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 and share them in the comments.

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?  TWO OF AIR  invites us to practices such as …

• A meditation that supports you to let your focus shift from your ever day demands so that you can listen at a deeper/higher level.
• Wearing something blue with the intention of activating your third eye/indigo chakra that allows us to see beyond everyday happenings and stimulates our intuition
• Taking moments of pause (perhaps just 2 minutes) throughout the day to remind yourself to listen … to the birds…to the world around you … to your inner voice or intuition  … to Spirit/The Greater Than … to what might be below the words that someone speaks or their actions.

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?  ELDER OF FIRE  invites you to follow your path and practices with attitudes of …

• Intensity.
• A desire to serve the whole with your own unique power to heal.
• 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 the usual everyday concerns.
• Knowing you can move between the worlds of the mysterious and the mundane, the living and the dead, the material and the spiritual.

OVERALL MUSINGS: The combination of Bindweed’s invitation to meet our shadow and the Elder of Fire as a guide for working with the ancestors has me pondering how not all the challenge/shadow in our lives springs from our individual experience. We are a part of lineages and our inheritance can include the unhealed, unacknowledged traumas our ancestors experienced as victims and perpetrators. We often carry these burdens unconsciously into our own lives.  But when we bring conscious attention to these shadows, individual and collective healing is possible. This shadow dance can take various forms, from the tangible and public to the personal and energetic. The Tracing Center, for example, was founded by descendants of 19th century slave traders to educated about the extend of involvement in the slave trade by New Englanders. (A member of this family wrote an open letter to Ben Affleck about his wanting to hide such an ancestral connection.) Our dance can also be meditative as suggested by the Two of Air.  Enter into an imaginal state where you invite your ancestors to tell you what needs healing and respond by sending compassionate energy. Perhaps ask if there is action you might take in the outer world to be a marker of healing in physical form.  (The Judgement meditation in my series of guided visualizations inspired by the Major Arcana leads the listener through such a process of listening to the paternal and maternal lines for gifts and what in need of healing. Just e-mail me (carolyn @ my site’s name) if you would like to engage in this work and I’ll send you a link to access it as a gift of support for those willing to dance with the shadow!)