Author: Raine Shakti

Welcome to the Beltane Blog Hop.  The topic for this Hop as provided by our intrepid wrangler Joy Vernon is Continuing Education.  She invited us to talk about classes we’re taking or recommending or what we’re doing to further our Tarot Education.  Unlike some of the topics where it takes me a while to get inspired to write, this one is easy as I further my knowledge of tarot by buying and using multiple tarot decks.  What I’ve found is that every deck’s creator puts their own spin on the cards and working with multiple decks helps me to learn more about the nuances of meanings in each of the cards. 

Once I realized that every deck spoke to me in different ways, I started to look for different ways to incorporate different decks into my practice.  I typically work with one deck for spreads and another for my daily draws.  I also work with different decks in different locations as I’ve found that some decks respond better in different geographical locations.  For instance, The Gaian Tarot  by Joanna Powell Colbert always talks to me when I visit California so I always take it along and make it a practice to pull a few cards at the beach or in the redwood forest. I didn’t realize when I first started taking the deck to California that Joanna had lived in the Santa Cruz area and many of the images are drawn from that area….but I digress and will need to write a separate blog post on that topic.

I’d like to share with you a couple of my experiences with a couple of different cards and how working with various decks helped me to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of the cards.  I’ve also found that as I broaden my understanding of those cards, that deeper understanding applies no matter which deck I am working with.

Six of Pentacles

DruidCraft Tarot

The very first tarot deck I worked with was the DruidCraft Tarot by Phillip Carr-Grom and I hated the six of pentacles.  At the time, I was going through a messy divorce and this card made me feel as if the poor druid sitting in the tree was being asked to give more than he could truly afford.  The meaning of the card in the guidebook is similar to that of cards from other decks as Carr-Grom wrote the card was about receiving and giving.  It could mean being the benefactor of someone else’s generosity or sharing what was had with others.  He said that there was a sense of balance and fairness in this card.  However, the image did not portray fairness to me at all and I learned to dread what was next every time the six of pentacles came up as it felt I would be asked to give more than I could afford either physically or emotionally.

RWS

The next deck I started working with was a more traditional RWS Clone and the person doing the giving was depicted as a wealthy merchant who was carefully balancing who he gave the coins to.  He did not have to enough to give to everyone, so he had to carefully mete them out to make sure that only people who were worthy received his largess.  Although I liked this image better than the image of the poor druid on the mountain, this one still made me uncomfortable as it felt like I was either judging people or being judged.  The traditional meaning of this card, according to the RWS guidebook is all about charity with justice, fair distribution of wealth, and generosity.

Gaian Tarot

It wasn’t until I started working with the Gaian Tarot that I began to see this card as being part of a cycle of giving and receiving.  In this card, there is an abundance of produce and some people are selling it and some people are receiving it, but this image tells me that everyone is equal and no one is being made to feel as if they have to convince someone of their worthiness to receive assistance.  The guidebook says, “You are part of the cycle of giving and receiving.”  She adds, “Your generosity and support of others circles back to you and increases your own prosperity and health.”  This was a meaning that resonated with me and made me look forward to having a “Six of Pentacles Day” instead of dreading it.

Four of Pentacles

While I disliked the Six of Pentacles from the DruidCraft on site, I didn’t have a strong reaction one way or another to the Four of Pentacles.  To me the image and the meaning spoke of building wealth and being responsible.  I saw the person in the image taking care to safeguard what he had.  The guidebook said the card could refer to building wealth and using money wisely.  There was a caution about not becoming preoccupied with wealth and using hoarding to protect yourself from inner loss, but the image did not give me a visceral reaction of hoarding.  Interestingly enough, I equated this card with hoarding my emotional resources and not physical resources.  When I pulled this card, it felt as if I was being reminded to guard my emotional resources closely.

The visceral reaction to hoarding came when I saw the Four of Pentacles from the Everyday Witch Tarot where a man is sitting on a trunk and looking around suspiciously as if someone is going to come in and take his wealth from him at any moment.  The guidebook said, “Fear of not having enough may be more harmful than the lack itself.”  This meaning resonated with me as I have seen in my own life how fear is so much more destructive than negative situations.  What was interesting to me was that both the image from the DruidCraft and the Everyday Witch show a man with a trunk, the way they are portrayed conveys vastly different messages.

Dark Goddess Tarot

Interesting enough when I went looking for a third deck to round out my trio of meanings for the Four of Pentacles, I chose the Dark Goddess Tarot and the Spinx adorns Ellen Lorenzi-Prince’s version of the Four of Earth and the guidebook said, “Definitions work two ways, helping you understand reality and separating your perception from reality.”  It went on to say, “Find your own reality, the only position you must defend, and find the center of your power.”  In typical tarot fashion, the cards basically told me to look within my heart for the meaning of the cards.

If you’d like to get some more continuing tarot education, hop back to Arwen’s Blog, hop ahead to visit Katalin’s Blog, or click on Master to visit the Master List.

Growing up we were a meat and potatoes kind of family with little experimentation in the kitchen. Once I got out on my own, started traveling the World, and watching the Food Network, I realized there was more to life than meat and potatoes and started exploring with the tastes of many nations. I’m still fairly conservative around food, but I am getting more adventuresome and will go for sushi on my own and absolutely love ceviche.

One of the dishes I’ve discovered is Jambalaya. The mixture of meats, spices, and vegetables is tantalizing. I’d never eaten jambalaya in a restaurant, but I’d heard about it and wanted to try it so when I found a Rachael Ray 3o minute or less recipe, I ventured onto the wild side and gave it a whirl.

My son and I fell in love with Jambalaya over that very first pot (Cam loves the taste, but as a vegetarian, I have to make her veggie only jambalaya). Over time, my recipe has evolved a little from Rachael’s into it’s own dish.  Here is Cam’s Own  pescetarian jambalaya

Cam’s Pescetarian Jambalaya

2 cups cooked white rice
2 tbs butter
2 tbs olive oil
10 oz of vegetarian Chicken (We use Gardein Teriyaki Chicken and don’t add the sauce)
4 links of vegetarian Chorizo or Andoullie cut into chunks (Andoullie is better, but it is hard to find)
1 small onion diced
2 stalks celery diced
1 green pepper diced
1 small yellow squash
1 zucchini
14 oz diced tomatoes in sauce
14 oz chicken or vegetable stock
2 to 3 tbs of flour (if needed)
6 oz (1/2 bag) of frozen okra (fresh works too, but frozen is easier to find)
1 lb shrimp (I use frozen cooked and take the tail off)
Salt to taste

Melt the butter along with the olive oil in a large pan (frying pan with a lid works best) on medium heat. Once the butter is melted, cook the onion, celery, and green pepper until they are soft.  Add the chicken, sausage, chunks, and squash.   Cook together for five to 10 minutes or so.

Stir in tomatoes, broth, and spices and cook about 4 more minutes. Add the shrimp and okra and cover. Let cook until the shrimp and okra is cooked (5 to 10 minutes).  Add the flour if it is too soupy.

Serve the jambalaya over white rice and enjoy a little bit of Louisiana bliss.

All right, get your dirty little minds out of the gutter. This is not about being wild and sexy, but it is about finding myself in the bedroom and learning to be true to myself.

When I got separated (2010) and divorced (2011), I was really desperate to find someone and to have love in my life. I’ve since realized that it wasn’t love I was after so much as validation that I was a worthy and worthwhile human being. I also decided that I was going to use every trick in the book to find love and that included feng shui. The feng shui rules include not having pictures of single people, making sure there is room for someone else’s stuff, and having pairs of things instead of singles.

I immediately set out to make sure I made my bedroom the perfect feng shui sanctuary. I found a gorgeous painting of a couple and put it facing my bed so it was the first thing I saw every morning, I made sure there was extra room in my closet and dresser, and I purchased the perfect pair of matching nightstands. And I thought constantly about how someone else would view my bedroom. Would they think it was too weird? Too funky?

And I was miserable! Seeing that gorgeous painting every day reminded me that I was alone. Seeing the empty space reminded me I was a lone. All of it reminded me I was alone and I started to get angry and depressed as I was constantly reminded that I was alone. It also is no fun to constantly think about what other people will think of you and how you decorate your bedroom.

However, my goddesses always take care of me and I found some beautiful art work of strong, amazing, and happy goddesses and women and I took down the couple painting and hung those instead. I hung hearts above my head and created a cool headboard affect with the doors from my grandmother’s pie safe. I started making my bedroom my own safe haven and I started feeling happier and happier. It’s awesome to wake up and be reminded that you are strong and independent.

Do I still want that special someone in my life? yes, but I’m not willing to sacrifice me to get there.

Her eyes watched me, never blinking, soulfully, sadly
I turned away, but when I turned back, she still watched
There was an intelligence there, a wonder, an oldness
I stepped toward her and in that instant
She reached out, she stole my heart
And now, she steals my covers, my food, and my heart over and over and over

 “And time slips by like a field mouse not shaking the grass” (Ezra Pound)

We are born, we cry, time crawls by
We go to school, we study, time lopes along
We graduate, we get a job, time slides by
We have children, time speeds up, they were children yesterday
We grow old, time slips by like a field mouse not shaking the grass

I hear the wild birds singing songs of spring
The caged birds answer, longing to be free
I hear the hawks squawk as birds become prey
The caged birds answer, happy to be confined

I hear coyotes howling at the moon, wildness personified
My dog answers, longing for the open air
I hear coyotes searching garbage cans for food
My dog answers in short grunts and snores, contentment exemplified

I hear my heart longing for freedom
I hear my brain reminding me of security
I hear my heart longing for contentment
I hear my brain reminding me contentment means letting go of longing

Wendy is my dear and loving pit bull. We adopted her about five months ago and she has brought so much joy and love to our lives. However, like all shelter dogs she comes with baggage. Wendy had given birth about six weeks before we adopted her and we don’t know what happened to her puppies as City Dogs didn’t have much information on her. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her sweet sad face and I knew that she had to be part of my life.

She’s gotten over most of her anxiety and most of the time is an incredibly sweet and loving dog. Sure she’s a bed hog and she gets a little cranky when we do unexpected things like set up the computer on the dining room table, but she’s mostly pretty low key. However, she was on a tear last week, she would come into the office and sit and bark at me for no reason, she pulled a bowl off the counter, and she was just generally acting out. Each time she came and barked at me, I checked her food bowl, I checked that she had water, and took her out. That satisfied her for a while, but the she’d be back and barking at me.

I was getting really frustrated until I realized that while her food bowl was full, one of the metal dog cans we keep the dog food in was empty and the supply in the other one was dwindling. I hadn’t thought anything of it because there was a bag of food sitting there waiting to be dumped into the canisters as soon as they were both empty, but Wendy had not equated the food bag with food and she was panicking and thinking she was going to run out of food. She was doing the only thing she could think to do and that was telling her human that there was an impending disaster and she was out of food. It didn’t matter that there really was food, she was afraid of starving.

As soon as I realized what she was concerned about, my heart broke as no dog should have to be afraid there isn’t enough to eat. I filled up both cans of food and made sure that she knew they were full. She relaxed as soon as she realized that there was food and she wasn’t going to starve. Now we’ve started showing her that there is food in both cans every time we feed her.

As I was thinking about the angst that Wendy went through thinking there was no food, I realized that this was what poverty consciousness looked like and I realized that there are a lot of times when I act just like Wendy. There’s money in my bank account, I have a good job, my bills are paid, I have a car to drive, but despite all of the obvious signs of prosperity, my brain is convinced that I’m going to starve. That’s when I get whiny, when I get grouchy, and when my heart clenches up in fear because I am positive that what I have is too good to be true and that there really is no food, even though there is a full bag sitting right there.

So what am I going to do about it? I’m going to remind myself that just like Wendy has me to make sure her food bowl is full, I have my beloved deities who always take care of me and guide me. Just like I want the best for my Wendy, they want what’s best for me and they are there to fill my food bowl and to remind me that I am loved and I am taken care of. I’m also going to be aware of what my poverty consciousness looks like and remind myself that when I get cranky and out of sorts, its probably my fear talking. I’ve learned that when I’m afraid, the best thing I can do is to make a list of all the ways that my fear is not true and use my logic to overcome my fear.

And hopefully someday, my Wendy will realize that I’m here for the long term and the kids and I will always make sure there is food in her food bowl.