Overall Theme for the Year: Six of Pentacles.
This card fell out of the deck as I was getting ready to do the reading, and I always pay attention when that happens.
The card shows a merchant handing coins to a beggar, with another waiting to receive his own. The merchant holds a scale. This card can represent charity, as in offering help to those who need it, or can indicate receiving charity or help. Can symbolize a willingness to ask for help -- emotional or physical as well as monetary, or the need to take actions that allow help to come to you. Generosity.
January: The Devil
As I started shuffling the cards, I saw that I had left The Devil card in the tin. While I would normally use the same logic that I applied to the Six of Pentacles, in this case I didn't want to give The Devil any extra focus. However, after I picked up the card and shuffled it back into the deck, I ended up picking it first anyway. So it must be important.
The Devil can represent situations that are unhealthy or unproductive, negativity, self doubt, obsessive thought, ignorance. Illusions, mistakes, lies, the absence of light. Clinging to people or situations that can harm or chain us. The beings at the foot of the devil are chained, but the chains are loose, and it appears that they could escape if they wanted to. So it can also represent the liberation of the imprisoned spirit. The absence of light indicates that there is light elsewhere. We can free ourselves from our obsessive thoughts and find the light again if we choose.
Cards are from the Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot Deck.
Word for the Year
For the last couple of years I've joined the group of people who choose a word to guide their year, going through Susannah Conway's Find Your Word course. Two years ago my word was "Believe," and I chose to apply it to believing in myself, believing that I could be successful in my various businesses and in my life, and I think it helped. I kept the word in front of me and tried to keep it in mind as I went through the year.
Last year, I had a hard time choosing a word, and ended up with "Shine." I thought that I would devote the year to being a shining person, to being the kind of person who makes others happy, who lights up the room. I wasn't totally convinced of it, but then, in the first week of January, Bob collapsed with an aortic aneurysm and ended up in the hospital for almost two months. "Shine" kind of went out the window and I was back to Believe -- believing that he would recover and come back to me, and he did. He "believes" that the reason he survived was because of my "belief" that he wouldn't die. I'm not sure about that, but whatever we did worked, and "Believe" served me well.
There are some things in my life that I need to let go of and move beyond. So I thought maybe "Release" would be a good word for this year for many reasons. Release the thoughts that keep you tied down, release the obsessive and oppressive thoughts, just let it all go. Or maybe "Breathe," something that I have to remind myself to do quite often. Then I thought, "Grace," and I knew that was it.
Grace has always been a quality that I have tried to emulate, but perhaps not very well recently. So, Grace. Not as in graceful, although I could use that reminder, too. But more grace-full, i.e., full of grace. A little card that I keep in my planner -- and have no idea where it came from -- reads, "In matters of higher feelings and attributes, including mind and moral character, the person who relies on his heart achieves grace.
I kind of think that it goes along with the January card -- The Devil -- and Release as well, as far as letting go of the chains and thoughts that keep you from achieving grace. To let it go, to live my life in a manner that lets me, and everyone that I come in contact with, to soar. Another good word. But this year, it's Grace.
Bob and I were both off Thursday through Sunday for the New Year, and it was a wonderful break. We didn't really do anything, just hung around the house, ate good food, had some conversations, read books, watched movies, just had a really quiet and peaceful start to the year. Exactly what we wanted and needed.