did you think
~ Rupi Kaur

did you think I was the city
big enough for a weekend getaway
I am the town surrounding it
the one you’ve never heard of
but always pass through
there are no neon lights here
no skyscrapers or statues
but there is thunder
for I make bridges tremble
I am not street meat I am homemade jam
thick enough to cut the sweetest
thing your lips will touch
I am not police sirens
I am the crackle of a fireplace
I’d burn you and you still
couldn’t take your eyes off me
cause I’d look so beautiful doing it
you’d blush
I am not a hotel room I am home
I am not the whiskey you want
I am the water you need
don’t come here with expectations
and try to make a vacation out of me

The Giants’ Tarot, Raven Kaldera

Draw for April 24, 2017
Active Influence: Blodughadda/Ace of Cups
Rune: Fehu/Wealth
Hidden Influence: Loki, Angrboda & Sigyn/The Lovers

Time to re-evaluate your relationship with money and material things. Money is not inherently evil; it is a tool which can be used in any number of ways. Like any other tool, the effect depends on how you use it. That choice is yours to make; trust your soul to lead you in the right direction. Let go of the thoughts and behaviors which keep you stuck in a pattern of financial difficulty, and commit to a healthy way of managing your resources that fulfills your material needs and is emotionally sustainable as well. While this may require other changes in the longer term (new employment, perhaps), the first step is to acknowledge what is good in your life, and offer thanks to all who have provided for you (and that includes yourself as well!).

Count your blessings, and allow yourself to enjoy your material comforts.

On The Nature of Understanding
~ Kay Ryan

Say you hoped to
tame something
wild and stayed
calm and inched up
day by day. Or even
not tame it but
meet it half way.
Things went along.
You made progress,
understanding
it would be a
lengthy process,
sensing changes
in your hair and
nails. So it’s
strange when it
attacks: you thought
you had a deal.

The Giants’ Tarot, Raven Kaldera

Draw for April 23, 2017
Active Influence: Vafthrudnir/Two of Swords
Rune: Algiz/Protection (reversed)
Hidden Influence: Mundilfari/Six of Wands

You have A Big Question on your mind, and no easy or clear answer to it. Much importance attaches to the answer, and you are taking the pressure to heart in an unhealthy way. You feel vulnerable in this position, and worried that, no matter what you decide, it will be the wrong choice. Mundilfari reminds you that you have the ability to move through space and time; that is, you can consider different actions and project the consequences of those actions into the future. Both cards are even numbers; this is the time for contemplation, not action.

You may feel overwhelmed and unprepared, but you have what you need to make a good decision and follow through with right action at the right time.

Extract from the Travels of Ibn Jubayr
~ Ruth Padel

How we need each other, says the Master
returned from the Haj, crossing over this desert
of life and back, back to Granada.
The last water found was an uncased well.
Sand had fallen in. The camel-leader
sought to dig the water out but failed.

Next day we entered ‘Aydhab, a city of the desert,
and waited in air so hot it melts the flesh.
Nothing to eat save what we brought.
Ships came and went from India and Yemen.
Those citizens live off pilgrims, who carry in
their food, pay tax and wait for the jilab to Jiddah.

You cross the drift-born desert, a mountain range,
the clash and whistling of sea with your soft palate open
like chalk. You walk a border guarded by laws
you never heard. These are the crossings of faith.
We pay a single journey in advance
and pack into an open boat like chickens in a coop.

Winds blow us into anchorage, a shallow bay
where tall men, mountain Sudanese,
lead us through the mirages on camels. If we perish,
they seize everything. Pilgrims who survive come in
like men who have thrown off the shroud
and lie down under flowering trees.