Weekly Reading: Pick your distraction

Water and Earth usually make a good pair in a reading. Water softens Earth, and Earth stabilises Water. In this reading, Nichomiah's festive presence surely eases a bit the impact of the dreadful 8 of Spades.

But you know, when the 8♠ shows up is because we need to stop. Look. Listen. Something's not quite right. The 8♠ is known as the unluckiest card in the pack (as opposed to the 8♦, which is the luckiest), so even though it has a water companion to dilute its effects, it still demands our attention.

Sometimes, we prefer to dawdle through shallow pleasures to keep our minds distracted, than to tackle what is actually bothering us. We know something is not right, but we focus on something else, kinda hoping that it will go away on its own. And this is what this reading reveals to me: there might be a feeling of unease this week, but we will be reluctant to look at it, to give it voice inside us. Like Nichomiah, we will pick our poison – whether it be work, sex, alcohol, Netflix, empty spiritual rituals, self-pity – and look the other way.

Now, I'm not saying that we have to focus on the problems all the time. Everything is about balance. Pleasures and distraction are healthy too, in the right dose. There are days in which we just cannot afford to look into the abyss of ourselves, it's not the right time. However, something darker is asking for attention. And as the Moon begins to wane, it may be the time for us to consider facing what we have been trying to avoid.

Weekly Reading: Dancing with the warm wind

Last month was so intense I barely had free time to think, let alone to read the cards for myself and post anything. My mother's surgery went well and, aside from one cut that isn't scarring very well, she's recovering without major issues. Of course, now there are the next steps of the treatment to consider but... we are taking that one step at a time.

Anyway, I was feeling rather low-spirited and tired today, so I reached for my PCO and decided to do a weekly reading. Fortuna (10♣) and the South Wind (4♦) – now, that is one unpredictable combo, if I ever saw one! Indeed, this week starts with a Full Moon in Gemini, filling the air with lively, changeable energy. Both 10♣ and 4♦ represent nicely this amplification of the restless Gemini vibe: one that sweeps you off your feet with new ideas, opportunities and events, but may also leave you a bit stranded once it's gone.

So these cards say that this week we should expect the unexpected and be ready to dance with whatever the wind brings. Now it is time to be adaptable and to take it as it comes. We must only keep in mind that Fire and Air together are not known for their, erm, firmness of purpose, so while you should enjoy the stimulating atmosphere, you should not make important plans or decisions based on it. Focus on the short term!

Weekly Reading: Take a deep breath...

...and don't get carried away by the emotional tides!

Heart and Clubs together speak of time of acute sensibility, in which it might be hard to focus on practical things. The East Wind (4♣) is a card of slow developments and deliberate action... It tells me the rhythm of this week will feel slower than usual. Practical tasks will probably require more time and patience to get done. 

The 3♥ tends to be a more charged card, but being a low number and paired with the 4♣, I see it more inclined to mean that I can expect some small emotional drama and conflict, and that I will have to be patient when navigating through them. People and situations can rile us up, easily turning small ripples into a Tsunami... So, it's important to take a deep breath and not react immediately to every provocation. 

Full Moon Project!

Full Moon in Aries and time for a rather impromptu project... yes, I have made my own witch's runes. Yay!

If you look back through my posts here, you will see that this is an oracle I have liked and used for years. But I had never made my own set of runes before. I always used ones made by artists who I deemed more "handicrafty" than me.

Because I absolutely have no idea how to cut wood myself - and I really don't feel comfortable to cutting a tree's healthy branch just to experiment -, I bought myself a pack of 3cm wooden circles for craft. They have the advantage of being flat and porous, which makes it easy to draw on them... Not to mention they are resistant and light to carry around, two important qualities in a rune set in my opinion. So today, with a mighty sharpie, I drew the symbols. They did not come out perfect, but I suppose the rough look adds to the magic. Annnd… there is the fact they are mine. 

Tonight we have a Full Moon in Aries. A full moon in fire speaks of creative projects that reach their finest points or that get completed. In Aries, specifically, we get that warrior-like vibe that, after a cycle of fighting to get things done, you can now lean back and rest a bit, while contemplating your accomplishment.

I still have tons of things to do, both related to my job and to my studies, but for tonight… yeah, I guess I will do just that. Sit, take a deep breath and enjoy the fact I have finally made my very own runes, under the blessing of the full moon.

Weekly Reading: How long can you keep that fire burning?

This will be a week of getting things done. This sequence of a 9 followed by an Ace tells me I am reaching the end of a process, but there are still a few responsibilities to fulfil and projects to wrap up.

The A♦ assures me that I have plenty of energy and focus to see it all through to the end. But the 9♦ is a card that tells of a peak of energy followed by a decrease, like the midday Sun, that reaches its highest point right before it begins its journey down...

Thus, this reading asks me: yes, you have all you need to fulfil your responsibilities and keep your promises, like a good hero. But how long can you keep this fire burning at this intensity, until it burns you out?

PCO: A very heavy mind

This reading was done for myself a few days ago, as I have been experiencing a lot of stress related not only the social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also due to the the constant juggling of my work and student responsibilities.

I have been getting little creative satisfaction from what I do, and that makes me feel blocked. My attempts at keeping up with the social media as a way to advertise my work as an oracle reader and crystal healer have been more of a chore than anything else. I feel often uninspired and am constantly comparing myself with others, which make me wonder why do I even bother when there are already so many readers and healers out there.

So, I did a spread asking what I needed to know about this blockage, so that I may find a different, more fulfilling path.

Two earth cards on the top -the K♠ (Mardoc) and the 5♠ (Impotent King) – immediately made me think of a heavy mind. A mind that is impoverished because it has reached the end of its rope. And it ringed true – my projects, at least as I was handling them, felt dead to me. The old way of doing things had to end, so that new possibilities could be born. 

Mardoc never really struck me as aggressive, but with all that fire and earth in the reading and no water whatsoever to dilute the intensity, I understood that my own rigid thinking was responsible for making me both tired and angry. And indeed, when attempting to be creative these last few months I often felt bitter and annoyed instead. Not a good place to be.

The other two cards were fire – A♦ (Ignita) and 4♦ (South Wind) – and from them I got an impression of stuck creativity. It's as if the heavy Spades cards on top were functioning like a lid on the top of a lot of energy that needed to be expressed, but was finding no outlet. The 4♦ is a card of unexpected things and for me it spoke of my constant changes in mood, which was making me unpredictable even to myself. Also, it points to a lack of follow-through; because what I was doing was not actually making sense to me, it was hard to reach full completion of anything. I second guessed myself. I did something then I erased and did another thing, and nothing was ever exactly like I wanted.

So, the point of this reading was to tell me that there is a serious need to ease the load. To allow the mind some rest, to clear the thoughts, so that I can once more access my own creative fires in a healthy way.

A reading with only earth and fire gets a bit of dry, aggressive tone to it. There's a strong focus on the practical but no pleasure – mental or emotional – derived from it. It became clear that I could not continue to insist on things that no longer made sense to me just because I had made up my mind about doing them. 

As a consequence, I put my "professional" Instagram account on hiatus and decided I am, for the time being, taking a leave from the business side and focusing solely on my studies and personal practices, with no pressure to have to "sell myself" out there. There are a lot of people filling that space already.

But this reading was nice in a sense it was very clear and I actually felt it gave me practical advice on how to proceed. It's not that I did not know there was too much going on for me... I knew, but being the big perfectionist I am I did not want to give up on any of my (perceived) responsibilities. With this reading, I felt entitled to do what is best for me, personal marketing obligations be damned. Also, it helped me to delegate tasks related to my classes to my colleagues... I need to trust other people to fill in for me, and let go of my rigid perfectionism, the true "impotent king" that often tries to rule my mind.