Just to follow up after my blog about Halloween I wanted to write about the experiences I had this season! It was crazy!
I was reading up on the Celtic people and their traditions for Halloween. They called it Samhain (pronounced Sow-en) and to them the gates of the Otherworld started opening on Oct. 29 and closed on Nov. 1st. Those were the days when there was the most otherworldly activity going on. I thought that was really cool! The Celtic people also considered sun down to be when the new day started instead of how we do it now where it starts at midnight. So to them when the sun went down on Oct. 31 it was technically Nov. 1st and that’s why they called the 31st All Hallows Eve. Nov. 1st is when the veil would be the thinnest between worlds. Because of how close we are to the other side on that night it was especially good for divination and seeing future events. I’m not a fortune teller but I decided to use my Halloween Tarot deck to participate in a tradition that has been held for who knows how many years by the Celtic people and see if I could take a gander at what the days between the 29 and the 1st would bring. I pulled a random card each day to represent who or what other worldly forces would be at play during the day and then I pulled 3 cards to represent the events that influence would have on the day. So!....
September 28th-29th
-Who or What other worldly forces will be at work today?
-King of Wands-Male influences, hasty and Fiery. The King of Wands can be an actor of sorts, someone who can wear all sorts of masks and has the confidence to pull off each roll.
-What events will this influence lead to today?
-7 of Pentacles- Hard work, seeing results but after a long period of effort. Breakthroughs, a change of luck based on the quality of work put into projects.
- 5 of Swords- Bullies and their victims, loss, defeat. Unfairness…
- I Magician- Natural skills, working with all elements, creative power and mastery
The King of Wands to me was interesting to pop up representing otherworldly influences. In my last blog I hinted at the Queen of Wands as being a feminine aspect from the otherworld. I’ve read different theories that the suit of Cups is more about intuition, spirituality and “the Sight”, but maybe the wands could be the energy found there and the skills gained to work with it. To me the Queen of Wands is the Sensor of the deck, who has the premonitions and works with the other side. Perhaps the King then is the Shaman who travels the other worlds and has the authority there to gain insight to bring back here to share with his people. Who knows?
So keeping the King of wands in mind I looked at the event of the day that would be influenced by the King. The 7 of Pentacles was interesting because work that day was ridiculous. The pod I work in with my co workers had this shipment that took us from 9:30 to about 3 in the morning to finish. It felt like we had been working so hard all night with no productivity to show for it. Then the 5 of Swords happened. Things just got weird, like the mood shifted and just felt weird. People were crying, people were making people cry… the image in the 5 of Swords in the Halloween Tarot is a picture of a boy stealing Halloween candy from little kids. Kids were crying and the bullies were abusing their power. It was uncanny how right on that card was. Then the night ended with the Magician. I found myself having to really use the skills that I’ve learned to pull my team through some drama that our “bully” was trying to start. To me the magician is creative and craftsy, I usually relate that card to people who can make or do anything, like the “Jack of All Trades” people. But I was the magician in a whole new perspective! It was pretty cool.
Oct. 29th-30th
-Who or What other worldly forces will be at work today?
-XVI The Tower
Chaos, enlightenment, clearing away the old to make way for the new, new foundations
The Tower is a card that is followed by some kind of shake up. When you have an epiphany of sorts there’s no way you can go back to your old way of viewing the world. And so naturally there is a time of chaos when you try to figure out how to apply your new views to your daily life. It’s that time in your life that you can look back on and be glad that’s it’s over but your happy it happened.
-What events will this influence lead to today?
-VIII Strength- The use of gentle persuasion over brute force.
-2 of Pentacles- Balancing two situations
-3 of Pentacles- Hard work with the strength of passion behind it.
After work on the 30th I had the worst headache ever. It could have been the “lightning bolt to the crown” that is depicted in the Tower but without the enlightenment behind it! The feeling at my job felt chaotic. The VIII Strength card was really funny because the image looked just like a moment I had with the “bully” at my job. It’s this lady who doesn’t know how to properly manage her row of workers and has a tendency to use her powers for her own self esteem. I was walking by her and she just looked so small and frail and it looked like the way the artist depicted the lion in the Strength card, all huge and imposing but with this look of sheer terror! The lion tamer is calm and sweet with the lion and is looking into his mouth to see what’s wrong with no fear of her hand getting bit of. To me I felt like the lion tamer and this lady was the lion. Instead of reacting to her games with anger I used “gentle strength over brute force” and I didn’t let my anger from the other day become “brute force”. The 2 of Pentacles was funny because I was having really fun and interesting conversations with friends at work about like astrology and the tarot and the elements and such, but then had to remember that “oh yeah I should be working” it did feel like a juggling act which is the depiction in the image of the 2 of pent. Then the 3 was funny because I came home from work and made astrology charts and studied up on things just because I wanted to! It was work, but there was a passion behind it.
Oct. 30th-31st
-Who or What other worldly forces will be at work today?
5 of Wands-Competition, generating conflict due to stagnation, struggle
My grandma when she first taught me tarot told me that in numerology, 5’s are what she calls AFGO’s (Another Freaking Growth Opportunity). The 5 of Wands is an opportunity to test you on how you face challenge and competition.
-What events will this influence lead to today?
-Queen of Wands-Our sensor again!
-Page of Pentacles- learning about the world around us, study and seeking.
-10 of Pentacles- Rewards, Family generations and inheritance
All day at work I could just imagine all of these little imps running around the lab and causing trouble everywhere just like in the 5 of Wands card. People were starting up conflicts not because they really felt a particular way about anything but because they just wanted to argue. Electronics weren’t working very well, things went missing people were on edge. The Queen of Wands was in a lot of conversations I was having during the weekend. To me it was funny that it kept coming up because I had learned a lot about her from the passing weeks. The page of pentacles was about learning about our natural world and seeking knowledge. The 10 of Pentacles was a picture of a kid trying to hit a piñata but there was a strange masked figure messing around with the rope the piñata was on. We finished the work early that night and they decided to let us watch the Nightmare Before Christmas what with it being Halloween and all. It had been such a weird day that is was nice to be rewarded with a fun movie to watch instead of a boring documentary they usually have us watch.
Oct.31st – Nov. 1st Halloween
Before I put the cards I got I’m just going to say that Halloween this year was without a doubt the weirdest Halloween I’ve ever had that I can consciously recall. And it wasn’t even just me! It was everywhere. I saw it in the football game my brother was watching. I saw it in everyone around me! Instead of thinking about the other worldly forces for my first card I decided to see what all the other “Influence” cards were building towards, like if they all could morph into one, what form would they take?
-What is the King of Wands, the Tower and the 5 of Wands culminating to?
-XXI The World – “the fool reaches the end of his journey at the World (or Underworld) …”
Completion, Success, a sense of oneness with the world around you.
-What event’s will this influence lead to today?
-4 of Pentacles- miserly tendencies to greed and hoarding, savings, thinking ahead for future harvests
-6 of Wands- meaningful victories, much tested and much earned success.
-8 of Bats- restrictive surroundings, bad situations, imprisonment of the mind
When I pulled the World card for my question about how all the other influence cards were connected it was only natural that they combined into the World card. It’s a message that the other world is a part of this world; it’s not a separate place. It has just as much influence in our day to day that we have to it. And on Halloween when that gate is opened and we all walk together no wonder everything seems crazy! I dressed up as Elder Price from the Book of Mormon musical for Halloween. I asked my brother Kelly if I could wear one of his white shirts. I had tried it on to see how it would look a few times before Halloween but at work that night when I went to put the name tag on my pocket I noticed there was a paper already there. When I pulled it out I realized it was the program from my Grandma Walker’s funeral from 2009! There was her picture looking right at me. I truly almost started crying. After all my talk about The Otherworld and reconnecting with our ancestors who have passed on I couldn’t even have fathomed a sign that obvious! Between all the pesky little imps running around and causing trouble and all the petty drama at work, the card readings and the articles read about the season, that moment truly made me respect the powers at work behind the scenes during Halloween. Everything else that night had to offer didn’t even come close to that moment that I got to reconnect with my grandma after 2 long years of her being gone.
This Halloween had a lot of weird activity, fights and drama, but I feel even more connected to the other side then I ever had before. It’s not about seeing ghosts all the time and being haunted although there are situations where that happens. Being connected to the otherworld is just being aware of your surroundings and being able to understand those signs. Having a foot in both the worlds as the saying goes…
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