That Chipper Bower Bird

This Seven of Pentacles is one of my favourite cards from the Linestrider Tarot.

SEVEN OF PENTACLES
FIVE OF PENTACLES

I was thinking about my sketchbook and how I haven’t been working in it although I have a terrific idea I want to execute, so I drew these two cards in a query about what I should do.

The Seven is about hard work and waiting for fruition. It reminds me of something I saw in a book by Andrew Matthews about waiting for water to boil and thinking that nothing is going on when in actual fact there is, and in an instant the water starts bubbling and boiling even though you were watching it and it was not moving at all. It’s a long-term thing, it doesn’t happen overnight.

Then I see the Five card as a complication of injury, a loss of belief in myself and confidence, and maybe yet another nod to future ill health if I don’t do something now. Maybe all the physical stuff is coming to an end and I can work hard again?

I think when I am in pain I do get disheartened and certainly lose confidence, but the cheery bower bird plugs away, chipping away, adding just the right flowers and decoration.

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While Awake Amid the In-between

SEVEN OF PENTACLES

The noble Elk has come to tell me of in-between energy, the time when you feel restless but nothing is happening or you have to wait for things to happen. The best thing to do is practice “as if” and carry on through your particular limbo. You have to be ready for time to shift and the right time to move along to come.

Funny about this, I was talking to someone about my next sketching project but I said I had to finish the eight images I was supposed to do last year. So I think this is referring to that. Fake it ‘til you make it. I don’t feel like going back and doing these but I want to because I can’t start the new project until I complete this one.

Yes definitely this is what this is about, I must get on but first I must keep doing these other ones and the new growth spurt will occur.

I made some progress yesterday on my “studio” so I think when this is done I will also be ready for my new Sketch 52 project. It looks an awful mess still, but I have that one box on the right to empty and fold and organize and then it’s basically a regular old tiddy-tidy and vacuum. Then I can sit at my drafting board again. Whee!!

Meanwhile I’ve got “Chickasaw” and “Periscope” to do. I have known for months what I’m drawing but just couldn’t make myself do it. Now I have an incentive AND I’ll be able to use the new watercolours and watercolour pencils I bought last November.

Elk says things are moving, shifting, the breakthrough is coming!

 

 

Bower Birds Everywhere

My computer is giving me problems again. Upon checking, I find that it is 5 years old and perhaps should be upgraded. Apart from the Windows Update fiasco that many people are having, I notice that it no longer runs videos online without revving up the CPU and it is missing other things.

However, I got my smartphone hooked up to my micro stereo via Bluetooth, and using wi-fi and an app for my favourite jazz radio station, I can pick it up now all the way from Toronto and stream it through this little stereo system. The Bluetooth/wi-fi connection cuts out now and then and I have to turn it on and off, but otherwise it’s better than the three radio stations I get here. That cheered me up. The Android operating system on the phone reminds me a bit of Windows—not keeping up, not handling the technology etc.

I received the Linestrider Tarot and was chuffed to see that it too has a bower bird like the Animal Totem Tarot.

Build your bowers, protect yourself from Microsoft chaps, you never know what new stunt they’re going to pull to make people upgrade their computers that operated perfectly well until Windows 10 updates were foisted upon them. Unfortunately some of my vital software does not run on a Mac, so I’m stuck.

“Bugger it!” say the bower birds in unison.

Dipping Toes in the Progress Pool

I wrote an interesting letter yesterday where you had to use as many words as possible beginning with the letter “A” and I did that plus a nice drop cap “A” at the beginning with a flower motif in the lower corner too. All hand inked and coloured and I used Diamine Damson in my fountain pen which is a nice greyish purple. Then I mailed it in a handmade envelope with wildflowers inked and coloured on it.

That’s pretty much all I did apart from a 3-hour nap. I’m having a pain flare-up and nerve pain and not feeling well and lacking zip. I need to unpack and organize some more but I hurt, just plain ache all over, which kind of kills any impetus I have for anything.

7 OF PENTACLES (Progress)

This is one of my favourite images in this deck. I never noticed before how the progression is hinted at in the style and expense of the chairs. I need to get a new chair for an old desk, so it makes me smile.

Progress is often a slow thing. One book I have mentions that it’s like water boiling: nothing seems to be happening and then all of a sudden bubbles appear and seconds later the water is roiling and boiling.

This is an auspicious card, things grow, the magic happens, but it takes time. While waiting you can take stock and reevaluate goals and where you’d like to go, look at your dreams, and decide that you’ve done well so far.

If momentum wanes, keep moving, however slowly. Unpack one box, write one letter, draw one picture. Look after the body, eat properly and take care of it. Waves and cycles, even the dips allow growth and creativity, although it doesn’t feel that way.

 

 

Waiting for the Big Push

SEVEN COINS (Seven of Pentacles)

This chap looks very contemplative watching his handsome flock of goats. I got the feeling of respite with this as it’s the weekend and I can have two days off from worry and phoning.

Mention is made in the book that the shepherd is “…preparing for whatever struggle may come next in his life.” He has this lingering feeling of getting nowhere and feeling anxious, the negative aspect of this card, but really there is always an obstacle or challenge as you move along in life. The trick is to take the time for yourself so that you can prepare for what needs to be done, prepare for the big push.

One of the things I’ve learned over the last difficult year, is that sleep can do wonders to prepare you. Very often we are simply exhausted, needing a break or rest and then we can handle most things. I remembered a biblical quote which has been in my thoughts during the last three months: “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” from Matthew 6:34.

Wise council from centuries ago.

 

 

Cerberus Receives an Apple

VII OF CROWS (Seven of Pentacles)

I couldn’t sleep until almost 4 a.m., so slept in until 11 a.m. and I was pleased that I finally felt better. We drove to a bigger town to try yet again to hunt someone up to repair our seal on the garage. The we shopped around and priced some things for our bathroom renovation. I didn’t want to, having felt ill all week, but the anxiety of not being prepared for the contractor was bothering me, so this perseverance, this chipping away at pricing things and making notes was helpful and tied into the card today.

After accomplishing that I went to Michael’s and used a 50% off coupon to buy the Safari Chimera that Cerberus had been hankering for. Well, the spouse bought it for me for an early Christmas present but it was Cerberus I was thinking of you understand. That was my nurturing today, and the spouse bought me an iced coffee as a treat on the way home which was nice as my throat was sore.

Right before dinner our neighbour came over to discuss grading and putting gravel on our driveway. We phoned another contractor four times and he obviously doesn’t want to do it, so hopefully our neighbour can help. I’d rather give him the money anyway.

All in all, not a bad day. Right Cerberus?

Yup, everybody needs a pal.

 

 

How Much of the Same Thing Do You Need?

Daily Draw January 9th, 2013

SEVEN OF PENTACLES

I have pulled this card before in this deck.

It’s a card that says wait and watch usually, as if you would need patience, perhaps at the end of a project while waiting for inspiration to grow for another. But I also like this as an example of contemplating what you have done and what you have. Question what you need, or realize that you don’t need anything—that sort of reflection.

I was thinking about that yesterday and said to my husband I have every supply and book imaginable, so I can usually start things without needing to buy supplies. There is a relief in that but it can become burdensome if you buy too much.

Last night I was reading some blogs by doll collectors. Many seem to buy the same doll sculpt with different hair or colour of eyes, but it’s the same face. It gets a bit creepy when you see 8 of these clones standing together. I found that with the Tonner fashion dolls, people would have glass cases full of the same doll in different dresses, but the same face and different hair. It’s like the girl in this card with all those shopping bags that look the same. Different bag colour, same shape, same pentacles. How much of the same thing do you need?