Deck: The Druid Oracles
Spread: Card of the Day
Date: Tue Sep 17 19:54:57 EDT 2019


Today's Card
Chamomile (Reversed)

Camomhail

Anthemis sp.

upright
Rest • Guardianship • Regeneration

reversed
Stress • Sanctuary • Calm

leaf

Chamomile is a perennial herb found growing in most of Europe, North Africa and the temperate region of Asia. In Britain, four species grow in the wild. Common Chamomile is cultivated in herb gardens and on lawns. The plant’s natural habitat is cliff-top grasslands, damp woodland clearings and sandy commons, but it adapts well to grazed land or mowed lawns and can be found on village greens and cricket pitches.

The card shows Common Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis) growing beneath an apple tree – in early Summer before its fruit has ripened. In the distance an ancient river finds its way to the sea.

Upright Meaning   Chamomile brings calm, rest and protection. If you have chosen this card, it may mean that you are entering, or need to enter, a calm phase, in which you will be able to connect again to your inner resources – both physical and spiritual. Our lives can be so frenetic that even when we do take the time to rest we find it hard to calm down. Chamomile can help us to do this. In addition, Chamomile is one of the St John’s Wort plants – a term that was used for a number of herbs traditionally gathered on St John’s Day, and, originally, probably at the Summer Solstice. These plants convey the energy of the summer sun – of regeneration and vitality. Without vitality, whatever we do is coloured by a sense of fatigue or lack of enthusiasm, and choosing this card may suggest that you need to focus on how you can regain your zest for life, and the energy you need to cope with the demands of the life you have chosen. The card may also be suggesting a need to go back to basics, the simple things in life, or even to return to the family and the nurturing it can offer.

Reversed Meaning   Most people’s lives tend to be stressful, but it is how they cope with it which determines whether or not it makes them ill or depressed. If you have chosen this card reversed, it may indicate that you are experiencing a good deal of stress at the moment, and it can be helpful to focus not on the source of that stress, which could be out of your control, but on how you are reacting to it.

The more you focus on something, the more your awareness is consumed by preoccupation with it. One of the values of a spiritual path lies in its ability to offer inspiring ideas, rather than worrying thoughts, to focus upon. It should also offer an oasis of calm – a sanctuary in the midst of life’s troubles – to which you can turn when you feel overwhelmed or under great pressure. In Druidry, this sanctuary is often visualized as a sacred grove – a sun-dappled glade in the woods – in which you can rest and meditate, reconnecting to the essential in life, and finding support in the inspiration of an age-old tradition.

leaf

The Plant’s Physician

Mrs Maud Grieve was a pioneer in the study of herbs, and in 1931 she published her seminal two-volume ‘Modern Herbal’, which finally gathered much of the traditional herb lore of the British Isles, and further afield, for posterity. In her Herbal she says of Chamomile: ‘No plant was better known to the country folk of old, it having been grown for centuries in English gardens for its use as a common domestic medicine ...’

The plant has a strong scent of apple and has long been grown on lawns to release its perfume when walked upon. William Stukeley, the founding father of the discipline of Archaeology and a key figure in the eighteenth-century Druid Revival, created a Druid temple in his garden – laying it out as a sacred landscape with a Mistletoe-covered apple tree at the centre of concentric circles of hazels and evergreens. He built a tumulus and an altar, and when his wife miscarried they ritually buried the foetus underneath the Chamomile lawn they had planted before the altar – an act that is not only touching but accords with the Druidic belief that apples and hazelnuts are sac

red foods of the Otherworld.

Chamomile is known as ‘The Plant’s Physician’ as its perfume deters insects; it is said that if you plant it among your shrubs and flowers you will improve the health of your garden and revive ailing plants.

Its medicinal effect on humans has been recognized since ancient times; such was its efficacy that the Ancient Egyptians dedicated it to their Sun god Ra. In the Orkneys, an infusion of the flowers, called ‘camavine flooers’, was taken for bilious problems, and hot poultices of it were used on inflammations. An old Scottish saying runs, ‘To comfort the brain, smell to camomil’ – even inhaling the perfume was said to be healing.

Chamomile acts as a mild sedative, and can be drunk as a tea to encourage sleep. But it is also a herb of the sun and Alban Hefin, the Summer Solstice, and brings a sense of rebirth and regeneration. This makes it an ideal ingredient for a ritual bath or incense.



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Deck: Tarot of the Vampyres
Spread: Card of the Day
Date: Tue Sep 17 22:24:25 EDT 2019


Today's Card
THE MOON (Reversed)

Essence
Encountering and releasing our inner fears. Facing our Shadows. Illusion and fantasy. Arousing our imagination. Dreams and nightmares. Entering the image world of the soul. The fantastical and bizarre. Peculiar or strange. Bewitchments. Glamour. The inconceivable or incomprehensible. Descent into the Underworld. Deep inner questing that leads to the rebirth of light. Reincarnation. Reawakening or resurrection. Dream work and visualization. Exploring the depths of the unconscious. Secretive, mysterious or ambiguous. The furthest reaches of our subconscious. Elusive or intangible. Occult knowledge. Seductive sorcery. Addictions and intoxication. Ghosts and Phantoms. Eerie, macabre, sinister or cryptic. The realm of the dead.

Message
The Moon card represents the depths of our unconscious and the fantastical aspect of our being. It is eerie and illusory by nature and relates to the deep psychological images of the soul. When the card appears, it is often an omen that something mysterious, elusive or intangible is contained within the issue. This may relate to the nature of the situation, indicating that there is a illusionary or cryptic quality present, or that the issue is deeply woven in our subconscious. Sometimes The Moon emerges when we are fearful or feeling lost, experiencing haunting thoughts or emotions that the path ahead seems incomprehensible. In this aspect the card is related to the sinister moonlight of our fears or nightmare. We are urged to take one step at a time along this mysterious path, to be aware of our inner signs and intuition in order to pass through these mists toward the light. The Moon is also a calling for us to look to our dreams and subconscious for understanding. We must put aside rational reasoning and trust in the realm of our imagination. Fantasy and creativity can aid us in revealing hidden messages from our unconscious. To unravel these messages we can employ dream analysis, create very spontaneous art, such as creative writing or painting. This should be done without any logical thought, but rather just a series of almost random thoughts and feelings. When the exercise is complete we can use our reasoning mind to interpret and analyse them. The card can also be a call for us to live out our fantasises, to explore the unknown or dare to divert from what is safe and known.

The Moon teaches us that the night of fear and confusion will soon come to an end. We have reached the depths of despair or soul-searching and the sun will soon arise. This relates to the aspect of the card as a journey through darkness to reach the light where we will be reawakened to the joys of life and deepest understanding. This promise of morning arises after we have delved into the pit of our deep fears and gained control of our shadows. These fears and shadows then reveal themselves to be just illusions, that only exist because something is blocking the flow of light. Discovering what these blockages are and sweeping them aside leads us to transformation and freedom. This requires a journey into the underworld of the unconscious depths and can be a daunting experience, where we must resist being led astray by shadows and illusions which are merely mirages projected from irrational fears eclipsing the light. In these times everything seems strange and unfamiliar or extraordinary, our senses are heightened as we regress into more primal instincts. We should not fear these experiences because they cannot harm us. Rather we can view them as an enticing ghost story that concludes with an emergence into The Sun (the following card) and towards deepest self knowledge. We will also gain greater skills in intuitive knowledge and expanded awareness. In many cases The Moon is a sign that we are feeling lost or wandering aimlessly and that we must find our way back to our path find clarity of purpose. Although this card is shadowy and peculiar it is not always disturbing. It can be bewitching

, and has tremendous power to inspire creativity and visualization and enhance psychic abilities.

Analysis and Symbolism
The chilling moon hangs like an omen over an eerie path of poisoned mists. The mysterious light it casts is the only guidance we have (the subconscious) into the depths of the soul. The narrow path leads up between confining tombstones (the Underworld) toward the cathedral, which is the sanctuary and eventual escape from our fears into the twilight of day. The Vampyre Bride represents our confrontation with our shadows and a personification of the fear surfacing from the unconscious. Her ethereal gown illustrates a fear of being swallowed by the realm of the dead and our inner poisoned darkness. Everything is intangible and sinister for the ego, whose only guide is the bewitching moonlight. In her hand, the bride holds a blood stained sickle, its moon shaped blade a symbol of dark intrigue. She has become the bride of death, a mirror of nothingness and illusion. It is midnight, the very depths of darkness and the axis where the deepest loss ignites the flicker of promise toward escape into the twilight. Like a pupa within a cocoon, she has become only intangible substance, yet to be reduced to this pulp of nothingness is the process of metamorphosis that will transform her into a new form. She emerges as a moth, reborn, enticed and directed by the moon into the light. She has journeyed into the Underworld, faced her fears and conquered her shadows. Around her neck she wears the symbol of Pisces which is the zodiacal trump of The Moon.

The moonlight that illuminates our nightmares can also guide us towards psychic messages and occult truths. It can be a signal for us to reject the ordinary and release ourselves from the prison of normality that we cling to for security, and to expand into the mysterious universe that murmurs within the deepest parts of our soul. We can employ flights of fantasy and imagination to overcome blockages and to gain intuitive understanding of situations and issues. Any experience in which our more primal senses are stimulated can lead us to undiscovered truths and alternative perceptions, whether through intense dreams, fantasy, psychological and physical exertion or intense eroticism. We can glimpse behind the mirror of the soul and explore our personal underworld of mists and enchantments. Many of these mirrors reflect from the depths of old memory woven into our subconscious. They are partly genetic, passed on from our ancestors as archetypical themes and emotions that relate to the passions, the struggles, and the hopes of human existence. Perhaps these archetypical motifs emerged and evolved from a need to understand the world around them and their place within it. The motifs became like a spiritual map, expressed in their myths and stories. They were also pathways that can be used to explore and decipher mysteries of the spiritual realm. This mythical framework originates from an ethereal core within each of us, presented to us as messages from our higher self, in symbols, dreams and fantasy. Not only is this deeply woven web a map of our metaphysical landscape, it is the language of our unconscious, which speaks directly to us through symbols, events and seeming coincidences in our everyday lives. This synchronicity is purely natural, just nature at its subtlest, formless beginnings, the foreshadowing and unfolding of our reality, as well as unique messages from our personal psyche.

Shadow
The shadow of The Moon can mainfest as phobias, primitive fears, morbidity, superstition or anxieties. When in this aspect, it can also indicate that we are giving into our fears or refusing to face our shadows. Sometimes, by not incorporating our shadows sensibly into ourselves as a whole, they can poison our hearts or minds. This can lead to addictions, drug abuse, bewilderment or eventual lunacy. By not containing and controlling our own fears, shadows or darker natures, we may project them onto others, making others the scapegoats for our own poison through self-deluded morali

ty. This can lead to persecution or bullying. We may be urged to overcome our guilt or face up to our actions with honesty and sincerity. Perhaps we are bewildered, losing our sense of direction and purpose or feeling confused and disoriented. In this case, we should take one step at a time until we regain our balance and perspective. Other negative qualities of The Moon include lies and deceit, self-deception, hallucinations, depression, derangement and insecurity. Religious fanaticism, hysteria, venomous slander or gossip, paralysis, self-harm, suicide and or murder are the extremes of The Moon in shadow.

Alchemy
Zodiacal Trump of Pisces
Jupiter Rules. Venus Exalted.
Connects Netzach with Malkuth on the Tree of Life

Kindred Spirits
The Child of the Sons of the Mighty
Anubis
Medusa

Verse
Wishing all my cups were poison
instead of mulling,
dulling wine.
Wishing the voracious raptor,
that is the fist
that owns my heart
would, incensed with its blackened madness,
tear its own webbed net
apart.



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Deck: Dark Goddess Tarot
Spread: Card of the Day
Date: Wed Sep 18 04:39:17 EDT 2019


Today's Card
XVII Stars ~ Spider Woman (Reversed)

Hopi Goddess of Thought and Creation

Small things hold the Earth to Heaven.

In the high desert of the American Southwest, Spider Woman is revered as the creator of the world and benefactor of her people. In the mesas of the Hopi, her name is Kokyangwuti (pronounced similar to koh-kyang-woo-tee). For the Pueblo, she is S’ts’tsi’naku (tse-che-nako). She is called Thinking Woman, Old Spider Woman, and Grandmother Spider. Although she is ancient, her power of renewal is shown through her hair, dressed in the whorls of the squash blossom, the symbol of fertility. She draws light and life from darkness.

Spider Woman creates through her thought, through her vision, through the powers of clarity and consciousness, through the powers of a universe that sings inside her. She creates the stars by spinning a web, lacing it with the precious dew, and tossing it into the sky. She creates the stars to shine upon her people in the darkest night. She arranges the constellations to show her people there is meaning in creation. A single star in the sky may appear a small thing, but be significant in its relation to another, through the patterns they make together, and in the feelings the expanse of a starry night evokes.

In the darkness in the beginning of time, Spider Woman is told she is too small and weak to help, yet through intelligence, persistence, and belief, she travels to and returns safely from the Lake of Fire. She succeeds in bringing light and warmth into the world where more imposing animals try and fail. In another tale, she keeps the rising sky from leaving the world entirely by spinning web lines day and night to tie heaven to earth and preserve her creation. Spider Woman saves her people yet again after the destruction of the Third World, when she opens a path through the dome of heaven and leads her people into the Fourth World, the present earth, providing hope and direction through an inner light that shines even in utter darkness.

When Spider Woman appears:

The more you reach for what inspires you, the more your purpose becomes apparent. Saving grace is at hand.

Act in alignment with your beliefs. Believe in what you want to be. Even without a clear sense of direction or a specific goal, doing small good things will illuminate your next steps.

This is not the time to tackle a large problem head on. Use subtlety, humility, and thoughtfulness in your approach. Sense the pattern that exists behind the scenes.

You are part of a network, a luminous, radiant web that connects every living being. Feel your connections, to the ones you love and to your special places on the earth. See these connections shine with clear and flowing light, light that flows through and fills you. Invoke this web in your meditations to send healing lights and energies to those in need.



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In the dream, we said -- thank you, we didn't know how you could do it. But by the time you explained, we finally understood what the others were trying to communicate. Thank you for believing in yourself and knowing you must try.

Morning workroom lightbox.

Morning workroom lightbox.

Deck: The DruidCraft Tarot
Spread: Card of the Day
Date: Wed Sep 18 23:15:35 EDT 2019


Today's Card
NINE of SWORDS (Upright)

KEYWORDS

• Sorrow • Anguish • Mental cruelty

Ornament

Meaning   Finding this card in a reading signifies mental anguish and suffering. It refers to those very darkest periods in our lives when we experience the deepest sorrow. These times almost always involve relationships and our feelings of love, and so this card may indicate the torment we go through when a love affair or marriage ends, or when we suffer bereavement or are separated in some way from our partner. The card refers not so much to the event itself but to our experience of it: to this ‘dark night of the soul’ that we find ourselves in. We may suffer from insomnia or nightmares, or find ourselves unable to think clearly, or to shake off fear and anxiety. Our sense of isolation or solitude may be intense, and we might find it impossible to gain any sense of hope.

Despite these feelings, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Nines signify intensity but also completion. Just as the rigours of winter give way to the light and warmth of spring, so the period you are going through will come to its natural completion, and you will enter a brighter phase of your life. Alternatively, the card may indicate the dangers of using your mental powers cruelly. A sharp mind can sometimes wound unintentionally.

Reverse meaning   You may be struggling with feelings of shame or oppression. Someone might be using you as a scapegoat, or you might be the victim of political or racial prejudice. How you respond to this is up to you, and finding the card reversed can indicate emerging from a period of difficulty, and finding yourself in an improving situation. Alternatively, you may have begun a deliberate exploration of your deepest fears, which will allow you the opportunity for real transformation.



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Deck: Dark Goddess Tarot
Spread: Card of the Day
Date: Thu Sep 19 05:45:37 EDT 2019


Today's Card
Eight of Air ~ Crow Mother (Reversed)

Hopi Goddess of Initiation

Take responsibility to break through restriction.

The Hopi Crow Mother (Angwusnasomtaka) is revered as the mother of all Kachinas, the spirits that make up the natural world—spirits of living beings as well as the ancestors who have become part of nature. Kachinas have powers of rainfall, protection, and healing that the people desire, while they enjoy prayer feathers, corn pollen, and respect. Hopi rituals are mutual gift-giving ceremonies which preserve harmony in the world.

Crow Mother appears on the mesas at the first full moon of spring, initiating the yearly Powamu ceremony of purification and renewal. She comes from the San Francisco Mountains carrying a basket full of bean sprouts to the village, symbolizing new life for the community. When she comes, she sings the song of the Kachinas and their coming to this land.

Crow Mother teaches the proper way to live in community. She presides over the initiation rites of Hopi children at the age of nine or ten, instructing them in the ways of the people. She reveals the secret that the mysterious and powerful Kachinas who appear among them are their elders, masked and costumed. Shown behind Crow Mother are her whips made from the blades of the yucca plant. They stand between her and the child’s return home. The children do not yet know that home will not be the same, because they will have changed. The initiate will be whipped, four strokes, the only time in their lives the children are ever beaten. They must face their fear, they must face surprising pain, they must accept knowledge and the shattering of their childhood illusions. When they do, they are rewarded with a prayer feather and a meal. Then the new young adults are reunited with their community and welcome to join the sacred kiva societies.

When Crow Mother appears:

You are not strengthened by remaining isolated.

To step out of a stuck situation, you need to step up. Face what has been holding you back. Recognize the truth when you hear it. Self-centered and childish fancies impede your participation in a larger world.

Learn the lessons offered by the situation. It will take some discipline, but your future need not be colored by old disappointment or current disillusionment.

Create a prayer stick. Find a stick on a walk. Wrap it with colored yarn, using from one to four colors, repeating your intention with each winding. Tie on stones, shells, and feathers. Give the prayer stick to the earth and sky by leaving it outside in a special place. Leave it, walk away, and do not look back. Trust your prayer will be heard.



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