Susan Marte

Another Perfect Pick – Day 619

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Ocean Oracle – Fog/Stillness – Photo: L. Weikel

Another Perfect Pick

I don’t know about you, but between the relentless heat and mugginess that’s blanketing us (if you live on the East Coast of the U.S.) and the relentless and increasingly horrifying events unfolding in our country on a daily basis, I feel like I’ve reached my saturation point. So when I asked the Ocean Oracle (by Susan Marte) for a fresh message we could all hold as a new Point of Focus, I chose what feels like another perfect pick (PP).

As can be seen from the photo above, I chose Fog – Stillness.

Why do I feel this is a PP? Because I am finding it increasingly difficult to continue ‘going with the Flow.’ Don’t get me wrong. There’s no doubt that keeping Flow as a Point of Focus in my daily life has served me well. And it’s not even as though I intend to just throw Flow out the window.

No. If I sense Flow is an appropriate response to a particular situation or stimulus, I will continue to embrace its wisdom. (And I have to mention, Karl and I were amazed at how often, since I chose that card for our collective contemplation, the word flow has shown up in the Medicine Cards* I’ve been selecting on my day, as well as tarot cards I’ve been consistently choosing in our early evening walks.

I’ve been receiving, “Flow, flow, flow” over and over again. So yes, this message has been received and reinforced.

Recent Escalations

And if you’ve been joining me each day or at least mostly keeping up, you know that the guidance we’ve been receiving from other oracles (The Crone Tarot, by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince for instance) has also been pretty consistently advising to come together to recall wholeness, goodness and caring.

While I can only speak for myself, and I probably need to bear in mind that I’m still a bit sleep-deprived, I feel it’s important to acknowledge that making the conscious choice to remain in the flow, and do our best to heed the call to encourage wholeness and goodness while in the midst of a pandemic – is no small feat. While it sounds relaxing and easy, it’s actually a lot of work.

Yes, we can do our best avoid getting caught up in (or snagged) by the rocks and branches we encounter every day, the fact remains that it takes a lot of energy to keep our heads above water. And over the past couple of days, I started to question just how much more ‘flow’ I’d be able to manage.

Photo: L. Weikel

Dearly Needed Respite

And so it was with a huge sense of relief that I chose the Fog card this evening. Stillness. It feels like the perfect message for me in this moment, and I trust it will offer you some welcome permission to be still too.

I want to share what the guidebook offers:

“The Story

She sat in the hollow, surrounded by fog. She didn’t know which way she had come, or which way to go. The vapour was tangible, but her direction was not. She wasn’t scared – the veil of fog felt safe. She had never realized the stillness of fog, the cloak of silence it offered. She was in her own little world, fully present to herself, yet removed from that which was ‘out there.’ It was a chance to just be – to be in that stillness. She didn’t feel the desire to venture forth without direction. She was happy to have this time to be by herself, hidden from view. She felt this fog was the earth’s way of surrounding her by the nurturing embrace of water, without drowning her. She knew she was strong enough to rely on herself and her intuition, away from the watchful gaze of others. She had faith that when the fog lifted, she would be in the perfect place – in the place she was meant to be.

The Messages

What are you hiding from? What is hidden from view? What is visible? What is invisible? Trust that what you need to see is either right in front of you, or will soon present itself. Focus fully on your self. In the busy-ness of the world, take time to be still, to recharge yourself and recalibrate your bearings. Allow stillness to envelop you and be present to the gifts it offers. Use the cloak of protection stillness provides, to stretch into who you are. Walk the path of your instinct – it will lead you in the right direction. Even when feeling alone or isolated, know that you are completely supported by the universe. She is keeping you safe in your sacred place.”

My Take

The bottom line of guidance I receive from this new Point of Focus is that it is ok for us to step out of the flow and take cover. Wrap ourselves in the cloak of invisibility that Fog provides us and rest in the Stillness.

Before we take a stand or make any decisions about how to react to anything that may be happening in the outside world, the perfect response in this moment is to step back. Recharge. Recalibrate.

Indeed, when we remember that, in addition to witnessing armed troops being deployed by a fanatic to manhandle and essentially kidnap fellow citizens in specifically targeted Democratic cities (nakedly politically motivated by our own president) we are in the midst of a pandemic that is exploding in our country – seems to me the most comforting thing we can do in this moment is cloak ourselves and rest up.

Definitely another ‘Perfect Pick.’

We need to gather our strength for the coming storm. But for now: We must practice Stillness, my friends. Wrap ourselves in a Fog that holds and hides us and permitting us to safely gather our strength and wits for what’s to come.

We need to hide in the mists – Photo: L. Weikel

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(T-492)

Maintain the Flow – Day 616

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Tohickon Creek – 17 July 2020 – Photo: L. Weikel

Maintain the Flow

Eleven days or so ago, I asked for guidance in the form of a single Point of Focus for us all to hold on to as we navigate these extraordinary times. As you may recall, for that Point of Focus ‘pick’ I consulted the Ocean Oracle, by Susan Marte, and the card I chose was Stingray: Flow. My contribution tonight is simply a photograph. A photograph to help us maintain the flow.

Of course, it is a photo of my beloved Tohickon Creek. I visited her a couple of times over the past two days and she brought me enormous comfort and inspiration. I wanted to share the energy of that sacred place with all of you.

Many or maybe all of you have your sacred places, too, which bring you comfort and peace. At least I hope you do. I want to think everyone has at least one place they can go to connect directly with Mother Earth and drink in her magic.

I’m sharing this photo in particular, though, because it just seemed to capture the essence of our Point of Focus: Flow. And sometimes it’s helpful to have a mnemonic to which we can refer easily and often.

Innocence and Youth

The other photo I thought I’d share with you as we begin a new week is this action shot of a fawn scampering across the road in front of me as we took a walk last night.

What I didn’t manage to capture was the moment I discovered this little fawn standing right beside us, in the bushes right beside the road. The baby couldn’t have been more than twenty feet away from us. We locked eyes and I grabbed Karl’s arm to stop him mid-stride.

We were both astonished when the fawn started gingerly walking toward us! It was tough to maintain an air of nonchalance while frantically trying to grab my phone out of my pocket and set it to ‘camera.’

Not unsurprisingly, the baby quickly realized approaching us might not be its best choice, and it scampered down the edge of the field then crossed before us – which is the length of time it took me to get my act together enough to catch an image.

<<sigh>>

But hey. Karl and I both felt a thrill as s/he initially moved toward us so confidently. Perhaps it was just innocence and youth. Perhaps it was just going with the flow. As we begin this week, let’s all make a point of going with the flow. Until given another Point of Focus!

Scampering Fawn – Photo: L. Weikel

(T-495)

Another Shoe – Day 607

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Another Shoe

I was going to title this “There’s the Other Shoe!” or something like that, and then I realized all the crazy destruction of the Rule of Law in our country that’s flagrantly taking place in plain view of us and the rest of the world isn’t ‘THE’ other shoe. It’s just ‘another’ shoe.

Welcome to the apocalyptic Final Five Months. They’re either going to be the final five months of DT’s presidency or the final five months of the United States of America as we know it. And as I mentioned the other night, no matter what happens on election night (just like it didn’t matter how the Supreme Court ruled), if he wins: we lose; if he loses: we lose because he acts out, throws a bomb into the toilet (or worse), refuses to respect the election results, and dares anyone and everyone to remove him from office.

Whoa, Lisa. That’s dire. Aren’t you being just a tad hyperbolic?

No, actually. I don’t think I am.

Not the Half Of It

I sensed this week would be a challenge. The eclipse took place over the weekend, and it just felt to me as though it was going to kick off a month of unprecedented revelations and discoveries of corruption and rot throughout this Administration beyond our worst fears – including its malignant enablers in both Houses, but especially the Senate.

Sadly, I don’t think we’ve seen the half of it yet. (Then again, to be fair, it’s not even been a full week since the eclipse.)

But believe it or not, I’m trying to rein myself in. I’m trying to refrain from gaming out the repercussions of DT’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence and the effects it will have to the bigger picture.

I’m trying to wrap my head around the fact that DT did this, tonight, when we also received confirmation that the number of positive Coronavirus cases in one single day in our country topped 70,000 tonight, too. In case you’re keeping track, only one week ago we were horrified that there were more than 50,000 positive cases diagnosed in one day.

These are daily cases. Over 70,000 people tested positive today. And our president just commuted the sentence of a man who said out loud just today (when requesting a commutation) that he deserved it because he resisted providing evidence of the president’s complicity in a crime.

Step Back – Re-think

I chose cards a few days ago requesting guidance on how we might want to view and respond to whatever unfolded this week. As you might recall, I chose Stingray – Flow the first night, and then followed up in the next post with Jellyfish – Hidden Gifts and Sea Glass -Transformation.

Choosing the Flow card was in itself a comfort. In some ways, every moment I deliberately chose to go with the flow and not worry over “What ifs” provided my nervous system with opportunities to remain peaceful, which in turn kept me centered and even hopeful every now and then.

The Hidden Gifts and Transformation cards were the ones I chose specifically for guidance on dealing with DT’s reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling on his tax return cases, so it feels incumbent upon me to actively resurrect them in our consciousness.

There are hidden gifts in the blatant erosion of the Rule of Law. Our country is being threatened from within in a way that rivals anything in our just-shy-of 250 years, with the possible exception of the Civil War – and it may even, pardon the irony, eclipse that.

Hope

But my eyes keep going back to a couple sentences in the accompanying text to The Ocean Oracle, in ‘The Story’ of the Sea Glass:

“(…) She thought of the journey the glass before her had taken, how these pieces were all parts of something else at one time. A bowl, a jar, a bottle – some sort of vessel. And how these vessels had been abandoned. Or lost, or broken; left to the rhythms of nature, broken down over time. And she thought of the forces which had shaped the sea glass in front of her – forces which broke down the original structure by pummeling, pulverizing, caressing into a shape which was softer, translucent, and more adept at change. (…)” (emphasis added)

I want to hold on to hope that our country and everything we stand for will, in the coming days, grow more translucent and adept at change as we face, head-on, the gifts that are hidden in the egregious behavior and neglect that’s being perpetrated on us and our system of government every day. Every day there seems to be another shoe dropping. Please let us discover the hidden gifts they reveal that lead to a transformation that benefits us all.

(T-504)

Ocean Oracle – Day 604

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Atlantic Ocean – Photo: L. Weikel

Ocean Oracle

It’s summertime (in the Northern Hemisphere, that is), a time of the year when many of us make a pilgrimage to the ocean if we’re not lucky enough to live near one. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, or the Arctic* (since in fact there is only one ocean on Earth). The simple truth is that humans flock to the ocean for inspiration, rejuvenation, and relaxation. Thus I’m drawn to consult The Ocean Oracle created by Susan Marte, for some insight.

I mentioned quite a while ago that I thought I might consult various oracles now and again to give us some guidance through these confusing, turbulent, and increasingly unbelievable times we’re experiencing. It’s been weird: while I thought it was a great idea at the time, I’ve repeatedly felt a resistance to choosing from the myriad decks and other tools that are a part of my library. So I just go with the flow. And tonight, for whatever reason, I was nudged to pull some cards for us from The Ocean Oracle.

Point of Focus

I keep wanting to choose three cards for a wide-ranging discussion on what we need to contemplate over the next several days in order to get the most out of what will be unfolding in the world. But I feel a push back.

My own thoughts aside, I feel like I’m only supposed to choose one card for us to use as a Point of Focus. So I’m going to choose one card while holding the following question in my mind:

What do we all need to hold as our Point of Focus in order to gain the most benefit out of the next several days:

Ocean Oracle 39 – Stingray (Flow) – Susan Marte

 

Stingray – Flow

I think we can all relate to how this may be sound advice for us all to heed. We’re going to need to flow with whatever is thrown at us over the next few days (or weeks and months, for all we know). It’s easy enough for all of us to ‘intuit’ what this card is telling us. My sense is that we will want to keep repeating the mantra to ourselves, “Just go with the flow. Keep flowing. Don’t get caught up in the drama of others, because now – right now – our point of focus must be to go with the flow.”

As Susan Marte, the creator of the deck and a dear friend of mine, so beautifully states in the booklet that accompanies this unique and beautiful deck, “(…) You are the grace and ease and flow of the stingray as you navigate life’s waters.” 

Note: I just want to point out that I wrote that second paragraph, above, before I chose the card on our behalf. So I had to laugh – when faced with the sense that I wasn’t supposed to do things the way I first ‘thought’ I was going to, instead of balking and forcing things, I chose to ‘go with the flow.’

I’m guessing I’ll need to keep that up. We all will.

*There may be less actual flocking when it comes to the Arctic Ocean, but I’m sure it happens.

(T-507)