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July 15, 2015 – I tend to be more conscious of the rhythm of the moon phases, even more so than the solar monthly calendar we all take for granted. Each moon cycle, I create a new moon tarot spread to get a feel for what is coming up, and to make sure that my energy waxes and wanes in a good order with my creative endeavors.

I highly recommend this practice. You’ll find focusing in this way brings a gentle, powerful rhythm to your soul life that’s rather like the rhythm of the waves washing onto shore.

This month is particularly moon-saturated. For one thing, it’s a month of a blue moon. Blue moons are fairly unusual, which is why we have the phrase “once in a blue moon.” It used to be that a blue moon meant the third of four full moons in a season (between solstice and equinox). Nowadays we usually use it to refer to the second of two full moons in a single calendar month.

Even more rarely, the moon looks blue in appearance. This happens after a volcanic eruption or because of the ash and dust created by a forest fire. The moon can also seem blue as the complimentary color of yellow: Stare at a yellow lamplight for a while, and then look at a big fat moon: it will appear blue.

There are also some exquisite astrological and planting sites that offer plenty of detail and insight on the interplay of light and dark, birth, growth, transformation, and the journey through the sky of the moon, and how it interacts with the planets and fixed stars as it passes by, as well as how these myriad starry relationships may affect you.

Here is a free planting calendar from Bach Biodynamics. I use it as a guide for my creative work, which is my own way of gardening.

The post Moon Phases appeared first on Tarot Oasis.

I thought about his response a lot, and his words changed my own meditation practice. There’s something bigger and more infinite happening when we meditate, not just a quietening of one’s being for a short while.

Why meditate? There are many reasons, and many different types of practices. I remember a wonderful magazine interview with a Carmelite nun, in which the nun was asked about her daily routine and practices. She described the tasks, the meals, the leisure time – and then said “and then it is time for prayer – which is the time we love best.” It was said in the same tone that many of us look forward to a party or a date or a movie. It’s how I feel about my own meditation practice.

Meditating instills an equanimity that helps you to feel peaceful even when there are outwardly stressful or urgent situations surrounding you. Instead of getting sucked into an emotional, uncontrollable vortex of fear or anger, you remain calm. Emotions are good – when they’re kept in balance.

By meditating, you train your thinking to be intentional, not at the mercy of reaction to others’ emergencies. And when you are serene, you help others to be serene as well.

There are all kinds of ways to practice meditating: you can sit, or whirl, or pray. You can walk, but try not to think. Instead, observe what is around you, without judgment. Focus on your breath if your mind starts wandering. Move through the natural beauty that surrounds you, and observe it with compassionate detachment.

Dancing is another form of meditation – sometimes moving to music helps your mind focus, as on a mantra. It’s important to be gentle with yourself – I’ve known some people to get exasperated with their inability to meditate! The mental chatter that tends to overtake us can be overwhelming. But anyone can find a way to find the quiet stillness of one’s innermost being. Be patient. Half the exercise is slowing down, being very still, listening to yourself, listening to the holiness that is you. Peace doesn’t come from somewhere outside – nor does happiness or calm. It comes from going inwards.

At the very least, the practice of meditation trains your mind to be your tool, rather than you being a servant of your mind. In life, you can get lost in a dizzying array of splendid thoughts and ideas and conversations. Meditation helps to remind you that your head is as useful as your hands for writing or your feet for walking. But your mind is not your being, your real self. Your mind is useful – but it needs to learn how to be still and empty to make room for creativity and calm.

If you haven’t meditated before – or only rarely or with a teacher – here’s a beginner’s basic:

Find a place where you know you won’t be interrupted. Be seated comfortably. Close your eyes. For five or so minutes, focus on your breath. You’ll hear it going in and out, and you might get twitchy and bored and begin to think of something else. Gently focus your mind back on your breathing.

After five minutes, gently let go of your concentration and open your eyes.

That’s it.

Over the course of the next few days, increase your meditating time to ten – fifteen – twenty minutes. Eventually you’ll find the time that works best for you. Transcendental meditation recommends twenty minutes twice a day. Za-zen monks meditate for seven or eight hours at a time.

If you already know how to meditate, but only do it on occasion, try to do it as a regular practice for a week and observe any changes.

If you’re a seasoned meditator, then try a different kind of meditation for a week or two, to stretch and flex your meditation muscles. There are so many varieties to choose from – focusing on a mantra, moving meditation, walking, dancing, whirling, breathing, emptiness.

It’s your meditation practice – choose one that works for you.

The post Why and How to Meditate appeared first on Tarot Oasis.

At the time, my mother was writing a cookbook called Beyond Measure: The Cookbook For People Who Think They Can’t Cook. She used the major arcana of the tarot as a jumping off place in guiding her readers to learn to use their intuition when they’re in the kitchen trying to cook a meal.

Her book is about trusting your sense of smell to see if something combines well with something else, to believe in your sense of taste as you go along, to reach out and touch the fruit to feel if it is ripe. Don’t listen to what someone else thinks is the ‘right’ way to do something.

Just as in using the tarot to offer guidance, the magical power of divination lies in sparking that flame of ‘aha’ that a delicious sauce or delightful dessert can offer.

Here’s what she writes about Appetizers, inspired by the ‘Lovers’ card:

“Love and cooking both need some discrimination. In our kind of Kitchens your tools are equanimity, perception, attention, choice, honesty, no tricks. In Love: the same.

The meal is prepared. The table set. Tempting fragrances fill the air. Life is a feast. I believe in myself, and it is balm. Life is beauty and beauty is love.

We invite people to our table where Love helps us bear the oppression of closeness and the terrors of separation. We open to new undertakings, regularly bringing them to fruition. We eat from our bountiful table, letting new people, places and experiences into our lives, while changing accordingly.”

And here’s what she writes about Herbs and Spices, accompanied by the Hermit:

“Whatever else we do in life, sometimes we need to be alone.

Say there’s something that demands our attention. We become a Hermit, if just for an hour, a day, a week, a year, or a lifetime. Solitude tends to re-true us to ourselves. We replenish lost energies. The Hermit respects solitude, since, strange as this may seem, solitude is what binds relationships.

Herbs do the same for food. They bind and enhance the relationships between ingredients, and like solitude, they release tremendous energies, as vital nutrients appear like genies to serve our kindest imaginations, our most generous instincts, and our subtlest intuitions. Herbs lift us out of the mediocre into the extraordinary. They waft us to India or to Italy in a pinch. They are basic to homeopathic medicine. Alive in our gardens, their fragrances awaken us to our own healing powers. Working at the cellular level, herbs restore levels of harmony we may be unaware have been abandoned.”

Images drawn by Alexander Eliot.

The post The Tarot Cookbook appeared first on Tarot Oasis.

I remember snapping back: “When you come to the end of a rope, you should let it go and find another one!”

Are you feeling as though you’re at the end of your rope? There can be many reasons why you might: You have a job that’s not fulfilling, a relationship that feels as though it needs to end, or having to take care of a too-large house or garden.

Here’s a practice for you, if you are feeling as though you are at the end of your rope:

Imagine the ‘rope’ in your life that you’re hanging on to. Imagine how tired your arms are, how exhausted you feel, how you long for someone to come and help you back up the rope to where you were. Feel your loneliness: there’s only you there, hanging on to that rope, legs dangling over the abyss. Maybe even cry a bit.

Now, instead of trying to tie a knot so you can climb back up the rope, imagine letting go!

You realize that to hang on to a rope when your arms are aching is just plain silly. There’s no danger – everything around is soft and slow and warm and lovely. You’re tumbling gently through a safe, interesting world that is totally unexpected, but still your very own, because it’s your own creation. Think Alice’s rabbit hole adventure.

Close your eyes and allow the best experience imaginable to come to you. You might find yourself with a whole new way of looking at something that you were previously stuck on.

Now write it down. First, describe the rope you’ve been holding onto and the misery and ache you feel. Then describe the wonder of what occurs when you let go of the rope. Think outside the box – in fact, maybe nothing happens at all. Maybe everything that you were afraid would happen when you let go disappears. Maybe you simply feel relief.

The post  When You Come to the End of a Rope… appeared first on Tarot Oasis.

What would you do if there was nothing you had to do?

Only you have the answer to that. Only you have a map, a compass, and solid walking shoes. The map is your powerful mind; your compass is your authentic feeling-nature. The shoes are your physical body and the time and space in which you live.

And, if you would like, I can be your guide.

In my book called “What Would You Do If There Was Nothing You Had To Do? Practices to create your life the way you want it to be” I give you twenty-two keys that will open twenty-two doors, each one going deeper into discovering your heart’s desire.

You don’t have to give up anything in order to find out what you really want out of life. This is an inward journey, and it may have little to do with quitting your job, leaving your spouse, or spending less time with your children. You are going to travel a road that, as the Sufis say, is in the world but not of the world.

This journey takes you through a deeply personal process so that you emerge into your ‘real’ world in a spirit of mindful self-creation and joy.

“Each of us has been called to take the great Leap into the unknown—finally, an instruction manual!  A brilliant and beautiful companion to the soul’s evolution. Ms. Eliot’s gentle guidance, wisdom, and practical exercises make the journey a joy.” —Dr. Jan Seward, Clinical Professor of Naturopathic Medicine, Psychologist, Creative Arts Therapist

The post What would you do if there was nothing you had to do? appeared first on Tarot Oasis.

Essentially, they form a deck of 78 cards. Fifty-six of these are the precursor of our familiar playing cards. There are four suits, numbers 1-10, and four court cards (instead of only the three we are familiar with). The four suits represent the four elements: earth, air, water, and fire, which in turn symbolize the human bodies: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

In addition to these 56 minor arcana cards are 22 major arcana cards. These cards represent the ‘fool’s journey’ or ‘hero’s journey.’ Through your own journey, you discover increasingly intriguing aspects of yourself, and you are guided to a deep inner wisdom and self-understanding.

Here is how the psychologist Carl Jung describes the major arcana:

 “They are symbols, or pictures of symbolical situations. For example, the symbol of the sun, or the tower struck by lightning, or the wheel of fortune, and so on. Those are sort of archetypal ideas, of a differentiated nature, which mingle with the ordinary constituents of the flow of the unconscious, and therefore it is applicable for an intuitive method that has the purpose of understanding the flow of life, possibly even predicting future events, at all events lending itself to the reading of the conditions of the present moment.”*

By creating spreads, laying out the cards in various formations, and interpreting their placement and meaning, a tarot reader helps you gain an insight into situation, dilemma, or relationship that can be as refreshing as opening the window of a dark, stuffy room and letting in clear light and fresh air.

* Visions: Notes of the Seminar Given in 1930-1934 by C.G. Jung, Volume 1

Images from the Knapp-Hall Tarot Deck

The post What are tarot cards and how do they work? appeared first on Tarot Oasis.