Seven of Swords reversed/Five of Pentacles reversed.  The Seven of Swords (Moon, feelings and emotions, illusion, imagination, in Aquarius, “I know,” friendships, cause-oriented, the group, aloofness) in an upright position tells of the active effort to maintain things as we want them, often through the use of deception and without considering the wants or needs of others.  My Seven of Swords is reversed, and I should be able to remember that everything can’t go my way all the time.  Integration and synergy should be my choice today.  The Five of Pentacles (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 blockages, difficulties or discomforts presented in the upright card are usually connected in someway to the physical world, but the solutions are usually not.  With this Five of Pentacles in a reversed presentation, money and security and good health should not be major issues for me.

My Thoth card is the Two of Cups.  “Love” The Two of Cups (Venus, beauty, allure, relationships, in Cancer, “I feel,” sensitive, family and home oriented, tenacious, moody) is about love and connections, usually about relationships and commonalities.  Love cures all ills, and if I remember to apply love to all situations today, there will be a silver lining to even the darkest cloud.

My Legacy card is Temperance reversed, flavored by the Three of Swords.  Uh oh.  Temperance corresponds 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 version of the concept of balance.  Temperance brings balance in a unique way, through knowledge of extremes, and we can learn to “temper” any situation through experiencing these extremes.  Since Temperance is reversed today, I need to not only be careful in my dealings with others, but also in how I perceive myself.  The Three of Swords (Saturn, discipline, responsibility, limitations and resistance, in Libra, “We are,” partnerships, balance, cooperation) usually indicates the possibility that logic, rationalizing and the intellect could end up causing harm if they are not used with balance and compassion.  This card is flavoring my reversed Temperance, and perhaps it is offering a warning.  If I allow the imbalance hinted within my reversed Temperance card to continue without a bit of control, the end result may be pain of some kind.  But even if circumstances are beyond my control and the hinted-at betrayal or isolation occurs, I can still turn the uncomfortable events into something positive, by learning from them.  After all, the pain, betrayal and isolation of the Three of Swords is one side of the same coin that contains happiness, loyalty and supportive connections with others.

My Pearls of Wisdom Lammas card is the Six of Wands reversed.  The Six of Wands (Jupiter, expansiveness and growth, justice, fortune, in Leo, “I am,” passionate, dramatic, noble, authoritative) in an upright position expresses the celebration we feel when we have passed some test or successfully met a challenge.  My Six of Wands is reversed; does this mean that I won’t receive good news, or I won’t be celebrating the acclaim received through recent efforts?  Well, I hope this just means that the celebrations of the Six of Wands are in the distance, still reachable but not in the palm of my hand just yet.  This is how I am choosing to see the message of this card.

My 6-digit date number is 3, the number of new creation from the position and potential of the ace, and the balance, polarity, and distance between of the number 2.  Veeery auspicious!

My horoscopes: “You've made progress these past few weeks, especially where your temper is concerned, Sagittarius. It has taken some effort, but it does seem that you can overcome your tendency to speak before thinking. Don't lose the ground you've gained. There's one person whose mission seems to be to make you explode. Don't let him or her rankle you. Take a deep breath and rise above it.”

And: “Communication with others by electronic media, whether it's phone, e-mail, or fax, could well be difficult today. Everything that can go wrong probably will - machines breaking down, phone lines out, messages not delivered, the Internet crashing. Driving a car could land you in impossible traffic. If you really need to speak to someone, the best thing to do may be just to take a walk and go see them in person. Enjoy the exercise!”

My Shadowscapes Insight is regarding the Five of Pentacles.  Solitude and introspection are sometimes needed; however, we do need to beware that we don’t end up in a feed-back loop of epic proportions.  The image on this card shows someone totally focused on her own mundane world problems and thus, totally oblivious to the beauty and the blessings all around her.  Granted, that beauty and those blessings won’t put coins in her pockets, but accessing them won’t cost her any coins either. 

Today is Lughnasadh, or Lammas, the first of three harvest festivals in the Wheel of the Year, the Wiccan calendar.  This First Harvest Sabbat celebrates the ripeness and harvest of corn, one of my favorite veggies.  LOL, I love cornbread too!

One exciting harvest event that I am celebrating today is the release of my first book, “The Emerald Tablet: My 24-Day Journey To Understanding.”  Here is a link to my page from the website of my publisher, Luna Station Press: http://www.lunastationpress.com/book/the-emerald-tablet-my-24-day-journal-to-understanding/.  Feel free to check it out!  I am already at work on the next book in the series, but for now, I’m just going to enjoy this one.

Again, my Tourchstones: Daily Meditations for Men has wisdom for me: “Most of us don’t think of ourselves as artists.  Yet we are each given a profound, creative opportunity – to fashion a meaningful and worthwhile pattern in our lives.”  Isn’t that an appropriate quote for the day that my book is published? 

Lammas Blessings and Happy First Harvest!

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