Purify the Mind by Opening the Heart

 

Four of Swords

“Her limbs are composed in the attitude of death, but this is not the final sleep. It is just a moment of rest and recovery. Her mind floats free. … Close your eyes, and find that still and silent place at your core, where inner strength resides. Draw from that reserve in the times to come.” ~ Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

The Four of Swords tells us it’s time to take a break from our troubles, real or imagined. It asks us to lay down the betrayals, hurts, and sorrows of the Three of Swords and seek silent meditation for a deeper awareness in order to find our answers.

The figure in this card holds a sword in vertical alignment with her body’s energy centers or chakras. Her hands hold the sword above and below her heart chakra as if protecting herself from words not spoken represented by the throat chakra and the mouth and the tightness of fear (“flight or fight”) represented by the solar plexus chakra and the feet. When we get stuck in our thoughts and aren’t able to express them, we create our own cage around ourselves and find ourselves continually trapped as in the Eight of Swords.

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In my yoga practice I can open the heart chakra by doing backbend postures. These poses help to develop trust by allowing me to lead with my heart and surrender my fears. As my heart moves away from my head and my chest opens I give my troubling thoughts to the universe thereby allowing my mind and body to relax.

Deva Parnell, founder of Discovery Yoga, describes Kripalu Yoga as a metaphor for life. “When you come to your toleration point during the prolonged holding of a posture, you encounter your self-perceived limitations, and learn to consciously respect them and accept or transcend them.”

The Four of Swords asks us to let go of those thoughts that are constricting our ability to open our hearts, still our restless minds, and seek guidance from our higher power whatever we conceive that to be.

Images from Shadowscapes Tarot ©Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Consider Meditation to turn Old Habits into New Beginnings

Seven of Swords

 “Everything begins in the mind. If you want to see clearly, you need clear vision.” ~Sri Swami Satchidananda

I recently went to my tarot cards to answer a question that began, “What do I need to know about…?” The subject of my query wasn’t as important as the answer I received from of the most challenging cards in tarot for me to interpret. Seven of Swords.

I chose to spend 15 minutes meditating with the card. As a taroist you may think it is an unlikely card to meditate on; but if this was the message I received from the universe, then it needed attention.

I settled in to breath, relax, feel, watch and allow. Below are the random thoughts which came to me, as well as added introspection from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – aphorisms and texts of Raja Yoga. (The Yoga Sutras are also commonly known as Raja Yoga, the Royal Yoga. They earned this noble status because they present spirituality as a holistic science, universally applicable to people of all faith traditions.)

When you see the Seven of Swords consider delving deeply into the thoughts that are stirring and trying to take hold in your mind. Are they stealing you away from your truth?

Sutras 2.15 – 2.17 of the Yoga Sutras of Sri Patanjali teach about causes of suffering that are the result of samskara, a Sanskrit work meaning habit. You suffer when you knowingly or unknowingly repeat patterns or behaviors that don’t serve you or that cause you harm. Prevent the suffering that is to come by beginning to change your perspective and envision the future you want to live in. Use the challenges you face on your journey to your goals as opportunities to begin a process of inquiry and self-connection to guide you to right action, compassion and avoid suffering.

Where can you release old habits in order to create new beginnings?

Meditation allows us to remain intimate with the flow of our moment-to-moment inner experience. Ride the Wave and use the compassionate witness to resist the tendency to censor uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. ~ Richard Faulds, Kripalu Yoga

 

• Take care when listening to your mind, it can trick you into a false sense of beliefs.
• What are you reaching for or focusing on that is taking you away from the realities of your daily life? If you can’t see, touch, feel, smell, or taste it, does it really exist?
• How, when and where do you spend time focusing on things that don’t serve your goals?
• Why have you turned your back on your True Nature? Why have you chosen to deceive yourself by not accepting yourself as a perfect being just as you are?
• Why have you chosen to turn away from what you need most to be aware of or take care of in your life?
• In what ways have your fears (produced in your mind as random thoughts connected to must have’s and wants) conned you into believing more is better? What if more is “bitter”; because you have not taken the time to envision and plan for what needs to happen next (today, tomorrow, next week, next month) to be “pain” free and avoid needless suffering.
• Karmic actions will unfold out of today’s inaction and lack of focus.
• In what ways have you been dis-honest with yourself?
• How can you reset, relax and calm your wandering busy mind to find the clarity you need?

In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.  ~Isaiah 30:15

 

Images from Gateway to the Divine Tarot  ©Ciro Marchetti, 2009. Used with permission of Llewellyn Worldwide, New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit, http://www.llewellyn.com/

Paraphrasing from Inside the Yoga Sutras, Reverend Jaganath Carrera

Purify the Mind by Opening the Heart

Four of Swords

“Her limbs are composed in the attitude of death, but this is not the final sleep. It is just a moment of rest and recovery. Her mind floats free. … Close your eyes, and find that still and silent place at your core, where inner strength resides. Draw from that reserve in the times to come.” ~ Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

The Four of Swords tells us it’s time to take a break from our troubles, real or imagined. It asks us to lay down the betrayals, hurts, and sorrows of the Three of Swords and seek silent meditation for a deeper awareness in order to find our answers.

The figure in this card holds a sword in vertical alignment with her body’s energy centers or chakras. Her hands hold the sword above and below her heart chakra as if protecting herself from words not spoken represented by the throat chakra and the mouth and the tightness of fear (“flight or fight”) represented by the solar plexus chakra and the feet. When we get stuck in our thoughts and aren’t able to express them, we create our own cage around ourselves and find ourselves continually trapped as in the Eight of Swords.

Embed from Getty Images

 

In my yoga practice I can open the heart chakra by doing backbend postures. These poses help to develop trust by allowing me to lead with my heart and surrender my fears. As my heart moves away from my head and my chest opens I give my troubling thoughts to the universe thereby allowing my mind and body to relax.

Deva Parnell, founder of Discovery Yoga, describes Kripalu Yoga as a metaphor for life. “When you come to your toleration point during the prolonged holding of a posture, you encounter your self-perceived limitations, and learn to consciously respect them and accept or transcend them.”

The Four of Swords asks us to let go of those thoughts that are constricting our ability to open our hearts, still our restless minds, and seek guidance from our higher power whatever we conceive that to be.

Images from Shadowscapes Tarot ©Stephanie Pui-Mun Law

Release the illusory script of your life

The Tower XVI | Yoga Tarot

 “Stop identifying with your thoughts. Then solutions will appear, and conflict and disharmony will dissolve.”
~Richard Miller, PhD; Yoga Nidra

Consider the message of the Tower, a major arcana card that appears in readings when there is about to be a shake-up in our lives. Sometimes that upheaval is the result of getting too caught up in our own thoughts, creating drama. Drama we’ve invariably created to assuage our egoistic needs. Drama that closes us off to the peace and joy we are meant to experience fully in this lifetime.

At times we live in the illusions we created out of our personal drama. The result is a destiny that at some point in the future we wonder in amazement just how we got to this place of frustration, sadness, exasperation, emptiness. It’s as if we wrote the lines and scenes and actors into a script. As such we begin performing the role we created derived from the personal drama we created, imagining the others saying their lines and sticking to a script that supports our self-denial. The self-denial limits our growth because we fear something unknown in our potentially new experiences.

When we reach the denouement where all is revealed the drama we expected to unfold from our (illusory) script isn’t there and we are surprised at the outcome. Life feels unbalanced and out of control as if the earth is crumbling beneath us. We are tense, irritable, sad, quick to react with anger or negativity at the situations unfolding around us. It’s as if we are “chicken little” running around wildly because we really believe the sky is falling. We live in the illusion of the drama of the world of our own making.

But the Tower guides us to right action through Upheaval and Revelation. It puts us on notice that what is needed immediately in our lives is compassionate self-awareness. It asks us to re-examine those habits and patterns of behavior that keep us stuck in the mire, forever repeating a stifling way of life that doesn’t allow the growth in spirit that will bring true joy. The Tower offers us the opportunity to Re-Examine, Re-Invent and Re-Claim A New Life.

• Upheaval – Where is there unbalance in my body, mind and spirit? How am I ignoring or engaging my body? Where am I ignoring or engaging the world (my world) – my home, my family, my friends, my earthly place?
• Revelation – What will be revealed to me? Am I capable of tuning in to the subtle messages in my daily life? Will I make time to reflect on the potentials or possibilities of my actions toward (rather than away from) what has meaning and purpose to me?

Visualize this card:
The figure appears to be contemplating the mountain. Is it rising out of the misty clouds, or is it imploding into itself? The crescent moon illuminates only half the sky, while fully illuminating the figure and the mountain. Are we one and the same: Moon, Mountain and Man? What has yet to be revealed?

“We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn it is God who is shaking them.” ~Charles C. West Tarot

Let the tower guide you toward a change that will create a new world for you: a journey that is open to whatever happens and accepts life’s revelations with grace, compassion, humility and humour. Just as you guide a child away from danger, guide yourself away from destructive habits and thoughts and actions. Put yourself on a new path and experience love and light in your life with a whole new perspective – one that sees the myriad opportunities in your life instead of one that continues to blindly follow the dramatic script of your own undoing.

The Tower ~ Being suddenly exposed, emotionally shaken; learning the hard way; sudden and violent change.  A blow to the ego, a time to re-examine belief systems and long-established patterns. Let go of fantasy and illusions of personal drama and open your heart and mind to every moment of now.

Yoga Nidra ~ Yoga Nidra teaches you how to recognize and disidentify from your core negative beliefs, and habit patterns which hinder and cripple you from leading a truly contented life free from dissatisfaction and suffering. The Sanskrit word “duhkha” describes dissatisfaction or suffering, which arise when you mentally attach to expectations and outcomes that are other than what life is offering.  ~Richard Miller, PhD, author Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing 

Images from Yoga Tarot Deck used with permission of Lo Scarabeo, Torino, Italy. © 2008 Copyright Lo Scarabeo

2015: The Year of Self Inquiry

Nine of Pentacles | Yoga Tarot

As an alternative to the New Year’s resolution, I offer you the concept of a New Year’s Theme. For several years I have approached the beginning of each New Year with a theme – resolutions always seemed so final. Five years ago, when I was 49, my theme was “Journey to 50”. If you’ve been to 50, you understand this life milestone. During that year I began making small changes in my health and embarked on new interests born out of hobbies – such as learning tarot and building a regular yoga practice. My theme for 2015: “The Year of Self Inquiry”.

Along this year’s journey I will use my tarot cards as one of the ways to delve into the emotions and thoughts that well up in a mind, body and soul journey to discover anew what has meaning and purpose in my life now. The cards act as messengers, whispers on angels wings, bringing new thoughts, ideas, or goals into consciousness. Most often what comes up is something that was there all along, but only needed the prompting and unfolding of a new interpretation; possibly something in the periphery of thought, unable to articulate or bring into focus.

“The traditions of yoga and tarot are two different paths that lead to the same place: a profound knowledge of the self.” ~M. Filadoro, Yoga Tarot

My blog focus this year will include Yoga Tarot deck. Yoga offers me a physical as well as meditative and sometimes spiritual way to tune in to what I need to source balance between choices and compromise in my life. I also have a personal goal to achieve my yoga teacher certification this year.

The Nine of Pentacles ~ Balancing the material with the spiritual, accepting new visions, creating a Self out of the material given to us by the circumstances and conditions in our lives, and courage to enter the gate of abundance, yet to come.

Yoga Posture ~ Prasarita Padottanasana (Spread Feet Posture) provides a deep and invigorating stretch for the legs, stimulates the digestive system and helps to clear the mind.

Images from Yoga Tarot Deck used with permission of Lo Scarabeo, Torino, Italy. © 2008 Copyright Lo Scarabeo

Yoga and Tarot: Discovering Silence Within

Two of Pentacles

In many tarot decks the Two of Pentacles is depicted as a character trying to balance two objects while in motion. This minor arcana card often suggests changes on the horizon as well as the ability to juggle two or more situations. It also reminds us that we are never too old to learn if we are open to being flexible, venturesome and playful.

However, Yoga Tarot’s choice of a figure in Tadasana (Mountain Pose) offers a new perspective on the traditional image.

“When you experience yourself in stillness … when you give your undivided attention to experiencing the truth about you – you will experience the conflict-free, calm, dynamic peace of perfectly centered abundant life energy.” – Moving Into Stillness, Erich Schiffmann

Here, the Two of Pentacles teaches that emotional tranquility brings clarity. That with patience, time and reflection we can make decisions that are harmonious with our lives.

Tadasana, or mountain pose, is a pose of balance and alignment. Tada means ”a mountain”, and in the pose, feet are firmly rooted to the ground while the crown of your head acknowledges the sky. While in tadasana, imagine the quiet stillness of a majestic mountain.

The serpent coiling in this image brings to mind the caduceus, an ancient symbol dating back to the Greek messenger god Hermes (the Romans called him Mercury). It is associated in Hindu and yogic traditions of philosophy and medicine with the subtle body’s energy pathways known as the chakras, or energy centers.

The coiling serpent in Yoga Tarot’s Two of Pentacles crosses at the root chakra at the base of the spine, the heart chakra, at the heart, and the crown chakra above the head. The approach of yoga has always been to increase the flow of energy to the centers through meditation and practice merged with a supportive lifestyle.

No matter which tarot deck is used, the Two of Pentacles brings a message to learn patience amid the busyness of life. In work or in play by tuning in to the silence within, loving your Self, and opening your mind to your soul’s calling, you will begin to move purposefully and with awareness in the world.

Images from Yoga Tarot Deck used with permission of Lo Scarabeo, Torino, Italy. © 2008 Copyright Lo Scarabeo

Yoga and Tarot: Sharing Compassion and Love

Queen of Chalices

Sometimes I feel like I’m dancing on water when I practice yoga on the deck of my sailboat. I look forward to this special time in my day when I feel as if I am one with the life above and below the sea. On some mornings I see rainbows, dolphins, turtles, and fish of all kinds. I breathe in the sweetness of salt air and fragrant island flowers. I hear the songs of the sea birds, and feel the wind in my hair as the sun warms my skin. With each asana I am thankful for this life that allows me to experience what has heart and meaning to me as I strive to navigate the path before me with compassion, love and grace.

“Yoga has no meaning without compassion and love for others.”

In Yoga Tarot, the Chalices suit refers to Bhakti Yoga. The Sanskrit word bhakti comes from the root bhaj, which means “to adore or worship God.” Bhakti yoga has been called “love for love’s sake” and “union through love and devotion.” Bhakti yoga, like any other form of yoga, is a path to self-realization, to having an experience of oneness with everything. – Yoga Journal

The Queen of Chalices tarot card teaches us to open our hearts fully to every experience in our day; to creatively manifest our dreams and bring them into conscious actions. She encourages us to let our love flow with compassion and awareness because love gives meaning to all of our goals, not only for ourselves, but also for those we love, especially our family and friends.

Images from Yoga Tarot Deck used with permission of Lo Scarabeo, Torino, Italy. © 2008 Copyright Lo Scarabeo

Yoga and Tarot

Intrigued? There is more to come on what I learn from both yoga and tarot, and how I combine the meanings of both teachings in my tarot readings.