This Week's Writerly Tarot: The Two of Pentacles

Ah, Pentacles. The suit of foundation and security, finances and resources. As such, it's often the suit that shows up when we're dealing with career issues. Like I am right now.

See, I got into this writer gig because I like working at home, by myself, in my pajamas, as my imagination spins scenes of clever sleuthing and derring-do. Yet my to-do list this week includes writing up a sales report, organizing my inventory, and collating my receipts for delivery to my accountant.

Not a shred of derring-do.

And so here comes another Pentacle, reminding me to get back to work. Except that this Pentacle has a slightly different take on work. This Pentacle suggests that the best way to deal with an overload of work is to have a little fun.

The secret is balance, of course. Look at our gentleman in the red hat. He's light on his feet, easily and expertly juggling the two golden discs in an infinity pattern. It's his job, sure, but he's doing it with an ease and enjoyment that no doubt contributes to his success. Not that this is an easy task. Just ask the ships tossing on the wild sea behind him. There are waves. There always will be.

The Two of Pentacles reminds us that the dancer is the dance. You are your work, and your work is you, even the parts that involve spread sheets and data analysis. Find some fancy footwork in it, if you can. Take a deep breath. Keep those balls in the air.

As for me, I still have a pile of paperwork. But I'll be doing it while watching my favorite fun-trash television show.

 

This Week's Writerly Tarot: The Ace of Cups

So it's Monday afternoon, and I am just now remembering that I haven't written up this week's tarot post. It's been crazy around here First, my latest release came out a month early (!!!). Then the usual spring break jumble of getaways and family visits and road trips happened. Throw in some flu and allergies and foot surgery...

It's enough to make any girl wanna retreat, possibly into a spa, definitely for a good long while.

But then we have the Ace of Cups to remind us — go with the flow, it says. Because life is always flowing.

And flow can feel very much like chaos. Which it is and isn't. Fluid dynamics provides equations that can predict the overall patterns of liquids in a state of flow, but at best it's describing how things will happen, not what will happen. Stirring a spoonful of cream into your coffee will have a predictable outcome, but trying to foresee the exact bouncing and swirling of molecules is a doomed endeavor.

So don't try. Don't even.

This week, hold high the Ace of Cups. It is reminiscent of last week's Three of Cups in that it encourages you to partake joyously.  And to remember that when life is in full flow, don't get out the anchor. Get out your surfboard.

This Week's Writerly Tarot: The Three of Cups

I'd been trying to have coffee with a writer friend for a few months, but our schedules never cooperated. Sickness and work also complicated things until last week, when a slice of free time opened up and we shared a few hours of writerly commiseration and camaraderie over a nice Ecuadorian blend. As I laughed and talked, I was reminded yet again of why the Three of Cups is such an important card for us writers.

It signifies community, specifically the close-knit circle of like-minded friends. People you are comfortable laughing with. Of course, these are the same friends who will be there during tears, but the Three of Cups symbolizes the happy times, the shared joy, a time of, as described by tarot creator Arthur Waite, "plenty, perfection and merriment."

But there's a deeper octave to this card. Sure, it's good to take a break and celebrate life with your friends. It's hard to consider this a necessity. We writers are a solitary lot because there is so much work to be done — the inbox! the deadlines! the blogs that need writing! And since we're upper management in this endeavor, allocating time to enjoyment seems frivolous. But it is vital to our work, and even more vital to our hearts (which, of course, are necessary for our work).

There is a sense of promise to this card as well. We humans raise our glasses for lots of reasons: to toast, to honor, but also to pledge. That's what our women are doing in this card — pledging and promising to be there for each other, and to hold each other to that pact. To help each other remember. And re-member.

So this week, call up a friend for a shared hour of conversation. Start a new collaborative project with a fellow creative. Celebrate your people, your community, your tribe. Celebrate connection.

This Week's Writerly Tarot: The Four of Swords

Rest and recuperation are the key concepts of this card. And I'm taking them seriously, since I am suffering from a bout of what my mother always called The Crud.

I hope you'll find a space this week outside of busyness and your hamster-wheel schedule to heal the parts of yourself that need it. I always look at sickness as a reminder that if I don't take time out on my own accord, my body will time-out me in its own fashion. And that, friends, is never pleasant.

Back to bed I go, Vitamin C toddy in hand. Lesson learned. Until next week...

This Week's Writerly Tarot: The Ten of Pentacles

You want coins? This card's got coins.

Because as you might expect when the card of culmination (the 10) meets the suit of material resources (the Pentacles), this card represents abundance of the highest order. Comfort AND joy. Love AND riches. Peace AND prosperity, as my sistah Kate Stockman often reminds me. This, my friends, is the card of having it all. And it's yours this week.

I can feel your puzzlement, oh writerly ones. How many of us creative sorts are literally rolling in money, money that falls like rain from the blue sky? How many of us can attach "New York Times Best Seller" to our resume? Okay, some of us can, but certainly not all of us, and certainly not forever, not for anyone. Therefore, despite the ridiculous amounts of abundance in this card, I'm addressing this week's reading to the Not-Quite-Having-It-Alls among us.

Because — and here's the secret — this card's really for you.

See, the 10s are cards of culmination. They are the end, the result, the grand finito. They are the last page of the novel. They always point forward, to a new beginning. To the next phase. Because no matter how tightly we try to hold on to a space or a moment, the nature is life is dynamic.

So if you are not right now swimming in gold, if your mansion is still in the imaginary stage, if the dogs aren't sitting properly and are instead yakking up something under the kitchen table...here's the promise. This too shall pass. All things shall pass. Even gold.

And if you are materially blessed right now, savor it. Enjoy it. Store the memory away for future leanness. And if you are not, know that your situation is not destined to remain that way forever. Take pleasure in what you do have, for another message of this card is that money is grand, but it ain't everything. The love of a good dog counts for something too.

This Week's Writerly Tarot: The Two of Cups

Should you wish to celebrate Valentine's Day in a decidedly unusual fashion, you can visit the flower-adorned skull of St. Valentine in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Rome. This other bits and pieces of the saint's skeletal remains have a more vagabond existence -- they can be found in reliquaries throughout the world, including Ireland, Scotland, England, France, and the Czech Republic.

Should you choose to celebrate closer to home, however, the Two of Cups is here to help you out. Cups are the symbol of free-flowing emotion, and the Twos represent new beginnings. The Two of Cups is the quintessence of fresh relationship energy, the kind that sparks and energizes. The kind that softens and warms and make possible great growth and change.

And it's not just about romantic love. This Valentine's Day, celebrate everyone who shares a heart connection with you -- your spouse, your kids, your friends, your pets. Everyone with whom you give and receive love. Valentine's Day is about love in all its pink and red glory, but the Two of Cups is about that love in the flesh.

We writers can be a solitary lot. But I bet there is a beating heart close to you right now, a heart that beats for you even when you are locked alone with your words.

So this Valentine's Day, give the owner of that heart a hug, or a phone call, or a card with lace and your own words on it. They most surely need it. And so do you.

This Week's Writerly Tarot: The Five of Cups

It was bound to happen. Where there is milk, there will eventually be a spill.

Such it is with bounty and abundance. Such it is with the universe, galloping headlong toward entropy. "Nothing gold can stay," Robert Frost reminded us. As does the Five of Cups.

There's a reason that the suit of emotions is represented by a vessel. Feelings flow. They surge and ebb — they roil and tumble. Without containment, they would have no form, and without form, we wouldn't be able to understand them. We'd drown in them, the tidal wave of them.

Our gentleman here is grieving. Three cups lie on the ground at his feet, their contents split and running. They may as well be a flood, even though all that remains is a puddle. And soon, even that will be gone.

Creative folk will recognize this feeling. It comes with the rejection letter. It comes with the bad review. It comes with contracts that aren't renewed, signings that go unattended, readers who walk by with their eyes averted.

But let's not get too personal. Suffice it to say, we've all been there.

So mired is he in his pain that he cannot see that two cups still remain full. There is still some good in his life, some sweetness. It is the tendency of those who love us is to press those brimming chalices to our lips and bid us drink, and drink deeply, of what we still have to be grateful for. We can forgive them this. They want us to be happy.

But first — and this is perhaps harder for them than us — we must grieve. We must be in the moment. Yes, the past is water under the bridge (note the stone bridge and flowing river in the background, a not-too-subtle reminder of that very truth). But right now, right now...we mourn.

What is it in your life that is passing away? Are you mourning it properly? Are you giving it the full eulogy it deserves? Are you capable of standing present in your grief?

I hope so. And I hope that soon you taste hope on your lips once again.