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Tarotcast Week of April 3, 2016

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Happy Birthday Month Aries!

Fiction – Aries’ ram is associated with the Greek myth of the golden fleece. King Artharnas who married the cloud nymph, Nephele, had two children, Phrixus and Helle. He divorced her to marry Ino Queen of Thebes. Ino not liking her step children plotted to kill them. She devised a plot. First, she roasted the wheat seeds so they wouldn’t grow. And then bribe the messengers of the Oracle to lie and tell Arthanas that he had to sacrifice his son, Phrixus, on mountain to make the crops fertile again. To save her children Nephele sent down a golden ram with wings to take her children to safety in Colchis. After his sister falls off the ram into the sea, Phrixus reaches Colchis and sacrifices the ram to Zeus. He then gives the fleece to King Aeetes (the Jason and Argonauts myth continues on with the fleece). To honor the ram heroics, Nephele placed the image of it among the stars. This all sounds very similar to the Bible and Quran story of Abraham having to sacrifice one of his sons on a mountain top and an Angel comes down and provides him a ram to substitute for the sacrifice. Who plagiarized who is still in debate.

Fact- Since the time of the Babylonians, The Ram in the sky has been identified as the beginning of the Vernal Equinox. However, because of the axial precession (the wobble of the earth axis around it’s poles) the tail-end of Pisces’ constellation now shows up on the Vernal Equinox and in the year of 2600 Aquarius constellation will lead us into spring. It will take approximately 20,000 more years (it takes 26,000 for full cycle) for Aries to lead us into spring again, but the ram will always symbolize the coming of spring and the beginning of the astrological cycle.

P.S. Remember signs that have * it’s a big week for you.

Aries – Ace of Swords – Ace of Swords is perfect card for your birth month. Last week you were slowly and methodically – experimenting, balancing and weighing out new things to fit into your new life. Now after your experimentation you have some new ideas. The Ace of Swords is challenging you this week to spend time thinking, analyzing and/or strategizing around these new ideas to proceed into your new future.

Taurus – Queen of Cups – Another week of balancing work and play into your life. The Queen of Cups is challenge you this week to find the joy in your life. And since this is a court card look to the people you have around you for inspiration. Each one of them has a little present of happiness to give you, so open your heart and receive the bounty.
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Tarotcast March 27, 2016

FT_15_07_24_womenLeadersMap

March is Women’s History Month. If you all recollect my thoughts from Black History Month -highlighting a group of people for a month makes me distressed, because I think we learn more from history as a whole then in its parts – kinda a segregation of history. And here is the hard truth – Racism and Sexism still exist, and having a month singling out a group is not a cure. We need equal rights, and I believe we have hit a plateau in our human rights it’s still short of actual equality. This is a complex but changeable situation. So I am just going to throw out some facts for you all to mull over.

Two of the great equalizers are money and power. But here is the rub. The Gender Pay Gap has stalled out around 75-79% for the past 10 years.   Women are still making 79% of what a man makes. And, if you are a black women it is 74% compared to a white male. And the crazy thing is, the more educated you get the wider the gap between men and women. So those student loans we all have – men can pay it off faster by like 7 years. Oh, and let’s talk about age and income. For women, ages of 35-44, have topped out on what they can earn. Males continue to get pay increases straight through to their 60’s. This of course is linked to the statistics that women are more likely to divert their career path to a more flexible job at lower pay because they are the primary caregiver in their house, that men don’t typical get paid maternity leave and if they do it’s short term, and that the disparity is hidden in sign on bonus, annual bonuses, stock plans, and other benefits.

This disparity continues around women in power positions with elected heads of state worldwide (see map above), women holding CEO positions (4.0% in S&P 500 companies), and in our government (20 female senators out of 100, 84 women out of 435 or 19.3% in The House of Representatives). “Yippers people, in America we move at a snail’s pace when it comes to equality. In 1971 Switzerland final legalized women’s voting rights and they elected a woman president 27 years later. We are closing on 100 years after the women’s right to vote and have had only one woman make it to Speaker of the House and never in the senate as a majority or minority leaders or the president.

Now I am not advocating for you all to vote for Hilary- do what you want with that. We need to be more grassroots about this. What I am saying is, if you are a woman, advocate for yourself at your work and your home. And if you are a man advocate for your wife, daughter, sister, or mother. So until we are at that point in our history where we can look forward in equality and backward at the whole picture, I will honor the ladies in March.

References: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/30/about-one-in-ten-of-todays-world-leaders-are-women/ ; http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/

P.S. I have tacked on some cool ladies to your sign. Remember signs that have * it’s a big week for you.

Aries – Two of Pentacles – Whew, you are done with Rods – good work! Now on to Two of Pentacles, this week it’s all about balance. That new idea you been brewing for the past six weeks, it’s time to work on making it happen. The challenge from the Two of Pentacles is to do it slowly and methodically – experimenting, balancing and weighing out how this will work in your new schema. http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_williams_mary_lou.htm Mary Lou Williams – Jazz Composer

Taurus – Ten of Pentacles – I hope you all took the time to relax and mend last week, because the Ten of Pentacles is here to get you back into the game. You will have a full plate this week and almost everything you do will come with ease. However, the challenge with the Ten of Pentacles, especially for Taurus, is when your plate is full on the pentacle(material) plain you all forget that the mind and spirit is what got you there. You all know but if you say “Oh I’m busy doing this cool thing so I’ll put off meditating/exercising/alone time just for today”. Please do it. The things you are putting off might be the things that are keeping you balanced.    http://www.amazingwomeninhistory.com/madam-c-j-walker-self-made-millionaire/ Madame CJ Walker – first woman millionaire
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Tarotcast Week of March 20, 2016

dr. seus

Happy Vernal Equinox. Even though we are now into Aries, I would still like to ponder my favorite paradoxical Piscean author – Theodor Seuss (pronounced Zoice) Geisel or Dr. Seuss. Every year I find more ways that Dr. Seuss’s world has incorporated itself into my aesthetic and my psyche. The book One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish was the first book I remember reading all the way through by myself. And then there is the classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas which I have watched ever Christmas since I was three. And then my absolute favorite cartoon The Lorax which I honestly think shaped my nine year old mind into the environmental activist of today. I think he influenced my moral compass more than any other person other than my parents.

However, he was a man of paradoxes. His pseudonym was created because he got kicked off the college newspaper for drinking gin in the dorms. His first wife committed suicide after a long illness and his affair with a friend. He was an avid supporter of Japanese Americans’ internment and won an Academy Award for Design for Death, a documentary about Japanese culture and the war, later creating Horton Hear a Who as an allegory to American post war occupation of Japan and dedicated it to a Japanese friend. He painted imaginary beasts beloved by children and a myopic naked lady riding a cat.

The interesting thing for me and the Dr. is that, though the illustrations were funny, the words rhymed and it ended happily, there was always a sense melancholy, sadness, and outsiderness that I totally related to as a kid and as adult. Dr. Seussville oddly makes sense to me. It is a place where innocence and morality gets tested by the world. A place where two kids are left alone in house and an intruder turns their world upside down, a shyster makes a profit in a world of prejudice Sneetches, and Horton is tied up for trying to save some Whos – but then in the end, the house gets clean, the bigots become friends, the Whos get heard and the elephant is vindicated. You all might be saying that’s similar to many children’s stories like Tom Thumb, Snow White or Thumbilina but here is the Seuss twist – in many cases the villain becomes the hero. The Grinch steals and brings back Christmas, the Cat brings chaos then order back to a home, the Once-ler destroys an entire ecosystem but also holds the seed to bring it back. That is what endears him to me as an adult these “children’s” stories tell a deeper message that redemption is possible even for the bad guy.

P.S. I have tacked on a Dr. Seuss tale that relates somewhat to your tarotcast. Remember signs that have * it’s a big week for you.

Aries – Ten of Rods – Wow, seriously this is amazing, you all are still moving through the Rods’ suit – first Five, then Six, Eight Ten, Seven and now the Ten of Rods again. I want to tell you the probability of getting any suit is 1out of 5 chances and then to get Rods six weeks in a row is 1 out of 15,625 chances, so something is up with you all and the rods’ mission in your world. Therefore, I am going to repeat and bold the following: The Rods suit’s mission is to hone your abilities to see and gather information that will expand your creativity and spirit. The Ten of Rods specifically is telling you to look at where you are holding back, editing, or not fully express your energy, creativity and/or who you really are. Dr. Seuss book: The King’s Stilts

Taurus – Six of Swords – Last week the Ten of Swords challenged you to decide what you were going to carry into your future – your joy or your pain. It seems with the Six of Swords that you have figured out what you are willing to carry forward. You all realized that some of the pain still needs to be carried on but you have let go of a big chunk of it. So in comes the Six of Swords saying when you do “big heart” work you need to take some time to heal. The Six of Swords is saying be in your new cleaner heart and let things mend. Dr. Seuss book: The Seven Lady Godivas
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Tarotcast Week of March 13, 2016

koi

I wanted to write about fish this week to honor Piscean’s birthday month, and I was having a hard time because of all the cool factoids about fish. Then, I realized that Pisces are one of the mutable signs, which means they are able to shift into many forms. So it made sense I couldn’t pin anything down with the fishy folk. However I prevailed and finally honed down my musings to one tributary full of carp.

First let’s dip into the mythology of carp. The Chinese myth and it’s symbolic meaning starts in the Yellow River where a giant school of carp are swimming upstream. They come to a waterfall called the Dragon’s Gate and some turn away. The rest try to jump up the waterfall. Local demons attracted to the sounds began to mock the carp and increase the height of the waterfall with each attempted jump. The carp continue their efforts for 100 years until finally one carp reaches the summit. The Gods honor its determination by turning it into a golden dragon the image of power and strength.

Now to dip into carp facts. Carp is a native of Europe and Asia. Since at least 2000BC, the Chinese have been raising carp in rice paddies creating a balanced ecosystem. According to a 1986 study, this form of aquaculture is so beneficial that it reduces fertilizer and pesticide use to zero, increase rice produce by 5%, and adds a free protein food source and/or commerce to the farmer. (This system can be set up with a variety of fish like tilapia and catfish. Why this isn’t common practice now I do not know.) In China, keeping naturally mutated carp in ornamental ponds became popular when supposedly Confucius got one as a wedding gift. The Japanese started breeding these naturally mutated carp around 1820 CE into the many variations of koi we see today. In North America, Carp and Goldfish, a subspecies of Asian carp, is now listed as an invasive species because it threatens local fish by competing for resources and interestingly messes up the ecosystems of our native wild rice. So please don’t release your fish out in the wild- that includes flushing them.

You might ask what does that have to do with mutable Pisces- well Pisces when taken out of their natural setting they can be a pain in the butt.  However, more than any other sign they can be the most amazing, determined, evolved people in the world as long as you keep them in their native environment. So please take care with the Pisceans in your life and don’t flush them either.

P.S. Remember signs that have * it’s a big week for you.

Aries – Seven of Rods – Wow, seriously this is amazing, you all are still moving through the Rod’s suit – first Five, then Six, Eight Ten and now the Seven of Rods. The energy and information is still coming at you. Ok so let’s dive a bit deeper into the Rods’ mission. This suit is all about energy, creativity, expansion, intuition, spirituality, and growth. The suit’s mission is to hone your abilities to see and gather energy and information that will expand your creativity and spirit. During these past five weeks the universe and you have been conspiring to make yourself and your desires grow. Keep up the good work. You are firing yourself up for a big transformation.
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Tarotcast week of March 6, 2016

cumulusklein

This week I want to share my love of clouds. The above image is Berndnart Smilde’s work. – http://www.berndnaut.nl/index.htm . He creates smoke clouds inside spaces and then photographs them. It’s not a real cloud which is made of hydrogen and oxygen. His clouds are more carbon/gylcol-based and somewhat controlled by him adding water to the air. I have to say this piece is one of my top ten favorite art pieces. It is surrealism in the real. Now here is a paradox about this artwork and clouds, researchers have theorized that one of the side effects of more carbon or carbon dioxide in the air is that it leads to fewer clouds. Fewer clouds means more sun hitting the earth and heating it up. Which this leads to less water in the water cycle and therefore even less clouds. So please find a way to lower your carbon foot print – at the very least to Save the Clouds.

P.S. For fun, I have added some websites with cloud art on your tarotcast. Remember signs that have * it’s a big week for you.

Aries- Ten of Rods – Wow, you all are still moving through the Rod’s suit – first Five, then Six, Eight and now the Ten of Rods. The energy and information is still surrounding you. You will need to sift through it all and lighten your load. You all are taking on more than you should or is really necessary. The challenge with the Ten of Rods is really discerning what is necessary in your life and then dump all the extraneous excess. https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/photo-n-3934/

Taurus – Knight of Cups- This week the Knight of Cups is telling you to continue with your “heart search” work for things that bring joy into your work and life. The challenge is still to work on cleaning out the heart sucking elements in your work and life without causing harm to others or yourself. http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/08/covent-garden-balloons/
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Tarotcast week of February 28, 2016

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Happy Leap Year. Leap year happens every four years to recalibrate our solar calendar with the season. There is a tradition that is associated with leap day. Woman can propose to men on February 29. Legend says this tradition came from St Bridget complained to St Patrick that woman had to wait too long to for suitors to propose. So they struck the deal that woman could propose on February 29 every four years. Got to love the Irish ladies for taken control of their destiny. I loosely have my own tradition, on February 29. I think and journal about where I want to be in on the next leap year. I feel like it recalibrates my destiny. 😉

P.S. Remember signs that have * it’s a big week for you in the tarotcast.

Aries- Eight of Rods – Wow you all are moving through the rod’s suit- first Five, then Six and now Eight of Rods. So the good energy you put out the past two weeks is coming back to you. Especially look for news in email and snail mail.. The challenge is ideas, information and news will be coming at you fast this coming week just make sure you keep your goal(s) in focus.

Taurus – Queen of Cups- This week the Queen of Cups is here to remind you that all work and no play is fine if you find joy in the work. If not then it is time to step back and find what or who is sucking the joy out of your work life and do something about it. The Queen of Cup’s challenge is to find a way to do it without hurting anybody’s feelings including your own.

Continue reading Tarotcast week of February 28, 2016 →

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Tarotcast week of February 21,2016

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“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.”  MLK Jr

February is Black History month. When I was a teacher, I had to decide how to represent black history month to my students. Personally, I wish we would just incorporated Black, Hispanic, Asian, Islamic, Native American etc… in with “regular” history. This stems from my belief that history as a whole has more to teach us then its parts. To me history is not just a singular event, person or place but a series of cause and effects that are linked globally. However, I don’t want to dismiss the fact that for now we need these focused studies of groups of peoples’ history. We need not only to honor and understand a peoples’ history but to fill in the very big blank spaces in America’s history classes. So in honor of Black History month I added some amazing black people in history, one male and one female. They do not represent all of Black history and they are not all the most famous, but they are some that resonate with me.

P.S. Remember signs that have * it’s a big week for you.

Aries- Six of Rods – Last week the Five of Rods challenged you before you to step back and assess the energy around the situation or person. This week you move on to the Six of Rods. Because of your considerate behavior last week, you have more people looking to you for guidance. Your assignment is to continue on assessing energies and responding with grace and kindness. With the Six, the good energy you put out will come back to you three fold.  Amazing People: Phillis Wheatley, James W. Johnson

Taurus – Five of Rods- This week with the Five of Rods you will find many distractions when you try to create any movement with your projects or your life. The challenge with the Five of Rods is not to fight or push through every distraction. They are, surprisingly, here to help you prioritize. If you find yourself distract from a project step back look at the distraction. It might be more important than the project.  Amazing People: Virginia Hamilton, Langston Hughes
Continue reading Tarotcast week of February 21,2016 →