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Tarot Reflections from the Yurts of MFC

Image of trees and mountains from "the ridge" at Collins Lake Ranch

My life has been a bit of a whirlwind lately. I spent the past month visiting my grandparents, working at Mountain Friends Camp, traveling back home, and recovering from camp while trying to fill my days with meaningful activities. We have reached the point of the year where I stay home while my family goes to school/work, and I can feel myself slipping into the role of house spouse/sad spinster whiling away the hours.

Right before I left for New Mexico, I bought a Tarot of Pagan Cats mini-deck. I have gradually transformed into the vaguely-New-Age-pseudo-witch that my younger self would have resented, largely through a sequence of seemingly innocent purchase choices. When I left for study abroad, I left my two tarot decks back in California. However, I have since felt tarot's absence from my life, and I was happy to get back into the habit of pulling a tarot card every day and occasionally trying out a tarot spread.

To start off what I hope will be a month of daily blog posts, I am sharing a few of my daily tarot reflections from my time at camp. There will be some minor edits for anonymity and clarity, but I am otherwise leaving these entries as they were written. The tarot meanings listed are from Joan Bunning's online course Learning the Tarot.

Images of the tarot cards from Tarot of the Pagan Cats that inspired these reflections

Tuesday, June 25: Ten of Swords / / bottoming out, victim mentality, martyrdom
Today, I was listening to one of our counselors talking about Quaker Voluntary Service, and they said that it is about taking a year to learn about how to take care of yourself rather than burning out serving others. I hope that we can help to make Mountain Friends Camp more like that, and to avoid a Ten of Swords situation/mentality.

Sunday, June 30: Knight of Swords / / direct, authoritative, incisive, knowledgeable, logical, opinionated, blunt, overbearing, cutting, unfeeling
I am learning that it is hard to be The Staff Member, especially when there are other staff members in the room. Still, I worry that I am taking on a Knight of Swords attitude.

 Thursday, July 4-Friday, July 5: The Fool (0) / / beginning, spontaneity, faith, apparent folly
I was certainly somewhat spontaneous with the CIT Day Off today, going into it with very little previous planning. It went well, and not planning ahead allowed us to loosen up and have a good time. 

 Sunday, July 7: Ace of Wands / / creative force, enthusiasm, confidence, courage
I have felt a strong dip in my confidence and enthusiasm recently. A camper made a hurtful comment to me yesterday, and I still haven't fully recovered to my usual confidence and high spirits.

Monday, July 8: King of Chalices / / wise, calm, diplomatic, caring, tolerant
I have been trying my best to channel King of Cups energy, despite being tired and ready for my time off. I feel that I haven't been as calm and engaged as I normally would be at camp.

Wednesday, July 10: Queen of Chalices / / loving, tenderhearted, intuitive, psychic, spiritual
Today has been a day of recharging and feeling connected to nature. I haven't felt "loving" and "tenderhearted" so much as "prickly" and "eager to escape campers", but I suppose that's an area for improvement. 

Sunday, July 14: King of Chalices / / wise, calm, diplomatic, caring, tolerant
This was an important day for my King of Chalices traits, because it was camper arrival day for the second session. I worked hard to ensure that campers felt safe and supported, even in the middle of a lightning storm. 

Monday, July 15: Seven of Wands / / aggression, defiance, conviction
This card features a cat hissing angrily at six wands being held up in front of zir*. Behind zir, the seventh wand bears a red flag with a yellow triangle on it. I have grouch about other people's lack of trust in my ability to complete basic tasks, like gathering my campers and putting the appropriate number of chairs in a circle.

 I hope that you enjoyed this slightly unusual blog post, and that I will be able to return to posting regularly after such a long time away.

Best wishes,
Lydia

* I was trying to get Slightly Less Terrible about using neopronouns correctly, so I experimented with using ze/zir/zirs pronouns instead of they/them/theirs pronouns when describing tarot images.
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