7 January 2021
Today's Cards
Context
Well, my day started later than planned. I have side-tracked A LOT! Equipment I needed, lighting specifically, to finish some of the work I had planned to do for the website, wasn’t available in the stores I visited. I may need to rethink the day’s tactics because it seems times are changing throughout the day. Not having what I needed meaning my day was a little frustrating, and then I remembered I was on vacation – yay!
Unfortunately, I did some doom-scrolling today. For those unaware of what doom-scrolling is, it is the act of clicking on one fearful headlined article to the next. Doom-scrolling operates on your fears and slight morbidity for you to keep scrolling. You go from one morbid or frightening item to the next.
At the moment, it’s mainly the feeds trending on Twitter re the US Presidential election status in the United States. I’m disappointed that a dynamic individual such as Trump hadn’t behaved with dignity like past presidents when he knew that times are a-changing. Even when the president runners-up of the past felt robbed, they acted with more dignity!
Win-Lose when times are a-changing
In his last four years, Trump has failed to portray anything but an “us versus them” attitude, alternatively the school of win-lose instead of the business term of win-win. When you’re running a country, shouldn’t the aim be for a win-win (win for the country is a win for you)? Win-lose means that for one party to win, the other party has to lose. The UK Prime Minister, Mr Boris Johnson, has shown personal growth (movie terms his character has had a character arch) in recent times.
The win-lose concept is appropriate on a sports field; it should not apply once you’ve already won in politics. When Trump won the 2016 election, his attitude should have gone from one of win-lose to win-win. Remembering politicians are responsible for the people who elected them and those who didn’t – that’s democracy. It might help to remember, “a rising tide lifts all boats”.
Anyway, I digress. By the way, speaking of “times are a-changing”, I mixed things up a bit by changing the shuffling method. Today, I put the deck on a flat surface and swished them around as a washing machine does. Let’s see what the cards have to say.
The Cards
Cross - the first three
Once again, the day started with Possibilities in the Now. I wonder whether this is how my day begins when I have great aspirations? As we know, there were things I wanted to do, mainly get lighting, so let’s go with that.
This week’s popular card is Schizophrenia, and my Influencer appears to be that old ‘rock and a hard place’ thing preventing movement for fear of everything collapsing. The very nature of the card, Schizophrenia, tells us that it’s a blocking card.
The block could very well be the lack of being able to purchase the piece of lighting equipment I wished to use today. The company had sold out of the product I wanted. There were expensive versions available. However, I’m not sure how much I am going to use this device or not. Nor do I know if it’s going to be effective.
Part of me then thought if I got a cheap one, it wouldn’t work well, and it wouldn’t be effective anyway. Why isn’t this card called confusion? So, it looks like I discovered my rock (wait for the expensive one) and a hard place (go cheap and hope it works) – you can pick which is which. In the end, I decided that I could work without either and simply make do with what I had at home. Only to discover that what I wanted to do wouldn’t have worked anyway!
It’s incredible that the Goal position has the card of No-thingness – or as I like to refer to it as ‘potential’. Today, however, I think “nothing-ness” is more appropriate. It felt like I had not accomplished anything. I wanted a blank slate. Aha! I remember I sent off payment to get my logo changed. There’s potential to get something moving! My goal lives!!!
Times are a-changing from Distant Past to Future Energy
The Distant Past card of Comparison had me stumped. Although, I did pleasantly note that it had moved to this position. Like a big, “phew”! However, it just dawned on me that I was frustrated not getting through my list of to-dos because of the success of the other day. It all went so easy. Perhaps refocussing on a vacation day helped me not be so hard on myself.
As for the Recent Past position, the card of Turning In makes complete sense. Yesterday, I recommenced meditating. Meditating is a phase I go through. For ages, it worried me thinking that I would lose the discipline or the desire to meditate.
I am trying to turn it into a habit. But it’s a part of me. I’ve been doing it, and I enjoy meditating – even if it gets painful. I’m always glad I’ve taken the time to meditate, forced, disciplined or otherwise.
Another form of turning in for me is to do yoga. I was still a bit sore from the other day’s reacquaintance with the practice – ouch!
Future energy position has the card of Playfulness. Apart from annoying the dishwasher today, there wasn’t a lot of Playfulness in the day. There was dragging our second cat Valentine around on the bedside mat for a few twirls just to try and upset him. Sadly, that failed. He just purred happily and lay flat on his back for a pat. Maybe it’s yet to come :).
Base
The Feelings position regarding my situation of Possibilities not going to plan was/is Change. Osho Zen, on the metaphysical level, speaks of the cycles of highs and lows. The patterns of joy and sorrow. The Change card is about recognising the pattern and breaking it.
It can also mean that there is Change afoot. Some inner change will require assessment and a shift in perspective.
Or it may be at that moment when I discovered that Comparison between my productive day and expecting that today wasn’t going to be like that. There was the potential, as I had said above, that it was frustrating. Indeed, there were elements, if I resigned myself to treat the day as a vacation day instead of wallowing in the frustration, the pattern would break.
The position of Other People’s Views holds the card of New Vision. The New Vision view means other people see me as connecting with something that is “me”. Let’s face it, the only person at this stage I can gauge that off is my husband. That’s probably following yesterday’s Dobby story. My husband has also seen the other stuff I’ve been working on, which may also present that impression.
Oh, the Hopes and Fears position is Participation. Participation in this spot could have so many meanings now, and to some extent, they are probably all relevant. However, to keep this concise.
I would love to get some participation going with a feedback loop and the “like, subscribe, notification” kind of thing happening, apart from the fact that I would need to find an intelligent developer person to help me out with that. It scares me too. It’s kind of when this s*it gets real!
Predicted Outcome
The Outcome position is Consciousness. The card is about having a crystal clear and focussed mind and not having it flicker from place to place like an undisciplined inner child.
Consciousness is a lovely card to end on, particularly around mental clarity. There is undoubtedly some clarity around what I want to accomplish. Being unable to get the equipment I thought I wanted has made me think of alternatives that might work, maybe even better in the short term.
I plan to put up a page regarding the card layout tomorrow. I haven’t decided whether I will post off the page to an editor to fix up or whether I will just subject you to it. Let’s just see what happens.