Tarot Blog Hop: Celebrating the Sunrise

Hello everyone! Welcome to my entry on the Tarot Blog Hop for Litha (Midsummer)! Our theme this holiday is "Celebrating the Sunrise". (I hope that you're coming from Matt Williams' blog, but if not, please go check it out!)

A sunrise is a gorgeous, beautiful thing. And today, the sun greets us and will stay out longer than any other day this year. Reaching the pinnacle of the sun's power on earth makes me consider the cyclical nature of all life, and in particular, our lives as individuals.

As a Scorpio, I'm all too aware of the temporary, transient nature of things. Intellectually, we know that everything changes, evolves, grows, dies, and is reborn. As human beings, we often don't want to believe this is true. We want the good things to stay exactly as they are, and we want the bad things to be even more temporary. So we remain stagnant. We get caught up in the day-to-day nonsense of what we are doing. In hindsight, we can look back and say, "Yeah, I remember that month. I realized that I should have made a change and not resisted; it would have been better for me that way."

With the sun at its peak, I'm asking questions about how I made it here to build on my successes. How did I improve myself, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually over the past year? Who helped me grow? Which relationships truly benefitted me? How did I help others? The warm, lasting sun helps me to appreciate all of these blessings.

At the same time, it is for just this one day that the sun remains at its zenith. So I ask myself very specific questions on how I can improve myself and my life. As a young man, I realized I made two very grave errors in judgment more than once. The first is that I often told people that I "would never change". The Universe just laughed at me on that one, folks, let me tell you. But I learned that change would be forced on me if I didn't choose it, and overall that was a good thing. The second is that I made radical changes in my life quickly, only to figure out that in many areas, gradual change is easier and more effective.

At Litha I also ask myself how I can improve myself over the next year, and I look for small ways that can build up over time. The sun's power gives me a healthy boost of enthusiasm and confidence to start making those changes. "How much weight can I lose in the next year?" became "How can I become healthier in the next year?", for example.

This year I have important unfinished business to attend to. The first is my health. Despite some success in being healthier this past year, I have to do better. Without my health, nothing else matters, and the day-to-day rat race make excuses on why I haven't done it very easy. I need to keep the sun shining down on my good health as long as possible. So I'll be making a few gradual changes to ensure that happens.

The second is that I have a nonfiction tarot book that needs to be edited. Many times in my life, I have not succeeded in finishing a book. My family, friends, clients, and students keep asking me when I'm going to be done. But my own weakness and lack of confidence keeps me from it each time. A year from now, I want to have this book in the hands of an interested publisher.

Finally, I'm branching out and writing a novel, something I never expected to do. A close friend asked me a few months ago why I didn't write fiction. I came up with some bullshit excuses, which she promptly shot down--I am thankfully surrounded by powerful women in my life who respect me enough to call me out when necessary--and consequently, I have been working on it since that time. Next Litha, I would like to have that also in the hands of an interested publisher.

I look at Litha as a mini wake-up call. I'm going to "Celebrate the Sunrise" by allowing the sun's rays to illuminate those areas of my life where I am most blessed, while burning away the fog of excuses and rationalizations that keep me from attaining my full potential. The things I want won't happen overnight, but I'm confident that I'll be well on my way when the sun again rises to its peak.

I hope that the sun gives you the courage, determination, and peace of mind that you need to accomplish your long-term goals.

Thanks for stopping by! There are a lot of talented tarot professionals doing this blog hop, like Jaymi Elford, whose blog is next on the blog hop. I hope you take the time to visit them all!