Channeling
I'm in the way of feeling like She's talking to me, like She's in me, like She wonders at my typing hands but has no problem sending the right signals to the right fingers so they hit the right keys.
I'm in the way of knowing that all love springs forth from a single source, then spreads to fill the empty spaces that surround us, that this bounty is available to anyone who would reach out a hand and harvest some, that it is like air and can be breathed.
But that does not mean shiny happy people all the time, it does not mean that everyone is to be loved, because some people are far too dangerous to keep close, and we know that and we know them and we do what we can to grow the vines of our lives away from them.
I want to tell you to never be afraid to reach out to love, whenever you need it, for it is always there for you, flowing from Her into the physical space we occupy. We are given great gifts, we summon the strong, strange, true realities that encapsulate each one of us.
Shared reality, we come together in a point we both know and can understand. Aphrodite understands how multidimensional we really are, even if we don't have all the paperwork settled yet. We exist as great cosmic beings; we are tiny little mortals made of meat. Both truths are held equally, with no contradiction.
And love is part of both experiences. We experience great cosmic love - Aphrodite Ourania, Aphrodite of the Heavens, Aphrodite of the Highest Expression of Love. We experience meaty mortal love - Aphrodite Pandemos, Aphrodite of the People, Aphrodite of the Commons.
Both of these aspects, ALL of Her aspects, exist as one, and each exists on their own, and they flow through both of our selves, cosmic and mortal.
I thrive through Her gentle watering and yes, even Her harsh pruning when necessary and I am grateful for both, both, both. She brings me to the heights but never lets me fall, always easing my way back down to normality with Her generosity and care.
Rely on Her for love, let Her send Her flows into you, and you will be enhanced, enlightened, but even She will tell you that you don't need to be empowered. You already have that power. It is yours already, a right given by birth and thus impossible to erase. It's a truth that society tries to erase from our knowing, and it causes a great deal of pain as we awaken to it, but once we realize it, nothing, absolutely nothing can stop us.
We have that power. We have the power to love ourselves, to love the world. This is a miraculous blessing and we are invited to make the most of it. We are invited to carry these messages forward into the hurting society that surrounds us and heal when and where we can. This is what love asks of us.
Love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night.
-Queen & David Bowie, Under Pressure
We are all under pressure in this modern age. We are all tired, sore, dealing with complex situations that often get the better of us. When you are given the choice in your day to day life, choose the way of love.
So I asked my deck, what about, what about, what about love?
The Ace of Cups which gives us permission, eager permission, to not only have feelings, but share feelings. The Ace of Cups, an invitation to copiously allow our feelings to flow. I now like to say that the god-hands in the Aces of the tarot are Aphrodite's own hand, but I feel it is especially true for the Ace of Cups, which dares us to feel anything and everything at any level we need to.
We are given our feelings to experience, not to stuff away. Ideally, we process the more difficult ones like anger and fear in a healthy way that does not harm anyone else, and we give ourselves grace for feeling them in the first place. They are given to us for a reason, they bloom from our hearts with a purpose. And we can use them as tools to unlock the various gates in our path as we journey on.
The Ace is calling us to be free with it this week, it's asking that we step out in boldness and use our emotions like a set of watercolor paints on the finely-textured paper of life. When you remember that all colors are necessary, all colors are right in their own time and in their own way, you know you are well-equipped to deal with almost anything that comes your way.
If you find yourself having trouble living with open emotions, try to relax into them, express them privately until you are more used to them. Use them to make art, write, sing, paint, or something more physical like exercise, dance, hiking, cleaning. Experiment with fashioning them into tools for this or that need, learn to exert the force of your will on your own emotions to shape them into glorious beings of light and darkness.
See how plentiful the water is within the cup, see how it overflows and feeds the waters below. Consider that all water in the tarot is sourced from The High Priestess, and that this water is no less sacred. All knowledge, all comprehension, all all all exists in this water. And if we bathe in it, we stand to emerge clean and shining with emotion and a whole new understanding of ourselves and the feelings of the people around us.
Imagine what it would be like to lay among the lilies and lily pads, with this blessed water raining down on you. It surely must be like heaven. To be cradled by the very essence of emotion, to float amongst hope and joy and bliss and wonder, to be agitated by anger and given resolve by righteous fury. Feel. Feel all of the things. You have divine permission to open yourself to the purest source of feeling and let it flow and shift all throughout your body. What does that emotion feel like to your sense of touch?
A journal prompt, if you're interested: what emotion comes to your mind first when you close your eyes and consider the Ace of Cups? Write about why you think that is so, and explore what it means to feel the emotion you chose.
Don't forget, you can still grab my book of 20 free tarot spreads! They work beautifully with tarot OR oracle decks and cover a wide range of potential uses!
In Her blessed name,
J
