TAROT: The Hermit(9) / LENORMAND: Clouds, Stars, Bear / ADINKRA: Funtumfunafu Denkyemfunafu
What Does One Do With 2 Cents?
This post will be short, I think. For those of you who are long-time readers, you know I sometimes say that, and then we are both surprised when short turns into long. But really, brevity best serves this subject, I think.
So, here is something both startling and hilarious: I keep getting requests to audition for commercials. I mean, I know I am in California now, but come on! Is this real life? I am about to have my 67th birthday, and I consider myself well-preserved, all things considered, but even in my heyday, I would not have thought myself the type to be “discovered.” And yet, here we are! Granted, no job has yet come of my auditioning, but that seems hardly to be the point. The point is that this is so far outside my experience and expectation that it makes the case for why expectation (though certainly not experience) is overrated; why openness and curiosity should always be part of one’s toolkit; how the Universe has a sense of humor that requires our willingness to take a joke, to laugh at ourselves, to carry ourselves lightly through this dense world.
Speaking of that last thing, I read a newsletter this morning by my friend, the Taroist Christiana Gaudet. She runs the StaarCon Tarot Conference that happens every January in West Palm Beach, Florida. She’s also a terrific writer, and today she wrote a piece about a wonderful word: EQUANIMITY, which I define as the quality of carrying oneself lightly through a dense world. This post is about that. I am working on building my equanimity quotient this summer, as I prepare for my book, and later my deck, to be launched into the world. There is excitement to manage, of course, but actually, I am allowing myself to feel as much of that as I want. I am so grateful and honored that the Lenormand luminaries asked to review my book have given it high praise. I am also startled by a bit of snark, not from the luminaries, who fly too high to engage in that, but from card people inhabiting the somewhat lower -than-luminary stratosphere, whose elbow-sharpening I can actually hear. It is as though there is a battle for food or water or air, and I am being asked to engage in the fray. Equanimity calls my name louder, though, and it is to her that I turn my attention.
Today’s Tarot, from Courtney Alexander’s Dust2Onyx Tarot is completely apropos: The Hermit, which contains the essence of equanimity. The Hermit, connected to Spirit with his Third Eye knows his wisdom, strength, and peace come from Source. His needs are provided for. So full is he of giftedness, that he shines his light to share with others, never worrying that too much will be taken from him, or that his light will be extinguished or unheeded. He is complete unto himself, because he is never by himself. He is held in the palm of God’s hand.
Our Lenormand cards echo this Hermit’s message, with Clouds, Star, and Bear. The Clouds signify the murky miasma of self-doubt, worry, other people’s 2 cents about who you are or should be. But the Star is the light of the Hermit’s lantern, the dispeller of darkness, the brightness of one’s being, the delineator of a luminous future. The Bear, with one swipe of its paw, erases those Clouds, making way for that Star. The Bear is a boss, and has earned his reputation. In the words of a semi-famous Housewife of Atlanta, when someone tried to step to her and put her in what they thought should be her place, “Who gonna check me, Boo? You?”
Adinkra rounds out the message, which is is a personal one for me about equanimity and confidence and calm. Funtumfunfua Denkyemfunafu is the symbol for “conjoined crocodiles who share a single stomach and yet fight over food.” I mean, how dumb is that? The Hermit would remind those crocs that there is food sufficient to each person’s needs, as well as enough to share. Elbows on the table, particularly sharpened ones, are unnecessary and, to our Hermit, unseemly.
Maybe I’ll get cast in a commercial or two. Maybe I won’t. Maybe my book will make people who’ve never heard of Lenormand, or who have found themselves flummoxed by it, come to fall in love with it. Maybe not. Equanimity, for me, is riding the waves of experience, enjoying the view, and waving to everyone I see along the way, whether they wave back or not. Anyway, that’s MY 2 cents.
Amen and Ase
My book, The Language of Lenormand is now available on Amazon for pre-sale.
I am looking forward to learning from The Language of Lenormand. I just placed a pre-order. This will be the first introduction to Lenormand for me. I am also enjoying what you have to write about the cards and life. Thank you for sharing your words with us.
I hope you had a wonderful birthday Erika! I'm glad you choose equanimity and maintaining a lightness of being. For the people who dare offer their unkind 2 cents to you... you can say, "Hey, you remind me of a penny. Two faced and ain't worth much!" Well, I guess that's not equanimity. LOL! Anyway, I can't wait to get your book this fall. Woohoo!