MARCH // Project 3: Select and Embody One Card
THE EXPERIMENT
SELECT & EMBODY ONE CARD – Purposefully and with intention, select a card from your deck whose flavor/essence you are ready to increase and bring to the forefront in your life.
JESSICA’S CARD
So at first, as this experiment was designed, I intentionally picked a card from my deck to actively embody in the month of March. This was a juicy, “feel-good” card whose flavor/essence I was really ready to increase in my life. But then Somsara pointed out that initial card was probably too personal to write about publicly.
Once I thought about it, I knew she was right.
On a whim, I decided to let my deck “choose” the card whose energy I’d invite in throughout the month of March 2020. I just randomly picked a card from my deck. This is where, again, we see the whip-smart prescience of these cards. Guess what card my deck offered up? My “Diamond from the Shark’s Mouth” card…
It was probably about March 3rd or 4th when I picked this card and I thought I knew what embodying it would be all about. I’ve worked with this card before – it wants me to be brave and pull back the curtain with my little human arm. It always wants me to look into what is scary, mysterious and intimidating as the shark, and then extract the jewel from the jaws of that experience.
So I started to work with the card, I turned towards all the unknown, mystery places. I worked with shadow, I looked into what was hidden. But I realize now, that first week with this card was just the prelude; I was just kind of playing around with the bravery this card requires. I was merely being courageous and using my alchemical transmutation skills when it suited me or was kind of easy.
And then our Covid-Times took everything this card stands for and brought it front and center. It was like life was like, “here’s something as threatening, as primal, as unknown as a shark, are you up for the challenge of extracting the treasure from IT?”
Honestly, like everyone, this time has been a challenge for me. And the shark card has been really confrontational. I think overall I have benefitted from it, but it hasn’t been the “feel-good” easy experiment I expected as the month began.
But nothing has gone as expected for any of us this month and I appreciate that my deck knew that and gave me something extolling the boldness it takes to pull back the curtain so I might at least have a chance to wrest some great gem from the experience of fear.
I think time will tell how successful I have been at embodying this card’s big, bold, brave essence – I can think of several moments over the past month where I have fallen short in this endeavor – but I am grateful to have had this image to remind me that - there is a jewel in the shark’s mouth and the more unflinching I am, the better chance I have of accessing that bright treasure from that intimidating place.
SOMSARA’S CARD
Considering where March began and ended where we live here in California, the direction of this month’s experiment changed pretty rapidly. Sometimes a card can change your world, sometimes the world can change your card – or at least how it is showing up for you in this moment in time.
I chose the above card “Stepping into new power” with the intention and hope of connecting with the power of it and a sense of the old ways dying, the new coming into being. I *thought* I had a series of challenging tasks to take on at the beginning of the month (which now seems almost laughable!) that would require stepping into new ways of being that this card could help me with – remind me that I had the power to take on new tasks and projects that previously seemed overwhelming.
And it did – early on it helped me make difficult calls, make difficult asks and take on challenging personal projects. To use as a constant reminder, I made this card the lock screen on my phone, it sat on my desk, and I meditated with it every morning. I went into a place in meditation which recreated the entire scene on my card and explored it in 3-D – looked at it from all angles, asked questions of the elements in it and got real, concrete, actionable advice from it – things were going pretty well.
And then, Covid-19.
Never did I ever think I would be stepping into the kind of power required to deal with what we are all being asked to do right now. Watching world events, trying to keep ourselves and our families safe (and calm), fearing for those on the front lines of healthcare and for those who keep the necessities of day to day life running. This was a whole new level that none of us were prepared for.
And yet, these are the times that we are preparing ourselves for with our daily inner life practices.
In times of crisis, the practice is the same and this is where the regular use of all your tools in non-crisis times pays off. I looked to the card to see what it could offer me in this unbelievable turn of events, even when I have no idea what to expect or sometimes what to do next. It showed me that this new power I was embodying has even stronger, bigger, braver energy that I ever could have realized, and it can help me do even more than I thought possible.
This certainly was not how I expected this month to go, and I have no idea what is to come in the weeks/months that follow. But I know that continuing this SoulCollage practice is helping me to take each day as it comes, and be present with all that is happening in the moment. It provides strength and courage I am grateful for, and an inner calm when the outside world seems like too much to process. It’s a place I can go for refuge, and to recharge. I hope your cards, however you are using them (and/or making them), are providing you with the same comfort and fortitude. Let them help you in ways you could never have expected.
Sending you, your family and loved ones the warmest thoughts during this challenging time. xo
Important note: please do not comment on our cards or our interpretation of our cards. In SoulCollage® we don’t comment at all on other people’s cards. In that way, even though Somsara and I are sharing these experiments with you for educational purposes, our decks still belong solely to us.
In case you don’t know, in SoulCollage® each person has their own deck, that they make over time and they are the only person who gets to make, read and interpret the cards in their personal deck. This is one of the things that makes these decks ultra-sacred, so magical and worth energetically protecting.
All SoulCollage® imagery is evocative and enticing for other people’s souls. If seeing one of our cards arouses insight for you, know that insight IS YOURS and you can journal about it, work/play with it on your own and just understand that we never need to know about it.