Five of Pentacles/King of Swords. The Llewellyn Welsh Tarot Five of Pentacles (Mercury, reason, intelligence, education, skill, communication, in Taurus, “I have,” sensual, cautious, stubborn) shows the traditional image for this card: a woman and a child, one of them injured in some way, travelling in the cold wind, with a church window behind them. There is snow on the ground and on the trees (and we are expecting snow today!); the window is set in a strongly built wall of stones and mortar, and appears lit from within. Behind the pair is what appears to be a cemetery. This card tells me very clearly that while it may appear to me that I am coming from a wasteland with nothing alive to be gleaned, there are still spiritual benefits to be had. In fact, a sense of isolation along with a collapse of the systems and expectations of the physical world can often force us to open up to spiritual guidance. The King of Swords (cusp of Capricorn, “I build,” ambitious, cautious, cunning, authoritative, and Aquarius, “I know,” friendships, the group, cause-oriented, aloof) tells me how to respond to this challenge presented in the physical world. He tells me that I have the ability to be an impressive leader who is not easily fooled; however, he warns me to allow a bit of compassion to influence me. Otherwise, my temper might get in the way.

My Thoth card is The Hermit reversed. I love the image on the Thoth Hermit, which corresponds with Earth (cold/binds and dry/shapes, and material, practical and stable energy that is slow to change), Virgo (“I serve,” practical, analytical, work and service oriented, orderly), Yod (open hand, touch), and the Path between Tiphareth (the hub of the creation process where energies harmonize and focus to illuminate and clarify) and Chesed (the place where forms and structure are stabilized and nurtured). The rays of light from the Sun within the lantern he is carrying are bouncing all over the place, harshly blinding. And our Hermit, although he is carrying this lantern, has his body curved away from the light, his face turned to the dark and his shoulders hunched, protecting himself from those beams of sunlight. While our Hermit is hiding from the light of the Sun, he is leading others with that light. Crowley says of this card: “For this matter is not of Tiphareth without, but Tiphareth within.” Because my Hermit is reversed, I am being told that the light has benefit for me today. Isolation is good at times, but we do need connections to others in order to survive.

My Legacy card is the King of Wands reversed, flavored by the Six of Cups reversed. Well, we have two Kings today, and since my Fire King (cusp of Cancer, “I feel,” sensitive, nurturing, moody, and Leo, “I am,” passionate, dramatic egotistical) is reversed, I am being warned once again to not allow myself to judge situations in the heat of the moment. Idealistic passion can very easily turn into fundamentalist control, and this warning is emphasized by the card flavoring this reversed King, the Six of Cups (Sun, the inner core of a person or situation in Scorpio, “I desire,” intense, compulsive, deep, obsessive) reversed. Leadership and authority are cool, but without sharing and compassion, they are quite lonely pursuits.

Since I have two Kings today, here is a bit more information about Kings in general. In “Understanding the Tarot Court,” by Mary K. Greer and Tom Little, The Tarot Court is described as representing some kind of progression or development of the personality and persona. The Pages are usually seen as students, the Knights as testing their skills by facing real-world challenges, the Queens as having attained mastery and confidence, and the Kings as having gained sufficient respect and stature to assume a persona of public command. My two Kings today are of the elements of Air (hot/separates and wet/adapts, and the quick, animated intellectual focus that brings solutions to problems or challenges) and Fire (hot/separates and dry/shapes, and spontaneous and impulsive change), but my Fire King, the King of Wands, is reversed. This means that while I may be using my intellect today, I may not be able to find new ways to make use of what I see or learn.

My 6-digit date number is 7, the number that tells of a pause at the peak which heralds the beginning of degeneration.

My horoscopes: “A person you're attracted to may seem to be interested in someone else. This could bring up your insecurities and jealousy. Don't make yourself crazy, Sagittarius. Try to learn the facts before letting the situation get the better of you. Invitations to more than one social event for the same night might force you to make an uncomfortable choice. Make the choice that's best for you.”

And: “You're a problem solver on your least work-oriented days. Right now, you're work-oriented, to put it mildly. You're focused, like a laser beam. You're locked in a tough hold like a member of the wrestling team. You're going to tackle any and all problems, important and trivial, that come your way. There's no problem too intense, no problem too tiny, for your talents. By the end of the day you feel good. And you should! You've really flexed your problem-solving muscles!”

And: “Group activities may take up a lot of your time and energy today - perhaps too much. Your own career concerns are very much on your mind, and you don't like being distracted from them. Nonetheless, these activities, not to mention your family, are very important to you, and you'll find a way to squeeze out the time - even though it might be frustrating. Remember, however: This is not a good day to push yourself too hard!”

My Sun reading: “Mercury's logic is scrambled by Pisces emotion for the next two weeks. The mind, always occupied, isn't always on the business at hand. Tonight's Libra Moon trine Neptune enhances rapport to work out differences. If you're single, the Moon quincunx Uranus suggests a long-simmering flame erupts.”

I am sitting here on a Monday morning, listening to the Ancient Mother CD, by Robert Glass, and thinking about the weekend just passed. It is overcast today, and I am enjoying my fireplace; I also have two Partylite tealites lit, Home By The Sea and Ocean Berry Breeze. LOL, I am in a beachy mood today, probably because both Saturday and Sunday were sunny and windy, great days for a walk on the beach.

On Saturday, I was still thinking deeply about the 29^th Path. As Ellen Cannon Reed talks about the 29^th Path in her book, The Witches Tarot, a lot of what she is discussing regarding this Path has to do with attitudes and ways that we perceive our physical world. Perhaps that is why The Moon is the Tarot card associated with this Path. Many times, we perceive things as being negative or “icky” when in truth, they are anything but negative. We modern, “civilized” humans have a real phobia about bodily fluids and body wastes, and yet they serve a positive purpose within the workings of our physical bodies. We avoid discomfort at all costs, and yet we are shown again and again by the workings of Nature that discomforts can always be turned into something positive.

The example presented by Ms. Reed that resonates for me is the pearl. “The beautiful pearl has long been treasured by humankind. It looks like a tiny Moon, and the Moon sometimes looks like a huge pearl on a black velvet sky. And how does that pearl come to be? It is the result of a rough, irritating grain of sand, which presents a possible injury to an oyster. Imagine a grain of sand under your eyelid, and the tears it would cause. In a sense, the oyster weeps; but its tears are not water, they are a material that coats the sand, layer after layer, until it creates from its pain a thing of beauty.” How many of us avoid situations because they might bring pain? Pain is a natural part of life, and we certainly gain quite a bit of benefit from experiencing pain and overcoming pain’s influence.

On Saturday morning, after overcoming the pain of getting out of my nice, warm bed in order to walk on the beach in the cold wind, under a Winter sun (**wink**), I had a lovely meditation. I went directly to Danu’s Well after opening and balancing my chakras. When I arrived there, the Sun was almost halfway to noon, casting a sharp, angled shadow in the Well; I sat down on the ground next to the stones circling the Well, and relaxed a bit, and then began to think about my upcoming choice of Paths within my Third Degree Training at Sacred Mists. To my surprise and delight, after only a few moments of basking in the energy emanating from the Well, Danu joined me. She smiled and told me that She had something to show me. Danu pointed to an oak tree on the other side of Her Well, and motioned to me to follow Her as She walked towards it. I had never been able to see beyond the trees which circled Danu’s Well, and now I knew why: there was some kind of membrane or wall behind those trees. Danu walked up to the membrane, turned once to urge me to follow Her with a smile, and then stepped through. I followed her, passing through a “field” that appeared solid but was of the consistency of fog or steam, with no temperature difference.

To my surprise and delight, I realized that I recognized this place! The first Wiccan class I ever took was taught by Mama Kiki at Off the Beaten Path, the shop where I teach belly dance. Here, on the other side of the oak tree was my meditation place that I found through a guided meditation led by Mama Kiki! Danu told me that this place was given to me so that I could begin my own Journey of discovery; She told me that now, I could give this place to others so that they, too, could choose to begin their own Journey.

Choice. And beginnings. Danu smiled at me with love as I made the connection. She was telling me the Path that She preferred that I take within my Third Degree Training, that of Teacher. Wow, this felt so right that I could hear the clunk of the puzzle piece slipping into place!

We both returned back to the Well, and Danu sat with me for a while longer. Danu explained some things about the Well that I had noticed, but not yet understood. She said that when I visited the Well during the day, the Sun would be in a position that corresponded with the time in the solar year; at Yule, the Sun would be on the horizon, at Litha, the Sun would be right above, and at Samhain it would be on the opposite horizon. If I came to the Well at night, while the weather might be different than what I was experiencing in the physical world, the Moon would be at a similar phase.

Then, Danu explained to me that when I die, I will be jumping down the Well. Aha!! Somehow, that makes sense to me. I did jump down the Well once, and passed through to another place where I distinctly did not feel human. Before I could get a sense of who I was or where I was, I was drawn back out and sent back to my world. Obviously, I was not yet ready to pass on and leave my physical body behind, but what I felt during that brief time on the other side makes me think that this is true.

Also, to me it makes sense that we jump down to die, rather than floating up, as is presented in other religions. After all, my life force is housed in a physical body which is of the physical world, and thus subject to the rules of existence of the physical world. In order to gain the momentum necessary to pass through the Veil, I would need to make use of the laws of physics for as long as I am housed in my physical body, and falling downward certainly is a much easier way to build up speed and force!

I have felt Danu with me, beside me, since that time at Her well. I have used the rest of the weekend and today to finish putting the pieces together. Tomorrow, I will move onward.

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