Fallen Castles (Redux)

 

My ideals brought down
I walk along the rubble
ready to rebuild.

 

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Fallen Castles by G A Rosenberg

 

Searching For Inspiration

Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”
–Neil Gaiman

 

May the Empress inspire
words that may light a fire
in my cold creative heart
that i may find my way to art
that will radiate in turn
its viewers emotional churn
a chain of creativity
that will pass to them from me
and onward to others flow
their expression of self to show.
Goddess the spark in me ignite
originality, delight
— G A Rosenberg

 

Somewhat Sleepy in Seattle. I have taken a few days to travel both to de-stress myself after a rough few weeks and to find something that will inspire new art, writing and creative input. What shape this inspiration may take I have no idea yet somwhere in the crossroads it will come.
Blessings,G

 

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It’s All How You Set It Up

 

“It’s all how you set it up with the guys upstairs”
— Wendy, my first Tarot Teacher

 

I took my first course in tarot reading thirty five years ago when I was 18. In the first couple of classes that we took the teacher, Wendy made us learn the strict book meanings of each card. She told us tho that while having that basic grounding was important, we should not get too caught up in the memorization because as we became more experienced, our own interpretations would supersede the book meanings. She pointed out that various books and sources would have different often contradictory spins on each card. “It’s all how you set it up with the guy’s upstairs” she would say. She of course did not mean this literally. Wendy was telling us in her rather airy new age way of speaking that if we had an understanding of the basic force behind each card, the interpretations that made sense to us would be the ones that would work best in our own readings. This advice has served me in good stead not only with tarot but with any form of symbolic work including astrology, runes and ritual work.
When I do a reading for someone, what comes through has a lot to do with the communication between my intuitive self and my conscious self. A given card can have several meanings based on a combination of the card’s base meaning(s), placement and type of spread and an X factor that often supersedes the rest. This X factor can be conscious or unconscious communication from the person receiving the reading or it can be an intuitive (I dislike the word psychic) flash of insight that in this particular case the card means this. I have learned to trust this feeling for it has seldom steered my wrong. Then again, I guess this would indicate that the communication with ‘the guys upstairs’ is two-way.
Blessings, G

 

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Leaving the Past Behind by G A Rosenberg

 

Expanding Chaos by G A Rosenberg

 

The Moments Where We Belong

 

“I belong to quick, futile moments of intense feeling. Yes, I belong to moments. Not to people.”
— Virginia Woolf

 

In the tarot, the six of cups card represents the golden moment. The moments are those times that are few and far between where everything feels right. We know who we are and why we are and it’s all right. Ten minutes later life might descend back into its normal chaos and our heads filled with confusion that is all too common but for that moment or that day or that evening, it is perfect. We feel connected and in charge of our destiny. As much as we may love the people in our lives we don’t belong to them, each of us belongs to ourself and while we may move life itself to see our loved one’s happy, they also belong to themselves. Those golden moments tho, they are the place where our hearts live and it is there that we return when life is at its bleakest.
Blessings, G

 

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An Idyllic Place Past the Light’s Distortions by G A Rosenberg

 

Passionate Journey by G A Rosenberg

 

The Tower and Our Inner Galaxies

 

“Never apologize for burning too brightly or collapsing into yourself every night. That is how galaxies are made.”
— Tyler Kent White

 

We burn each day living out the dramas of our lives. So much of it is self-create, the little bits of self-sabatoge we do to either make our lives more interesting or to keep ourselves going in our shaky towers, always about to fall. We do what we can to keep them balanced. Occasionally we are smart enough to collapse them ourselves so that we can build up again stronger, somehow. That collapse is ok tho. Sometimes it is necessary. Sometimes we have to either have our faces rubbed into just how shaky this life we have created for ourselves is and sometimes we have to rub our faces in it ourselves. Still we might get surprised or feign surprise at the collapse even to ourselves but hey that’s how we keep the game interesting. Still hopefully each time we rebuild it is on steadier ground.
Blessings, G

 

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Spirit of Multi-Coloured Flame by G A Rosenberg

 

Belial (#68 in Goetia series) by G A Rosenberg

Trumped Landscape (Redux)

 

Reading my future.
Each image guides the way to
possibility

 

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Trumped Landscape by G A Rosenberg

 

Our Unforeseen Paths

 

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.”
― Joseph Campbell

 

Coming from a background of someone who has worked with and at divination with tarot cards and with other methods such as the I Ching, Bibliomancy, Tea Leaves and Runes, I have a rather strange relationship with the future. If I thought that what I was being shown was the definitive future by any of these methods I don’t know that I would continue using them. Oh I get a lot of insight for sure and most times I can tell what the most probable outcome of the situation will be. However there is always the chance that the person getting the reading will alter their trajectory, change their routines, learn from advice given and the outcome will change. Our paths are up to us to find and to make and to create each step of the way. Is some of it foreseeable? Yes for sure but we can always hit that unexpected moment and create something new. We do it all the time.
Blessings, G

 

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A Satyr’s Dream by G A Rosenberg

 

Green Midnight at the Oasis by G A Rosenberg

 

Stars Fall and Rise

“Whatever causes night in our souls may leave stars.”
— Victor Hugo

Watching stars fall
burning through the sky
extinguished dreams and hope
burned out years before
yet the sky remains undiminished
Infinite light amidst the darkness
for as stars fall in their cycle
they rise as well
in new arrangement.
My star self may someday burn
extinguished in its spot
through darkness tho a new light shines
life’s flame continuing.
— G A Rosenberg

Yesterday the first proof deck of the Waking Spirals. To hold the deck in my hands was and is an amazing experience. Oh there were corrections to be made but the simple material existence of something that I have created and only yet seen on screen is amazing!!! Pretty soon I will be able to announce the availability of the deck (and book) for sale. Keep watching 🙂
Blessings, G

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Watching in Space (Nibiru) by G A Rosenberg

Within An Electric Web by G A Rosenberg

No Path But My Own

 

“To go wrong in one’s own way is better then to go right in someone else’s.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

 

This belief that we know better for anyone but ourselves is a pestilence, a means of control and manipulation that can strangle the will and crush the spirit from any.Equally foul is the conceit that others know better our needs than ourselves for that is the way to sheepdom. It’s better to learn from all without absolutes enjoying the contradictions that arise and holding the paradoxes while listening to that spirit and will within us and trust to its guidance. Thru uncomfortable paradox we learn more than any teacher could show us. Yes by choosing my path I’ll screw up but I’ll do it magnificently. My life has always been a series of falls and rises and will continue to do so. Our mistakes can be great teachers as well. For ultimately each person’s way is unique and the most anyone can show is their own path which may illuminate our own but never determine it.
Blessings, G

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After the Fall Something Arises by G A Rosenberg

 

Showing off how the cards look with borders on:
 

 

Tarot Post – The Universe

 

XXI-The Universe (♄)

 

 

The quest is finished
At this level completion
Journeys never end

 

I have made it through the quest
and now have reached the end
My journey is now complete.
Friends have helped me through
and I have found my way
Never thought I’d accomplish this feat.

 

The party has begun
This celebration of me
Accomplished I join the dance
Those last steps seemed so hard
I had almost given up
Glad I decided to take the chance.

 

Tomorrow I may find
a new quest to begin
a new level of self-discovery
for the circle never closes
the dance never ends
more layers to the eternal mystery
–G A Rosenberg

 

With the Aeon card, we find our purpose. With the Universe that purpose is realized. We have unified ourselves with our shadow, have discovered our potential and have realized it. Now there is a new and fuller understanding of who we are and our place in the universe. The great journey has ended and there is celebration. The limitations that we have placed on ourselves have been surpassed. We have greater insight into ourselves and the great dance continues.
However the ending is the beginning of something, always. The dance never stops and there are always new goals to reach for and further self-discovery and realization to reach for. The Universe inevitably leads back to the Fool in full circle and the journey forever begins anew for what appears to be a circle is actually a spiral that never ends.

Astrological Correspondence – Saturn (♄) – The Saturnian energy is that of the teacher. It gives us the life lessons we need in whatever sphere of influence it resides at the moment. Saturn shows us our limits and challenges us to face them and move beyond them. Saturn is also the ruler of time which in itself is a self-imposed limitation for most of us. It represents the wisdom of old age and the onset of maturity which can be thought of as the understanding of what it was all for. It governs to some extent personal responsibility and how well we live our ideals and principles and how well we communicate them through our actions.

Astrologically the element of Earth()is also connected with The Universe trump. In astrology, the influence of Earth nurtures us and grounds us. It focuses on the practical and attainable while helping us to achieve more. The Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn) are all involved with achievements of a practical nature and of our responsibility in the maintenance of it.

 

Runic Correspondence-Gebo(“Gift”)–Gebo means gift and ecstasy. It is gift in the idea of exchange of gifts, not in the sense of sacrifice as much as in the idea that by living our purpose and sharing what it is ours to give, we receive from the universal mother. It is a living exchange of beings each living to their highest purpose. Gebo is also a rune of harmony both internal and external. Other runes connected with the Universe trump are Hagalaz and Sowelho.

 

Path on the Tree of Life – Path 32-Tau-Tau means “signature” and it represents the final stamp on our being of who we are and who we are constantly in the state of becoming. It is the Path between the Sephiorth of Yesod(“Foundation”) and Malkuth (“Kingdom”) and represents the manifestation and materialization of everything that has gone before it. Tau also represents the cross of matter that is the training ground of our spirits. In the Sefer Yetzirah it is known as the Administrative Intelligence. It is also the path that links the physical to the astral plane and so deals with manifestations of archetypes and such matters as lucid dreaming.

 

When the Universe card turns up in a reading, it is usually an indication that a cycle has reached its successful completion. All the hard work and life lessons that have come are paying off and the querent is finding a sense of closure. It is a good time to celebrate the successes and start preparing for the journeys ahead. It can also indicate a time when the querent is in a good position to realize their place in the world and in the process they have just undergone. The Universe card may also mean that one’s emotions, mind, body and spirit are all working together in a harmonious way. The card basically indicates success in whatever area the reading pertains to. It may, depending on other cards and position indicate that one or two final blocks must be removed before the success can be realized. It can also indicate that a period of travelling the world lies ahead of the querent.

 

When the Universe is reversed, it may mean that the querent is standing in the way of their own success. Perhaps they are seeing or setting limitations on themselves that get in the way of their completing what they have set out to do. Perhaps they have come to the final steps of their journey and then stopped either because of fear or lack of self-confidence. There are times when a person’s life has become so defined by the journey that they are on that the final steps become all too difficult because it means that they will have to find a new way to define their lives. Reversed the potential shown in the Universe trump is still there it is just blocked in some way. The querent can follow the example of the dancer on the card and just dance their way through pretending that the limitations are not there.