The Giants’ Tarot, Raven Kaldera

Draw for November 20, 2016:
Active Influence: Angrboda/The High Priestess
Rune: Sowelu/Sun
Hidden Influence: Sigyn/Temperance

For the second day in a row, both cards in the draw are Major Arcana. Things Are Going On, and you must deal with them directly and honestly. Sowelu brings in the light of the sun for clarity, and the energy of new beginnings, to support you at this time. Angrboda tells you that you have the strength and skills you need, and that delay is not acceptable—or possible. Sigyn reminds you that balance is the key to progress, and that your prior coping mechanisms and ideas about workability no longer apply. Both Goddesses are showing you the path to change; take notes and then take action.

My Sister Does Not Write Poems
~ Wislawa Szymborska
Translated from Polish by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire

My sister does not write poems
and it’s unlikely she’ll suddenly start writing poems.
She takes after her mother, who did not write poems,
and her father, who also did not write poems.
Under my sister’s roof I feel safe:
nothing would move my sister’s husband to write poems.
And though it sounds like a poem by Adam Macedoński,
none of my relatives is engaged in the writing of poems.

In my sister’s desk there are no old poems
nor any new ones in her handbag.
And when my sister invites me to dinner,
I know she has no intention of reading me poems.
She makes superb soups without half trying,
and her coffee does not spill on manuscripts.

In many families no one writes poems,
but when they do, it’s seldom just one person.
Sometimes poetry flows in cascades of generations,
which sets up fearsome eddies in family relations.

My sister cultivates a decent spoken prose,
her entire literary output is on vacation postcards
that promise the same thing every year:
that when she returns,
she’ll tell us, everything,
everything,
everything.

The Giants’ Tarot, Raven Kaldera

Draw for November 19, 2016:
Active Influence: Mimir/The Hanged Man
Rune: Sol/Sun
Hidden Influence: Fenris/The Devil

There may not be much you can do to control, or even influence, the external circumstance. Sol says you need to take the light and go down to the cave to see your demons. You don’t have to heal them instantly on your first visit; simply looking them in the eyes and learning their names is a good start. You must visit them and tend to them, however, before they break free and manifest in your conscious life in destructive ways.

One other thought: shadows are always larger than the actual object which casts them. When you shine the light directly on the object, you may find that, instead of a monster, you find a small, scared, wounded creature. One which can still bite, but one which you can connect to and heal more readily. Or one that isn’t wounded at all, but doesn’t know how to present to and interact with the larger world.

Today’s poem is from Margaret Atwood, in honor of her birthday.

Sekhmet, The Lion-Headed Goddess of War
~Margaret Atwood

He was the sort of man
who wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Many flies are now alive
while he is not.
He was not my patron.
He preferred full granaries, I battle.
My roar meant slaughter.
Yet here we are together
in the same museum.
That’s not what I see, though, the fitful
crowds of staring children
learning the lesson of multi-
cultural obliteration, sic transit
and so on.

I see the temple where I was born
or built, where I held power.
I see the desert beyond,
where the hot conical tombs, that look
from a distance, frankly, like dunces’ hats,
hide my jokes: the dried-out flesh
and bones, the wooden boats
in which the dead sail endlessly
in no direction.

What did you expect from gods
with animal heads?
Though come to think of it
the ones made later, who were fully human
were not such good news either.
Favour me and give me riches,
destroy my enemies.
That seems to be the gist.
Oh yes: And save me from death.
In return we’re given blood
and bread, flowers and prayer,
and lip service.

Maybe there’s something in all of this
I missed. But if it’s selfless
love you’re looking for,
you’ve got the wrong goddess.

I just sit where I’m put, composed
of stone and wishful thinking:
that the deity who kills for pleasure
will also heal,
that in the midst of your nightmare,
the final one, a kind lion
will come with bandages in her mouth
and the soft body of a woman,
and lick you clean of fever,
and pick your soul up gently by the nape of the neck
and caress you into darkness and paradise.

Sekhmet at Kom Ombo; copyright Gerard Ducher; image from Wikipedia

The Giants’ Tarot, Raven Kaldera

Draw for November 18, 2016:
Active Influence: The Volva/Four of Swords
Rune: Inguz/Fertility
Hidden Influence: Angrboda/The High Priestess

Finding creative approaches to your problems means that you stop thinking about them in the same way. You’re caught in a mental loop, and until you can shake yourself out of it, you’re going to be stuck in this situation. Describe the problem as someone else would see it, or as it would read in a novel or a movie—whatever it takes to see it with new eyes. You have the wisdom to deal with it on a very practical and effective level once you get out of your own head.