Transcript of the latest podcast episode

Introduction to the podcast episode

Hello there wildling! Welcome to the Tea and Tombstones podcast. Here, we discuss topics in relation to the wild spirit, and we are rewriting the themes of wellness to include the spectrum of hallowed ground we claim within ourselves, and the haunted ground we conquer with reverence and honor. My name is Ashlie, the creator and wolf-child of Tea and Tombstones. With tarot cards in my hands and howl in my throat, I welcome you here.

Body of the podcast

Hello there my dear spirit, my dear, dear listener. Wherever you are at today, I hope that you’re well, that you’re moving through this time in a way that feels right, and that is encouraging your spirit in whatever way and shape that takes. We are back with our collective read for August. I just always love doing the podcast episode on our collective read because the collective read that we do for each month, the collective cards that we talk about here on the podcast and that we look at, and that we start to work with and embody, I always view that, find that, and just feel that it is like a connective tissue that connects us to each other. It’ll take different paths. And it’ll look differently and feel differently for each of us because we are unique and sovereign spirits, but it is just a way for us to really connect with each other. At least that’s my goal anyway, whenever I talk about our collective read and our monthly cards.

So this month, we are working with the 10 of Wands, and the Hummingbird. You may actually be able to hear some hummingbirds. I do put a background track now into my podcast episodes, I just think that that helps kind of create a little bit of a moving energy that only music can do in relation to the narrative that I discuss here on the podcast episode. But you may be able to hear some hummingbirds because they have been flying around like crazy. Really ever since summer started, and they are just the cutest little things. I love hummingbirds. And I think that they’re like adrenaline junkies, because I just watch them, and I could watch them for hours, just the way that they like, will fly, and then they stand still, and then they like kind of go up to the top of the trees, and then they just do like this dive down, and I mean, yeah, they just look like little adrenaline junkies. But they’re so cute, and they’re so little.

So yeah, those are our monthly cards. So let’s just jump right in and start talking about them starting with the 10 of wands. So yeah, our first, our tarot card for this month is the 10 of Wands. Now all of the 10s have a lot of a hinged energy to them. Meaning that we are moving from where we have been, where we are, into something new. This could be external, or it could be internal. This could be external in the form of something that we’re actively working through in an external space. There could be other people involved. There could be different locations externally involved. Or it could be simply internal, where we’re growing as this person. We’re actively kind of trying to move into this person that we want to be or we’re moving through something spiritually, magically, personally, emotionally, and we’re moving through either the external or the internal space, based on where we have been and where we are now.

Now, the 10s invite us some things that make them different than the Aces. So the 10s invite us to bring with us into this new space the wisdom, the knowledge, the lessons, and the beautiful abundance of what we have learned, what we have gained, and what is supportive for us in a very deep space into this new place, whether that’s external or internal, yet they also ask us to relinquish certain things that cannot go with us into this new chapter, into this new space of where we want to be either externally or internally.

So the Tens invite us to actively carry our wisdom, our growth, our evolving self up into this point. It asks us to bring the lessons that we’ve learned, the experiences that have shifted us, have changed our perspectives. If there’s any sort of belief or faith-based support in that, that we know is going to be of help to us, then the 10s ask us to bring things like that. And these could be even physical things. Again, it’s very different how it will look for each and every person. But the Tens ask us to bring in what will support our continued growth in this next space. Yet they also say there are certain things that cannot come with us. Because if we did bring them with us, we wouldn’t be in a new space, we would be in the same space. So Tens actively invite change and invite growth, and yet they do that by asking of us to relinquish, to compost, to return to source, to spirit, whatever it is. Both physically, energetically, whatever it is for you.

They actively invite us to grow and evolve by bringing the nutrients, by bringing what will help us plant ourselves into these new spaces, but they also say that not everything gets to come with us. And with us having a Wand, we’re talking about our spirit, our vital energy, our sovereign seat of self, if you will. So the 10 of Wands, and we see often times, in many books or in many tarot decks that the 10 of Wands is maybe not the most wanted card. If we look at the Rider Waite, we see this person carrying all of these wands, and it looks heavy. It looks burdensome. It looks cumbersome. And so this card has often been portrayed as something is really like moving through one final hardship to gain the abundance through work or through this sense of ingenuity, of creativity, of imagination, but doing hard work to get there.

I see this a little bit, but the way that I teach the 10 of Wands is that the 10 of Wands asks us to take a leap of faith within ourselves, and with what we envision of ourselves being in this new space, and how do we move with that? How do we move through the hardships and the expansion? How do we move through the places of getting from this hinged space of where we are to where we’re trying to get? How do we move through both the bottleneck and the expansive energy around that. Because again, we’re being asked a lot. All of the Tens kind of ask a lot of us. And so when we are in a space of working with this, moving into new spaces, embodying new energies, experiencing new things, and having that be rooted in this in the seat of ourselves, rooted in our sovereign spirits, I have always seen the 10 of Wands to be this leap of faith of what we are envisioning and how we are navigating ourselves through both the bottleneck and the expansion.

And before I move on with the rest of my notes, and my narrative on the 10 of Wands, I just want to share this poem. This comes from the Parables and Portraits book by Stephen Mitchell. I love this book so much, but this poem is titled “Through the Eye of the Needle.”

So this poem by Stephen Mitchell is in relation to the parable in the book in the Bible verse, I’m sorry, the book of Matthew 19:24, I believe, where a young man comes to Jesus and asks him, how does he get into heaven? How does he have eternal life, and Jesus basically tells him, and I’m greatly paraphrasing this here because I’m not going to try to go down this rabbit-hole of Bible verses because it is not something that I use in my personal life, professional life. So I’m just really kind of paraphrasing and glazing over the surface, if you will, in reference to the very brief research that I did on this. So Jesus is talking to this young man. This young man is very wealthy and he asks Jesus how does he get into heaven and have eternal life, and and Jesus tells him to follow the commandments. The young man says the he has done that, and then Jesus tells him to sell and give away all of his wealth to the poor, to everyone else, and to then follow him and then he will have eternal life in heaven. The young man is sad because he doesn’t want to get rid of his wealth. And so he leaves and Jesus turns to his disciples and says, “I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than it is for a rich person to get into heaven.”

I’m not going to be comparing the tarot to any of the Bible verses or any sort of books of the Bible, because one, I don’t know enough about it. It’s not my faith, my religion. I merely just mention that so that if you want to go and do your own research, and if that is something that is a part of your faith that you can connect the poem to that in that way, but I just mentioned that that’s where the story through the eye of the needle came from, in relation to this poem. But I love this poem. And I love the fact that it really emphasizes and shows this leap of faith. How there is work involved to prepare for this leap of faith.

That it’s not just something that when we are really moving through something big, and we go through the bottleneck and into the expansion, whether that’s an external thing, again, something that we’re moving through externally, or if it’s an internal thing. What we bring, and when we do the work to get there, we’re gaining wisdom. We’re learning and growing and evolving, and then we are able to know when we are… maybe not ready to take the leap of faith because there have been many leaps of faith that I have had to take within myself, that I did not think I was ready for, but we can at least acknowledge maybe when the time is right, or when it’s if not now, then when kind of situation.

So the 10 of Wands, again, speaks to this leap of faith with what you envision. Moving and hinging from one space into the next. Whether internally, externally, it also invites us to see how we move with it, and through the bottleneck and into this expansive new space. How do we move with it through all of this? Because as much as we don’t want to relinquish anything, in order to go into this new space into this new chapter, as we mentioned, we do have to relinquish some of it. We can’t bring everything with us because then it’s not a new space. It’s just us moving from one space into another with the…. like, we’ve changed the scenery, but not the situation kind of thing, and with all of the Tens, we are being invited to change the situation, if you will.

We are again being invited into this evolving space, beginning again, but with wisdom and with a relinquishing, a returning, a composting of energies, situations, things, maybe even people that cannot come with us into this new space because this new space is not meant to hold that. With that, there is work that comes with getting ready to be on, to move on this hinge, if you will. So I’m not trying to negate what some of the other teachings you will see in decks and guidebooks and in tarot books relate to and talk about when in relation to the 10 of Wands. I’m merely saying that I think that there’s more to the work than what is often being talked about. That there’s more, and when we start to look at some of the imagery, the iconography, when we start to really work with the 10 of Wands from a space of what benefit does this provide, I have come to find that the 10 of Wands is in relation to the fact that we are moving in a great space of our spirit.

We are moving from a great space within the very seat of our self from one place into another, from one part of us into a new part of us, from one space of growth, from where we have kind of outgrown the skin like a snake, if you will. That we’ve grown as much as we can in this skin, in this shape, in this body, in the space and time, and we can’t go any further without shedding that skin, and then moving into our new situation. And having the leap of faith that we can do that, that we will do that and to acknowledge and to be mindful and humbled to the fact that it does take work to get there. The 10 of Wands, again, as it’s a Ten, speaks to the fact that there was a lot of work, a lot of energy, a lot of situations, a lot of things went into getting us where we are now on the hinge. Both in our real lives, our physical lives, but also in our magical, our spiritual lives and our spiritual practices, and in connecting with our energy to ourselves, talking to our spirits, talking to our guides, all of these things that we could bring in.

There was a lot of work that went into getting us to this space of hinging to the next space. So the 10 of Wands asks us to be humble to that. To really see and to reflect and to acknowledge all of the hard work, the good work, the easy work, the joyful work, the excruciating work that went into getting us to this hinged point and to be, again, to be humbled to that, to be mindful to that, but to also embrace this leap of faith, to embrace this ingenuity, this imagination, this magic, this possibility that we are now calling in, that we are actually sending out to the universe and saying, I wish to receive this back. I am hinging now on this precipice. I am hinging from one space to the next, and I’m sending that out into the universe so that I can receive it. And we need to then bring the wisdom as we move through that hinging again as we move through that bottleneck to get to the other side.

And so let’s go ahead and start talking about the image of the card because, as I’ve mentioned in previous episodes, that I think that the images give us a lot to work with. Now, we can definitely and obviously have a fingerprint of understanding what each card is, regardless of the card image. We don’t have to rely on the card images in order to build out or to create a narrative of our understanding of each and every tarot card. But once we start to get a base or a foundation of understanding, with each and every tarot card, I think, then we can really start to lean into the image, and let that provide a level, or a layer of nuance, or let it kind of work with us in different ways.

So looking at this image from the Ostara Tarot, one of the first things that we see is the humpback whale kind of front and center. And whales are a very powerful and profound animal spirit. And when we work with them in these images, I think that there is a lot to gain from working with the whale and not just the card. Again, like once we start to get that fingerprint of understanding between each and every card across decks, or regardless of decks, once we then start to see things like this come up, I think that we should use them in relation to helping develop our understanding even more, or creating that level of nuance in our understanding of the card. So humpback whales, or whales in general, I should say, speak to a sense of profound wisdom, peace, stability, communication. This higher level of connection, if you will. They’re also able to navigate in the darkness, and they’re able to navigate across a very long migratory track. All of the articles that I have used will be linked in the show notes, but one of the ones that I was looking at was saying that they don’t believe that whales, the scientists, they don’t believe that whales use echolocation the same way that like bottlenose dolphins do, or killer whales do. They’re not using them so much as a sense of navigation or for hunting purposes. They’re using it more in the space of connecting to their kin, creating those whale songs, those iconic whale songs, and scientists believe that they have the ability to use, or they think that they’re using the direction through the sun and the magnetic poles in order to move across their very long migratory paths as they go on their migration.

But again, scientists really don’t know how a lot of these animals are able to navigate and to migrate the way that they do, and to do so so proficiently, so consistently generation after generation. Year after year. So when we are working with the 10 of Wands, and again, we’ve been talking about doing the work, building the wisdom, this leap of faith being hinged from one space into the next, the whale makes a very clear connective thread through this, that they’re able to navigate and to hinge themselves in these situations that are very challenging, that are hard to overcome, and yet they’ve overcome so much. And yet they still have this sense of like, childlike play. They have this sense of wonder, this sense of awe that they provoke in us. They have this deep, deep compassion.

When we are moving through these situations again, moving through one chapter into another, from one space into another, what we do, how we work with ourselves and with our surroundings, that is part of that wisdom that we start to gain, and the more wisdom that we start to gain and to use as we hinge ourselves on these precipices from one space into another, the more that we can do so with a level of compassion, with a level of maturity, with the level of love, and a level of tending that we really need, in order to do this, to do the work to hinge and then to keep going into the next chapter, and then to do it again and again and again. And as mentioned, whales have been able to overcome so much and keep this level of compassion, communication, of love, of longevity, of vitality, of protection. They’ve been able to keep all of these things with them in their spirit and how we see and connect to them, despite what they have gone through.

So we immediately have this invitation that calls on us to tend ourselves, to call on our wisdom, to call on how compassion and love, longevity, communication and connection. How do those things deepen our wisdom? If we move through a situation, go through a chapter in our life, and we actively try to forget where we’ve come from, or what we’ve gone through, we’re not creating that sense of wisdom, that sense of compassion, of devotion, or communication because we’re actively working to place ourselves above something and have everything else be beneath us. And that’s not where we get our wisdom. That’s not where wisdom comes through for us. One of the other things we see in relation to the whale are these light rays coming out of the eye. I see this as an ability of not being hindered on something through expectation, or not relying on one thing alone in order to be guided.

And this is again, a level of wisdom and a part of the 10 of Wands that I think is very important when we look at the full picture of this card, and that is that in order to do the work that has gotten us from the Ace to the 10, and to move through and into the next chapter, one of the things we have to do is not only find a sense of humility and a sense of being humble to the situation, but we also have to actively develop a sense of listening and receiving. When we do that, I should say, we’re relinquishing some of the expectations that we have, and that is another form of wisdom gathering, that when we kind of relinquish our expectations on something, we’re not relying on something to look and feel a certain way in order to work with it, to move with it, to use it in relation to our evolution, into our merging, into our moving.

When we relinquish expectations, and we cultivate this relationship and we garner this relationship within the spiritual space that removes or relinquishes expectations, what we are doing is we are being open and vulnerable, but in a very beautiful way. We’re not expecting situations to look or feel a certain way, which means that we’re more in an active sense of receiving, of listening. Again, of being humble, and of taking what comes to us, what is here with us, and using that in ways that we can in order to move into our evolution in order to move into this next chapter. So when we stop trying to force our expectations, force one form or one narrative, or one thought, or one emotion to be the guiding principle, the one way we see things or maybe I should say, our one perspective of seeing things, and we start to open and humble ourselves to the fact that there are so many energies here that can be of support that we may not have you even tapped into yet.

We’ve been doing this work to get to this being in a Ten, and we’ve done all this work. We’ve moved through all these situations to get here, and to now place expectation, to now place one narrative, one perspective on what we expect to see going forward undoes all of the work that we just did. It undoes it because what we are doing when we have expectations, when we are looking at things or expecting to receive things, or placing a hierarchy on things, we are again, removing the wisdom that we’ve gathered. We’re removing the wisdom that we’ve gained, and trying to convince ourselves or trying to control the narrative that we are sending out, as we move on this hinge, to come back and look a very specific way so that we can receive it. And that is something that as anyone who starts to do any sort of spiritual, magical, or energetic work knows, when we start doing the work, what kind of needs to happen is that we need to open our eyes a little bit more and open our heart and our spirits.

All of our senses really to receive those subtle signals, because when we are moving through and energy, we’re moving through a threshold into something new, and we’re sending out all of this stuff into the universe, into this next situation, it doesn’t come back as like this bar-light, neon sign that’s like flashing like “you’ve arrived.” That is not how, like, it just doesn’t look like that. When we start to manifest, when we start to move and hinge ourselves in our evolution, and in our spiritual growth, we are being asked to be more open to the subtle energies, to the subtle messages and to the subtle ways of receiving through intuition that don’t always form, and almost never form, a linear narrative. It’s this collective conglomerate of energy that makes up these narratives that we then kind of have to work with, as we receive them. If we are in a 10, and we place expectations, perspectives and specific narratives on what should happen, what needs to happen, what is going to happen as we hinge ourselves through this space, we’re undoing all of that work.

Now, this doesn’t mean when we’re talking about things like being humble, being wise, this doesn’t mean that we are relinquishing all forms of control. It doesn’t mean that we’re also relinquishing any sort of sense or semblance of ourselves in this path. What it means is that we’ve done the work up to this point, and we’re hinging, we are now in the active space of hinging ourselves into this next space, this next chapter, in our lives. What we are therefore doing, again, coming from a more spiritual space with it being a wand and being of fire, is that we are actively sending out that energy to, maybe to our guides, to ourselves just connecting more deeply to ourselves, to any prayer or faith-based ritual or practice that we do. We’re sending this out, but we’re also proclaiming through our wisdom, through our compassion, through our connection, through our communication, we are proclaiming that we are worth whatever comes next in our higher and better selves. That we are worth experiencing this evolution and growing in ourselves, and having it be beautiful, having it be abundant, having it be safe and supportive, and embracing that because we are worth that.

Every single one of us is worth that every one of us is worth that. But then you know, all of the messy human stuff comes in and can kind of create a different dialogue in relation to who we want to be with us on this journey. Not everyone needs or should come with us on this journey of evolution and of growth. But we are proclaiming that we are worth growing and rising and moving into a new and better space. We don’t obviously want to be going into a worse space. So we are proclaiming our worth. We’re proclaiming, both through the act of hinging ourselves into this next part of our lives, of our space, of ourselves, and through the act of doing the work gaining the wisdom and having a sense of compassion as we move through all of this, we are proclaiming that we are worth it. That we deserve beauty, abundance, safety, support, protection. But we’re also saying that we understand that as we move through this hinge, through this bottleneck and into this other space, that it’s not going to be directed by us. We are in co-creation with it. And that is one of the deepest teachings that comes from the 10 of Wands, is that as we have gained all of this wisdom, where we were in the space where we thought we would be by the time we get to the 10 of Wands, we’re nowhere near this, like we’re nowhere near where we are exactly the same people. We have been changed, even if it’s subtly. Even if it’s a very small thing. Even if it’s one intentional thing that was changed.

As we move through this, things are organically changed and moved. And that is where the 10 of Wands says to us to have that leap of faith, that as we relinquish expectation, as we relinquish that need to kind of control the narrative or to try to control everything, fit it into this little box where everything is pulled out in a linear fashion of step 1,2,3, etc, that as we relinquish those things and anything else that can’t come with us, but we also proclaim our worth, proclaim having a sense of growth of evolution as we move into this new space, and using the wisdom and the compassion to do that, we are doing one of the most important things in the 10 of Wands, which is having both the mindfulness, the humility, and also the love of ourselves, to do this, to go through this, because we believe that at the very base of our spirit that we are already supported. That we are already guided. That we are already in this great space of moving and embracing.

And that leads me to one of the last images in this card, which is, again, the embrace of the human hands around this whale and the whale is moving through the silhouette. And what I see with this is that it’s this level of intimacy and of embrace, of embracing that we’re already supported, that we’re already in a space of wisdom, abundance, beauty, protection, devotion. Because we’re embracing all those things with the whale, so we’re already embracing these things that we’re hoping to get as we move into the next part, or into the next space that we’re going to. And so whatever comes in that next space, as we move from the 10 to this new beginning to, you know, to whatever comes next, next chapter, etc, whatever comes in that, we’re already doing the most important work within the 10, within this hinging of embracing all those things that make the transition, that make each day each moment, beautiful. And that’s what really humbles us. That’s what really, that is what wise humility looks like, for me.

Now, I’m not proclaiming to know all of the ins and outs of philosophical wisdom, but from my own work and doing this, I can say that the moments that I believed in myself, took a leap, and allowed myself to trust that the universe had my back, that I had my own back and that I would bet on myself every single time, that is where some of the most profound teachings came through, for me, in relation to doing spiritual and physical work was that yeah, there were really fucking shitty moments. There were really hard moments. There were hard moments within myself. There were hard moments with other people. There were hard moments just in situations, but the more that I leaned into this embrace of what it is giving me, what it is teaching me: the lessons that it’s going to give that I can use to guide me through this hinge into the next space, and to have the compassion to take time to sit and say, I have compassion for myself in the beautiful spaces and the non beautiful spaces and and the beautiful and non-beautiful moments. To develop that compassion was one of the biggest teachings that I gained when I started to do some of this work was because it showed me that I, that I can take a leap of faith. I can trust, again, in myself and the universe.

And even if things don’t turn out the way I want, which they never do, I can be open, I can be vulnerable, and I can receive that, and that is going to be what I need; it may not always be what I want. So those are some of the biggest lessons that I hope I can impart onto you in working with this card is that the 10 of Wands represents this great moving in ourselves, that is occurring within our spirit. And that when we embrace all that comes with it, and see how we’re already doing that work of hinging ourselves through support and compassion and humility and wisdom, that we are doing what is needed for every sort of hinged or bottlenecked moment in our lives. And that’s only going to allow us to grow even more. When we embrace the ingenuity of spirit, when we embrace the imagination of heart, and we embrace the ability to create invention within the mind and in the body to support us even more, we are going to find a sense of mindfulness and a sense of merging or a flow that naturally comes as we hinge from this space into the next. That we can locate and navigate ourselves through the hardest of moments, through the most beautiful of moments and not lose sight of where, again, if not now but when sort of situation. We’re not going to lose sight of when that chapter closing, the next chapter starting to be written comes in. We may not be ready. We may be kicking and screaming in many, many ways because we want to bring this like a child who wants to bring a toy on a trip. We may be doing that. But deep down, the more that we start to tend and cultivate that embrace of support, of compassion, and of wisdom and humility, the more we are going to be better served in the next space.

We’re going to evolve more, to grow more, and we’re also proclaiming very intimately that we are worth that, by actively doing that. By actively being in a space and an active role of giving that to ourselves, and then letting the universe give that to us as well. So yeah, that is the 10 of Wands, and those are the invitations that I would invite for you And I hope that, um, I hope that you’re workings with this, and, and seeing how you’ve already been doing so much work really kind of cultivates a maybe a little bit of a different love with this card. We just again, always see it as the card of work, of drudgery, of that one last thing that needs to be done. Yes, that stuff is there. Again, we, we do have to do those final steps to hinge ourselves. We have to do those final things to move through the bottleneck or through the eye of the needle, and yet when we believe in ourselves, when we believe that the universe has our back, when we believe that we are being guided in a space that is very deep, that we may not be able to tap into, and we give ourselves the embrace of stability, of imagination, of love, compassion and connection, then we see how we’re already doing the most important work of that hinged process and in all the processes that come after that.

So yeah, I love the 10 of Wands. I think this is such a beautiful card. Now let’s go ahead and move on and start talking about the Hummingbird. From the guidebook, some of the key words in relation to the Hummingbird are positive, enthusiastic, and spiritually resourceful. And I completely agree with these. I just find, I just get such joy out of watching these little birds that are so cute. They just fly around. Again, they like dive down and do these like death-swoops it almost looks like. They have such energy to them. There’s just this little motor in them that just does not quit and they are spiritually resourceful. I’ve seen them getting nectar out of the, like the bird feeder that I have for them that has like the red kind of sugar juice. But I have also seen them pollinating, my nasturtium flowers, so they, they find their nectar. They find their sweetness.

Some other keywords that I would include, for me personally, are energetic, and unexpected or curious. We wouldn’t think these little birds could have just such a motor that they do where their heart doesn’t even sound like it’s beating, it sounds like it’s humming. Where you have to have these like slow- motion cameras to see their wings flapping. I mean, just the the level of energy and power that these little tiny, little birds have is just, again, it just brings joy and it just makes me happy to see them. I love that this is our animal spirit card in connection to the 10 of Wands. Because I think one of the things, going back to the standard narrative that we often see in relation to the 10 of Wands, like just standard resources, if you will, is that we kind of again, we see a recurring narrative with some of these resources that there’s a level of like, dread or drudgery or weariness or like having to push through, or having this sense of overwhelm, and I hope that through the conversation we just had in relation to the 10 of Wands, that that’s not the case, or if it is the case, it’s not always the case.

That sometimes when we’re moving through these experiences, these hinged moments, if you will, whether internally or externally, there can be very beautiful emotions through that. There can be pure joy, pure bliss, pure excitement, pure enthusiasm for the situation. And what I love about the Hummingbird coming in and accompanying the 10 of Wands is that it furthers this narrative of connecting to what feels right within you. So that’s what I would say in relation to what feels positive. Because if you were moving through something right now, and you’re not feeling positive about it, you’re not feeling joy and happiness, I would then say, take that, create a different perspective with it and say what feels right? What within you feels right in relation to this experience? And if you can’t find any sort of enthusiasm at all, those are valid emotions, and those are valid things to go through and to process. And then I would ask and invite, well what energy can you bring into this hinged moment if you’re not feeling positive are enthusiastic to help with this hinged moment to help tend yourself through this hinge moment? And to help bring in what we were talking about with the 10 of Wands, that level of compassion, that level of support and stability.

Because this is where the two cards are hinged: when we start to find the spiritual and physical resources, and we continuously go to those resources to help us in the moments that we need, or to elevate what we’re already feeling, so if we’re not feeling joy, we can at least tap into what feels right. Does it feel like a yes in ourselves? Or if we are feeling joy, and we are feeling positive, that kind of puts that battery within us into high gear to move through whatever we’re moving through. And so when we start to have this sense of spiritual resourcing, or physical resourcing that aids that stability and that support for our spirit, we’re doing one of the things that we already talked about the 10 of Wands, which is where we’re already doing the big work, the hard work. We’re doing that last leg of pushing through to get to the other side. Because we can’t go through that and have this sense of not tending to ourselves because if we don’t tend ourselves, if we don’t find the wisdom and the compassion and the resources to help us, we’re not going to make it through this. We’re not going to be able to feel that expansion.

That’s one of the other things I love about the Hummingbird being this card that is aiding us or being in accompaniment to the 10 of Wands. Because one of the things that, that the Hummingbird teaches us or invites of us, calls in for us when we’re working with this card is to consider how when we learn through experience, we evolve in ways that at the time, we can’t name we can’t really verbalize or articulate because we aren’t really able to fully perceive and create a thought process around what’s happening in the moment. So I would ask you, and invite you to think of a moment or an experience that changed you. It could be a really bad experience. It could be a really good experience. It can be interwoven of the two, which normally things are. We’re very rarely, if ever, on one full end of the spectrum. What is a moment that changed you, that provided you with a level of growth? That still sits with you, still resonates even if you’ve grown past and evolves past where you were from that experience? That it still resonates with you in some way?

Think about that experience now. I know, for me, one of the most pivotal experiences of my life was my divorce. Because as much as there were those hard days, those moments where my heart was just open and wounded and raw and I was just complete shell because I had to be because I was so fried inside that I could not be anything else other than a shell and just kind of pack everything away. Those days were a lot less frequent than I thought they would actually be. And it also changed how I receive love now because it taught me what real love feels like. And your situation could be any sort of experience. It doesn’t have to be that huge. It could even be something very, very tiny. It could be something very small that others would say is insignificant, but it’s not insignificant to you, and you don’t have to justify that to anybody. So think about that experience, and the reason that I’m asking you to think about this experience is because when we are in these moments, these pivotal, profound, evolutionary moments, these 10 of Wands moments where we are being actively hinged from one space into the next, and we’re in these hummingbird moments, where we’re learning through the experience.

What is happening is that the energy of ourselves and the energy of the situation is expanding past us in a way that we can’t articulate or describe in the moment. And even if we can describe some things about it, we can’t begin to understand the full ways that we’ve grown, because some of it’s like a ripple effect. It just kind of keeps expanding out and out and out. So we can name some things, but we can’t name all the ways that we’ve evolved from certain situations. And that is Hummingbird energy where all that energy kind of is radiating out from this very, very small space and moving into a very large expansive space. What we can do in those moments is return to spiritual resourcing return to learning and connecting through not only our sovereign, beautiful spirits, but the bigger spirit, the bigger picture, if you will. You could say, the Divine, God, Goddess if that doesn’t work for you, just a higher level of awareness, the bigger picture. When we learn and connect in these deep spaces that again, we can’t really name or articulate or describe in the moment, but we can feel the change start happening within spirit, what we are doing is creating spiritual resourcing that can never be unlearned.

When we start to learn how to nourish and tend and find the sweetness in our life that hinges us or allows us to be supported through those hinged moments, the ones that are beautiful, the ones that are fucking hard as shit, when we find the spiritual resources are we are spiritually resourcing, connecting, and leaning into this merge of learning about ourselves, and also learning how to connect and trust and be in co-creation with bigger spirit, we are learning how to nourish and tend in a way that not only can we not unlearn, but it continues to grow as we evolve. It is a constant part of us that is there until we evolve maybe past the point where those resources can help us. Maybe we grow out of beliefs. We grow into different situations, and again, those things maybe can’t come with us. But what can come with us is knowing that we can find the resources to aid our spirit to evolve. So those resources may change over time, but the act of doing that will not change.

The more that we start to foster relationships from a spiritual space, this could be fostering relationships with things, with physical people, with our guides, it could even be with ourselves, which is the most important relationship of all. The more that we foster that, the more that we tend that and nourish that with the sweetness of resources that provide compassion, support, stability, wisdom, the more that we aid that leap of faith, the more that we aid the leaps of faith that we willingly and have to take in our lives. And I think a Hummingbird is like a beautiful animal outline of what a leap of faith is. Again, when they just do these like full on death drops. They believe and know that their tiny, tiny little wings can pull them out of this plunged gravitational pull to the earth. And they know that they can pull themselves out of it. So they are like this flying metaphor or analogy of having a leap of faith. And through that connection, through that learning through experience, expanding past what we can describe in language and words, what’s happening is we are cultivating something that will always be with us, that transcends us, that connects us to other energies to other people, connects us more deeply to ourselves.

Even in the moments that don’t feel “positive.” Even in the moments where we don’t have enthusiasm for a situation. The more that we have this rooted space of resourced support for us, for our spirits as we move into and out of these situations that are hard or are very beautiful, we start to find that we become pretty rock steady, like we’re not as easily moved from this belief in ourselves, from this belief that things are going to be okay. We move through things with the ability to again, get more support, get more wisdom, use that wisdom, cultivate that wisdom in order to be of service to our higher selves. Going back to the 10 of Wands, when we’re moving on this hinged precipice from one space into the next, we want it to be better. We don’t want to actively go to something that’s worse. Sometimes we may not know if it’s going to be worse. We don’t know all the ins and outs of certain situations. What we do know is that we are striving in our belief and in that support of spirit, for it to be higher and better. And we also know that we can’t control each and every situation or each and every thing in this situation.

What we can control is how we spiritually resource, how we tend and aid in those moments. And that allows our perspective and our knowledge to shift us into gratitude, into growth, into this more wild and sovereign space because we are more rooted in ourself. And that isn’t as easily undone because we are in our own wild ecosystem, fully aware that we are still in co-creation with other people, with other situations. Like we’re still fully aware of the interconnection of ourselves to everything around us, and to the changes that are being made both actively and passively. But with the Hummingbird energy, and the more that we start to cultivate and shift this spiritual resourcing to a place of active support, that shifts our perspective, our knowledge, and our awareness into gratitude into growth, into that wild reclamation. So when something happens: is a hurdle, an obstacle, something to overcome, we can embrace that. Think of the whale and the arms, embracing it. And those ones are all kind of mixed in there, we can find a way to hold that embrace, or not as easily on done.

And that is a wild spirit, that is a wild spirit, wild spirits know that they are going to fall. But they’re going to get back up. Wild spirits know that they are fully in this space of interconnection with the people, situations, energies and things around them. But they also know that they are sovereign in their spirit to act in ways that serve that higher and better space for themselves. So they’re not going to be as easily reactive, they’re not going to be as easily kicked off kilter from their truth from what is right within that what feels right, what is right, what is that yes in them. And that is one of the most beautiful things about the hummingbird is again, this cultivation of learning and guidance, we start to see how every situation provides a lesson, a way to be grateful, or a shift in perspective, or a deepening and connection to spirit.

And that is such a gorgeous thing to accompany us as we move on this hinge space between where we’ve been where we are and where we’re trying to go. So we are constantly being guided through each experience by learning with it, from it, and about it. We are moving powerfully with a positive belief in the self. And we are growing when we learn to cultivate our ingenuity or imagination, we’re also rooting in to ourselves, when we let humility be an open door for perseverance, when we are humble, and we acknowledge that we are part of this bigger picture, we are part of all these other people in places and things around us as this change is occurring. And we humble ourselves to that. But we actively claim that we are worthy of things that are higher and better. We find that way to persevere. So it’s not just dread and weariness that we’re going through, it’s not just overwhelm, that could be part of it, that emotion could absolutely be there. But we know we will get to the other side, we will make it through the bottleneck. And we will find that space to tend to soften we will find those sweet moments. And in those sweet moments, we will start to be able to shift and describe it, we will start to be able to recall it. And we will start to be able to see how we are more in connection to the self. We are more in a space of connection to to the Divine of how when we do both the big work and the small work, we start to realize that they start to at times not all the time, they start to have similar characteristics based on that spiritual resourcing so that even when we’re moving through very big hinged moments, and we’re doing the big work that comes with that, and we’re doing all the small work that it took to get there, we start to see it how again, that rooted space within us is a constant and persistent leap of faith and that cannot be undone.

And that leads me to the affirmation for this month: I am in communication and guidance with spirit. And so I invite you to see how you are being guided and how you are in communication with yourself. Again, think of the moments that you’ve gone through something quite pivotal, and you grew from it. Think of the moments where you didn’t realize how connected you were to yourself until until afterwards. And you recognized that you were so much more in support of yourself than maybe you thought, think of the moments where the universe has your back. And you have to trust that the universe has your back and how that caused you to shift to grow to evolve, and think about as you are moving through this month, and what that hinge moment is for you. Is it internal? Is it external? Is it something big is it something small, use the affirmation to remind yourself that you can always spiritually resource you can always be in connection, communication, and be guided by your own spirit. And by the spirit of around you, you can always cultivate and connect to that at any moment.

Now, if this is something that is a new practice for you, or if you’re having a hard time, kind of finding the space of communication and guidance within your own spirit and the spirit of the bigger picture and of the Divine, I have a few tips that I will share with you so that you can kind of start to work with them. Now obviously, this is a very personal practice, and it’s going to take time. So first and foremost, be patient, again, find a sense of gratitude, of positivity of ingenuity and embracing because even this can feel like a 10 of Wands moment of hinging yourself into connecting to yourself, your spirit and a magical ritualistic way and doing that as well with the spirit of the Divine. So the first thing I would say is to find a space that is supportive for you. For me, that is nature being outside, so if you can be outside, and that feels right, if you can take a hike somewhere, go walk somewhere, if that’s something not available to you just find a supportive space place that feels right for you, whatever that is, take a few moments just to kind of be in the space, don’t expect anything to come in. But just be in the space and see how it starts to feel and send out the intention of what it is you’re trying to do. If it’s connect to your intuition, if it’s connecting your spirit and being guided by bigger spirit, whatever it is set that intention, you know, just send that out, call that out, name it, say it, whatever you have to do, if you want to write it down, you can burn it, there’s so many ways that you can kind of actively and energetically send that energy out of what your intention is, then be in the space again, as long as you can or as long as feels right.

And then once you get up and you go back to tending both your physical life and maybe your spiritual life a little bit more be in this space of the Hummingbird of, again, spiritually resourcing, seeing what avenues you have, you can use to call and more of that that would serve your intention. Find out what you know, connect to what feels right for you. In moments, if it feels like a yes, then it feels like a yes, it feels like a no, it’s a no. And then to just find that energy to kind of move through the process. And this is not something that once you do it, you’re just going to know everything and be done. All of these things are an evolving journey. They’re a lifelong journey. So there are still things that I’m learning, and I’m constantly learning. And that’s what I love about this practice, I am still always just fascinated and curious by what new things I’m engaging with and what things I’m learning and how I’m growing in this space. So if that is your first time, like send the intention out, and then start to do the work physically and spiritually to bring that back in, in working with the affirmation.

One other invitation that I would give Whether you’re brand new to this, or you’ve been doing this practice and kind of being in this ritualistic space for a long time, I would invite to just at least consider to reflect on or to look at what that communication looks like. Because I think that that is something that we always need to be mindful of. I know that I have to be mindful, because sometimes when I sit down and connect to myself, I find myself being very hard on myself. And then I kind of catch myself and I back out. But I find myself being hard on myself and saying, “Well, I need to, you know, be in meditation more I need to do this more, I need whatever I should, I must whatever.” And that is part of where that overwhelm that burden. And that dread and weariness can come in with the 10 of wands is when we start to place again these expectations through language. So I would just look at that. Whether you’re new experience, whatever look at how you are talking and in communication with your spirit or with bigger spirit.

I really hope that this month and these energies provide for you or what you need them to provide as you consider what moment you’re hinging into from where you’ve been and where you are. I just I really hope that it has that opening and that expansion, and just some of that beauty and that joy that we get with the hummingbird and just that radiating out and that expansion through the bottleneck. You always are worth taking the leap for yourself worth having the belief in yourself and I just really hope that these cards aid you in that and whatever you’re working through big or small, and however it looks internal external. Thank you so much, dear listener.

I want to thank my Wraiths patrons: Lisa Zimmerman, Bobby McDiarmid, Deb Guy, Zack Tate. Thank you for your support in, in me and in Tea & Tombstones as always, it means the world to me. So until next time, I will talk to you connect with you and take care. Bye.

Conclusion of episode

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