I created this card after I found the image of the woman sitting at her messy art table. I just loved how she was looking me in the eye, seemingly to say, “Stop frittering around with excuses, and just sit at your own art table and make something!” I really love the audacious but compassionate look about her. If ever a Muse was going to inspire me, it would be her!

Who are you? I am the one who watches over your artist self.  I am the one who KNOWS for absolute positive certain that you love to mess around with paints and collage ephemera and color. I am the one who says JUST DO IT!

What do you have to give me? I give you permission to play at your art table, permission to create.

What do you want from me? I want you to slow down enough to look me in the eye.  I want you to slow down enough to recognize how deep my calling is to your soul. I want you to ask yourself, “Why are you NOT creating?”

I made this card intuitively a few years ago, and realized that she was a Council Suit member of my Deck only after I did the interpretation below: Who are you? I am the one who gives you the gift of Patience, who reminds you that big things like losing weight and making a marriage stronger, takes TIME.  I am the one who believes in Kaizen, tiny steps for big growth.  I am the angel who delights in taking things slowly, who whispers in your ear when you get discouraged.  I am the one who continues to nurture the inner growth in spite of outer disasters such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, and other bad-things-that-happen-to-good-people. What do you give me? I give you patience with yourself as you go through the long process of bringing your body back to its natural weight.  I give you a steady focus on inner growth while you are losing the weight, no matter what is happening outside of you.  I give you knowledge of the “big picture” as each tedious day goes by. What do you want from me? I want you to see the big picture, to remember the Kaizen way, to slow down and be patient, to give yourself time. NOTES FROM DAILY READINGS: July 2006- Growing a garden, growing even just ONE flower takes time.  Much time.  Come and sit in my garden today… and every day.  Allow your distress to sink into the soil and disappear.  Let my rainbow wings remind you of sunny, brighter days.  Within my patient wings lies the secret of all growth.  Come and grow with me. July 2006- Here I am again, a few weeks later!  I am a blessed reminder that my Presence is quiet but very powerful.  I know you are discouraged, Dear One.  Latch onto my rainbow wings. Allow them to shelter you from your own distress.  All shall be well. October 2006- I am the one who instills Patience in you.  I am the one who is growing your inner life.  My message for you today is this: Come and sit with me in my Garden of Patience, and notice how slowly things grow.  Be patient with yourself as you go through each day. Open your heart and receive my gifts of patience.

I made this card as I was focusing in on the third chakra, using Anodea Judith’s book The Sevenfold Journey as a guide.  This ties in with the concept of power, around which I am shifting my old beliefs from negative to positive.

Judith describes the Spiritual Warrior as “one who is willing to stand their ground, to protect the sacred within, to accept challenges, and maintain power in a firm and quiet way.”

I have not begun to dialog with this powerful spirit guide but I can already feel her presence in my life.  I am noticing more about the times in my life when I feel powerful, and I am embracing those times more fully.

I made this card several months ago but hadn’t worked with it at all until it showed up this week in one of my Daily Readings.  I thought at the time I made it that it had something to do with wholeness, and I was right!

Who are you? I am the one who is two halves contained in one.  I am the one who holds you as you give me the shape to be held.  I am the one who is held and who creates a shape for you to hold.  I am the one who is one, complete, whole, black AND white, light AND shadow, all the many blended into one entity. I am the one who loves and is loved, who rests and is the rock against which you rest.  I am the one of ages and eons past, of lunar AND solar energy.  I am the one who can truly rest and close my eyes in safety and peace because I know that I am whole and complete, just as I am.

What do you have to give me? I give you a sense of yourself as whole, complete, solid, joined,  integrated.  I give you union within yourself. What do you want from me? I want you to stop looking outside yourself for wholeness, for a sense of completeness and safety.  It already exists inside of you!