Cards for the Day: 8 of Cups/Queen of Swords: Meditate to Increase Energy and Focus, Then Focus on Truth

It’s still a difficult time for many of us. Our energy is dragging and we still have much to do. I’m going to put up both the Yoga Tarot version of the Eight of Cups and the Rider-Waite version, because I think there is a message here if you compare both cards. I think the Eight of Cups is a generally positive card. We may have far to go, but we’re on our feet and still moving along. Still, it’s hard to keep going when your energy is low, and eventually you start to have brain fog. There are two ways to increase your energy at times like this. The first way is to stop and rest. Obviously.

But sometimes rest isn’t an option, and with all due respect, sometimes lack of rest isn’t the problem. Sometimes the problem is that our energy is all over the place, scattered, like our thoughts. If that is the case, the solution is staring at you out of the eyes of the woman on the Yoga Tarot’s Eight of Cups card. Pull your energy back in. Call your spirit home. Meditate, but don’t just sit there watching your thoughts dart all over the place. This time, visualize roots going down into the earth. Think about where you are in terms of your geographic and chronological locations. Be in this moment and this place, even if you have to say to yourself, “I am at home, I am sitting on a cushion on a wood floor, the air around me is cool enough but outside, it is very hot,” or “I am outside, I am overheating, I can feel sweat trickling down my back and sides, my legs are sticking to the seat in my car.” Or whatever. Just, if you must think, think about where and when you are, specifically. Be where you are, NOT for some arcane philosophical Zen reason, but because being where you are will bring your energy and your focus home, along with your thoughts — and because you need that energy and focus, right now, today.

Whew! You’re already tired (or at least I am!), but we’re not done. Second card for today: the Queen of Swords. To accomplish what needs to be done today, turn to the truth. Absolute honesty. Don’t turn away from the truth simply because it may be negative. See it for what it is, like the Queen of Swords. Respond to truth, even if it is negative, from the heart (nonjudgmentally), and speak your own truth. (Do you see how the Queen is wearing green, the color of the heart chakra, and blue, the color of the throat chakra?) Don’t rely on subtlety or innuendo today. Mercury retrograde is getting too close and you may be misunderstood. Keep it simple, straight, true, direct, honest, and from the heart. Keep it real.

And listen to the truth when others are real with you. Listen to messages from the spirit (do you see the birds on the branch next to the Queen of Swords’ ear?) and from intuition (do you see the lotus blossoms raining down on the yogini on the Eight of Cups card? In this deck, lotus blossoms represent love and intuition — here, they are loving messages from your intuition).

I don’t mean to sound like I’m lecturing, but I know many people out there are going through a rough time, and I think that these are the tools we need today: Energy. Focus. Truth. Love.

Easy, right? 🙂