Oh, what a week, what a week. The coffee shop has been closed for renovations since Christmas. We’re preparing to reopen in a few days, and the place is in utter chaos. Construction still isn’t finished, yet we have to be ready.

Between that and the construction still going on at my house, I feel positively restless.

•••

I do three card pulls for my daily readings, and I read them as a sweep. I find there’s more nuance present versus the one card daily draws that are so popular. I’m not sure where I picked up the three card sweeps. I’ve been reading for 30-something-years at this point, and it’s something I don’t remember being new to me.

Anywhoozle, last night I pulled 9 of Swords, 2 of Swords, and 9 of Wands, and boy, lemme tell you…I was speechless. That sweep perfectly summarised what I’ve been feeling.

9 of Swords is your classic anxiety card. Fear, worry, mental anguish, sleeplessness. This card typically comes up when there’s a lot of negative thoughts, which can sometimes be blown out of proportion by our feeble brains. But sometimes those negative thoughts are rooted in the reality of a situation that we are hesitant to honestly and openly confront.

2 of Swords is about decision making and using your decisions to achieve balance. There’s a need for clarity. There’s a need for peace and harmony in the midst of conflicting interests. This card often comes up when there’s a mental stalemate; when you’re stymied and unable to move forward. Usually… because of our deeply flawed mortal brains. (Are you sensing a pattern here?)

9 of Wands is about resilience, persistence, gathering strength to continue in spite of the challenges you know lie ahead. This card comes up when you’re close to finishing a cycle, and you’re weary. You’re depleted. You’re guarded. You’re nervous and defensive. This card is here to remind you to stand your ground, protect your accomplishments, and ready your forces to move into the completion of this cycle.

What was so interesting about this sweep is two swords were present, and two 9s were present. This tarot reading is showing me that there is anxiety and fear that’s keeping me up at night, though I really didn’t need the cards to tell me that. (There is something weighing heavily on my mind.) This sweep shows that I’m in a period where there’s tough choices at my feet, but the 9 of Wands and the 9 of Swords indicate that my persistence will pay off if I confront my fears and make a decision, as represented here by the 2 of Swords, and forge ahead.

Those of you who were in my tarot program last year will hopefully recall how 9s are about near-completion. There’s a pervasive myth in new age divinatory communities that 9s are the completion of a cycle and the 10s are the beginning of a new cycle. This is based on a logical fallacy perpetuated by those who dabble in numerology without actually understanding numerology.

To put this into context, it’s most helpful to look at the minors as a group and as though they’re telling you a story. For the sake of brevity I’m not going to go back to the beginning here, but let’s start with the 5s.

The 5s are about conflict, either internal or external.

The 6s are about harmony and reconciliation.

The 7s are about challenges, often ones that show up at an inconvenient time and make us question our direction.

The 8s are about making a decision; either we continue on the path we are on towards the completion of the cycle, or we turn back.

The 9s are about that final push. 9s are about forging ahead and gathering the strength, fortitude, and resolve to do so.

The 10s are the completion of the cycle, sometimes a good one, sometimes a bad one. But completion nonetheless for without completion of a cycle, a new one cannot begin. Much like birth and death.

Ahead of me the cards indicate I’ve got two cycles I’m on the verge of completing as long as I get off my ass and out of my own way and make a freakin’ decision already.

The path will make itself known when I am ready, and in the meantime, I will continue to distract myself with all sorts of garbage, like this…

The Links

The Park Administration withdrew their plans to change Welcome Park and remove William Penn’s statue. More on this in an upcoming podcast episode because for 24 hours this was a whole big thing. I got rather angry with my fellow Quakers who have gone so far left they support the erasure of our history.

Hydrogen production via microwave-induced water splitting. I came on this because a friend of mine insists that microwaving anything with water in it destructures the water, and it’s not as good for you, and can in fact be detrimental.

That’s also how I ended up on this link: Quantitative characterization of hydration state and destructuring effect of monosaccharides and disaccharides on water hydrogen bond network

I relistened to this 2017 episode of Titanium Physicists about muons. Muons are my favourite of all the elementary particles, not to be confused with muon neutrinos.

A member of a political website I run was one of the organisers of the Freedom Convoy back in Canada. He talked at length one night about the gravity of participating and what it meant to the men on the ground. I can’t look at what’s going on in Germany without thinking about his words. These men are quite taking time away from their families, their farms, their loved ones…they’re risking their livelihoods to standup against their government. It’s a sacrifice that shouldn’t be taken lightly, yet it will be.

The Memes (because fuck it, why not?)

A Parting Song

Hey, so you made it this far…

There’s a lot of stuff I enjoy talking about that I can’t actually talk about publicly. And there’s an ungodly amount of memes I can’t share publicly. If you’d like to chat, or share memes, feel free to add me on Telegram. https://t.me/quakerelizabeth