Jan 07 2019

My Birth Card Says I Should Be Successful, How Come I’m Not?

Many Birth cards (and their life path) are deemed as very successful, very powerful, can achieve anything…

Yet, I’ve witnessed it over and over while doing readings. The person sitting across from me is one of those cards and when I tell them how fortunate their birth card is, they look at me with disdain. But, I’m NOT successful!

I experienced the same thing being a six of clubs. When I first read about my card and how successful it can be, I thought, what?!?! My life has been nothing but heartache and poverty!!

As I studied my Life Path cards, I began to see where and why I was not succeeding and what was getting in my way – then I worked at changing those issues!

There are many factors that create the life we are experiencing. We can be a Leo and hate being in the spotlight or be a Pisces and not like being near water even though those might be known as typical for those two signs.

As with Astrology and Numerology, there are two sides to every card – a low side and a high side.

We can be living the low side and missing out on all the positive gifts that card (and it’s path) has for us.

Here are 3 reasons why you might have a positive birth card, but are not yet experiencing that success!

When you first learn that you have a birth card, you only know about that one card. That card might be a powerful card (such as an 8, 10 or Court card), but the cards of the Life path (the 12 cards that are to the left of your birth card) tell the whole story. As I shared in my post about the 10 of diamonds (known as the Most Blessed card), the cards of the 10 of diamonds Life Path aren’t all easy cards. One has to utilize and work through the issues of those cards in it’s Life Path that aren’t easy in order to experience the success or power of that birth card.

2. Your Life Path might have a difficult number of years, then finish with the more successful, powerful cards. Each card in your path represents a time frame- a number of years- and speaks to the energy of those years. One might have a difficult childhood, then enter years of ease and success. For many, those years of hardship set up the rest of their lives because they never move past the pain, failures or hardships and believe that is all their life will be.

I’m reminded of the celebrity Bobby Bones. He is a 6 of spades/ 8 of diamonds. He had a very rough childhood of poverty, but never stopped dreaming of being a radio host and using that to escape the extreme poverty. The 6 of spades path has a Queen of hearts as their Mercury card that speaks to their early childhood of a heavy influence from a female (he was raised by his mom and grandmother) with possible addiction issues (his mom was an addict).

It can be a childhood of extreme addiction, fears/phobias and/or constant escapism into a fantasy world that one really never comes out of (on the low side). Bobby did escape, but many 6 of spades let those early issues rule their entire lives, even though the 6 of spades has a very successful life path as their middle years are spent with the cards of the Crown line!

3. Where does your birth card sit in the Solar Spread? You might have a powerful/successful birth card, but the combined energies of where it sits in the Solar spread speaks to how that card can be powerful OR get stuck. As with the 10 of diamonds, which sits at Jupiter and Jupiter (Jupiter is the most benevolent planet and is why it is called the Most Blessed card), an abundance of Jupiter can lead to gluttony, over extension, ignoring negative realities, pretense and being pompous.

The King of Spades – the most successful card in the deck – sits at Saturn and the Sun (or Crown line). Those planets have a combination of restrictions/responsibility (Saturn) and Identity/ego (Sun). It is either an energy of hard-working, responsible, disciplined with a strong sense of purpose OR an exaggerated feeling of failure, having to be responsible for everyone 24/7 and that life is nothing BUT hard work, struggles and barriers.

Each of us (and each card) has a duality – that low side we can be, or the high side we can be. We can discover where our strengths are and tap into that. We can see where our weaknesses can be so we can see if that is why we feel stuck or as if we aren’t the powerful, successful person we want to be.

In the same sense that a person born into wealth doesn’t guarantee happiness or success, a successful/powerful card isn’t a guarantee of an easy-peasy, powerful, abundant life. Each card has its gifts, potentials, and difficulties to overcome, but in the overcoming of those difficulties, a more powerful, stronger and expanded Self is created.

To me, that is empowerment.

To take what you are given and choose to not play the victim. Instead, grow, overcome and be victorious as the Divine being that you are!

Oct 31 2018

Ten of Diamonds – The Most Blessed Card

The Ten of Diamonds is called The Most Blessed Card…but just how blessed is blessed and what exactly does that mean? What is it like to BE the most blessed?

I think about this card a lot because it was my mom’s birth card. I also know several other 10 of diamonds. When I look at their lives, I don’t really see a life that is super blessed. My mom’s wasn’t a pleasant journey, for sure. She died when she was 45 and the years leading up to her death were spent alone, in a chair, paralyzed and unable to talk.

So, let’s dig in and take a look at this card, shall we?

The reason it is called The Most Blessed card is because it sits in the very center of the Solar Spread at Jupiter and Jupiter.

I call Jupiter Santa Claus because it is the benevolent, prosperous, happy, expansive and BIG planet. Jupiter teaches us that life is good, to have faith and is the lifter of spirits.

Ten cards are, at their core, all about success…and mean, “lots of…” Lots of love and creativity (hearts) lots of ideas and knowledge (clubs), lots of financial rewards (diamonds) and lots of work and wisdom (spades).

Tens also represent the Ace going from the self to the Divine. It’s a masculine energy.
Here is where being a 10 of diamonds can actually be a difficult path for some – the abundance of masculine energy.

The Life spread of the 10 of diamonds has:
Moon – 10♥
Mercury – 8♠
Venus – A♥
Mars – A♦
Jupiter – Q♦
Saturn – 5♥
Uranus – 3♣
Neptune – 3♠
Pluto – 9♥

There are two 10’s and two Aces in the Life Spread. Aces and Tens are masculine and this life path has a lot of masculine energy.

And how about Jupiter? A few facts: Not only is it the biggest planet, it reigns over four moons the size of Mercury way out there in it’s own domain, radiating a massive amount of energy. Jupiter isn’t a warring energy like Mars, it is radiating out in a big way, sending the energy of faith; faith that life is worth living and is good.

Let’s go back to Santa Claus and the metaphor of delivering gifts – leaving them in secret, to be discovered…and accepted. That’s Jupiter. Sending out gifts, leaving them on our doorstep – but, we have to open the door and receive them.
Masculine energy isn’t known for receiving- that is feminine.

Faith is also about receiving. The faith that Jupiter wants to give us isn’t the religious kind. It’s not about faith that God exists or living in blind faith the way most religions demand. It’s the natural faith in the existence of good, of happiness, of joy, of abundance. That as divine beings living a human experience, we, at our core, are meant to live with good, happiness, joy and abundance.

The diamonds suit doesn’t only represent money or finances, but the world (reality) we are building based on what we value. If we value loyalty, we build (create) a reality of loyalty.
The ten of diamonds is success at building lots of (what we value), but to do that, we have to believe in that success; to have faith that it is possible. We have to be open to receive the gifts, the good, the happiness, the joy and the abundance that the Universe wants to deliver to us.

So, it seems like a contradiction, right? To have a card that is so masculine need to be open to receiving (feminine).

That is the life path of the ten of diamonds person. To learn to be more open, to receiving, to seeing life as good and worthwhile. To use all that masculine energy to radiate out (like Jupiter) joy and expansiveness.

Is it that easy? NO.

Looking back at the cards in the spread of the ten of diamonds, we see a lot of uneven numbers, which indicates a not-so-easy life.
The only even numbered card is the 8 of spades. While that card is one of will-power and can indicate power in material accomplishment, the low-side is to be overly focused on material accomplishment and to use that power as abuse. Being in the Mercury position, it can indicate having a parent or childhood where someone was materialistic or made work the focus, or was abusive/controlling.
The eight is also a masculine energy and more akin to a warring energy.

A five as a Saturn card creates challenges because fives are an unstable, restless and sometimes chaotic energy.
They have two 3 cards – the cards of a lot of creative energy that can overwhelm and cause one to always seek variety or be stuck, unable to make a decision or stick to any one thing.
A 9 in pluto speaks to issues of loss and needing to transform with endings.
Sounds awful, right? How can a difficult spread be the path of the most blessed card?

It seems contradictory until we look at what the 10 of diamonds person came to do and BE (and teach all of us) about HOW we can achieve the blessings the Universe has for us.

If they are living the low side of their life spread, there are issues of power, restlessness, selfishness and issues with their love life.

I don’t know a lot about my mom, because she never shared her feelings. She was gregarious and everyone loved her (she was an Aquarius). She did have a lot of masculine energy, being into the outdoors, horses (she was a barrel racer) and breeding/raising/showing collies.
She wasn’t motherly, nurturing or a homemaker and wanted to be a veterinarian, but sadly was told as a woman she couldn’t do that.

As an Aquarius and with the 5 of hearts in Saturn, she needed personal freedom and that was taken away from her by my father.

The saving grace and ‘balancing’ energies for the 10 of diamonds is the three Queens in their life spread. They have the Queen of diamonds as their Jupiter card. This card shows where their blessings will come from. The Q of diamonds knows how to make money, but she uses it to be of service to her community. (Another feminine aspect)

The Karma Cards of the 10 of diamonds are Queens

The Karma cards of the 10 of diamonds are: First Karma card – Queen of Clubs. This card shows what they need to learn and achieve in this life, which is to trust and use their intuition. This means they have to be open to receiving those psychic messages.

Their second Karma card is the Queen of Spades. This is a gift from a past life and it indicated a life of self-mastery via inner wisdom and tapping into that feminine aspect.

This speaks to the 10 of diamonds person needing to balance all that masculine energy and being open to receive.

All of the life paths represented by each card have their low side, regardless of how easy or successful the life path is meant to be.
I know mine felt very unsuccessful until I learned to live the high (and beneficial ) aspects of being a 6♣.

What I love about Cardology is what it teaches us about life as divine beings living a human life.

While masculine energy is important and necessary to keep us moving forward and expanding (Jupiter wants us to reach out, seek and expand!) we can’t ignore the importance of the feminine – to being open to receiving, to going inward to master our reality, not in selfishness, but to tap into our heart/divine wisdom to create the successful life we desire.

The 10 of Diamonds life path beautifully represents how we need to balance the masculine and feminine. We need to assert and reach out, to expand and BE all we want to be. We also need to be open to receiving the bounty the Universe CAN and WANTS to supply us.

The 10 cards reflect the Universe ( each card does) and they reveal that the Universe is “Lots of…”, and chooses success. The 10 of diamonds represents the lots of joy and goodness that life really is comprised of, but when we act in a selfish, overly-independent, prideful, controlling way, forego our creativity and only focus on material gains and not our inner self-mastery, life can feel joyless, difficult and lonely.

I can’t speak to why my mom and my father chose to be together in this life. He was her Uranus and Neptune card and was a big part in her experiencing abuse, control/power issues and he stood in the way of others caring for/giving to her. I wish I could peek behind the curtain and understand why she lived such a short life that was unhappy, but knowing more about the 10 of diamonds life path helps me see that she was here to learn to receive, to experience how to balance the masculine and feminine, to nurture and be nurtured.

The Ten of Diamonds is most blessed because it represents all the potential, prosperity, and success that we as humans can achieve – but we have to understand that it isn’t gained by closing ourselves off or aggressively forcing it. A balance of masculine & feminine is needed as well as the faith that it is all possible!

Do you know any 10 of diamonds? What has their life been like?

When you have the 10 0f diamonds in your forecast (or spread) ask what is holding you back from your blessings – is it that you don’t believe it can happen or are you trying to force it all by yourself?

Sep 27 2018

Cardology vs. Tarot vs. Oracle Cards

Is Cardology Like Tarot? Oracle cards?

How is it different?

As a weekly Reader at a metaphysical store in Asheville, many times someone will sit across from me and expect to experience something similar to a Tarot reading. Granted, all Tarot readers have their own style and way of reading and even how they interact with the client, but for the most part, they do a spread of cards and start talking about what they see. Sometimes the client shares what is going on, sometimes they sit quietly and see if what they came to talk about is indeed the topic the Reader focuses on.

Cardology is more similar to Astrology or even Numerology in that it focuses on what you have going on currently in your blueprint. (Your yearly forecast)

It is a system that is based on your birthday and is unique to you, not a random draw. (I don’t believe tarot draws are random- my distinction is on a forecast verses a spread draw in the moment.)

That said, the playing cards can be used in so many ways, just like tarot or oracle cards can.

When I do a reading at Raven & Crone, I pull up the client’s current forecast (and I can look forward or backwards in years for further insights) and I do a 3-card spread to go along with it.

This lets me see what energies are at play in their lives and typically what they are dealing with is evident in their forecast. The 3-card draw lets me give them specific insights into what they are needing in that moment.

This is one of the many reasons I love Cardology. The forecast can show the broad generalities, while a spread in the moment can pinpoint specifics.

When using the playing deck as divination, first insights (intuitive guidance) is important.

When I learned to read the Tarot, I was taught to use the first thing in the images that popped out at me. Especially with all the beautifully illustrated decks out today, the overload of imagery can be…well…an overload and hard to narrow the focus of the meaning of the card.

How can you interpret a card that just has a number and a suit? is a common question when one begins to delve into using the cards.

Of course, each card has a basic meaning just like each tarot card does, but without images to pull from, does each card only mean that basic interpretation?

No. It has its low side, its high side, where it sits in the Earth spread and where it sits in the Spiritual spread.

As a Reader, just as you intuitively feel what symbol or part of the tarot card image to focus on, it is the same when reading the playing deck.

A Queen of Hearts can be about being a Mother, it can be about romance, great sex, sensuality, taking care of and nurturing yourself or over-indulging in fantasies or an addiction.

So when that card shows up-what do I focus on for the client?

Obviously, I take into account the other cards and their forecast because it invariably connects and I can see the whole picture at play, but I might clearly see when that Q♥ pops up that the client needs to take care of and nurture themselves and that is what I will talk about.

The deck can be used just like any Oracle deck

Before I knew about the Forecasting system of Cardology, I would draw a card each morning and journal about its basic meaning and how that applied to my life. I noticed a pattern emerging. I was dealing with issues around stability, loyalty and faithfulness and for days on end, I would draw a 4 card. I even got so sick of drawing a 4 card that I threw the whole deck on the floor in anger and guess what? All the cards landed face down accept one – a four card.

That happened many times during the years that I used the cards as divination. I needed to truly understand the card, work on that situation in my life, change an erroneous belief and THEN that card would stop showing up!

I’ve used the cards as an oracle game

One of my favorite things to do is to use the dice from Rory’s Story Cubes.

I do this when I feel I need to take action on something but I’m unclear on what ‘to do.’ While I have the whole collection, for inquiring on an action, I use the Action cubes.

I randomly pick a cube from the Action cubes (from a bag, so I’m not seeing them) and toss it onto my printed sheet of the Earth Spread and see where it lands.

This has given me such cool insights!

This kind of divination puts our creativity function in gear.

I asked the question: What can I DO to help increase my finances?

I drew a cube and tossed it on the sheet for the Earth spread.

You can see what cube and where it landed.

I laughed when I saw the results. The cube was an image of someone taking another by the hand and leading them. The card it landed on was the 2 of hearts – the card of heart connection.

It said to me to put more time into one-on-one and Coaching/Readings work as that allows me to make deep connections and work closely with others.

Our brains will make connections where connections don’t seem likely and come up with an answer for us.

In the same way that you can ‘play’ with tarot cards with creative spreads, you can incorporate most anything and play with the regular deck for unique and creative divination. Even drawing an oracle card to go along with a regular deck draw for an added layer of understanding.

Of course now when I play any regular card games (I’m a lover of Canasta!), it is hard for me to just see the cards as cards…I always see a story playing out!

I love learning how other readers work with the cards.

Do you have a creative way to work with the cards? Please share with me!

Sep 04 2018

Using Your Yearly Forecast Long Range Cards to Achieve Your Goals

A big part of Cardology is the Yearly Forecast. Besides having a Birth and Ruling card, you have a new spread of cards each year on your birthday, called a Yearly Forecast.

I love the term Forecast because, just alike a weather forecast, it reveals the energies (literally) at play for your year- setting the mood, the potentials, the pitfalls, the opportunities and the gifts you will have going on. And, just like with the weather, you can ignore the forecast and put on a tank top and shorts on a icy day and go freeze your patootie off – or, you can dress in your soft lounge clothes, plan a day by the fire and get some much needed R&R. YOU CHOOSE! ?

But, isn’t it great to know?!?

It makes planning so much easier!

Here we are in September. I think of this month as the planning month. It’s the start of Fall and we can feel the shift in the weather, the mood and of course with school starting back up, we have new backpacks, notebook, pens and books and that has me all giddy (even though I don’t have young kids at home anymore!)

In this post, I want to cover one of the cards we each have in our yearly forecast – our Long Range card.

What does it tell us? How can we use it to plan?

Your Forecast Long Range card speaks to the main energy throughout your year.

(In a Forecast, a “year” is one birthday to the next. It begins on your birthday and goes until your next birthday, so anytime I refer to your year, that is what I am referring to.)

This card influences the events, people and thoughts/feelings you’ll encounter, so it is a big part of the plan towards whatever goals you have.

It’s like being given a weather forecast for your year -like looking in the Farmer’s Almanac and seeing what the upcoming winter will be.

The Long Range card is neither good nor bad—but a resource to use as you see how it fits in with your challenges and opportunities

Even when it is a card that might be seen as “hard” (such as a 9 card), because it is a Long Range card, its place as the main theme for your year keeps it as a neutral energy that you can work with to enhance and understand your year.

Remember that all of us experience and are (in some way, at some point) EVERY card in the deck. Therefore, when you have certain cards in play in your forecast, it is highlighting the part of you that IS that card. It is putting the spotlight on that energy within you in the area of its position in the Forecast.

The Long Range card presents you with a theme for your year.

Seeing your Long Range card as the all encompassing umbrella for your year — affecting each period and the other cards in prominent positions — adds knowledge for you to use in your planning.

Will the theme of your year be active or still?

Will it be creative, mental or spiritual?

Will it be focused on your health, relationships or money?

As an example, if your main goal is to increase the profit of your business and your Long Range card is the Queen of Hearts (the card of the Mother, romance and sex) then how can that help you?

If you are a Mother, your motherly duties might take a front seat therefore changing how you go about your goal.

Or, you might encounter a relationship that brings romance into your life, making you realize that even though you were focused on making money, you were also desiring intimacy and your priorities changed.

Or, the Queen of Hearts showed you that while working to make more money, you need to take the time for personal TLC and to nurture yourself.

Keeping your Long Range card in the forefront of your mind each day and seeing how your events and thoughts/feelings relate to it and your goal act as a big help.

The cards in your forecast aren’t some random draw by a human – they are the patterns, cycles and blueprints of the path you chose to walk in this life. The big, higher YOU set up a matrix of energy so you could play out the purpose of your life at this time. It all fits together.

Your cards won’t be unmatched with your goals, rather they can shed light on the best approach to your goals because of WHO YOU ARE and what you chose to have going on at this time in your life.

Aug 12 2018

3 Reasons Why A Venus Connection Goes Awry

Venus Relationship — 3 Reasons Why A Venus Conection Goes Awry

In my last blog post I talked about new parents I know and the relationships of all of their cards. They all have many positive connections and it all sounds so idyllic!

But what if you have Venus or Jupiter connections between you and other friends/family and it isn’t so sweet and loving?

Yes, it happens.

How can that be?

It has happened to me and I’ve seen it happen with several friends. You suddenly aren’t getting along AT ALL or even end a relationship with someone you have a Venus relationship with.

I have many Venus connections with my biological family, yet, there were many years of abuse and NO connection at all.

While there are many reasons for the turning upside down of any relationship, I wanted to address the Venus relationship specifically.

Here are 3 reasons why a Venus connection can go awry:

1 – Are either of you living the negative side of your Venus?

As with everything in life, the cards and planets have both their positive and their negative aspects. We’ve lived in a world of duality. (<—- yes, that sentence was past-tense, but that is a post for another day!)

Venus is about LOVE. It is romance, connection, beauty, art, pleasure, bliss and Venus energy seeks to create harmony, so you can see how having a Venus connection with someone can create a very easy, loving relationship.

However, what is the opposite of Love? It is Fear.

Astrologer Steven Forrest says that the dysfunctional side of Venus is: Indolence, being manipulative, vanity, spinelessness and chronic abandonment to sensuality.

If one, or both of the parties involved is disowning or suppressing their true pleasure, bliss, sensuality or are fearing LOVE (in any way), then the relationship will reflect back to them any of the parts they are disowning. This creates a repulsion feeling and any of the dysfunctional aspects of Venus will show up in the relationship.

While we can’t do the work for the other person, if any negativity is going on, we can make sure we are clear, aware and healing it on our end.

2 – Are either of you jealous of the other person?

Check in to see if you are jealous of anything they seemingly have in their life that you wish you had. Because Venus is about experiencing our true pleasure and bliss in life, it can bring up issues around our guilt, shame or suppression of genuine pleasure and joy.

Is there any type of pleasure, love or even things they have that you want, but are feeling you can’t ever have?

Are they expressing happiness when you are feeling very unhappy in your life?

Did they reach a goal they were after, yet you are still struggling to reach yours?

Fights, arguments, passive-aggressive behavior and abuse can flair up or even be ever present between two people who have a Venus connection because these issues will be high-lighted when you are together.

The friendship or family bond can start out as sweet and loving, then turn on a dime to never recover UNLESS the disowned/suppressed issues are healed.

It can be devastating when this happens between a parent/child, siblings or even a couple because that original, organic deep love is still there even while both parties ae feeling such negativity. Those are the relationships you can’t just say adios to and walk away to forget it all in a few weeks.

3- Are either of you confusing Venus Love with Sex?

Another reason the Venus apple cart can topple is when one party confuses Venus connection with sex.

How does this play out?

Let’s say a father has a Venus connection with his daughter. His own sexuality is wounded and as she grows up, he starts having ‘unhealthy’ feelings towards her (because he is experiencing the Venus energy, but has it confused with his sexual issues), so what does he do?

He disconnects from her (fearing he’ll do something bad), begins to abuse her, abandons her or directs his frustration at her – or what happened in my case – he puts her in the position of his spouse and forgets she is his daughter and only a child.

They love being around each other, yet, he feels fear and she is confused and feels abandoned and betrayed.

I know other adults who have a Venus relationship with the parent of the opposite sex where the parent ‘worshiped’ them and put them in the position of fulfilling their non-existent (or in constant ruin) romantic life.

Emotional manipulation and the re-occurrence of abandonment was the on-going theme of their relationship.

Because we aren’t taught how to deal with things like this and many think that ‘therapy’ is for the weak and crazy, these issues tear families apart.

Personally, I have HOPE because millennials are more aware and willing to learn how to relate and deal with inner wounds! Families who have Venus connections can support and strengthen one another in upleveling love, the enjoyment of life and all that Venus gives to us–which creates happy, healthy families!

Have you had a Venus connection go terribly wrong?