The Spirit Weaver

Blah:  Well, I apologize for not having kept up with my Tarot lesson this last week.  I ended up getting a NASTY sinus infection that really threw me for the count.  Needless to say, I wasn't on line here much either.  This weekend I am going to visit my sister to celebrate my daughter's 16th birthday and take in a Royals/Twins game.  So, I may be on only for a bit, but will be back Sunday night.

Yippie:  We found out yesterday that my oldest son has qualified to be considered for the National Merit Scholarship program.  Now he just needs to take his SATs and then we won't hear until next school year where he places.  Just being selected is a HUGE honor.  He wants to go to MIT to major in aeronautical engineering. 

We will now explore the general meaning behind the numbered Minor Arcana.  These cards are numbered one through 10.

One- Also known as Aces

The number one, logically enough, stands for beginnings.   It is about the creative principle behind an endeavor, the start of anything, seeds, birth, new projects, potential, leadership, initiative, and potential.  If there are a lot of Aces in a spread it points to fresh starts and new beginnings.

Ace of  Wands-  This card generally refers to the start of a new enterprise or new action.  It is the beginning of a project, turning points, fresh ideas or raw power.  It also can refer to a sexual attraction or a relationship that is highly charged with sexual energy.  Since Wands are associated with Fire, this card can speak of bold new action, ambition, and opportunities.  It can also indicate business communication. When referring to a business endeavor it usually is about the action to start the business and not the business itself.  (That would be Pentacles)

Ace of Pentacles- This card often indicates financial success, a promotion, winning, money coming into your life, abundance, good luck, and a new job.  Since it is associated with Earth energy it can refer to the purchase of land, strong foundations, business capital, and real estate.  The Ace of Pentacles is often seen as an omen of good fortune and “getting your wish” as well as success starting to show to the world. 

Ace of Swords- This card can speak of many things, but no matter what the issue is, it tends to happen quickly and powerfully.  This card can represent justice, the law, a legal decision, surgery, quick change, determination, something good coming from something that appeared to be negative, and good timing.  It is associated with the element of Air, which represents thought over action or physical properties.  It represents logic over emotion and matters of the mind.

Ace of Cups- This card is one of my favorites.  Ok, most of the Cup cards are my favorites!  This one symbolizes new love, the beginning of an affair of the heart, renewal of feelings, happiness, friendship, creative endeavors, abundance, romance, marriage, birth, and psychic abilities.  It is associated with the element of Water and therefore is emotion or feeling based. 

next lesson... the number 2!

Cups:

This suit is also known by Challis, Coupes, and Hearts.  I have to say that this is pretty much my favorite suit, followed by Pentacles.  This is probably because I am a Pisces as well as an empath and “feeling” is probably my primary sense. 

Element: Water

Season: Summer

Astrological Signs: Pisces, Cancer, Scorpio  

Traits: Emotional, sensitive, creative, nurturing, tender, pleasant, kind, friendly, compassionate, caring, psychic, responsive, imaginative, weak, unreliable, sentimental, overly sensitive, intense, enabling, escapist.   

Occupations: Psychics, artists, musicians, social workers, psychologists, therapists, those that work with feelings. (Hmmm…well, I’m a psychic, musician, artist, a hypnotherapist, and a social worker…guess I fit the profile)

Indications:  Emotions, love, moods, caring, romance, sex, birth, happiness, intuition, creativity, dreams, escape, visions, children, family, harmony

Next lesson: The number 1!    

Swords

This suit is also known by Spades or Epees.

Element: Air 

Season: Fall 

Astrological Signs: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius  

Traits: Intellectual, Aloof, Impersonal, Impartial, Discerning, Serious, Analytical, Serious, Head over Heart, Avoids intimacy, Aggressive, spiteful, calculating.  

Occupations: Intellectuals, Journalists, Communicators, Travelers, Professionals, Doctors, Lawyers, Judges, Military leaders, and law enforcement.

Indications:  Strife, Tension, Upset, Conflict, Struggle, Communications, Powerful Ideas, Major choices, threats, confusion, surgery, justice, truth, important decisions, boldness, courage, mental activity, separations,

Next lesson: Cups   

I'm cheating and posting tomorrow's lesson this evening.  I work part time as a Social Worker for the elderly to help them stay in their own homes and I'm doing that during the day tomorrow.  I am also a Certified Hypnotherapist and am conducting group sessions for weight loss and stop smoking tomorrow night.  I should be on line later in the evening however.  Blessings!!

Pentacles:

This suit is also known by coins, disks, diamonds, or deniers. My teacher used Pentacles and that is just what stuck with me.  

Element: Earth 

Season: Winter 

Astrological Signs: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn 

Traits: Diligent, dutiful, responsible, slow, practical, down to earth, reliable, stubborn, persistent, materialistic, cold, unimaginative, selfish, studious.  

Occupations: Business people, engineers, accountants, builders, property owners, laborers, students, bankers, and construction workers.  

Indications:  Pentacles come up whenever money is involved.  It represents situations that deal with businesses, property, inheritance, real estate, wealth , work, management, results of our labors or endeavors, and the physical body and its health.   

Next lesson: Swords

The Minor Arcana of the Tarot is comprised of 4 suits.  They each represent different elements as well as astrological signs, and the various seasons.  This helps the reader to determine time lines, reading focus, as well as individuals that are involved in the situation.  They are the suit of Wands, Pentacles, Cups, and Swords.  Today we will discuss the suit of Wands. 

 Wands:

This suit is also known by Batons, Staves, Scepters, Rods, Staffs, and Clubs. I personally prefer wands, but that is just because of the connection with the magical kind.    

Element: Fire

Season: Spring

Astrological Signs: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius

Traits: Very energetic, often signify action, vital, fun, full of life, sexual, restless,                  impetuous, travel.

Occupations: Teachers, sales people, preachers, entrepreneurs

Indications:  Wands come up often when actual action is expected.  Starting a new business, moving, travel, growth, sex, fertility, competition, and renewal all are associated with Wands. 

Next lesson: Pentacles

Ok, I'll admit right up front that I may not be able to post EVERYDAY, but this is something I am striving for.  This is intended to be a beginner’s foray into the Tarot and not really intended for those of you who are seasoned readers.  Your comments concerning how you see the different cards or aspects are more than welcome.  Additionally this is just how I see the various cards and interpretations tend to vary among readers and there really is no set in stone meaning or definition of each card.  For me the Tarot is just a focusing point to channel information that I am getting and there are times when a card will “speak” to me with a rather non-traditional meaning. 

The Tarot deck that I use primarily is the Rider Waite deck.  This is the one that I recommend to beginning Tarot students because of the basic symbolism involved.  So, this is the deck I will be focusing on during the lessons. 

The Tarot is made up of 22 Major Arcana cards, such as the World, Death, Lovers, and so on.  I find that these cards tend to come up in major life issues or karmic issues.  These are the ones to really pay attention to as they tend to reveal the cosmic lesson that we are being asked to learn.

The Minor Arcana is comprised of 56 cards that range from 1-10 and the court cards, which are the Page, Knight, Queen, and King.    I find that when you are asking for more day to day things you will come up with more Minor Arcana cards than Major.  This is just a rule of thumb and really and varies among readers and what the situation surrounding the question is.

Next Lesson: The Four “Elements”

It has been suggested by some that manifesting isn't a very spiritual endeavor and that it is only used to manifest "stuff". I was wondering what you all thought about this because to me, if you have this block, it won't work for you.

I don't feel there is anything wrong with wanting certain things in your life. Even if they are big houses and a fancy car. What is important is that you don't neglect your connection with source or mistreat others.

The Bible says that money is the root of all evil and I would like to expand on that. Money itself is not evil. Just like guns don't kill people, money isn't evil. What can be evil is HOW someone gets the money or if they focus their life on the pursuit of this.

Another thing is that manifesting doesn't have to be about stuff. It can be about health, a happy relationship, a joyful home, happy kids, a fulfilling job, a great career that it satisfying, or even world peace.

One of my main manifests is the job of my dreams. Although the job is one I want to do, one of the most important things about that job is the things it will allow me to pursue because I'm not working 40 hours a week Monday through Friday. I can read more books and learn more about things that I am interested in such as astrology and meditation. I will be able to spend more time with my kids and volunteer with Hospice. Those that know me, know that "stuff" isn't the focus of my life. Yes, I like nice things and want financial security, but I'm not sacrificing my kids, my spiritual beliefs, or my happiness for money.

Will there be people who use this gift just for "stuff"? Of course. Just like people use other gifts to manipulate or use other people to get what they want. It happens. We are dealing with human beings. It happens.

To me, manifesting is about connecting with Source. It is the ability to feel that connection to your very being. If you don't, I don't think this works as well as it can for you.

Pre-paving is a way of creating your vibrations before you get what you want... as opposed to after with the "Scripting". This is a technique I used in college before I had even heard of such a thing.

I was president of the university Speech and Debate team and would compete about 3 out of 4 weekends a month. During the week I would use my time walking across campus from class to class to visualize/pre-pave the upcoming competition. I would imagine myself at the competition, the excitement, the fun, all the people around. I would see myself going into each round, writing my name on the board, seeing people groan as I come into the room because they know that I'm impossible to beat! I would see myself giving a flawless speech. Energy flowing effortlessly. I would see my name go up on the postings for the final rounds and see myself on stage getting the 1st place award.

I have to say that this was very successful for me. I went to the National Championships every year I competed. Even my very first year. One year I was ranked 8th in the nation in Persuasive Speaking even.

Why does this work so well? My theory on it is that you are pretty much "pre-living" the experience. By the time I got to my competitions I was SOOOO used to being in control, on top of my game, and winning that it was second nature. Piece of cake!! I had done it so many times in my head already that I had worked out the nervousness and was so pumped up. Many things in life are just a simple mind game.

I love Buddha. I smile every time I read that name or think of him. When my kids were little we used to rub their little heads (instead of their tummy) and I would say, "Rub a baby's head for good luck!" and they would giggle.

I recently ran across this quote and wanted to share it with you:

Ananda said: "Friendship with what is lovely, association with what is lovely, intimacy with what is lovely--that is half of the holy life."

The Buddha responded: "Don't say that, Ananda. It's the whole not the half of the holy life. One so blessed with what is lovely will develop a right way of being, a thinking that no longer grasps at what is untrue, an aim that is concerned and ready, a contemplation that is unattached and free. Association with what is lovely is the whole of the holy life."

-Samyutta Nikaya
From "The Pocket Buddha Reader," edited by Anne Bancroft, 2000. Reprinted by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Boston,

When we work on raising our spiritual vibrations we are doing as Buddha said:

One so blessed with what is lovely will develop a right way of being, a thinking that no longer grasps at what is untrue, an aim that is concerned and ready, a contemplation that is unattached and free. Association with what is lovely is the whole of the holy life."

We all are blessed all the time, and seeing that is "developing a right way of being". We don't grasp the untrue aspects of the negative vibrations because we have chosen not to make them part of our individual reality. We aim to let Spirit know our desires and then we let go of HOW it happens and we live our life naturally expecting those things to happen at some time.

I know that some may think that manifesting is all about "stuff", but when we focus on that, we lose sight of the REAL meaning of manifesting. The stuff may be the by-product, but the real gift is our soul's movement closer to Spirit. When we align ourselves with positive vibrations and train our minds to think in that direction, the motivation becomes a moot topic.

In the end, we may end up with a fancy car, but the real gift is feeling the soft kiss Spirit lays on our cheeks and hearing the faint whisper spoken softly in our ear.

I have noticed in myself, as well at others, who work on raising their vibrational levels that a curious thing happens after a particularly successful vibrational energy surge. I call it the rebound effect. Just a few days ago I was talking to a friend about this. I was having a tough day because it seemed like I was going backwards in my manifesting and not forward, like I wanted to. I told her that I was suffering from the "Rebound Effect". Like any good student of manifesting she wanted to know where I found out about that. My reply was, I didn't, I just made it up! LOL

Basically, the rebound effect is the Universe doing a systems check to see if the vibrational energy really was a shift in consciousness or if it was just some sort of fluke. They need to make sure they are getting the correct signals so they send some challenges to your vibrational sanity to see just how serious you are to this new energy path.

To end the rebound energy you need to stop, take a deep breath, assess the situation, and then thank the Universe for this challenge as it reminds you where you will be if you don't change your perspective. Then accept that detours sometimes happen when we are riding down the vibrational highway and even those detours can be positive if we CHOOSE to make them that way. Maybe the only positive that comes out of the situation is that you see that better things are coming.

Besides, we never know if the detours are really winding roads that take us way out of the way of our intended destination or if the detour is Spirit's way of taking us the scenic way!

I guess my example is the rebound of my daughter needing surgery and that throwing a monkey wrench in my change of career plans due to insurance reasons. At first I was pretty upset and thought, "Dang it all! I had this all planned and now THIS comes up". That was the systems check that the universe sent to me, testing to see if I was really serious about this career change.

I had a choice then and there. I could whine and complain and say that my life is so horrible, nothing ever goes my way, and nothing ever works out the way I want it to or I could choose a better option. It took me about a day to realize that I had a better option, but I was able to do it. I chose to switch the situation around and thank Spirit for helping us discover that my daughter needed the surgery BEFORE I got off of the really good insurance where the deductible is already met! I thanked Spirit for looking out for me and for doing this so that I wouldn't be faced with a huge medical debt just as I start my new career.

Now, I know that many are faced with much stronger systems checks than that and it can be tough to snap that vibrational level back in the right direction. I also know that there really is something positive, no matter how very, very tiny it is, in every situation. I'll give you a few personal examples of gifts disguised as hand grenades.


My kids had major health problems when they were little and I was handed many hand grenades as I faced the possibility of them dying at a point in each of their lives. One hand grenade stands out clearly in my mind and it occurred shortly after my oldest son was born. As we packed to leave the hospital, going home outfit on and all, two nurses with tears in their eyes came into our room and announced that "we have to keep your baby". They went on to explain that they discovered that I had Group B strep. This is easily treated in adults, but is generally fatal in newborns if not caught and treated. So, he had to stay in the hospital on IV antibiotics until the spinal tap results came back. Thankfully the results were negative and it was explained that the C-section I had to have saved him from the life threatening infection. The C-Section was truly a gift in disguise.

That same son has been hospitalized at least 8 times for respiratory viruses that triggered his asthma. It is so frightening to watch your child struggle for air. One time, when he was about 13 he was in and had a panic attack because he couldn't breath. His lips and nail beds were blue and he looked at me with that look of horror and panic. While they were getting him hooked up to the Oxygen I literally crawled into bed with him and held him and stroked his head as the oxygen began to fill his lungs again. Although it was a tough situation, the gift I got from all of that was that my oldest son and I are very close. Even through the post partum depression I had following his birth, I remembered that I almost lost him and that helped me through the feelings of despair and hopelessness because I knew that HOPE did exist.


When my dear daughter was only 19 months old she had RSV so bad that they had to ambulance her over an hour away. I was really upset that she had to be taken to the other hospital, but not long after we got there her condition went from severe to life threatening. She was admitted to the PICU and literally was minutes away from needing to go on the ventilator. I agreed to stay out of her room for 24 hours so that she wouldn't cry when someone came into the room and stress her little lungs even more. That was heart breaking to do, but I knew I had to do it.

We found out later that after we got to the bigger hospital the snow storm we had the night before had picked up and there was a white out in the country. Had the Dr waited even 4 hours to send her, we would not have been able to go and the hospital we were in wasn't equipped to handle the severity of her illness. Thank you for the ambulance that appeared to be a hand grenade.

My youngest was only 10 days old when he was hospitalized the first time. He couldn't keep any food down and what food he did keep down went right out of him. I fought the admitting pediatrician to bring in a specialist, but she was convinced it was just a virus and I was being over reactive because I had a history of post partum depression. When my son was a month old, I pretended to agree with her just to get him out of the hospital. He was an ounce below his birth weight. I took him to the local Dr who told me to have my bags packed because he didn't think my baby would make it to see the specialist the next week.

That Sunday I packed my bags and drove 3 hours by myself, literally holding my son as I drove because that was the only way he wouldn't scream in pain. I told my family that I would camp out at the Dr's office until they saw him. They admitted him on an emergency that night when he wouldn't stop screaming. I sat there wondering if it was possible to die from crying too hard. They knew immediately what it was. He had a milk and soy protein intolerance and I "luckily" had come to see one of the best docs in the country for this and he just happened to be in town and not flying all over the country treating other children. Had we waited until Thursday we wouldn't have gotten that Dr.

They put a feeding tube down his nose and he smiled for the first time the next day. We weren't able to get the calories up enough with out him getting sick so they had to resort to putting an IV into his heart and feeding him that way. I can still remember that day, 12 years ago. Walking down the long hall with my baby and handing him over to the nurse, sobbing as she took him through the doors into surgery. We didn't know if he would live or die.

One day I realized that I was hanging on too tight and maybe God didn't intend for him to be with us more than 3 months. I sat in my car outside the hospital sobbing as I apologized to God for my arrogance. I realized then and there that maybe God didn't intend for us to have him more than three months and thanked him for that precious gift, if that is what was to be. I then walked into his hospital room and was greeted with him laying there with no tubes coming out of him! The nurse explained that his central line "somehow" came partially out and instead of doing the surgery to put a new one in they were going to try him on a bottle. I wept as I rocked him and fed him for the first time in 2 months. A mother's pain is deep when she isn't even able to feed her child, but the joy is great when you finally can.

I've walked through a lot of fire and had a lot of hand grenades thrown at me, but I know that I've never walked that path alone. Spirit has always been with me. Through the scares with my children and as they pushed my bed out of the recovery room and ran down the hall, the doc yelling into her cell phone, "We're headed to ICU. She's crashing." I've never been alone and I know I won't ever be. I would say THAT is the greatest gift I was handed when life presented me with gifts disguised as hand grenades. I would also say that although I knew nothing of manifesting or vibration levels at the time, when the Universe sent out the Systems Check to my soul, the message went back to them.. systems check complete and all systems are ready to GO!

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Hello All,

Well, as much as I have written all over this net-space it is amazing to say that THIS is my very first blog.   Hard to believe, but true.   So I'll start out with a little bit about me for this first post and move on to the heavy stuff later.  LOL...

About me;

I am a single mom to three amazing kids.  Yes, I'm biased, but I'm not the only one that thinks they are amazing.  The grandparents happen to agree with me!  I know that I must have done something pretty wonderful in a past life to have been given the gift of these children and I can honestly say that I can't imagine my life with out them. 

I joined keen a few years ago, but didn't start reading here professionally until just very recently.  I have been reading for many, many years however, but this new format is interesting to say the least.  I started learning the Tarot when I was only 11 and got my first deck when I was 13.  Now at the ripe age of 42 it seems a little odd to say that I have been reading Tarot for almost 30 years. 

Last summer I took a major leap of faith in myself and quit my job as a Social Worker with our state to start my own company that makes jewelry for non-profit organizations and schools to use as a web based fundraiser.  It has been a slow start and I think it was Spirit's way of showing me that there are other things I should be doing. 

I am also a certified hypnotherapist and love that.  I am still building my practice, but am planning on offering a variety of Mp3 meditations on keen for you to listen to and enjoy.  Today I am working on a past life regression session and will hopefully have it available by the end of today. 

Well, that is about it for my very first blog post.  I'm sure that it will be a wonderful journey. 

I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift
and the rational mind is a faithful
servant.
We have created a society that
honors the servant and has
forgotten the gift."
Albert Einstein