3 wyze menEvery year at Christmas, I have a powerful dream. Some years, the dream is prophetic. Other years, it’s just plain weird.  This year’s dream fits somewhere on a whole other spectrum…

I dreamed I went camping in caves in the Arizona desert. There were three caves alongside one another. Each one contained a different man. I recognized the three of them as The Hermit, the Emperor, and the Hierophant. My first thought when I woke was, “A visit from the Three Wise Men of the Tarot!”

I don’t yet know what it means. I look forward to finding out as I think it will reveal itself in time….

My Year in Review…Via Tarot!

I drew each of these, randomly…

What was my theme card for 2014?

Nice.

Nice.

I’m glad I didn’t pull that when divining at the beginning of 2014. It would have scared me to….erhm…..death. But yeah…I guess it was a year of different deaths–many of which led to the Death Card’s silver lining of rebirth. I was laid off in January, a scary loss as I was the primary breadwinner. Yet the lay-off led me to a new job that I absolutely love. I ended Tarot Tuesday, which had been a staple of my marketing for a long time as it felt stale and no longer excited me. How can we be good at our work if we feel nothing for it? I mourned the deaths of two friends and mentors. I wrote a long letter to a suicidal friend, at her request, explaining what her death would do to me–hands down, the hardest thing I’ve ever written. I parted ways with two Coveners (and therefore, took on new Petitioners), and crowned a new Priestess after three years of training her. It wasn’t really a loss, but the “rebirth” via our new dynamic as colleagues rather than teacher-student merits connection to the Death card! I also dug into Hoodoo and Rootwork for the first time which has many Magickal connections to the Dead.

Okay, Death card. You can have 2014.

What was my greatest blessing of 2014?

d'aw...........

d’aw………..

Good job, Tarot. 🙂  Yes, my greatest blessing this year was getting engaged to the love of my life on our fifth anniversary.

Pretty-pretty! He did a good job. :)

Pretty-pretty! He did a good job. 🙂

What was my greatest challenge in 2014? 

strengthThat’s a strange one, but I can see how it relates. For years, I’ve been hassled by my community to delegate, delegate, delegate! I wrote a whole blog about how this is the most pain-in-the-ass piece of “advice” anyone could possibly offer (along with, “Just be yourself when you’re in a situation in which you’re so painfully shy you can’t even remember your last name let alone how to be you.”). Delegation doesn’t mean less-work for the “delegator.” If someone wants to decrease their work-load, I learned this year, is to say no from the start. My challenge this year was not to test my strength, but to know my boundaries before that time even came. I redefined my leadership role in my Coven. I learned how my health can suffer when I’ve extended too much. I learned how to draw boundaries and say, “This, over here, is my true responsibility. That, over there, is not. Please do not bring it over here.”

That, by itself, takes some strength!

What was my greatest accomplishment in 2014?

Ace of WandsI see two things for this! The Ace of Wands is about creation, productivity, passion. For me, it’s always meant a new project–and one that I love. First of all, I finished my first book, which is now available!

Second, I see that as the banner-stick I held in the People’s Climate March. I did a lot of major coordination to mobilize Pagans to march with the interfaith contingent.

Thank you for the great pic, Charles Beisser!!! :D

Thank you for the great pic, Charles Beisser!!! 😀

This was a beautiful bridge to build. I repeatedly heard from other persons of faith that they loved having Pagans there. We brought drums! We brought great chants! Most of all, people seemed happy that we weren’t hiding and were happy to march alongside them. It was a great experience for me as a leader and for all of us as persons of faith.

Thanks, Ace of Wands! It was indeed a bountiful year of creation!

What was my greatest failure in 2014?

6Swords

Hmm…..

I fully expected to get the Queen of Pentacles, who would point out some money/savings mistake or perhaps a 5 of Cups, highlighting moments when I lost my patience or otherwise slipped on a patch of asshole-move. The 6 of Swords is interesting. Perhaps it was the Ireland tour? I tried to take people on a journey across the Great Pond (just like in this picture), but couldn’t get enough interest. Perhaps it was carrying too much stuff from the past? Notice how the guy is ferrying some very depressing characters. I certainly had a brush with a toxic past-blast when Neptune and Mercury were doing a mean dance up there.

I will sit with this card as it certainly has more to teach me.

In the meantime….

What is my card for 2015?

The first card was Reversed. When I pull a reversed “theme” card, I generally pull a second card. Reversals show what something is “not.” I don’t want to hear only about what 2015 will not be. I want to hear what 2015 will be!

IMG_3090

The 7 of Swords, Reversed! The 7 of Swords can be a hassle of a card, but one thing I learned in 2014 is that it can be a blessed one, too! Often, 7 of Swords is a card that reveals chaos. Sometimes, it’s about questioning yourself (The guy looking over his shoulder is saying, “Am I doing this right?”). Maybe 2015 is the year I stop questioning myself so much. It may also be the year I stop hassling myself from mistakes of the past. A potential bit of overshare: if I’m awake, there’s a 50% chance I’m thinking of some stupid past mistake and giving myself private hell for it. Nice, right? Living with my brain can be very irritating at times.

I’ve consciously been working on changing that by making time every evening to list every positive contribution I made to the world that day–no matter how small or obvious it may seem to me.

The second card I pulled, the 9 of Cups, makes me think this process may be working. 2015 could be the year I revel in love, in being present, in just enjoying being alive. I think that’s certainly a worthy year…particularly after 2014 being a Death Card year!

Thanks for reading, everyone! What about you? What cards did you pull for 2014 and 2015?