Posing the question is perhaps the most important part of selecting a tarot card. Leave it too open-ended and you get a nebulous response, something too general to act upon. Make it too specific and your hyper-focus blinds you to the larger picture and you miss something vital. Usually I ask, "What do I need to know for today?" It seemed a good compromise although without a frame I sometimes didn't know what I was looking for, how the card might work. I might get an "a-ha" or I might not.
Today I decided to change the question. "What do I need to know to move the right way along my path and to find happiness?" Yeah, I figured I had been The Hermit too long and it was time to end my brood-a-thon, waiting for happiness to find me, and start taking steps toward finding happiness for myself. Sound familiar? A bit too Sleeping Beauty for your tastes? Mine too.
So, this morning I shuffle the cards, hold the question in my mind, and then select my card by feel. It takes some time for the tingling that tells me "this one." That's not always the case. Sometimes cards leap out. But sometimes it takes time. I am learning patience -- with others, with myself, with the still, quiet voice that is sometimes hard to hear these days. And what comes is the Ten of Cups, the Ten of Teacups in the Jane Austen Tarot, an image that suits me, the small warm steady comfort of a cup of tea.
The Jane Austen tarot Ten of Teacups pictures Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy and Charles and Jane Bingley after their marriages, standing in front of a large home, a rainbow above, sun. The expressions on their faces are of deep joy, the kind of contentment that comes with true and lasting happiness. Jane Austen writes: "Jane and Elizabeth, in addition to every other source of happiness, were within thirty miles of each other." A truly happy ending, after much hard work on everyones part.
This card is an augury of love and happiness, but after being tested, trials by fire. The astrological correspondence of this card, Mars in Pisces, speaks to the hard work required to bring happy endings. We like to think they just happen but fairy tales tell us the journey to happily ever after is never easy. Well, maybe I like to think. You are probably wiser than I am. You probably don't wait for someone to save you, for circumstances to alter. You probably get on with the business at hand. I had forgotten how much work a happy life took, the best kind of work, loving work, but work nonetheless. I have never been afraid of starting over, of working hard, of doing what needed to be done. Time to remember what I come from, what I am capable of and to do the work I love for the people I love, including myself.
What Would Jane Do?
"A happy and loving marriage does not form in a vacuum, but is enhanced by the support of loving family and friends. If two people have the emotional and spiritual wherewithal to create a harmonious life for themselves, as well as the financial capability in which to live that harmonious life, their future is destined to follow that pattern, unless fate takes a malign hand."
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