Misha Hoo's Blog - Posts Tagged "tarot"

The young woman sat down brusquely in the chair, arranged her shopping bags to the side and looked at me with a confident smile.

“So,” the accent was unmistakably German, “tell me something nice about my future!” she commanded and I could tell it was going to be one of those days…

As a Tarot Reader, my forte is guidance and healing; I prefer to assist clients in finding their own wisdom, rather than telling them what to do. “I don’t do future predictions” is my fall-back position. It sends the dreamers scurrying.

I have pondered on what is behind the desire to gaze into a crystal ball and know certainties about our future. Apart from the frivolous interest, like future gossip, “oooh you’re going to meet a dark handsome man…” we want to be assured that all will be well. We want to know that nothing really bad will happen to us and, like my young German friend, we want to hear someone tell us something positive or uplifting so we can walk away feeling better about our current problems, despite having done nothing to actually change the things we may be unsatisfied with.

By placing our future in the hands of fate, we avoid taking responsibility for our choices. In traditional Tarot, the Change card is called the Wheel of Fortune and reminds us that life is cyclical - we reap what we sow. The beauty of that realisation is that when we are not satisfied with our current situation, we can look back and discover how our choices led us to that place and make changes for the future.

A few months ago I watched a large flock of Egrets arrive from the south and take up residence in a small cluster of trees. They do it every year, their instinct telling them it is time to move, time to change. They took a while to settle in after their long haul flight, flapping and jostling each other until they found a comfortable spot. It was a bit like watching the flocks of tourists arriving at the start of the dry season, excited to be on holidays but a little frazzled at being out of their comfort zone.

As a Tarot Reader I am often asked “Will I quit my job? Will I get another job? Will I sell my house?” and the answer is always “Yes, of course…” the question really is when...

In truth, we will only change when we are really ready. If the change is an easy one, we usually jump at the chance. If the change is a bit intimidating or we have a lot of fear around instability, then we are likely to put it off until we are pushed. People often come for a Tarot Reading when they need a push. They have made up their minds, you can see it written all over their face and they just need someone to give them a little push, to confirm that their decision is the right one and off they go, wings flapping, flying off on their next adventure.

The other factor we need to consider is when the universe (big picture, outside forces, cosmic order, Divine Will or all that stuff out there) is ready to change. We are not alone, we are part of a very big ecosystem and, as anyone who has ever nervously watched an approaching cyclone knows, there are forces in the universe way beyond our control. Your choice then, is how you react.

When change is unexpected, we often resist and change, like a strong wind, can sometimes throw you around. Life can become frantic, difficult, out of control... In the centre of the chaos however, there is stillness, the eye of the storm is calm and wisdom is found within. We do not learn by avoiding difficulties, we grow through our experience of them. By weathering life’s storms we develop inner strength and fine tune our internal navigation system to respond to life’s changes. The wheel of Change reminds you that when life gets tumultuous you must return to the centre of yourself and find the stillness within. Now, from that central place of strength and serenity, decide your next move.

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo

I remember when I first showed my mum the Tarot in Black & White deck which I created. She loved the design, the striking images, thought it was well written, looked very professional…..and then came the concern, “what if you get a bad card?”

I have always maintained that there are no ‘bad’ cards in any Tarot deck, warnings perhaps, lessons - definitely, but no bad cards as such. However there are certainly some cards in the tarot which are just not popular and one of those is Loss.

No one likes to see the Loss card. Although not quite as scary as the Death card (more on that later) the very idea of Loss brings up anxiety for most people. “What, will I lose money?” “Lose my job?” “My house?” The first things that come to mind are the material things.

As I mention burdens from the past which we no longer need to carry I see the shoulders relax a little. We all carry burdens which become heavy over time and I find it a good exercise to ask yourself, “What could I let go of now that would make me feel lighter? “What could I let go of that would make my life easier?” Loss then, becomes our friend.

The purpose of Loss is to make way for new growth, for new opportunities to appear in our lives and that requires letting go of the stuff which no longer serves. Like spring cleaning the house, we sometimes need to give our schedules and priorities a good sweeping out. The memory of painful losses can make us delay the changes that we know are really necessary. The bad news is that if we delay long enough, the sweeping sometimes gets done for us.

I often hear from clients a long list of reasons to stay in a dead end job or unproductive relationship simply because their fear of change is greater than their desire for happiness. Then come the excuses, the justifications, the “what if’s...” We’ve all been there. My job as a Tarot Reader (counsellor, therapist) is to guide them to the choices that will serve their long term growth rather than short term ease and sometimes that is just about as challenging as taking a well-loved but broken toy away from a 3 year old.

Every structure we choose will eventually become limiting as we outgrow it. It is great when our lifestyle, job or relationships grow with us but when they don’t, we need to reassess. We may need to create newer, roomier or more sophisticated structures to support our new growth and nurture our future choices. We get stuck when we refuse to let go of an out-dated situation, we refuse to let an old habit die and there we are, 3 years old, clinging to our toy with a red face and clenched fists.

Recently I’ve been working part time in a reptile centre which houses snakes. Every so often they shed their scaly skin to accommodate their growth, and they do this their entire lives. Snakes know that to grow they must shed the very skin that has encased them and protected them for quite some time. They get a bit anti-social, hide under a log for a few days, shed their skin and then emerge - fresh and ready for the next stage of life.

If you have drawn the Loss card, you might want to consider - what things in your life need shedding right now? Which structures feel too tight, too restrictive? Are you willing to let go, in order to make room for something new to emerge?

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo

Tarot in Black & White: A Path to Personal Transformation

"Oh I am not Artistic at all!" she exclaimed, throwing herself back in her chair and folding her arms across her chest. "I am no good at painting or art or anything like that!”

Sadly this is one of the most common and yet completely inaccurate self-criticisms I hear from clients during a Tarot reading...

“So…do you cook?” I ventured, and received a shrug in response.
“Yeh, a bit,” now we’re getting somewhere…
“Garden?”
“Nope,” ok I should have guessed that.
“Change your hair style?” she looked at me blankly. This was getting difficult.
“Dress yourself every morning?” I’d had enough.
“Look, creativity is not just about doing art; it’s about how you express yourself, how you dress, how you think or how you solve problems. Some of the most creative minds in the world have never so much as picked up a paintbrush!” I exclaimed. I held her in a steady gaze.

“So,” I settled back in my chair, determined not to let this one get away, “in what way do you express yourself creatively in your life?”
“Well….I kind of like photography…” she said timidly and finally we had a place to start…

I often see this reaction when the Artistic card comes out on the table. It seems that we are indoctrinated in high school (or even earlier) to think that if we don’t excel in the classic arts like drawing or painting then we are artistic failures, and this is a difficult mindset to undo.

I remember getting told off in the second grade for colouring in outside the lines. It didn’t work at that young age to try to explain that I hadn’t meant to stay inside the lines, that I was doing my own drawing rather than the one which had been laid out for me. Later I could look back and see my Aquarian rebelliousness starting to cut its teeth, but back then all I knew was that I was being told I was wrong. Grrrrrrr.

More than ever before, we are in an age of self-expression. We get to create our own image online, style our own avatars on Facebook and MySpace and join a host of blog sites and online forums where we get to create who we want to be and how we want others to see us. A quick scroll through YouTube will reveal how keen even the nerdiest nerd is to show you their latest trick online.

So with all this rampant self-expression going on, why do I see talented people dismiss their abilities and put down their own creations again and again?

My gut feeling is that somewhere along the way too many of us have bought into the idea that to be artistic you have to be someone special. We have been convinced that only certain people are born with a magical ability that makes them artistic or musical and that creative talent is a pre-determined genetic thing that can’t be found in the average person.

I used to model for art classes which gave me the pleasure of being paid to sit around :) and the opportunity to absorb a fair bit of drawing and painting technique. One teacher had a favourite story. When she mentioned to anyone that she taught drawing classes she would invariably hear the comment “Oh, I can’t draw!” to which she would ask, “So can you play the piano?”
“No, not at all,” was the usual reply, which she would counter with, “and why not?” The flustered answer would inevitably come back, “well, I have never had lessons!” and there the case rests...

A friend of mine (who went to art school and was very good at securing grant money for her projects) told me that art is artificial. So technically, anything man made is art…and that definition would explain a lot of things in the contemporary abstract section of the art gallery… one man’s junk is another man’s art, it really is just a matter of taste.

Seriously though, as human beings we are constantly creating ourselves and our lives by our choices. Even our bodies are naturally creative, forming new cells every day. So the Artistic card is really asking not if, but how? As the artist of your life, how do you choose to express yourself? What limits do you put on your own artistic expression? How much do you recognise and appreciate your own creativity?

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo

In the ancient art of numerology the number seven indicates change, innovation and magic. The Tarot suit of Air represents the mind. Put the two together and you have the opportunity for sudden insight, inspired solutions, ingenious strategies or perhaps…..trickery.

We all have an Inner Genius, the part of us which is capable of coming up with great solutions and imagining the perfect strategy to get us where we want to be. You know when your Inner Genius is at work - it’s when you think “A-ha!” and then immediately wonder “Why didn’t I think of that before?”

We are complex creatures however, and we also have an Inner Trickster which has the uncanny ability to completely confuse us, to make us believe in the ridiculous or to sabotage our best efforts. You know that you are in Trickster mode when you lie about where you were last night, fantasize about being a rock star when you’ve never picked up a musical instrument or forget where you parked your car.

A client last week was getting himself waaaay too close to a married female friend. He was convinced that as soon as she realised that she needed to leave her husband to be with him, all would be well, she would fall into his arms and they would live happily ever after…

His Inner Trickster was in full swing.

As I pointed out the various inconsistencies in his plan he became less and less interested in listening – the sunglasses went on, he leaned back away from me, folding his arms across his chest. He was a goner, I may as well have been talking to a brick wall. Fortunately, my mission is to speak the truth rather than win any popularity contests…

We are powerful beings gifted with a rich imagination but we need to be realistic in what we plan and we need to ensure that our objectives lead us to fulfilling our highest potential rather than our short term desires. The Strategy card cautions you to check your motives and warns that there may be shadow influences at work. Someone close to you in your home or working life may have a hidden agenda or you may be expertly fooling yourself.

If the Strategy card turns up when you are involved in business negotiations then it is wise to check your contracts before you sign and if something doesn’t feel right, hold off on your decisions until you have examined your options further. Take a look at where you are not willing to be 100% honest with yourself, where you dodge your responsibilities or make excuses for your own laziness.

If you have been stuck in indecision for a while, the Strategy card urges you to get clear on what you really want and create an effective plan. Ensure that your plan is flexible and allow for changes as you go along. Your intuition will guide you to your goals and urge you to direct your energies wisely.

When the Strategy card appears it is time to ask yourself; “What attitude or approach should I use now?”, “Are there hidden agendas at work here?” and more importantly, “In what way could I be completely kidding myself?”

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo

"Wow these cards are different!" she said as she slowly shuffled through the black and white cards.
"I've never seen Tarot cards like these before."
"No, I made them," I replied proudly and thought back to how I first got the idea...

I was sitting in one of my favourite cafés in Amsterdam; Gary’s Muffins, which actually sells a lot more bagels than muffins but grew from humble beginnings as a coffee and muffin place and to this day has kept the name. The business was started by a couple of American expats so you can get as many toppings as you want as well as great service which is rare in the Dutch cafe scene.

I’d been reading Tarot cards for a while and used to set myself up in the massive Vondelpark on a sunny day, sitting on a blanket under a shady tree on my favourite corner of the winding path. The park was the closest thing to a beach there, and girls used to lay around in bikinis, guys were walking their dogs, playing ball, jamming on guitars, people were smoking joints and generally having an awesome time.

When I read Tarot for people I always explain the meaning of the cards, as well as the position in the spread, like “this is the goal, the principle, the idea position, this is what you are headed towards, and here you have the Fool card. So you need to reclaim your trust and innocence but be careful that you are not being naive….” I mostly used the Osho Zen Tarot when reading for others - it is a fairly contemporary deck and I found the pictures were easy for people to understand. A client would ask me what was holding them back and then the Guilt card would come out, complete with a picture of a scary, crazy woman with black eyes and long fingers scratching at her own hair, racked with guilt. They got the message loud and clear.

I had thought a lot about writing my own Tarot deck and the idea returned to me that day over caramel latte. Writing came easily to me and it had long been my personal passion. Words flowed into my awareness during quiet moments, sentences and paragraphs arranged themselves in my mind as I lay in bed at night. I wanted to write a modern Tarot deck, one that everyone could understand, a Tarot deck that might intrigue those who ‘weren’t into that stuff’, might influence someone to look further, dig deeper to find answers...

I was pretty confident that writing the deck would be easy enough, but illustrating it was a different story. All the Tarot decks I knew had detailed, intricate illustrations, some even reproduced oil paintings and all were way beyond my level of skill at the time. I considered my options as I stirred my coffee. I thought about the cards I knew and loved, the Medicine Cards popped into my mind – totem animals from North America illustrated with a bright yellow lightning bolt on the back of the cards. The lightning bolt is also the Japanese Raku symbol used in the ancient healing art of Reiki. It means manifestation, connecting heaven and earth, bringing inspiration into form.

It was then that I saw them – black and white symbols, circles, spirals, interwoven patterns flashed through my inner vision. I had seen these before somewhere…yes, at my friend Jakob’s house. He was a graphic artist and designer and really into geometric shapes. He had been working on some black and white designs of crop circles, had a couple printed and hanging up on the wall.

“Black and white? Really?” I thought. I had never seen a black and white Tarot deck. Then a clear image came – a black card with a white symbol; a pentagram interwoven with triangles like a Celtic knot. I recognised the image instantly; it was Jakob’s art logo, his own symbol of creation. It was perfect.

I pushed my chair back and stood up, quickly gathered my things and hurried out the door. His apartment was a short bike ride away and I couldn’t wait to tell him about my great idea.

Tarot in Black & White: A Path to Personal Transformation

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo

Tarot is old, really really old. As a spiritual system it is intimately connected to the ancient Tree of Life. It has roots in the Kabbalah and possibly the ancient mystery schools of Egypt and, like all good spiritual systems, it doesn’t preach but rather invites you to investigate, to decipher the metaphors and stories for yourself and to live the teachings until you discover your own truth.

I use Tarot as a mirror to reflect the self, to access inner knowing, develop intuition and reveal hidden insights. From the modern perspective, Tarot provides a map of the human psyche and a path of personal growth from innocence to maturity – something which can be sorely lacking in contemporary culture.

We begin our journey in life as the Fool, enthusiastically (if a bit naively) setting out to discover the world. On the way we meet challenges, experience soul lessons and encounter archetypal characters and initiations. If we apply ourselves sincerely to the tasks presented, we emerge transformed - reborn with a new wisdom and the tools to deal with whatever life brings us.

So the journey through the Tarot is a journey from Beginnings to Wholeness and when I decided to write my own tarot deck, it was this path of personal transformation that I wanted to share with others, including those that “aren’t really into tarot”.

In writing the Tarot in Black & White, I have focused on the qualities of the characters and what we can learn from them. The High Priestess for example, initiates us into the Sacred Feminine and shows us how to use our Intuition whilst the Hierophant teaches Knowledge; both self-knowledge and greater spiritual knowledge. The Wizard teaches us the power of Manifestation and the Hermit shares his love of Solitude…

I felt it was important to make the deck gender balanced, so I have used Prince and Princess cards to give these characters equal footing rather than the traditional Knight and the ‘Page’, who is really a kind of girly boy. Also my perspective is modern, so the traditional Devil card becomes Temptation, the Judgement card becomes Rebirth and the Hanged Man is expressed as Surrender.

One of the things that is difficult when learning Tarot is remembering the meanings of the cards and with crop circle designs this is doubly difficult! Therefore I have named the cards so that you have a quick reference to connect to. I find this especially helpful when choosing one card for the day, as it gives you a simple focus, one word to remember as you go about your daily activities.

The cards chosen, the book written, I sat down with Jakob to choose the crop circles. We researched a couple of hundred crop circles through the internet, finding exactly the right aerial photographs to give us the images we needed. We chose the crop circles together, intuitively, to marry with the meanings of the cards. It was easy, effortless. I have always felt that the test of a good creative process is in how well you follow the flow of energy. The Major Arcana fell together like lovers reunited, the Court Cards happily arranged themselves in harmonious families and lastly the Pip Cards lined up in organised rows. Both perfectionists at heart, neither of us was willing to settle for second best and when a few cards were left without a matching image, we searched further…

I personally believe that the crop circles have messages of their own; they are geometric designs and like all the structure in the world around us, they are patterns which contain information. Our DNA, cellular structure, the configuration of the planets, the frequency of sound waves are all interwoven patterns which communicate on different levels. The more you use the cards, the more they will speak to you and this adds another dimension entirely to the Tarot in Black & White

Jakob created each unique black and white image in fine detail, and we worked together to design the cards and layout of the book. Synchronicity was our best friend and all together the creation of the deck took us less than 6 months. We printed the first few copies at the local copy shop and we actually made the first few decks by hand, covering them in sticky contact paper and cutting out the cards. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as holding the very first deck of cards in your hands…I still have mine and I shuffle through them occasionally just to remember the very beginning...

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo

Yep. Here it is, just as I promised – the Death card. There’s no avoiding it, there’s one in every Tarot Deck….no point in looking away either, Death is inescapable…or is it?

“We all walked around here on Earth but no one could see us,” he said, “and when I tried to pick something up my hand just went straight through it, just like a ghost…”

The man sitting in front of me was over sixty years of age and looked to be in his late forties. His manner was calm, serious, his gaze was intense.

“When I woke up in the hospital all the cancer was gone, they did a bunch of tests but they couldn’t find anything wrong with me, it is like I was given a new body…”

He continued with his story, describing his experiences of crossing over into Death and then returning, surprised, “I didn’t want to come back, I was peaceful there, so now I am wondering why am I here? What is my purpose?” His sincerity was unmistakable and I didn’t doubt him for a second.

A few years ago I did a reading for a man who survived a tragic car accident in Saudi Arabia. The single vehicle rollover killed all of the passengers except him. He was single with no real obligations or responsibilities, whilst many of the others had children or dependants. He was asking similar questions, “Why me?”, “Why did I survive and not someone else?”

Very few of us get a second chance at life and those who do often struggle to make sense of it. The thing about Death is that it is unpredictable and it doesn’t always make sense. We expect Death to be consistent, predictable, fair even, but Death doesn’t play by those rules…

Of all the characters that we encounter on our journey through life, Death is probably the most feared and the most misunderstood. Death reminds us that our time here on Earth is limited and no matter how well we think we have things figured out, we are not really the ones who call the shots. As a Tarot Reader I have found that asking the Universe “Why?” rarely returns a satisfying answer. We do better by asking ourselves, “What can I learn from this experience?”, “What is my next step forward?” or “How does it get any better than this?”

Turning up the Death card on the table however, doesn’t necessarily mean that someone is going to die, and this is a common misconception. I am quick to remind people that there is big Death and there is also little Death. Finishing a job, moving house or ending a relationship are all little Deaths which we negotiate quite frequently throughout our lives. Even changing a habit such as giving up smoking, forgiving your ex or choosing to let go of judgement are little Deaths in themselves. In letting go of the things which no longer serve us we make space for new things to emerge. When we refuse to allow Death we stay stuck, clinging to the past and unable to move forward with our lives.

One of the most unsettling things about Death is that it leads us into the unknown. Whilst there are some who will return to tell their tale of experiences on the other side, more often than not, Death is final. However the real purpose of Death, big or small, is to make way for new life to be born. When we resist Death we block our vital life force energy and we stay stuck in our fear, resisting change, wanting things to stay ‘the way they are’ and unable to see the bigger picture…

If we look to nature we see that life is a series of Deaths and Rebirths and in the deepest part of our being we know this to be true. As we watch the seasons come and go, our bodies lose cells and create new ones every single day. If we live as we breathe, we take in and we let go, we find a rhythm that is in tune with the wholeness of life; and Death is an essential part of that wholeness.

To live a truly successful life, we must become intimately acquainted with Death. In a quiet moment, consider asking yourself, “What does Death have to teach me today?”, “Which things in my life need to die, so that they can be reborn anew?”, “How can I honour my life by honouring Death in its rightful place?”

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo

A newsletter from a self-development colleague arrived in my inbox this week and I opened it enthusiastically. I always enjoy his updates which usually feature some good food for thought - helpful hints, inspiring quotes and challenges to my perspective. The headline “The real meaning of Passion” caught my eye.

The article explained that the origin of the word Passion was in fact Suffering (a fact I quickly checked in the online dictionary) and questioned the common advice to ‘follow your Passion’, asking “Why would you want to choose Suffering?” Further investigation revealed the early Latin root passio refers to the sufferings of Christ as well as his crucifixion. Well that got me to thinking about the things we sacrifice and what we do it for…

We’ve all had experiences of sacrificing small things for a greater goal, like curbing our spending to save for a big trip, or cutting out tasty treats in order to lose weight. Anyone who has undertaken a difficult course of study, physical training or brought children into the world knows that in order to enlarge our life we must move outside of our comfort zone. If something is important enough to us, if we are Passionate about it, if we love or desire it enough, we are willing to sacrifice for it. Whilst we might occasionally fantasize about winning the lottery or catching a lucky break, in truth we know that nothing of real value is accomplished without hard work and a certain degree of sacrifice.

Where I see problems arise is when our sacrifices are made out of fear, guilt or belief in lack. Those sacrifices make our world smaller rather than larger. Many of us regularly sacrifice our personal freedom for the security of a full time job, for example. When the sun is out and we are dreaming of being out on the water, riding our bikes or soaking up the sunshine we are often sitting in an office or shop doing the work which will pay the bills.

Time and time again I counsel clients who have a deep desire to follow their Passion, whether that is starting their own business, quitting their job to take a trip around the world or commence full time study and their fears are holding them back.
“What if I fail?” they ask, eyes clouded with doubt. I urge them to think like my favourite Greek heroine Antigone, who risked her own life to give her brother a proper burial on the battlefield, proudly declaring, “When I have tried and failed - I shall have failed!”

Very few things in life come without risk. We go to bed every night assuming that the sun will come up tomorrow to dawn on another day of the same old routine and yet, here we are, hurtling through space on a giant rock with just enough atmosphere to keep us alive. Anything could happen, really. Since my last post of the Death card, two well-known spiritual teachers in Cairns passed away unexpectedly and many are gathered in prayer for Gabrielle Roth; world renowned teacher, author and creator of The Five Rhythms dance modality, as she exits this life and dances into the Light. These women lived their Passion and shared it with the world; their influence will be felt for many years to come.

Really, life is too short to make fearful compromises. To follow your Passion requires courage and sacrifice, true, but seriously – would you prefer the alternative? To live a small life, quietly, safely, conservatively? To never risk failure or defeat is to never give yourself the chance to discover what is truly possible. I saw a quote in a boating magazine which says succinctly; “A ship is safe in the harbour, but that is not what ships are built for…”

In this adventure called life, what are you truly Passionate about? If I could wave my magic wand and anything was possible, what would you choose? What would you do, create, learn, discover or achieve if money was no obstacle? What does your heart truly desire and what are you willing to risk in order to follow it?

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo

Most Sundays I have the privilege of waking up to see the sunrise over the ocean, from my luxury 5 Star Toyota Hiace Zebra. However I suspect that my favourite beach spot will be overrun this week by spectators who have travelled to the Far North to watch the Full Solar Eclipse on Wednesday. With thousands of tourists expected to flood the Cairns and Port Douglas region and over 10,000 tickets sold to the Eclipse 2012 Festival at Maitland Downs Station, the question has to be asked, “What is so special about an eclipse?”

From the perspective of Tarot, the Sun represents our inner source of vitality and our personal expression in the outer world. We were born to shine our light, to show who we really are through our actions, choices and personal style. When someone is truly happy we say that their face is “all lit up”, they are “beaming”, or “glowing with joy”. These common sayings demonstrate our instinctual understanding that we carry our own personal light within us. When we are doing what we love, when we are following our heart, fulfilling our potential, that is when our light shines the brightest.

The Ancient Egyptians worshipped the Sun God Ra who was considered the supreme ruler, the giver of life and, represented by the well-known Egyptian Eye symbol, the source of consciousness itself. I watched a documentary on the ABC recently which explained that every element on the periodic table, the chemical basis of all known life on Earth, is born in the dying stages of a Sun going super nova. The increasing pressure and heat creates our basic elements such as carbon and oxygen, the heavier metals such as gold being the last substances produced. These elements combine over millions of years to form our planets and atmospheres as well as the cellular structure of our bodies.

So not only does our Sun provide us with the heat and light every day which makes life possible here on Earth but the very substance of our being was created within a Sun. It doesn’t seem quite so primitive then, to consider worshipping the Sun as the source of life.

When the moon passes in front of the Sun on Wednesday morning, cloud cover notwithstanding, we will be treated to the visual spectacle of a Full Solar Eclipse. Our constant connection to the Sun will be momentarily interrupted and the sky will darken as we sit in the shadow of the moon. In the Tarot the Moon represents the unconscious, the world of dreams, feelings and intuition. Symbolically we will be able to see what hidden or unconscious forces may stand as obstacles to the full manifestation of our potential. We may realize hidden patterns of self-sabotaging behaviour or see where our fear prevents us from truly shining our light. We will also have a chance to pause, to reflect on our lives and then reconnect with fresh intention as the Moon’s shadow passes.

Another theme to consider is integration and the merging of masculine and feminine energies. With its outward expression, the Sun is regarded metaphysically as yang or masculine and the Moon which cycles every 28 or so days, represents the yin or feminine principle. During the Eclipse these two powerful forces will move into alignment with each other, giving us the opportunity to consider the balance of those qualities within our own lives.

Do the physical demands of your daily work and routine dominate your life, leaving little time for deep feeling or introspection? Do you care more about your personal goals and ambitions than you do cultivating awareness, sensitivity and compassion? If so, then you may wish to meditate on connecting with your feminine side, spending time in nature or sharing with others. To be truly fulfilled, we need to balance success in our outer lives with the depth and meaning that comes from looking within and listening to our inner voice.

Are you overly emotional, making decisions impulsively with little regard for the consequences? Do your creative ideas fizzle out before they manifest tangible results? Or do you find yourself lost in daydreams, distracted from doing the work you know you need to do to create success? Your homework then, is to reconnect with your powerful solar vitality within, to exercise your yang muscles and take your visions out into the world.

Observing astrological events such as the Solstices, Equinoxes and Eclipses connects us to the big picture, the cyclical nature of life and the abundant opportunity for change that greets us with every new sunrise. From the luxury 5 Star Zebra parked by the lake, Happy Eclipse and may you be showered in celestial blessings.

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo

“I had a dream that I was riding my bicycle across Australia,” she said as she looked at me seriously. I nodded, remembering a crazy Israeli friend who had done just that. Then came the question, “Do you think I should sell my car and get a bike?”

When her youngest daughter decided to move out of home unexpectedly, this woman’s whole life changed. She quit her job, sold off most of her belongings, packed the car and headed for the coast. A rewarding journey of valuable solo time and volunteering at festivals emerged as she surrendered to the unknown, guided by intuition and good fortune. Now it seemed that wasn’t enough as her dreams prompted her to downsize further. It didn’t surprise me at all when the Destruction card was the first one she picked out of the deck.

Brave are those who answer the call for change. It takes courage to give up certain structures which have made us feel secure and we often rely on our jobs, houses or relationships to provide that structure. However every structure that supports us will eventually become limiting as we outgrow it and then we need to expand, renovate or sometimes break down the structure completely in order to build something new. We can see then that Destruction is not a negative quality but rather the power to deconstruct, to disassemble, to pull apart in order to rebuild anew.

I often see people going through these significant changes at puberty, just before 30 and at midlife, however they can happen to us at any time throughout our lives. The midlife change has perhaps received the most bad press, often being misnamed ‘midlife crisis’ and yes indeed it may feel like a crisis as we look around and wonder what has happened to our childhood dreams, our grand plans or our waistline…

Life rarely happens exactly the way we want it and sometimes we get caught on a rollercoaster of work and responsibilities, becoming so busy that we have little time to reflect. When we do stop and look within, we may find that we are unhappy with our accomplishments, disillusioned with life or we might feel misunderstood and resentful of the ones we love the most. The purpose of all this angst however, is to make us reassess our values, to take a good hard look at where we are now and then decide what comes next.

Whilst this process can happen quickly, it certainly need not happen thoughtlessly. Feeling cramped in a relationship or lifestyle is a poor excuse to heartlessly ditch it and set off in pursuit of something more fun. In order to grow we need to honour our responsibilities and consider deeply any changes which will significantly affect those close to us. However there are times in our lives when we feel the pull of change, when life is asking us to move on, when we know that we have done enough, contributed enough and it is time for something new. It is when we become stagnant that our souls will call for change and it is that call, that whisper in our ear, that pull on our heartstrings that we need to listen to.

Sometimes our lives get deconstructed for us, like the man I did a reading for last week. His house had been demolished by fire, all of his possessions were gone and he was left with literally just the clothes on his back. He had no further need for spring cleaning. He was philosophical in nature and whilst he admitted to feeling sad over losing photographs and personal items which held sentimental value, he mostly felt as if a big burden had been lifted off his shoulders. Without the attachment of all his possessions and with a sizeable insurance pay-out, he headed for the airport, ready to take that long vacation he had been meaning to find time for.

The more in tune we are with the cycles of our lives, the more freely we can flow with the changes. Are you in a period of laying foundations, building or breaking down structures? Is it time to consolidate, or time to deconstruct? Where are expectations, attachments or fixed beliefs limiting your growth?

For questions and tips about reading Tarot ~ Ask The Hoo