CARD OF THE WEEK: May 9-13, 2022

 

Knight of Swords

Oriens Animal Tarot

by Ambi Sun

Vermilion Flycatcher, adult male (photo: Greg Lavaty)

May 9-13, 2022: With inspiration from Ambi Sun (creator of Oriens Animal Tarot), I am imagining this bright flycatcher zipping through the night sky on a mission to deliver a critical message. Tarot's Knight of Swords is fast, direct, able to get the job done in no time. But you have to be fast and pay close attention, too, so you don't miss what he's bringing.

Tarot's Swords represent the element of Air and symbolize speed, speech, and specificity. They can also symbolize thought, decisions, and differences or conflicts. How do one or more of these keywords fit with your objectives or overall situation for this week?

I'll use myself as an example. As a writer, I'm heartened to see Knight of Swords because he's a great ally for any communicator--so energizing and motivating.

How might this Knight of Swords inform, inspire, and support you this week?

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Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARDS OF THE WEEKEND: May 7-8, 2022

 

I am choosing to see my challenges as my Highest Good.

I am a complete success.

I am in love with the adventure of life.

Goddess on the Go

by Amy Sophia Marashinsky with art by Melissa Harris

 

May 7-8, 2022: The humans in these three cards of affirmation from Goddess on the Go all appear to be holding on for dear life in the midst of dynamic natural forces. They're not afraid, though. All are here for the ride!

Some of you may have come to that place of willing mind and heart after dealing with the turbulence of Tarot's Tower card, our card of the outgoing week. So, let's look at each of these three Goddess cards in turn, and see how their messages could support your development in times of extraordinary change.

I am choosing to see my challenges as my Highest Good: Volatile weather blows up the atmosphere around you; you quickly grasp hold of the branch of a tree. Of course, trees themselves are often vulnerable in a windstorm, but you're doing the best you can with what you're able to reach in that moment so you won't be swept away!

Look around and find something that can protect, ground, and sustain you until the immediate conditions ease up. Amy Sophia Marashinsky's affirmation suggests that challenges can open the door to a better self, and I'm reminded of some exquisite wisdom from Zen teacher Zenju Earthlyn Manuel in a recent dharma talk: 

Trouble is transformation.

Trouble is deep initiation.

I am a complete success. A Ralph Waldo Emerson essay counsels the reader to "hitch your wagon to a star." I can't help but think of that expression as I look at this card. The person here has latched onto to a shooting star and, to use another old expression, "is really going places!" The star is already in motion in the right direction. So, choosing people, places, and things wisely and well and making the right connection(s) will make every difference in your outcome as the forces of change sweep staleness away. 

Looking at the affirmation itself, I would add that "success" will be one thing for one person, another thing for someone else. It's defined and appears in different forms according to an individual's values, aspirations, and strategies. Do not measure yourself against anyone else's desires and outcomes. Focus on bringing your own dreams to life in your own way. And, when they manifest, celebrate, 'cause you did that!

I am in love with the adventure of life. There you are, riding that swift horse with determination and joy as it streaks through the sky! You're making things happen, going after what you want. Instead of fearing change and feeling mastered by it, you're making change work for you. Exciting!

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Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEK: May 2-6 , 2022

 

The Tower

The Light and Shadow Tarot

by Brian Wiliams with art by Michael Goepferd

May 2-6, 2022: Michael Goepferd's art makes the familiar Tower archetype more dramatic and visceral than you might be used to seeing. An eruption of energy (the bird/winged eye) from one world to another has caused sudden upheaval of the status quo. You might find that anything from your personal habits of mind to entrenched systems out in the world breaking down or breaking free.

Note the jagged tower structure from which--it can be presumed--the human figure has been ejected. Note the lashing waves waiting to receive him. In this depiction, Tarot takes us from the stasis of the Earth element (the built-up tower) to the rush and unpredictability of Water (waves and the mysteries of the deep, dark ocean below).

Tarot's Tower is one of its potentially "scary" cards but can be a fierce ally when significant change of any kind, internal or external, is desired or necessary. You have to be receptive, though, be willing to soften your own resistance to change, and that, in itself, might be a challenging process.

Start your week off by taking some time to sit and think about changes you might like (or need) to make and where and why you've resisted positive change. Even conditions external to you, which did not originate in your psyche, have a grip on the way you think and how you position yourself in relation to the outside world. You can do better for yourself. You can work on breaking or reshaping those harmful connections. 

If you have your own Tarot or oracle deck, set aside some private time and give yourself a reading. This will help identify what aspect(s) of yourself and your life could change and how best to begin the process. It's a good time to pick up your journal and explore this issue and your possible paths to freedom.

A cosmic alarm clock, The Tower signals that the time is now. Do not delay.

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Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEKEND: April 30-May 1, 2022

Queen of Arrows

Greenwood Tarot

by Mark Ryan with art by Chesca Potter

April 30-May 1, 2022: Sometimes we stumble upon entirely different universes when we visit decks crafted by artists who see traditional Tarot archetypes in unique ways. Greenwood Tarot, created by artist Chesca Potter and writer Mark Ryan, has enough idiosyncrasies to make convention-bound Tarotistas throw their hands up, but it is l-o-v-e-l-y none the less and beloved by many.

Why is Tarot's Queen of Swords--here styled as Queen of Arrows--represented by a white doe resting on grass beneath a hectic sky of swirling yellow/orange spirals? Why do her antlers resemble lava erupting towards that sky and yet also perfectly embracing an airborne valentine? There's a red arrow stuck in the ground by her flank, but the doe seems completely unconcerned with it. 

Where is the austere, brainy, challenging Swords/Air Queen we've come to expect? Though, do notice, below, Pamela Colman Smith's own use of yellow, orange, and red. I believe I've talked about this before. Her strong Queen of Swords is not completely without passion.

Queen of Swords

Rider-Waite Tarot

art by Pamela Colman Smith

Reader, I beckon you into Potter and Ryan's world and suggest you ground yourself in what is. Look around and find out.

That sky blazes with the bright fires of Celtic and Wiccan holiday of Beltane (May 1) as does the doe's flaming antlers. Ryan and Potter associate the suit of Arrows (Swords) with the period from Beltane through Midsummer to Lammas (August 1). The appearance of this card on this Beltane weekend definitely has quite a lot of woo to it.

Our queenly doe has charm galore and might have a very special message for you at this particular moment. Sit with her and listen.

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Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEK: April 25-29, 2022

 

Bear

Gilded Reverie Lenormand Expanded Edition

by Ciro Marchetti

April 25-29, 2022: Here's a majestic Lenormand Bear from Ciro Marchetti! This is Lenormand's "Mom" card. Mother Bear is here for you!

Honor--and pay attention to--your solemn dignity and inner authority this week. Something of the weekend's concerns around the personal qualities it takes to survive and thrive in a changing environment carries over into this week.

Marchetti makes this specifically a polar bear. We've long known how polar bears are threatened by this planet's damaged climate and environment. Can you sit with the energy of this Bear and feel its fierce determination for life?

Find a way to imagine yourself into Bear. It is a powerful model, also a protective spirit (Mama Bear) as well as a symbol of abundance (motherly care and generosity). Draw Bear's energy around you and see the results manifest as you go through the events and encounters of your week.

****** 

Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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CARD OF THE WEEKEND: April 23-24, 2022

 

Ivy

The Celtic Tree Oracle

by Liz and Colin Murray with art by Vanessa Card

April 23-24: From one of our kitchen windows, we keep track of the seasons of a neighboring building's wall of ivy. How lovely to watch and breathe in this gleaming expanse of green as it unfurls each spring.

Our Card of the Weekend, Ivy, comes from The Celtic Tree Oracle and reminds us of our hardy resilience and ability to adapt to the conditions of different environments. The labyrinthine spiral near the bottom of the image signifies an inner journey to the true Self.

For this weekend, set out or continue on that journey. Meditate on the many resources you have within. Perhaps, write a list so that you can see them in front of you, appreciate them, and not forget. There's powerful spellcasting in what you write.

See if you can breathe warm energy into those aspects of yourself that need encouragement, new life, new spirit. Make a good accounting of who you are--an invincible summer, as Albert Camus wrote:

"Au milieu de l'hiver, j'apprenais enfin qu'il y avait en moi un été invincible." (L'Été)

****** 

Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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READER REQUEST: RIDER-WAITE LOVERS and JUDGEMENT

 

The Lovers and Judgement

Rider-Waite Tarot

art by Pamela Colman Smith

 

Big thanks to hummingwitch reader Gloria Carol who sent a request for treatment of two Rider-Waite (Pamela Colman Smith) images--The Lovers and Judgement.

I don't know if Gloria deliberately chose this pair for their visual similarity, but you'll notice that an imposing angel presides over each scene. Both angels have scarlet wings so thick and lush, you know their arrival stirred up the whole of the environment. They signify an urgent intervention. They have broken through the sky with exhortations to humans below to unite (The Lovers) and rise back to life (Judgement).

Also, I absolutely covet the royal purple shawl The Lovers' angel is wearing...but I digress.

With its Adam-and-Eve imagery, The Lovers, in the context of this Major Arcana pairing, can indicate a beginning while Judgement brings us closer to the end--or perhaps the revival or high-level advancement--of a significant process.

One message coming through is: Remember your origins--remember the design, purity, connectedness, and hope--and now answer the call for transformation. 

The angels command us to raise the "dead" within ourselves and the "dead" out in our communities, societies, and world before it is too late.

What have you allowed to wither or die, to go without sun or nourishment? What have you denied because your environment, your society, denied it?

This is heavy recovery work, requiring determination, focus, courage, and stamina. Not every individual or collective of people will be up to the task. But, clearly, the time is now.

****** 

Do you have a particular Tarot or other oracle card that you'd like to me explore and write about in the hummingwitch way?

Just email a good, clear jpg photo of your card to hummingwitch@gmail.com, and I'll incorporate its message, one way or another, into one of these posts. Let me know if you'd prefer your submission to be anonymous.

Thanks!

******

Catch up with updated CARD OF THE DAY posts here: https://hummingwitch.blogspot.com/2022/03/catch-up-with-any-featured-card-you.html

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