Listening to Muses and Facing Chaos
Confession: I've been really into tarot lately. Okay, I know that should come as no shock since I am a tarot reader, but I think we all ebb and flow in our interest in any job, topic, sensation, discussion, whatever it is. We get overwhelmed, tired, distracted, disinterested, etc. And that's okay. That's normal. Our Muses may offer us a different research topic or a new job opportunity, or whatever fun thing that Muses want us humans to create on this earthly plane. I generally choose to go with the flow on what interests me so that I can create most effectively and happily. I am happy to be deeply involved in my study of tarot these days. I'm listening to a series of interviews or podcasts about different tarot topics. When I'm out walking Cosmo along the streets of Nashville, I put in my headphones and listen to these tarot talks. These are new topics and perspectives for me which I find to be fun and interesting. I listened to one the other day on tarot birth cards and was motivated to continue my own write ups for each tarot year card, something that's been on my back burner for months. I listened to a talk about tarot visual journaling and finally pasted some images into an empty journal I've had for 2 years just for that purpose. If you're interested in listing to tarot podcasts, I've raved about them before on my blog, and you can buy access to them here.
You may have noticed that I wrote that blog post about the Guardian Gateway Telesummit back in July and now here I am admitting that I just started listing to it this week! What can I say- inspiration strikes you when it strikes you. I've been meaning to listen to these things, but I haven't been stressing about it or mean to myself about falling down on the job. Instead I knew I would listen at just the right moment and obviously I've been hearing just when I need to hear at just the right moment.
The podcasts I listened to yesterday really spoke to my heart and I wanted to share with you some helpful, healing ideas that I took away from my listen. I feel like we can all use some healing right now. This was the talk by Heather Mendel and started out with her discussing (and I'm paraphrasing) the sense of overwhelm and overload in our world right now. We see politics dragged to the lowest common denominator, our airwaves are full of disrespect, and fear is everywhere in the media all around us, 24/7. It feels like we are on the precipice of something. That we are about to reach the tipping point. But the tipping point towards what?
Heather brings up the concepts of The Tower, which represents total destruction but also rebuilding and renewal. She offers us the choice of where we want to put our focus. Do we want to focus solely upon the Shadow side that is starkly evident all around us, pulling us towards chaos and obliteration? Or do we want to consider this chaos as a clearing that rips away all darkness and leaves us ready to rebuild and be reborn? No matter what, we are faced with destruction, but it is our choice whether we focus on what we lost or what we can gain from this situation.
As the Shadow side of humanity comes to the foreground now, we are offered the chance to consciously acknowledge and work to understand the shadow. It isn't hiding anymore. We can see it for what it is. And when we do that, we can defeat it, we can take away the Shadow's power over us by fully acknowledging and confronting it. This sounds nice enough, doesn't it? See the Shadow, confront it, understand it, banish it's power. Wonderful, yes! But we are all aware that the reality of that it is actually super painful and uncomfortable. I can't say that I'm enjoying seeing the racism, sexism, xenophobia, and hatred that is swirling around us every day. The way Shadow presents itself is terrible to behold, but behold it we must.
I like to think that my soul chose to be here right now. I made a decision to be a part of this and I can decide how my part is going to be acted out right now. I can decide to hold peace in my heart. I can decide to bring light into the shadow. I can be true to myself and share my gifts with others. It's about the bigger picture. It's about a larger perspective than just my little world. This chaos, shadow, and fear in the world offers us a chance to see things from a different perspective. It isn't a perspective I would actively wish for, but it is what we've got, and I'm going to make the best of it.
That is the message I heard from Heather Mendel when I listened to her tarot talk yesterday. It made me feel teary-eyed, like so many things do these days. It also made me feel empowered. No, everything is not going to be okay, but I can do something anyway. I can keep shining a light into the darkness. I am hold strong to my ideals. I can be a witness and a watcher as chaos destroys our old world and do my best to shape what emerges with my shifted perspective. After total destruction we get to decide how to rebuild. We can decide to break through instead of break down.