Eight of Cups/The Chariot. The Eight of Cups (Saturn, discipline, responsibility, limitation, law and order, in Pisces, “I believe,” feeling, duality, suffering, soul growth) tells of an ending or a change of direction, often one associated with emotions.  The ability to move on can be hard to come by, but today I will be able to deal with one-sided relationships and lethargy.  The Chariot, which 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), tells of having the control necessary to focus on my goal and steer myself away from distractions.  If I can control both positive and negative emotions, and know when to walk away from a non-productive situation without feeling bummed out, it just might be a good day.

My Thoth card is the Two of Swords.  The Two of Swords (Moon, feelings and emotions, illusion, imagination, in Libra, “We are,” partnerships, balance, cooperation) can represent a time of not looking or of shutting out the world.  Crowley’s keyword for this one is “Peace,” and I think he means the peace that comes because we are preventing things from happening.  Crowley also feels that this card can indicate a deception of some kind, which is a bit different from other interpretations of this card.  Crowley is focusing on what is going on inside the barrier of the swords, as well as what is being shut out.

My Legacy card is the Ace of Coins reversed, flavored by the Three of Swords reversed. Aces present potential only, and the Ace of Coins (Aries, “I want,” action oriented, assertive, competitive, Taurus, “I have,” sensual, cautious, stubborn, and Gemini, “I think,” curious, talkative, dual, social) tells of the presence of potential that is connected in some way to the physical world of Earth (cold/binds and dry/shapes; stable, material and practical energy that is slow to change). Upright, this card presents the possibility to experience prosperity, security, stability, trust and a connection to Nature. The Three of Swords (Saturn, discipline, responsibility, limitations and resistance, in Libra, “We are,” partnerships, balance, cooperation) usually indicates the possibility that logic and the intellect could end up causing harm, but my Three of Swords, which is flavoring my Ace of Coins reversed, is also reversed.  Perhaps I will have trouble grabbing prosperity or stability today, but it won’t be as bad as it seems.

My 6-digit date number is 11 (Archangel Uriel), which reduces further to 2, the number of balance, polarity, and the concept of “distance between.”

My horoscopes: “You may feel anxious today, even more so than usual, Sagittarius. Your nerves may be quite jittery, and there's a feeling that you may not be on exactly the right track. More than likely, what you need to do is simply calm down and relax. Let your brain slow down and think clearly without the distraction of many people telling you what to do.”

And: “Inside information may come your way today that might start you thinking about improving your financial standing. You might hear of career and investment opportunities that you would never have considered before. What the heck - you're an adventurous soul! You might even consider occupations that would have your mother reeling! The coming months show a lot of promise for you; good fortune is looming over the horizon. Go for it!”

My Shadowscapes Insight is regarding The Star.  The Star represents hope manifested into physical form, and the image on this card is so delicate.  She hardly creates a ripple as she walks through the water, her hair flows as well as her gown.  She does not need to be in-your-face because she has faith in her own abilities, and faith in the silvery starlight that illuminates her way. 

Okay, how can I go away for three days, and come back to a week’s worth of catch up?  What is wrong with this picture?  But this trip was worth every minute sitting in the airport, and every minute I spend catching up, and if I had to do it all over again, I would not change a single thing.

I arrived at Kennedy Airport at 6 am on Saturday morning.  I had listed myself as standby on the 8:15 am flight to Ft. Lauderdale.  When it took me an hour to get through security I should have known that nothing was going to go according to schedule.  What I had not taken into account when I chose this weekend to visit Lilyth in Florida was that March is pretty much spring break month.  And so, instead of arriving in Ft. Lauderdale at lunch time, I did not get onto a flight until 3:30 pm, and arrived in time for dinner.  But it was an adventure!  Two other standby people and I moved from gate to gate as we tried to get onto flights, and I was proud of myself because I did not get frustrated at all.  I like to think that my good attitude helped the other two standby passengers to not get frustrated either.

Once Lilyth and her husband, Keith, picked me up, we headed to Delray Beach; we stopped for dinner (Mexican . . . yum!), and then hung out for a while.  Sunday morning, we got up and out early so that we could meet three friends for brunch at the Sundy House.  The Sundy House is a beautiful historic inn and restaurant, surrounded by the exquisite Taru Gardens.  The Taru Gardens were installed in 1998, but the Gardens include a few trees that must have been old in John Sundy’s time.  I walked the paths through the Gardens, and found a woodsy blend of tropical fruit trees, small edible plants, bamboo groves, flowering trees, vines, and tropical foliage envelopes two large fish ponds, streams, waterfalls, and the “Cenote” naturalized bathing place.  The design of the garden and the density of the plantings give the illusion of a really large space in which I felt at times as if I could get lost, even though the premises only take up half a city block. 

I could not find any history of the house and the Inn, but I did find out that John Shaw Sundy became the first mayor of Delray Beach in 1911, and served seven terms.

We got home from brunch in the early afternoon, recovered from our unlimited mimosas, and then Lilyth and I spent the afternoon and early evening playing with Ariyana, their beautiful dog (and my new BFF), and then sitting by her altar and talking about Coven business and my Third Degree Training.  Lilyth and I work very well together, and we tweaked some of my current Leadership efforts, and then talked of the future of my own Path and training at Sacred Mists, and of Sacred Mists itself.  Lilyth describes our connection as “spirits in sync” and that is exactly what we have!  Trust and love, and a deep and long-lasting friendship, allow us to bare our hearts and our souls to each other.  We also have in common a love for our Coven and our High Priestess, and a desire to manifest the philosophies of our Coven into reality in order to serve its members. 

We ordered Chinese for dinner, but we were all still full from brunch!  We all crashed early, anticipating another full day on Monday.

Monday morning we got up early again, had breakfast at a great bagel place, and then spent several hours at Flamingo Gardens.  Another exquisitely beautiful garden!  The Wray Botanical Collection at Flamingo Gardens is one of the oldest botanical gardens in South Florida.  I was treated to 60 acres of gardens, literally thousands of beautiful plants and unusual flowers, including 21 of the oldest trees of their species, along with a huge collection of permanently injured and non-releasable Florida native birds and animals in the Everglades Wildlife Sanctuary, which is a part of the Gardens.

I have a deep connection to trees of all kinds, large and old or small and young.  Many spiritual traditions associate trees with the gods, or with their world view.  The roots of trees plunge deep into the heart of the earth, spreading toward its center while their branches soar towards the sky.  Trees literally carry the life of the earth in their cores, and each tree holds a piece of the universal spirit that binds all worlds and creatures together.  Trees are composed of three of the four basic elements: Air, Water and Earth.  And when we burn wood, we unite those three elements with the element of Fire.  Needless to say, touching the old trees (literally hundreds of years old) in both the Taru Gardens at the Sundy House and the Wray Botanical Collection at Flamingo Gardens was spiritually moving for me

We went right from the Gardens to Ft. Lauderdale Airport, where I began the next chapter of “Adventures In Standby Travel.”  Five flights later, I got on a plane and finally arrived home in the wee hours of Tuesday.

And now, it is catch-up time, time to get back to my duties and get my mind back to reality.  But I keep stopping and remembering the huge ficus trees and their beautiful air roots, the “dance of the flamingos,” my awesome afternoon with Lilyth talking about our Paths and our Coven, and Ariyana waking me up each morning, with her tail wagging and her tennis ball in her mouth. 

Thank you, my friends, for a great weekend!

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