Happy Birthday, Sis!

Birthdays are small, annual journeys within our life-journey. Now, as you turn the corner into another year, it is a time for the oracle to examine the past year, the present moment, and the future. Oh boy, another journey calling you forward toward more challenges and conquests.

What is being challenged or conquered? you might ask, and this would be such a larger-than-life question that it can't be ignored. To ask the question brings your life into immediate focus, from unconscious to superconscious awareness of YOU as the heroine of your own life. Each of us quests for the Holy Grail of knowledge of that which is greater than ourselves. Some call it a Higher Power, God, Wisdom, Self-Awareness, Buddhahood, or the Universe.

What we seek is nameless, formless, beyond our small selves. We look to bring wisdom home, into ourselves, our bodies, and our lives so we can be better, live more enlightened lives. We can't stop trauma and tragedy because these are the stuff of life, the trials and challenges that force us out of old ways of thinking and seeing ourselves. Without these challenges we would stay the same(so what's wrong with that, huh?). But life is full of change, and it drags us along with or without our permission. A major challenge is to stay centered amidst the change, to change with the times, and this usually means death to our old selves and outdated habituated styles of living. Each cycle of time—a day, month, year, decade—brings its own trials, death, and rebirth into new form.

Today, we look at the cycle of 1 year. Let's look in the PAST and see what was the major archetype working in your life last year. I draw the card: Rebel. I am surprised.

I don't think of you as a rebel, but the cards don't lie. So there is some major way in which your life changed last year and it involved turning away from your norm or an established convention. Rebel also can mean strong repugnance or unwillingness. We know that last year brought irrevocable changes to your life. On mental, emotional, and spiritual levels, you may have felt a turning away at times, yet on the physical level you put your strengths to work and buckled under the huge challenge of taking care of your son after his catastrophic accident. Such immense change can cause a turning away from God and faith in a benign universe. It can challenge our ability to cope, our usual ways of doing life, forcing us to dig into hidden reserves. And we may fight it on an unconscious, or perhaps if we are willing, on a conscious level. It is only natural to want to resist, to rebel against such major change.

Looking at NOW, we ask the question, Who Are You Now at the beginning of your year-long journey into the 59th year, and I draw the Shapeshifter card.

Shapeshifter is a Native American archetype referring to the shamanic journeying of the medicine man. He travels between the worlds, from the conscious to the subconscious, turns into animal shapes to travel beyond the borders of normal reality, to converse with the spirits. Shapeshifter mediates with the spirits on behalf of the sick, wounded, or dying, bringing back some spirit juju (power) to heal his people. Think of yourself as Shapeshifter and what that might mean to you now. How are you using this energy? Bring it into focus and meditate on the ways in which you are shapeshifting in your life right now. It is obvious to me that who you are has shifted considerably in the last year, that you have become different, altered, and more powerful as a result. Circumstances have coalesced to bring this major archetype into your life. It may go so deep that your old self has died and taken on new form, a new identity. Can you see what that is now?

For the FUTURE, I draw the Teacher card. You are becoming a teacher/mentor in a big way this year. Mentoring means taking someone under your wing and guiding, shaping, giving life lessons to a person who is in a lesser position. You are called on, with this card, to share your life experiences with others so they may benefit. It calls you to come out of the shadows and take your place among the elders who share wisdom with the young. We might naturally think this is referring to our children, those whom we have been teaching and mentoring already. But this may also be asking you to spread your sphere of influence into the community, to take your previous mentoring to a different population. Think about it.

RELATIONSHIPS this year will focus around the Mother archetype. Dang, the Lovers/Union card eludes you this year, at least as a major influence, but that wouldn't preempt a fling now and again, right? I don't think we need to discuss this card. After raising 3 kids, you know all about it. You embody the life-giver energy, source of nurturing and nourishment, fountain of unconditional love, patience, devotion, caring, and unselfish acts. The danger here is being too involved, sacrificing your own needs, allowing the well to dry up.

MONEY & RESOURCES for this year calls into play the Advocate archetype. This card represents the legal system with its lawyers. Real estate transactions are underfoot, which will free up resources that have been tied up for a while. On another level, Advocate may also refer to advocating for your's or another's needs, coming to their defense in money matters. Advocates are "compassion in action."

HEALTH issues draw the Guardian Angel card. There is a guardian angel watching over your health this year. You continue to be blessed with good health, and not only by your own doing. This implies grace and fortune regarding your health. Still, there is a caution here about not collapsing into your good luck. Make sure you take good care of yourself, especially because caretaking can take it out of you.






PERSONA, your ego/personality, the face you present to the world is represented this year by the major archetype of the Vampire. Oh oh. I think this is referring to forming psychic and emotional attachments to others because we want their energy and approval, and fear for our abandonment. Perhaps this is referring to changes in your household. While Nick's accident brought the family together, (and what mother doesn't revel in this dream come true) this can only be a temporary arrangement. As Nick finds a new life, so will your other children, as they must. The need to cling is a natural reaction to the pain of being left behind in an empty nest with caretaking responsibilities. Don't do it all alone. Get help. Be careful to get nourished in other ways so the family is not your only means of support. This archetype is hard to look at. I hate when it comes up. Yet it is essential to review patterns of behavior such as chronic complaining, overdependence, holding onto a relationship either emotionally or psychically long after it has ended, and chronic power struggles.

SHADOW SELF is the hidden, unconscious self, the part we deny. This year, your shadow is the Father archetype. We all strive so hard to be good, look good, act good. What's wrong with that? Nothing, as long as we also acknowledge what is hidden., because what we don't see will come back to bite us. The irony is that it is impossible to acknowledge what we can't see. At first, the shadow can only be seen as a projection onto other people and situations. By paying close attention to the criticisms and praise we give others, we can see the Shadow. Father has a talent for creating or initiating, and overseeing others. Similar to Mother and Mentor, he guides and shields those under his care. But Father can also sacrifice his well-being to his detriment. The Shadow Father, as drawn here, can be dictatorial, controlling, and abuse authority. Not that we had a father like that, no.

GREATEST CHALLENGE this year is Child's Play. With all this mentoring, mothering, fathering, vampiring and such good fun, don't forget to laugh, let your hair down, and get silly. Give yourself plenty of opportunities to be a child, to nurture you sense of wonder and enjoyment, and allow yourself a generous sprinkling of fairy dust. And that might mean having a pitcher of margueritas, starting today! Especially on this special day of days, when we all honor your presence in our lives, the wonderful YOU, and wish you the very best of love, life, health, and every kind of blessing for the year to come. I raise my glass to you, dear Sis, and thank you for being there for me too when I've needed you. You are SO there for us all. Make sure you replenish your own well. Meaning grab that glass girl, and drink up! Another year just bit the dust!