Rachel's DoW 53, 12 Days of Christmas, Arcana Stones

[Rachelcat]

Ah, last week of 2020! I started doing the 12 Days of Christmas in last week's thread, and I will continue here. (The 12th Day of Christmas is January 5, so I'll overlap a couple of days into next week too.) I hope it's ok to repost the first 2 days here, just so it's all together.

1. Dec. 25. What is being born or coming to light for me?

19-Sun-Citrine
This is a pale yellow translucent stone. Well, a very auspicious stone for today. I certainly hope that happiness, light, and clarity are being born for me! This is encouraging. I sometimes feel so muddled, like I’m seeing everything through mud. Or a glass darkly. So if clarity is coming for me, that would be good. I also associate the Sun with morality, and children and childhood. Although no grandchildren are on the way yet, who knows what may be coming!

2. Dec. 26. What gift do I have to give?

5-Hierophant-Orange Calcite
I’m a teacher, by talent, not by trade. (And by training. I took secondary education in college and was terrible at it. And taught for two years when I was young. And was terrible at it!) My co-workers and tarot friends often tell me I’m good a breaking things down and making them easy to understand. And I enjoy it. I also have fondness for and like to share traditional stories, myths and legends, the way things used to be. And learn about religions and spiritual traditions. I also am moralistic. I’m always deciding if actions are good or bad. And I try to apply that to my life, too. AND Hierophant is my birth card according to numerology.

Our office has “adopted” a middle school, and when the quarantine is over, I want to apply to be a tutor. I’m nervous about the interpersonal part of it, but I know I can help with the academic part of it!

3. Dec. 27. What is my wisdom, and how can I share it?

11-Justice-Aventurine
This ties in with the moralistic thing from the previous stone. I understand karma, cause and effect. It may look like the evil prosper, or that I can get away with something if no one is watching, but there WILL be an effect. Karma is also about positive causes and effects. It’s a cliché that it’s at least as good to give as to receive, but it’s true. Any good that you do comes back to you immediately because you know that you’ve done good, and it feels good and right. No appreciation by others is needed. You can appreciate yourself, and that’s the best kind! As far as sharing, I think the wisdom of justice is best shared by example. Nobody wants to be preached at. But if someone really wants advice on what’s right or wrong, I’m sure to have an opinion!

[Rachelcat]

4. Dec. 28. How can I honor and help the children in my life and the children of the world?

1-Magician-Chiastolite
Well, I don’t have many or any children in my life now. Grandchildren are now in the long-term picture, but that will be 2 or 3 years at least. So maybe Magician is saying be proactive and bring children into my life! There are plenty of kids out there that can use some extra attention or help. I’m thinking again about the tutoring thing. I don’t think I can start something while we’re in quarantine, but now’s the time to get my courage up to volunteer when the time comes! I should be bold and make this happen for myself. I can do it if I try.

[Rachelcat]

5. Dec. 29. What is the state of my spiritual life? What do I have faith in? How can I increase tolerance in myself and the world?

11-Justice-Aventurine
My first repeated stone, and an appropriate one. The one thing that I believe in that never changes is morality. Some things are right and some are wrong. You have to take circumstances into consideration somewhat, but just try to go with “do no harm” to start with. I know I’ve said this before, but you don’t need religion to live a moral life; in fact, religion can be a barrier to morality, especially if you get too fundy. I’m sure that most believers would disagree with me, but even if you believe in a god, religion is for people, not for god. If god is all-powerful, what does he need from us? If he’s all-loving, he wants people to do what he says because it’s good for them, and possibly because brings his children closer to him. Human attempts at justice can be kind of flaky, but religion in the mix can make it more, not less, confusing.

I'll be back to do my full moon reading!

[Rachelcat]

Tuesday
Full moon in Cancer, Cold Moon, Hibernation

Myself: 12-Hanged One-Sodalite
I feel more like I’m stuck than I’m hibernating to stay warm and store energy. We’ve been hibernating too long!

What is my relationship to my boundaries? 19-Sun-Citrine
I’m happy with boundaries. I need them to be happy. And I think they’re working well.

What layers need to be added? 9-Hermit-Fluorite
To flourish in my hibernation, I need to not just be alone, but use it to meditate. It would be a shame to waste this extra time complaining about having extra time!

What energy am I surrounding myself with? 6-Lovers-Rhodochrosite
Maybe I’m getting a bit too much exposure to stories that have an obligatory love interest or romantic happily ever after ending. I’m not sure if any of that is in the cards for me or even right for me. So an intellectual diet is probably in order!

How can I preserve my energy? 11-Justice-Aventurine
Wow, this one is coming up a lot! I need to keep my energy balanced, not expending too much or too little. I know that when I let exercise lag, I get even more sluggish.

The message in the stillness: 8-Fortitude-Tiger Eye
Hibernation is a time to regain and store up your strength for when it’s time to come out of the cave. But for now, it’s still time to keep my strength inside in the stillness.

Hmm, I didn’t know if this spread would work with all majors, but it seemed to read pretty clearly!

Tomorrow is the 6th day of Christmas and a lunar eclipse reading. See you then!

[Rachelcat]

6. Dec. 30. How can I honor my parents and ancestors? How can I be a better parent?

8-Fortitude-Tiger Eye
The time may be coming when I have to step up and take a more active role in taking care of my mom. Not that I think anything bad is going to happen, but, as the youngest, I feel like I’m not really doing my share. At 61 years old, I’m still the baby!

And my son is doing a great job at taking care of me! He was here yesterday fixing up some things around the house. He was never the handy type, but now he’s proud of doing those kinds of things for me. But I need to stay strong and active and in supporting him, too, and not become too dependent on his help. He has his own life to live.

Good advice from the tiger eye!

[Rachelcat]

Wednesday
Lunar Eclipse, Sovereignty

Earth: Current view of myself: 8-Fortitude-Tiger Eye
My attention is on issues of power and control.

Moon: Wisdom of my queen self: 7-Chariot-Amethyst
Now that I understand who’s in control and I have some control, it’s time to move forward and use it.

Sun: How can I shine my light? 6-Lovers-Rhodochrosite
Just because it’s about strength and control doesn’t mean it’s about conflict. I can use my strength to show and experience universal love.

Healing my insecurities: 13-Death-Mahogany Obsidian
Everything ends, even excruciating embarrassment or the fallout of very unfortunate events. They’re over, don’t make them a part of my life forever. The upside of impermanence!

My intuitive wisdom: 3-Empress-Malachite
It’s also not all about psychological factors. It’s important to care about physical things, too, health and nurturing.

Ok, this time all majors was more difficult because more abstract . . .

See you tomorrow with another day of Christmas!

[Rachelcat]

7. Dec. 31. What should I forgive? What should I ask forgiveness for?

9-Hermit-Fluorite
I don’t think there’s anything that anyone’s done this year that I would need to forgive.

So I think I need to need to ask forgiveness for my inability to be present when my son was growing up. I’m an introvert, and I was left alone a lot when I was a kid, which was the way I wanted it! But I didn’t have the inclination and didn’t learn how to be open and present with another person. And with the marriage problems at the time, I was usually also emotionally exhausted. He also spent a lot of time physically alone because we tried to shield him from the constant fighting and misery that was our marriage. Which of course was impossible anyway.

He's mentioned in recent years that it was obvious I couldn’t be present, not because I didn’t want to but because really didn’t know how. Now is not the time to make excuses, or to be upset with myself. Now is the time to ask forgiveness and know that we can move to a better, more emotionally open relationship. I know men aren’t supposed to like to talk about feelings, but what’s right is right, and I think he would appreciate the acknowledgement of his feelings about this issue.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

[Rachelcat]

8. Jan. 1. How can I honor my teachers and spiritual friends? How can I be an effective teacher or mentor?

17-Star-Blue Lace Agate
Kind of like I was saying about god the other day, true spiritual teachers don’t need anything from me, they have everything they need on their own. I can honor them by blessing them and taking advantage of the blessings they give me.

As far as being a good teacher, I can lead by example. If I show how much I love learning and studying, hopefully anyone I’m teaching will catch the enthusiasm. My ex is a science and math teacher, and, although he’s had varying success, I feel like one thing that makes him good at it, especially with middle schoolers, is his enthusiasm. He really enjoys the ins and outs and backwaters of science subjects, and it shows. And many younger students are open to that. Hopefully, I can take a page out of that book, no matter who my students are!

[Rachelcat]

9. Jan. 2. How can I honor and help my friends? How can I be a good friend?

13-Death-Mahogany Obsidian
Let bygones be bygones. I’m not really seeing this as applying directly to the friendships I have, but the advice is always we begin again. No matter what bad things, or good for that matter, have happened between us in the past, the future of our relationship is ahead, to be created and built upon every day.

Maybe this is saying I can be more of a friend to my ex. He’s kind of alone right now, and probably could use a friend. We share some history that’s not all bad things, and we have our son together, even though we don’t always see eye to eye about him either! I’m never negative with him when we talk, but I never call him first or really pay much attention to what he says (except about our son!). Maybe the time has come to support him a bit more than I have been doing. Maybe. I’ll think about it.

[Rachelcat]

(I'm going to continue my 12 Days of Christmas here and start a new deck of the week for week 1, too. 3 days to go, including this one.)

10. Jan. 3. What is my greatest inner strength?

12-Hanged One-Sodalite
Waiting is my greatest strength? Not too exciting. But let me think more about this. Well, I am patient. (Taurus rising.) I guess that’s a strength.

Endurance. Ability to make an uncomfortable situation a spiritual opportunity to practice detachment. I’ve been reading about (but not practicing) meditation lately, and I remember that one of the positive experiences I had with meditation was when I had migraines, pain that was incapacitating and inescapable. Instead of trying to getting out of it, with meditation, I was able to accept it, examine it, and endure it.

(When I have them now, not very often, they're much milder, more like regular headaches, thank goodness!)

Oh yeah, and Hanged One is my year card for the first half of 2021. So maybe it’s auspicious that I got it for a strength. And maybe I’ll figure out more of what it means by my birthday!

[Rachelcat]

11. Jan. 4. What needs balance in my life? How can I increase justice in myself and in the world?

11-Justice-Aventurine
Well, for the justice position I got justice. And it’s the third appearance of Justice in the 12 days. Oh, wait! It’s also stone 11 on the 11th day! I think we have a theme! And the theme is that I will be working on how to work for social justice in the coming year. Providing basic food and shelter is good and necessary, but we also have to address the causes of poverty and inequality of opportunity. Now is the time. We can’t let the last 8 years be a permanent step backwards in our path toward a more just society. It might be a meandering path, but it has to go forward!

Ok, off my soapbox now. I also need to find a way to put some personal effort into this, not just rants. I’ll work on that!

[Rachelcat]

12. Jan. 5. What is the most uncharacteristic thing I can do right now? What extreme in my life is ready to transform into its opposite?

10-Wheel-Botswana Agate
I’m about to stop being buffeted about by change and random happenings and begin to take charge of my life. This is not the time to go with the flow. Or I should go with the deeper flow, not the surface splashing of the waves. I understand that there’s a downside to being too rigid, but commitments and good habits work for me. I need to put them to work for me today!

That’s it. Today is the last day of Christmas. I hope everyone had a good holiday time. Back to the grind, but in an optimistic new year, so maybe it won’t be such a grind after all.

Oh, here is the finished product, all 12 days in a clock. The blank spaces at 3 and 5 are for Justice, also at 11.