Death

From The Halloween Tarot

By Kathryn Ravenwood  10-19-16

 

I am loving the season; Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, yellow leaves falling from the trees while brilliant blue skies blaze overhead. This very fun Tarot deck (Halloween Tarot) is full of great images but today Death spoke to me. The card is rich with images and symbolism. A skeleton uses a brightly colored can to pour life-giving water onto grinning pumpkins. A vulture perches on the fence where an Ankh sign (symbol of life) has been posted. Green ferns and bright sunflowers happily grow along the walk, a moth flits by, and a black cat contentedly rubs up against a bony skeleton leg, curling its tail around the other.  This card looks more like life to me than death.

 

The life/death cycle is in everything. The moth was once a caterpillar and transformed through metamorphosis. The seeds that became the pumpkins had to “die” to sprout and become the plant that bore the fruit. The vulture is known as a scavenger – it only eats dead matter and yet transforms that into its living body. Vultures are known to provide the flesh of their own bodies to their babies if no food is available. Eventually the remains of all physical bodies return to the earth creating the compost for new generations of life.

Fall is the time to celebrate two of my favorite holidays, both of which honor Death – Halloween and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Halloween lets us take on an alternate identity. For some of us we are empowered allow the hidden side of our nature to show up as a witch, an alien, or a magical creature. We are allowed to abandon all rules and be as outrageous as we like. For the time we are in costume we experience a little death of our everyday selves and transform into our imaginations where unlimited things can take form.

 

For the Day of the Dead we create altars for the dearly departed in our lives, the ancestors, our friends and family and beloved pets. We fix their favorite foods, get out physical objects they owned and dust off the frames of our favorite photos of them. Enshrined on their altars, lit with candles and strewn with brightly colored marigolds, our dead loved ones are alive again in the stories we tell of them, in the tears and laughter we share remembering them. Re-membering….. “Member” means a part of the physical body such as organs and appendages; to re-member brings back together the parts into a whole, into our present consciousness where the Dead are always with us.

 

While we move through this special time of year, honor the dead – your loved ones, the dead parts of you, the death of what used to be, the death of what might have been. Light some candles, tell the stories, shed some tears, laugh and celebrate that what is now dead once was full of life and will transform into some form of life again. Life and Death are partners in the great Cosmic Dance of Becoming. Our bodies may die but the works we do while alive live on in the talents we shared, the help we gave to someone in need, our children, and the generations after us. Tell your stories. There will come a time when we will be a faded photo on an ancestor altar and some friend or family member will share the tales and we will be re-membered.

 

Love is eternal….Kathryn  Ravenwood 10-19-16

 

 

Temperance

From The Halloween Tarot

Original Writing by Kathryn Ravenwood 10.12.16

 

 

What a happy witch – cooking up a bubbling brew of magic! Everything she needs is at hand; a shelf full of ingredients, books, measuring spoons, flowers for beauty, and of course her Familiar Black Cat. Her wise owl sits on her hat, a lizard (symbol of transformation) has blended right in with the shape and color of the vase, and a darling little bunny peeks out of her pocket as she mixes and blends her potion. Who knows what else is there in her cozy laboratory? She is well stocked to create her magic, her alchemy.

 

Our lives are an on-going recipe, a concoction, and magical brew of our experiences. Like the witch’s cauldron, we are each a vessel for the physical and spiritual ingredients that make us uniquely who we are. The spilled water on the floor is a reminder of spirit flowing through our lives, sometimes unseen but always there. We are constantly cooking up a new version of who we are. Like a tried and true recipe we have some very basic parts that don’t really change but become more refined as we practice our lives. Sometimes we have to just wing it, using whatever is at hand to make the right potion that allows for an immediate transformation. Like great chefs, we are the artisans of our own lives creating the magic that is uniquely our own. We present ourselves as works of art as we live, grow, learn, and interact with others.

 

In the Tarot the Temperance card brings a welcome balance. The previous card, Death, has caused us to experience that which must end in our lives, sometimes very painfully. The next card, the Devil, calls to us to go into the shadows and face that which we fear. Temperance gives us a break. We find equilibrium, stability, and beauty. We have tried, failed, tried, succeeded, and failed again. Now we have obtained a level of mastery where all our efforts, wisdom, experience, and risks have come to fruition. We get to feel the magic and know that WE are that magic. We are not stuck or confined to one version of ourselves. We can modify, alter, and re-write how we do this thing called life, all the while accommodating the external events that cause us to internally change. Our cauldron is always there, our familiars ever at hand to assist us in this life long – even eternal - alchemy.

 

In traditional Tarot, the Temperance card shows an angel blending the contents of two cups, pouring one into the other. This reminds us that our spiritual nature, our soul, our higher self, is participating with us in this great alchemy. We might get bogged down in 3-D living but our higher nature is always at work within us, guiding us, celebrating our delicious new recipes with us.

 

Fresh home-made bread right out of the oven has a mouth-watering aroma. If anyone is in the house they will be drawn like a magnet to the kitchen, begging for a piece of the yumminess. As we hone our alchemy we are like that luscious aroma, attracting into our lives that which we need to help us continue on the path of growth and beauty. There might be a few toadstools and toes of salamanders along the way, but hey – they are all part of the mix.

 

What’s cooking in your cauldron?

 

…Kathryn Ravenwood 10-12-16

 

Temperance: What is Cooking in Your Cauldron?

Temperance

From The Halloween Tarot

Original Writing by Kathryn Ravenwood

10-14-16

 

 

What a happy witch – cooking up a bubbling brew of magic! Everything she needs is at hand; a shelf full of ingredients, books, measuring spoons, flowers for beauty, and of course her Familiar Black Cat. Her wise owl sits on her hat, a lizard (symbol of transformation) has blended right in with the shape and color of the vase, and a darling little bunny peeks out of her pocket as she mixes and blends her potion. Who knows what else is there in her cozy laboratory? She is well stocked to create her magic, her alchemy.

 

Our lives are an on-going recipe, a concoction, and magical brew of our experiences. Like the witch’s cauldron, we are each a vessel for the physical and spiritual ingredients that make us uniquely who we are. The spilled water on the floor is a reminder of spirit flowing through our lives, sometimes unseen but always there. We are constantly cooking up a new version of who we are. Like a tried and true recipe we have some very basic parts that don’t really change but become more refined as we practice our lives. Sometimes we have to just wing it, using whatever is at hand to make the right potion that allows for an immediate transformation. Like great chefs, we are the artisans of our own lives creating the magic that is uniquely our own. We present ourselves as works of art as we live, grow, learn, and interact with others.

 

In the Tarot the Temperance card brings a welcome balance. The previous card, Death, has caused us to experience that which must end in our lives, sometimes very painfully. The next card, the Devil, calls to us to go into the shadows and face that which we fear. Temperance gives us a break. We find equilibrium, stability, and beauty. We have tried, failed, tried, succeeded, and failed again. Now we have obtained a level of mastery where all our efforts, wisdom, experience, and risks have come to fruition. We get to feel the magic and know that WE are that magic. We are not stuck or confined to one version of ourselves. We can modify, alter, and re-write how we do this thing called life, all the while accommodating the external events that cause us to internally change. Our cauldron is always there, our familiars ever at hand to assist us in this life long – even eternal - alchemy.

 

In traditional Tarot, the Temperance card shows an angel blending the contents of two cups, pouring one into the other. This reminds us that our spiritual nature, our soul, our higher self, is participating with us in this great alchemy. We might get bogged down in 3-D living but our higher nature is always at work within us, guiding us, celebrating our delicious new recipes with us.

 

Fresh home-made bread right out of the oven has a mouth-watering aroma. If anyone is in the house they will be drawn like a magnet to the kitchen, begging for a piece of the yumminess. As we hone our alchemy we are like that luscious aroma, attracting into our lives that which we need to help us continue on the path of growth and beauty. There might be a few toadstools and toes of salamanders along the way, but hey – they are all part of the mix.

 

What’s cooking in your cauldron?

 

…Kathryn Ravenwood 10-12-16

 

The Ace of Cups
From the Witches Tarot – Ellen Dugan
Detoxification

Original Writing by Kathryn Ravenwood

We are each a vessel of Spirit.  Our physical bodies, made of water, earth, fire, and air, are the living containers that Spirit inhabits, allowing us to enjoy not only a physical experience but to also provide a way for Spirit to expand through us. We use our minds, our hands, our voices, gifts, and talents so Spirit can experience the physical world and do work through us. When we are tuned in and “in the flow” with Spirit we are like the picture above: a shining cup filled and overflowing with the grace and love of the Universe. 

There is a cosmic filtration system set up. While we are in these bodies we are constantly learning. The Cups of the Tarot are about water and emotions. The planet and our bodies are about 70% (or more) water so the Cups represent a huge part of how we process life. Ideally, we experience and incorporate the lessons and gifts, releasing that which does not support us. We keep the flow going. The lake under the Cup is filled with water lilies blooming on the surface. The unseen roots of these plants grow and are fed from all the cast off dregs washing out of that cup. It is a scummy, putrid mass if you scoop it out from the bottom but to the plant it is an anchor, food, and the growth opportunity it needs.  In this recycling process everyone wins. 

However, all is not always well. Our emotional bodies get very clogged with the detritus of life. We experience more than we can continually process: fear, rejection, toxic relationships, loss, broken hearts, shattered self-esteem – the list goes on and on. We find ourselves holding on and when we hold on, the natural order of the Universe  - that of give and receive – is stopped. We begin to drown in our own emotional murkiness. 

The Ace of Cups is generally associated with things like a blissful new love affair, an overflowing of joy and spiritual love, and all things happy.  But when our cup is clogged with all that muck there is no room to receive. We have to release and give away – we need to detox.  If you were offered a drink of the most delicious nectar on earth and all you had to drink from was an old rusty cup or a glass caked with yesterday’s milk or coffee you could not receive and enjoy that nectar. But if you washed the cup first…

Try to stop the toxic intake. Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Implore Spirit to help you. Be willing to change and forgive even if you think you cannot do it. Even if the crime against you was truly heinous, be willing to let it go. Start giving yourself some emotionally beautiful moments.  Focus on what makes you happy, what gives you joy. Embrace your life – all of it. It is OK and normal that you experienced failures, that people let you down, that things did not turn out how you hoped or expected. Recognize and honor of the gunk you are holding within you. As it begins to filter out of you trust that, like those water lilies, it becomes the base for new growth, to be an anchor for the present and future you. 

This is a grand alchemy and nothing less. You will feel the new reaching out, rising up from the mucky layers. As you grow and reach out to the light above, the transformation continues; the buds of new life will form and, like those lilies, you will bloom and grace yourself and the world with beauty. There will be room again in the vessel to let Spirit and life experiences flow through you; the cosmic order of give and take will be restored and you will be once again filled with love, grace, beauty, joy and all things beautiful.

We cannot change what happened but we can choose how to respond. We are talking about emotions here – not the mind, not the will power, not the muscles and joints of our physical bodies. Emotions, like water, have to trickle and find an opening, flow through that opening and clean and clear along the way. It is a journey.  The Grand Canyon took eons of time as water simply sought its way through and carved beauty out of layers of rock hard resistance.  

The Ace of Cups is being offered to you.  Drink up.

…Kathryn Ravenwood 10-5-16