Daily Archives: July 17, 2025

Tarot

Bonus Post: The Woodward

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Summer and the Greenhouse Moon II

 

In response to two questions I pulled this card*.

  1. How shall I live my life today?
  2. How can I improve my daily life?

Stumbled a bit the first time I encountered this card. What is a woodward, anyhow? Found this by Google’s Gemini:

It is an English surname and male given name with the meaning “forester” or “wood-keeper”.Historically, a “woodward” was a medieval forest officer who patrolled and protected forests. Gemini

I’ve been a bit down since the hernia/testicle incident on Monday and my subsequent visit to the doctor on Tuesday. An ultrasound will clarify things, but that’s not scheduled yet.

In the angst of the pain, the uncertainty-was it appendicitis, a kidney stone?-my equilibrium took a hit. Hernia was a softer possibility, but something with my totally useless testicles? Come on.

Dark thoughts floated by. Well, good. Maybe this will just kill me. Enough. This is too much. Something else? Now? I don’t want it. Leave my body alone!

So. I enhanced my question with the word improve. Pulled the Woodward again. OK. Now I’m listening.

“The Woodward draws its power from the natural world, symbolizing renewal and resilience.” That’s what I needed to hear. Shadow and Artemis. My back yard. Shadow and Black Mountains. The Wild Neighbors. Fawns, calves, kits, and cubs.

A moment of resilience when the Wild community repopulates itself. Flowers, Trees, Grasses go to Seed. Fawns, calves, kits, and cubs. Small yellow Flowers on my Tomato plants. Yes. I’m part of this, too. Renewing myself, my life. My resilience.

Being a Woodward for my own soul.

*Here is an expansion of the card’s significance:

  • Courage and Inner Strength:
    The Woodward signifies the ability to find courage within oneself, even when facing difficult or painful situations. 

  • Facing Unavoidable Truths:
    It can indicate the need to confront a difficult truth or person that cannot be overcome through physical or emotional force. 

  • Resolute Strength:
    The card emphasizes a calm, steadfast strength that comes from within, allowing one to stand their ground and persevere. 

  • Nature’s Power:
    The Woodward draws its power from the natural world, symbolizing renewal and resilience. 

  • Beyond Physical Strength:
    Unlike the traditional Strength card, which often depicts taming a lion, the Woodward emphasizes a different aspect of strength – the ability to stand firm and find inner resolve. 

  • Taming Beasts:
    The card’s imagery of a hunter taming beasts, with the help of a lynx and an eagle, further emphasizes this concept of finding strength to overcome challenges,
Family, Great Wheel, Tarot

Hey, cuz

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Summer and the Greenhouse Moon II

Thursday gratefuls: Shadow. Flowers on the Tomato Plants. The Monsoons. Here in force. Tarot. Luke’s class. Tom’s friend, Terri. In Israel. Mark in Al Kharj. Mary in K.L. Seoah, Murdoch, and my son in Osan. Chipmunks. Birds. Butterflies. Squirrels. Rabbits. Wild Neighbors in the back yard.

Sparks of Joy and Awe: Wild Neighbors

Year Kavannah: Wu Wei

Week Kavannah: Patience. Savlanut.

Tarot: The Woodward. How can I improve my daily life?

One brief shining: Shadow patrols the deck outside Kate’s old sewing room, sniffing through the floorboards where the chipmunks have lived ever since Kate and I moved here, reminding me of Rigel, the predator, who became so excited by the smells wafting up that she scratched claw marks in the composite boards that cover the deck.

 

Cousins: 15 first cousins on my mom’s side. Of them I’ve stayed close with only one, Diane. Whom I visited a year ago May in her long time city of residence, San Francisco.

I wrote a bit ago about those of the fifteen who have died, occasioned by the recent death of Tanya in a tragic fire at her home in Rush County, Indiana.

Then I read this interesting article about cousins in the Atlantic. The Great Cousin Decline. I hadn’t thought about this knock on effect of lower birth rates, but it’s obvious when you do.

My growing up, especially through high school, featured family trips to Morristown, Muncie, Arlington all of us piled into first that chunky maroon 1950 Ford, then the gray and white 57.

On the way to Morristown we would stop at The Post restaurant for lunch. The Post being a State Patrol Post nearby. That was a treat.

Thanksgivings in Muncie at Aunt Marjorie’s and Uncle Ike’s with a kid’s table, a big Turkey, and football in Uncle Ike’s den. Family reunions in the park in Greenfield. The occasional wedding or funerals. Sleepovers.

Yes, I was often the one with the stack of comic books off in the corner reading. I know. An introvert from early days.

One result of having so many cousins in four other families meant lots of family drama. A lot of it kept from us kids as we grew up. That Aunt who got pregnant out of wedlock. Wedlock. Does anybody even use that word anymore?

The cousins who might have had other fathers. Bi-polar disorder. A professional gambling man, one of my uncles. Grandpa reputedly winning the farm on a bet at the Kentucky Derby.

Not at all Leave It To Beaver or Patriarch Knows Best. I feel sorry for those with few cousins, now most folks I guess. Broadened my world.

 

Tarot: The Woodward. Pulled this card a second time. Guess I need to pay attention to it. Here’s one interesting take on his meaning that resonates:

“The Woodward’s strength, drawn from nature’s inherent power to renew and overcome, is needed if we are to foresee what is to come and wait upon the turning of the seasons. Sometimes, when faced with a challenging situation, we must find our own inner backstop, the point from which we will not retreat or from which we can move forward with quiet confidence. The Wildwood ethos has much to teach humanity about calm, resolute strength.”  Parting the Mists