A Spiritually Enlightening Online Magazine. January's Theme: "Change"
Volume 8 Issue 2 ISSN# 1708-3265

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Illuminations Aleesha Stephenson About the Cover Mary Griffin Silent Witness Dj Brown Dear Nan Alegria Imperial Embracing Change Julie Hoyle Tune Into the Nature of Life - Constant Change, Flow Rev. Cheryl Jewett Adjectives David Reber Fasting for Health Dr. Ben Kim Keeping the Tiger! David Suzuki PhD Living… Naturally Nicole Gardner Lifetalks Dawn Baumann Brunke Walk Your Talk Aleesha Stephenson Po and the Stones Phil Kotofskie Pet-sense Jean Hofve DVM Wiccan Voices Crystal Blanton, HPs Let's Talk Tarot Marcia McCord Meditate a Moment Featuring: David Reber Cards & Curios Tarot Deck Reviews: with Dan Pelletier Mantras for Precarious Times Deva Premal Hezicos Tarot Mary Griffin The 72 Names Cards Orna Ben-Shoshan Archived Reviews All of T.S.M.'s Reviews

Happy New Year! At least it is by the calendars you can buy in the stores. We know that some traditions count their New Year from different days in the year, like Samhain and Chinese New Year. But from a commercial western point of view, we go along with January 1. It's a good enough starting point.

In the tarot, The World is seen as the culmination of all that has been learned, loved, lost and gained on the journey. It's where you have been heading this whole time, even if you didn't realize it. Through all the changes, presented card by card in the Major Arcana, at last we arrive at The World. It's fulfillment. It is a time to assess and integrate each stop along the way. It's, "I was meant to be here." It's, "I was going to be this old this year anyway." It's, "Auld Lang Syne." It's, "Peace on earth" and all the good wishes that go with that feeling of completion. It's even, "No matter where you go, there you are." You get a snapshot of that "This Is It" moment.

And then, of course, everything changes.

This could be good news. Instead of feeling on top of the world, you might feel you've been single handedly trying to hold it up or push it up a hill or even somehow, impossible with a spherical planet with sufficient gravity, fallen off the edge of it. Change could be good.

Change could be bad, too. What if this, whatever it is, is the "'S'Wonderful" you've always wanted? What if you don't recognize it for the magic it is? What if you are only able to see it in retrospect and long ever after to save "Time in a Bottle"? What if you don't realize it, but you don't really want anything to change?

The reality of our lives, still trying to preserve our illusion of a linear universe just so we can visualize it, is that the moment, whether wonderful or a trial, is in fact the illusion. It's like a bookmark on the internet, something you placed there in your experience. It doesn't really exist without you. So don't think you aren't important. You're essential.

The reality is more like another couple of songs that come to mind, like "Dust in the Wind," and "Time Keeps Flowing Like a River." We might be small, like particles of dust, but are we insignificant? No, we're here. We mean something. I change therefore I am; I am, therefore I change.

In tarot, The World isn't just an ending, but it is also a beginning. It's the announcement of a new cycle of change. It's Father Time and Baby New Year. It's the end and the beginning. It signals your recognition of the changes you have been through and the ones yet to come. The World is realization, culmination, precipice, celebration and adventure.

Someone once asked me why I liked the beach so much. I like the colour, the smell, the sparkle, the intertidal edge. I like seashells, live and dead, and fish and birds. I like the movement of the waves, large and dark and powerful or small and gentle, like a baby patting a soft puppy. I like the Intergalactic Night Club that is the meeting place of life forms alien to one another, like the canteen in Star Wars. It is the place of endings and beginnings. Most of all, I like that there is an entirely new beach every day. Oh, things might look the same at first, but suddenly a tide pool appears with the moon's tug that wasn't there yesterday. Or a school of juvenile stingrays swim in tight formation on their migratory travels, snacking at the wave roll. Or a storm may sweep up wonders from the depths to land at your feet. I love the beach because it changes.

So, "If That's All There Is," like another older song, then let's keep dancing, like the Dancer of the World, and savour the moment however brief or long. It is our moment, ours to keep and ours to change.

And just in case you wish things would never change from this most special moment when you're "Sitting on Top of the World," take a look at The World from my Art Postcard Tarot. You know, if that baby sits there too long, he's going to get frostbite! Change can be good!

I hope you dance. Happy New Year!

Best wishes. Marcia.

Marcia McCord recently joined us (2009) as an Associate Proofreading Editor here at Timeless Spirit Magazine. Marcia is a professional tarot reader and computer analyst. She lives with her husband, five cats and one very patient cocker spaniel near San Francisco. Be sure to check out her blog!

This just in! Marcia McCord's two new tarot decks are now available for purchase, $25 USD plus postage. For more information, visit her blog: marciamccordtarotreader.blogspot.com/2010/09/whats-new-at-magicians-table.html

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