Karma: What We Aren't Getting (or are Forgetting) About It. (And I'm just talking about this lifetime.)

Today, I'm setting the intent for this calendar year.  I'm am going to live today in the same manner I intend 2015 to go.  Hence, a mid-week blog.  This topic is something that I think is very, very important to remember for us pagans and, honestly, I don't see many pagans who actually understand how karma and the Three-Fold Law, the Law of Returns, or the Law of Polarity work.  Any of these particular words or phrases will work in the sense that I am using.  They are not all simply Wiccan in nature and are, in some form or fashion, laws of the universe, so we can't get around them no matter our belief.  For the sake of simplicity, I will use the word Karma for this writing.

I have, through the years, watched those around me revel joyfully when "good" comes into their life.  They reap the bounty of the "good" with the fervor of a child.  However, when "bad" things happen, these same people bemoan their fate and proverbially shake their fists at the sky.  They cry victimization.  They blame the gods or someone else in their lives.  I have watched those I love struggle in their day-to-day.  They struggle to pay bills.  They struggle to put food on the table.  Every day is like an uphill battle.  Why is this?

Obviously, these situations are not totally karmically connected, however, every day, in our words and in our deeds, we do build karmic debt.  Every word and every action creates a ripple in the pond of the Universe.  What happens when we drop a stone in a pond?  Ripples form.  They bounce along the water (not just the surface) to the edge and then they bounce back to center.  In a pond, the surface eventually becomes still again,but in the Universe, those ripples keep going in and out through this life and the next, becoming weaker but never going away.

So, when I hear people (especially pagans) getting upset because some unpaid bill from six years ago has come up and they can't get financing for a house, I have to wonder if they understand karma at all.  Just because you didn't pay that bill doesn't mean that it just *poof* into the aether and it disappeared.  This example is a great example of karmic debt.  Karmic debt works in much the same way that our banking system does.  

When someone lives in a small town and cheats on his or her spouse (or is the interloper), it does not matter if the extra marital relationship put both people where they needed to be on their life path.  Because of the pain caused, there is a karmic debt to be paid (regardless of how the spurned spouse reacted, as that is part of his/her karmic debt).  Living in a small town means that the cheater and the interloper are both going to have people and places they can not go.  Living in a small town means both people will lose friends.  It means both people in the new relationship will have a reputation to contend with.  If both people are not willing to contend with the consequences of their actions, then why are they acting as such?

As pagans, we are taught that it is okay to do things that 'feel good', but we should be honest about them.  You know, it feels really good to me to buy books with the money I work so hard for, but if I don't pay my electric bill, I have no lights.  I can't be mad at the electric company for shutting me off, can I?  Is there a difference between that and speaking ill of someone?  Energetically?  I don't think so.  Is there a difference between defaulting on a loan with the bank and purposefully pursuing your own happiness without regard to those around you?  Energetically?  No.

We all encounter stumbling blocks in this life.  Sometimes, they are there by design (i.e our soul puts them there before we reincarnate).  Sometimes, those stumbling blocks are a direct result of karmic debt from this lifetime.  In being honest with ourselves, as magical people, can we really complain about a stumbling block that we tossed into our own path because of past, careless actions?  What complaint do we really have, even when that same block keeps tripping us up 5 years or 10 down the road?  We can not whine that it isn't fair.  We put that energy out there.  While we are free to act as we so choose (being adults over 21 and living in a free country), we are not free from the consequences of those actions.  Every thought, every word, every action counts.  Are you digging a karmic hole to fall into later or are you building stepping stones to the future?  It's just something to think about as we begin this new calendar year.

May 2015 bring you the brightest blessings, Friends.

Yultide Blessings!

My dear readers, I must apologize for the absence of the past, nearly, two months.  I have been traveling through my own, personal Hell.  For those of you who have seen me, no, there was no overwhelming outward stimulus.  Personal difficulties?  Yes, but again, nothing so terrifying as anything I do to myself.

I woke this morning after the sun had risen, so instead of drumming up the sun (like I was planning on), I have decided to sing to the young sun god today, in addition to the normal lighting candles in his honor.  I plan on keeping them going from about dark until it is time for bed.  My whole day is going to be my ritual.  I have a solstice movement workshop to go to and then my own family Yule with my partner.  Maybe we will even eat by candlelight.

It seems the magic of this day is doubled with both the Sun and Moon entering Capricorn within just a couple of hours of each other, and I can feel the new beginning.  I can feel the proverbial corner being turned as the light grows stronger, yet tonight, the longest night, must be conquered.

Like any other time in life when the light conquers the darkness, now is a time to take stock.  Are our words and behaviors still serving us?  If they do not, what must we do to change that?  Should we, like the light, work at it a few minutes a day until the new behaviors have grown strong and become habits?  Is that not one of the lessons that the coming light teaches us?  Persist within your desire for illumination and all shadows will burn away. (At least the unnecessary ones will.)

I know this isn't a very long post, but it seems that I am being succinct today (that's unusual!!).  Have a blessed Yuletide, my dear friends and readers.  May the new born Sun illuminate your path and burn away all obstacles.




Blessed Be.

Daily Tarot 2 Nov 2014

Today's tarot reading goes right along with my Samhain ritual last night.  While I got no direct words from the Goddess, this ritual was as poignant  as the one I did in 2008 where Hekate claimed me as her servant.  After half a decade in Her service, I rededicated myself to walking with Her last night, giving up what is unneeded in my life, moving away from what has gone stagnant and dead in my life, and stepping back on that path for my own highest good and doing Her work.

Today the Second Quarter Moon is in Pisces.

The Daughter of Knives in my spiritual arena is the manifestation of what I have put out.  It symbolizes steady thought, fortitude, resiliency, and sacrifice.  The 3 of Earth in my emotional arena indicates bounty, abundance, happiness, health and wealth.  While the 9 of Wands reversed indicates not giving up too soon.

What I see here is the cards telling me to hang on for just a while longer, what I need is going to manifest and I will be all the better for it, even if I have to walk through a little bit of fire to get there.  Let it go.  Let it happen.

Daily Tarot 1 Nov 2014

Today is Nov. 1.  The Second Quarter Moon went void of course at 1:22am and will enter Pisces at 11:37am.

Today's reading feels different.  I can't place my finger on it, but it simply feels different than the others have.

Spiritual: 10 of Skulls (Reversed)
Emotional: Imbolc (The Star)
Mundane: 7 of Chalices

The reversed 10 of Skulls indicates a lack of.  Something feels like it is missing, empty, needing filled.  Next to it, though, Imbolc/The Star indicates hope and illumination.  The vessel is being emptied back into the depths of the pool after being heated within the cauldron.  While that may not seem to do much, the heating does allow some of the water to escape as steam, to change from a liquid, fluid, able to take the shape of any container, to a gas, so expansive that it can not be contained without being changed back to a liquid (i.e condensation).  So, there will be change for the better.  Within the mundane, the 7 of Chalices indicates potential.  Seven potential futures sit within a chalice, the lady at the desk daydreaming about them all, unable to decide which she wants to focus on manifesting.  Now is the time for focus.  What is my true desire?  Where should my energy go that I should manifest?  These are the questions of the day.

Daily Tarot 31 Oct 2014

Today's tarot reading was, again, interesting. :)

The Moon is in Second Quarter and in Aquarius.

Spiritual: Lord of Grails
Emotional: Yule (Death)
Mundane: The Empress


This is a very 'masculine' reading.  However, it feels as though a corner has been turned.  I need the active dynamic of the masculine energy to get me pushed forward.  That's one thing this is telling me.

The Lord of Grails has been in my Spiritual arena 2 days in a row.  However, today, it seems to have flipped on me.  The Lord of Grails is the active aspect of water: intuitive, visionary, healing, graceful and ego transformative.  Emotionally I got Yule.  Yule is the Death card.  Death is change, transformation, and the ending of a cycle.  I find it quite appropriate to get this card in a reading on Samhain.  Change is coming.  Identifying and leaving behind old emotional patterns, thought patterns, behaviors, and those things that simply no longer serve me.  Within the Mundane realm of my Self, today I drew The Empress.  The Empress card is like the Mother.  She cares ceaselessly for her realm with grace and love.  She is kind and compassionate to those around her, helping when and where she can, but that lovingkindness is tempered with common sense.  Giving is good, to help inn a pinch, but teaching is better in the long term. "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime."

Daily Tarot 30 Oct 2014

Today's tarot was a bit heavy feeling to me.  I'm learning quickly that 'masculine' cards carry a seriousness that I interpret as a heaviness.  There is also that warrior aspect that 'feels' dangerous that, somehow, adds to the heaviness.  And, on we go to the actual reading!!

Today the Moon entered Aquarius at 8:52am and will go into its second quarter at 9:48pm.

This reading feels slightly heavy, burdensome.

The Lord of Grails in reverse speaks of discontent, impatience, anxiety, and conflict, all of which I have had my share of in the preceding months.  I have gotten to the root of some of it, some of it, I haven't.  The Maiden of Water, coming in my emotional area, says that it is all going to be swept out to sea with the tide.  She says that one should always remember to play joyfully in the deep of the ocean, never being afraid of what lies below, in the blackness of the deep.  Of course, within my own mundane, the 6 of Swords in reverse speaks of willfully staying in a bad place.  Sometimes, we torture ourselves, sometimes it is for good, sometimes, it is masochism.  Which is it?

Daily Tarot 29 Oct. 2014

Aside from the fact that I may not have a photo and that I have a tiny kitty demanding my attention, I did not forget this yesterday.  My internet was down most of the evening and I have done my best to blog from my mobile, but it is like... Well, it's as close to impossible as anything comes.


The Moon goes void of course at 10:01pm, still in its first quarter.

Spiritual- 8 of Scepters Reversed
Emotional-Maiden of Air
Mundane- 3 of Chalices (again!!)

The stagnation of communications with the 8 of scepters is joyfully broken by the Maiden of Air.  This brings joy to the day as well as pleasantness from being able to catch up with old friends (which I knew was going to happen).  All in all, this reading looked hopeful and it was a good day!!