Sam lived alone with his cat, and there were no problems so far as Sam was aware, but he wondered how his cat was doing.

What might Bilbo want to say to him, given an opportunity?

Mini Reading for Bilbo

(Performed In Absentia)

Card One: The 8 of Swords.  Entrapment, frustration, chagrin, damp. Swords is a suit referring to sharp things and clear things…like windows.

My feeling about this card prompted me to put it to Sam that Bilbo had a difficulty in getting outside whenever he wanted to. Sam confirmed this to be the case. He lived in a downstairs flat. Bilbo usually had to go in and out by means of the sash window. There were no cat flaps, so if Sam was not there, Bilbo’s options were to be inside or outside.

Card Two:  The Page of Coins Reversed. This is a card of Earth, and of small amounts of money, while Pages often refer to pets and also small items and objects.

Bilbo seemed to be saying to me he wanted a pot of earth. This prompted me to ask Sam, what were the toilet arrangements for Bilbo? Sam explained that he kept a litter tray in the flat. What was it lined with? Pellets or what? Shredded newspaper. And just outside the flat window, there was a shrub in a pot, which Bilbo liked to sit in and scratch at.  There was no garden in front of the flat, only an area of hard standing. I therefore suggested Bilbo might like  some  nice deep ‘diggable’ cat litter for his tray, and maybe a ‘play tray’ full of soil outside. Oe more shrubs in pots.

Card Three: The Page of Cups…a card of kindness, and love, and childhood, also love letters or visits.

Bilbo did not think in terms of love, not having the words. Nonetheless, like a baby that cannot yet speak, he loved Sam, and a very little affection in return made him very happy. Just as one would expect, Bilbo lived in the moment. This card also suggested that he was physically in good condition (Cups is a healing suit), and that he was, in general, happy and content.  Cups being the water suit, he probably liked fishy tastes (not all cats do, birding is more natural to cats than fishing.) This was confirmed.

I asked, what about these love letters or visits I was sensing?

What about them? Sam wanted to know. I thereupon drew:-

Card Four: The Queen of Cups Reversed. Indicative of a lady with certain qualities of self-indulgence, or to feelings of unhappiness, a lady who did not reciprocate affection?

The reading was for Bilbo and purely complimentary, done over coffee. Therefore in answer to Sam’s question, I confined myself to asking whether a blonde lady visited his flat sometimes? The answer was yes. I then asked, had he noticed that Bilbo made himself scarce when this lady was in the flat? Yes, he had noticed.  Bilbo, for whatever reason,  did not view this lady with favour. Did this surprise Sam? He thought a moment then said, no.

I heard from him a few weeks later, that Bilbo had a new kind of cat litter now. The lady was unlikely to be around again. What Bilbo had been picking up or reflecting had been Sam’s own feelings about the situation with the lady. This figured, absolutely. It made perfect sense, as pets are sensitive to atmosphere and ‘their’ human’s mood.

Ethically dubious, do you think, reading for the puss cat without his express permission?

Purr-lease.

The Tarot is self regulating. If Bilbo had not wished to be observed or shall we say, eavesdropped on, and the Tarot had therefore not wished to read for him, any feedback obtained would have been nonsensical to Sam.

I’ve learned that the Tarot does not disdain to speak of whatever concerns the person approaching it.  The Tarot’s an oracle of the human heart and warmed by human hands.

The image below is of a watercolour drawing I did many years ago, a portait commission of a cat called Tuppenny.

Until next time:)

This is a card of ‘rendering unto Caesar.’ We all owe duty somewhere.

Image by kind permission of Ciro Marchetti: The Gilded Tarot: Llewellyn.

This Remembrance Day, and thinking of the power and influence of fathers, absent and present, The Emperor in tarot iconography flags up the spirit of the Patriarch, for good and ill.  It is the father, or other chief man in your life. It is the soldier.  Impersonally, it signifies government and big organisations,  the Armed Forces, the Law, and global or government organisations.

If you are looking for a job and this card comes up, you are likely to find work before long, with an organisation of this type.

Not surprisingly, this card has sometimes been a clue that I am sitting with a police officer, whether male or female. Once it was a judge.

The Emperor at his best is a chevalier. He is a sheltering tree, Rule with compassion, tenderness to the small and weak. Birds can nest in his branches and know they are secure. He represents the path of reason and is the one who upholds it in fairness. He introduces order and damage limitation, so that sanity prevails, and not everyone has to get splattered with chaos…filth and er… shite manure.

Historically, Emperors have often also been catastrophic for the peace and happiness of their fellow humans.

Marcus Antonius:
And Caesar’s spirit, raging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

Julius Caesar Act 3, scene 1, 270-275

Julius was a judge, a killer, a loving father who heard of the death of his only child, sitting alone in his tent, on campaign. B

Above all, The Emperor represents ‘our’ significant menfolk, the ones we honour.

Red earth of Adam.

Emperors every one.

The Tarot‘s Cards correlating to the Four Major Points Of The Compass are:

Ace of Pentacles = North

Ace of Cups =West

Ace of Wands=South

Ace of Swords= East

Where is ‘home’, beyond it being the people in your life? Which is the light, which the rocks and rivers, landscapes and seascapes? Which the birds and plants, and trees and animals?

‘There’s that feeling I get, when I look to the west, and my spirit is crying for leaving.’

Led Zeppelin, Stairway to heaven.

‘My sun shall rise in the East, then shall my soul be at peace,

No question I’m not alone

Somehow I’ll find my way home.’

Vangelis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9Y3m7fisOU“

Points of the compass. Birds preparing for flight, turning their faces in their direction of migration. I grew up on the north east coast, now I live on the north west coast.

North (though where I live is hardly the far North)  feels like my home. The Lakes and the areas of limestone landscapes, and the sight of Pendle Hill heading up the A59 always lift me.

Which points of the compass pull at your inner magnets turning to face them?

“http://www.gutenberg.org/files/23665/23665-h/images/illus-009-g.jpg“   

‘From all points of the compass flock’d birds of all feather.’

Source: Gutenberg. Org

From an article by columnist Arianna Huffington.. .

‘The hunger for meaning and purpose is nothing less than the human homing instinct — the Fourth Instinct — at work.  But in the tangled maze of history, we have been sidetracked; in the long journey home, we forgot our destination. Indeed, we were told that it does not exist.’

But since the beginning, ice sheets permitting, it seems we have been a migratory animal. In some parts of the world, more than others. Several cards in Tarot talk of home, rightly so, as it is a key ingredient of human experience, and a ruling perception.  The Ace of Pentacles, Ten of Pentacles, Four of Wands, and Six of Cups all tell stories of a person’s home in a reading.

The Tarot’s Ace of Pentacles, which sometimes talks about food, money, or books, or bricks and mortar says to me, Earth is our nest and our exaltation. Soul is in the roots of species.

Below is The Ace of Pentacles from The Gilded Tarot, publisher Llewellyn, by kind permission of Ciro Marchetti.

Image via Wikipedia

A friend mentioned hair loss. It had begun, he said, the day after he had undergone a surgical procedure involving a general anaesthetic. He wondered if there might be a connection, and wanted me to ask the Tarot.   Instead, I reached for my new oracle deck based on the Periodic Table. Yes.  Mendeleev‘s Periodic Table as remembered from chemistry lessons and beyond.  See his portrait, above.

The friend has a background as a research chemist, and in view of the question, being an issue of biology or bio-chemistry, I thought he might be interested in seeing what I would get from this deck.

The Elemental Hexagons Deck.

Read the story of this extraordinary Oracle deck and where to buy here: http://www.squidoo.com/elementalhexagons

I shuffled the cards blind, just as I do with my Tarot cards.

What was causing S- ‘s hair to fall out? What was most relevant for him to know?

I drew just one card.  It said Potassium = Soundness.

My friend expressed doubt. He was not aware of any particular connection between body levels of Potassium and hair health. Nor was I.  I knew it only as a key metabolizer, a crucial part of the body pump that works in tandem with sodium, and that bananas are reputedly a good source.

When I obtain a result psychically that I do not understand in real, physical terms, I use the psychic clue to drive new research. So I searched online,  cross referencing ‘potassium‘ with ‘hair loss.’

And found….plenty to suggest that there is a well-known, if not conclusively researched  correlation between potassium deficiency ( hypokalemia)  and hair loss.

Use of certain medications, including corticosteroids, can create a state of lowered potassium with associated hair fall.

Potassium is a mineral that helps nerves and muscles function properly and is mainly obtained
from foods. The kidneys help remove excess potassium to maintain proper balance
of the mineral in the body. Having a very low potassium level can be
life-threatening. Lower-than-normal levels of potassium in the blood may be
caused by use of medications such as diuretics, laxatives, certain antibiotics
and insulin, according to PubMedHealth.

Citrus juices, tomatoes, bananas, canteloupes, lima beans, chicken, salmon, nuts and seeds are good dietary sources of potassium. The RDI of potassium is about 4,700 a day of which a banana represents only 450 mg. Care must be used with supplements. Excess potassium is as potentially harmful as low potassium.

There are of course, other possible causes of hair loss.  Iron, zinc and copper deficiencies, for instance, may also result in male or female hair loss.

But in a psychic reading, my focus is on the person asking the question.  I am looking for what is particular to them. This is why, unlike some readers,  I don’t make generic predictions along the lines of daily columns such as ‘Today’s Tarot Card.’

Whose card would it be?  What would be its meaning?

A meaningful reading needs a context.

This one card reading from the Elemental Hexagon Deck is giving me much food for thought.

It is the reader’s mind doing the work in a psychic reading, not the tools, be they cards, rune, dice, pendulums.  These tools are translation devices, whose task is to pick up signals being beamed out from the readers unconscious or sub conscious, and to amplify them,  so that the reader can consciously articulate them.

I know far less about chemistry than does my friend, but the cards enabled me to ‘point into the wind’, and we both discovered something new…hopefully, the information may even help him.

Until next time

The Tarot’s card of Inheritance, both material and immaterial: money, ancestry, genes, culture, is The Ten of Pentacles/Coins/Disks.

See the harvest mouse, custodian of the family riches. These riches are about more than just money.

From The Gilded Tarot: By Kind Permission of Ciro Marchetti.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gilded-Tarot-Boxset-card-deck/dp/0738705209

Appearing in a reading right way up, I understand the person feels well-supported by their family. They have the security of a sense of belonging. Reversed, I am sensing that they may be struggling about this, labouring under a sense of alienation, or injustice over wills and other inheritance issues. Or they may feel that their family background has been a burden rather than a resource.

The Tarot’s advice to people coming to discuss the disinheriting  of difficult children has so far been Justice above all.  Equal shares between children, no matter what the relationship, no matter what the history. That one does not get on with a child is sad. It is a misfortune in life, and one may not like one’s child, just as a child may not like its parent. It happens. Retribution through the power of inheritance is a betrayal of the principle of inheritance.

An unjust will is toxic and divides families for many years to come, perhaps for ever.

How far shall you travel from your ancestral river? How far shall any children travel from the source of you?  How far shall ideas, shall words, careful and careless, be carried from the thing the originator intended, or in the case of idle words, didn’t intend?

How far do we all travel from youthful dreams of what we thought life would be like,  to arrive at good things, and bad things, but never to see in exactly that same light again.

Where is our well-spring? Without knowing our family history, we’ll probably never know, and no-one can know all of it, but a lot can be guessed because it’s lodged in you somewhere still. You might be the spitting image of a great-great-grandparent. You might be wearing their face reborn, cast to reflect your own spirit. You might have their skills and talents, their voice and intonation, even their mannerisms, when all your life you had thought you were the odd one out in your immediate tree of three generations.

“You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.”

William Stafford (1914-1993)

Until next time