Masking and UNmasking

Isn't it interesting how the masking and unmasking we do at costume parties mirrors what is going on in the world around us? The green leaves that sprouted in spring and came to fullness in summer now turn colors and fall to the ground, leaving only the skeletons of the trees contrasted against the sky. 

During the year people see us in different ways. One mask might be our professional status, the face which others see as we present ourselves as skilled individuals. Another face is our personal self where we engage in our relationships, hobbies, activities and other pursuits. Then we have our spiritual persona where we follow our spiritual path or our religious rituals. 

Yet, at the heart of it all, there is simply the person who embodies all of this. Where others may see only one of these aspects of us, few see all of them. 

Standing in our sacred space, reflecting on our place in the world, we choose which aspect of our persona we choose to present next. Consciously choosing what is next we may emphasize a different aspect of our professional practice, relationships, avocations and spiritual practices. 

So the metaphor of masks at parties reveals truth. The characters we choose to inhabit for an evening at a party is a playful way of trying on some other character or characteristics that we wish to experience. 

The masks we wear may be revealing the truth of the direction we desire. Yes, I know that one thought may be that this is only an evening's entertainment.

Now look again, for there is a root of truth that appeals to us when we choose to read the same kinds of books, the same kinds of movies and are fascinated by the same kinds of stories over and over again. There are common threads that appeal to our sense of who we are and what kind of world we want what kind of life we want, how we would like to see ourselves as a person. 

Masking is a way of looking at the world through different eyes for a while and letting others see us differently for a while. As we all have experienced, this can be very enlivening and enlightening. And that is why we look forward to doing it. 

Knowing this about ourselves is revealing of inner truths as we enjoy our revelry. Knowing this about Halloween is like appreciating the difference between soul cakes and trick or treat.

You see in the old days, at Halloween, visitors would come to visit and sing songs, say prayers or tell stories about those who had died this year and the hosts would offer them soul cakes and drinks in appreciation. The Celts called this day Samhain and it marked the beginning of winter. They would also set a place at the table for the person who had died, and this was called the dumb supper.

Ironically, in a far a way country which we now call Mexico, on that very same day of the year, the Celebration was called La Dia de Los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead. And on this day too, the dead were honored with their favorite food and people told stories to remember them and wish them well on their journey into the next world, and like the Celts, they also bake special breads just for this holiday.

In both cases, the honoring of the dead was also a celebration of life. The Day of the Dead prominently features skeletons dancing, affirming that life goes on on another level. 

So the sweetness of life and the recognition of the various levels of self that we consider on this holiday offers a great insight into what life means to us, how we see ourselves and the impact we have on others. Masks and treats of this holiday are other aspects of self hidden in plain sight. And the pleasure is that all of this can be enjoyed with a great deal of fun, illumination and imagination. It is delicious, isn't it? 

Summer Magic and Spiritual Refreshment

It is summer and the time when many of us break from our routines to enjoy entertainments that refresh our spirits. Summer vacations and activities are meant to lighten us up and let the joy of the season bring a lighthearted break from work. 

One of the most popular plays of all time is Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, which is about the characters slipping in and out of different versions of reality, traveling in alternate universes to the delight and amusement of audiences.  

 Do you think that is worth a few moments of consideration?

For example, we often ask ourselves questions about our life's purpose and why we have taken on some of the patterns we have in our work and our love life. Many of us have changed our religious and spiritual practices. Some of us have also included new activities in our lives, especially creative activities that we had put off and now decided to finally use to express ourselves and give ourselves a creative outlet. New joy and energy come into us when we finally decide to quit thinking about something and do it. When we dance, make music, art, start writing or just go for more walks, we suddenly feel the flow of joy and healing.

What are these other dimensions? They could be parallel worlds where things seem to operate differently.

Consider the distance or closeness you have in various aspects of your life. Do you feel sometimes that you are an observer here? That your point of view is fluid? This often happens when we are in a major transition, and has everything to do with our progress in adjusting, changing or verifying the path that we are on.

We are spirits having a human experience rather than humans having a spiritual experience. Have you given any thought to the ramifications of this concept? How do you view your life? 

If you would like to talk about this, give me a call. 

Dreams do come true and the experience of fluidly moving between dimensions can be as magical for us as it is for Shakespeare's characters.  

For You

What we have always desired flows close to the surface in this Valentine tide of energy cascading through the atmosphere.

When we hug, I can feel your desire. In your eyes, I can see the fire. In all the torrents of feelings pulsing through the space between us, there is a sweetness on the air and an earthy sound coming from your throat.

There is nothing so much as as the silvery moon, reflected on beads of sweat. There are outlines of excitement making themselves visible as well as audible on your breath.

What are those things you say without saying, you know without knowing, you feel even now, in memory, in spirit. Your hair is electric, picking up signals from the small sounds of evening, where the singing of all the creatures forms the words I want to say. They give voice to our feelings. Your hair brushes my skin as you lean over me, and you feel me tremble when those wisps stirs the edges of my spirit and the landscape of my body.

I feel your desire in your embrace. The scent of your true desire has escaped from under your perfume and made itself known just as our eyes met again.

The moonlight on your calf ascends your thigh and traces a silken path invisible to the touch, but everywhere to the eye.

I ask you again your name just to feel the way you pronounce it with your tongue.

Fall: The Time of Revealing

Our instinct for taking cues from the flow of the seasons is deep and primal. Is it not both symbolically appropriate that we acknowledge our losses at the very season when the trees are stripped bare? How we see the bones of the trees and shrubs at the same time that we hold ceremonies for those whose bodies are being returned to the elements?

Ancient people used this time of year to prepare for the winter. They said farewell to the dead, they stocked up on firewood, food and other necessary items in preparation for the cold, dark time to come. They culled the herds, hunted and hung up meat to dry, smoked it or salted it.

They also looked at their situations with clear eyes, knowing that some of the people they knew and loved might not be in strong enough health to live through another winter. They prepared what healing herbs and potions they knew and had a store of that as well.

This is also the season of soul searching as people consider possible changes in career paths, students consider changing majors in school, seekers of spiritual or metaphysical matters often begin new courses of study.

Even entertainment reflects these choices. Traditionally, the movie industry releases their more serious Oscar contending works during these next few months. It is the time of year when symphonies, opera, ballet and theatres begin their seasons anew. Publishing companies traditionally release what they would consider significant titles during this season.

This is the time of revealing. We take a look at what is important to us. What we need to see is revealed. Just as the wind strips the leaves in waves as the trees and shrubs let go and what is not needed is returned to the earth for recycling, and what will go on is left standing, it is the fallen leaves that give nourishment to the roots so that the energy will build up and burst forth again in the spring.

But for now, what we have is the essence. What we have is the panoramic view, seeing through the trees which limited our view when they were in full leaf.

Inhaling the cooler night air flavored with the smoke of the fires that light the hearths, our spirits rise to the occasion and gift us with clear thoughts, powerful motivations, and a sense of our own mortality, which is our truest compass.

Where the Fires Were

Today I took a ride up into Sunshine Canyon to see what it looked like now that the fires were out. There were whole mountainsides that looked like charcoal.

Then there were the places where the earth was scorched but some trees still stood and some even still had pine needles, although the needles were brown instead of green.

Two weeks ago you could see the night sky tinted orange above the mountains and in the daytime, smoke obscured the ridgelines, obliterating the usual profile against the sky.

It is funny the way the fire works. There was one house on top of a charred ridge that was made of wood, and it was not burned or even marred by smudge. Yet, just around the bend, there was just the remnants of a brick wall where another house once stood. There were odd contrasts like this all over, where the house on one side of the road was not burned and on the other side of the road, maybe a washer and drier and maybe a piece of the roof by the chimney was still there.

Was it that some guardian energy protected those that did not get burned? Was it prayer that saved some, not others? Was it a sudden shift in the wind that made the fire burn all the way up to a house, but not take the house? Was it luck?

Or was it simply that there was some invisible grid line in nature that said to the fire "You can burn up to here, but do not cross this line."

The fire crossed stone and water and consumed whole large areas of earth, grasses, shrubs and trees, but then there were stands of trees that are still standing, still green.

The forces of nature can work in mysterious ways. It was fascinating to see where the fires were.

The Named

Then somewhere along the way, as our ancestors contemplated the forces of nature and other people, the stories of gods and goddesses emerged.

Interestingly, these characters embodied all aspects of personality, from courage, pain, heroism and sacrifice to love, beauty, nurturing, compassion, healing, curiosity, kindness, violence, cruelty, vision, magic, wisdom, competition and cooperation.

When we apply one of these names of the gods and goddesses to ourselves, we are invoking that energy that the name represents to aid us in our quest.

We invoke them as forms of protection and we also invoke them as guides on our path to greater aspirations.

So as we go through different phases of our life, we sometimes choose different names and different guides. You have probably met people who have taken on different spiritual names. Perhaps you have even done this yourself. Even when a person changes their mundane name, it is a reflection of this principle.

As the name of our gods and goddesses inspire us and elicit responses from others, we begin to understand the power of the magic of the spoken word as well as the power of naming.

The Magic of Magic

Most people are fascinated with magic, and one of the most interesting cards in the tarot deck is the Magician, because no other card has gone through such radical transformations between the original decks and the present time. There is a lot of substance here.

The earliest Magician cards depicted a juggler or a stage magician, in other words, an entertainer. A person who lives by his wits, using his slight of hand skills, tell jokes, dazzle audiences with optical illusions. This person is simply using his skills to make a living, using his wits to get by. Not necessarily a metaphysical or spiritual person. Early French cards were named the Bateleur. As a traveling entertainer, he would have more in common with a troubadour than an alchemist.

The Magician as we most commonly perceive him now dates back to the ceremonial magician popularized in the Rider/Waite/Smith deck, where we see a robed figure holding a wand, with the infinity symbol over his head, and on the table before him are the altar tools including the cup, pentacle and sword in addition to the wand he is holding aloft with one hand, while pointing to the ground with the other. His body language suggests the magical incantation, "As above, so below. As within, so without." The ceremonial magician of this tradition is more a descendant of the medieval alchemist or wizard than the entertainer.

A third depiction becoming more common on the Magician card is one that is a shaman, a primal magician dressed in animal skins, antlers, perhaps holding or playing a drum, perhaps with some herbs in the picture. This third type of magician is one who is an intermediary with the spirit world as well as being a ceremonialist.

In all three cases, the Magician can perform feats beyond his appearances. In all three guises, he can accomplish things that ordinary people cannot do. Of course, we can debate about what is ordinary and what abilities we all have. A person who desires to do so can be trained to be a stage magician or a ceremonial magician. Both require dedication and practice.

That is why one of the key words I always associate with the Magician is will. A magician, in any of these aspects, makes things happen.

The genius of this design is how it works in its radical evolution even though it appears to be so very different. In each case, we seek to connect with the supernatural, the realms beyond what we usually see. We want to be amazed. We want to know that life can be more.

This desire for more of life, our willingness to go to great lengths to affect change, is what makes the Magician such a powerful character. The Magician is one who uses his wits plus everything available to him to be able to travel back and forth between the worlds. Whether it is herbs, drums, masks, costumes, smoke and mirrors, decks of cards, mysterious potions, jeweled wands or bouncing balls, the Magician is the guardian at the gateway, the one with the key.

UFOs and Understanding

What if UFOs are simply waiting for us to continue beating each other up in wars and pollution before they swoop down while we are weak? By the time they announce that the are taking over and subdue us with their superior technology, we may feel like the Indians, Africans and aboriginal tribes facing the European armies and armadas. It will be a change so radical that it will be difficult for many of us to attend.

That is one scenario. Perhaps the second one is that we continue our space program and eventually we meet the inhabitants of other planets and make friends with them. Perhaps trade is developed and we become aware of the multitude of other ways of living out there. Our adventure opens our eyes.

Isaac Asimov once said that any technology sufficiently beyond our current capability will appear to be magic. We have a magical world here and now. There are even more out there.

We take time to absorb shocks. Those who grew up when every home did not have their own phone, are now using cell phones. Those who had some of the first black and white TVs with their constantly distorting screens and fuzzy reception now have big flat screens at home as good as the ones in theatres.

People can get as much information out of their laptop as they could out of a reference library. Although this is true, going to the library was an experience. Photo processing places, which were a fixture on our landscape, are now not needed. Video rental stores are getting hollowed out due to the success of online sources of movies. CD sales have been free falling as people download onto digital players. Writing letters used to be an art form, something special when it arrived, put in a drawer for reading again and again at later times. Now we email.

All of this has been radical for us. But what if something like creating a crop circle was done with the flick of a light switch? What if we could understand each other using telepathy, bypassing all language blocks and education deficits?

There is more that I cannot see right now, but these seem to be the two predominant scenarios.

But wait, here is a third. What if we enter a stage of evolution where we all become as gods and goddesses in the great stories?

The war scenario has been dominant because war has always figured heavily in our stories. But what now if new stories arise and become dominant where there is some sort of trade and cultural exchange that melds us?

How would we live through a ginormous change like that? Crop circle photos always prompt me with questions like this, as do photos of Stonehenge, Newgrange, the pyramids of Egypt. People are still trying to retell new versions of the ancient myths as a way of digesting them and reconciling them with what we know and our sense of reality.

What happens when we tell new stories? Do we get closer to understanding?

Coyote as Chupacabra

It turns out that the animal reported to be a chupacabra killed in Texas this week was really a coyote deformed by mites and parasites, not a mythical creature.

However, there is an interesting life lesson to this story.

For one, that animal must have gone through an extreme amount of agony before it was shot. Perhaps it was shunned by other coyotes. Without fur for protection, perhaps even walking around outside in sunlight would have been painful. Perhaps it had to struggle to even scavenge or digest what it ate. It must have had a distorted life as well as a distorted appearance.

If we think about coyotes in general, they are survivors. People in suburbs of Los Angeles and Las Vegas and other cities now routinely site them in their neighborhoods, and these are not animals you normally see in urban areas. But you see, once we extended our neighborhoods out into what had been their neighborhood for eons, they learned to adapt and scavenge.

That survival instinct led them to follow the path of highways east, until now they are thriving in eastern and southern parts of the U.S. where they had never been seen before. They have changed the geography and environment wherever they go. For example, the wolves are natural adversaries of coyotes, so when people have tried to kill all the wolves, what they got in return was more coyotes.

Native lore attributes a dual intensity to the coyote, as both a creator character, and a dangerous destructive character. In the tales he can be both funny and vicious, and in both aspects, an important player in the fabric of life.

I don't know if these are reasons why people who help people cross the border from Mexico are called coyotes, but it would make sense. They are resourceful and cunning, but can also have the reputation for being ruthless. No matter what others think of them, they perform a necessary role in society. They exist as long as there is a demand for their services.

The animal coyotes find a way to survive in the world at all costs. There are elements of this trait all around the world. For example, the character Loki in the Norse mythology contains many of the same elements. They are not exactly equal, but they contain that blend of humor and danger when pushed to the boundaries of the world, at which point the boundary is expanded. Then coyotes, and Loki, are no longer outside, but inside of the boundaries and part of our world that will always be part of our world.

You see, if we did not have these scary characters at the boundaries of our world, we would invent them. Have we invented the chupacabra or Bigfoot? Would the Norse stories be much more pallid without Loki? Can we have a world without something strange at the periphery? Consider this. In both the native coyote stories and the Norse Loki stories, we find humor. What would life be without humor?

If we perceive a sick coyote to be a supernatural monster, what does that say about the way our minds work? And for as much havoc as he wreaks in the stories, the only stories in the Norse myths that contain any humor are the ones where Loki is a central character. Perhaps the inseparable twins of danger and humor are part of the essence of survival strategies.

How the World Began, Begins, Again

Does it really matter how the world began? I don't think so. What matters is that we are here now. What matters is what we do now. That is what matters.

Some of us are making money doing work that we love. Some of us are trying to make that transition into work that we love. Perhaps at present, the best some of us can say is that we have some income from our work. That helps for the moment.

What makes a difference is whether we can get up in the morning with the feeling that there are possibilities for us, that there are ideas we can try, methods we can check out.

Are we thinking of leads to check out? Even ideas that do not work can reveal other potentials. Sometimes new people we meet offer us useful ideas for our business. If we keep our eyes and ears open, we can explore these leads. Where one idea does not bear fruit, if we keep on looking, some other one will.

If we are in a situation where we simply see ourselves trading our labor for some money, there are ways to find pleasure in our every day life. Whether it is the pleasure of a cup of coffee during a break, the pleasure of communicating with friends through email, the pleasure of great sex after work, the pleasure of cooking a meal, the pleasure of reading a book, the pleasure of watching a movie, the pleasure of taking a bath and soaking in it a good long while, the pleasure of sitting by an open window, feeling the breeze and listening to the birds sing.

What does all that have to do with how the world began? Nothing. That is exactly my point. We will never be able to know the answer to that question. The stories from the various cultural folklore and mythologies are simply stories.

Why? At some point people felt a need to make up those stories rather than saying "I don't know" when they were asked how the world began.

But none of them matter. All that matters is that we appreciate each day, and find ways to find pleasure in each day. Stay focused on getting the most out of today.

How the world began is nowhere near as important as how the next moment begins.

The Private Eye

One of the detective shows that was popular years ago always opened with the line as an aerial shot swooped over New York: "There are millions of stories in the naked city. This is just one of them."

I always wondered, being young and never having been there, if everybody in New York really walked around naked. It was a stunning thought. I wanted to see that.

All these years later, I still have no idea what that opening meant, but it still is a mesmerizing line.

This was early on, long before I became familiar with Pan and his cohorts. Long before I ever visited what they now call a clothing optional resort. Long before I ever attended one of those come as you are parties where people left their clothing at the door. I am sure that I was not the only one sitting there wide eyed, trying to imagine a naked city.

The jargon from those days was confusing to say the least. When you are in the naked city, how can you have any private dicks?

A detective show, full of naked people? What's there to uncover?

This was one of my early lessons in language and how it is sometimes used to confuse and obscure, and how sometimes, it can reveal.

Actually, if you ever watched that show there was never anybody naked in Naked City. But I am sure that a lot of us kept hoping.

Back in those days, there were a lot of things you could not say or do on TV. I guess they were afraid we might get ideas. Thing is, by the way they didn't say or show many things, made me even more curious.

As I see it now, there were other interpretations of Naked City, things that never would have occurred to me back then. You see, after many years of detective work myself, I have discovered that we are all naked under our clothes.

Un-Ascended Masters

I always get a kick out of it when I see postings for people interested in ascension in various forms. I can state for the record I am not. I like being here, now, on this planet. Earthiness feels really good.

There are postings out there claiming that 2012 will be some sort of an ascension. That whole series of apocalyptic novels was about ascension of a sort. Supposedly, all the people of a certain religious persuasion would be floated up to the great beyond, while the rest of us are all Left Behind. That's fine with me. I prefer to think of it as Left Alone.

Seems to be a real mishmosh of ideas these days. One of those card sets using the theme ascended masters contains my old pal Pan, along with Archangel Michael, Parmahansa Yogananda, St. Germain, Christ, Buddha and a whole bunch of other assorted folks. I kind of wonder if Pan would consider himself an ascended master. I kind of think not.

I attach no significance to 2012. I think the old stone carvers just got tired once they got a few thousand years ahead. I see is as just another marketing gizmo for some people.

As far as real changes taking place here on this planet, shifts in consciousness, yes, that is happening, in all aspects of life. But everybody who has a better idea for how to do things can't just float on up out of here, nor do I think they will. We need some un-ascended masters to stay grounded and do what needs to be done here.

I am perfectly content to enjoy life in the here and now, and see what happens after I die, after I die. Un-ascended masters have plenty to do while they are here. The ones who feel a need to float away, let them. Those of us who are left alone will find plenty of ways to enjoy our stay. Right, Pan? I know you are still here.

Tarot Symbols and Their Uses

The design of the Rider Waite Smith Tarot deck expressed such a powerful vision that it changed both the way of reading cards and influenced the design of new decks for 100 years now.

Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of it was that it put a picture on every card in the deck, and every picture unleashes ideas, taps into the subconscious and participates in the telling of a story to the person who is requesting the reading, or through the reader to the person requesting the reading.

In the original design, the author, Arthur Edward Waite, and the artist, Pamela Colman Smith, incorporated many metaphysical symbols to add layers of meaning to the use of the cards. These provide guidance and advice of a spiritual nature and address the essence of issues portrayed in the images. They form part, not the whole of the meanings behind the pictures. Usually the central image will bring some insight or understanding to light all by itself, and it is not always necessary to understand all of the reasons behind various details. That is part of the genius of the design; there are plenty of clues there, and intuition guides us in picking up on them and making a whole and useful narrative.

Many artists, authors and designers have followed the patterns created by Waite and Smith, and so when people are learning about tarot, this deck is still a jumping off point for understanding a deck and how to work with it, providing a valuable frame of reference that aids in understanding the process.

However, in recent years, many excellent artists and designers have proven that a great deck can be made from all kinds of images, from abstract or representational paintings to black and white drawings to photographs to computer enhanced images to reproductions of great art to fantasy stories to great literature. And these can be effective even without incorporating the metaphysical symbology included in the RWS because the choice of imagery can cover a tremendous amount of territory on its own.

Other types of symbols such as numbers and colors are more universal and accessible, and these two elements are found in nearly every deck, except, for example, decks designed in black and white or without numbers.

Even though some concepts may be changed by design, the essence usually remains. Changing Judgment to Karma, Devil to Temptation, Death to Transformation, Fool to Seeker, World to Universe and so on, simply makes the concept more gentle or more palatable to some people.

Any collection of images can make a good deck to read with, including some non-tarot oracle decks, such as the Soul Cards, Psy Cards, Medicine Cards, Angel Cards, Faery Cards, Titania's Fortune Cards or Madame Endora's Fortune Cards, which do not use suits, major and minor arcana, court cards or numbers as methods of organization. Randomness characterizes their design as well as their use.

Tarot is special because there is a progression in the story lines, an organization of the images, a flow between both intuition and logic, or as many people might say, between the right and left hemispheres of the brain, the creativity and chaos and the order and principles.

Images are a rich and nuanced way of addressing consciousness at multiple levels simultaneously. A person can have one of these experiences looking through a bunch of old family photos, or a book of art or photography, although the family photos might be too limiting because there are too many personal references, whereas the universal symbology of a tarot deck is open to everyone, and a book will always present things in the same order, where shuffling a deck can present virtually unlimited juxtapositions of images together, which varies the messages and their impact.

The creation of the tarot deck is one of the most powerful tools we can use, not simply as a fortune telling device, but as a self teaching tool or meditational device in the same way a mandala works.

One old tarot reader always maintained that if a person did not have any other books, and if they were simply locked in a room for a month with nothing to read or look at but a tarot deck, that at the end of that month, they would have keys to all the important life lessons in their hands, and the cards could help them unlock the mysteries of the universe.

True, it takes most people far longer than a month to learn to use a deck of cards, and even those of us who have been using them for years are never done learning from them, as layer after layer reveals new secrets to us. It is amazing how you can look at a picture hundreds of times or thousands of times and still find something you never realized before or never noticed before. They were designed that way, and that is the genius of the deck.

New Best Friends

There is no such thing as a beginner's deck. Sometimes people ask what is the best to begin with, but the best advice is to simply pick a deck whose artwork you really like. If the art speaks to you, you will be able to work with it.

Meanings and interpretations will come to you as you gaze at the cards and let your mind wander over all of the possible meanings a picture can hold. you will notice that a card can mean one thing all by itself, but then in various combinations with other cards, it can take on other meanings.

As you work with your spirit guides and let the feelings flow, other meanings will come to you which may seem at first to be totally unrelated to the pictures. We have to learn to trust our instincts and intuitions. Pay attention to your first impressions.

When teaching a person about working with cards, it often happens that when I have them draw a card and then ask them what it means, they tell that they need to look it up in the book first. I advise to set the book aside. Work with the cards first and read the book later. The cards will work with you and you may or may not agree with what is in the book.

This is the way I began. My fist deck did not come with a book, so I had to get familiar with them and learn to work with them without any instructions. Today, a great many decks come packaged with a book. Some books are wonderful and some don't offer a lot.

If you just focus on the central image contained on each card, you will be on the right track. Some designers include other symbol sets on cards, such as runes, letters of the Hebrew alphabet, I Ching hexagrams, alchemical symbols, astrological signs, playing card equivalents, and other things.

In my experience, these other symbols can in some cases deepen your experience of the cards, but they are extra, and not essential. A card set relies on the pictures, and the central image will always tell you something.

So if you are just beginning to work with cards, do not be intimidated. Just enjoy and appreciate the imagery and let every picture tell a story. In the constant shuffling, different combinations of pictures will tell different stories. Don't be too hard on yourself and think you need to understand every little detail.

If you see me at the fair, I will have a number of decks with me that I can read for you with, and if you wish to purchase a deck for yourself to use, I have some excellent deals. I love tarot and will be happy to introduce you to a fabulous array of decks that can become your own metaphysical tool box and tutor. Some of us even feel like our decks are our friends.

Think of working with a deck as making a new best friend and avail yourself of the wisdom, insight and beauty that each has to offer. Amazing how something that fits easily in a pocket or purse can yield such giant results, and grow with you over the years. A combination art gallery and book of wisdom that just gets better with age, revealing layer upon layer of beauty, truth, wisdom and advice, and your deck is always ready for you.

Irish Legends

Since today is a day when many thoughts turn to Ireland, here are a few interesting stories to consider. I personally will skip the green beer in favor of one of those wonderful microbrewed ales or a shot of Irish whiskey.

Ireland is considered to have been settled by successive waves of invasions of different people. Some say that the druids were more than simply the priests of the ancient pagan religion, but rather remnants of an earlier race of people who lived there before the Celts arrived.

Among the earlier races of people, there were some who were literally smaller, like the Picts of Scotland. one legend has it that the succeeding waves of invaders drove them underground, hence the beginning of the tales of the little people.

Often, we picture the progression of evolution of mankind to be orderly and linear, with people in each generation getting bigger and smarter than their ancestors. however, it is possible that different races co-existed for a time, such as the Cro-Magnon and the Neanderthals. Perhaps giants and little people were populations who intermingled and interacted. Today, we still have midgets, and there are also people who are over seven feet tall, although the vast majorityof us fall in between there.

Millennia ago, the tribe known as the Tuatha de Danaan, the children of the goddess Danu, were told that their future homeland was to be a beautiful isle top the west on the great ocean. These people named a might river that ran through their homeland after Danu, the river Danube, in what is now Germany. The isle to the west was Ireland. The final battle to determine rulership of Ireland was between the Tuatha and the Milesians, Celts who lived in what is now Spain.

One of the leaders of the Milesians was Amergin, said to have been the first poet of Ireland, and the beginning of the great legacy of Irish poets and storytellers. His poem, The Song of Amergin, was said to have broken the magical spell cast by the Tuatha and led to their successful landing and invasion of Ireland.

Amergin, Bard of the Milesians, lays claim to the Land of Ireland


I am a stag: of seven tines,
I am a flood: across a plain,
I am a wind: on a deep lake,
I am a tear: the Sun lets fall,
I am a hawk: above the cliff,
I am a thorn: beneath the nail,
I am a wonder: among flowers,
I am a wizard: who but I
Sets the cool head aflame with smoke?


I am a spear: that roars for blood,
I am a salmon: in a pool,
I am a lure: from paradise,
I am a hill: where poets walk,
I am a boar: ruthless and red,
I am a breaker: threatening doom,
I am a tide: that drags to death,
I am an infant: who but I
Peeps from the unhewn dolmen, arch?

I am the womb: of every holt,
I am the blaze: on every hill,
I am the queen: of every hive,
I am the shield: for every head,
I am the tomb: of every hope.

Song of Amergin translated by Robert Graves, from The White Goddess