Hi everone. Still doing readings about my current condition. Today’s was done with my harmony angel cards, and seemed pretty straightforward. I just drew three cards:

These were: Isda, Uriel, and Rahab.

Briefly, it says I can get stronger through healthy meals and lots of fluids! I guess sometimes common sense wins out.

Isda is the angel of food and nurishment. The red, orange, and yellow colors in the cup represent the first three chakras. Those all have to do with the lower self/physical body.

Rahab is an angel of the sea. This card calls to mind the Crowley Atu XIII (“Death”) card… in that it’s about the sea being a source of regeneration and rebirth. One important aspect is that transformation happens at its own rate, and the natural rate may be slower than you want it to be.

And, between the others we have Uriel, a card of transformation and alchemy… burning away blockages. So, this is the most non-physical of the three cards. I see it as a kind of ‘as below’ kind of message here. As I take care of my physical needs, my spiritual needs will be met as well.

We’ll see.

I am sick. Not the best time to be sick, either… I work in the financial markets, and they are rocking and rolling at the moment. Anyway, I thought it was strep throat based on the initial symptoms, but it turns out to be mononucleosis (“mono”). Which means, according to my doctor, I will feel sub-par for about the next month or so. yay…

My reading today was about my sickness. I used the Osho Zen Deck for it:

That’s the Kinght of Swords, 4 of Swords, and 9 of Swords, and I put the cards in a simple three-card sentence.

Strange to get all swords (or “clouds” in osho zen deck parlance). Well, the Knight of Swords is me, the Gemini card. I see this spread as telling me not to struggle against the illness. After all, there is no cure for mono… you just have to wait it out. Rather than be sad about the stuff you must postpone, you might as well embrace the sorrow.

The osho book says that 9-Swords “sorrow” is about the fact that the things that hurt and hinder you serve to make you more aware. And, in fact, since I have been monitoring my condition, I can confirm that I am more aware of my body than I have been in the months previous. I was planning to take a Reiki class soon, and so maybe all this focus on what I’m feeling internally will better prepare me for that.

So, in true zen fashion, I should simply use my circumstances to become more aware and conscious. It’s a good message for me, so I appreciate this reading. But, I always have to stop to notice that all my osho deck readings seem to come back to simple buddhist concepts. I still say this deck is a little too zen…

If you’ve been noting my lack of updates lately, then you’ll understand why my reading tonight was for the question: “How do I fit everything I want to do into my hectic schedule?”

I did the counting and pairing technique with my Thoth Deck. Lately, I have been cutting the deck in half, and then using the half deck as a source of the cards. That way, instead of 12 to 20 cards in a spread, I get 5 to 10. Much faster!

Anyway, I consider this to be a fire-realm issue… that of motivations and drives. Conflicting desires, and the like. So, after cutting the half-deck four ways, I read the fire pile. It had the following 5 cards in it:

If you aren’t familiar with the deck, that’s: 3 Cups + 9 Cups + 7 Cups + 2 Wands + 6 Wands.

Overview

Well, we got five cards, which indirectly relates this reading to the Emperor (Atu IV). That seems appropriate, since I’m trying to get my life under better control. The top card is the 6 of Wands, “Victory.” What strikes me about this card is the stable structure, and the orderly, slow-burning flames. The central card is the 7 of Cups, “Debauch,” and I see it as my main problem right now. I keep essentially fooling myself into thinking I’ve made the right changes and I’m set up to get everything done. In fact, I end up focusing on fun and ephemeral pleasures. So, that’s the basic answer, but how to get there?

The only other thing that jumps out at me, at the overview level, is that it’s all Water and Fire here. No swords or disks are present. This tells me that we’re talking about a kind of spiritual/emotional shift, rather than a problem I need to solve, or an action I need to take in my physical environment. Fair enough!

Counting and Pairing

Pairing around the current situation, we get:

• 3 Cups + 6 Wands: Joy comes from stable effort, and expansions in creative output.
• 9 Cups + 2 Wands: I get a deep satisfaction from putting effort into my businesses. Once I force myself to sit down and work, I usually don’t mind it at all. The problem, of course, is…
• 7 Cups: Illusions of Success, fooling myself, getting caught up in fun distractions

Now for the counting. No court cards here, which is appropriate since the question was internal to me, anyway. So, I decided to count from the top card and the central card, in both directions.

Counting from the 6 of Wands in either direction takes you right to the 6 of Wands. This reinforces the stability and self-sustaining nature of the card.

Counting from the 7 of Cups clockwise, we get: 7 Cups + 9 Cups + 2 Wands + 7 Cups. So, my procrastination does in fact bring me some happiness, and causes me to have to rush and spend extreme effort to get my actual work done. Then, back to more procrastination. Not a great cycle to be in… but in fact, it’s the cycle I’m in now.

Counting from the 7 of Cups counter-clockwise, we get: 7 Cups + 2 Wands + 6 wands. Here is the other option… expend a lot of effort and will to overcome procrastination, and get into the zone of stable and expansive effort.

So I know of the two paths, and I know I want to be on the one I’m not on… but how do I get there?

Unaspected Card

My counting hit four of the five cards. The untouched card is the 3 of Cups, “Abundance.” When a card is not hit, it is called unaspected (ever wondered where the title of my blog came from?). Unaspected cards can represent energies that the participants in the reading are unaware of. They are forces that could be brought to bear on the situation. In some ways, you can think of them as “advice” cards.

When I see the 3 of Cups in that position, I think of Mercury in Cancer, and I think that I could be smarter about the way I do things at home. I think I have been making smart improvements, actually, but this card tells me I’m not done. Also, when I get so busy I start to feel constricted, like there won’t be time enough for everything I have planned. The 3 of Cups reminds to enjoy the tasks I do accomplish, and even celebrate them. It also alludes to the fact that life is not a race, even when it feels like one, and that there actually is time for everything important in due course. Maybe this is the mindset I need, in order to see clearly how to make my way over to the stable 6 of Wands.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a cartouche reading, so I thought I’d send one your way. So many decks, so little time…

Anyway, here’s a 3-card draw for today:

That’s Air + Sirius + Anubis (Reversed). I am always impressed with how insightful this simple deck is. It’s currently the only deck I read with reversals, simply because there are only 25 cards in the first place… so I find it helps me flesh out the meanings.

So, today, it’s warning me that all of my hobbies and businesses (Air) are taking a lot of strength (Sirius), and that this is leaving me feeling vulnerable (Anubis Rev.). You can also read Sirius as foresight and grand plans, which fits nicely into my business activities as well. Air implies that there are a lot of things to juggle, and some inconstancy (“inconstancy” being the name of a card from the Tarot d’Eltynne that I pulled yesterday…) in terms of focus.

The last card, Anubis, is all about protection and diplomacy… so this stands as a warning that if I start to get stetched too thin, I may dispense with whatever tact I have. In other words, I could get touchy and snappy. Greeeeat…. thanks a lot, cartouche cards…

Ok, but honestly, I believe that. So, I’ve got some work that has to get done by 6:45 PM tonight, but after that I’m going to try to take it easy a bit. Chill with the cats. Stuff like that.

This was more practice with the Kapherus card meanings… I just pulled 3 cards with an eye toward learning something about my… (you guessed it!) work.

Here’s what I got:

Immediately my eyes fixated on the 8 of Spades over there on the right. That didn’t bode well! But, it would have to wait, as I’m trying to be methodical about these readings while I learn.

So, first off, the suits. We have an increase in power or money (clubs + diamonds) leading to some sort of blockage or problem (diamonds + spades). I see…

Now, I remembered from my last Kapherus reading that the Queen of Clubs often represents a business associate. So the increase in money sounds to me like the increase in subscribers that the woman I work with claims is coming in September. The activity in the financial markets is relatively dormant over the summer, but picks up steam again after the US Labor Day holiday.

All that’s great, so far, except now we get to the 8 of Spades… the card of disappointment! So, I think I will not be very impressed with the additional money coming my way. New subscribers to my service won’t magically come out of the woodwork, like my Queen of Clubs has been implying they would.

Ok, fair enough… I’ll just have to work harder!

Just a quick update. I did a quick geomancy reading on how the rest of the night’s work would go. I used the simple draw-dashes-on-paper-with-your-eyes-closed method I’ve been showing you in previous posts. Today I got:

… acquisitio, which you may recall is a favorable geomantic figure. It stands for gain, and things within my grasp. Very nice!

I hope you all are enjoying the geomancy stuff… this week’s posts will give more elaborate and interesting reading methods. But, you have to crawl before you can walk, and these single-figure readings are also fun, to me anyway!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a playing-card reading. Frankly, I haven’t been doing many. I’ve been engrossed in Qabalah study against tarot decks. But, I pulled out my poker deck today and performed Sammie’s “You Are Here” spread again.

I’m using the Kapherus card meanings, and my topic was (as usual) where I am with my work project. See? I don’t work all the time… sometimes I do readings about my work.

Anyway, here were the cards I got:

I thought this was a very interesting combination of cards. The symmetry immediately jumps out at you… for starters, two queens on one side and two aces on the other. Also, the two sentences are read from the top down… so we have Club->Spade->Diamond for both sentences.

That’s neat, and all, but what the heck does it mean? Hmm… I have to admit that this reading is confusing. Primarily, it’s hard to place the Queens, as this is a question about a solitary project.

Just looking at the suits, in both sentences we have increasing difficulties at work (clubs + spades) that get resolved and possibly improve finances (spades + diamonds). I can live with that!

What about the cards themselves? First, we have a lot of effort and planning (Ace Clubs) needed to get unstuck (2 Spades), and solving the problem will lead to a financially secure woman (Queen of Diamonds). Maybe my product will appeal to rich women? Or I will market it specifically to them, versus men? Not sure…

Second, we have a female co-worker (Queen Clubs) in conflict or misunderstanding (2 Spades) with me, leading to some sort of new beginning (Ace of Diamonds). Well, I don’t really buy that… I think if I ignore the co-worker aspect, and say the Queen of Clubs is my girlfriend, then this sentence is about how I have trouble getting work done while also staying at her place all the time (2 Spades), and I’m working on re-organizing my life to accomodate that (Ace Diamonds).

Sad that the theme of the reading is “obstacles and conflict” (2 of Spades), but honestly that’s pretty accurate. I need to finish this project up and move to the next one, but I can’t seem to do it, for some reason…

I did a reading with my Thoth Deck to describe the work I’m planning to do for an old client. He called me yesterday and left a message saying he’d like me to do additional work for him. I put out the following cards about the prospect:

I started out with just a three-card sentence. I got the Pricess of Cups, the Knight of Disks, and the 7 of Disks. But, given that two of the cards were court cards, I decided I wanted to fill in a bit more information. How will the energy of the cards interact to lead toward the 7 of Disks? So, I added the second row to answer that question.

I am represented here by the Princess of Cups. I am like the earthy part of water… I represent crystalisation of material out of seemingly nowhere. To me, this represents the support and development I do for people. Also, I live in a dream world!

My client is the Knight of Disks. Methodical, thorough, and slow-moving. He also has a fair amount of wealth at his disposal.

The 7 of Disks is the outcome of this meeting, which is labelled “Failure.” Not very promising! To elaborate, the 7 of Disks represents failure from a dramatic downturn in activity. The passivity of the earth element becomes too pronounced, and has negative effects. The coins on the card are made of lead, a reference to heavy-handed Saturn.

So, how do my client and I interact to arrive at lethargic failure? That’s why I wanted to see extra cards. Let’s see how they help!

I got the 2 of Cups as the energy between me (Princess of Cups) and the client (Knight of Disks). Hard to beat that! We will apparently get along really well this time. That was not always the case.

I got the 10 of Cups as the energy between the Knight and the outcome. And that, I think, may be the root of the problem. Things are going to go too well! He may offer me a lot of work, which is exactly what I should want, on paper (10 Cups). But, the attribution here is Mars in Pisces, and Mars never lets supposed perfection sit idly.

Note that every card in this spread is either of water or earth. There’s nothing inspired (fire) here, and no intellectual (air) challenge. To me, this is a recipe for boredom. And, I tend to put off projects that bore me. I will be inclined to drag my feet in the manner suggested by the grey-black leaden 7 of Disks. In fact, the last couple days I have been thinking a lot about interests and pursuits I have let fall away over the last few years. There just doesn’t seem to be time for everything!

Notice how the extra cards fill out the reading, without changing the meaning. That’s an important principle I try to stick to. You want to fill in additional detail… not alter what you’ve already seen. Avoid the temptation to add more cards just because you don’t like the ones you got in the first place!

Anyway, I’ve left the client voice-mail, but have yet to converse with him. It will be interesting to see how accurate this reading is! It will be even more interesting to see if I can work out a way to avoid falling into the 7 of Disks outcome somehow. Armed with this reading, at least I know to try…

I got some new Madame Endora Fortune Cards today, and I’m pretty happy with them. I saw them at a party the other day, and liked the imagery, so I ordered a copy.

I did a quick 3-card reading with them, about the webinar I’m about to give. Here are the cards I got:

So, we have the black cat + the knight + the shield. Looks like there will be danger, or some difficult questions (black cat). But, one of the other presenters will come to my rescue (the knight), and deflect them (the shield). I haven’t made much progress lately on the work project I’ve been doing, and usually at these seminars I get asked about my progress. So, I bet there are pointed questions about the eventual release date… and the other presenters will deflect them or mollify the users.

We’ll see… or maybe that reading is too specific, based on my conscious fears of pointed questions. Regardless, clearly the theme is some bad luck, followed by a rescue. I’m cool with that!

Update 2008-09-04: Actually, I got some questions that I couldn’t answer, but they came from one of the presenters! Thankfully, another presenter took over shortly afterwards, and the tension was relieved quickly. So, I’d say this reading went very well! I’ve already done a couple more endora readings tonight, and they worked well. I like that the cards have a nice mix of happy and sinister-looking images. That way, your happy readings also feel lucky!

I’m out at the moment so I’m blogging from my phone again. I hope the picture turns out ok. Here’s another basic geomancy reading, using just a single figure. More advanced readings will be posted next week.

One of the nice things about geomancy is that all you need is paper and a pen! If you are away from cards, you can still do some serious divination.

I used the method I outlined in my last geomancy post to generate a single figure on the back of a reciept. My question was about how my futures trading would go for the rest of the week.

Once all the marks were tallied, I had made “albus”. The basic meaning is “peace, wisdom, and purity… good for beginnings and for profit.” Nice!

Geomantic figures are also classified as “stable” vs “unstable/mobile,” and albus is a stable figure. So, that also bodes well.