The Garden Party: Card of the week 19th January, 2015

The garden in this week’s card is a happy and beneficial one.    It relates to meeting, fetes, parties,  get-togethers and social functions. We might find ourselves in the middle of a cosmic “mixer” this week, one in which we get a glimpse into a new garden of friendship, opportunity and love.  It’s about being with the people you belong with.

On the job-site, this get-together theme represents team playing instead of flying solo or keeping to your own office.  While there are definitely times when we have to go off on solo missions to invent or to solve problems, this is not one of those times. Let your ideas and contributions fly out to the group. By the same token, allow others to bring their ideas to the table. You might be surprised by who has an amazing idea this week!

This is a week there’s also the energy of clarity in communication that can help you convene over mutual goals and connect with others. At the same time, greater clarity can also let you be aware of what doesn’t serve you. At times this clarity might feel like a burden, but it’s important to allow yourself to listen and accept the limitations of others, or listen your own  inner guidance to let go of something that might have held you back from seeing your light.

Luckily, with communication and gathering as themes in the foreground, friends and friendships are a great resource this week. Connection, friendship and camaraderie can help you gain perspective. It’s time to hang out with the gang and have a night in. Even if you can’t or don’t spend time with a group of friends this week, bonding with friends can still be important.  An online chat, a one-on-one lunch, meetings with friends can be beneficial.

Convening and gathering can also represent taking a class or attending a seminar or conference.  If there’s a knitting group you’ve thought about joining, a Star Trek/My Little Pony-con, or a Tibetan poetry class you’ve been thinking about taking, this might be your week to find birds of a feather!  This is especially true if you’ve spent any part of the last few months feeling isolated, left out, or not quite with the right “ilk”

As with all the ‘cards of the week’, this one is a theme to think about and consider. It’s not about forces landing in your lap, it’s about the choices you make in your day to day life.  Along those lines, have you been excluding yourself on any level from meeting new friends? Have you had a false loyalty to the old? Is there someone you know who needs to be invited into a circle of friends?  This is a good week to make choices about those things and dance in a glorious new garden.

About this deck:  The Dondorf Lenormand is a reproduction of a German 19th century Lenormand set of 36 cards. The classic images are typically read in combination to give insight and information.

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A Big Bouquet, Card of the Week 14 July 2014

 

 

This Lenormand card is a really GREAT one to bloom for us this week.   The bouquet is about all things that could make us smile, rejoice and give thanks.      Again the theme of “something surprising and joyous” presents itself, but more directly this time.

This week we may have this positive association of “things going well”  pop up in a myriad of ways.  Traditionally the bouquet card means that something good is underway;  a period of illness or “blah” my improve,  things may work out in your favour at work or  in a situation around your career,  or something really marvellous could happen around love and relationships.

With all this glad tiding abounding, it might feel easy to get what you want, but you’re put on notice to not squander the goodness. Appreciate it instead of being careless, wasteful or unconscious.   Savour the good stuff with other people without assuming that something worse is coming later (“doom-futuring”) and without taking them (and the special times) for granted.       For those who are going through a time of letting go, or of loss,  the bouquet represents the presence, support and company of others to help us process our feelings and to help us take care of our hearts.

See the little bee in the image?   The little bee suggests that while things are comin’ up roses, we STILL must be aware of the work we’re constantly called to do.   Being mindful of ourselves, how we treat others, how we treat ourselves, and how we’re working on or goals doesn’t take a nap just because glorious blooms are unfurling.   This is not the time to swill at the trough of good things, it’s time to APPRECIATE, have fun, and include others in these glad tidings.

This card is also associated with the number “9” …. think creatively about what this may mean for you this week.  The number “9” is also sometimes associated with altruism, consciousness, compassion, seeing others in a positive light.    The planet Jupiter’s association with this card relates to 9s social consciousness because Jupiter is often represents the way we express tolerance, generosity and kindness towards one another. It also represents the best that life has to offer.

 

About this deck:   the “Mystisches Lenormand” illustrated by the wonderful Urban Trösch in trompe l’oeil style  egg-tempura paintings,  is a 36 card traditional Lenormand deck published by Königsfurt-Urania. If you can get your hands on this rare deck, I highly recommend it.  It’s tiny, it’s strange and awesome.

The Flowers: Card of the Week 12 August 2013

 

 

I generally dislike  pat, predictive, sun-shiny  oracular messages that say things like “you just landed on a pot-of Gold” or  “this is going to be a great day where you will find a rainbow puppy that poops ice-cream sandwiches”   still, this week’s card has a decidedly happy flair for us!   The short description from the accompanying book  indicates The Flower says,

“Moving on from the past towards a better future. Happiness is coming, and success in all you do. You will now benefit from past efforts and good fortune and romantic relationships thrive.”

Certainly a little bit of hyperbole – but this week’s card brings us a positive message!  Whether or not you find that rainbow puppy, things ARE looking up.   One of the great experiences of gardening is when a flower you planted as a seed and fussed over, seemingly for a long time, finally breaks the ground with its little seed leaves spread like two little wings, or when the second year of a hollyhock’s life finally bears flowers with which to make little toothpick dolls.     Watering a bare patch of Earth and checking for signs of life may not be fun but when that beautiful sunflower finally stands a foot or two taller than your head and smiles down on you with yellow and red petals curling around its face;  it’s an awesome feeling.    (Those of you keeping track of the changing images on my blog will note that all the background photographs feature flowers and plants from my garden)

Likewise, this week you may find some of your OWN blooms blossoming.   Enjoy the flowers and happy things that you find in the garden of your life this week.  And if you don’t quite see that special flower yet – remember that things are often brewing, growing, unfurling and greening out of sight. Under the moonlight, through the rains of late summer – things are still growing even if you don’t see the reassurance of your toiling just now.     Better still, go out and find some flowers in bloom !    Find some gardens to delight in and some activities that make you feel as though you’re in fertile soil and not just playing a waiting game.  Enjoy friends, enjoy the “fruits” of the season and have fun!

 

About the deck:  This week’s card comes from a Lenormand type deck I was given called the “FAIRY TALE FORTUNE CARDS”  by Liz Dean and illustrated in mixed media by Bev Speight  and published by CICO books.      Now, “fairy” things are often a little to twee for me but this deck has some amazing mixed media artwork  and a light, bright  aesthetic to it right out of the 1960’s.  The connections to fairy-tales for each card and the addition of a short bit of prose is endearing.  The Lenormand is an altogether different card system from the Tarot, with  36 traditional images usually read in combinations of cards  (from 3 to the full 36 though you can certainly use them for single card draws).    Lenormand decks decks often give direct, concrete information (contrasting from the broad strokes and variable, esoteric meanings of Tarot).    The cards were invented by Marie Anne  Adelaide LeNormand (1772 – 1843)  who was  the most famous cartomancer  in 18th century France and card reader of Josephine, Napoleon Bonaparte’s Empress consort as well as many of leaders of the French Revolution.