I've been sitting for a while with the shape of this particular reading because well I've been sitting with,
As I'm sure many of us have been,
The shape of the world as it is and so particular ancestors of mine have come through and invited this or offered this spread for our reading.
So just a content warning here,
Although this reading is intended to be empowering and often is,
These readings are empowering,
They do give hope,
They are powerful and something magic happens.
The shape of the spread does invite us to confront the nature of the times we're living in.
So if you are someone who currently has your nervous system kind of activated by all the things that are going on in the world,
If you're not feeling that you want to explore that at this moment,
You can always come back later to the recording and I will also offer you some other more gentle practices which you can of course add to this reading.
So I just want to put that that content warning in there.
So we're living an interesting time so I think we can all agree that things seem to be happening at a pace and I know that a lot of the people here,
A lot of the people are my students,
People that I work with are dealing with the realities of kind of lots of different things going on in the world which are very very challenging and I've been thinking about this for for a while and thinking about you know where can we look for sources of support,
Of hope,
Of inspiration,
Ways forward,
Ways to react that are that are helpful and useful within our spiritual lives.
You know how do we confront living in times which seem to be interesting I think I believe is the word for it and so I called in some of my ancestors.
Now I have five ancestors in particular who lived through World War II so you know that that sort of finished 80 years ago and they all lived through those times,
They all did different things and they all lived on into old age and so they survived those times and they went on to have full lives after surviving those times and to thrive you know they all had families that's why I'm here now and they all lived to old age.
So I wanted to invite them in and invite in any advice that they might have from their experience of living through life-changing,
World-changing,
Society-changing events.
Now at the same time I would like to be really clear there isn't something special about you know my personal ancestors that that meant that they survived when other people didn't.
There was an element of chance and our first position here in the spread is chance because of where they were born and who they were born which is entirely chance they had a greater chance of living through surviving World War II than a Jewish family born in Nazi Germany for example.
So I just want to acknowledge that my grandparents and great aunties and so on didn't survive because they had some special quality there was an element of chance to that as well and I think that's really important to acknowledge because often we see value systems in the world which don't separate resilience and chance so our first position is chance in this reading and it is the position of things which are outside of our control the way things fall but also how we can respond to that as well so that is our sort of top position here in the reading and then I have these five positions inspired by particular people in my ancestry so I'll talk you through them and then we'll pull some cards.
So the first is I had a grandparent who was a soldier who was old enough to fight in World War II he drove a tank and so he literally fought Nazis and fought fascists and this position he is here to remind us that it is possible to fight fascism so this is our position here.
I had another grandparent who was in the the land army here in Britain so Britain is an island and we often rely on outside sources of food although we do have our agricultural economy and when all the young men went off to fight war the young strong women became what was known as the land army and they'd go out to work on the farms to create to to make sure that we had food basically and so this position is about the practical side of things you know what practical things need to be done as we survive these interesting times.
I had another grandparent who was a child when World War II broke out 12 years old and lived in a city in the Midlands that was heavily bombed so I can't imagine what it's like at 12 years old to suddenly have to be running for the air raid shelters every night or or to be evacuated into a stranger's home which also happened to her a couple of times but that was her entire growing up her entire adolescence so this position represents both the the fearful child within for whom you know that moment of realization that the world isn't always an easy place it doesn't always feel safe but also the resilience gained by growing up in that in that circumstance and another grandparent who was in education and training I think an apprenticeship throughout the throughout the war wasn't old enough to to join the army until just after the war and went and did national service went over to Germany and learned there to become a a mechanic so this is a position of learning he was learning throughout the entire the entire time of the of the war and I had an auntie who was in the Red Cross and so the Red Cross as you know as an organization that delivers aid delivers medical treatment healing so you know aid medical treatment healing and actually between the five of them I think they give a good a good spread of the kinds of skills that we that we need that we need to cultivate in the times that we're we're living in now and then have these two positions at the bottom and the first position is how can we so these are kind of what can we do positions this is all what are the circumstances what advice do we have from these experiences and these two positions are what we can do positions and they are positions which are innately intertwined so the first is how do we look after ourselves and our loved ones and the second is how do we ensure that the world is fair for everyone now those who would like to sow division will peddle the myth that if we're looking after those people over there that somehow means there's not enough for us and that unless those people over there are billionaires that's just absolutely not true there is enough for everybody and helping other people helping our wider communities anyone who needs it does not take anything away from me and mine and and this is really important to remember there is no conflict between these two positions we can look after ourselves our close people our loved ones and we can look after our wider communities in the whole world and that's what these two positions are about so that is the um that's the spread that we're going to be using um today and it's it's one it's been it's another one that's been coming for months kind of filtering through um and now is the time and the deck that i'm going to be using today is the witches wisdom tarot um which is by phyllis carot with artwork by danielle barlow i haven't used this deck in a public reading yet but it is a powerful deck it's very different as you'll see and um it wants it wanted to be the deck today okay okay so i'm going to invite you to draw a deep breath go inside and just ask to receive what you need and you might call in any ancestors of yours that you'd like to invite to be with you for this reading known or unknown and if they perhaps have their own messages for you maybe you will hear those as well in the words that come with this reading and the images of the card so the first card is chance and this is the circumstances that we find ourselves in and that we we don't get to choose and that we can only respond to and the card for this is the sun and i'm really really happy that this came out now this is a major arcana card and you'll see that unlike in some major arcanas it actually has the number three rather than 19 which would be the traditional number for the sun and that's because in this deck it's a witch's deck and it explores the idea of shamanic dismemberment which is that as part of an initiation a shamanic practitioner or someone who is called to walk between the worlds will be dismembered torn apart and then made whole again and we find this in myth all over the world and and in story and and so to represent this they've done the major arcana backwards so the the card is the sun and here we see a young person smiling at us directly at us with the sun shining behind them butterflies um a bird in the sky um flowers in their in their arms um and so i love the sun card because it is so i've never seen it come out in a reading and not bring something positive with it and it's wonderful for it to come up in this position of chance because it shows us i believe the way that we can respond to chance and how we can show up and i get the impression this young person in this card is is offering us their heart the sun is a card of authenticity of showing up as you are is shining out in the world um and i believe what we're being invited to do with this card coming out in this position of chance um is to is to show up in all authenticity and integrity to act from love from the heart to act as if the sun the energy of the sun is with us all the time is always shining on us so um it's easy to be fearful when um lots of things are happening at once and a lot of it sort of feels out of control but the sun is here to tell us um that we can only respond from our authenticity from from our integrity and with love and with it being the number three this also has echoes of the empress and the empress card of course is all about um staying grounded staying nurtured um nurturing ourselves and each other and um being being in touch with our sense of place and our environment so it's a beautiful beautiful energy to to have with us a lovely one to to invite in so um whatever our circumstances whatever is happening around us we have that energy of the sun with us it's there with us it's available to us and we just need to breathe into i'm going to say the solar plexus and remind ourselves feel into our energy and remind ourselves that that is there our next position then the soldier that reminder that uh it's always possible uh to to fight fascism and we have the ace of water i'm really pleased this the cards we've had come up so far are very very gentle peaceful cards um the the energies um which are represented by this deck have got our backs they're in alignment with us as long as we are showing up from the heart and again the ace of water um is about the heart the water um the suit of water sometimes a suit of cots is about the emotions and in this card you can see um a spring a stream um pouring down onto a rock and then three little streams pouring off of that into a pool uh lots of greenery around and a little frog sitting there looking into the water um and again this is a reminder that in our hearts we know what's right we know right from wrong and it's really really important um to tap into that sense of what is right in your heart and to come from the heart and act from the heart um and that might mean that we end up fighting for what we believe in um fighting is a funny thing it's not something um to do lightly but sometimes it is necessary and there are different ways to fight but i believe the guidance here is that if you're feeling called to fight um then then you know do follow your heart um and remember even this can be done from a place of love um we are not i've called this position or mentioned in this position i mentioned it twice this is a third time fighting fascism and that is fighting against something um but in we're not called just to against things we are called to fight for things so what is in our hearts love integrity kindness fairness common decency um justice any fight that we get involved in whether what whatever kind of fight that is we have to remember what we're fighting for and not just what we're fighting against there are a lot of fear narratives out there and we cannot allow ourselves to be caught up in fear we have to remember what's important to put any feelings of fear aside to remember what's important and again to come from the heart to come from that integrity our next position then and this was the the land army so the um the the practical side of things you know how do we make sure everyone has enough how do we feed everyone how how do we do the logistics and the the practical side and actually as i was saying that and shuffling a card has fallen out so i believe it's a card for us excuse me while i reach down for it and it's another water card this is the messenger of water and in this card is depicted um the selkie woman so we've got a seal and a woman both swimming under the water amidst the kelp um and the story of the selkie woman um i'll tell it very very briefly i'll give you the outline of it because it's important because it has come up in in the card so it's obviously important to the reading it is a one of my personal stories as well and it's a it's an old story that comes from the um atlantic coast particularly of scotland and ireland i believe you'll find versions of it in places like iceland as well um and the selkie woman she's a seal and one night she comes ashore at the full moon with her sisters and they all shed their selkie their seal skins to take on human form and dance under the moonlight and they dance all night and when it comes to dawn all of the selkie sisters go and put back on their seal skins and return to the water but this one selkie woman she can't find her skin it's gone and so she goes in quest of her skin and there are lots of different variations of this story um where she learns to habituate to the land where she um makes a family on the land sometimes she's been tricked by um the the person who marries her has stolen her skin um but always eventually she finds her skin again and and then she has the choice of going back to the water um back to her previous life or staying on the land in the the life that she's made now so you know there are very rich themes through this story about who we are and and and where we belong um and this position was of the land army so a lot of the um the young women that went to do the the work like the the land army um they did they went away and they had to the farms and they had a different kind of life than they might have done um if they'd stayed in the cities and if there hadn't been a war on and a need to um for them to do that work which had previously traditionally uh mostly been done by men i won't say completely because um women have always worked um that there is a myth that that working women is new but but that's not true um but but what that was is that um she got a chance to experience the world differently to gain new skills and to be valued in a different way just as a selkie woman on the land had a different experience than the selkie woman in the sea and then there came a point of time where the the question was do i go back to the sea do i stay on the land um and that choice and and how they find the skin is different for for every selkie um but it may be that you find yourself or you are soon to find yourself in a position where you're doing things that are practical that you maybe didn't expect to do or that are very different from your established skill set and that give you a different perspective on life um and that this is a gift which which is being offered to you okay so the next position and this is the um the child who who grew up um having to develop resilience having resilience forced on her through through living through um difficult times so this is the resilience that we are gaining by necessity oh and look at this it's healing so this is major arcana number eight which is often strength but in this deck it is healing and here you can see um figures of people sort of in a circle holding hands reaching out to each other sparkles of light um beautiful bright light leaves um all in a circle with a star at the at the center um and this is just a reminder that whatever we live through um we also we heal from um healing is available it is possible now i said to you all of these people all of these ancestors you know they lived through this world-changing life-changing event that was very very difficult and very frightening and and um i don't know all the different choices they had to make um but they all then went on to have full lives that was not the sum total of their experience um and that is something to remember when things are difficult that you know one the difficult times cannot last forever um even when they're very intense even when they do last a long time they cannot last forever and that there is much beauty in life and there is much healing in life um and often um people who are called towards healing um being on a journey of healing for themselves or sharing healing with others that too often come hand in hand it is because they have had to develop that kind of um of resilience that those kind of difficulties so i really love that this card healing is there for us um all of these cards so far they give me a real sense of hope um that you know there there is hope and i'm reminded that um yes there are a lot of atrocious things going on in the world at the moment and that must be acknowledged and not denied and at the same time um there is hope all is not lost and indeed we have healing this you know with all these people in a circle reaching to each other um holding hands uh they're they're doing different things some are sat in meditation some are dancing some are like have their arms held out um there is more that unites us than divides us and um there is more in the world that wishes to create healing to create good um than there is that wishes to destroy and i think that's a lovely message for us to get our next position then and this is learning so this is the person who um was was learning uh throughout throughout world war two and and just afterwards and took skills from that to um to take through the rest of his life so learning what can we learn these times it's another water card we've had so many water cards and this is a nine of water and it's a salmon leaping upstream um and this is the salmon of wisdom so um there is a pool at the top of the stream where the salmon of wisdom comes each year to eat the hazelnuts and the hazelnuts give them wisdom um so the salmon is is a symbol of of ancient wisdom um and and it speaks for itself really in this position of learning what we're gaining is wisdom there may be a sense sometimes of swimming upstream um which might ask us to work harder than perhaps is comfortable at the same time the salmon naturally swim upstream they're built for it they're capable of it they're able to do it um and and there in the pool at the top of the stream is wisdom and the nine of cups it's again card of the heart water cups the heart the emotions intuition um the unconscious and the nine of cups is often about um having enough and to spare so sometimes you see a figure with with nine cups and i always think that they are ready for if their friends come around or anyone comes around and and ask for a drink they have plenty to offer plenty to share and this is an emotional state of plenty um of being of being willing to share and that is a kind of wisdom in itself isn't it so so with that nine of water being there it's a reminder again that there is plenty to go around and that what we are learning right now what we are receiving right now is wisdom and this fifth ancestor character here is the one who um was in the red cross so that you know the red cross established organization um providing aid and uh medical care to to anyone who needs it so this position is what aids what care is available and and how can we ensure the presence of that care um for for everyone and we have an earth card but it it has a pool in it so um this card has a pool at the center of it um it's a pool in a stone the stone looks like it even has a kind of cat-like face in the shape of it and there are little sort of cracks running towards the pool which are filled with moss and there are um there are little lizards as well moving towards the pool and of course you know even though this is an earth card we have this water um water is life um and so the water is there at the center of it all providing the needs for everyone for the moss the lizards shaping the stone and being contained by the stone at the same time um and the the six of earth is six of pentacles and this is the card of giving and receiving now often in a personal reading an individual reading um that will come up when um the person needs to to look at their attitudes to giving and receiving and most of the people that i work with um find it more difficult to receive than to give everybody's happy to give people find it difficult to receive at the same time some of the narratives in the world around us at the moment are like i mentioned when i explain these two positions there's a a feeling of imbalance there are people um at the moment who are afraid that if you know if i give to them there'll be nothing left for me if someone else gives to them there won't be anything for me and this is a fear which is um being exploited uh to cause to sow division in our communities and the six of pentacles tells us that that is not the case there is enough for everyone energy doesn't die it only moves on what goes around comes around there is enough for everyone there is plenty on this earth um and in this position of red cross of aid of particularly medical aid but you know whatever's needed um this water here is nourishing the lizards and the moss it has a place in the rock this is not a load of separate entities this is a living ecosystem and and that is a really important message um for us the next position then um how do we take care of um ourselves and our loved ones our kind of close um network when when times are difficult how do we make sure that we are safe and secure and have have enough and i love this this is the two of earth or the two of pentacles and under the roots of a tree in a burrow mama bear and baby bear are sleeping snuggle together um so this is an invitation to make your home your sanctuary and i don't know how true this is of of um people who are watching i know that for me um i do let news sneak into my home and it upsets me it puts me on edge um and often there are things i can do nothing about but that nevertheless play on my mind um it is important to to be informed and to be willing to take responsibility for what you can do but at the same time you must have a haven you must create a safe space for you and for yours and that's what this is mama bear and baby bear snuggled under the earth the earth is about security safety it's the it's the material realm so it is about your home and so um this is an invitation to perhaps um be intentional about how you create the sanctuary of your home and so that might be about um you know getting rid of clutter um how the space is physically managed that might be about the energy it might be about the behaviors that you have um the thoughts that you allow in um you know are you um do you have this haven for yourself and your loved ones where you can just um have that that that love and and feel safe and actually switch off from all the external input that's going on um because without this sense of um of your home being a haven um then you don't have a haven if your home isn't so so um um it's an invitation to perhaps consider whether you are doing everything that you can um to make your home into that haven and i don't necessarily so you know we're talking about security but this isn't necessarily you know lock all the doors close all the windows kind of security um this is about creating psychological security um energetic security so you know what makes you feel safe what makes you feel powerful what makes you feel strong um because cultivating those things in your home is the only way you're ever going to be strong and powerful enough to um respond to the things that are going on outside so make sure this this is also it's not just about space it's about time so how much of your time are you allocating to um cultivating your own sense of security and and not just in your home in your body in your nervous system you know is the is the cortisol always is the adrenaline always shooting around your veins or are you giving yourself time for good sleep good rest deep breathing um in good food all of the the pleasure you know physical pleasure all of the things that make us feel safe in our bodies that make that give us the ability to inhabit our bodies to inhabit our bodies in the world um in a way that is the most powerful for us and then finally what can we do to make sure that that everybody is okay not just um us and our our close close ones and i will reiterate that there is no conflict between these two positions instead they reinforce each other and here we go look it's strength um number 14 because of the switched major arcana in this deck and look at that look at all those different animals standing together um so we have a human woman with a staff that uh the staff in in magical tradition um grounds her into the earth it is um it is the way of connecting with the power of the earth we have the earth here as well in our in our personal space um and she's standing shoulder to shoulder with a moose an owl a polar bear a ram i think that's a coyote a beaver lots of different animals and they they've all come together so this is a reminder that we um it really is the message of this reading that we are stronger together than we are separate and that there are things there are um we have more in common than we have different so all of these different animals in this card including the human animal and including the plant life they're actually the stuff and the vines all over her dress um we all benefit when um when the world is a safe place we all benefit when we're taking care of the environment we all benefit when we're taking care of each other and this is our strength and we cannot surrender that strength to division and narratives of division and and we will not surrender that strength to division and of division everybody benefits from um from things being better i'm going to give an example i do a little bit of accessibility consultancy sometimes and one of the the great truths that um we sometimes have to remind people when when they are looking to um do accessibility but to do it on on the um often they want to meet the minimum legal requirements and not to go for true accessibility and so you know one of the one of the things that's said within the accessibility community is that you know when something is made accessible for one person or one group of people it becomes more accessible for everyone and this is this is that this is when when things are made when when one group of people is given security safety um a home the opportunity to um to work to learn to receive health care all the basic human rights um when human rights are afforded to every human as they should be every human benefits and it's not just humans is it we've got um lots of different beings who share our planet with us and again when the environment is made more sustainable a better place for um you know the animals and the plant life and and the the beings that we share our planet with when that is safeguarded it's better for everyone including the humans so this is our this is our message and so i'm really pleased with these cards that have come out i knew this was the right deck for this reading i'm grateful to the ancestors who have joined us to to reinforce this message that um there is hope there is far more hope than there is division our communities are strong there is no reason to fear the other um we must act from our integrity from our authenticity from our hearts and even when we are fighting against that which is evil we must remember that which is good and that which is important and that which matters to us which is love which is compassion um which is which is kindness which is decency all of these these good things um this is our message from the ancestors um from the heart
