December 3, 2016: The Peacock's Tail?

Things are happening within me.  The “breakdown of cohesion” that is Putrefaction is causing a sloughing-off of the unnecessary.  This is happening in my physical world (as I prepare to move on April 1) and in my spiritual world (as I decide what is worth keeping within my personal Practice and what is no longer serving me.  The cool thing is that for the most part, the empty spaces being created as I unload the unnecessary are being filled with a renewed awareness of energy, a renewed awareness of entities not of the physical world, and a renewed awareness of my Guides and of the Sacred Essence that is Goddess and God.  

This morning I woke up, started the coffee, and went for a walk.  It is December 3rd, and yet there are flowers in bloom, mostly roses.  Before heading out, I walked my garden, and to my amazement I found two different rose bushes in bloom (a pink rose with a delicious fragrance, and a flower and another bud on my yellow hybrid), and a bright orange Gerber daisy.  I left to walk toward the beach, and was amazed to find that my flowers are not the only ones in bloom; there are rose bushes covered with blossoms all over the place!

The sky is a brilliant blue, flowers are blooming, the air is crisp and clean.  My mind became clear as well, and for the first time in weeks I connected with Ailm, one of my Guides.  Coincidentally, she had mentioned to me earlier in the Fall that she and Bear were not making the journey into the mountains this year, and they were instead choosing to spend the winter at the ocean community.  I realized that she and Bear had made the decision to relocate right before The Hubs and I made that decision.  The message was there all the time; I just missed it!

Colors.  All the colors around me seem brighter, more vibrant . . . alive.  Is this the Peacock’s Tail??

My Dreams of Gaia card for today is the Six of Earth.  The keywords for the Six of Earth card are family, community, responsibility, duty, service, self-sacrifice, protection, dependability, and martyrdom.  This card reminds us of duty, duty to ourselves, duty to our families and loved ones, and duty to those who depend on us in some way for attention and care; this duty includes a more wide-reaching duty to nature, to our environment, and to Deity.  I need to become the best person I can be, because who I am has an effect on my immediate environment.  I share this world with many, many other life forms and because I have an effect on the environment just by existing, I have a huge responsibility to manifest myself with awareness, with compassion, with the intent to cause no harm and for the highest good of all.  The Six of Earth reminds me that while these intentions should always be a part of my day, right now they are personally important, and I need to pay attention.  

The interesting thing about the image on this card (which reminds me of Haftorang), is that the being is chained to a yoke by cuffs on his wrists, with the yoke on his massive shoulders.  Around his neck is a torc held in place by a padlock, and below that a chain on which is strung the key for that lock.  He holds a bowl of fruit and grains in one hand, and a hand scythe in the other.  The symbolism here is simple and quite powerful: we are bound to the Earth whether we like it or not, but if we embrace that bond, take responsibility for it, and agree to do the work necessary to maintain that which we are responsible for, we will have access to the harvest that will come, to the fruits of our labors.  

Nice.

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September 7, 2016: comparing Earth meridians

September 7, 2016:

I will now be drawing Dreams of Gaia cards, mostly from the Minor Arcana.  Today I threw the Six of Earth, and the cool thing is that the image of the being on this card looks a lot like Haftorang!  Okay, I get it; one day off to enjoy my new Tarot deck is enough.  Back to work.

The keywords for the Six of Earth card from the lovely LWB are family, community, responsibility, duty, service, self-sacrifice, protection, dependability, and martyrdom.  This card reminds us of duty, duty to ourselves, duty to our families and loved ones, and duty to those who depend on us in some way for attention and care.  Part of that duty involves being a role model and a good example, and part of it involves being a teacher.  This card also reminds us that we have a more wide-reaching duty to nature, to our environment, and to Deity.  These efforts need to be done in a caring way, with the right reasons and with the expectation of a positive outcome that will benefit all, that will be for the highest good of everyone.  The Six of Earth also can act as a nudge, by reminding us that there is some task that might need attention right now, and delay is not an option. 

Let’s compare the two Earth meridians:

Both the stomach and the spleen are associated with the element of Earth, the season of Winter, stillness, damp, worry, overthinking, transition and balance, and the subconscious and conscious mind.  It makes sense that their correspondences are identical; it is the actions of each organ that are different.

The spleen is connected to digestion and fermentation, the reproductive system, and rhythms of all kinds.  The spleen clots blood and creates tissues of all kinds, and is said to turn food into energy.  The stomach is associated with the food digestion process, but it is actually one of the processes that prepares food to be digested.  Thus it lays the foundation for digestion, while the spleen takes a more active part in the process.  The stomach is also connected to the reproductive cycle, but we add in the lactation process.  , and it helps control the appetite.

The spleen meridian begins at the big toe and travels up the inside of the ankle, and continues up the inside of the calf, knee and thigh and into the body, passing through the stomach, heart and spleen, and ends up at the root of the tongue.  The stomach meridian begins just under the eyes, circles the nose and the mouth, goes through the lower jaw to the sternum, and continues down the front of the torso through the nipple and down to the hop, along the front of the leg and the top of the foot, ending at the tip of the second toe.

An imbalance or blockage in the spleen meridian can cause general stiffness, weakness or sluggishness, loss of appetite, or a distended abdomen.  Imbalances or blockages in the stomach meridian can cause us to brood or go over a particular issue in our mind again and again (kind of like the churning of food in the stomach).  Other symptoms of imbalance include stomach problem, edema, vomiting, a sore throat, toothaches, or facial paralysis. 

These two are closely connected!

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