I spent the morning researching Alaskan poets which led me to a couple of writer's conferences held yearly in Alaska (and an MFA program at the University of Alaska at Anchorage which I will admit I'm flirting with). So my question today revolved around my writing: "What do I need to know today to help me become the best writer I can be?"
The Strength card is lovely and I am coming to understand that for this Libra, it a key to balance. A maiden walks with a lion, human and animal in perfect harmony, peaceful within and without. There is that passion in me few guess at unless you know my art perhaps. My ordinary exterior has always hidden wild forces within. My mother rhapsodizes at what a wonderful child I was, how good, nearly perfect. She had no idea at the Cat 5 winds that blow within me, that were a part of me, even then. It has taken me years to try to find some balance and still some days I am wild lion, untameable, ferocious, deadly.
This is what Joan Bunning says about the strength card (italics are mine): "Usually we think of strength in physical terms - big arms, powerful legs - but there is also inner strength. Inner strength comes from an exercise of the heart muscle. It is perseverance, courage, resolve and composure - qualities that help us endure when times are tough. In the past, a person with inner strength was commonly said to have character; he or she could be counted on in the darkest moments. Card 8 represents this energy of quiet determination. Strength is not a flashy card, but one that is solid and reliable."
When the Strength card shows up in a reading you know you can endure, you are a rock, your heart strong and true despite setbacks. The life of a writer is full of setbacks, no thank yous and the more direct and hurtful "don't bother to send anything else." It requires a strong heart, a certain fearlessness, and the ability to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep on slogging. Sometimes people comment on your work, warm, wonderful words that tell you you're on the right path, that your words speak. Sometimes even your best friends say nothing, letting all your doubts fester in that eloquent silence.
The strength card asks you to be patient, accepting, to deal calmly with frustrations. You move on because that is what you do, and you keep writing because you are a writer and this too is what you do. The Strength card also asks you to be patient, with others but also with yourself. It is a craft and not every product will be a masterpiece. Sometimes we are clumsy with words that are supposedly our gifts. Sometimes we know what we want but fall far short. We can beat ourselves up or demonstrate grace, even with ourselves, especially with ourselves.
The Strength card is about soft control. It isn't the iron hand in the velvet glove but rather the trained light touch of the charioteer (the card that comes before strength) who understands the subtle demands of guidance. For me that means not forcing a story to take a particular form but rather to collaborate with it, let it tell itself through me. The Strength card is about demonstrating the strength of love. As a writer you have to love your work and more importantly love yourself, a much harder task given our tendency to go to the dark place, the blame place, the "I'm no good" place when things go wrong.
Seems pretty sage advice, actually. Definitely a good reminder as I continue working on The Snow Queen, honoring new ideas that come to me as I write, but letting them wait for a bit as I keep my attention focused on the newest of my brood, my first Alaska tale but not my last I think.
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