Shamanic balance in an Oracle card reading

Shamanic balance isn't just about  harmony between nature and the human world.  It is also an actual experience of a kind of attention that exists when two forces are held in mutual tension.  Barbara Meyerhoff  describes this in "Shamanic Equilibrium: Balance and Mediation in Known and Unknown Worlds,"

Shamanic balance is a particular stance.  It is not a balance achieved by synthesis, it is not a static condition achieved by resolving opposition.  It is not a compromise.  Rather it is a state of acute tension, the kind of tension which exists...when two unqualified forces encounter each other, meeting headlong, and are not reconciled but held teetering on the verge of chaos, not in reason but in experience.

This is the tension required between the conscious and unconscious mind in an Oracle card reading.

 

In our daily life, the conscious mind is like this skiff moving over the surface of the water. Lots of roar and a big wake.  While we sit in detached inattention to what is going on beneath the surface. We are going too fast to hear the forces that are speaking beyond our conscious control.

An Oracle dissolves the surface view of a situation and empowers our awareness of these forces. Suddenly we find ourselves in a landscape of the imagination,  One that brings the unconscious and it's imaginative meaning into play.  This creative dialog  between the unconscious and the conscious is a shamanic balance, a creative tension that teeters on the verge of chaos.    

Yet when we learn to inhabit this dense weave of forces that are shaping our experiences, our anxieties, fears and desires emerge to be recognized and resolved, and a transformative balance is achieved.

Happy sailing from the Journey Oracle, my partner John and Pearl, the best sailboat ever.

The Power in Hands

I have painted hands in this world...

and from that world, 

On my recent birthday, I spent some time looking at my hands.  Old lady hands now. Not like they were when I first began working as a visual artist. And then I looked more closely.

These hands have a wisdom born of hundreds of  drum making hours of steady attention.

They can maintain a tension from the feel of the pull that goes beyond thinking.

 

The size and span of my fingers are my measuring tools.

And age has become the gift of patience. 

I am seeing there is beauty in more than the Oracle cards made.

And in more than the making.

Say a prayer for the power in hands, and for their willingness to serve.  

Birthday Oracle reading for yearly insight

Yesterday on my birthday I conducted a Journey Oracle reading to gain insight into this coming year.  Besides using my Journey Oracle deck for clarity about the situations that confound me, I often refer to the Destiny Cards.  This year the King of Spades, the highest card of mastery in that deck, is my long range card. The long range card over-arches, like an umbrella, all aspects of inner perception and outer action. So this felt like an excellent moment to gain perspective about my year ahead.

The Celtic tree card 36 representing Muin or Vine is the card of my situation for the year.  I first notice that this old woman with the serene gaze is upside down.  Maybe this is the Oracle of my year because it's time to turn things upside down.  When I read its message I found this question:
What key are you using to open the door that cannot be locked? Isn't that a question worthy of a King's pondering.

Card 45 from the Journey suite in the oracle deck is the card of my experience.  Although full of confusion and glimmers of animals and birds, slowly my eye sees a figure on the left being carried by these unclear animal forces.  I am such a strong organizer and planner, yet in this image I feel I am being shown to accept not knowing. Be willing to be carried someplace without a map.

This Journey card 8 is an image of the change that is calling me.  Another image of confusion and uncertainty, yet I do see a dark witch face on the right, breathing yellow into the messy area.  This card represents the East with its qualities of Air: mentality, analysis, clarity, exactitude.  Yellow is a happy, joyful color associated with optimism and hope, symbolizing courage and personal power.
What an important change to cultivate.

 

Another Journey suite card 15 representing Vision is the image of my resolution in this Oracle reading. I see a face within fluidity and surrounded by allies. This feels like an image of how to bring together the other three aspects of the reading: the situation, my experience and change.  The question accompanying this card is. Is there a tendency to serve self more than others?  Unfortunately, when I am honest with myself the answer is Yes.  This card is showing be to be "all in," to be one of many. The title of the fairy tale associated with this card is BEING FOOD.

That's a pretty good suggestion for this coming year.  And isn't that the highest vibration of Kingship? To nurture what lives within the landscape of the Kingdom's protection and influence.