The Fool and an Ayurvedic Massage

It all started with the image of the Tarot card, The Fool and the following words:

“Dance Mage.

Dance on the strings of Fate that the Universe is weaving for you.

Dance…

Cause the strings are Fated yes, 

but it is up to you for the pattern to create.

Dance Mage”

I was the Fool. I was on the precipice of an enormously huge cliff. In front there was another equally huge cliff. 

I looked down. All I could see was an unpenetrable darkness. No end.

There was wind rising.

I had been many times in these last few weeks on this precipice. Terrified of leaving all behind me. Of acting literally like a Fool to society’s eyes…

But this time something had change, as I looked down a thought came through my mind…

“Perhaps it is down you should go and not remain on this plane or fly”.

So I took the step in the void of thin air…

A small white parachute opened softly lulling me in the winds of change, suspending me for a moment or two where I could see the  horizontal plane and the spot from where I had just walked to oblivion.

I softly started my descend…whilst repeating the phrase, perhaps it is down where I should go…

The light of the Sun grew dimmer and dimmer as the walls of the two cliffs started closing on me.

I had no idea where I am going…and yet I felt, perhaps free of the known world and its shackles.

Darker and darker it became. I couldn’t even see my feet. I could feel the warmth radiating from the cliffs that I could feel were slowly burying me in the sweetness of Mother Earth. A burial?

I stopped looking upwards…no need to. My known world has vanished, for never to be.

I looked downwards towards my feet.

At first I thought my eyes were playing on me but as I descended further I could glimpse shimmering globes of light. 

I started again discriminating the rocks reflecting the yellowish light coming from what seemed a valley.

I could discern other features too, as if, sort of, a long market, lining the narrow valley.

I could see green lights and people walking around. Some looked up…waving.

I landed softly on the field near this market, gladly touching solid ground. People came to greet me with huge big smiles. As if they were waiting for me.

The people were smaller in height than I. Strange beings that felt like elves.

They guided me to the market, which was made of a long series of stalls, some built in the caves, some built with beautiful wooden structures with plants climbing around them.

In wonder I paused at every stall, to observe what was inside.

The first stall was full of astronomical tools. The shopkeeper turned bemused towards me, picked a small golden telescope and gave it to me.

“Mage, this is for you to look at the stars whenever you want and feel the need to”.

Placed the shining telescope in my hands, smiled and bowed.

I turned round and the shopkeeper on the other side of the stall, that sold books, came towards me and gifted me with a small leather book. It had blank yellowish pages.

“Mage, this is for you so you can write what you observe, so you may learn to weave your own remedies and the music of the Spheres”.

He bowed and smiled.

I moved forward to the next stall full of crystals. A woman came to greet me. In her hand she held a  necklace with a dark oval crystal dangling from it.

“Mage, this is an Amethyst cut just for you, for protection and healing. Keep it always on you.”

I bowed and she clasped the necklace round my neck. For a second I saw the Amethyst flicker as if to say hello.

I turned round and there was another women with a freshly baked loaf of bread in her hands.

“This is for you Mage. It is an eternal bread so that you may never feel hungry” .Tears of gratitude welled my eyes. She smiled, caressed my hands and bowed.

Next came a man that was filling some small bottles with strange florescent liquids. He put the corks on and he placed some in my hands. Clasping both my hands, he whispered:

“Mage, these are your first aid kit, for you and others. Use them wisely”.

He smiled and bowed.

Turning round I saw a woman coming towards me with a leather flask. She had just filled it from the spring water that was coming down from the rocks.

“This is for you Mage, so that you may never feel thirsty. Remember water is the first healing remedy”

Another woman approached me with a dark leather satchel. 

“This is for you Mage to carry. Pay attention what you place inside for there it will remain. With time you will learn how to manifest things from inside.”

A man and a woman approached me with a beautifully woven mantel. On the rim of the dark blue cloth were woven golden symbols and flickered as if alive.

Both clasped the mantel on my shoulder. The woman breathed:

“This is for you Mage. It is an Invisible Mantel so you may always be warm and safe”.

Then a man handed me a red wooden long staff with a pointed white translucent crystal at the top.

“This is for you Mage, so you may always feel supported and thread safely through your journey”.

The crowd then slowly parted and I saw a tall wise elderly man waiting for me with a smiling face.

“Welcome Mage. I was waiting for you. Your journey has just become”.

With that Great Horned Owl and Lynx appeared on either of my sides and I started walking with the Elder towards a precarious-looking bridge that hanged on another precipice. 

The mist was rising from the precipice and between haziness I could vaguely make out a castle rising on mountains covered with thick forests.

This journey I experienced whilst I was having an Ayurvedic massage at 13:30 CEDT, the exact time of the New Moon in Aries conjunct Uranus, just off by two degrees from my natal Chiron that opposes my natal Uranus and squares my Venus and South Node.

My massage therapist is Roberta Felici.

Let the Hero’s Journey begin….on the flight to Milan tomorrow morning.

Anyone knows which deck is this please?

Imbolc 2016: swans, cicadas, clouds and cards.

This time of the year is always significantly important to me. 

Imbolc has always represented that moment in time when something old crumbles, disintegrates and the vision of something new slowly emerges.

I am either sick at this time of the year or feeling completely exhausted, as if all that needs to be purged decides to do it now. It is also a time when I usually feel “a call” echoing insistingly. All I would like to do and need to do is go on a retreat into myself.

And it does make sense astrologically speaking. The Sun at this time of the year is transiting my 12th house. 

For me the 12th house represents the alchemical pot of the zodiac wheel where all melts and simmers in the cauldron of those subtle energies that are intimately and profoundly connected with all that is.

There is chaos, the complete destruction of all forms. All bearings dissolve in a whole big cloud.

Imbolc is traditionally celebrated on the 2nd February but astrologically speaking, the 15th degree of Aquarius, usually happens a couple of days afterwards.

Imbolc is also the time when the esoteric apprentice vows to study the path for “a year and a day”.

On the 2nd February I could not celebrate, I had my new area manager with me. Contrasts definitely work to refine the search for resonance. All I could do is “listen” to where the call was coming from and where my “alliances” are. 

I am always so pleasantly amazed and warmly reassured how astrological timings come to be even when I am not really taking notice or simply life takes hold of me and I can’t do otherwise.

Thankfully there is something in me that knows that,“that something”, should happen at that precise moment.

A few days ago, I was approached by person that works in the healing arts. We spent three hours talking about a project he had in mind and he was inviting me on board. On that day Jupiter  was conjunct the North Node of the Moon in Virgo. Later as  I walked near sea thinking about this offer, a swan appears out of nowhere. 

Jupiter likes showing himself…

On the eve of Imbolc I phoned that person to say "yes I like the idea, let’s see how we can work it out".

I was saying yes to a new path. 

Just as I close the phone call, a cicada starts chirping. Yes a cicada, on the sand, near the sea, in winter, in pitch cold dark. 

I could hear the voice of my mentor saying “you will be journeying soon…” 

Imbolc is also a good time for divination…

And so it happened that exactly as the Sun passed over the 15th degree 15 seconds of Aquarius, the Universe conspired for an improvised tarot reading from my spiritual brother…. And lo and behold the Wheel of Fortune card comes out, with the Aquarius symbol on it. The Wheel of Fortune is astrologically linked to Jupiter.

Some years “the call” is stronger than other years. Sometimes, like this year, “the call” is definitely “a call for the arms”, a complete makeover of my life. They are those years that one later remembers "as when everything changed".

They are those years when all perfectly aligns to say yes to a wonderful new journey of self-discovery even if the details are still shrouded in the mists of the bubbling cauldron.

Now it is time I sit and rest near the cauldron and start taking notes before I jump off the cliff.

As above so below, as within so without…

Blessed Imbolc to you and yours.

Review of The Reluctant Tarot Reader: Adventures in the Gypsy Trade

It all started that I dreamt of Raven, of her giving a lecture on GLBT and religion. I tweeted this to her, several exchanges of tweets and all I know the next morning I found a copy of The Reluctant Tarot Reader ebook in my email.

I had just arrived in Malta. And obviously the Universe just though it was absolutely the right time to read such a book.

There is something that connects me to Raven but haven't defined it yet, not even after reading her book, nor after remembering that once I used to hear her podcast (before my 1^st iPod touch died).

We have many things in common and reading her book was like touching white fire, raw sensations, memories which were preferably lost but just kept nagging in the twilight zone.

I found the words burning into the electronic display. Somehow I could feel the pain it takes to write all that.

The pain it took to live all that.

The great courage it takes to make it heal.

Words are written with a purpose.

Paragraphs are used as vessels; Chapters as fullstops and fresh beginnings.

It is not about academical Tarot. It is Tarot in motion.
It is a book that spares nothing.
All is torn to pieces, to be burnt in rage and left to simmer until Love will have Its way, transforming this book in such an intimate gift for us all.

Thank you Raven for not being so reluctant!