The Chariot/Nine of Wands. The Chariot corresponds with Water (cold/binds and wet/adapts, and sensitive, emotional and imaginative energy that likes to stay the same or follow the same course), Cancer (“I feel,” sensitive, tenacious, nurturing, moody), Cheth (the fence), and the Path between Geburah (the place where forms and structure are challenged or affirmed) and Binah (female receptive energy and the origin of form and structure), and it tells of having the emotional control necessary to steer myself in order to arrive at a specific place.  The Nine of Wands (Moon, feelings and emotions, illusion, imagination, in Sagittarius, “I seek,” philosophic, fun-loving, adventurous, blundering) represents being defensive or closing off, but it also tells me that I will most likely have the ability to outlast any challenges that present themselves.  Two cards that are telling me to control myself; oh boy.

My Thoth card is the Three of Cups.  “Abundance” is the keyword for the Three of Cups (Mercury, reason, intelligence, orderliness, communication, in Cancer, “I feel,” sensitive, tenacious, nurturing, moody).  This card is about blessings, but not blessings of the physical world.  It is reminding me that love and connections to others are all I need.  And if I visualize happiness, I will attract it to me!

My Legacy card is the Ace of Wands reversed, flavored by the Queen of Cups. The Ace of Wands (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.  My Ace is reversed, and if I take into consideration the first two cards of my spread, it could very well be telling me that now is not the time to allow that creative process to explode. The Queen of Cups (cusp of Gemini, “I think,” curious, sociable, dual, and Cancer, “I feel,” sensitive, tenacious, nurturing, moody) is flavoring my reversed Ace of Wands.  She is a water card, and she is a mini-High Priestess with a strong and clear inner focus.  Taken with the reversed Ace of Wands, my message could be to balance my inner self with my outer self, and not allow myself to get too carried away.

My 6-digit date number is 3, the number of exciting new creations from the potential of the Ace and the balance and polarity of the 2.

My horoscopes: “An unexpected lucky break could come your way today, Sagittarius - something you would never have expected in a hundred years. It could seem like a dream come true, yet it could disrupt your life in some way. You might find yourself facing a choice: go for it and change your entire way of life or let it go and take the risk that another great opportunity might never appear. Who said life was easy? Think about it!”

And: “You're probably feeling full of energy, and dying for an outlet for it, aside from the usual jogging or working out at the gym. A hike along a scenic path would be just the thing. Phone up a friend and see if you can arrange to do it together. Probably your friend will be as enthusiastic as you! You may enjoy yourselves so much that you decide to make it a weekly event.”

My Shadowscapes Insight is regarding the Nine of Pentacles.  Great card!  This one is somewhat solitary in nature, even if it took the help of others to get to this place.  After all, having access to that help from others is only part of the big picture; the other part is discipline and hard work.  And somehow, those physical world accomplishments are always nicer if we have to work for them.

I sat this morning, sipping my coffee, watching these tiny birds visit our suet feeder.  At first I thought it was just one bird circling back several times, but I did see two at once, and then a bit of a rest, and then a few more.  I wondered what they were, and so I got out my Kaufman Field Guide, and there they were.  White breasted nuthatches. 

There is a small bucket of water by the garage, right outside my window, that was visited last weekend by about 25 robins, each fighting for a position along the edge of the bucket.  This weekend, a group of starlings took their turn at the water bucket, each taking a sip or two of the cold water before taking off.

It is so tempting to feed them, but I have personal experience with how feeding the local wildlife can upset the balance.  Our neighbor leaves bowls of raw peanuts out on his porch, and we’ve had an explosion in the squirrel population.  We have relocated 13 squirrels to date this fall because they got into our attic (after we closed up the openings), to a wildlife sanctuary about five miles away, and I am still seeing squirrels around.  And this is after we relocated nine this past Spring for the same reason.  Oy, that is a lot of squirrels!

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