Happy New Year, folks! I missed yesterday, but today I did a little something different for the first card draw of the year. Whereas I typically draw three cards and post the one that feels strongest for that day, today I’m posting a spread: (left to right) the spiritual (The Shaman), the mental (Spark of Life), and the physical (Sun of Life). Given what I drew, this is a potent spread!
Overall, my feeling is that we are being guided to our primal spiritual selves and encouraged to put our energy out into the world instead of being reclusive and hoarding energy. I don’t know about you, but I felt like 2018 was about getting through it. No more! Now is the time for action and to not let people or societal norms hold you back.
This doesn’t mean to be haphazard; indeed, act on well-considered plans. (Don’t we all have them tucked away?) Get healthy, learn the skills you need, take care of yourself and your loved ones, and be mindful. But DO.
Read on to learn more about each individual card. Blessings!
The Shaman (Spiritual)
Reading points: You may hear the beat of a drum or the song of the wind. It may be the dancing of the light on water or the midnight barking of the Fox, but whatever awakens your desire to return to the wild, the shaman within you is ready for initiation into the mysteries. This may manifest itself in the form of desire to study and esoteric science or philosophy and apply what you learned to the world. It may involve travel for the sake of getting confidence and experience. But however the desire to begin a new spiritual chapter emerges, you are now in an emotional and intellectual position to bring forth a real change in your life for the benefit of everyone. This process of focusing, mediating, and applying wisdom from the Otherworld to everyday reality is the true work of the shaman.
Meaning: The view of the universe possessed by these ancient artists was of a place where human elements and skills were intimately interwoven with the qualities and progress of wild creatures. Human spiritual welfare was dependent on an empathic exchange and respect for the sacred ancestral memory of all life, and mediation of the totem guardians and Dietes was a primal spiritual function of the shaman
This is a gateway card, offering illumination to the labyrinth of the inner universe end of the Otherworld of the universe online. The shamans unique quality is the ability to enter and commune with all levels of sentiment life on the earth. It is he who shutters with the wisdom and joy contained in the haunting music of the whale song or who skin pickles with arousal at the howling of the Timberwolves. His soul reverberates with the unheard sonorous call of the mountains and smiles with pure joy at laughter of the waterfall.
The shaman applies his magic with intent. He studies the habits of wild creatures; he understands the weather patterns that bring good harvest or dry summers. He knows the healing plants from the deadly fungi and can travel through the dark by watching the ritual dance of the magical beings that populate the night sky. He give thanks to the trees that supply warmth and light in the winter and gathers young around fire to told stories of great adventure and courage to the light and educate those who would listen.
Through inner working and meditation, the shaman will bring inside and understanding of your true place in the world. Then practical application and the manifestation of wisdom and will power into your physical world is possible. This requires dedication, patience, and commitment, but is the nature of real magic.
Ace of Bows: Spark of Life (Mental)
Meaning: As the turning of the cosmic axis generates the spark of life, so the kindling of a flame sparks the necessary light and warmth in our lives. The drill-bow suggests the human element, our partnership with the environment in which we live and the mastery of its gifts.
Reading Points: By shaping, directing, and persevering with the tool that both hunts and nutures fire, we kindle the spark that starts the process of creation and empowerment. This takes skill, effort, commitment, and persistence, but the universe always responds with enlightenment, challenge, and opportunity. This is the nature of the human relationship with creation, and leads to a deeper awareness of the part we must play in the great scheme of things.
Harnessing the energy inherent in the bow, and the skill and endurance needed to loose the hunter’s arrows accurately and efficiently, are as primal and ancient as human existence itself. Every native tribe on Earth developed the bow as a tool and choosing, shaping, and tuning the bow stave and the arrows is a time-consuming and demanding craft that hones our skills and widens our knowledge of all the materials required in the ancient art. This also includes the habits and patterns of nature associated with the prey the hunter seeks and may infuse the archer with a new respect and reverence for the creatures that inhabit the Wildwood. Be prepared to learn new skills, adapt to a changing environment, and focus and tune your instincts to the task at hand.
The Sun of Life (Physical)
ROOTS & BRANCHES: The creative fire, light of the land, the furnace of potential, the inner sun, the primal melting pot of matter and energy, the heart of eternal life
READING POINTS: A powerful symbol of light and fertility, the Sun of Life heralds a season blessed with joyous enlightenment, robust health, and emotional harmony. As the glorious rays of cleansing sunlight spill into the shadows of your heart and life, so the warmth reaches into your very bones and energizes your spirit. It is time to let the inner sun at the core of your being shine for all to see, bringing warmth, light, and harmony to others, and by doing so to connect with the consciousness of the universal mind. The Sun of Life also beckons you to see beyond the noise and clatter of human reality and become aware of the vastness and generosity of the cosmic soul.
MEANING: Viewed as if from the center of the summer Wildwood, the Sun of Life is surrounded by fecundity and growth. The power and importance of the sun cannot be overstated as the bringer of life, warmth, and light into the human world. Many Stone Age sites were created to mark the rising of the sun, especially at Midwinter. This was done not only out of respect for the various solar deities but because the sun meant the coming of plentiful food and the return of life after the death of winter. It was a very real and practical salute to the source of primal power that meant survival and comfort during the warm months of the year to the ever-renewable promise of the sun’s return after its sojourn below the horizon during the winter months. Without the light of the sun on our world, life would never have begun, let alone evolved into the vast, complex, and varied sprawl of fertility we now see across the face of the globe.
On a more complex level of human consciousness, the Sun of Life represents the next step into awareness of the universal mind. After the initial movement from the potential still point of the moon, the sun beckons us beyond the Earth-Lunar relationship to an awareness of concepts on a solar level. At the heart of the sun is the secret process of nuclear fusion from which everything we perceive and comprehend on a physical, galactic level was created – and will one day return to. The figure at the heart of this process reminds us that we really are made of the matter of the universe. Our physical bodies were created from the waster matter of the cooling and turning of the sun. We are truly at one with the cosmos and the same interactions between matter and energy that bind the sun together, work both within and through us, moment-by-moment.
The Wildwood Tarot by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, art by Will Worthington
Parting the Mists 