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Day 5 - Christmas Eve

Posted: 24 Dec 2021, 08:20
by Joan Marie
Welcome to Day 5 of our Yule readings
It's Christmas Eve, the silent night.

The theme for today's reading is:
Day 5. Feast of Mothers, Christmas Eve: - Dec 24th
This card shows how we can connect with the spirits of our ancestors for communion and to ask for wisdom and guidance.
I wish you all a lovely day and evening and look forward to sharing it with you in this reading.

Re: Day 5 - Christmas Eve

Posted: 24 Dec 2021, 21:18
by chiscotheque
Day 5. Feast of Mothers, Christmas Eve: - Dec 24th
This card shows how we can connect with the spirits of our ancestors for communion and to ask for wisdom and guidance.


Card: 4 of COINS
4 coins.jpg

I wasn't near my Dylan Tarot so I shuffled a RWS deck I had at hand and pulled the 4 of Pentacles. Thinking this was a weird card to pull for this reading, I went and pulled from my DT and - wouldn't you know it - pulled the 4 of COINS. Here we have a small (and thin) Dylan, circa. 1965, dwarfed by medicine bottles. This was during his amphetamine use, as reflected in the upright song, Ballad of a Thin Man. Addressed to a "freak" named Mr. Jones - most likely one of the reporters who hounded Dylan at the time - the narrator mercilessly ridicules Mr. Jones for being out of touch, unhip, a square. Dylan had a mean streak, especially during the years he was running on speed, and this song is perhaps that streak's apex (or nadir). What could this card/song mean, then, with regard to connecting to the spirits of our ancestors for wisdom?

Of course, the answer resides contrariwise, as underscored by the card's reverse song, I Am A Lonesome Hobo. This modest song appears on John Wesley Harding, Dylan's first album after his motorcycle accident (which in fact was a pretext to kick his amphetamine dependence). In contrast to Thinman, it is a simple, first-person narrative retelling how a man of wealth and privilege lost everything because he "did not trust his brother". He warns the listener to "stay free from petty jealousy, live by no man's code, and save your judgments for yourself lest you wind up on this road." Rather than making ourselves sick over what seems so all-important in the moment, we need to disengage, take a step back, and gain perspective - something our ancestors afford us and actively personify. Rather than "speed", we need to slow down. Rather than making ourselves big by making others small - which only makes everyone small - we need to direct our energies to what really matters rather than the exiguousness (or thinness) of worldly matters.

Wisdom is amassed through experience, and our ancestors embody this from their big-picture vantages of time and detachment. Often, we ourselves know these things if we allow ourselves to listen to our conscience, which is actually the voice of our ancestors, instead of inflating our egos and drowning out those voices with our own complaints about others.


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Re: Day 5 - Christmas Eve

Posted: 25 Dec 2021, 08:39
by Joan Marie
thumbnail_20211225_092236.jpg

In all honesty, I'm feeling ambivalent about this whole idea.

As much as I love and honour those ancestors of mine I know of, something makes me feel like focusing too much on them keeps me in a certain kind of rut. A rut not unlike the one made by the wheels of a chariot on an ancient road.

I've been in places like Pompeii where the paving stones of the streets are grooved with the footsteps of the ancients.

I've also seen the Live Cam at Abbey Road (which was a lot more interesting and funny before Covid ruined travel) and watched as people from all over the world crossed on that crosswalk trying to feel the spirit of the Beatles. Meanwhile, it's a pedestrian crosswalk so traffic has to stop constantly while people make this pilgrimage, acting silly as they do.

It feels a bit forced to me to try and embody someone else's spirit, to try and draw upon the forces of others. Especially those no longer here.

The horses on this card always look grumpy to me, like they are asking me to sort out where I want to go before bothering them.

I feel like my ancestors did their job already and now it is time for me to create my own life, a life they can't know.
I guess I think that's what they'd want me to do.

Re: Day 5 - Christmas Eve

Posted: 25 Dec 2021, 13:32
by Rachelcat
Yesterday was all about making cookies, so now I’m catching up.


Dec 24.jpg


10 Coins
I can connect to ancestors physically, through a legacy or inheritance. Hmm. I was thinking about my did the whole time I was shuffling. We’re having our family holiday gathering tomorrow, Dec. 26, at my sister’s, which is the house we grew up in, which my parents built and worked so hard on. I just need to realize how hard my dad worked to make a happy home and family life for us. He was a Cancer sun like me and was very much the family man. Clean cut, a gentle giant, and a genuinely good person (not just a decent human being, but actively good and kind and helpful).

I think I’ll ask if anyone wants to go the cemetery tomorrow. I can take a Christmas wreath. So honor him in a physical way and remind the rest of the family to do so too. Good plan!

Re: Day 5 - Christmas Eve

Posted: 25 Dec 2021, 18:39
by Joan Marie
Rachelcat wrote: 25 Dec 2021, 13:32 I think I’ll ask if anyone wants to go the cemetery tomorrow. I can take a Christmas wreath. So honor him in a physical way and remind the rest of the family to do so too. Good plan!
Indeed. 🎄