No One Likes to Get the "Death" card

This morning the card I picked for today's blog is the death card. Here is one depiction:

The good news is that the death card does not necessarily mean that someone is going to die a physical death.

In this card there is a skeleton riding a white horse. There is one dead beneath the feet of the horse, and a small child, an adolescent, and a bishop of some kind standing before him. He is holding a black flag as if to symbolize some sort of victory. There is the background of a gray sky, a setting sun, and two towers also seen in the "moon" card.

This card, like you may suppose, indicates that there is a final ending of a chapter of your life. However, all is not hopeless. Sometimes there has to be an ending before there can be a new beginning.  Sometimes we have to come to the end of our rope before we can see clearly to make needed changes.

Maybe you have been putting up with bad behavior of a friend or partner and something happens that is the last straw. You finally decide to cut the ties. When you do, the door is opened for you to experience new relationships and new adventures that you would not have had the ability to experience if you had remained in this unhealthy relationship. For myself, I know that a couple of times in  my life I came to the point that I decided if I stay in this relationship I will die. That is the death card. Obviously, I am alive and well. Ending a relationship can be a gift for both parties. If a relationship is not good for one of the parties, it is not good for either one, despite what the other person might feel or tell you at the time. When you decide to end a relationship, whether it be a friendship, romantic, or business relationship, or even, as in my case, the ending of a relationship with an entire belief system, you are truly giving the other person a gift that they are not ready to give themselves. You are giving them the opportunity to forge new relationships with new people that will be more life affirming and beneficial for both parties.

Years ago I had a close friend. She was my best friend and mentor.  She taught me how to open my heart and ears and really hear from Spirit. More than once we had a parting of the ways. Although I loved this woman as if she was my sister, we always seem to have difficulty remaining close. We would have misunderstandings or other issues and would part ways, doing this several times until the last time about twelve years ago.  I asked Spirit once why we always seemed to have such difficulties and Spirit told me that if I remained her friend that it would hinder me from becoming the person I was meant to be. I would always have been dependent on her abilities, which were far beyond mine, and I would never have followed the path that I am currently on. When something is taken away from you, whether it is your choice or it is forced upon you, look at that "death" as a gift. Take the opportunity to move forward to new relationships and new adventures. The death of any relationship, after you have grieved over it for a reasonable amount of time, is the opening of a new door of possibilities for you.

Maybe you are ready to start a new career but are afraid to risk the security of the one you are currently in. Sometimes, if a new career is in your future, the Universe will force it upon you if you are afraid to take the step. You may get fired or layed off. Take this as a hint from the Universe that there is something better out there for you! There is a new birth waiting to happen, that could not happen until the death of the old one! One of my other mentors was fired from her job which catapulted her into going into her current career as a full time medium. The road has not always been easy, but it is the one that Spirit had in mind when her other job was eliminated.

If you are going through a death of sorts, the loss of a relationship or job, or perhaps some other ending, take heart! Death is just the door to new possibilities. At some point we have to face the grim reaper with fortitude and expectation, knowing that sometimes we have to go through the dark night of the soul in order to follow the path that is our highest and best destiny.

Independence Day

Tomorrow is Independence Day, a day where here in the United States we celebrate when we as a nation declared our independence from England.

On a spiritual level, it is a great day to think about what things in your life you are ready to release or declare your independence from. The new moon happens to be coming up on Monday in Cancer, which highlights emotions, moods, and family concerns. If there are some issues in your life which have you emotionally wound up, this is a great time to think about declaring your independence from those things! It could be worries, concerns, unhealthy relationships, soul ties, or a number of other issues.

One of those maybe well known or not so well known rules of ritual is that if you are doing ritual to either create or release something, do it three times before the new or full moon, depending on what you want to create or release. The moon now is waning up until Monday, so it is a great time to be thinking about releasing what is no longer serving you. Is there a relationship that is toxic to you? Maybe it is time to do a ritual to release it from your experience.

Cancer is a water sign, so try to include water in your ritual. One suggestion I would offer is that you could get a bowl of water, and one of those floating candles. Write down what you would like to release on a small piece of paper, and then burn it up in the floating candle. An acquaintance of mine is going to release a memento of a relationship that has ended into the river. This is also an option.

Here are some suggestions of releasing and/or independence statements that you could incorporate into your ritual. Normally I tell people to turn their statements into positive statements of intent so that you declare what you want rather than what you don't want. However, with the new moon energies here to help us with releasing things that are holding on to our energies, I think it is okay to declare releasing statements or to do visualizations of being released from energies that are toxic.

I declare my independence from negative relationships.
                                           or
I release negative relationships. ( you can insert someone's name in here if there is a particular person who is toxic to you.)

If you are releasing a particular person out of your life, send their energy away with love. Thank them for the lessons you learned and the good that came out of the relationship. 

I release fear (or anger, or anxiety, or depression, or sadness, or loneliness. You insert the emotion you are releasing.)

With the moon in Cancer, try to focus on the energies of emotions and relationships at this time.

There will be plenty of time to deal with other issues at other times. We all have layers of toxic emotions that we are so much better off without!!

Declare your independence from all those yukky emotions that keep you tied up in knots!!

Find a symbol of what you are releasing and release it from your life using water as a catalyst. Use the suggestions listed here or find your own releasing ritual. Remember that it is not the power of the moon or the power of the water that is important here. It is the power of your intention!

Once you have declared your independence from those people or emotions that are keeping you in emotional bondage, look with expectation and anticipation of a life free of the bonds of emotional slavery! If you are still in bondage in your mind, doing a ritual will not help you! It is so important to see yourself free!! See yourself happy, productive, full of joy and enjoying healthy emotions and healthy relationships. Visualize yourself being in relationships where you are treated with love and respect. More important, love and respect yourself! If you are allowing yourself to be treated badly, this means that somewhere inside yourself you are thinking that this is all that is available to you. If you are wallowing in self pity, anger, fear, or other toxic emotions, then from inside yourself you have told yourself that there are no other options.

Today take a step to be free. Talk to someone. Take a walk ( physical activity is known to raise your level of happiness.) Imagine yourself free!! This is Independence Day!!

Some Thoughts about Soul Growth

Once a month at my home here in Winchester Virginia, I have a class on various subjects of interest for those of us pursuing a spiritual path. Most of these classes contain wisdom given to my by my guides, as well as insights and techniques that I have learned over the years in my spiritual pursuits. This month's class we did a meditation to rid our souls of energy that was no longer helpful to us on our paths. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. The meditation was given to me directly from my guides, and during the meditation my guides would give me little tidbits of information about energy that we hold onto, many times unconsciously. Evidently it was a very important session, because it seemed that a lot of my normal monthly participants ran into difficultly attending. My intention was that those who were meant to experience this important session would be there, and we still had a good turnout. I wanted to share a little of the information given to me by my guides.

One of the things my guides told me was that when we are about to cross a major spiritual threshold, and shed our energy field of blocks that we have been carrying around for many years, maybe even many lifetimes, we may experience some interference from our subconscious. This is because even if we are suffering, we have become accustomed to the suffering. Our limited thinking and our limited viewpoints and the imprints our beliefs have attached to have become a part of our identity. For this reason it is sometimes difficult to shed energies that we have long ago outgrown. When an opportunity arrives to shed our limited thinking and embrace new energies, many times we will find obstacles popping up to divert our attention or take us away from a much needed healing or transformation. This is a familiar message to me. I have many times been told that our souls heal gradually. It is very rare to jump right from the pit of hell to the heights of ecstasy. If we could rate our souls growth from one to ten, we very rarely jump from a one, the bottom of the scale, to a ten, the top of the scale. It is a process. But every time we take a step, we grow.

My guides were able to bring into awareness many things that we carry over from lifetime to lifetime, that cause us grief, and we were able to shed those energies. No worries, our souls will not present us with a healing modality that we are unable to acclimate our selves to. And we may or may not feel different right away. It takes a while before our bodies become accustomed to our new energies. But change is inevitable. Remember that whatever we are experiencing in our lives, that we can use it as an opportunity to grow.

The other sign to us that our energies are changing is the interesting experience of having things break or stop working temporarily. This is a sign that our energy has changed and our household items have to re-acclimate to our new energy field. Take heart, this experience is usually temporary. Some have experienced light bulbs bursting or electronic devices acting strange or having to be rebooted. Give yourself and your possessions time to adjust. This will pass.

Every day, take time to connect with the energy of your soul. Tell your soul that you are open to change and growth. You are open to new experiences and new insights into things you have always believed. The most important thing to remember is that what you know is all you know. But everything is subject to change. There is nothing set in stone. We all are living our lives with limited thinking and limited beliefs that have made us who we are. As we love our souls and are open to growth, our lives will change. The change may not be what you have expected. But if you are in touch with your soul and what is best for your path through this life and the purpose that you came here to fulfill, then the change will be for the best for everyone concerned. Rest assured that it is all good. If you feel right now like all you have believed and all of the identity with which you have associated yourself is changing, celebrate!! You are finally becoming your authentic self. And it is good.

New Things

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Yes, I know I have written about the ace of wands card already. This morning I drew this card first and I indicated to Spirit that I needed a card that I had not already drawn. Spirit makes no mistakes, however. I put this card back and attempted to write about the next card that I drew. It was a struggle to say the least. Obviously Spirit has something to say to day about the Ace of Wands.

If you read my previous message relating to this card, you know that this is the card of new ideas. Something within you has sparked and a new idea has conceived within you. This is the card of conception. Nothing has materialized yet. The final outcome of this idea is still undecided. The end result could be very different from the initial conception.

The message for today is that if you desire change in your life then do something new. I love the exercise gurus out there who say, " you cannot continue to do the same things and expect different results." This tidbit of wisdom applies to all areas of our lives. We cannot continue to do the same things in the same ways and expect something different to manifest. I learned this years ago. I was locked into a belief system and I erroneously thought that if I prayed and prayed, eventually God would intervene and fix all my problems. After a number of years of struggle I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and be my own savior. The strength I was looking for outside of myself I found within my own soul. Yes, I still connect with Angels and Guides, but I don't look for them to do anything for me without any action on my part.

Inside of ourselves we all contain a spark of the Divine. That light in our own soul is connected to the light that is inherent in all things. All we need to do is access that Divine Wisdom. All the answers we need are there. The Ace of Wands embraces that spark.

Just for today, so something that is out of the ordinary. Get out of your comfort zone. Drive a different way to work. Eat a food you are not accustomed to eating. Change the furniture around in your house. Remember that nothing is created or destroyed, it just changes form. When you change something in your world, anything, the energy around you changes.

 Do you want more money? Put a dollar bill in your pocket and pull it out periodically during the day and just feel its energy. Imagine yourself with lots of dollar bills in your pocket. Imagine the feeling of it. Then sometime, before the end of the day, give that dollar bill away. Yes, give it away. Nothing is created by holding on. It is created by letting go. If you cannot decide who to give it to, then go into a store and drop it on the floor. Say to Spirit.." thank you for giving me the gift of money. I have so much that I am giving this to You to give to someone who needs it. It is not up to me who that person is. I now release it to the Universe for whoever needs it......"

Just for today, do something symbolic of the change you desire to see in your life. If you want a new job, drive a different way to work. If you want a new relationship, place a picture in your bedroom of a happy couple. If you want to see things in a new way, wash the windows in your home or your car. I think you get my drift. Spirit will tell you what to do that is symbolic of the change you wish to see.

Today is the day to spark a new era in your life. Ready, set, go!!

Hmmm The Death Card

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No one likes to get the death card. After a weekend off from connecting with the tarot and a wonderful excursion yesterday to a gathering of like minded individuals in Sperryville, Virginia, enjoying the mountains, the beautiful fresh air, my good friend Hali (in junior high her name was Halimah, my best friend in 7th through the 9th grade), and of course a great Spirit message from gifted intuitive Christin McCormack, I was sure my energy was replenished and for sure I would get a wonderful card for the beginning of this last week of messages from the tarot.

I connected with Spirit, cut the cards, and drew the death card. Now I had said from the beginning to my guides that I really wanted some of the cards that were traditionally thought of as "bad" cards so that I could show my readers that really, there is no such thing as a bad message. So maybe my tarot guide was calling me on that.

It is interesting to me that the death card is card number thirteen, also thought of by many to be a bad omen. Many hotels don't have a thirteenth floor. Friday the thirteenth is supposed to be a bad luck day. The three and the one of the number thirteen add up to four, which in old time feng shui was the number equated with death, which is interesting. It was considered bad energy to group objects in fours.

It is also interesting that a couple of days ago I had a dream in which my husband and I were in a head on car collision, the impact of which woke me up, so it was not determined whether we survived the crash. But let me assure you all that the death card and the number thirteen is not bad luck. Having a dream about death is not bad luck either. Why? Because there is no such thing as bad luck.

We are all sparks of the Divine Energy which some call God. The light within our soul is the light that in the Bible, in the beginning, God said, Let there be light and there was light. We all contain a portion of that light, no matter who we are. Even the rocks and the trees contain a spark of that light, that energy which is God. The truth is, there is no such thing as death. Even science says that energy cannot die, it just changes form. There is nothing in a number that makes it bad luck and there is nothing in the death card that should spark fear in us.

To me, the death card represents change. We all can say that we are going through changes. This year in numerology is the year of great changes. Many times in order for change to happen in our lives something has to die. A seed has to die in order for a flower to be born. Even when we die, our bodies decompose but our spirit is reborn into another reality. My husband, who is a paranormal investigator, has come to the conclusion many times over that the evidence he collects when investigating goings on in houses reported to be haunted is many times inconclusive as to whether there is an actual presence in the house or if the activity is the result of trapped emotions, the current occupant's mental state, normal settling of the house, or a combination of many other factors. The bottom line is that death is not the end. It is actually a beginning.

Today, put aside your prejudices about what is good and what is bad. Think about what things you would like to birth in your life and consider what needs to be eliminated so that you can bring forth those things into your life. It is impossible to add more liquid to an already full cup. What do you need to pour out of your cup in order to fill it up with the new stuff? Do you need to clean out your closets, both literally and symbolically? What things need to be put to rest?

In the tarot, the death card represents the final end of a chapter. Not the end of the book. Just a chapter. A new chapter is about to burst forth on the scene. This chapter may be ending, but new things are on the horizon. My shaman teacher says that when you are on the death stone, (in shamanism the divinity tool is a circle of stones) that you need to give everything a good death. Allow whatever is over to be over, in order to start anew. Be willing to put down what is no longer productive in your life. The opposite of that is holding on too tightly to things that are no longer life affirming or in your best interests. When you hold on too tightly to anything, whether it be money, a relationship, a hobby, or a multitude of other things, then that thing will run away from you. Open your grip. Let go. Death is not the end.