Offering

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

But you can have a long cool drink of your own.

This card’s advice and energy might be a little connected to a private reading I did earlier today, but nevertheless it is one of those proverbial truisms that applies to everyone.

We can’t control other people, but we sure as hell can control ourselves.

We can offer our love, but can’t make other people accept it – much less requite it.

We can accept the love that is given to us. We can choose to reflect, return and magnify that love.

We can choose to close ourselves off, but don’t dare be hurt when other people turn away and stop offering their emotions and energies to a closed up lump.

Let emotions flow – there are always more where that came from.

Yes, absolutely, choose, control and curate how you express them and who you express them to. You can control that much, but not how -or if-they will react.

“You do you boo” is as demeaning and dismissive as it feels when someone says it to you…but it is also full, unbridled permission to let your freak flag fly and to do just exactly that…you.

“People are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Has been attributed to Abraham Lincoln among others.

So what do you do about people who choose differently than you had hoped or just generally make up their mind to be miserable?

I don’t know.

I suspect the answer is to let them.

Respect their choices. Respect the mind they’ve made. But just as importantly, respect yours just as strongly.

Choose happy, and it is yours.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous Yuletide Solstice time and New Year.

Thank you for reading and listening in 2022. Please stay tuned for a shiny new and improved blog, podcast and other new surprises coming in 2023.

Wishing all the best to everyone,

Sage

Today’s Tarot: Just Because You Can

 

The Two of Swords is an interesting card. I’ve seen a wide variety of interpretations for it, all of which ring true at one time or another. The classic interpretation is to be of two minds about something, or to have difficulty choosing between two nearly identical options. Diane Morgan broadens that duality beyond the mundane to include the spirit realm. Here, the two of swords is more about identifying and connecting to subtly different realms of being rather than subtly different physical realm choices. Ted Andrews uses elements of both. He connects the physical and spiritual, but points out the choices we make as we integrate the spiritual into daily living. He puts it in terms of right use of power. 

As I drew the card, I got a strong mental impression of the Colossus of Rhodes, the ancient wonder, a statue so large that is believed to have stood with a foot on either side of the entrance to the port at Rhodes in ancient Greece. Today, Brea Fisher spook of “a foot in two worlds” in her ever lovely and wise @quanyingongfu feed on Instagram. The interplay between the physical world and the spiritual world is asking for our attention.

We each live with a foot in both worlds You experience the solid, physical realm all of the time, but also have continuous access to the ethereal realm of thoughts, emotions, imagination and intuition.

The two of swords is reminding us to make wise choices about which foot we use and how. My attention is particularly drawn to the esoteric energy side of this and the old adage “Just because you can doesn’t mean that you should.” 

Those who work with energy professionally bear the greatest responsibility in that respect. I don’t feel pushed to say that because I’ve seen anyone being irresponsible. “Psychic” scams have been around forever. Today, I feel pulled to mention this out of deep respect for everyone out here doing it right. 

Today the Two of Swords is a bow of respect for those who act out of compassion. Yes, we advertise and post and tell everyone what we do so those who need us can find us. We ask for fair payment or donation in exchange for our expertise and skilled services, but we do so out of compassion for ourselves and our families. We communicate not out of ego but to build trust. Beware the shifting and shady. The trustworthy write the rules, expectations and boundaries for all to see.

Also a bow of respect to those who speak their truth but have the strength to speak their truth but then let go. Ego is needy in this line of work. A wise person can let others about their life and make all the mistakes they need to find wisdom for themselves.

There are many excellent teachers out there and I am so grateful to have found the words of so many of them: Ted Andrews, Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Christopher Penczak, Scott Cunningham, Brea Fisher, Nick Gracenin, Jose Johnson and many more. 

We walk through life with a foot in two worlds. Sometimes physical circumstances carry the greater weight and demands our attention, as it has with the pandemic. But to keep moving forward, to keep living, the spiritual foot must move forward and have its day before the physical realm demands its due again.

My hunch is we are in a brief liminal time when things are shifting. The moment is twilight quiet, the eye of the hurricane. Personal power and inner spirituality must be used rightly. This isn’t the time for bluster and show, not a time for group-think, blind positivism or outward dogma. We’ve survived for the moment, so now is the time to turn quietly inward give our hearts and souls their turn even as we prepare to return our attention to the practical in times to come. 

You Choose Tarot for 22 Jan 20

Right: 6 of wands. Sometimes you have to fight the war to find the peace on the other side. Protect your boundaries.

Left: 5 of Pentacles. No need to deny how difficult it is. If times are tough, face up to the fact that they are. That doesn’t mean you have given up hope. Admitting you are cold doesn’t stop the first spring flower from blooming through the snow.

Middle: 7 of Cups. A good time to choose. This present moment is the axel around which the wheel of the future spins. This is where you make the choices that steer your path where you want it to go.