October 29, 2022
Deck: Tarot de St. Croix
First Impressions: This seems like such a typical Devil card and I would have just gone with the traditional meaning, until I listened to Lisa’s video and she pointed out the upside down Buddha’s under the people. I like that as it shows that even in darkness, there is still a reflection of what is good.
Book: The lesson is that if we sit with our shadow the realization will come that we can throw off the hold of our inner demons and rise. Enormous energy will be released and darkness will become light.
Guidance: Do not demonize yourself
Journaling:
I love the reminder to not demonize myself. I grew up being reminded constantly about my flaws. I was too bossy, I was too outspoken, I was too much. I was never celebrated for the things I did right and when I did get good grades or do something else good it wasn’t enough. I always had to do better. I was never told that I was perfect just the way I am. I also realize now that those characteristics that my mother tried to drill out of me were actually leadership traits and she should have nurtured them instead of trying to drill them out of me. She wanted to turn me into a domestic little toad who could not speak for herself and although she failed, life would have been so much better for me if she had supported me instead of put me down.
I try very hard to support and celebrate my kids and to really help them be their best. That is kind of hard based on how I was raised, but I do work on it.
Where I’m At: I’m home today and the weather is absolutely beautiful. I went to the market, got my emissions checked, then came home and got home to get Clam to go to to Dias De Los Muertos. And after we went to the festival, we went to Garfield’s Memorial. It was an abolustely beautiful day. One of the best things about living in da Cle is that everything is accessible. It doesn’t take a whole day to go and do something fun.
Weather: The weather is absolutely spectacular out today. It is just crisp and cool enough to be nice out without being two shivery.
Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent 20%
Sunrise / Sunset: 7:53 / 6:56
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August 5, 2022
Deck: Secrets of the Rose Tarot
First Impressions: I love this devil card and how his face appears multiple places on his body. It seems to be saying that, he is always watching
Book: Pride, ego, arrogance, malice, temptation, slavery, compulsion, bondage
Guidance: Pride goeth before a fall
Journaling:
The Devil is an interesting card as it is about pride, arrogance, and obsession. However, it is also about making choices that make you happy. Anything in excess, including food and work, can be destructive, but there is a time when you need to choose happiness and there are people who believe that choosing happiness is wrong. This is a card of the puritans and a belief that anything that makes you happy or brings joy is wrong. Writing is good, art is good, dancing is good, but there are those who view those things as the devil’s work because they are sometimes viewed as “not productive.” I used to think that paying a lot of money for a good meal was wasteful because I could eat Mcdonald’s and fill my stomach. However, when I was in Amsterdam, I spent a day wandering around and I had two very expensive chocolates and some very expensive strawberries for lunch and it was a lunch I remember to this day because I savored it. That was when I learned that there is something to be said for satisfying the soul as well as the body.
Art, writing, reading are all things that satisfy the soul and they are worth it even though there are people who view those things as wasteful. After two years spent in lockdown, I’ve realized that I want to live to satisfy my soull
Where I’m At: Today was an amazing day. Cam and I went on an adventure to Sharon, PA and it is a cute little town. We are seriously thinking of moving there.
Weather: It was ungodly hot and humid out today. It rained earlier today and when we got home, the heat was unbearable
Moon Phase: First Quarter, 50%
Sunrise / Sunset: 6:23 am / 8:40 pm
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June 20, 2022
Deck: Intuitive Dark Goddess
Card Name: Reclamation
First Impressions: Vulture reclaiming, butterfly as transformation, goddess has hoofs
Book: Choice, shifting perspective, self work, shadow work
Guidance: You are your own master
Journaling:
I love the thought of the Devil as reclaiming as I’m learning that the devil really is about reclaiming who I am and reclaiming my rights as a person. I was brought up to believe I had no rights and that everything I did was about someone else. However, I’m working to reclaim who I am and to become the person I am meant to be.
I’m also realizing that I am working to reclaim who I want to be from who I have become. I swore in college that I would never become a corporate robot, but in so many ways I feel like that is who I am. I’ve become someone I don’t really like. I work at a job that requires me to be nice to assholes and it is getting harder and harder to do. I know that every job requires you to be nice to assholes to a certain extent, but this one sucks more than most.
Weather: It actually felt cool out today although it was about 75
Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous 57%
Sunrise / Sunset: 5:50 / 9:04
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Deck: Tarot of Little Secrets
First Impressions: Evil, debauchery, separation, scary
Book: Oppression, addiction, voluntary bondage, temptation, materialism, toxic relationships
Guidance: Even the angels can fall from grace
Journaling:
It’s interesting as I view the devil as a give myself permission card. The devil is about hedonism and excess, but who determines what is hedonism and excess? I was raised in a family where denial was the rule. It was drilled into my head that sex before marriage was bad and when I was living with John my family harassed me until I married him. My mother guilted me, my aunts called to see if he answered the phone. However, my brain was so fucked up by all the stupid lessons my family had given me that I gave in and married him and set myself up for 22 years of hell. I should have been strong enough to tell them to fuck off. Sex is not a sin and it is so patriarchal to act like women are sluts for sleeping with men without being married.
Where: I’m at home alone this evening while the kids are taking the puppers for a walk. It is so nice to have a quiet house. I’m also feeling horrible today as the cramps are super bad and I am so tired and weak. I don’t know what’s up, but I’m just tired of being tired.
Weather: It was hot all day, but it has started to cool down
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous, 90%
Sunrise / Sunset: 6:07 /8:37
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March 5, 2022
Deck: Light Seer’s Tarot
First Impressions: Stardust, seduction, pulling strings
Book: Addiction, liberation, freedom from vices, healing found in darkness
Guidance: Witness and release your own shadows
Journaling:
The invitation into the dark is a sacred one. I followed the siren call of the darkness after my divorce and I found it a healing and seductive place. There is seduction in staying curled into a ball and ignoring the world around me. There was seduction in exploring my own history and there was a temptation to play the victim. So much of who we are came about because of other people. My parents shaped me with my embracing some of the lessons, rejecting others, and absorbing still others unconsciously. I’ve consciously rejected my mother’s racist and judgmental attitudes, but there are times when I see someone and her voice plays in my head as I judge people for how they look, what they wear, etc. There is a part of me that is ashamed when I hear that voice. However, I’m also learning to be kind to myself and to realize that like everyone I am a product of my history and just because I think it does not mean I say it.
I also realize that the ability to go willingly into the darkness is privilege. Some people do not have the time or the energy to delve into their subconscious. And other people get pulled into the darkness through addiction.
Where I’m At: I’m sitting on the living room couch in the calm. There is work to be done, but sometimes it is just nice to
Weather: It was an absolutely beautiful day today as it hit 70 and it felt so warm outside. If it is this nice tomorrow, I’m going to hang out outside.
Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent 9%
Sunrise / Sunset: 6:54 / 6:22
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January 14, 2022
Deck:
Tarot of the Divine
Deck: Tarot de St. Croix
First Impressions: Sadness, under someone’s thumb, inability to act on one’s own
Book: Inner demons, hidden parts we are ashamed of
Guidance: If we can release our inner demons, enormous energy will be released and darkness becomes light
Journaling
It’s interesting that even though I know better, my first impression of the devil is always of being under someone else’s control and being abused by some external force. In reality, the devil is about giving our control away and choosing to be a victim. It is about choosing to believe the ugly words that people say about us, it is about choosing to do things that do not make us proud of ourselves, and it is choosing to believe we have no power in our lives. There are things that happen to us that are outside of our control, but all too often we choose to make those things about us when they often aren’t. I’m sitting here after a client blew me off for a morning meeting for the second time in a week. Ten years ago, my reaction would have been to make it about me, but now I realize that it isn’t about me at all, but is all about her. Ten years ago if someone cut me off, I would have made it personal, but now I realize it is not about me. And even if things are about me, I have a choice to believe or not believe what people say.
This is another lesson I learned in Al-Anon, that the world does not revolve around me and that choosing to be a victim is in some ways another way of being arrogant and looking for attention. While being arrogant says I’m so wonderful, being a victim says that I’m a poor pitiable creature and I need you to take care of me because I cannot take care of myself. I used to be that poor pitiable creature who needed everyone to validate that I had a right to exist. As I started to grow and heal, I realized where those ideas about myself came from and I worked hard to squash them and develop my own sense of personhood. I’ve learned my strengths and my weaknesses and by learning to accept all of me, I’m learning to mitigate the effects of my weaknesses.
First Impressions: Rock Star, Hedonism
Book: Lord of Obsession, Baser Instincts, embodying all of our shadow instincts, light and dark muse coexist
Guidance: Look at the part of yourself you have repressed or denied, seek the road between inhibition and compulsion, seek pleasure without shame, explore all of usJournaling
The devil is a card that I always struggled with and that always scared me because I know that obsession and addiction can ruin lives. However, the Devil has a valuable lesson to teach us and that is managing our hedonism and accepting that pleasure does not have to be addictive. There are times when we are so afraid of feeling good or having nice things that we say no to everything. Working with Devil energy means knowing when to say no and when to say yes. I will always say no to drugs or things that could seriously harm me, but I can find balance in my life when it comes to other hedonistic pleasure.
Deck: Herbal Tarot
Deck: Faerie Tarot
First Impressions: Trapped in uncomfortable choices
Book: Liberation from restrictions, defeat, release, severance, seeker will overcome evil, tempting fates
Guidance: Remove what is holding you in bondage
Journaling
This card resonated with me today as it is about accepting and acknowledge all of me. It is about not denying my shadow aspects. I don’t have to indulge them, but I need to own them. I’ve also realized that owning and accepting doesn’t mean I no longer work to grow and change. It just means I am kind to the lost little girl who needs emotional support.
May 25, 2018
Interesting to read this today as last night I took Cam to Dillards and we bought underwear. I was taken back to the year I started college and my dad took me shopping for clothes. I bought expensive silk underwear and I bought this amazing swimsuit. It was one piece, but it had buttons on the side and high cut thighs. It was in no way racy, but it made me look and feel good about myself. However, my stupid relatives had to shame me for having a nice body and wanting to show it off. That was wrong of them. I was doing nothing wrong and I was not responsible for their puritan beliefs.
I don’t still have the awesome body that had when I was in college, but my body is mine and it deserves to be treated with love and respect. I deserve love and respect. And love and respect means feeding myself healthy and nourishing foods that are good for me in the long term and don’t just give me a short term sugar high.
Deck: Hanson Roberts
Initial Thoughts: There is a musical note between the figures that is kind off interesting. Additionally, the Devil has an upside down pentacle on his forehead. He also makes me think of a puppet pulling strings. When I see this card, I think of choices as the couple is not tied up and it appears they could flee if they wanted to escape. This card also reminds me that bondage is sometimes personal choice. I also think about our devotion t o addictions such as sex and materialism.
Book: Being held in bondage, undesirable forces, chained down by materialism, temptation, call to awaken to responsibility, integrate and channel the life force.
Guidance: Live in balance. Accept the wealth the world has to offer.
Journaling
Since the DruidCraft deck was my first tarot deck, I always think about Cernunous when I see this card. He is the horned god of the hunt and in that deck the “devil” is not evil, but a force to be channeled. Overindulging is what puts is unto bondage.
This card like so many tarot carts speaks for balance. It is when we get out of balance that life becomes unmanageable and addictions are a good indication that life is unmanageable. This card could also be speaking to me of my need to break my sugar addiction. I know it is killing me, but I still shovel sugar in my mouth. I’m not sure how to break the addiction and get back on track. I need to ask for guidance.
December 21, 2017
I’m getting chills as I read what I wrote because today while Cam and I were out walking, I talked about how so many stories about addiction don’t talk about the spiritual side of healing and the need to ask for help to take the addiction away. I know when I was in college and was drinking too much, it was AA that truly helped me to break the addiction. Asking for help and turning my addiction over to a higher power truly helped me to heal. It didn’t make it easy, but it did help me to recover.
It was a higher power that also helped me to deal with my codependency after my marriage imploded. By turning it over to a higher power, I was able to find the strength to heal and to leave behind some of my addictive and co-dependent behavior.
Dearest ones,
I admit that I am powerless over sugar and my life and health has become unmanageable. I know that you can help me with this addiction and I am humbling asking you to do so and to take away my cravings for the sugar that is slowly killing me.
Thank you,
Raine
Cairn by Cairn 