How to Surrender…

This quote was posted at Green Witch Garden, Yahoo group.  I found it very helpful, and I´m going to look up a recommended book on the subject:

Feeding Inner Demons, Ancient Wisdom for Resolving Inner Conflict by Tsultrim Allione

Whenever you feel yourself having a reaction of judgment, rejection, or resistance, imagine the opposite. Instead of seeing an adversary, view your partner as totally on your side. Don’t focus on what he or she has done to irritate you; reframe it as an act of pure love, brought into being to teach you the perfect lesson you need to learn at just that moment. This isn’t a mind game or a trick: at the level of spirit your beloved acts only from love, holding your highest good at heart.
Resistance is like a wall, holding back the flow of love. Love is the wave that brings forgiveness, kindness, and trust from the level of spirit. You can’t create these things. You can only tune in to them, which is why you need to remake your daily battles into opportunities for spirit. Every sliver of time opens onto the timeless. Can you allow yourself to slip through?
First and foremost, this is about seeing each other in a new light. Needs don’t just go away. On the other hand, projections of blame should go away; there isn’t any reason, except in your perception, to make each other feel wrong.
You must stop feeding the monster. This inner being who keeps screaming, ‘What about me?’ is a kind of monster, a distorted outgrowth of your ego.
Imagine the monster. The name of this beast is resistance. Now think of a situation where you absolutely didn’t want to go along with your spouse’s will. See this monster coming forward to defend you by putting up a wall of denial, a thousand reasons why you are right and your partner wrong, a ferocious display of withering disapproval.
How do you feel when this happens? Hard. Angry. Furious. Insecure. Empty. Alone. All are layers of the same response. On the surface the monster of resistance expresses anger and hardness, but this is only to protect the insecurity and loneliness lurking underneath. If you peel away the layers, you find that resistance is actually born of fear, and fear comes from having been deeply hurt in the past.
Adapted from The Path to Love, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 1997).

Still Alive…

…I know, I know!  I said I was going to blog more this year and I´ve completely stopped altogether!

So this quickie post is just to say that this is a sign that I am going through a period of personal changes and growth.  This means that me attention is elsewhere and I am still being creative.  I just don´t feel like posting about it on here at the moment. 

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

Finally, my 2010 photo retrospective…

… I have plenty of time for blogging at the moment, but almost no motivation.  I was so keen to blog daily this year and I even drew up a schedule, yet I can´t get going with it.  Not sure why.  I have quite a bit to blog about too, but still nothing is forthcoming. I do really have a problem with my online life from time to time!

Today, just an simple post to ease me back into my blog; I made a collage, using Picasa, of my favourite photos from 2010.  Some of the pictures came out tiny, so you will have to click on the picture to enlarge it.

Online Tarot Reading using Diary of a Broken Soul…

…I wonder what your opinion is of free online tarot readings?  Sometimes, I find them very useful and I wanted to share this website which, in my opinion, is an excellent resource.  I love the deck Diary of a Broken Soul, created by Ash Abdullah, and would like to get my hands on a copy (one day!).  The link to the free readings is here, and to the complete deck, here.
Recently, I did a reading for myself using the Self-Actualisation Pyramid.  It was scarily accurate.  What follows is the card layout, copied from the website:

Basically there is the main pyramid in the center, and two smaller pyramids each side.  One is inverted.
Positions 1 – 3 represent where you have come from, or what has made you/shaped you on the various levels.  Can be from environment, upbringing, schooling etc. A look at the past, but with more objectivity than is usually given when using tarot cards.
Positions 4 – 5 represent “who you are now”.  May or may not make pleasant reading but hey, this is what this is about right?
Position 6 represents “who you could be”.  Again it might or might not look good, but you can learn from that and change who you are now accordingly.  (This is a bit like how Scrooge did things in a Christmas Carol)
Positions 7-8 are your strengths.  The light you have which can be bought to the forefront.  What carries you and should not be hidden or unacknowledged.
Position 9 represents what you should be giving to yourself or creating within. 
Position 10 – 11 represent personal areas for development or weaknesses. Again might not make good reading but if you look at your strengths first you will be able to see a balance is there and you can choose to focus on one side or the other… your choice.  This is where you could really see how your shadow side comes into play.
Position 12 represents what you should be offering externally, or what you can bring to your world or others who inhabit that world.

The question I asked “Was where could the creative path lead me?” and the cards I drew were as follows:

1. 9 of Diamonds
2. 8 of Clubs
3. XII The Hanged One
4. VII The Charioteer
5. King of Hearts
6. V The Soothsayer
7. Queen of Spades
8. 10 of Spades
9. XX Redemption
10. XI Strength
11. XVI The Tower
12. 5 of Hearts

The first three cards, where I´ve come from, made perfect sense to me.  Some of the cards where a little uncomfortable though.  This is a shadow deck after all, and dealing with our shadows can make us feel that way.  I was particularly squirmy to draw Strength as a weakness – the meaning attributed to this card includes the sentence; “The seeker as Strength advises us to explore aspects within that drives us to manipulate, control or influence people or situations without consideration.”  This was a direct echo of something that had been said to me the same day – ouch! 
Position 12 was particularly interesting to me as well; “Uncertainty when faced with something that cannot be perceived with full clarity. The need to either take the risk or to look for other alternatives, otherwise there is real risk no progress at all can be made. Tentative steps towards taking a look at the face or façade you may have portrayed to yourself or others, understanding what is seen may lead to discomfort or a change in outlook.”

Photo Round-up– Winter Sky

I love winter skies with subtle shades of grey.  I should be happy if I could capture a sky like this with paints!