I used my Key to the Kingdom deck again, and threw down lots of cards so that all you admirers out there could see more of the scans! Aren’t the cards adorable?

So, there are four positions, with three cards each:

• West: Where I am
• East: Where I’m going
• North: What I should do
• South: What I should not do

Here’s what I got (since there are so many cards, I left this pic larger than normal… click to see the larger version):

Where I am: I’m feeling torn (punctured heart) because at my place (the house), there are lots of mouths to feed (diamond-birds). Not literal mouths to feed with food… but clients who all need little bits of work from me. On top of that, I’ve promised yet more work to them. I wish I didn’t do that, so much! I’ll also note the moon above the birds, which to me signifies that I have an emotional connection to my work, and also points out the way my workload tends to go in cycles. Feast or famine, for me!

What I should do: Though it’s not the happiest way for me to work (sullen queen), I should get my annoying tasks organized (straight line of club-bats), and handle them one-by-one like an assassin (spade-spider).

What I should not do: I should definitely stop running around blind (the three club-mice) and trying to appear serene (butterfly)… when in reality I’m trying to do too many things at once (octopus). In other words, I think I need to streamline my life a bit. Or get my work and social lives better integrated, so that it doesn’t feel like I’m task-switching quite so much.

Where I’m going: Basically, I will have to deal with the heartache (that whiny looking creature), of everyone being able to see (staring fish) that I’ve not yet finished what I was planning (little monkey looking like it’s been caught… I notice the hands look kinda like they are typing, which is how I accomplish the majority of my work). Fair enough… I’ve got more work than time right now. But, at least I can try to take steps to keep this from recurring in the future.

A couple other observations:

When I see the line of club-bats versus the spade-octopus, I think of the difference between actually getting work done (clubs->fire) and thinking about getting work done (spades->air). Point taken! Comparing the same two cards, I also thought about my email policy. As it is, I answer my clients usually within 30 minutes because their email is routed to my phone. I do this even on my days off! I think it’d be better to queue them up like the club-bats, and start answering them in batches at designated times. Obviously I’d do this often enough to keep them happy, but not so often that I’m the spade-octopus!

When I see the sullen Queen, I think that I run the risk of disappointing the woman in my life if I have to spend too many nights working… so getting streamlined and especially doing more work during the day will help. As I’m self-employed, I am used to doing a lot of work at nights, and I’m trying to adjust that some.

Wow, that was a lot of information, I think! Stuff for me to think about…

I bought a scanner last night, and as a result, now I can show you readings I do with any of my cards! I’m very happy about this development. So, in honor of that, today’s reading comes from my Key to the Kingdom transformation deck. It’s a poker deck, but I don’t use any playing card systems on it… I just read the pictures intuitively. I think it’s good to have at least a couple decks that you just stare at and free-associate. I know with tarot decks in particular, sometimes I practically forget to look at the pictures at all!

I pulled four cards to summarize my day. The west -> east cards were “where I am” vs. “where I’m going.” The north -> south cards were “what I will do” vs. “what I won’t do.” Here’s what I got:

I’m running out of time to type, here… but briefly, I took it to mean that right now the environment at my parents’ house feels nice and warm. You can see that the outside world is cold (ice around the house). Also the bend in the house makes it seem like it’s trying to contain lots of activity. On the other hand, I’m heading to a place where I have to get back to taking care of my responsibilities (which never go away). I see that in the eastern card because I see the spade-insects as cleaning the fruit. Doing chores, or what-not.

So, the north card (”what I’ll do”) tells me that I’m heading that way because I’m going to start noticing nagging details that need to be taken care of. Notice that the northern card is actually a close-up of a small portion of the eastern card! Little things will come to my attention (like emails from my work clients, which are already coming in), that will remind me that my little trip here needs to end. I’ve got to get a lot of things done by Monday.

What makes me happy, though, is that the south card (”what I won’t do”) implies that I won’t start feeling restless or hemmed in here at the parents’ house. I’ll leave because of my responsibilities, and not because I’m having a bad time. A few years ago, I bet the north->south cards would have come up the other way around! We get along much better, lately.