The Empress starts the reading to bring nurturing to the foreground. She wants us to remember the beauty in nature and femininity. She wants us to think about abundance. What is in your life that brings the feeling of abundance? What brings the feeling of nurturing and peace? This is what you are spending your time doing and it is exactly what you need to be doing. The 6 of Swords is all about transition, a right of passage and releasing baggage. Everything that has happened has lead you to this moment. Is it all worth it? The answer is probably yes. The card usually depicts people crossing water and brings to mind the question, what would you carry with you? If you were to move right now, what are the important things you would want to take with you and what isn’t worth carrying? The Hermit also adds that this is a time for soul searching and solitude. Learning to trust your inner guidance and figuring out what this next version of you looks like. That’s something that only you can decide. Sometimes the Hermit can come up when it is time to come out of the shell and use the insight we have gained while being alone. This would be up to the reader to decide if you have been alone too long and may need to start coming back out into the world or maybe feeling the need to hunker down and do the shadow work.
Morgan Le Faye – She is a triple Goddess of death and rebirth, appearing as a beautiful young maiden, a powerful mother/creator, or a death-giving hag. She was also a sea Goddess, for her name “Mor” in Celtic means sea. Her last name has two meanings: “the fairy” and “the fate.” In the Arthurian legends, she was half-sister to Arthur. It is said she manipulated Mordred, Morgan and Arthur’s son, by getting him to kill his father. As Arthur dies, Morgan le Faye comes to his aid by spiriting him to the magical island of Avalon, where she has him, then casts him into a deep sleep from which he will awaken when time the time is ripe.
Morgan le Faye has come dancing into your life with her drums and her magic to invite you to discover and live your rhythms. What are your personal rhythms? Do you know the best time for ou to exercise, sleep, eat, be creative, make love, work, et cetra? Or do you spend all your vitality adjusting to the rhythms imposed on you by your work, family, lover, friends? Have you been submerged in the life of another and lived his/her rhythms instead of your own? Perhaps you never discovered your own rhythms because you wanted to please those around you and be “one of the team.” It is vital for you to live according to your own rhythms. Flowing with your rhythm brings you greater energy because you are no longer suppressing what is natural to you. Morgan le Fate says vitality, health, and wholeness are nurtured when you flow with your own unique beat rather than against it.
Diving for the Light
How brave you are! You are diving for light. It can be so much simpler to seek light in the heavenly, in that which is blissful, sweet, loving and kind. To look for the light in that which is dark is an advanced task that only a rebellious and brave heart will attempt.
You may not feel that you have taken such a journey by choice. Yet you have taken this wise challenge on from deep within your soul. Your innermost being has evoked this situation in your life with the intention that you grow in power, wisdom and creative juice. It also wants you to experience a bold and fearless trust in life and become further empowered to life it with zest and courage.
The oracle of Diving for Light speaks of a time when you are called into darkness through life circumstances, situations, relationship challenges or inner struggles that defy clear understanding. That darkness might be a creative block, a sense of being in a void or feelings of depression, rage, sadness, fear or anxiety. There may or may not be an obvious cause. The darkness might be generally accepted and socially acknowledged because there is a socially acceptable or obvious reason for it – such as a death, divorce or retrenchment. However, there may be no obvious justification for your experience of darkness. You might not need a ‘reason’ to be able to accept it, likewise you may struggle to find an unconditional acceptance of your experience. Just know that you are actually on track and right where you need to be.
Our creative process and our spiritual path go through a similar ‘turning of the wheel.’ There is spring and summer, in the seasons of our soul, as well as in the earthly ones. There is the autumn harvest and there is the death inherent in winter, when energy is concentrated and pulled within to seek out the darkness where it can rest, regenerate and simply be, until the time is right for new life, energy and creative inspiration to burst forth.
When diving for light, one must be willing to bear the darkness and understand it has a purpose, much like winter does upon the earth. It is not in error or through lack of consciousness that you are here now. It is testament to your spiritual growth and creative process, not a sign that they are lacking or stalling. The healing process below will help you with your inward plunging and to successfully navigate it.
This oracle brings particular guidance that although you are powerful, you are also vulnerable at this time. You need to be alert to sabotage and criticism that may make your progress more difficult than it already is. That would be rather unnecessary. At least some of the people around you might be more attached to their fear and doubt than to their faith in your process and the ways of the creative, rebellious, spiritual path that asks us to trust unconditionally. They may be frightened due to a lack of understanding. You don’t need to carry their fear for them. You have your own process to attend to and they can choose to be inspired by your journey or frightened by it. They are free to respond as they wish and whatever those response are, they are part of their journey, for them to work through.
You also need to be vigilant against the darker forces within you. These are the voices that you may not expect, particularly if you are a pure-hearted being who typically resonates with love. These voices or feelings might surprise you with their dark intensity. They may be feelings of hate, terror or of wanting only to seep because anything further is all just too hard. They may contain vicious criticism f yourself or tell you that your inner creative work is pointless, unoriginal, not worth it or stupid. These dark forces might try to tell you that you are on the wrong path, suggest that you will fail, or ask with great condescension, “Who the hell do you think you are!”
You must stay in your heart and not believe these dark forces. Stay in compassion. Fear creates the energy of anger, hate and destructiveness. These forces are a part of life. We don’t have to be frightened of them, nor do we need to deny their existence or try to ignore them in order to find light in the darkness. We just need to hold compassion and be intelligently aware so we can avoid being seduced into the trap of needing to prove ourselves or into the mistaken belief that we need to fight against darkness. It is too easy to get caught up in trying to heal the dark. Darkness just is. Recognize it when it is there and be in your compassionate heart. All you need to do is make a choice - will you stay in your heart or will you be seduced by darkness and overcome by hate or sleepiness?
Diving for light is a spiritual test and a threshold for all true creative work. We successfully navigate our way through this test and pass the threshold into new creative birth, by staying connected to the light of compassion in our own hearts. It is not an easy test, but it is one that you must be ready for – otherwise It wouldn’t be coming to you now. Just remember, it is the light of the heart that sustains. It exists within us always, even in the darkest depths of unknown terrain.
This oracle also comes with a special message. There is a darkness within or around you that could become problematic if left unchecked. If, for no particular reason, you find yourself feeling angry, irritated, hopeless or tired more easily than usual, unable to rest or it is just too much effort to exercise or take care of yourself, then this darkness is having an unnecessary effect on you. It is time to end that now from a place of compassion. You are learning this lesson and the unending power of compassion because you are ready for it. Feel honored by the lesson and stay humbly centered in your powerful, rebellious heart that refuses to be conquered by fear and remains faithful to love. All will be well.