Five of Cups reversed/Ace of Wands.  The Five of Cups (Mars, action, aggression, drive, in Scorpio, “I desire,” intense, controlling, mysterious, obsessive) tells of emotional down time, a setback or a lack of support. My Five of Cups is reversed, though, and it is telling me that I am doing something right.  I am finding that I am getting a handle on whatever sadness or emotional fog that has been a distraction of late.  The Ace of Wands (Leo, “I am,” passionate, dramatic, egotistical, Virgo, “I serve,” practical, analytical, sensible, orderly) tells of the first spark of a new and exciting creative process, and it is this very Fiery energy that could be dispelling the sadness or lethargy of that Five of Cups.  The Ace of Wands represents the light or torch that can guide me to success, but in order to access its potential, I need to agree to carry it.

My Thoth card is the Seven of Disks reversed.  “Failure” is Uncle Al’s keyword for the Seven of Disks (Saturn, discipline, responsibility, law and order, in Taurus, “I have,” sensual, cautious, stubborn), and Uncle Al does not necessarily see this upright Seven as a good card.  Rather, he sees the suit of Disks as being heavy and he sees the number seven as being heavy; we end up with lots of weight and little energy to carry it.  My Seven of Disks is reversed, so that lethargy may be less of a problem today.  Reversed Five of Cups = less emotional fog, and reversed Seven of Disks = less lethargy.  Sounds good to me.

My Legacy card is Faith (The Hierophant) reversed, flavored by the Five of Coins reversed.  The Faith card or Hierophant corresponds with Earth (cold/binds and dry/shapes), Taurus (“I have,” sensual, cautious, stubborn), Vau (the nail which holds tradition in place), and the Path between Chesed (the place where forms and structures are stabilized and nurtured), and Chokmah (dynamic male energy, the origin of vital force and polarity), and it is another Earth card that has a heavy feel about it, but it is also reversed.  The upright Faith card is about conservatism, orthodoxy and proven systems, and it represents the power that is able to change the world to match our own beliefs.  Because my Faith card is reversed, I should not focus today on supporting the established processes.  My Faith card is flavored today by another reversed Five, the Five of Coins.  Yep, another reversed Earth-focused card!  The Five of Coins (Mercury, reason, intelligence, education, skill, communication, in Taurus, “I have,” sensual, cautious, stubborn) traditional image shows a woman and a child, one of them injured in some way, travelling in the cold wind, with a church window behind them.  The upright message of this card tells me to expect some challenges in the physical world connected to finance, health, or family, that may result in a feeling of isolation.  This Five also represents the Dark Night of the Soul, and thus, the Nigredo Phase of the Great Work.  It’s reversed position is supporting my other reversed cards, and my Ace of Wands, because it is telling me that my time of wandering in the dark and having no idea which way to go next is at an end.  The struggles are not at an end, mind you, but at least now I have a more clear path ahead of me.

My 6-digit date number is 5, the number of motion that ends stagnation.  Lots of fives showing up today!

My horoscopes: “You generally tend toward a very high level of perseverance, Sagittarius. No matter how difficult a task may seem to you, today it should go very smoothly, particularly if it involves in-depth study or research of some kind. Your thinking is especially clear and down to earth today, and your common sense is operating at a very high level. Get to whatever needs to be done today and there won't be any loose ends left for tomorrow.”

And: “Ideas and insights coming from deep within your psyche are likely to increase your effectiveness in whatever work you choose to do today. Your mind is particularly practical and logical, and when coupled with an increased intuition these abilities could be invaluable. You might be most effective today working alone, but if this isn't possible you should still accomplish whatever it is you set out to do, and accomplish it well.”

My Shadowscapes Insight is regarding the Two of Wands.  Perfect card for today.  This one tells of a moment when we can sit on a cliff and look to the future, secure in the knowledge that we have identified and are ready to harness any potential that is available to us.  Both the courage to act and the authority that comes with attaining knowledge and wisdom are the tools at hand.

Now that I’ve explored the Calcination that is an integral part of the Nigredo Phase, I am trying to understand how all of this is affecting me.  I don’t think it is a coincidence that within a day or two of beginning this examination of the Great Work my paycheck was cut drastically.  I am now trying to decide what to do about this.  In other words, I am trying to re-invent myself.

January is traditionally a sluggish month for me.  We go away to visit friends for Thanksgiving weekend, and the majority of that socialization revolves around eating and drinking.  Add to that our busy holiday schedule, with parties just about every weekend between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, and we get a sluggish, lethargic person who has not been exercising and who has gained anywhere from 10 to 20 pounds.  January is when I at the very least begin to look at myself and decide that I would rather be that strong, healthy woman who is in touch with her body.  In a good year, the process of returning to good physical health usually begins before the end of January.  In a bad year, it can take me until March to rev myself up.

Well, it looks like this is going to be a good year, thanks to my study of the Great Work.

I think the visualization that works best for me here is that of physical Calcination applied to metals.  If we apply intense heat to metals, they melt into liquid form.  Add a bit more heat, and any impurities in those metals extruded or separated from the pure metals and then float to the top of the liquid.  Often these impurities are oily or odorous.  However, as ugly as these impurities look in this form, they are now easily separated from the pure metals.

Heat is a wonderful transformer.  Fire actually imposes a chemical change to the matter it burns.  If you heat water, the molecules in that water begin to move faster, with more space between them, and through the agitation created by heat you change the appearance of that water from a liquid into a gas.  This applies to psychological alchemy as well.  We even have metaphors, such as being “out of the frying pan and into the fire,” that directly connect to Calcination. 

Now, I am choosing to access these very uncomfortable yet quite effective processes as a sort of Spring cleaning.  However, these kinds of upheavals often occur in our lives, like The Tower of the Tarot Major Arcana, which tells of sudden and unexpected upheavals, without warning.  At least, without warnings that our conscious minds will accept as valid and applicable, or even perceive.

What does this mean?  It means that instead of being thrown into a state of “why me??!!” when our lives turn upside down or the rug gets unexpectedly pulled out from under us, we should instead rub our hands together with enthusiastic expectation because we are being offered a chance to perform the Great Work.  Instead of fighting the prevailing energy flows, we should make use of them!

Also, heat rises.  Heat purifies.  And as I learned through my studies of the Emerald Tablet, this very process is necessary for connecting to, perceiving and understanding Deity.  This really does make the Great Work a marvelous companion to the Emerald Tablet.

I am reminded of the effects of the Goddess Kali-Ma, and the way that She helps us to release those physical-world focuses that are bad for us.  And so, I end this post with my Invocation to Her.

“Listen to me speak of the Grandmother of Time: She who is known as Kali-Ma, the Liberator of Souls, the Destroyer of Negativity, and many other names; feared by some, loved by some, but ignored by none.  She it is who brings us wisdom, the freedom of ego, and the awareness of eternity.

She has been the Maiden, and remembers that joy.  She has been the Mother, and recalls that pleasure.  But age has changed Her, and taught Her the mysteries of the Wheel that is ever turning, the Wheel that is life, death and rebirth.  With age comes an understanding of the past and a glimpse of the future, for in the turning of the Wheel, the past is the future, and the future is the past. 

She is the Dark of the Moon, the Hidden One, the invisible unknown that lies ahead.  She is the whirling tornado, the erupting volcano, the rising tidal wave, the trembling of the earth’s crust.  She infuses all of Nature.  She is the Learned One, the Teacher, the Bringer of Inevitable Change. 

But I do not fear Her, for She is not malicious.  Her touch, however harsh, is love.  Only in ignorance is She scorned and reviled, for those who seek power over the earth are afraid to face Her wisdom and Her unalterable truth. For She is the key to liberation, She is the Kundalini, the “Serpent Power” which expands our consciousness, which raises us from the mundane realm of birth and death and awakens us to the Divine.

Oh Primordial Mother, who is at once most gentle and most terrible, I come to You today because You live in me, and in my mother, and my mother’s mother; You live in all women and You live in all born of woman, and thus You are alive in all.  You are alive in each cell and bone, in every part of me.  I call to You now, seeking Your wisdom and Your ancient knowing.  Help me to understand that sorrow, death and destruction are woven into the texture of my life and cannot be denied, but rather must be accepted, for it is only through releasing my focus on the material and affirming that I am a spiritual being living in a physical body that liberation and freedom can come to me.  Help me to remember that both the joys and sorrows of my life are still with me, are indeed a permanent part of what I am and what I am becoming. 

Help me to remember that my mortality is a gift that reminds me that there is an end, and thus that each moment of my life, whether filled with joy or sorrow or pain, with darkness or with light, has value. 

Dark Secret of the Universe, teach me to release the concerns that anchor me to this plane of existence, and remind me that while life moves unstoppably toward endings and the dark, this dark ending will give birth to new light and new life.”  Invocation to Kali-Ma, by Raushanna.

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