Transcription
Hey everybody, it's Anna. So, I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts um and connections from last week's lectionary passage on Sunday. It was a passage from Luke and I wanted to connect it to something in the tarot.
So, the passage from Luke says, "Fear not, little flock, for it is God's great pleasure to give you the kingdom of heaven." So, I wanted to look at that and think about what's the lesson from the tarot that connects to this teaching.
And okay, so I've said before that in my understanding, I do not have a linear or a dualistic understanding of heaven. I do not believe heaven and earth are separated and that heaven is something for the future when you die. I know that is a linear uh description or representation of heaven, but I feel like in my experience and in lots of scripture readings as well, it is clear that heaven is already here. And the key is not we're going to go to heaven. We're going to but we're going to find it right now. So, I feel like the the teaching from Luke says it is God's intention to give you heaven. I don't think it means when we die. It means right now God's trying to show you heaven. Do not be afraid. The key is navigating your fear, right? The key is solving the challenges, clearing the wounds, whatever you got to do to navigate your fear so that you can find this flow state. And the flow state comes when the human and the when the mind and the intuition are now working as partners. That's why you have to solve the human challenges which are about fear and and beliefs and mindsets and you know fear well fear I already said that but like anxieties all those things we have to solve that and answer that so that the mind is ready to step into this flow state and now we've got um this moment or the this time of in infinite flow and infinite possibility.
And anyone who if you've ever created a a work of art or if you've ever listened to beautiful music or you've been with someone you've loved or you've looked at a beautiful sunrise, you know, you have this moment where time stands still. You feel like you're out of time and because in that moment you are you are the creator of heaven because you're holding this state which is both physical and spiritual and they're getting along, right? So I believe that is our purpose on the planet to be that that compass point between the two realms. I believe that is represented by temperance as well in the major arcana. So I thought well what's what's a lesson that we can look to the tarot that connects to this idea that um the kingdom of god how do we find the flow of the kingdom of god? How do we see it represented? And I think we see it represented in the tarot by all of the eights. So the number eight connects to power and flow. It connects to um commitment. you're leaving it all in the field. So, it really is about I've made my decision. Seven, just before the eight, you have the seven, which is about discernment and making a choice. And the eight is like now we're going to go, right? And in that moment of commitment and release, we let ourselves feel our magic. We feel the victory. And we just our our minds are no longer hitting the brakes. They're in agreement. They're they're hitting the gas. The intuition is guiding. And now we are flying.
And so I wanted to look at all of the eighth and see how each of them has their own flavor of what I think the kingdom of heaven is right on earth. So start with the minor arcana. All right. So we have the eight of pentacles. Pentacles are connected to the physical realm. And this card shows a man crafting pentacles. He's doing a craft. He's making abundance, making a piece of pentacles are also connected to money, right? And that's kind of an obvious one. And money is a physical representation of energy and investment in love, right? He's creating these. So, he's there's a town behind him and that shows this is where he's going to take these pentacles. And at this point, he's masterful in what he's doing, which means he doesn't have to watch his hands or worry about what he's doing. He can relax and enjoy the fact that he has a skill set that he can trust. I think this comes from anyone who's done any repetitive act for long enough and where you you no longer have to think it through or or correct it or learn it. It is now it is now part of you. That could be like an athlete. It could be someone who who paints, someone who crochets, someone who sings, whatever it is, or you know plants a garden. There's this sense of yes, I know how it feels in my body. I can trust it. And so the mind and the reason it feels so good is the mind is at rest. The mind when I say you can trust it, the mind is trusting it. The mind's not second guessing or doubting or fearful or trying to work too hard at this. It realizes that the um the power is in the ease and the mind gets to rest. And that's why it feels like heaven on earth, right? Because the mind is resting. It's in this state like a euphoric state of beauty and power. It's connected to the intuition and all of the things that um all the limitations of earth fall away because the mind's not paying attention to them anymore. So I think that is the eight of pentacles shows that.
Well the eight of wands is a great one right cuz wands is about fire and passion and confidence. These wands are literally flying through the air like they are on their way somewhere. So there is this sense of real passion and commitment and and a freedom of flight and also kind of the unstoppability of this energy. It is on its way. It can't be stopped. It can't be turned back. Right? So wands is about feeling like you're in the sense of passion. And this might be something that you feel physically like if you're running or you're outside or you're swimming or it could be falling in love. I mean it could be listening to be it could be anything that helps you feel invigorated and passion. And again this is about the mind not interfering with the passion. That's the key. Like the the beginning of the Luke passage is fear not. Fear not. Like it's not time for fear now. It's time for flight. It's time to relax and to be in this in this moment. So if you if your mind doesn't relax, if your mind like a lot of times we'll find this card reversed, right? And it's almost like the mind's like, "No, too fast. We have to be more cautious. We have to think this through." If the mind isn't in this place, then it is you're not quite in the heavenly spot yet. You have to help the mind get to that place. But once you are, you can just let yourself fly and trust that you will land where you're supposed to land.
Then we have um the eight of cups. And cups are about the heart. They're about um like listening, feeling connected to other people and listening to your intuition and um yeah, your your emotional well-being. And this image is called this is called the spiritual seeking card because the mind the man here is leaving behind these eight cups and going into the darkened wilderness. And he's going into a wilderness that I just said is darkened, which means he can't see where he's going. So, he's he's walking in confidence, not because he can see where he's going, but because he trusts his inner compass. He can hear the the the the the call of something in that wilderness speaking to him. He's willing to leave everything behind. He's not fearful. Again, this is about if you're fearful, you will keep you will stay where you are and keep your treasures. Like, if you're afraid of losing resource or afraid of messing up, you you've got eight cups right here. You got eight golden cups. You could just stay home with those eight golden cups, but it's like there's something in you that goes there's something more and I and I want and I'm trusting. I'm going to give my give my alt to go ahead and seek out the the pearl of great price and that experience of knowing of of knowing and seeking what it is within yourself. Seeking out the mystery and knowing that that's the purpose on the planet, that connection because what you're seeking, the treasure you're seeking actually is ultimately it's about connection. It's about unconditional love. It's about feeling yourself loved and being able to live in that love, which is really what the cups are about. So again, it's about abandoning your surrendering yourself to the heaven on earth.
And the final one is the eight of swords. Swords are about the mind. This is one that looks a little less happy than the others. Um, but I love this card because it's about the swords. It's about the mind finding its flow and mastery. So the image shows a woman that seems she seems to be trapped in a cage. So it seems to be about disempowerment, but these she's also bound by this cloth and the cloth is barely wrapped around her. Like you can see it, right? All she has to do is wiggle and it will fall away. So this is the point where the mind gets to say, "Oh, you mean I can free myself? You mean the this limitation is not imposed upon me, but it's imposed by me? Well, then I can just choose to let it go." And that moment where the mind goes, "Oh, I'm in charge of this. I can wiggle and shake this free. I can take off my blindfold. This cage is not even closed up. there's this there's a path right here leading me back to my home back here in the you know I I can easily go find my way back home. The mind realizes that what it thought was, you know, un non-negotiable is completely negotiable. And the mind goes, okay, turns out I am more powerful than I thought. I have resource. I have friends. Actually, the image here also shows the woman, she's standing in some water, which connects to the intuition. Water is connected to intuition. So, the mind's like, "Oh, I got the intuition right here at my feet. The intuition's helping me get free. So, really, what can't I do?" that moment of exhilaration where the mind thought it was stuck but it's not stuck. That's that's that's a miracle. That's freedom. That's power. And I think that's again an experience of heaven.
Um, so the way fear can work against you in all these cards is the mind saying it's not possible. Like the mind says I already know the story. And I've definitely hit this with people like I already know the story. This is how it goes. This is what I can't do. And that's the mind saying I'm scared of what happens if I get free. Right? I I don't I don't know if it's a safe world to be free in. Maybe it's safer to agree to this limitation. That's one thing. Um, this could be like, yeah, I don't see I can't see where I'm going. Like, I get that. I get that I have this instinct to go forward or find something, but like um yeah, I can't see my own feet. The mind saying it's not safe to do this it this way. If I can't see where I'm going, I'm not going to go. So, even though maybe my heart's calling me forward, I'm going to stay here with what I do know, right? I think the eight of wands is just pure momentum. Like this is passion and confidence and inspiration are such high vibrations. They're so fast moving that the mind is really worried. Like you you don't have time to think here, right? You're not thinking here. You're flying. You're flying on instant. You're flying totally on your on your intuition or on your passion. And that means there's no way to prepare for whatever's going to happen on the other end of this. So the mind a mind that's fearful will stop that. And I think that was that the last one? Oh no, this one. Pentacles, right? Um, I think this one's about perfectionism. This is where you see the mind getting like what if it's not good enough? What if it's not? Maybe I should redo that pentacle. Maybe I should take my time and go slow instead of trusting that skill set. We're going to So, that's perfectionism. Like, I want to be good enough. I'm afraid I'm not good enough. I'm afraid I'm not worthy. And so, again, that's where you see the fear which has to be resolved before you find this state of flow and power. And so I think that's what the even the scriptur is calling us to fear not so that your fear can you can release your fear and move into um this place of of power and flow and joy.
So those are the minor arcanas. Now we'll do the major arcanas cuz I love them too. The eight of the major arcana is the strength card and this shows an angel offering unconditional love to a lion. And in this image I think of the lion as being our our univilized wild selves, right? That we are taught to be afraid of. We're taught the lion is scary and dangerous, should be caged, should be controlled. Um, so this is the eight. This it's the strength card. Basically, the strength here is the angel's commitment to love this lion unconditionally, which means we're not going to cage this line. This is the line. This is nothing wrong with this lion. We don't it's not scary. It's not dangerous. We're going to let it be who it is because we love this line. We're committed to it. That's about loving unconditionally ourselves and and accessing that angelic power within ourselves as you know what even if other people don't like it other people don't understand this I'm not going to be afraid I'm not going to be fearful or judging or dangerous to this land I'm not going to cage it in so that in the major arcana this is the first eight you come to and this is the point again it's after seven steps so this is the fear here is that yeah the lion isn't safe it's going to get you harmed it's going to harm somebody else um you know it's going to get you kicked out, it's going to get you unloved, you know, you're going to get, you know, kicked out of the tribe, whatever. You're going to lose resource. There's lots of reasons to be afraid that you have to navigate in order to get to this state of freedom. So the lion is not only free of the cage, but he's also loved unconditionally. It's powerful moment in our lives as humans when we when we learn how to really practice unconditional love. And it is exhilarating. It's exhilarating. is heavenly and blissful for the lion and for the the for the angel too because this energy is now freed up and how we can do some cool things with it.
The other eight is the star card. So that is it's the 17 card. It reduces to an eight, right? So the star card is about expansion. It's about restoration and expansion. It happens after a tower. The tower is when things fall apart. We've hit on the tower a lot lately. Like a structure falls apart because you've outgrown it. And the star is where you go, yes, let's find out what that expansion's all about. Let's step into this new life. And um and it is bliss. It's a blissful looking card, right? You've got the stars in the sky. They're all the stars. There's seven stars that balance all of your chakras. There's a pool. The net woman is naked. She's comfortable in her own skin. She's pouring water, you know, into the into the water, into the lake, and on the ground, which is about restoration. She's just really enjoying the blissful state of having gone through this major transition and now being restored, being loved, feeling through the belovedness the un the love the universe has for us, her own belovedness and her love for herself. And she's discovering something new about herself, which also I think that's part of um where's my I set him down. The strength card, right? Like once this lion is free, you get to find out who the lion is. It gets to do it gets to show you what it's capable of. And now we're going to have an adventure that really is founded on um freedom. And that's tier two. Now you're free. The tower's fallen. You're free from the tower. You're ready to go and enter this bliss state.
Now I will say this because I think this is really important to remember that the eight is one part of the whole 10 card trajectory. Which means we are not meant to live in the flow all the time. The flow you you build up to the flow in the eight. You build up to it. You live it and however long it lasts then it ends. you go to the nine, then you start over again. So, I think one of the challenges we have, especially if you're an intuitive, um, like a body or heart intuitive or a creative is like, you know, you get into a flow state and it's so wonderful and you kind of want to hold on to it, but you can't. You can't hold on to any states. Life is always in motion. We're always in flow. So, it's about agreeing to the release, right? So, you have to release it to start something new. And actually, it's interesting because the the card right in the middle of the major arcana is wheel of fortune, which is about nonattachment, right? Right? It's like things are always moving. It's not personal. You're not being punished. You didn't mess up. This is just how things flow and like learning how to make peace with that. And I think that's really important with the eight because I think when you are someone who has experienced flow, it's so wonderful. It's so much fun. It's so joyful. You you feel like you're free. You're flying through the sky. You're free from gravity. You're free from fear and anx, you know, you're fear from you're free from all of that stuff, right? And and it's kind of it's a little bit of a bummer when that time ends. And that could last for a few hours, last for a few days. The point is you're you're really burning all your energy in that you're all the buildup is to the eight, right? So in that moment, you're burning up all of your energy. You're burning up all of that all of that resource and you're putting it in the world. I really do think of it as like you're leaving it all in the field, right? Like you're holding nothing back. And the truth is once you've released all of it, then you go to the nine, which is that integration. Then you start a new buildup. So that is how it has to work. If you if you are in the middle of your flow and you're worried about it ending, you're going to mess up your flow cuz that's fear, right? Fear is now entering like, uh-oh, how long can I hold on to this? Well, you know, you can't hold on to it. So, you want to make peace with the fact that it is a finite experience. Flow is finite. But also remember that you're you can build up to it again. And once you understand there's a formula, there's actually a formula, which is what the tarot shows us. The formula moving from the one to the two to the three. There's a formula for getting to flow. Then you know some of the parts of the some of the steps are not as much fun as others. But again things not being fun is different than the mind being afraid that we've messed up. Like if you can show the mind well yeah we're at the two point. This is what we do at the two point. The mind's like yeah I don't really like the two point but you know it's okay. Nothing bad is happening. We haven't messed up. We're not messing up now. The mind can be at peace with the process. And to me that's the key of the teaching from Luke is saying fear not. Like help your mind to learn not to be afraid. Help your mind to feel supported and loved so that we can get to that flow state. Enjoy it, release it and start over. The mind gets good at this kind of ongoing flow, this ongoing work and and understands the steps so that nothing it doesn't get rattled. Doesn't feel like suddenly it happens so often with my clients where they're like, "Oh my gosh, I'm so messed up." and they and really they're just in a they're just in a certain stage and but their mind doesn't understand what we're h that's happening and they think well I've messed up I've regressed I' you know they they think they they've messed up they they they they're being punished or or something and being able to release that saying that's not what's happening it's just this is just one of the stages and the mind not taking on the story that you know we've messed up we have to correct something we have to push something because all that is that's always the mind in resistance it's resisting what is happening trying to change it instead of saying I I'm going to agree to it. This is part of the journey, part of the adventure. It's not my favorite part of the adventure, but it's not dangerous. Just because I don't like it doesn't make it not, it doesn't make it dangerous. It just makes it part of the journey. And I think that then even when you're not in the flow state, right? You're not in the flow state, which you can't be in the flow state all the time. You can't be in the eight state all the time. Um the mind begins to relax in general and says, "Yeah, sometimes the day you don't see, you don't feel very heavenly. You don't really see the beauty. You don't feel the beauty but you know we are here in this place and we are working towards another flow state eventually. So while I'm here I will be faithful to where I am and trust and trust my partner and the soul and the intuition the universe to help me and um to love myself where I am. That's important too right the eight it's easy to love yourself in the eight because it's so much fun. The challenge comes in giving yourself unconditional love and support in all the other steps which are less pleasant. helping helping taking care of your mind when it is struggling. And uh yeah, by when you get to the eight, the mind's probably not struggling anymore or you wouldn't be in the eight. The mind's the mind's in agreement, right? But other times, the mind's not in agreement and it's struggling. And so learning how to be patient and loving to yourself in all the stages um creates a general atmosphere where you can move through these through the journey a lot quicker, a lot more easily, get to those flow states more often and hold them for longer probably because now we're the partnerships getting stronger between the mind and intuition every time.
So that's my thoughts for today. See you next time. Five.