Knight of Pentacles/Temperance. The Knight of Pentacles (cusp of Leo, “I am,” passionate, dramatic, egotistical, and Virgo, “I serve,” practical, analytical, work and service oriented), like all Knights, represents extreme manifestations of his suit, Pentacles. He seems to focus on how to get things done, rather than why things need to be done, and I certainly can make use of his more focused energies today, ride them if you will, thanks to the Temperance card. A Sagittarius card, Temperance in an upright position also corresponds with Fire (hot/separates and dry/shapes, and spontaneous, impulsive, energetic change), Samekh (the tent post), and the Path between Yesod (the place where patterns and images emerge that may manifest into the physical world of action and outer reality) and Tiphareth (the hub of the creation process where energies harmonize and focus to illuminate and clarify). This card is one of the cards that has always had a personal message to me; it tells me that balance is dynamic and the ability to maintain a dynamic balance takes constant practice and work.

My Thoth card is the Seven of Cups reversed. Okay, this is the second day in a row that this card has appeared here. LOL, here is what I wrote yesterday when I threw the Seven of Cups reversed with my Thoth tarot: “Debauch” is Uncle Al’s keyword to the energies of this card, which he and Lady Harris illustrate as limp vines hanging off of overflowing cups; everywhere, water is dripping. Everything feels heavy and stagnant. This Seven is reversed, though, which means that I just might be able to plug in a dehumidifier and salvage something here. I think this card is here again today to remind me that I can experience feelings and connect to my inner self without becoming lost in the swamp.

My Legacy card is Temperance reversed, flavored by the Ace of Wands. Bookends!! To me, Temperance reversed is showing me the benefit to be had from truly needing to strive, with focus and attention, to achieve and maintain balance when my environment is striving with equal fervor to destroy balance and tempt me with extremism. The Ace of Wands (Cancer, Leo, “I am,” passionate, dramatic, egotistical, Virgo, “I serve,” practical, analytical, sensible, orderly) in an upright position tells of the first spark of a new and exciting creative process, and an encouraging and empowering awareness of my own valuable creative talents. The energies of this Ace, combined with Temperance in a reversed position, could be just what I need to move on to new things and access with effectiveness some strong energy, without being drugged by it.

My 6-digit date number is 10, the number that tells of the completion of manifestation of a cycle; it reduces to the number 1, which is about the beginning of a cycle and the concept of “position.”

My horoscope: “Your physical and mental energy are exceptionally strong right now, Sagittarius. If you're creative, you will want to put that energy into a project that means a lot to you. If you're athletic, you will probably want to get outside and play a game or go for a jog or cardio class. Bear in mind that much of this energy is nervous energy that burns out quickly. Pace yourself.”

Today’s Sun reading: “Action-oriented Mars trines determined Saturn, while Venus squares Jupiter. Do not take any big chances, even if you feel lucky. It's too easy to overdo and overspend when optimism makes good judgment fly out the window. Tonight's connections are relatively superficial, so keep it casual.”

These last few days have been so full of Cosmic Downloads that I don’t seem to have time to even take a breath, never mind post in this Blog. And so much of this can be attributed to either the 32^nd or the 31^st Paths!

Friday, I had an opportunity to test my own ability to read the words of another and not take them as a personal attack. It was not easy, but in actuality it was not as hard this time as it has been in the past to understand that the writer of the words had a broader intent than putting me down. Through my efforts as I released the effect these words had on me, I received validation that my efforts to help my fellow students at Sacred Mists were bearing fruit.

My focus yesterday was strongly in the physical world. I did a bit of cleaning and organizing, and then planned a great dinner with Bob for the evening.

From my Sacred Mists Third Degree Journal:

I have heard back from Lady Lilyth regarding my Lesson 4 homework. LOL, I don't know if every other student will react as I did when I saw that Lil had asked more of me, but I was absolutely thrilled! Not that my submitted answers were being criticized as lacking, not at all! Whew!

Rather, Lil asked me to offer my thoughts regarding several concepts related to the lesson material. *rubs hands together in anticipation* I love discussing the whys and why nots of theory! A former student of Sacred Mists once told me that I am "steeped in theory"; yep, I am, and one of my favorite things to do is to think about particular concepts, take them apart so that I can understand their most common building blocks, and then put them back together again with a knowledge of why they exist and how I can integrate them into my own Craft (whether I accept them as valid for me or not, if they are basic defining concepts of Wicca, I must integrate them in some way into my Craft; and sometimes we learn more from the things we don't agree with than those that we agree with).

Here is the most wonderful thing about this: our Third Degree Training really pushes the envelope for each of us. It encourages us to manifest what we have learned about our Craft and about ourselves into the physical world. And this is exactly what I am being called to do within the studies I am pursuing on my own. To use a Tarot analogy, as I tend to do, I have come to understand The High Priestess, but now I need to become The Magician. That to me is one purpose of Third Degree Training. I am going deeper into the Mysteries of Wicca, and I am like a kid in a candy shop.

I am only on Lesson 4, and yet I have crystallized in my mind so much already through working on the homework assignments of Third Degree Training. Last night, after receiving Lil's email, I talked with Bob, my husband, about my spirituality, about what I was learning and where I wanted to go with my Craft. Bob is an agnostic bordering on an atheist, and he proceeded to ask me some hard questions. And I answered them, every single one; I answered them not only to his satisfaction, but to mine as well. He told me that he was impressed with my level of understanding of the spiritual path that had become so very important to my well being.

Now, that is awesome. That is in part what this training is meant to do; for me, it is obviously working, and the guidance of the lessons are pushing me to contemplate just what I need to understand in order to evolve and grow as a Witch.

This morning, I started the day off with a Sacred Mists Reiki Share. Filling myself with the energy of Reiki and then initiating the exchange of Reiki that is a Share has optimized my ability to not only recognize the Cosmic Downloads of the day, but also to begin the installations. I pulled out two books and began researching some of the additional work that Lady Lilyth has requested of me. The topic I am researching first (one of several that I am to research) is related to the way that Wicca has evolved over the short amount of time that it has been in the public domain, and whether or not initiation into a coven is still the preferred (or only) way to access the Mysteries. This is directly related to the 31^st Path!! I am soooo pleased and soooo excited that this assignment has presented it self to me.

Then came the icing on the cake: my friend, Caroline, emailed me some information regarding The Magus that she found while researching Uncle Al, information that I have never seen before. How appropriate is this bit of synchronicity?! My focus over the past months has been to come to know The High Priestess, but lately, as I have stated already, I have felt that my focus is changing direction. Now, it seems, I am to become The Magician. And here, nice and tidy and current to my focus, is some interesting information!! I will be blogging about this, too, over the next days.

Then the sprinkles on the icing: tomorrow afternoon, I am giving a Tarot reading to a Shaman, followed by giving a Reiki I attunement to a new and already dear friend made known to me through the Pagan Brain Trust.

Not only has the Fog of January lifted, but I am filled with excitement and enthusiasm for the many tasks ahead of me.

And then, the cherry, the final sweetness. Two days in a row, I threw Bookends. Yesterday, my Bookends were the Seven of Cups. Below is the info I journaled yesterday regarding that card.

Since I have Bookend Seven of Cups cards today, I will present a bit more in-depth information about this card. The Gateway to the Divine Tarot, the LWB that comes with the Legacy Tarot, offers this description of the choices presented by the Seven of Cups:

The Wreath corresponds with Saturn and The World.

The Castle corresponds with Mars and The Tower.

The Woman corresponds with Venus and The Empress.

The Snake corresponds with Mercury and The Magician.

The Veil corresponds with the Moon and The High Priestess.

The Jewels correspond with Jupiter and The Wheel of Fortune.

The Dragon corresponds with our Sun and The Sun.

The Seven of Cups often indicates the necessity of a choice to be made and what appears to be limitless possibilities available, but usually the options presented need to be examined quite closely, because while they all may appear to be useful, there may actually only be one selection that will bring the desired end result. Sometimes this card only brings the illusion of many choices, when in reality there are none.

Sometimes the only thing we learn from this card is just how far we can go in pleasing our senses without ending up with a crippling hangover. In hind sight, all that partying, when viewed through the clarity (and the headache!) of the following day, ends up being seen as a dissipation of energy rather than an accumulation of good experiences. Crowley sees this card as presenting delusional, almost suicidal energies; lots of deep water and nothing solid to stand on at all.

The temptation attached to the card are all related to feelings or emotions or perceptions; this means that the answer might actually be to allow the intellect to have a look-see, and to allow the physical world to act as a counter point to all those emotions.

Today, I have been gifted with Bookends again, in the Temperance card. This is a card that presents the concept of balance attained through knowledge of and experience of extremes.

Here is some relevant information about this card that I recently compiled:

Temperance represents synergy, which is a form of balance. The cool thing about the Temperance card is that it promotes both balance and equilibrium, but it also tells us that in order to attain and understand balance, we need to experience and understand extremes, and we need to learn by trial and error, or by experiencing both failure and success. It is only through knowing and understanding and experiencing extremes that we are able to refine our perceptions of our world and reconcile those extremes together in order to form balance. This idea directly relates to Wicca, for one core belief of our Craft is that Deity is a dynamic balance of polar opposites; the sacred energies of Deity are both male and female, and while each is different, their differences allow them both to be balanced.

Obviously, it is not time for me to move past the 31^st Path just yet. I have my work cut out for me!

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