Each week I pull Tarot cards to inspire practice that cultivates soul wisdom for readers of the blog as a group using the Gaian Tarot.  (If you want to read more about the process, check out Sacred Practices of the Gaian Tarot: The 3 P’s).You are invited to use the cards below to inspire your practice, and, if you like, share your reflections in the comments.  You are also free to draw your own cards.

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

• Meeting the shadow (, i.e. the parts of ourselves that we reject and don’t want to acknowledge) as a first step toward integrating it more fully into your understanding of yourself.
• Acknowledging where you are stuck and then holding that place with compassion.
• Attending to the places inside you that feel dark or heavy. You can offer them attention, perhaps listening for the wisdom being offered from here, before you try to fix them.

PRACTICE:  Use Pile 2 / numbered cards for this question:  What practice(s) will best serve us to move along this path this week?  NINE OF AIR  invites us to practices such as …

• Grief work for both individual and planetary losses.  Joanna Macy‘s Work that Reconnects is a wisdom resource for deep work here.
• Work with Mellissa Lucia’s Oracle of Initiation, where guardian beings of light and of earth show us “the way to our rainbows in the dark, the paradox of our greatest gifts hidden within our shadows.”
• Releasing your difficult emotions into the Earth. I’ve experienced Starhawk‘s meditations  where she tells you that you can send all your difficult emotions through into the Earth Mother because She composts it; can transform all things. Starkhawk offers a meditation in which a grounding chord sent down from the base of your spine allows you to release all your grief into the earth.

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

• Coaxing the gifts that might be hidden more deeply to emerge.
• Compassion for others and for yourself.
• Courage to stand in the dark and call forth the light.

OVERALL MUSINGS:  As I was preparing the practice suggestions, I was struck by how many deep and wise resources there are to support us in times of difficulty and grief.  We are supported no matter how challenged we feel.  This wisdom is built – unconsciously, or perhaps this is better said as serendipitously – into the Bindweed card. Although Joanna Powell Colbert designed the birds to be starlings and represent a problem of invasive species, numerous clients and people who work with the deck have seen these birds as protectors who are always there whether they are seen or not. The appearance of She Who Watches in the 9 of Air reinforces this message. The spirit figure in the clouds is She Who Watches over all offering love and compassion.

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