New Year, New Plans, New Ideas

Happy (almost) New Year! It’s a mild day here (-5C), and there’s not a lot of snow, but it’s certainly winter. Isn’t it weird how our new year starts in the dead of winter? Here in the northern hemisphere, at any rate; in the southern hemisphere, they’re well into summer … which is better, but really, wouldn’t it make more sense to have it happen in spring? The spring equinox, whenever it happens for your piece of the globe, would be a great “new year”.

But no. January 1. The bleak mid-winter in these parts.

Weird old culture, huh?

In anticipation of the new year, I did some thinking about this blog. More posts, for starters. I’m a little daunted by the amount of writing I’m committing to do, but I’m also excited. There will be themes! So organized, me. And of course the themes will be tarot-influenced! Each quarter, we will view our life and our challenges through the lens of one of the tarot elements. Four quarters in a year, four elements in a tarot deck. I’m psyched!

Brief Lesson about Tarot: Each suit in the deck is associated with a different element, and each element has different concerns. Pentacles is Earth, concerned with the tangibles of life: health, work, finances, home. Swords are Air, dealing with communication, ideas, logic, rationality, and often, conflict. Wands are Fire – passions, ambitions, enthusiasm, and Cups are Water – emotions, creativity.

The fifth aspect of life, spirituality, isn’t addressed by a specific suit. Some say that the Major Arcana deals with spirituality, and certainly it deals with major life themes, but I tend to see spirituality in all cards, depending on the person, the spread, the question being asked.

In January, we’ll start with Fire, for a toasty, passion-fuelled beginning in the dark, drab, depth of winter. Sound good?