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Things are pretty interesting here.

On this planet.

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Deck: Dark Goddess Tarot
Spread: Card of the Day
Date: Sat Jan 26 05:59:16 EST 2019


Today's Card
Ace of Earth ~ Gaia (Reversed)

Greek Goddess of the Earth

The earth gives birth to giants. Time to grow.

Inseparable from her element, Gaia rises from the earth. She eyes the sky and holds up her hands to bless the children around her. Arising from primeval Chaos, the earth of the ancient Greeks is a disk topped by the dome of heaven with the pit of Tartaros below, and the seas and mountains upon her breast.

Gaia is the Mother of All, for everything in nature comes from her flesh, whether animal, tree, or rock. She is the mother of the gods as well. They descend from her union with another elemental from the dawn of creation, Ouranos, the sky above. Gaia is fertility, and cannot help but bring forth children. She is nature, and cannot help but desire life for them.

It is this last, her having primary loyalty to her children over her mate, that causes conflict with the heavenly gods. Ouranos, in his fear of being supplanted, imprisons several of her children within her womb, causing her extreme pain. After she helps her son Kronos overthrow Ouranos for his oppression, the son betrays her and does the same as the father. She helps another son step up, Zeus, who releases the Titans from her body but confines them to Tartaros in his fear of their strength. Gaia then mates with Tartaros and produces tribes of terrible giants and monsters. These children rise to fight against the upstart and his friends. Gaia supports and bears them all. She does not stop providing life, no matter the circumstances.

Thereafter the young gods name themselves Olympians and claim all powers as their own. But no one, immortal or not, can control or be apart from Gaia’s primal being. She provides the place, the means, and the power for all earthly life to happen. As she alone knows all that takes place upon her body, it is she who whispers deep wisdom to the ancient oracles.

When Gaia appears:

Seek Gaia’s wisdom in nature. Hold stones in your hands. Listen to the stirring of leaves and the play of water. Watch the flight of birds. Go to sacred places. If she does not answer in a pertinent or meaningful way, you may need a different question or approach. You may need to give it time. When you practice, you learn what works.

Embracing your life is not a one-time task. For best results, keep your arms open and keep going. Be brave enough to work on your big dream.

Make a vow to make manifest the next idea that contains a seed of something good. It doesn’t have to be the greatest or only idea you will ever have. Show you are serious about making things happen, and they will.

Honor the source of your resources. Work to strengthen and repair your connections and relationships where necessary. Without access to resources, you cannot get anywhere.



Presented by Dark Goddess Tarot app from The Fool's Dog.

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Deck: The Shining Tribe Tarot
Spread: Card of the Day
Date: Sat Jan 26 13:42:14 EST 2019


Today's Card
4 of Trees (Reversed)

Shelter us, cool us.
Lift us, conceal us.
Parades of bright color,
a sky of green leaves.

The fours are about structure, while the suit of Trees shows us the fire of the sun rooted in growing things. Together they give us the idea of life energy given form while still growing and vibrant. This is a card that celebrates the simple gifts of nature and home. The picture is balanced, even serene, without being static. We see a house sheltered by two overarching trees. The energy is not outside the house, with a separation between our structured lives in society and the vibrancy of nature. Instead, two smaller trees grow within the frame of the house itself. The card shows a time in which our lives have form and yet remain free and joyous, with many possibilities.

A sun shines over the doorway, as if to bless the house with life. The sun has eight rays, reminiscent of the eight-rayed Star in trump 17 as well as trump 8, Strength, and the eight-sided geometric form called an octagon. Symbolic tradition considers the octagon halfway between the circle of spiritual perfection and the square of material form. Like the square, the number four suggests matter and physical reality as well as structure, while fire belongs to the sun and is often considered the element that links us to Spirit. The eight-rayed sun over the door symbolizes divine energy taking form in our lives. The door itself is red, for the animal life that joins with the green of the leaves and the lush hillside. The knobs on the door are golden, the color of the sun and spiritual wisdom.

The Four of Trees is the first of the completely new cards done for Shining Tribe. The only remnant from the original Four of Trees (in the Shining Woman Tarot) is the grain that grows at the bottom of the picture, between the two trees, reaching up to the level of the door. This grain, which we also find on the Star card as a symbol of Persephone and the constant hope of renewal in spring, represents first of all the simple miracle of food. We take for granted (especially those of us who live in modern cities, where the supermarkets always carry plentiful food) that the earth grows what we need to keep us alive and that the sun pours down its warmth, which the plants transform into their own cell structure so that food will grow that we can take into our homes and our bodies. Just because it happens all the time, each spring and summer, does not make it any less a miracle, any less a gift.

Divinatory meanings: Joy, life's simple pleasures, a happy home. Abundance without excess. A life that is structured and organized, but in a simple way, so that the person feels able to breathe and appreciate the world and its beauty. Appreciation of the many simple gifts (and miracles) that give meaning and spiritual structure to our lives.

Reversed: The serenity and vibrancy remain, but may not be so apparent to the person. The person may need to open his or her eyes to the wonders of life that exist in the present situation. Alternatively, the doors may be opening; that is, a situation that has become overly structured may be making room for new possibilities.



Presented by The Shining Tribe Tarot app from The Fool's Dog.

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Deck: The Druid Oracles
Spread: Card of the Day
Date: Tue Jan 29 11:50:14 EST 2019


Today's Card
Sow

Muc

Pronunciation: Mooc

keywords
Generosity • Nourishment • Discovery

The card shows a sow with her piglets. In the fields behind her we see wheat and barley, said to have been brought to Wales by the divine sow Henwen, the "White Ancient." On the horizon we see the Hill of Tara, in Ireland, which was once known as Muc Inis, Pig Island, when the Tuatha De Danann changed it into the shape of a pig. In the foreground to the right grows sow-thistle, and to the left deadly nightshade, which—it is said—pigs can eat without harm. On the ground lies one of the favorite foods of pigs, the nuts of the beech tree.

Upright Meaning   Muc, with her large litters, symbolizes abundance and fertility. Drawn upright, this card may mean that you are called upon to be generous. Feeling connected to the love of the Goddess for all her creatures, you are able to give freely, knowing that you, in turn, are nourished and sustained by her. Choosing this card, you can open yourself to the abundance that exists throughout nature. You can allow yourself to accept this abundance, knowing that life perpetually renews itself, and that you need not worry about ever being disconnected from it. Allow yourself to feast on life—to enjoy its beauties and its sensual delights. The Goddess is generous, giving to all and renewing all.

Reversed Meaning   You may need to revise your image of yourself. There is an old saying in Gaelic: "When you thought you were on the sow's back, you were beside her in the puddle." Although the sow symbolizes nourishment, fertility and giving, she can also represent greed and "pig-ignorance." You may need to work toward a greater understanding of the subtleties of life, rather than relying simply on your looks or physique. Without wisdom even beauty can be unattractive, as another Gaelic saying indicates: "As a golden jewel in a pig's snout, is a fair woman without sufficiency of understanding." Pigs' bristles were used for centuries for artists' brushes, and the leather of pigs is exceptionally soft—appearances can be deceptive, so judge people or propositions on their true merits and intrinsic worth rather than their outward appearance.

The Tradition of the SOW

The pig that I killed last year
Has produced young this year
Traditional riddle

Much of the ancient wisdom has entered our everyday world through traditional sayings. Riddles, particularly, were used by the Bards to convey ideas with humor and to test the wits of their audience. The riddle of the pig that produces young, even though killed, refers to a coppiced tree—which appears to have been cut down, until its new shoots are seen in the spring. But beneath this straightforward answer lies a clue that directs us to the symbolic and totemic meaning of the pig in the Druid tradition. The pig is sacred to the Goddess, the providing and nourishing aspect of divinity, and as such it is often depicted in the old tales as a magical beast, which is constantly reborn however many times it is eaten. In Ireland, at each of the hostels of the Otherworld gods, there would be great cauldrons filled with boiled or roasted pork, supplied by pigs who were continually reborn after each slaughter. In the father-god Dagda's sidh, or fairy mound, there was an unending supply of drink, three trees which perpetually bore fruit, and a pig that was always alive to provide food.

The Pig as Nourisher

The pig as a gift from the gods or the Goddess to nourish human-kind was clearly recognized by the Celts. They farmed pigs to such a degree that, the classical writer Diodorus Siculus noted, "they have such enormous herds of swine that they afford a plenteous supply for salt meat." These herds were allowed to forage in the woods, keeping down unwanted shrubs and undergrowth. In the spring and autumn they were turned on to the fields to manure and break up the soil.

Because of the pig's importance to the Celtic way of life, it was honored and respected, and was also used ritualistically

. At the late Iron Age shrine at Hayling Island in Hampshire, large numbers of pigs have been found buried, and the shrine at South Cadbury in Somerset is connected to an avenue of burials of young pigs, calves and lambs. At the burial site of Skeleton Green in Hertfordshire male pigs were found buried with the men, while the women were buried with birds. A similar connection between male burials and pigs has been discovered in France, and the four columns of the inner sanctum of the Romano-Celtic temple at Hockwold in Norfolk rested on pig and bird bones—perhaps echoing this association of male with pig and female with bird. At the great Druid center of Chartres in France a young pig has been found ritualistically interred in a pit, and at Winklebury in Hampshire a pig and a raven were found buried together in a ritual shaft.

These pits or shafts were used to make thanksgiving offerings and were symbolically associated with the Underworld. The pig as a primary source of nourishment meant that it was a central feature of both the earthly Celtic feast and the Underworld feast too. Many chariot burials in both Britain and France include entire pigs—undoubtedly to ensure the soul's nourishment beyond the mortal realm.

Grandmother Pig

As a source of nourishment, the pig represents the Goddess, and in parts of the Scottish highlands a brood-sow is termed Sean-mhair—grandmother. As evidence that Druidry was perhaps originally Goddess-centered, Druids were referred to as "piglets" and the Goddess was sometimes pictured as a sow. One of the early Welsh Triads, The Three Powerful Swineherds of Britain, talks of the sow Henwen, the White Ancient, who gives birth to a wolf-cub, an eagle, a bee, a kitten and a grain of wheat. Henwen was said to possess great wisdom, having eaten the nuts which had fallen from the beech—a sacred tree of the Druids symbolizing ancient knowledge and tradition. Also within Welsh mythology, Ceridwen, responsible for the initiation and transformation of Gwion Bach into the magical bard Taliesin, is known as the goddess of pigs and barley. She manifests sometimes as a pig, her neophytes being addressed as piglets, her worshipers as swine, her Druid as boar or boar of the trees and her Hierarch as swineherd.

A pig is completely omnivorous—it will eat virtually anything it finds. But this lack of discrimination is balanced by the pig's ability to find hidden treasure, and pigs have been used to discover truffles and other fungal delicacies for centuries in Britain and Europe.

The ability of pigs to discover the earth's secrets is one of the reasons why the pig is so important in the Druid tradition. Both male and female pigs are sacred to the Goddess—the sow representing her life-giving aspect, the boar symbolizing her life-taking aspect. To fully understand the role of the pig as a totem animal we must study and work with both sow and boar.



Presented by The Druid Oracles app from The Fool's Dog.

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