"...When people want to know if they can ask a general question, I ask if they want a general answer. Like begets like with the cards. Similarly, it is interesting to notice where the person's inquiry is coming from. Is it from their gut or their head? A burning question is a world away from one asked out of mild curiosity. Surface questions get surface answers. Real questions invite the cards to speak."
(from The Playing Card Oracles, A Source Book for Divination, p. 109)
Asking the Question, part 1
This is the beginning of a short series quoted from my book, The Playing Card Oracles, A Source Book for Divination. The information could as easily be applied to any type of divination: Tarot, Playing Cards, I Ching, Runes, etc... I take a breath, open the book, and give to you, dear reader, this passage for today:
(From the sub-chapter, Asking the Question, p.109) "...One of the best ways to be of service (with the cards) is to help people phrase their concerns in a way that works in harmony with the nature of the cards. The Playing Deck, and oracles in general, function with profound, childlike simplicity and will reflect the inquiry in just such a manner. Complicated or ambiguously stated questions do not evoke the magic of the cards. Make sure the wording you choose is clear, simple, and direct, and the answer you receive will be the same. Beware of two-part questions disguised as a single inquiry. Break multi-faceted concerns down into components in order to get a clear response. If you're doing smaller readings, it's better to do separate layouts for each aspect of the question than to glob issues together." (to be continued next week..)
--Ana Cortez, The Playing Card Oracles - Painting by Remedios Varo
Your Personal Edge
If I am to truly become master of myself, I must know my limits. That is to say, when do I push myself and when do I draw back - in other words, "HOW DO I EXPAND?"
As a rule, we do not know our own limits because ordinary life rarely calls us to the edge. Those who live on the edge are exceptional. Olympic athletes are one example of people who we can see have gone to their personal edge, to the lonely nether land of what is actually possible in a human being.
For myself, these visits to my own outer limits are, as a rule, uncomfortable. Often they have been instigated by events that seemed traumatic or beyond my control. During moments of extreme "edge walking" I have even wondered if I would survive the journey.
In this place we either triumph big time or we are eaten alive.
Here I cannot help but reminisce on the recent events around famed spiritual leader James Ray, who encouraged people to challenge their limits only to lose three people in fatality. How much is too much? And yet we MUST challenge ourselves - while remaining sensitive to our own well being.
I like to do an hour and a half of yoga once a week in a hot as hell room to challenge my comfort zone and get that big time pay off. But once a week is generally enough for me and I know that. I have even left the room during class when I felt it was too hot for me. The teacher did not like that. Too bad.
The journey of spirit warrior is about becoming SENSITIVE to energy within YOURSELF. This is the same kind of sensitivity that leads to heightened psychic awareness, healing ability and all reaches of possibility. Some type of meditative practice will help you prepare for tuning in to sensitive energies. This is a skill you will be glad to have on the edge.
Finding my own personal limit has now become a way of being for me, a sort of lifestyle. It is not so obvious, like an Olympic athlete, because that is not my area. My areas are my own and yet I look for these edges I am called to find. Then I set off once more, with some measure of kicking and screaming on the inside, yet all the while tuning in to my own well being. It's weird but I am starting to crave these expansive yet uncomfortable experiences. There is no better place to discover who I truly am and that is a very cool pay off.
As a rule, we do not know our own limits because ordinary life rarely calls us to the edge. Those who live on the edge are exceptional. Olympic athletes are one example of people who we can see have gone to their personal edge, to the lonely nether land of what is actually possible in a human being.
For myself, these visits to my own outer limits are, as a rule, uncomfortable. Often they have been instigated by events that seemed traumatic or beyond my control. During moments of extreme "edge walking" I have even wondered if I would survive the journey.
In this place we either triumph big time or we are eaten alive.
Here I cannot help but reminisce on the recent events around famed spiritual leader James Ray, who encouraged people to challenge their limits only to lose three people in fatality. How much is too much? And yet we MUST challenge ourselves - while remaining sensitive to our own well being.
I like to do an hour and a half of yoga once a week in a hot as hell room to challenge my comfort zone and get that big time pay off. But once a week is generally enough for me and I know that. I have even left the room during class when I felt it was too hot for me. The teacher did not like that. Too bad.
The journey of spirit warrior is about becoming SENSITIVE to energy within YOURSELF. This is the same kind of sensitivity that leads to heightened psychic awareness, healing ability and all reaches of possibility. Some type of meditative practice will help you prepare for tuning in to sensitive energies. This is a skill you will be glad to have on the edge.
Finding my own personal limit has now become a way of being for me, a sort of lifestyle. It is not so obvious, like an Olympic athlete, because that is not my area. My areas are my own and yet I look for these edges I am called to find. Then I set off once more, with some measure of kicking and screaming on the inside, yet all the while tuning in to my own well being. It's weird but I am starting to crave these expansive yet uncomfortable experiences. There is no better place to discover who I truly am and that is a very cool pay off.
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