Two of Swords reversed/King of Wands reversed. The Two of Swords (Moon, feelings and emotions, illusion, imagination, in Libra, “We are,” partnerships, balance, cooperation) represents peace and stillness, but not necessarily peace and stillness without danger. This card often represents a refusal to see reality, or maybe it warns of some hidden element in the day’s mental focuses. Two is usually a number of balance, and while there is a form of balance here, this balance is more of an imposition of inactivity that cannot yet be overcome by outside forces.

My Thoth card is the Eight of Coins reversed. “Prudence” is Uncle Al’s keyword for this card in an upright position. The Eight of Coins (Sun, the inner core of a person or situation, in Virgo, “I serve,” practical, work and service oriented, sensible, critical) in an upright position reminds us to be persistent, and diligent in order to grasp success. This Eight tells of hard work on the physical plane that will offer rewards within the spiritual realms. To Crowley, this card reminds us of the strength of doing nothing at all, and of saving for a rainy day; since the card is reversed, these mindsets may not be beneficial to me today.

My Legacy card is the Two of Swords, flavored by the Knight of Cups. Bookends!! Since I have both the upright and the reversed Two of Swords, I may find that I will have situations to deal with today that will require me to choose one or the other: either shut myself away in order to function properly, or open my mind to everything that wants to come in. 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. This Knight can be romantic or overemotional, he can be sensitive or temperamental, he can tap into his imagination or he can be unrealistic. Again I am seeing the presentation of opposites for my consideration.

The Two of Swords can represent both positive and negative influences for me, depending on the other cards near it, and on the focus of the spread. This card can be about hiding distress, about keeping people and/or issues at arm’s length, and about maintaining my cool. Sometimes these are necessary skills to have, and some situations need to be dealt with in this way. If we look at the Two of Swords in this manner, the card is giving a message that is similar to The Hanging Man: shut out the world and pause. Crowley calls this card “Peace,” and originally named it “The Lord of Peace Restored.” Obviously, the peace is achieved through the installation of barriers. But sometimes this is not the right response to a situation. Then, instead of hiding distress, I would be pretending that everything is fine when it’s not; instead of keeping people and/or issues at arm’s length, I would be refusing to look at the facts; instead of maintaining my cool, I would be denying my own true feelings. This card is about barriers; its image tells me that, but it is also about the potential for stalemate which happens when two equal and opposing forces meet head-on. Both the upright and the reversed position can be positive or negative, depending on the situation, and barriers can also be positive or negative, once again depending on the situation; this card is not one to be feared, it is one to be listened to. In the end, a closed mind (and a closed heart) is not beneficial to any situation.

My 6-digit date number is 10, the number of completion of a cycle or of manifestation, which reduces further to the number 1, which represents new beginnings and the concept of position.

My horoscopes: “Today you may attain a goal you've been hoping to reach for a long time, Sagittarius. Oddly enough, friends, family, and even your significant other may not seem as happy as you expected. They've probably suffered too many frustrations recently, and your success only reminds them of this. Give them some time to settle their own affairs and they will congratulate you. They're only human.”

And: “Forget your PDA, cell phone or computer. Today, your most useful communication device will be your direct manner. Your confident voice will make the people in power take notice of you. There is no point in playing political games. Saying things that you don't really mean (but that you think other people want to hear) is a complete waste of your time. You have nothing to be hesitant about. You know what you want, so say it.”

And: “Dreams or visions could put you in touch with deep feelings that you may not have been aware of before. This could enable you to release traumas from your past and give you a new sense of lightness. However, your logical mind is very much at work, so you could use this experience to shed light on the experiences of others and help them out as well. Whatever happens today is likely to produce noticeable results. Use it!”

My Sun reading: “The pace picks up under a Mercury/Mars trine with Pluto. Avoid jumping into decisions under the latter's tendency to create the need for readjustments and revisions. They generate dynamic energy for brainstorming, however. Tonight you will discover that the more the merrier - and the more pleasant the rapport.”

My BOS arrived today, and I am very thrilled with it; thank you, Witches Moon! It is a heavy tomb, 6 inches by 10 inches, 500 pages all bound in a lovely cover. I am not going to rush into doing anything with it just yet. I want to place it on my altar when I do my personal New Moon Esbat, and then for my personal Full Moon Esbat. I will write a cleansing and a consecration rite, one for each Esbat, and then I will start thinking about beginning to transfer my personal rituals. In the mean time, I am tweaking them.

On to the 20^th Path! What a perfect day to begin this one. This Path connects Tiphareth, the place of vertical and horizontal balance, to Chesed, the center of the Pillar of Force and the Sephiroth of both authority and benevolence, a very Divine combination. Ellen Cannon Reed tells me in The Witches Tarot that this path represents Intelligence of Will, and it is through this Intelligence of Will that the Primordial Wisdom becomes known. This path is about the Illumination which helps us to understand, and it is about those Seekers who strive to bring light to their Paths, and in lighting their own small lamp, to attract greater light to them.

The 20^th Path encourages us to broaden our minds, to learn and research and to experience life, all in order to achieve wisdom, but it also tells us that we must meditate, and allow the unconscious mind to also be a teacher.

This Path is not only about learning, it is about teaching as well. In The Witches Tarot, Reed says: “And the Seeker is both at once: our search for light and knowledge and growth makes us both seekers of light and bringers of light. With each step forward we take, with each bit of knowledge, of light we gain, we are adding to the light within the human race.” Wow!!! I mean, Wow!! Right now, those words are vibrating within my core. Is this not exactly what we are learning in our Sacred Mists Third Degree Training?

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