The Mystical Game of Self-Improvement Week Four: Page of Cups

Ok, this is starting to get COMPLICATED! Why oh why am I not drawing low hanging fruit cards? Believe me, I have several tasks on tap just waiting for an, oh, 2-8. And, please, another Cup? Cheese. Yet, once again, I must take a step back and contemplate that there is likely a reason why I'm drawing Pentacles, Cups and (mostly) high cards.

So, recall, Pages are messengers. What are these little dudes trying to tell me? What news are they bringing? Or, what message? As in, "Change THIS, you moron!"

The specific divination for the Page of Cups is:

(Upright): "This card signifies a meditative, loyal, spiritual and sensitive person who will be helpful. A reflective situation. News or knowledge of art or culture is brought".

(Reverse): "Insensitivity to others. A flatterer and deceiver. Selfishness".

And Cups, once again, signify relationships in the game of 52.

Because I'm running the risk of biting off too much to chew, I've decided I'm going to tie the Page of Cups in with the Queen of Cups's challenge (the Queen of Cups's challenge is, in short "when in doubt, be nice, and, if you can't, walk away and let someone else deal with it") by taking it a step further.

Rather than taking the time to stew over something/dwell on it/be negative/thinking of ways to "get back" or "get even", take that energy and devote it to something spiritual, artistic, or cultural.

Maybe this is stretching it, I don't know. However, I got to thinking about how much time I spent writing that review on our Realtor; probably over two hours, not to mention the time spent attempting to figure out how to get it posted in multiple places. I ended up feeling frustrated, irritated, angry and was in a totally negative frame of mind. All for what end? It won't really change anything. We made a mistake by selecting them. They are jerks. If anyone asks us, we'll advise them not to use them. If it turns out they swindled us out of some money (this is a pending question), we'll report them to the BBB. The bottom line is, the house sold and we no longer have to worry about it. Do we have them to thank for selling it? No. But, we're thankful it's not sitting on the market still and having to continually deal with them. Does this mean I'm not going to get annoyed each time we get a request from them asking us for information (for the new owners) that we already provided? No, I'll get annoyed. But, I just don't want to get so hung up on every mistake people make; even when said people sure appear to make a hell of a lot of them.

Ok, this is a long way of saying the following. When something happens that I decide to shrug off, I'll take the time I would have spent bitching about it and put the effort into something spiritual, artistic or cultural.

On to a recap of my other chores:

Five of Pentacles

Doing great. Probably should talk with Mr. B soon about recreating the business side so I can take over. It's way too difficult trying to figure out why he did what he did. On the other hand, taking the time to do so would be decent preparation for eventually working through the muddle some potential client comes to us with.

Queen of Cups

I'm a-trying. Man, is this tough. I think adding in the Page of Cups's challenge will assist in this regard. On the pro side, I've not been nasty to anyone lately. I was a bit sarcastic with Regan & Co. yesterday morning, however. Sigh.

Page of Pentacles

I've not yet researched the patent thing. I did spend a goodly amount of time with Mr. B discussing the pros and cons of a potential business arrangement. In doing so, I thought of a lot more marketing ideas. Now, I just need to get my butt in gear and start planning.

BTW, I can't help but think these Pages in my Tarot deck look like vapid little zombies. I think I prefer the Hello Kitty version!

Mrs. B

The Mystical Game of Self-Improvement Week Three: Page of Pentacles

Here we go with the money thing again! And, another high-ish card (the Page is somewhere between the 10 and the Jack).

Unlike the prior two weeks, I'm not going to spend much time analyzing this card or writing what its divination in the Tarot is, save a few words.

But first, the update!

Five of Pentacles

Hey, I'm doing great with this one! I've put all of our personal financial information into Quickbooks. This has been a fantastic way to learn how it all flows. I have had to bug Mr. B several times, but, I believe he's learned a few things along the way as well. I'll continue to work with it and will shortly start entering business transactions as well. Eventually, I'll create a new set of books for our business and I'll take over. That's not for a while yet, however.

Queen of Cups

This was a mighty card to draw; as in, a mighty challenge, a mighty struggle, a mighty lady. Frankly, I was a bit overwhelmed with where, exactly, to head with this card since it can entail so much. Finally, since Cups relate to relationships and feelings and such, I've decided to narrow this task down to a few areas, all to do with how I PERCEIVE and BEHAVE in situations involving people/relationships:

-Take 10. Count to ten and breath before I react to anything which I perceive as an adversarial situation.

-I will be firm, not mean.

-I won't be belligerent; I'll try my Father's tack; "I'm just an old country gal trying to get along". Ok, I guess I can't use "country gal", necessarily, but, I'll figure something out.

-I will be polite, not rude.

-I will take the high ground.

-I will be thoughtful, not hasty.

-And, when all else fails, I'll pass it off to someone else to deal with if I don't think I can maintain my composure.

This is quite a tall order, I realize. I guess, too, that I probably could have assigned some of these to other cards in the game, but, the Queen of Cups IS a biggie!

How am I doing? Ok. This will take the whole year to master. However, I'm happy to report that just yesterday I "passed something off" to Mr. B because I was starting to get quite annoyed with a particular company which will remain unnamed. I asked Mr. B to take a stab at writing a reply to their customer service folks; he did, I edited it, and we in turn received something a bit more positive back from them. Not that we're done with them, I'm afraid, but, it was at least a step in the right direction in many ways.

I will add that all of this doesn't mean I'm turning into a Patsy. If someone or some organization deserves to be blasted (so to speak), they will be; but, I'll try my best to do it in an entirely professional manner. Case in point; you'll likely see a review of our experience with our real estate agency shortly here on this Blog!

Ok, on to this week's card.

Here are a few words which jumped out at me from its description/divination:

Regarding Pages, they represent messages or messengers. Their duty is to announce or be an effective instrument of information. Recall that Pentacles typically deal with money. "A situation requires knowledge or research. New ideas and opinions manifest".

When I read this, I knew EXACTLY what it meant for me!

Two things, really:

Take on a major role in marketing Mr. B/the business. I DO have ideas, tons of them. Some things have already been put into play, but, there's much to be done yet.

Patent Mr. B's invention. I don't want to say more about this HERE. But, I'm definitely going to research how to get this done.

So, with these challenges ahead of me, plus the 1st two, I'm a-gonna be a busy gal.

Mrs. B

PS I had to post this other card; when I did a search on my Tarot deck's Page of Pentacles, this one popped up, too. I was a bit surprised that there is, apparently, a "Hello, Kitty" Tarot deck floating around out there. Not exactly what you'd expect youngsters to be playing with, but, hey, all mystics have to get their start someone, I suppose!

The Mystical Game of Self-Improvement Week Two: Queen of Cups

Ought oh. I mean, seriously, OUGHT OH! Not only did I draw a fairly high card (the higher the card the more challenging the task), it had to be one dealing with relationships and a bunch of touchy-feely, supernatural, psychic-jazzy babble.

But first, an update on my progress with last week's task, the Five of Pentacles.

I did spend several hours exploring Quick Books and began taking their on-line tutorials. I came up with a list of questions for Mr. B and we went over them a few days later (he may come to regret this because I am nit-picky about keeping records). I figured out how to reconcile our business banking statement by merely clicking a few buttons. I have scheduled more time this week to continue my studies.

Back to today's Queen of Cups. Seriously, you'll understand why I'm stumped after reading these descriptions/divinations (by the way if you're having difficulty reading the print, click on Ctrl and + at the same time, this will enlarge the font):

So, yeah. Exactly. Huh? This is my stumble-bumble through it:

Ok, well, I suppose I HAD been thinking that I want/need/should/could/might better (a hold out from NC) work at being a nicer person, both in how I deal with people and in how I handle difficult situations. So, that's "relationships", right? I know, it's a stretch, but that's about all I can come up with and if I succeed even somewhat, that will be a good thing.

And, my friend and I agreed from the outset that if we managed to make even just a few of these 52 things (or 78 in my case) stick, this would be an improvement in our lives.

So, maybe it's not so strange that I drew the Queen of Cups. And, I always have preferred to get difficult tasks out of the way early; plus, I have a lot more lead time on this one, I have fifty-one more weeks to get it right.

Mrs. B

The Mystical Game of Self-Improvement Week One: Five of Pentacles

Today begins the first week of the game my friend calls "52"; which for me will likely turn into "78" as I'm adding in twenty-six additional Tarot cards.

This morning I collected my Tarot box (sadly quite dusty), sorted out the Major Aracana cards as I'm not ready to tackle anything that majorly important, and, after quiet consideration of how the deck felt in my hands, drew my first card.

Given how concerned I've been about money these past months, I'm not really surprised that I picked a Pentacle, as Pentacles (diamonds) is the suit that corresponds with livelihood, career, financial matters and the like.

My Tarot deck of choice is the Scared Rose. Here, then, are a few definitions and possible divinations of this particular card:

Hmmm...not too positive sounding, is it? Well, one of the great things about the Tarot is it's open to interpretation!

And the resulting action will be...

Time is already on the "books" (ha ha). Seriously, if this works out ok, I could become a Certified Quick Books Pro Adviser; if it makes sense to, that is. Mr. B's already in the process of receiving his certification; not sure if both of us need this designation.

And, we're off!

Mrs. B