Thoughts from this morning

I got a new Tarot deck yesterday. I wasn't sure that I wanted it, but opened the package anyway and decided that it was a happy coincidence and message from the universe. The cards are inspired by the Visconti-Sforza deck and I love the imagery far better than the Rider-Waite deck. Interestingly enough, it also comes with a second blank set of cards that are meant to be coloured in by the owner as an esoteric exercise. This will be a long exercise but a fruitful one.

Switching gears a bit, I have started in on the second chamber of the Nautilus path.

Alone Time: Solitude is different from loneliness. When you choose to spend time alone, you are electing to focus your attention on your own process. You are paying attention to your self the way you would a best friend or cherished lover. Yet many of us fear solitude. When we find ourselves alone, we fill up the time and space with activities that pull our attention outward. Next time you start aimlessly flipping television channels or making idle phone calls, pause and check in with yourself, focusing your attention inward. What is it that you really want and need in this time? This week, make a date with yourself to spend an hour alone.

The rest left off, as most of you reading can guess where it is going and fill in the blanks. If you can't leave a comment and I'll fill it in. Part of my solitude is the practise of my morning pages. It is a free and unfiltered conversation with myself and I find that I get out of sorts and cranky when I miss this time for whateer reasons. The one time that I have been skimping on is my walks at lunchtime. I need to begin gifting myself with them again. Walking the trails through the woods at lunch time is very satisfying and an exercise in moving solitude. It is just me and nature, and I can let my mind wander, take in the beauty around me, and/or just walk with an empty mind and let the tension drain out of me. My gift to myself this new seasonal cycle is to begin taking this time again.

Another thought came to me this morning as I was writing in my pages about the tarot deck and the need for a new pouch for it. Tradition says that a deck should be stored in a black silk bag to ward it from energies that are not the readers own. Sage advice, and advice that I am going to ignore this time. Why? Because as I was meditating on this, it came to me that I want a pouch that is white linen, lined with green silk that I ave that has a small design of three chevrons stacked throughout it, red pomegranates that I will do in blackwork on the linen, and a black silk cord made from nine strands braided together. Goddess colours, numbers, and symbols galore. Yet, I also have the needed means and skills to keep the deck my own and attuned to me, so I am not worried about breaking tradition. The deck will still, for lack of a better word, 'work.' That is when I knew that tradition is there to act as a framework and allows for the 'tried and true' safe route through the mysteries for those learning them and beginning their esoteric path. It is a needed framework that helps the budding mystic whilst they are learning and absorbing the lessons. After a certain point, they have the tools and knowledge needed to break out and begin exploring their path outside of traditional bounds. It seems to me that many never do that, but remain hide-bound by tradition and stifled. Therein lies the danger of dogma and codified systems the world over, I suppose. So, it is a path of continued exploration for me. If worse comes to worse, I can make another black silk bag.