Reading for tonight..

2 cards i shall quickly draw, to see what i can see...
For tonight I am among the witches, for a chance of revelry..

LOL well, maybe not witches, but friends who cackle hehehe

So, I thought i'd draw a card of what opportunities are to be taken tonight, and what challenges there are..

Opportunities - The Guardians
Ohh interesting, I dont think i've drawn this card before.
So, they are the sustainers of lifes path, they guide it, they keep it ticking over. The rock that is in the water before the birchtree roots to me is looking at me saying 'ya know, there should be a faery sitting on that rock, peering close into the water'. I've got faeries on the brain with wanting to get the Heart of the Faerie Oracle lol. Maybe they are telling me I should get it (no, I dont really believe the Guardians card is encouraging deck buying. Although, home late at night from being out, Amazon 'one click' can be very dangerous!).
So, its about nurturing, continuing on with stuff and walking that extra bit on the road, knowing your loved, guided and protected.

Challenges - Yarrow
Ooooh that snake is looking at me saying 'you are naughty! You shouldnt read about these things, there is a magical process of not knowing'. OK so its nothing special, its seeing some friends and having fun, but obviously theres something more to it because the snake is looking at me 'trust the unfolding, trust the process'
Great - My yarrow snake has gone on druidy on me.

Ya know.. I think my DPO has got cheeky since it played with the DM! I think its a bad influence on it LOL.

ETA - I had a really extraordinary experience of kundalini energy that night, which is what the Yarrow was telling me and yet not telling me. I mean, it was so unexpected I wouldnt have believed it if the snake had rolled out of the card, spoke to me and crawled back in again! But then, if i had of known it was coming would I really have experienced it with an open mind? I shall see that snake stone with a new mind!
And the Guardians were holding me, guiding me, one extra step taken on the road..

Ah gotta trust them plants.

PDR review reading.

Its been ages since I've played with my DPO. It seems ages since I was even outside under the full moon in the snow, cleansing its bag and spread cloth. Its with a touch of nerves that I pick up my DPO this evening. How will we fair now I've been ill for so long and not played with it. I tried to pick it up the other evening, but it just wasnt happening and the plants just said 'leave it out' lol.

So, Ive had to do a centering and focusing practice before even opening the deck bag tonight. But that feels appropriate. To put the 'vibes' of illness at the door and let the flowers of the plants sing to me something hopeful.

So I finally get a chance to play with Onyx's tweaking of a previous spread, tweaked with the Primary Deck Reflections in mind.. Onyx's post for the spread here

The spread..

******2*****4*****
*********3********
******1*****5*****

Position One: How am I progressing with my PDR? Cuckoo Pint
Well, the card shows that Im making a real progress with the PDR, far more so that I ever thought I was. If I think back to how I was very sketchy in my aims when I set up this blog - yet my experiences and the readings I've had with the DPO have come on really well. I've been able to go with my intuition a bit more and let the plants speak to me.
Cuckoo Pint I also think of like the Lovers, the union of male and female, the fizzle of attraction and how that plant is just saying 'come and get me baby' lol. And I have had some decks that have battled for my affections (one Deviant Moon) and other interests and flu that have been also in the background. Yet its been a very good constant for me.
I think we are a really good match! I think its also because the plants want to permeate through all the levels of your being. Its not just an oracle deck to find out what will happen with X or who will ask me out on valentines day. The plants energies are there to really work their magick on you. And Im more than happy for them to do so.

Position Two: Why do I need to do this PDR? Nettle
OK... heres the stinger. Part of my deeeeep down reasons to play with this deck was to fight against an assumption I'd made about the DPO. I thought 'Philip, Stephanie and Bill had a fab idea with this deck, but plants just don't 'read' the same way other types of oracles do'. And boy did they prove me wrong! So its that shedding of my misconceptions, that my own issue with it had created a problem, like people who think of nettles as evil stinging plants yet are marvelled when they drink its tea, or make nettle string etc. Its an amazing plant.
Also, I've had a few stingers in 2010 so far. And the DPO has been a wonderful processing tool of whats been happening. Whether this blog is a wonderful processing tool is something to be debated about in my head as I progress with my PDR. But yes, its definitely good for me to do this regular practice and reflection with the plants.

Position Three: What problem am I facing with my PDR? Vervain
The Hare on this card is looking at me.. or rather looking at me and wanting to LEAP back into the Nettle or the Cuckoo Pint cards. A lot has happened to me over the past few weeks, both on the inner and outer realms, both to do with PDR and not to do with PDR. And thats groovy - thats the wonderful mystery of what life is all about.
I guess what my problem is that sometimes I get so excited and want to LEAP OFF to other ideas, other possible areas of study, that I forget that solid foundation. These changes that have happened to be recently I really feel are due to the work Im doing with the DPO, reflective connecting process of Spirit and my Self - and thats a very sacred process not to be forgotten by the new shiney thing in the corner (yes I have short attention spans and magpie tendencies). Also, I get an idea and want to leap off making connections that never get finished.
SO Vervain is saying this is where I have felt connected, nourished and empowered, and this is where I need to keep working, putting more time in with the cards. Not to be forgotten.
I think especially as March is looking to be a particularly 'mad march' (get it, mad march, hare.. oh nevermind LOL), its a reminder to be focused.
Thank you Vervain :)

Position Four: Where do I need to focus on developing in my PDR? Yarrow
First words in my head - divination.
OK I've shown that DPO is more than a reading deck, its more than pretty set of pictures, BUT i do need to do more readings for others with it. It was part of my plan when doing this PDR and so it should continue to be!
Yarrow and Nettle both have snakes... perhaps this is something I need to consider? Hmph. Yarrow is not a card I 'feel' a lot for, apart from the arrow thing, but I feel that doesnt apply so much here. Hmph some more. I think the snake is significant.

Position Five: What can I gain from this PDR? Clover
*sings roll me over...*cough* maybe not..
Well Im also stumped on this card. Ok, deep breathe and feel..
The card is like a little piece of faery in the woods, an untouched place by man. The blessed 4 leafed clovers are hidden in the card but I can see them. Its like I've been on a quest to find one thing, and found something so much greater.
So here is an idea of small caterpillers big butterflies grow.
The Salmon is a fish of wisdom and inspiration but only by the food it eats and the waters it lives in. So I need to fill my PDR with good positive ideas so that positive outcomes come from it.
And not to forget that my personal life affects my relationship with the DPO. If I have illness then that will affect the DPO and my PDR - and I really did not want to play when I had the flu. So there is a feeling of deep respect and sharings of energies that needs to be appreciated.
The books keywords of Wisdom, health, good fortune, venom, liberation and assimilation all roll into what I have felt. However the words dont justify the feeling. There is this deeper energy work with my PDR experience of the DPO that is really important to me in ways I know and cant even begin to know. That might sound weird pagan hippy shit - but its how I roll!

The base card (also a base card, plants have ROOTS ya know!) is Woad another old friend and ally here in DPO land.
The PDR keeps me on the straight and narrow, the stem of the plant vs the umbrella like nature of the roots and flowering point of the card. I was speaking to an archaeologist friend of mine about spears, and how with a spear you have to hold your nerve, you are getting up close to your prey and you need be bloody bonkers to do it considering prey like the Wild Boar.
LOL Maybe Im bonkers trying to hunt myself? Well they do say God helps those that helps themselves...


BBQ anyone? :P


So... what does that mean for my February plans with the PDR.
1) Keep it as the DPO. Its just working so well, its going somewhere interesting and I want to find out where it goes
2) Its a really good nurturing rock for me to learn the DPO, to reflect on myself, but also to have a connection with those who are also following a PDR experience on AT. So its that reason I want to 're-open' the doors to the blog and celebrate that connection. You have to be in the web to feel part of it.
3) continue holding myself to the outline set out in post 2 of this wee blog. Its working, Bramble is a good 'get off your arse and do something coz its good for you' energy to have around me at the mo :)

Groovy! My PDR chums will be so happy :D

Yarrow play

Tonight I thought I would try something different with the DPO. Rather than a big reading or reading anything specific, I thought I would just ask the deck for a card I can focus on right now.
But, to be different I took out all the cards that Ive seen recently in my readings, so I had a pile of mostly 'unknown' cards to me. Gave it a shuffle and I had Yarrow.

Now Im tired and its been a long day, but for whatever reason the book interpretations just didnt work for me. There wasnt a feeling of 'aha' and Im too tired to go hunting in my other books for another book meaning that will fit.

So, in my half sleepy state I picked up the card and just closed my eyes thinking of the plant, of what I know of it, the shape of the leaves etc.

'Arrow' it said.
'Yes I know your Yarrow, how'd ya do?' I say
'Nooo not yarrow, arrow'
'eh?'
And then I had a few flashes of images of arrows, of arrow heads and fast flying energy. There was a mention about learning to 'read the arrows'
'Life is energy, and energy tends to fly around like arrows. So you need to read the arrows to know where the energy is a)coming from b)going to c)avoid it or step in its way'
How interesting!
'So' I say 'is this why people picked yarrow to make divination tools out off? To read the arrows?'
'Would you say the same to a tree? Asking if all it is is the sum of what someone makes out of it like a table or a chair?'
'Erm, no, I guess not. Sorry'
'Thats ok'

and then it went.

Blimey. LOL. So reading the arrows, lots of energy flying about. Sometimes I guess we need to be careful of what we say or do, because that energy flies out to the universe and somewhere along the line it'll hit into someone or something. Its funny I was doing a reading with another deck and got a message about Cupid and his arrows.. anyways, back to DPO.
So we can divine to find the arrows, where arrows would go if we hit them in one direction or another, whether we want to step into the path of an arrow or not.
I suppose with all these arrows around we might want to consider making a shield, or having a good cleanse so that the old arrows dont affect the changes of the new ones. Like a snake changing its skin, or putting on a good few layers or white base coat before painting a wall. We need to be free from our old energy impacts before we can make way for new ones.

How interesting!