The Rowdy Goddess

An Ecstatic Vision of the Goddess, dancing in harmony with the Universe.

Archive for the category “Tarot spreads”

31 Mar 2015
2 Comments

Year of the Green Sheep

I see that it’s been more than a year since I’ve blogged or posted anything.  The past year has been full.  Full of change, full of sound and fury, and full of good things, too.  It has been very absorbing and it’s been hard to find anything to write about.  Perhaps that has changed.  The Year of the Sheep seems to be a nice transition from the rapidity of the Year of the Horse to a more soothing and gentle pace.  The Year of the Sheep may well help us reflect as we graze quietly by the still waters of tranquility.

The year 2015 marks the Year of the Green Sheep in the Chinese lunar calendar.   Green because the element marking this year is Wood.  In the Chinese cosmology, wood is associated with trees and nature with the color assigned is wood.  Is it sheep, ram, or goat?  The answer to all of these is yes, based on the translation of the Chinese word used.

The Sheep person is calm and gentle; well-liked by everyone.  The creature and people associated with this sign are considered very cute and remind people of beautiful things.  Sheep people are smart and kind-hearted, showing compassion and sensitivity to others.  They prefer a life of quiet action.  They are thrifty and cautious in business and financial matters.  At their worst, sheep people are vain, timid, pessimistic, and moody.

The Year of the Sheep is considered a time of good luck, peace, and calm after the tumult of the Year of the Horse.   Sheep tend not to be confrontational so the year tends to be more about smoothing out the edges rather than confronting all that is wrong.

For my part, the previous years have been ones of change, both good and sad, and not so great luck.  I hope for a year of beauty and peace.  At least I hope that whatever life brings, I can greet it with compassion, sensitivity, and intelligence.  In that hope, here is a card reading to reflect on how to envision life’s moments through the eyes of Sheep.

Year of the Green Sheep Tarot spread

Year of the Green Sheep Tarot spread

 

Card 1:  What dilemmas are you facing; how is your luck faring?

Card 2:  What skills do you need to face your situation with sensitivity?

Card 3:  What must you leave behind?

Card 4:  What actions will propel you forward?

Card 5:  What will keep you going strong and firm?

Card 6:  What brings a smile to your face and joy to your heart?

May the Year of the Green Sheep bring forth beauty, calm, peace, luck, and opportunity for you.

Posted in Divination, Tarot, Tarot spreads and tagged , , ,
06 Mar 2014

Howling at the Moon Tarot Spread

Last week I wrote about Howling in Winter and the power of the Wolf.  Today, by tapping into that power, I’m posting a Tarot spread based on the Wolf’s Howl.  A-Whhhhooooooooo!

This spread can  be used to help clarify situations; to help you see things that you are not seeing and to provide guidance for avoiding pitfalls as well as what is needed to move forward.

Tarot spread

 

 Card One:       The Heart of the Matter

Card Two:      How does the situation express itself?

Card Three:    Inner wisdom needed

Card Four:     Fears or what is to be avoided.

Card Five:      What are the next steps to move forward?

  May your journey follow your voice of freedom and release!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Divination, shamanism, Tarot, Tarot spreads and tagged , , , , | Leave a comment
25 Feb 2013
1 Comment

February is Full Snow Moon: A Meditation and Tarot Spread

The heaviest times for snow are during February.  Sometimes the harsh weather conditions led native peoples to call this the Full Hunger Moon since hunting was very difficult.  Our hearts and souls often hunger for warmth and comfort during this time.               

Snow is water made solid.  We work with water when we do soul work and emotional healing.  Water washes over us and cleanses us and sometimes we drown in the profundity of it all.  In its solid form we can feel remote and cut off from our emotional and soul selves and at the same time its solid form is a reminder that our emotions and souls can be manifested in the material world.  The beauty and uniqueness of a snowflake reminds us of our matchless selves, unique in our joy and our suffering.

Take three long cleansing breaths. Close your eyes and breathe again, letting go of any anxieties or concerns.  Continue to breathe deeply and connect with Mother Earth, slumbering soundly beneath the surface.  Your breathing matches hers as you breathe in peace and quiet.  You find yourself outdoors at night.  The sky is full of stars and the full moon glows brightly, illuminating the snow covered ground around you.  As you stand there in the quiet, deep in snow, flakes gently begin to fall.  You are not afraid, cold, or concerned but filled with the wonder and beauty of this snowfall.  The flakes remind you of the many blessings in your life as you watch the beauty fall from the night sky.  The illuminating rays of the moon cause some snowflakes to stand out and capture attention.  As you focus on individual snowflakes, what do they remind you of?  What is in your life that is evoked by the beautiful snowflake?  Is it a reminder of love, or grief?  Is it a memory or habit you can’t seem to shake?  Keep watching the snowflakes until you feel that you have learned enough.  Thank them for their wisdom.  With a long deep breath, you are back in the here and now.  With a second deep breath, you open your eyes. With a third deep breath, you reconnect with your centeredness and reconnect with Mother Earth.  As you return to your everyday place and time, record your journey in your journal and draw the snowflakes that you saw and what the snowflake evoked in you.   

Each One Unique Spread

Use this spread to ask a question about your situation when you are confused or certain things are not as they appear.  It’s a good way to help you keep on the path to reach your goal(s).

 

February Tarot Spread (Full Moon)   

Card One:       What is nearest and dearest to your heart in this matter?

Card Two:      What does your intuition tell you about the situation?

Card Three:    What does your imagination tell you about the situation?

Card Four:     What is hidden beneath the surface?

Card Five:      What is out of reach at this time?

Card Six:        What does logic say about this situation?

Card Seven:    What is the possible outcome?

 

Posted in Guided Meditation, Tarot, Tarot spreads and tagged , , , ,
23 May 2011
3 Comments

Majors Monday: The Magician

I am continuing to look at the majors for inspiration and for designing spreads. My desire is to make spreads as simple and clear as possible. Sometimes I feel that a lot of cards confuses the querent and the reader. Readers know the cards better and can probably absorb a lot of information, but sometimes the querent will shut down before they hear all the cards read because there’s just too much information.
The Magician is good at sorting out information and presenting it in a coherent and cohesive format. It’s not that he or she is simplistic in the power of thought, it’s just that the Magician can develop focus.
The arm pointed above and the arm pointed below indicates a firm grounding in earthly matters while understanding there is a celestial connection to things. He becomes a channel or conduit. Shamanic teaching tells us below or underworld is the source of information for earthly, bodily, and health matters while the above teaches us the wisdom of teachers and celestial energies. Neither above nor below is better than the other.
It can sometimes be a heady experiences to channel all that information and arrogance in his own opinion can be a danger for the magician. He has the tools on the table before him and he can use them anyway he chooses. The infinity symbol above his head helps him keep things in the perspective that he is a finite being working with huge infinite energies.
In shamanic thinking, the shaman is one who journeys between the worlds to gain wisdom and power to benefit the community; it is an act of service. A sorcerer may do the same journeywork and discover the same power and wisdom. The difference is the sorcerer uses that information in service only to himself or herself. The sorcerer’s hands are not connected to above and below in the stance of the magician, but rather directs it into his/her own being.
With this anchoring and the greater perspective, he can use his tools to gain wisdom and power to benefit himself in the service of others.
Wisdom and Knowledge
Use this spread to understand the purpose behind the querent’s quests and questions and to determine a future plan

Card One: Your view of the infinite, the long view, long-term idea
Card Two: Where your head is at, what your thinking, imagining, or dreaming
Card Three: Information from the infinite, your teachers, or celestial wisdom
Card Four: Information from the underworld about body, health, earthly matters
Card Five: What are you channeling, accessing; are there blockages?
Card Six, Seven, Eight and Nine can be read together as the tools you have access to; or seperately as Cups, Pentacles, Swords, and Wands.
Let me know how this works for you since it’s brand new!
May the wisdom of all your teachers from all the worlds be clear and delightful to you.
Posted in shamanism, Tarot, Tarot spreads, teacher and tagged , , ,
09 May 2011
1 Comment

Majors Monday: The Fool in Springtime

I have been back from the Readers Studio 2011 for a week and I’m still absorbing all the wonderful things I learned and the experiences I’ve had hanging out with the Tarot Tribe. From that journey into the lands of Tarot delights and visions, I have resolved to focus my attention and be active in my Tarot journey. Towards that focus, I’m combining my Dark Moon Tarot blog with my Rowdy Goddess blog. After all, isn’t Tarot the essence of rowdiness?
One of the speakers, Caitlin Matthews, talked about Tarot readers, energy workers and others in the fields of esoterica as inhabiting the fringes and edges of society. It’s at these borders where the the boundaries are pushed, questions are asked, and critique occurs. It is where we go when we feel like an outlander in our own homes or mainstream society.
It is into these borderlands that the Fool travels, seeking whatever it is he is seeking, far away from the domesticated lands of civilization. It is often said that the Fool is seeking a fresh perspective, or is he looking for a wild world where questions are asked and the standard answers no longer apply? He finds that the questions are alive and evolving in that wilderness. This is where civilization has unraveled to reveal a more raggedy edge. It is an opportunity to look at life with fresh eyes and decide if reweaving is what is sought or if something else needs to happen.
Barbara Moore taught us to look at each card with a fresh eye, to see the questions in the cards and then to see the patterning of questions as tarot spreads; spreads that will help us understand patterns. As the images and the questions dance together, a pattern emerges as a spread. Barbara also encouraged us to place the cards asymmetrically, to offset some cards and to place the cards at angles to each other. The very act of asymmetry compels us to view patterns through different lenses. Sometimes our lives become so circumscribed or hemmed in by our answers, we don’t see there are new ways to pose the questions, or even that there are other questions to be asked. Sometimes new questions emerge as we place things in different relationships to one another. The same is true for readers, spreads, questions, and querents.
As a Tarot reader, librarian and spiritual seeker, I have learned that living the question is the prize. Just as the power of the journey is in the journey itself (thank you to Ursula K. LeGuin’s masterpiece The Left Hand of Darkness) so is the question itself the journey.
The Fool in Springtime Spread
As I look at the Rider-Waite-Smith image, my attention is attracted to the pack. What is in there and what needs to be unpacked? Is it too heavy? Then I turn my attention to the pole. Is it strong enough? Does it hurt the Fool? Does it help or hinder? And of course the dog. I always notice dogs! Is the dog herding him, following him or is the dog a boon companion? Then the cliff and then the rose bring more questions. Five images turn into five positions in the spread.
Five is a good number for a reading because it shows the chaos of change and of questioning the status quo. Fives don’t often provide “the final answer” but can provide some additional guidance or, at the very least, more information. The spread is simple, deceptively so, since the questions beget more questions. The cards can provide more insight.
Some of my students like guides for when to use certain spreads. This one is good for people seeking more information at the start of a new journey, project, or if they are thinking they need a change. And it’s good for people in the midst of chaos to help them find a focus.
The Fool In Springtime Spread, May 2011

Card One: The Pack
What do I have packed for my journey?
Card Two: The Pole
What enables me to carry my burdens/gifts?
Card Three: The Cliff
What threshold am I approaching?
Card Four: The Dog
What aids me or is nipping at my heels?
Card Five: The Rose
What beauty is unfolding for me?

 

This thread is brand new and I have read much with it. I’d be very interested in your feedback and experiences.

May your journey to the outer edges be filled with questions, magic, beauty and delight!

Posted in Tarot, Tarot spreads and tagged ,
14 Feb 2009

A Kiss for Valentine’s Day

 

There are many legends associated with the origins and customs of St. Valentine’s Day, with little known about the true historical fact. Whatever the origins, this holiday is a lot of fun, full of hearts, cherubs, kisses, cuddles, chocolates and red-hot cinnamon hearts.

Some sources say that February 14th was the festival of Juno, the Roman Goddess of women and marriage. This festival was followed by Lupercalia, a very well-documented holiday of the Roman God of agriculture Faunus. At the beginning of the festival, an order of priests called the Luperci gathered at the cave where the she-wolf raised Romulous and Remus, the founders of Rome. They called the boys and young men of Rome to join them as they sacrificed a goat for fertility and a god for purification. The boys would slice the goat hide into strips and dip them into blood. They went into the streets where they slapped Roman women and crops with these strips of hide to ensure fertility and easy childbirth for the women as well as good crops.

Later that same day, the young women of Rome would place their names in an urn; and the city’s unmarried men would draw a name. The men and women would be paired together for a year; a custom that often ended in marriage.

Pope Gelasius declared that February 14th was St. Valentine’s Day in 498 B.C.E. and it is popularly believed that he did this to end the lottery associated with Lupercalia, deeming it an unchristian practice. St. Valentine’s Day did not become connected with romantic love until the medieval era, and it is not clear which St. Valentine the holiday is named for.

The most popular legend is of a priest living near Rome in 270 B.C.E. The Roman Emperor Claudius II had outlawed marriage because he believed that unmarried men made the best soldiers. In an empire beset by internal strife and attacks from many different sources, Rome needed many able soldiers. This priest named Valentine took pity on lovers and would administer the sacrament of marriage in secret. Claudius had him arrested. The emperor when meeting Valentine was so charmed by this earnest priest, that he attempted to convert him to the Roman gods so that Valentine could avoid execution. Valentine remained true to his Christian God and was executed to become a martyr and a saint.

While he was awaiting execution, his jailer, Asterius, requested that Valentine heal his blind daughter; and through the miracle of his steadfast faith, Valentine was able to restore her sight. Just before his execution, Valentine asked for a pen and paper and wrote a message to her, signing it “From Your Valentine,” a phrase now associated with this holiday of love and messages.

In medieval times, St. Valentine’s Day became associates with romantic love in France and England; it was believed that February 14th was the day that birds paired and mated. This is mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Parlement of Foules. It was common in those days for sweethearts to exchange messages on this day and to refer to each other as their “Valentines.”

As with many customs, the St. Valentine’s Day customs followed the Europeans as they settled the New World. The first mass-produced valentines were sold by Esther A. Howland (1828-1904) and were embossed paper lace. Her father owned a large book and stationary store in Worchester Massachusetts and she was inspired by a valentine she received from England. She became known as the Mother of the Valentine, and was known for her elaborate creations of lace, ribbons and pictures.

In the 21st century, this holiday has grown, and so have the customs associated with it. One billion cards per year are mailed on Valentine’s Day. Love and affection in all its manifestations are celebrated on this day. Passion, affection, steadfast love, crushes, lust, friendship, sex and family are all expressed with tokens of love.

Posted in Goddess, Tarot, Tarot spreads and tagged , , | Leave a comment

Post Navigation