February: The Lovers

Life is About Choices, Right?

The Lovers – Sacred Rose Tarot

It’s February and the stores are filled with reds and pinks, hearts, feathers, and things that shimmer and sparkle. All designed to draw you in and remind you to profess your love and devotion to your loved one, in this, the month of love. Also, and because I’m a procrastinator, this post is going up on the eve of Women’s History Month. The card for this month had to be… The Lovers.

The Lovers is a card of choices. This card depicts Adam in the Garden of Eden. On either side of him are Lilith and Eve. I’m not sure how many of you have ever heard of Lilith, but I was in my 40’s before I learned of her. I asked my boss, who knows pretty much everything biblical, and his response was “of course I know who Lilith is.” Well, for those of you who are like me, here’s a quick catch up:

Stories of Lilith have been around since as early as 700 AD. She was Adam’s first wife, but is more commonly known in her demonic form as the “slayer of children,” and may have been history’s first feminist. According to one story (The Alphabet of Ben-Sira), God formed Lilith from the same clay as Adam. Because they were created the same way, and from the same material, she insisted they were equals. When Adam insisted he was superior and she would be only submissive, she left the Garden of Eden. Lilith is now seen as the incarnation of lust, causing men to be led astray, and as a slayer of children.

Back to The Lovers… Adam is shown in the middle of a big choice. On one hand, he has Lilith. Independent thinking, strong willed and rebellious Lilith who you know would’ve given the serpent a run for his money. On the other hand, he has the dutiful, submissive, and faithful Eve who would never question the motives of the serpent. Adam chose Eve. And for this particular story, his choice for the supportive, non-questioning Eve resulted in their fall from grace.

You can see the archangel Raphael above them. He is depicted as being blindfolded, as it is not within his power to cast judgment on the choice to be made. This lack of participation from the higher power represents our free will. Adam’s choice (your choice) is his own (yours) and will decide the path of his (your) spiritual development.

Now, as you might remember, Major Arcana are cards of big energy, and not directly a result of a choice you made today. This choice is the culmination of many smaller choices, not all of them yours, but which lead you on a path directly to this point.

“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” J.K. Rowling

So, my readers, what choices are you faced with? Does the easy “right now” choice call to you? Will this be the best choice in the long run? More often it is the more difficult choice that will bring about better results, particularly on a deeper, more spiritual level.

When you find yourself at this moral crossroads, please consider all consequences before you act. Sometimes the choice is not obvious and requires a lot of reflection and contemplation. Unlike The Fool’s choice, for which there really is no wrong choice, The Lovers is a card where the choice is very much right or wrong. One of the choices will take you down a negative path. I caution you to be honest in your thoughts, closely and clearly examine your motives, and choose wisely.

My thoughts are my own, but my pictures are generally found on Pinterest (you can find anything there!). If you like what I write, please share with your friends or someone you think would like it! I’d love it if you follow me on Facebook (Melissa Gale), Instagram (write2unpack), or Twitter (@write2unpack). If you have any topics you’d like to talk about, reach out to me at write2unpack@gmail.com. Oh, hey, and if you sign up to follow me you’ll never miss a post!

January: The Fool

Sacred Rose Tarot. Art by Johanna Gargiulo-Sherman
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In my efforts to focus on writing short stories based on the Major Arcana cards of the Tarot, I’ve decided that I should also write monthly blogs about them. January is a great time for resolutions, new beginnings, new commitments, so the obvious choice for this month is The Fool.

The Fool’s number is 0, the number of unlimited potential. In fact, the cards in the Major Arcana are also described as The Fool’s journey. In this card, he is shown at the beginning of his journey The sun is rising behind him as he readies to step out into the cosmos, and set out on this exciting new adventure. He has a sack filled with everything he’ll need and his companion, a little white dog, is here to help and hinder him on his journey. In his right hand he holds a white rose, symbolic of the purity and innocence of new beginnings.

This is a card of new beginnings and potential. It represents the beginning of creativity and setting out on an exciting new adventure. It is all about taking that “leap of faith,” and trust that the Universe will bring you what you need. This is the perfect time to follow your intuition, no matter how crazy it may seem to step off that cliff into the cosmos.

Whew! That’s a whole lot of inspiration, and what a perfect time! Now’s the time when we’ve reflected on the last year – things that worked, or didn’t – and we’ve resolved to be better, live better, and love better. What a perfect time to trust that the Universe will bring us what we need, and believe in ourselves.

I’ve resolved to believe in myself and my writing, my desire for health (which doesn’t necessarily rely on what the scale says), and my desire to rid myself of toxic relationships. I’m going to get rid of things that no longer serve me, so the Universe can provide me with the things that will. (Note: this is also the lesson of the Death card, but more on that later)

And let me tell you it feels like I’m stepping off a cliff into the unknown.

To fully believe in myself and my writing it means I will actually need to write stories and people will actually have to read them. Whether they like them or not? Well, that’s not a choice I get to make. They will, or they won’t. My job is simply to write it and put it out there and, candidly, I’m not sure if I’m more afraid of failing or of success.

I mean, erotic Tarot stories? Erotica, well, that’s risky on its own. I mean, everyone likes/has/wants sex, but writing erotica means that everyone will automatically assume that I want or have done what I write about. And then… then I’m going to write about the Tarot? Witchery and devil worshipping, right? Nope. Tarot is simply a tool. Originally developed in the 15th century as a game, it’s morphed into a tool of divination by some. Believe in it? Don’t believe in it? doesn’t matter. For me it provides very specific energies which I use as themes in my stories – 22 to be exact. And that’s just the Major Arcana…

So, my readers, what new path is calling to you? What leap of faith are you being asked to take? What do you need to believe in yourself and take that first step into the cosmos?

My thoughts are my own, but my pictures are generally found on Pinterest (you can find anything there!). If you like what I write, please share with your friends or someone you think would like it! I’d love it if you follow me on Facebook (Melissa Gale), Instagram (write2unpack), or Twitter (@write2unpack). If you have any topics you’d like to talk about, reach out to me at write2unpack@gmail.com. Oh, hey, and if you sign up to follow me you’ll never miss a post!

The Hanged Man

Or Change Your Perspective

I met with some friends last week for some much needed inspiration. Life has been, well, like it’s been for everyone for the last almost-two-years: really busy, constantly changing, and really hard. Everything changed, several times. Everyone’s angry or rude. We’ve been isolated and have lost our social graces and the ability to relate kindly to another human. Meeting with these friends reminded me that life is all about perspective and how we perceive our situation. Sometimes what we need is simply to change how we look at things.

The Hanged Man in the Tarot is about a couple of things. One of them is to simply pause and reflect, another is that you should view your situation from a new perspective.

In April of 2015 I wrote a blog post here about Perspective v. Perception, and was encouraged to repost the lesson, as it certainly seems as timely today as it did almost 6 years ago.

My house sits on almost an acre of property in the middle of orchards. Some of that is maintained, and a large “lawn” down below our house is part of what we maintain – or try to. I have a riding mower, thank heavens, and there are mature fruit trees planted in the lawn that you have to mow around and under. We water this lawn with irrigation water, so we’re literally re-seeding it with dandelions as soon as we mow them all down.

One summer day, I was standing on my deck overlooking the field of dandelions below. Already cursing the thought of running over them in the mower, the little white fluffs flying into the air sticking to the sweat on my skin, getting in my ears, eyes, and up my nose. As I stood there, already imagining batting them away and trying to get them out of my nose, my youngest son (who was 4, I think?) came up beside me and stood on the bench and looked out at the field with me.

“MOOOOOOOOMMMMM!” He patted my arm excitedly, his little eyes sparkled as he looked out at the field of shaggy grass and soon-to-be-flying weeds. “Look at all the WISHES!”

Bam. Reality check from a 4-year-old.

I looked out and saw only work and hardship. I cursed their very existence. He looked out and saw unlimited wishes and potential dreams coming true.

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We were both looking at the same field of grass and dandelions, but the difference was how we chose to see them.

My husband has Multiple Sclerosis. I can look at that and bemoan the fact that he can’t feel his hands or feet, or hate that he can’t walk well or very far. I can mourn the loss of freedom for him and, by default, me.

Or I can change my perspective.

His MS progressing has pushed us into a healthier lifestyle we never would have even considered before <cough, cough, Wahls Protocol>. I’ve seen people go out of their way to be kind and helpful to him when he’s fallen down, or stuck with his walker, or patient with him when he walks slow. Seriously folks, there are good people out there everywhere. If he didn’t have MS we wouldn’t be on this health journey, and it’s quite possible I would have lost all faith in humanity.

When I was with my friends whining that I hadn’t written in 6-9 months – all I did was write at work (boring legal stuff, not the cool worlds I create!) My friend reminded me that what I had really been doing was practicing my scales. Musicians practice boring, rote stuff all the time to sharpen their abilities and keep them fresh. That’s what I had been doing. I had, indeed, been writing the entire time I thought I wasn’t. I was simply practicing my scales in preparation for this month and my own NaNoWriMo adventure. Perspective is the difference, and I have his word (SCALES!) he wrote on a restaurant napkin where I can see it to remind myself.

So, my request of you, my reader, is to take stock of a situation in your own life you’re unhappy with and pause and reflect on it. How can you change your perspective? How does that change your situation?

What do you see?