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Icy Reflections on the New Year

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Ice storm aftermath, I’m not going out there

Today my hometown is colder than the South Pole. This morning I discovered ice on the bedroom wall, INSIDE of the house. There is an extreme cold alert, with the wind chill currently at -35 degrees Celsius. Last night some people were awoken by “frost quakes”, loud booms that shook their homes, the result of ground water freezing and ice expanding, cracking rock or earth and releasing an explosive blast of air. As someone who gets irrationally angry when the temperature drops below zero, this is a new horror that I never could have imagined. I know, this is a little melodramatic, but even for hardy Canadians this weather is a lot to bear while we are still recovering from an ice storm that hit just before Christmas, leaving 300,000 homes without power, some for the entire holiday season. And, 15-20cm of fresh snow is coming the day after tomorrow.

Calculate your Year Tarot Card (a la Mary K. Greer)

hermit

RWS Hermit

I know I’ll get snaky by tomorrow but right now I feel very lucky that I don’t have to leave the house. I am enjoying looking out the window, wrapping myself in another blanket, and reflecting on the start of 2014. I am embracing my Year Card for 2014, The Hermit. Having just completed 2013, which was a Strength year for me, The Hermit brings delicious calm and quiet.

I use Mary K. Greer’s method to calculate my Year Card (which can be found in her books, Tarot for Yourself and Who Are You in the Tarot). You add the month and day of your birth to the current year, and the resulting number corresponds with a Major Arcana card. Always keep the highest number under 23 (in this case The Fool corresponds with 22.).

For example, my birthday, June 5, plus the current year, 2014:
          5
          6
+ 2014
    2025
2+0+2+5 = 9 (The Hermit)

I prefer to calculate my Year Card starting from January 1, rather than on my birthday. I like the universal ceremony of the start of a new year, and the idea of a whole calendar year ahead. The annual changing nature of your Year Card really differentiates it from your unchanging astrological, Chinese zodiac and Mayan zodiac signs, which makes it an interesting combination of internal and external forces at play in your life for this fixed period of time.

So why calculate your Year Card? In my experience, your Year Card can give you some quite profound insight into the energies that will be surrounding you for the coming 12 months, which can help you to get the most out of the of the lessons and experiences that are waiting for you. After the chaos of the holidays, take a quiet moment to calculate your Year Card, and ask yourself what guidance it is giving you, what you need to learn, and how you can grow in 2014.

As I mentioned, my card is The Hermit. So far this has been literally as well as figuratively quite true for me! The Hermit is telling me that this year is a time of reflection, quiet, regrouping, solitude and study. It is a time for me to reconnect with my own goals and aspirations, to follow the light of the star that The Hermit holds before him. Being the number 9, The Hermit is telling me that I am reaching the end of a cycle and am on the verge of something new. So, now is a time to wrap up the past, and to look within to find the path that I need to follow next.

What’s your year card? What is it trying to tell you?


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2 Responses to Icy Reflections on the New Year

  1. Shannon curry January 4, 2014 at 12:50 am #

    What an interesting way to start the new year. I like your personal take on doing this at the beginning of the year rather than your birthday for reflection on what the year will bring. Thanks for your insight.

  2. Shannon curry January 4, 2014 at 12:50 am #

    What an interesting way to start the new year. I like your personal take on doing this at the beginning of the year rather than your birthday for reflection on what the year will bring. Thanks for your insight.

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