Invocation of the Creator
~ Yoruba Tribe
Translated by Ulli Beier

He is patient, he is not angry.
He sits in silence to pass judgment.
He sees you even when he is not looking.
He stays in a far place—but his eyes are on the town.

He stands by his children and lets them succeed.
He causes them to laugh—and they laugh.
Ohoho—the father of laughter.
His eye is full of joy.
He rests in the sky like a swarm of bees.

Obatala—who turns blood into children.

The Giants’ Tarot, Raven Kaldera

Draw for January 22, 2017
Active Influence: Narvi & Vali/Ten of Swords
Rune: Teiwaz/Justice (reversed)
Hidden Influence: Loki/The Magician

People can be cruel, and life can be painfully unfair. Bad things happen to good people, and really awful people get away with murder (sometimes literally).

Loki appears in the Ten of Swords as the father witnessing the heartless destruction of His children, powerless to prevent it, unable to comfort His wife, and about to be cast into His own particular cave of despair and pain. That’s how you feel right now.

It sucks your soul, it breaks your heart, it sends you out of your mind with grief and rage and countless other emotions that arise and erupt.

Teiwaz is connected to Tyr, who sacrificed his sword hand to bind Fenris, who happens to be one of Loki’s children who was also taken from His parents by Odin’s direct command. Your sacrifices may appear to be in vain. Give things time; it’s too soon to tell.

There is hope. Loki as The Magician also appears as the Hidden Influence. There is within you a resilient, creative, clever spirit, fired by imagination, filled with determination, and driven by the instinct for self-preservation. Those will carry you through.

May the Gods be with you, today and every day.

Prayer
~ Nina Cassian
Translated from the Romanian by Brenda Walker and Andrea Deletant

If you really exist—show up
as a bear, a goat, a pilot,
come with eyes, mouth, voice,
—demand something from me,
force me to sacrifice myself,
take me in your arms, protect me from above,
feed me with the seventh part of one fish,
hiss at me, reanimate my fingers,
refill me with aromas, with astonishment
—resurrect me.

The Giants’ Tarot, Raven Kaldera

Draw for January 21, 2017:
Active Influence: Bolthorn/Two of Wands
Rune: Wolfsangel/Hook
Hidden Influence: Fafnir/Four of Coins

You are stuck in your stuff, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Something or someone has a hook sunk so deeply that you’ve forgotten it’s there. You may feel the pain, but you are so accustomed to it, you don’t remember that pain is bad.

Bolthorn is having none of that. He is going to poke you, and keep poking you, until you get off your tailfeathers and do something. However awful the prospect of changing is now, the longer you wait, the worse it will be.

If you’re not in a position to make a dramatic change, then don’t make a dramatic change. But you must change, and things must change, starting now.

There’s no more time to wait, or ponder, or plan.

Today is the day.

Seen Fleetingly, From a Train
~ Bronislaw Maj
Translated from Polish by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Hass

A foggy evening, strands of smoke
Hanging immobile over fields,
The humid blackness of earth, the sun
Almost set—against its fading shield,
Far away, two dots: women in dark wraps
Coming back from church perhaps, perhaps
One tells something to another, some common story,
Of sinful lives perhaps—her words
Distinct and simple but out of them
One could create everything
Again. Keep it in memory, forever:
The sun, ploughed earth, women,
Love, evening, those few words
Good for the beginning, keep it all—
Perhaps tomorrow we will be
Somewhere else altogether.