing the finest of the quieter qualities or traits. This Queen tends to use instinct and intuition rather than intellect in order to process her world, and her happiness largely depends on the strength and quality of her connection to the world around her.

My Legacy card is the Ace of Swords reversed, flavored by the Three of Swords reversed (whew!!). Friday I threw this Ace reversed, along with another Swords card. Sounds like the suit of Swords is still important to me today! The most painful thing about the Three of Swords (Saturn, discipline, responsibility, limitations and resistance, in Libra, “we are,” partnerships, balance, cooperation) is the sense of isolation that is brought by betrayal or unexpected hurt. Partnerships always benefit from both discipline and cooperation, and when those two become unbalanced, hurt or betrayal inevitably results. The Three is reversed, so while there is still a potential for some confusion or loss to impact my day in an uncomfortable way, compassion is also available to smooth the way. The Three being reversed somewhat negates the disconnect to the intellect presented by the Ace; however both cards did appear, so I need to be alert.

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

My horoscopes: “Today is well suited for making new friends, Sagittarius. Your sense of adventure is undoubtedly up to it! You will be your usual confident self, but others will seem to respond to your charisma even more than usual. At a party, you may meet someone who lives far away who invites you to visit at a later date. What a wonderful opportunity for travel!”

And: “Whatever emerges from your lips on a daily basis is always surprising, and never quite much of a shock to those who know and love you. For people who aren't quite so familiar with you personally, however, or with your own startling style astrologically, today's announcement may come as something of a shock. Keep that in mind, and try to be gentle. Just a tad. It wouldn't hurt to go easy on anyone who's just now getting to know you. Might make it easier, in fact.”

And: “Things may seem a little cloudy from your vantage point today, but this is no reason to be blue. It could be that adjustments need to be made before you are able to relate to others on a smooth basis. Take this opportunity to attend to things that you normally wouldn't think of dealing with. See things from another walk of life. Realize the fun of just staying close to home and falling asleep on the couch while watching a good movie.”

My cards have been presenting a confused message for the past few days, with possible upheavals appearing in my mind or intellect, and in my emotions, feelings and inner self, but there always seems to be one card that acts as a tether or a safe haven. This makes lots of sense to me.

I had pretty much a very quiet weekend, after a week of fighting a head cold. My Thai Massage partner, Helen, and I went out to eat on Friday night, got together Saturday afternoon to work on our website, and to give each other a Thai Massage. Except for a few hours working in my beloved garden on Sunday afternoon, most of the rest of the weekend involved my Sacred Mists responsibilities.

On Friday evening, as I drove down to Cape May, I meditated on the changes I have felt in my own energy field. This year, I have really noticed a difference in the background energies, and the change occurred almost exactly at midnight between Samhain and November 1. That is the time when the energies of the Sacred Masculine withdraw from our world, in order to rest for rebirth at Yule. This time between the end of Samhain and the morning of Yule is the “dark moon” stage of the solar year, a time when the energies of the God are pretty much absent. Traditionally, this has been a time to look within, to process what has been learned over the past months, and to begin planning for the next steps to be taken.

Perhaps because I have been working so intensely with Cernunnos this year, to the point of formally dedicating myself to Him at Beltane, I am sensing a sudden and potent change in those background energies and the way I perceive myself and my world. Initially, it felt like I was dealing with a numbness, kind of like when you first enter a dark room and your brain needs to make the switch from using the signals being sent by your eyes, to the signals being sent by your ears and your nose and your skin. After a few moments, your hearing becomes sharpened and subtle scents come to you, because you are no longer using your eyes, with their overwhelming input of information.

This situation is the same. For the first day or two, I was a bit confused, but now, new and exciting information seems to be coming to me. As I type this, I remember a powerful meditation I did in conjunction with the Archangel Uriel, which involved me agreeing to have the “physical” eyes of my astral body destroyed; another important connection to past information I had received through my efforts to learn about myself and my world.

In keeping with this, Hecate came to me during that meditation on Friday night. She gave me a task: She wanted me to perform a ritual in Her honor at sundown on Saturday, and she wanted me to perform this ritual without saying or even thinking a single word. Hecate asked me to perform the entire rite with only visualizations, images, visual sigils and gestures.

This was harder than I thought it would be, and I expected it to be a bit challenging. I tend to use keywords for just about every step of ritual, in order to free my mind and focus for other things. I have gotten out of the habit of taking the time to in effect build the desired manifestation from scratch. Hecate is bringing me back to basics for sure.

My working was not perfect by any means, and I caught myself many times using words, but stopped myself and substituted visualizations and effects. Besides the reminder that I need to work those particular “mental muscles,” once I had cast my circle and called my directional energies, and then invited Hecate to my circle, I had a moment in the deep twilight of my back room when I sensed some amazing, chaotic dark energy! It startled me, with its roiling, strong currents shifting direction unexpectedly, and I was unable to remain connected to it for long.

But, I will have other chances. Once my ritual was over, before She left, Hecate told me that this is now a part of my work with Her. Besides my dusk and dawn chants, She wants me to repeat this ritual every lunar month, within 24 hours of the exact time of the New Moon.

Tomorrow, I will post describing my experiences with Danu’s Well. This certainly is turning out to be an interesting Winter already. Without the bright and intense presence of the God, I am seeing and learning of things that would have otherwise been drowned out.

$