Welcome to another of my guide Melinda’s Friday messages about how to live life. If you’d like to know more about her and what she has to say you can find more in the first post in this series.

Are you ready to chose love? Melinda’s Friday Message

I am glad that many of you have been finding comfort in the conversation we have been having. I know that many of you are also dealing with issues of the heart. That you are in relationships that are not working well, or just have not found love yet. While money troubles bring about panic and fear, trouble with love brings despair and destroys self-confidence.

It is ultimately lack of confidence that is the root of trouble in love. I am not talking about the confidence to approach an attractive person and speak to them. I am not talking about what Andrew says is known now as “having game.” I do not care whether you are a man or a woman, confidence in yourself and your ability to make the right choice is the first and last problem that you will have around love.

For those who read the cards this all comes down to the Lovers card.

Love is— in the end—a choice. It is a choice to be open to it and it is a choice to stay in it. Love is a matter of boundaries, limits, agreements and perseverance – so romantic. People have always talked about finding the right one, about being swept away, about what their heart wants. Let me tell you that your heart does not know what you need. It can only really tell you if you are happy with what you have.

What kind of love life are you choosing?

Are you choosing to wait for a guaranteed success – it will never come. There are no guarantees about love. Everyone has been hurt. Everyone has had failures. If you allow these to close you off from love they will also close you off from the world. If you are closed to love from fear you will never be able to be open with family, or friends—let alone find a new lover.

Are you waiting for the perfect person to appear? It rarely happens that love knocks on our door. Most of the time it is found when you are busy living your life and not really looking. Nothing in this world is perfect. We are all human and no matter how deep our understanding of ourselves and the nature of the world we remain utterly and terrifyingly human. Accept it about yourself and others before you waste your life.

Are you staying with what you know even though it is not making you happy? This is the only time when your heart knows better. If you are unhappy – then you are unhappy and need to admit it. This is the hardest part for people. What do you tolerate and what do you walk away from.

Look at the card. Are you choosing happiness or unhappiness. It is an either-or decision and it is written in plain sight. Look at the women the man chooses between there is no mistaking the look on their faces. Your heart knows.

Thank you for listening.
Melinda

PS If you would like to receive my guidance and advice on your life please schedule a reading with Andrew. I am always speaking with him when the cards are on the table.

If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy:
Interviews about change with Nancy Antenucci
Truth & Honesty – Part II

The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also get connect with Andrew on facebook,twitter, or linkedin or listen to my co-creation – The Toronto Tarot Portal Podcast online or via iTunes.

Love image by Aunt Owwee

Welcome to another of my guide Melinda’s Friday messages about how to live life. If you’d like to know more about her and what she has to say you can find more in the first post in this series.

Flow is the Key to Success – Melinda’s Friday Message

I want to talk today about building up a life. About focusing on creating growth, and since many of you are needing money, about bringing money into your life. It is important for me to remind you, or if you are new to my words, to send you back to re-read the ideas I shared with you on not needing healing.

First, let me say that luck, magic, and wishing have no place in our discussion. If you have success with these you do not need to worry about money. Some people are born in auspicious ways and life just unfolds for them – do not envy them, and even more importantly, do not try to learn from them. There is little a lucky person can teach you about making money.

Second, let me say that taking responsibility for your actions and focusing on keeping what you have built alive is crucial. People who talk about not being able to keep money in their pocket are fooling themselves. There is only one way to keep money and that is to not spend it, or let anyone else get it.

Money comes from movement and action. Money comes from building and expanding life in a way that is not rash or hurried. The roots of success must grow deep into the earth in order to weather life’s ups and downs. Money comes from work and effort, from time spent at your craft, or profession, and hours working in the dirt. Money comes from getting dirty hands and soiled clothes. It comes from calluses built slowly year after year. Ask yourself now, while no one is there to listen to your answer “Are you ready to work?” Be honest with yourself so you do not waste your time, or anyone else’s.

Money and success come from the flowing of water. We should talk about the 3 of cups here. It is a card where the rain that falls on the mountains gathers and forms rivers which grow strong and powerful as they reach the sea. Nothing can resist water for long. This card is the falling water on the top of those mountains, near or far, that nourishes everything that comes after.

If you wish your life to be a steady flowing river you must spy where in your life it is just beginning to move and then help it along. It is the smallest of actions at the earliest of stages that makes the most difference. Where are you on the river of your life? What work can you do there to make more flow later on? What tasks can you do to clear the stream so it may move faster? Where can the stream support a mill so you can harness its power without damming it and causing hardship upstream?

Nurture and tend to the flow. That is how growth happens.

While you dream and build also save for the drought so you can nurture and tend to yourself when the river runs dry.

Thanks for listening
Melinda

If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy:
How Bob Fell off the Earth and Became the Fool
The Life of a Fortune Teller – Melinda’s Friday Message

The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also get connect with Andrew on facebook,twitter, or linkedin or listen to my co-creation – The Toronto Tarot Portal Podcast online or via iTunes.

Mountain river image by Steve-H

May 3rd saw the opening of the first Orisha themed show at The Hermit’s Lamp in Toronto. It was amazing to see a blending of traditional bead work alongside more contemporary paintings.

Click on the pictures for larger images.

Ayoluwa Taylor – Beaded Mirror for Ochun Ibu Ana

Oya by Lydia Knox

Moyuba Orishas by Fleur Hanlon McGregor
$15 each. Approx. 2.5″

Instinct vs. Reason by Kit Currie
8feet x 4 feet – $700

Yemaya and Olokun by Tasha Menary

Egun: Burnt Offerings – Rootwomin
5×7 photo – $125

Offerings To Oya – Rootwomin
5×7 photo – $125

She touches my cheek and smiles. By Xris Kukiel
$505

Egun: We stand on the shoulders of those who went before By Andrew McGregor
Guache 5×7 – $40

Eshu by Andrew McGregor
Guache 5×7 – $40

The world is Born from One By Andrew McGregor
Guache 5×7 – $40

A dog has four legs but walks only one road By Andrew McGregor
Guache 5×7 – $40

Eshu Laroye by Monica Bodirsky
$500 – Oil Painting

Beth Peart Weekes – Ileeshin gogo for Nana Buruku
$175

Beth Peart Weekes – Brazilian Style Crown for Nana Buruku
$175

Beth Peart Weekes – Brazilian Style Crown for Yewa
$175

Beth Peart Weekes – Wand for Osayin
$150

(Left to Right) Ayoluwa Taylor, Andrew McGregor, Monica Bodirsky, Beth Peart Weekes, Lydia Knox, and (front) Kit Currie at the reception.

If you enjoyed this post please check out the beautiful work from other shows we have hosted.

The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also get connect with Andrew on facebook,twitter, or linkedin or listen to my co-creation – The Toronto Tarot Portal Podcast online or via iTunes.

Welcome to another of my guide Melinda’s Friday messages about how to live life. If you’d like to know more about her and what she has to say you can find more in the first post in this series.

Is there something wrong with you? Really wrong with you?

When I was reading for people they would arrive in a state of emergency. Panic would have a tight grip on their hearts and they wanted me to tell them the thing to do to fix their lives. I am not judging the scale of their struggles or yours, but most often it was an exaggeration.

What a place to start a reading from. “My whole world is falling apart you have to help me fix it.” Yet when I looked into the cards what I saw was less than that. I would see struggle, challenge, obstacles (mostly of their own doing), but catastrophe, or imminent death – never. Catastrophe sneaks up on you and you do not see it coming. Death can be sneaky, or obvious, but if you see it coming it does not produce the kind of anxiety I am talking about.

In my day my competition was very good at feeding people’s fears and anxieties. Talk of curses, evil, the devil, infidelity, and conspiracy all served to feed into this ‘end of the world’ thinking. I know you are too sophisticated to believe in such things now, but I tell you that if you look around you will see the same thing going on.

How many places can you find people talking about healing? Healing their love, their life, their soul, their money and so on. Is the modern world so rife with viruses of all sorts? It is the same game that everyone played 300 years ago when I was alive. Come feed your trouble in the guise of doing something to fix it and all will be well. I will make you a deal – I’ll tell you everything you need to know right now today and at no charge to you and you can just get on with your life.

I know many of you also like the cards so let me tell you that this is all about the 9 of Swords. If you do not read the cards it is no matter as life is life whether through the eye of tarot, astrology, or your priest’s lectures.

There are three things to change when you are in this situation. The first is to stop listening to everyone. Nobody knows what it is you need better than you. The question of “what should I do?” is looking in the wrong direction. The question should be “What do I know I should be doing, but am not?” Never in all my years did I read for someone who did not know what they should do next – they just did not want to do it. It is almost always that simple. Do not get me wrong – that I did and can see farther than the people who came to see me – I did not, but when life is in turmoil asking about the future is only a cry for comfort and guarantees when there is lots of work to be done.

The second thing to do is to focus on what is real. Emotions are useless when this situation arises. They will only feed the tumultuousness inside. Look at the actual details of the situation. Every time your heart says that things are not possible tell it to be silent. The mind and the heart need to agree in time, but when things start to look like they are falling apart it is time to turn away from the heart and its sentiments – they will only cloud life.

The third thing to do, and the hardest for most people, is to ask yourself where you failed. What did you not think of? What warnings did you ignore? What did you tolerate for too long? These are the things to look at and learn from. The roots of anything but acts of nature and God are always in our choices. These cannot be healed, but must be learned from. Let me remind you that we have already asked the heart to be silent. Guilt, shame and other feelings have no use in this process. There are only previous choices and outcomes that need to be evaluated.

The 9 of Swords is a card of troubles we either bring on ourselves or allow others to foist upon us. When this card comes in a reading you must take responsibility and move on. It is a card that requires penitence in the person getting the reading for any correction of the course of their life to happen. Without that nothing will happen.

Healing is for the sick and dying. If that is you, I hope you find healing, if it is not – change your own life. There is no easy way forward for anyone and looking for one only makes the work to be done harder.

Thank you for listening.
Melinda

If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy:
Is your life a car wreck? Or a classic to be restored?
Stop being all alone.

The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also get connect with Andrew on facebook,twitter, or linkedin or listen to my co-creation – The Toronto Tarot Portal Podcast online or via iTunes.

Pharmacy bottle images by Newtown graffiti

The Fire tends to All.

In the tarot the Fool is often seen as the beginning. Often numbered zero, the Fool is both the protagonist of the story and its commencing. Being overly curious though, I often wonder what comes before the fool. Of course I know that the tarot is more like a wheel, where one cycle ends and we find ourselves as the fool again, but let me tell you a story.

Imagine the Fool before he left on his journey. Perhaps it’s not even fair to call him the Fool yet – let’s call him Bob. So as I said imagine Bob before the journey, before the leap, before he even steps out of his own front door — sitting at home in his coziest chair. Bob’s dog, Petunia, is asleep at his feet, a cup of coffee beside him. The Sun is warm and streaming into the room from a nearby window. You know the perfect Sunday afternoon with nothing to do and nowhere to be.

Perhaps Bob is thinking about what to make for dinner, or whether a new episode of The Good Wife will be on tonight. More likely he is not thinking about much of anything. At times like this being in the now is much easier. The question that always plagues me about Bob is “Why does he leave the comfort of his home in the first place?”

I imagine a small spark floating just as gently as that sunny day up and away from the fire place. Lazily it wafts across the room and lands on Bob’s dog. Petunia yelps startling Bob who drops his coffee in his lap. Petunia circles a few times and realizes she is okay, but has to pee. Bob, no longer feeling so relaxed decides that now is as good a time for the daily walk as any.

While changing his clothes for something drier Bob realizes tomorrow is Monday. The weekend is not over, but it feels like it. With a bit of a grump brewing, as it often does later in the day on most Sundays, Bob fetches the leash, a small pack, and heads out the door with Petunia.

The Sun shine and singing of birds helps Bob lift his spirits some, but there is no doubt that the deep relaxation of earlier is now out of reach. A butterfly floats by and Bob decides a good long walk might be in order. Heading home to cook supper is just not that appealing right now, so the park it is. Down the road, past the coffee shop, and into the park Bob walks with a storm cloud brewing above his head.

His thoughts turn towards his coming work day. The stack of projects he has on his desk, which never seems to get any smaller, fills him with dread. “I mean I only really took this job because Susan thought it was a good career move.” Realizing it had been a year since Susan and Bob broke up only creates more turbulence within Bob’s already aching heart. “Really it was her Dad’s fault that they split up if he had not bad-mouthed Bob so much things would have been perfect,” Bob muttered to himself. He knew it was a lie but it was better than facing the truth.

“The truth…” he started. “The truth Petunia is I hate my life. Maybe it would be better if we just kept walking. What do you say there girl – you and me on a grand adventure. Maybe we shouldn’t even go back to the house.”

And that is how Bob fell off the earth and became the Fool. You see fire is the thing that makes everything else move. What makes water boil? Heat. What makes the winds blow? Heat. What makes the earth itself move? Heat. Whether a tiny spark, the heat of the Sun or the molten core of our planet it is fire that makes everything move everything expand and grow. The Fool journeys from our little story to meet and become all the rest of the tarot characters. Like the big bang they say started our universe, fire moves us all forward into expansion and eventually to fulfillment.

Fire also tends to move us to completion. Bob might get to the end of the park, see a friend, go to the pub and then go home. Fire may destroy his illusions and leave him with the truth that his life is better than he thought and taking up coin collecting will fix everything. It might be just that simple for Bob. Or perhaps he walks to the docks, gets a job on a freighter and finds some tropical paradise and lives out his days fishing and giving tours to the tourists. Fire will burn away everything until the stark undeniable truth remains. In our Fool’s journey we will all find our level, make our peace, or reach that point where the fire has nothing left to burn. We will find our truth and our place. Well at least until the next spark comes floating along.

To see the next post in this series of Tarot blog hop please click through to Koneta Bailey.
If you hit a bump in your blog hop you can find a master list of participants, and your way back on here.
What is the Tarot Blog Hop? This sprung up out of an offhand remark made by Stephanie Arwen Lynch on her Facebook page. The Tarot Blog Hop is when a group of bloggers all blog on the same question/topic and link to the blogger before them and the blogger after them to create a Tarot Train.

The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also connect with Andrew on facebook, twitter, or linkedin or listen to his co-creation – The Toronto Tarot Portal Podcast online or via iTunes.

Sleeping dog image by Peter Hellberg.

1. Stella at US Games USGS blog  - Link
2. Andrew McGregor at The Hermit’s Lamp – Link
3. Koneta Bailey at New Path tarot – Link
4. Joy Vernon – Link 
5. Hilary Parry at Tarot by Hilary – Link
6. Matt Williams at Personal tarot with Matt – Link
7. Jera Babylon Rootweaver at Tarot Taxi – Link 
8. Arwen Lynch at Tarot by Arwen – Link
9. Alison Cross at Tarot Thrones – Link
10. Aisling the Bard at Tarot Witchery – Link 
11. Donna L. Faber – Link 
12. Carolyn Cushing at Art of Change tarot – Link  
13. Claire-Marie Le Normand at Beauty History Magic – Link
14. Jordan Hoggard – Link
15. Rosered at Rosered Tarot – Link
16. TABI Tarot – Link
17. Mary Caesto at Harmonic Spirit – Link
18. Jaymi Elford at tarot Inspired Life – Link 
19. Zanna Starr at Tarot Notes – Link 
20. Jennifer Mitchell at Tarot Dynamo – Link  
21. John Marani at Johnnie Two Brows – Link
22. Donnaleigh – Link
23. Melanie Howard at Wayward Tarot – Link
24. La Vonne F. N. Tobias – Link
25. Morgan Drake Eckstein at Gleaming from the Dawn – Link
26. Louise Underhill at Priestess Tarot – Link
27. Amy Lamash at Hudson Valley Tarot – Link
28. Chloe McCracken at Inner Whisper – Link 
29. Kareena Narwani at Kareena Tarot – Link
30. Carla Tate at Rowan tarot – Link
31. Ania Marczyk – Link
32. Marilyn Shannon at Kingston Psychic – Link
33. Gary Ormond at The seers Cave – Link
34. Amethyst Mahoney at Amethyst Tarot – Link

Are you interested in joining the next Bloghop? Come find the group on Facebook.

Welcome to another of my guide Melinda’s Friday messages about how to live life. If you’d like to know more about her and what she has to say you can find more in the first post in this series.

Melinda’s Life

Andrew has been getting questions from some of you about who I am. Let me say again that it is not really that important. However, I am going to tell you so you can put that question aside and listen to the messages.

You can call me Melinda as I said. This is the name I want to be known by. It is not the name I was born with and used in my lifetime. My birth name and family name are personal and I will not share them. In some ways they are all I have left of my life.

I was born on February 13th 1696 in France. I was born where my family was camped. I have no hometown. The towns that were nearby are so small and forgotten now that they no longer exist. If you wanted to say I was born a few days ride from Marseille that would be the most accurate.

My family, according to my mother, had its roots in the Middle East. She used to like to say we were Persian though I have no real sense of the validity of her story. My mother worked as a fortune teller as did her mother, and (so I was told) her mother before her. I learned to read the cards from my mother and the deck I had was given to me by her. It was a Marseille deck in the style of what Andrew refers to as the Noblet Marseille deck.

My Grandmother did not read the cards so how Mother came to I am not sure. My Grandmother read palms, coffee, and knew a lot about reading the stars. I learned these things from her too. My mother never spoke of how she came to have the cards or how she learned to read them and no one else in my family did either. That is her story to tell should she ever want to.

My family lived as I lived as an adult. Travelling from place to place. Telling fortunes. Offering healing and advice on the spiritual matters that the Church chose not to acknowledge. I want to be clear that although people often referred to us as being like the Romany we were not related to them in any way.

I lived a long life and travelled throughout Europe, the Mediterranean and even to the Middle East. I spoke many languages – at least enough to work my trade. I loved, had a family of my own, grew old and the rest you know. That is enough of me for this week.

However, I also hear comments about my bluntness and challenging nature. I wish to speak to that before I go. I am not challenging or abrupt – life is. When you are no longer alive you will have a clear view of the cut and dry nature of life. I speak life as it is, not wrapped in fancy words or ideas meant to take your money from you and give you false hope. I speak now so you may know the things that are most important about how to live so you do not waste your years, get fooled by charlatans, or live behind your own lies. I share my words so you may enjoy being alive as it is a great treasure and incredibly fleeting.

Thank you for listening
Melinda

I have been asked not to answer questions for Melinda but if you leave a comment she will get back to you.

If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy:
Is your life a car wreck? Or a classic to be restored?
Stop being all alone.

The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also get connect with Andrew on facebook,twitter, or linkedin or listen to my co-creation – The Toronto Tarot Portal Podcast online or via iTunes.

I think that one of the best ways to understand the cards is to bring your own creativity into the mix. Through our own creativity we bypass our logic and get straight into that intuitive emotional part of ourselves that is so helpful in building narrative and tying readings together. Often the biggest challenge in getting the art flowing is just to get started. For me, my mind often says that doing a whole deck is too much and that I am not skilled enough. To this I say so what. Just use this idea as an exercise and don’t commit to anything more than trying it out. Do it just for yourself and don’t share your creations if you aren’t happy with them – I often don’t.

If you want to play along the idea is really simple – pick any card, use any medium, and just make something. I often find working as fast as I can helps bypass my inner critic and logic. Below are a few images I have liked that I have made while exploring the cards.

Created at a workshop with Marilyn Shannon.

I’d love to see what you make if you want to share. Please post a link in the comments.
Andrew

The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also get connect with Andrew on facebook,twitter, or linkedin or listen to my co-creation – The Toronto Tarot Portal Podcast online or via iTunes.

Welcome to another of my guide Melinda’s Friday messages about how to live life. If you’d like to know more about her and what she has to say you can find more in the first post in this series.

Melinda’s message

So the first thing I want to talk about this week is why I am speaking about the harder elements of life and the cards first. Why am I so focused on the hardship of life? I can tell you that it is because I am speaking to people who live and work in the world. If you do not understand what I am saying now do not worry keep reading if it feels right to you and if it does not feel right just let it go and move along.

Have you seen the Queen of Wands? You can tell who she is because she is in charge. In my experience she also likes to let people know she is in charge. look at that club she carries. You would be a fool to think for a moment that she will not use it if you cross her. People fear her, but that is not the same as listening to her. You can almost hear her thinking “What good is all this power if people do not do what I say?”

Despite the fact that she has all the outward signs of power, or the fact that she can be vengeful, she is not a tyrant. It is the fact that what she says is different from what she feels that causes some of the trouble. She is a woman full of dichotomy. If you make it past the wall of defenses she is the best friend in the world. If you make it over the moat, the walls and past the sentries you will find her warm and inviting.

Do you see how she is not living and working in the world? She is one of the hardest kinds of people to reach.

I can hear some of you rising to her defense right now. “She is not so bad.” “Is this card not also about other things?” Stop and listen to her tale and you will see that she is, in fact, withdrawn from the world.

Imagine how a person who loves deeply grows up in the world. They are at the mercy of fate. Either they are lucky, are raised in a good home, and find true love and live happily ever after, or they suffer greatly due to the overflowing of their own heart and its failure to find happiness. The first life never leads a person to become the Queen of wands, but the second often does. A lifetime of hopes dashed leads to a heart full of fear. In the Queen this fear has filled her belly with an anger that anyone who crosses her must endure.

Am I still off the mark? I think a better question is how do we redeem this Queen? It is not enough that she be surrounded by love and kindness. her distrust and defenses will not allow it in. She must meet with vulnerability of the most defenseless kind. Only in something so small and soft can she find the strength to change from fiery, wrathful beast to defending something, or usually someone, else.

Let me speak it out more simply: it is only the presence of a child that can help her awaken from her dilemma. Now this may be her children, or others’, often it is only with grandchildren that she can find the openness this redemption requires, a pet sometimes, or occasionally a cause. Despite all her strength there is nothing inside her strong enough to bridge her walled off heart into the world. Are you like her? If so ask yourself what in your world is worthy of the great font of love you hold within you? Find that and build a city around it. To everything else just turn your back.

Another point I want to make is that every card applies to you. I do not care if you are a man or woman – we all have this Queen within us. Just as all the cards are our life and the world and more. Why am I speaking of the hardest parts of life and being alive in these messages? Why not of love, life and fulfillment? It is because first the hardness of life must be cracked open. First the sorrow must be drained. First we must own our flawed humanity before we can truly learn. As I said I am only speaking to those who are willing to live and work in the world. True treasures are found in the earth with much effort.

Thank you for your time.
Melinda

I have been asked not to answer questions for Melinda but if you leave a comment she will get back to you.

If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy:
Bathe in the Rainbow of Renewal
Becoming the Queen of Swords

The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also get connect with Andrew on facebook,twitter, or linkedin or listen to my co-creation – The Toronto Tarot Portal Podcast online or via iTunes.

Welcome to another of my guide Melinda’s Friday messages about how to live life. If you’d like to know more about her and what she has to say you can find more in the first post in this series.

Melinda’s message – What nourishes you?

The eight of cups is a card with nothing inside it. The cups are empty. Drained of whatever refreshment they once provided. That is the snag, the trap, or the hook of this card – there is nothing inside. Often people go back again and again to the wells of their life looking for what has fulfilled them in the past and then when they are empty they are lost.

Has your life, your family, or your work become empty? It always amazed me how people of strength and vigour – hardworking practical people – would arrive at my table and be shocked and immobilized by the emptiness in their lives. Can you imagine the weeping of farmers sitting across from me when the earth does not repay their labours? Sometimes the river runs dry and the rains don’t come. Sometimes the harvest is lean. Sometimes the field will no longer grow food. Worse still for the mothers whose progeny failed to hold life tight enough? What can anyone say to help them find renewal when their life has run dry and they are faced with only the emptiness inside. What did I say when faced with these people?

When the cups are empty where do we look?

In my life I moved from place to place. I stayed somewhere until the well started to dry up and then moved on. I was a nomad. I did not expect to find a place where I would stay and live my life. As I travelled I would forage. Fruit here, berries there, roots and other things all found its way into my pot as I travelled – along with fish, rabbits, and birds. The country side always provided. Perhaps my next time through a town would be more fruitful and perhaps it would not.

It is time for a journey when this card shows up. What you are looking for will not be found at home. There is no use checking the larder or root cellar – they have been emptied. Staring into the empty vessel is of no use. Instead it is time to broaden our gaze. This is a card that cannot be solved by small steps or straying cautiously into the spaces between home and away.

Whether you find yourself in this place due to loss, tragedy, or your own doings matters little in the end. When you are in the between spaces in your life it becomes time to forage. What is growing that you are not looking at? Where is there nourishment that you would not choose to eat, but that can sustain you? All around these eight empty cups grows vines and flowers. Life persists in the face of their emptiness. Despite their emptiness.

When someone sat before me full of emptiness I always showed them where life was still fighting. With my words I fed them some of what I had to eat and sent them on a journey. I unhooked them from their life and showed them what was vibrant and alive around them – around the empty cups. Some failed to look up, some did not go far enough to find renewal, and some found fertile ground on their journey. After reading for people in these situations I would often sit by a stream in the heat of the afternoon and watch the life flowing around me. The birds, insects, and plant life all alive and filling the air with sound. Life hides in the foliage of this card. Life waits in the foliage of your life when your cups are empty. Stop looking into the empty well – before you fall in – and walk down the road and into the woods where life is worth living.

Thank you for your time.
Melinda

I have been asked not to answer questions for Melinda but if you leave a comment she will get back to you.

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The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also get connect with Andrew on facebook,twitter, or linkedin or listen to my co-creation – The Toronto Tarot Portal Podcast online or via iTunes.

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