Nine of Cups reversed/Eight of Pentacles reversed. by the Nine of Cups (cusp of Aquarius, “I know,” friendships, the group, cause-oriented, and Pisces, “I believe,” feelings, duality, suffering, soul growth), which is about emotional satisfaction of the best kind: the kind that comes due to the actions of luck. My Nine is reversed today, so satisfaction will not be coming to me through my senses or my feelings.  The Eight of Pentacles (Sun, the inner core of a person or situation, in Virgo, “I serve,” practical, analytical, sensible, orderly) is about paying attention to details in the physical world.  This card is about attaining knowledge and then working through it so it becomes wisdom.  But my Eight is also reversed.  This is not necessarily telling me that today is a waste, and perhaps I am being shown these two cards from this vantage point (late in the afternoon) because I need to realize that there is always a way to get to the problem or issue, even if the most logical paths are seemingly blocked.

My Thoth card is the Four of Swords. The Four of Swords (Jupiter, expansiveness and growth, justice, fortune, in Libra, “We are,” partnerships, balance, cooperation) tells of the need of some time of rest and recuperation, usually to be brought about by a time of truce or pause or quiet. In fact, “truce” is Crowley’s keyword for this card.  It is about a pause, but the pause is more about mutual deterrence so it is temporary in nature.  I need to take advantage of it. 

My Legacy card is Temperance reversed, flavored by the Six of Cups reversed. Temperance connects with Sagittarius (“I seek,” philosophic, adventurous, blundering) 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), and it is one of the Major Arcana cards that presents one form of balance.  Temperance is about maintaining the balance of extremes, but there is an important message in this reversed Temperance today.  Sometimes discord can expose.  If I look at the card flavoring my Temperance reversed today, the Six of Cups reversed, I can understand that dark clouds do have silver linings. The Six of Cups (Sun, the inner core of a person or situation in Scorpio, “I desire,” intense, compulsive, deep, obsessive) tells of experiencing simple joys, innocent fun and being surrounded by blessings.  It is reversed and flavoring my reversed Temperance.  Discord can sometimes expose the difficulty.  Granted, we want to try other methods first, but sometimes being “in your face” is the way to get it done.  LOL, way to turn lemons into lemonade.

My 6-digit date number is 10, the end of a cycle, which reduces further to 1, position, potential and new beginnings.

My horoscopes: “Have you been thinking about working toward a career as a writer or teacher? If so, this is the day to start. Perhaps you need to sit down and start writing, or you want to take some courses to improve your skills. A number of communications from out of state or even distant lands could come your way from people with information that might change your life in some way.”

And: “Consider planning a romantic interlude. With the influence from the day's planetary aspects, connecting with that special someone will be easily accomplished. Go out for dinner with your partner or partner or make a date with someone new that's caught your eye. Don't let shyness or insecurity stand in your way either. If you are single, consider loving the most important person in your life by doing something special - you.”

My Shadowscapes Insight for today is the King of Pentacles.  To me, the words in the Shadowscapes Companion describes this card perfectly: “When he lays his hand upon a venture, it is bound for success.”  The King of Pentacles is so very talented in tapping into physical world resources and bringing them into every venture.  He’s got just the right balance, not too grounded and not too “out there”; what else can you ask for?

I am in Florida, in Animal Kingdom, with the giraffes and the zebras and the buffaloes and the storks and the ostriches and the elands (what I can see right now from the terrace) and all kinds of animals, and with my much-loved Sacred Mists Witches.  We do this vacation every year because it is the rare opportunity for face time for us, and since we all work together so hard, and depend on each other so much, we need this.

So, my blog posts are a bit late.  But my experiences are so very necessary for my well being as a witch, a Wiccan, and an Initiated Priestess of the Sacred Mist Tradition.  So please bear with me.  Here is what I intended to post yesterday:

It is a little after 7 am, and I am sitting at Gate 15 of the JetBlue terminal, watching the sky turn to flames of orange and pink, and now yellow as the sun rises.  I am on my way to Florida to partake in a bit of WGW2011 in Disney.

My weekend in New York State was wonderful.  We stayed in a house on the top of a mountain outside the small hamlet of Copake, not far from Copake Lake.  We were there to attend an auction that is run by friends of ours, the Copake Auction.  This month was an exciting event for our friends, because they were auctioning off a painting done by a relatively well-known modern artist named Gunther Uecker.  I’ve never heard of him, but since I don’t follow the art world, that is not surprising. 

The piece was apparently commissioned by a gentleman over 40 years ago, and hung over that person’s mantle all this time.  It was expected that the piece would sell for anywhere between $100,000 and $180,000!  We were there, four rows from the front, as the piece was sold.  The bidders were from around the world, participating by internet and through several telephone lines.  To our surprise (and delight for our friends), the Uecker sold for $330,000!  The bidding was very exciting to watch; I can only imagine how excited each of the bidders were.

We took a walk on Saturday afternoon through the Bash Bish Falls State Park.  The Bash Bish Falls is the highest waterfall in New York State. The falls are made up of a series of cascades, nearly 200 feet in total, with the final cascade being split into twin falls by a jutting rock, dropping in an 80-foot “V" over boulders to a serene pool below.

The waters of Bash Bish Falls begin at a spring in Mount Washington and after the falls, Bash Bish Brook continues on a gentler course through New York State until joining the Hudson River and flows through Copake. The waterfall is at the mouth of a gorge formed during the last ice age. At the rear of the gorge, opposite the waterfall, is a 194 feet sheer rock wall. 

The walk up the gorge is positively magickal.  Scattered through the river and the sides of the gorge were huge ice age boulders; ferns and trees created a moist and cool surrounding, and I could really feel the presences of Earth elementals around me.  The water was crystal clear, and flowed, danced and roared around and over the rocks and boulders, filling the air with mist and sound. 

The falls themselves are breathtaking! More than 25 deaths have occurred at the Falls in the past century. Some were due to drowning, but most were due to rock climbing or rock jumping. This is a very dangerous area as pools are shallow, and swimming is not allowed. In October 2009, AOL Travel named Bash Bish Falls as one of the “Most Dangerous Tourist Attractions” in the U.S. and in 2010 AOL travel again named it one of the ten “most dangerous travel” destinations, this time in the world!  No wonder the energies were so interesting!

By the way, happy solar return, my Bobby!!

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