A Time for Renewal

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Welcome to the 2014 Ostara Tarot Blog Hop!

For this Ostara Tarot Blog Hop, our wrangler, Joanne Sprott, has asked us to honor the season by celebrating resurrection and rebirth. Gladly I will!

Although I hadn’t thought about it until Joanne asked us to, I have been in a cycle of rebirth and renewal recently. I always try to make that happen in the spring. This year it seemed to happen naturally.

Recently I found myself listening to Bob Dylan’s iconic “Forever Young.” I’ll tell you something – that song means something different now that I’m fifty than it did when I was twenty-five. As we get older, the need for renewal is greater, and also harder to find.

Whether we are celebrating the end of winter, the resurrection of Christ, the renewal of the Earth or all of the above, the energy of spring each year gives us the opportunity to feel young, if we let it. This is no less true for me in sunny Florida than it was in the snowy Northeast.

Recently I’ve found a way to nurture my renewal by honoring both the old and the new. I am trying new things, learning new skills and finding joy in them. At the same time I am re-exploring things from my past that had fallen by the wayside.

As an example, one of the old things I have revisited is playing guitar. My guitars have been collecting dust for far too long. I had forgotten how much I enjoy playing music.

One of the new things I have tried is Brussels sprouts. I have always disliked this particular food. I tried it again, for the first time in years, and discovered that now I enjoy these cute little veggies.

I think this balance of old and new is an important discovery. To be constantly renewed, to be forever young (as it were) I need to nurture the things that have always made me happy, and I need to be constantly willing to try new things. Never should I gracefully surrender all of the things of youth, and never should I be an old dog who can’t learn new tricks.

There are so many tarot cards that teach us of these processes. We honor the past with cards like the Six of Cups and the Ten of Pentacles. We honor the new with the Aces. We honor transformation and the passage of time with Death, Temperance and Judgment.

I have been exploring two-card spreads recently. For this Blog Hop I thought I would create a spread to help us find renewal by being open to new things, and by revisiting the things of youth.

Two-Card Renewal Spread

Card One: What do I need to do in order to revisit something from the past?

Card Two: What do I need to do in order to welcome something new?

I received the Nine of Pentacles reversed for position one, and the World reversed for position two.

Here’s how I see it. For me, the Nine of Pentacles reversed is about feeling insecure. In order for me to dedicate myself to playing guitar I have to get over my insecurities about my questionable musical ability.

I think the World reversed reminds me that I can’t know if I’ll like something if I don’t try. For me the World is a sense of closure and completion. In its reversed state, I see something unknown or unfinished. It also speaks to my continued need to learn and experience more of the world, for as long as I live.

That both cards are reversed suggests to me that there is still a great deal more I can do to welcome renewal.

May the new spring bring renewal to each of us.

Now it’s time to hop over to Louise Underhill’s Priestess Tarot blog.

If you are working backward you can visit Aisling’s TarotWitchery blog.

If you find a break in the chain you can visit the Master List.

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Dancing Between Light and Darkness

Welcome to the Ostara 2013 Tarot Blog Hop. Perhaps you are joining me from Morgan Drake Eckstein's blog, Gleamings from the Dawn. Morgan is our wrangler for this Blog Hop.

When you finish here, please continue on to visit the blog of the Tarot Association of the British Isles.

If you find a broken link anywhere in your journey, please visit the Master List.

For Ostara, the Vernal Equinox, the Tarot Blog Hop is exploring the place where light and dark meet - that moment of balance when all things are equal and nothing is either good or bad. It's a not-so-surprising bit of synchronicity for me. I have been considering this topic recently, both as regards tarot and as regards life.

The archetype of the eternal battle between good and evil is predominant in many cultures. We see it in everything from Christianity to Star Wars.

On an internal level there may be such a battle going on in each person. Maybe we all have a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, just as we see in cartoons.

On a larger spiritual level I am not sure the battle between good and evil is a real thing at all. To believe in such a battle is to believe in the character of Satan, not as an archetype, but as an extant being. And I just don't.

What is good and what is bad, really? In nature, it depends on where you sit. If a lion catches a gazelle, it's a really good day for the lion and a really bad day for the gazelle.

For we humans, what is good and what is bad is subjective. Here in America we see that battle in the political arena. Each side believes they are the good guys, and on the other side are the bad guys. Each side wants what they feel is best for the country, and feels what the other side wants is evil.

In tarot it has been traditional to see some cards as inherently good and other cards as inherently bad.

Some cards can be either or neither, depending on the reader and the context.

Here are some examples:

"Good" Cards: the Sun, the Ten of Cups, the Star, the Ten of Pentacles, the Four of Wands.

"Bad" Cards: the Devil, the Tower, the Three of Swords, the Ten of Swords.

"Ambivalent" Cards: the Fool, the Moon, the Seven of Pentacles, the Ten of Wands.

Recently in my tarot career I have become very interested in how all tarot cards can be understood from that ambivalent perspective of being inherently neither good nor bad. Even the most traditionally positive cards can have a dark side. Even the most traditionally feared cards can offer a positive message.

For example, the Sun card, while very positive, can describe a person who is ruled by ego. The Tower, a card of destruction and devastation, can offer a hopeful new beginning.

The opportunity to view all tarot cards through the lens of neither-good-nor-evil is an exercise for an even more difficult task - viewing all of life as neither good nor evil. When we can recognize all things as simply be-ing, without judgment or qualification, we gain a helpful new perspective on life.

But that's when my activist-self steps in. I was raised with a commitment to social responsibility. I was taught to be a voice for justice in our society. How can I embrace a path of simply be-ing without becoming complacent?

So I am stuck with another kind of duality. How can I view the world without judgment, delighting in the simple IS-ness of all, and still be a voice for what I see as "good" on the planet?

I pulled one tarot card to answer that question. The card I received was the Three of Cups. Traditionally a card of happiness and celebration, I call this "The Party Card." For me, this has always been an ambivalent card because partying needs to happen in the right balance. Too much or too little partying can have devastating results.

Sometimes I like to look at tarot key words literally. If I look at the word "party" I could think of a political party. I don't belong to a political party - I'm an independent. This card in this context may give a clue of how to keep balance by voicing my concerns without becoming overbearing (as so many party adherents are).

Since the Three of Cups often pictures people in pleasant social interaction, the message may remind me to be pleasant. I should share my ideas thoughtfully.  I should remember that we catch more flies with honey than with vinegar (something the political parties seem to have forgotten).

Perhaps, by taking a step back and treating everyone with courtesy (regardless of party affiliation) I can stand for my beliefs and be an example of civility.

Some of the greatest voices for social change in history have been non-violent and congenial voices. Perhaps that is where I can find my right balance.

Another aspect of today's turn of the Wheel of the Year is the traditional celebration of Ostara - the planting of seeds, the hatching of eggs. Today we celebrate the fertile earth and all the potential therein as the light increases across the land.

In this moment of balance life is always striving to be. Life does not consider the world as a dark place or a light place. Life is simply busy in the process of becoming.

Thanks so much for joining us on the Blog Hop. Please continue on to the TABI Blog. If you are working backwards it's time to visit Morgan's blog, Gleamings from the Dawn.

If you get lost or find a broken list, a visit to the Master List should get you back on track.