The Two of Swords - Creative Differences

THE TWO OF SWORDS

PEACE THROUGH CREATIVE DIFFERENCES

Original Writing by Kathryn Ravenwood

Featured Deck - the Tarot of Transformation

by Willow Arelenea and Jasmin Lee Cori

The Two of Swords teaches us that in our world of duality there is never just one possibility, option, or solution. Everyone sees the world from a unique viewpoint. When our way of thinking agrees with another’s we find it easy to get along and enjoy further association with them. We are able to figure it out; we relinquish conflict through willing compromise.  We work it out, don’t keep score, and enjoy one other.  We are at peace even though the flux of duality continues.

However, we all know people with whom we just can’t seem to get along. When viewpoints clash we often to try to manipulate or control the other person to conform to our way of thinking. The result is a push-back creating more conflict, a battle to be the winner, or a meek surrender leaving someone feeling belittled, a loser. Peace cannot exist in such situations. We cannot expect to agree with everyone (or them with us!). Sometimes conflicts are best walked away from, leaving a temporary peace of non-action.  And, sometimes it just isn’t safe to stick around; we opt for the peace of self-preservation.  

Today’s featured Two of Swords is called Creative Differences. The circles in front of each figure represent their unique projection into the world. Where those circles overlap is a place of intersection, a portal of entry to explore the landscape of opportunities that might exist when conflict and control are approached through creative thinking. When we enter that portal we discover that my way or your way can morph into a different way that offers peace through listening, compassion, and understanding that did not exist before the growth opportunity of duality presented itself.  When we are able to explore those portals of possibility that exist between each of us, we bring forth creative solutions; we have found peace not just in resolution, but in expressing something new that is the best of both worlds. 

The Swords of the Tarot are about the mind. Conflict exists within our thoughts. Destructive duality can run rampant in our heads. Should I choose this or that? What if I had done that instead of this? “Woulda, shoulda, coulda” holds us prisoners of war in our own minds. The same portal of possibility exists within us. We can use the same compassionate listening to our own conflicting voices to find a creative difference to bring us peace of mind. If we can’t find peace of mind, how can we find peace on Earth?

Duality is ever with us. Change is the only constant. We will be given the opportunity to find creative differences as long as we live. Peace is not the absence of conflict; it is the transformation of it. 

...Kathryn Ravenwood

The 8 of Cups

THE EIGHT OF CUPS - Moving On

Original Writing by Kathryn Ravenwood

                                                              

                     from the Buckland-Romani Tarot                     From the Rider Waite Tarot

I love seeing trends when I do readings for people.  Lately the 8 of Cups has been showing up so I decided to take a closer look at it.

I confess that, being a Cancer and easily overwhelmed by my emotions (duh), this card carries a lot of sorrow and regret for me.  Oh gosh, how did I get into this situation?  I was so stupid, bad, thoughtless, vulnerable, gullible, fill in the blank….  But here I am and I am miserable.  

I have been shortchanging this card.  Yes, it is a very emotional place and yes, we have hit an emotional bottom.  But this card is really about hope and movement forward.  It is a place where we come to grips with reality and cut our losses so we can move on.  The past is just that – the past, over, done, never to return.  We can’t change what happened and we can only remain frozen in the pain so long.  There comes a time we just need to get to a better place.  I am never amused when people say, “oh just get over it.”  You know – we might not really ever get over it but we can certainly go on.  This takes not only will power and courage but a sense of surrender.  We just can’t do any more about it.  We come to realize what is done is done and we must cut our losses, turn our backs on that low place and move on.

I am showing two examples of the 8 of Cups – the traditional Rider Waite based image and the Buckland Romani Tarot.  Both express the meaning of the card but in entirely different ways.  The Buckland Romani card spoke to me as I think no other Tarot card ever has.  It absolutely sent a gasp of new understanding through my entire being.  I will tell you why.  My father’s side of the family came to this country from Sweden, landed in New York, and continued their journey west as Mormon Hand-Cart pioneers.  I cannot even imagine how hard that must be – HAND CARTS.  No horses or oxen or mules pulling their belongings – they walked and pushed, pulled and wrangled those carts across mountains and rivers and miles of open prairie in all kinds of weather.  I am sure they started out with those carts loaded with every treasure they owned, thinking they could transport their past into their future.  Then along the way they were forced to leave things behind.  I grew up in Wyoming and heard stories about how in the old days people still found remnants of the pioneers’ leavings as they had to lighten the load – dishes, musical instruments, furniture, all left on the prairie along old wagon ruts carved into the earth like the indelible ink of forgotten stories.

I have thought a lot about this – the road became so hard and going forward must have seemed impossible.  Imagine the conversations  “why did we ever leave Sweden? What were we thinking?  I miss the people back home. I want a real meal. I want to sleep in a real bed. How much farther do we have to do this?  We will never get there.  I am too tired. We will never get this cart out of that mud.  It is too hot, too cold, too far…..” In despair, bitterness, fear, overwhelmed to the max, these people had to face reality.  They are here – now – in this predicament.  They have to lighten the load or they cannot go forward.  That means something has got to go and it is going to have to be the heaviest part of the burden.  So out goes the rocking chair where all the babies were rocked,  or mother’s tea set, or the chest of family treasures.  Dump it.  Leave it.  Cry and wring your hands but it has got to go.  And then, yes, the cart wheels finally move, with one last heroic effort it is pushed out of the mud and headed west.  West.  The place of transitions, where the trees, feeling the coming winter, drop their leaves to preserve their strength and lessen the burden to support and keep alive the core of the tree during the cold months.  Where the Shadows lurk and we go between a place of light and dark – into the unknown.

What are the heaviest and oldest burdens you carry?  Are you ready to finally sacrifice them to lighten your load so you can go forward?  I offer this question to you with great love and understanding and encourage you to leave behind that which is so hard for you to bear.  You are moving forward into an unknown future.  My pioneer ancestors did indeed make it and settled in beautiful lands, raised families and created a new heritage.  They built new furniture, acquired new dishes and looked forward more than behind.  They had to.

I hope the 8 of Cups helps you to take the time to evaluate your emotional distress and feel what you are ready to leave behind.  Our lives are indeed vast landscapes filled with mountains and valleys, oceans and rivers to cross.  And we have wide open spaces where we can leave behind what we must let go of.  We move into a new day with each morning and we begin again with each breath. 

Here’s to a lighter load, the cutting of losses, the grieving and the moving on. And may peace be with you on your journey.

...Kathryn Ravenwood

Fear vs. Facts

                                                            

                                  From the Mythic Tarot - Liz Green           From the Rider -Waite Tarot                                         

Fear vs Facts

Original Writing by Kathryn Ravenwood

 In the above cards we see what I call Fear vs. Facts. The Five of Swords shows a person, probably a child, being overwhelmed by a huge figure of some authority.  An angel? If so, the angel is in a punishing mode and the child is feeling small and helpless, afraid. The 5 of Swords is about feeling defeated or the fear of defeat. We have experienced defeat in a relationship or in moving forward. Fear controls our thinking and we become stuck in the past and negative thinking.

I love the Tarot because for every hard lesson help comes along just in time. In the 6 of Swords, the figures in the boat are in need of rest and a change of mind. They have found a boatman to take them across the troubled waters into smoother waters. This card is about our minds using facts to deal with the situation. We no longer focus on past fears nor do we “future trip” by setting ourselves up with outcomes to yet un-happened events.  Even though we may just be getting started, we are on the way to peace of mind. Sometimes we need a time out, a rest or a change to help us see things in a new way.  A physical or mental relocation helps to change things up, get us out of the rut of negative/programmed thinking into a neutral place.

The Six of Swords is always a favorite to me. We are given safe passage through the muddied waters of our minds. Fear is behind us, the future ahead, and we are right here, right now in the present.  One of the big lessons here is that the Swords are OUR minds – no one lives in our head but us.  It is up to us to use the 6 of Swords to analyze our thoughts, separate facts from fears and think our way into a better place.

Be your own boatman.

...Kathryn Ravenwood

Two of Wands

THE TWO OF WANDS/FIRE

From the Mythical Goddess Tarot by Sage Holloway and Katherine Skaggs

original writing by Kathryn Ravenwood 11.27.15

It is so easy to get distracted. We are bombarded with news - most of it insane - social media, entertainment opportunities, work, family and friends, daily routines, and now the holidays are upon us with all their triggers that can push us into frenzied preparations or depressed anxiety. If you have found yourself feeling separated from meaningful life lately, you are not alone. 

The question is not so much what a meaningful life might be rather than how to reclaim it. Sometimes it feels to me that I am adrift in a river being carried ever away from the banks of solid ground where I know who I am, where my life has meaning. I have lost track of the tools I have and how to use them to support myself. I am unable to get a grip. I feel disconnected and adrift. 

In the featured card, we see a woman sitting peacefully, holding light within her hands. The light is coming from within her; she has reached inside and drawn it from her center with her focused will - her personal power - and it expands all around her in glowing auras. This light is the Divine Gift within each of us; we all contain this Divine Spark. When we are able to consciously connect with this light, this power, we move beyond the turmoil of whatever has caused us to get lost in the external, when we forgot that real peace comes from within.

The Two of Wands, or Fire, is often referred to as possibilities. There is always something else going on, options to choose from, something else we put upon ourselves to do, to be, to think. I love that in the card above, the woman uses her two hands to hold her flame. She brings the duality of life into focus with the one true source of power, where she centers her attention, and connects to the higher consciousness of who she truly is. From this act she is better able to resist the illusions and distractions of what is outside of her.

The Wand/Fire cards in the Tarot are about our will. We must apply ourselves with conscious effort. We are the power that creates our patterns, recognizes them, and we are the power that can create a new way to live our own life. The woman in the card looks serene in her simple act of centering. She has made time for a daily practice which requires discipline, the application of her will to learn, to apply, and to draw upon to sustain her. This is not something we do for awhile and then go on auto pilot. Discipline requires constant attention, a consistent centering with our power.

But oh, those distractions! When you find yourself being pulled in multiple directions, feel overwhelmed, lost, or just plain worn out, remember the light within you that connects you to your divine power and wisdom, that place within you that centers you in the storms of life. Stop and breathe. Reach into your heart. Pull out that flame of love and peace and remember you are more that what is happening around you. Don’t get distracted in the doing of this - you don’t have to create a whole new ceremony or go on a retreat.  Light a candle Smudge. Say a chant. Offer a prayer. Breathe. Be aware. And go from there.

When you can move outward again from that center of your divine power, be that power, that centered calm and peace in the world. The world surely needs it.

…Kathryn Ravenwood 11.27.15