I love the Gaian Tarot for its beauty and its wisdom.  I’m part of the Gaian Tarot Circle site where we lovers of the deck, of Tarot, of nature gather in cyber-space and on the phone to share our experiences of working with the deck, hear from the creator Joanna about her creative inspirations, and also learn from fabulous guest teachers (Mary Greer and James Wells are a few examples and I’ve been honored to present there as well).  It is a fabulous and fabulously supportive group.

Each week in the Circle on-line forum,  I post a three card guide or inspiration for weekly practice.  I used to call this prompts for spiritual practice, but, as an earth-inspired seeker,  I’m coming to find the word spiritual too limiting.  I’m wanting to talk about practice as connective; these practices connects you more internally, to the wider world, and, yes, with that realm we might call spirit.

I wrote a more expensive post on the ideas behind the spread on Gaian Soul; you can read that here.  And I thought I would share this week’s wisdom with you.  Perhaps you’ll want to try it out for yourself.  And you would always be welcome to join us in the Gaian Tarot Circle for more exploring!

Connective Practices for the Week of January 21st:  Temperance – 6 of Air – Elder of Fire

PATH:  Use Pile 1 / Majors and Aces to pull a card for the question:  What sacred path would best serve the Circle this week?   TEMPERANCE invites us to walk this week on pathways of  …

• Combining things that appear to be opposites (light and darkness, life and death) into a beautiful new Whole.
• Healing and creativity; take that which has challenged you and patiently blend it into your life to strength your ability to create the new.
• Blending all the different aspects of your personality toward a full expression of Self

PRACTICE:  Use Pile 2 / numbered cards for this question:  What contemplative practice will best serve us to move along this pathway this week?  SIX OF AIR invites us to practices such as …

• Yoga.
• Drumming.
• Showing gratitude for the sun.
• Being with the wisdom of birds.

POSTURE:  Use Pile 3 / People cards for a question such as:  What attitudes and behaviors will be most helpful to me in undertaking this practice?  ELDER OF FIRE invites you to follow your path and practices with attitudes of ….

• Intensity.
• Being open to signs and messages that come from the Otherworld of Spirit, of energy, of beyond the human.
• Dedicating your practice to healing, to honoring the ancestors, to something greater than our everyday concerns.

OVERALL MUSINGS:  I love this combination of one of the most straightforward card to tune into practice, Six of Air, with two cards that invite us to enter into the mystery of healing creativity, and making connections between the realms, Temperance and Elder of Fire.  For example, yoga has become quite common; for some it has become part of the everyday reality and in many cases more oriented toward exercise than being a spiritual practice.  And taking a walk in the sun is something that many might not think as a practice at all.  But if we bring the focus of the Elder of Fire to these practices, they can move us more deeply into their transformative power and we can be that Temperance angel uniting the energies of opposites, of the realms beyond, of our fullest selves.