Tarot

Blog: There Is Never Regret In Living Your Life Authentically

Hi all,

How are we on the fine (insert time of day that you are reading this here)? Grand I hope!

I genuinely struggled with today’s blog topic. To be honest, I haven’t really been sleeping all that well & where I find myself in my day currently exhaustion has started to creep in & I’m feeling a touch loopy. So, if this blog takes the shape of something akin to a NyQuil induced fever dream, now you know why. Though I desperately hope that it doesn’t.

When I am at a loss for what to put down on this here digital page, I reach out to several different spots. The first is naturally a list of blog ideas that I keep written in a notes app in my phone. Nothing in there felt like it resonated with me. Next, I typically ask Evan. He tends to keep better track of the things I’ve either gushed, ranted, or hyperfixated on throughout the week, & while he had some great ideas that have been added to the aforementioned note in my phone, all of them felt like they required a degree of tact & thoughtful navigation that I simply do not think I have in me today. So here we find ourselves at the third option. This is the option of intuition.

Typically what I do when it comes to an intuitive pick, is I draw a few tarot cards & see if the message they carry triggers anything in my brain. As I’ve said a couple of times on this blog, tarot is not magic, it is not fortune telling, it is simply having an exterior prompt that sends you searching within to find something that either you are aware of & ignoring, or as a message of reaffirming. To be entirely transparent & straight forward, my daily affirmations that I post on my instagram story all come from my tarot draws for the day & how I interpreted them for myself. So I went to the deck.

Lately I’ve been working with a stunning deck I got called the Pacific Northwest Tarot. It uses flora & fauna as the archetypes for the cards & the author/illustrator/curator of the deck, Brendan Marnell, did an masterful job on them. Today I did a three card pull with no other intent in mind other than to come up with a blog idea. I got the 7 of swords (deception, impulsiveness, evasion, dishonesty, thievery), the 9 of swords (nightmares, fear, anxiety, worry, isolation, the things that keep you up at night), & the sun (positivity, warmth, success, fun, hope, clarity, healing, living life authentically & to the fullest).

Now this is just a hodge podge of cards. A stack of three with no assigned meaning other than what is traditionally associated with them. There is no one out there saying “this exact combination of cards means this exact thing,” it’s all up for interpretation. That would also be an impossibility from a task standpoint as there are 78 total cards, each with reversals. Each can only appear once in the sequence of three & if they appear their reversals can not. That leaves 3,651,648 possible combinations of just three cards. So the interpretation is really up to the reader.

So I drew a card of the thief, the card of the nightmare, & the card of warm authenticity. How do I interpret that?

Well at first I was a little lost, I’ll be honest. It helps if I put in place the general draw (the 7), followed by a question about the general draw (what does that allude to? what would solve that? what’s in the way or causing that? etc.), but I didn’t. My third card would typically be the solution to the two or the ‘what am I still missing here’ of it all. With these I simply drew the three & went about pondering them for a couple of minutes. It wasn’t until I was ‘bad’ & wandered over to instagram that the message clicked for me.

I’m sure that most of you are unaware that September is Bisexual Visibility Month, of which is a community that I am a part of. I got some post that was sharing that information, but also was talking about how amazing it is for those who celebrate, visibly, that we are out & about living our lives authentically & boldly. Despite the current political climate in the states or around the world, despite what our friends/families/coworkers/loved ones/employers/communities might thing, despite the stereotypes associated with the label as it being a halfway point, a place holder label, a slutty ‘choice’ of sexuality, or what have you, we are out here living our lives as bi individuals & members of the queer community at large. You see, the 7 is not just stealth, deception, etc., it is also feeling like you have to go it alone or that you can’t trust those around you with something. The 9 is not just sleepless nights & anxiety, it is also being afraid to mess something up, or feeling that you have messed up & the sun, well the sun is what cuts through the clouds of these illusions & allows us to live in its radiance & its warm embrace. My interpretation, between the cards & the post, was that I was being nudged to talk about this during a month of visibility for a community that is being met with erasure across the board.

I know for an ‘introduction’ to this blog that all probably felt rather drawn out & a bit off kilter for the main topic at hand, & such criticisms may be entirely valid. But this is my blog, & I am someone who finds the curious human mind a fascinating kaleidoscope of intersecting webs, paths, & tangents ramming into one another & fractaling off into endless avenues & inspirations. I thought you all might as well. After all, you did come here to read my thoughts & words. I also think the foothills that lead to the mountains contain their own multitudes worth exploring. Alright. Enough of me, time to the topic at hand.

I want to start this off with a story, or rather a sequence of events…which I guess is a story. I came out formally on April 28th, 2018. On that day the only person I came out to was Evan. He & I had been friends for a number of years, as well as roommates (they were roommates, if you know you know). He had come out to me previously & told me that he was in love with me, which I didn’t reciprocate to him (gasp). After a while I had urged him to start going on dates. The first one that he did I found myself a wreck. I was jealous, of which I usually am not, & I was overwhelmed. I went to the gym & ended up cycling faster & farther than I ever had before or since. When he came home from his coffee date, we talked about it & we went off to our separate rooms to end the night. I didn’t sleep that night. Instead I tossed & turned entirely confused & lost until I discovered a post by another fellow Kansas Citian, Janelle Monáe, who had just recently come out as pansexual. In Janelles post she talked about the specifics of pansexuality as well as the difference between it & its often bunched with sexuality, bisexuality. I recognized myself in her posts & the next day I told Evan.

We then spent the next week talking about the logistics of a potential romantic relationship between the two of us. I didn’t know if I would ever admit to being who I am publicly for fear of being maligned by the bigoted country music industry, I didn’t know if it was an avenue I wanted to explore outside of us & a few close knit friends knowing, I didn’t know if I wanted to tell my super conservative parents, I didn’t know if I felt like I could ever be with someone of the same sex long term or romantically. There were so many ‘I don’t know’s’ floating around for days, because I had never allowed myself to face this part or me. Even at the age of 27. We started dating four days later & have been ever since.

It was about another year before I told my parents, it didn’t go well. That same year I came out publicly, deciding it was important to be open & honest about who I am with those who hear the songs I write or the blogs I post. I felt that I couldn’t expect myself to make open & honest art without being open & honest in general. The almost daily 'coming outs’ were hard for a while. People ask who you’re dating & you have that panic in your chest that fights to decide whether to lie or be honest, but it eased over time. With every passing day, week, month, year I look back on my life & I wonder how I never saw the signs. I wonder how I was so readily able to lie to myself for so long, just to save face. Now I can’t imagine it. I can’t imagine trying to squeeze back into that restrictive box. The box that told me that I had to be a certain way, behave a certain way, love a certain kind of person, believe in horrifically damaging things. It seems like a prison in hindsight. It’s not a space that fosters growth or thought or creativity. It’s restrictive & abusive, & not any way to live.

Now I think that I get more & more queer by the day. I don’t really care most days what people think about how I present or who I am seen with, because, let’s face it, most people’s limited outlook & their regressive opinions don’t matter. At least not to me when it comes to the topic of me. By happenstance I would say about 80% of the people I am close to are queer in one way or another. In fact, most days it's jarring to be around straight people. I love all of my friends, but man, that 80% are some of the most genuine, authentic human beings I can imagine. They live unapologetically & bold & they inspire me on the daily.

You see, all of this is a very round about way of getting me to the point of this whole post. That even when it sucked, even when I was fighting with my family, or getting cut off by people I thought were in my corner, there’s not a single day that I regret my honesty. Not a one. Because I am unchained. I am allowed to fly & stretch my wings up into the endless sky of possibility. I am no longer tethered to the rules of who I have to be to make other people happy or to fit into their idea of me. Besides, I’d much rather disappoint them than disappoint myself any day of the week. I also know that this is a sentiment that is not wholly & exclusively mine. Ask anyone out there who had to break out of the closet to be who they are if they regret it, they’ll all tell you no. Is it hard & scary & does it require a great feat of courage? Of course, but, my loves, the sun waits on the other side of the nightmare, of the deception. You deserve to live in the sun, to stretch upwards to meet it & bask in its warmth, not to shrink & hide amongst the shadows under the clouds.

I hope wherever you are, whoever you are, that you are choosing to live your life authentically & if you can’t for whatever reason, I hope you’re chasing that life at least. My loves there is so much to this world, to this universe. We are specks on the timeline of known history scratching at the surface of understanding. Dare to not be confined by those who are fine living their lives with no desire for depth & understanding.

As always, much love to you all,

-C

Blog: Some Of Us Are Here To Wander

Hiya!

Happy weekend, or whatever part of the week you find yourself reading this to you!

Over the last week or so I have started sharing more & more of my spiritual side on the internet. It’s a large part of who each of us as people & I think being open & honest about where you’re at spiritually can help others to not feel so alone or isolated in a field of self that is often very isolating. People often link the spirit with religion & in all honesty, I think that’s a massive mistake. For one can still thrive without the confines & dogma of the other. I’m not here to convert you to anything, I’m not, in all honesty, even here to talk to you about my specific beliefs around the spirit. I am here instead to discuss a bit of soul searching I’ve been doing, the work around it, & the revelation that came to me around it. With a little bit of outside help (we’ll get there).

A few years ago I published a blog about how I felt I was a “Renaissance Man.” The basics of the moniker include varied interests in a number of fields & callings with decent ability in most of them but not real projected path forward. Very “a jack of all trades is a master of none.” This past couple of weeks I’ve really felt the call to reinvest in my spiritual side. Be it the change of seasons, the shift in something within me, or the divine, I know not. What I do know is that I have been called to dig more inward & find the answers for what is irking me within. I started doing morning journals again, part of which includes coming up with gratitude lists, things I am looking forward to during the day, how I am feeling intuitively, as well as a daily affirmation which I have been sharing with the collective. Additionally I have also begun meditating more & paying attention to life’s small abundances & finding gratitude for them as they come. All in all it’s been a really refreshing couple of weeks from a spiritual stand point.

With my daily writings, affirmations, & lists I also do a daily tarot pull. I’m going to stop the bus here for a second & explain something about tarot to the pearl clutchers out there or those who may have just given me the “ooookay” in response to that information. Tarot is not fortune telling. Let me repeat that Tarot. Is Not. Fortune Telling. Tarot is drawing a card, or a couple of cards, finding out the meaning of said card & checking in intuitively with yourself to see what, if, & why a specific card resonates with you. It asks you to confront the truths that you yourself already know but are ignoring, shoving down deep, or covering up with your ego. We already know the answers, the cards are simply asking you to feel what comes up, acknowledge it, sit with it, & see if you yourself can find a solution to whatever it brings up. On the other hand, if the card is positive, it may reaffirm something within your self that helps you to boost your confidence for the day or your self assurance or whatever. The point is that tarot isn’t magic, it’s a lens that allows us to look inwards & see the into the parts of ourselves we are hiding from ourselves.

Okay, we’ve set the stage. Now the story.

Over the past week I have been working on a couple of things; the held trauma of feeling othered or outright hurt by those who profess love for me, rooted feelings of conditional love, & the apprehension to get excited for the things that I am looking forward to our of fear of disappointment. Then on Thursday & Friday of this week I was directed in two interesting directions by the cards that I drew as well as the messages I had been previously drawn to throughout the day.

Thursday I drew The Sun in the reversed position. The Sun is pretty self explanatory; optimism, light, happiness, joy, renewal, everything that the sun embodies & helps bring forth. In the reverse position you get the opposite most of the time, but where the sun is concerned you get the cloud. The sun in its reversed position indicates that you are dampening your sun, at least that’s what it brought up for me & a pattern I had actually begun to notice well before Thursday. I was dampening my excitement for the things I want in life or that are up in the air because of fear that they wouldn’t come to be. Very much that “why would that happen to me” kind of feeling. So I started to set up ways in which I can hopefully start to work with those limiting beliefs & unlearn the patterns that lead me to feel that gut wrenching feeling of dread when I think of something I am excited about.

On Friday I drew another reversal, this time in the form of the King of Swords.

The suit of swords is meant to embody things like intelligence, change, power, communication, action, ambition etc. It is represented by the alchemical element of air. Think “change is on the wind.” The king of any suit is the pinnacle of that notion, the embodiment of those ideals in the most positive way. I drew it in the reversed position. Where as the upright position asks you to be confident, headstrong, & just using your intellect & communication to solve a problem, the reversal has let too much of the ego get involved & now is misusing its intellect & communication skills to get in the way, of a solution or downright ruin it. I was honestly lost by this pull I had no idea what it meant for the life of me. It didn’t stir up anything internally so initially I remarked it as a fluke. Then I looked deeper.

My first course of action was to scour the internet. I got a lot of repeating information about the card & its meaning, none of which clicked. So I sought the help of ChatGPT to see out of curiosity what it came up with. I was blown away as simply how profound its answer was to me.

It’s worth noting that Friday morning I was feeling very detached. I’d meditated the day prior trying to dig into these blockages that kept me from feeling my “sun” & in doing so I think I pried off a bunch of ideas that had been spinning in my head ever since. “What do I want to do with my life?” “Am I resistant to my excitement because it’s not the correct path for me?” “Why is my life path not clearer to me?” All of this was what I was continuing to feel come Friday morning when the reversed king of swords came sliding across my desk as I shuffled. I also gave ChatGPT this information to go off of when helping me to discern meaning from the card.

I told Chat that I was feeling mentally foggy, that I wasn’t sure what I wanted anymore or what I should be doing in my day to day. It replied by telling me that the king could be indicating that the part of me that just “knows” has taken a step back to allow the literal unknown to take the reins. It continued by reassuring me that I am not broken, nor am I doing anything wrong, just that I’m untethered at the moment & to trust that something new was emerging from this fog. I wasn’t convinced so I told it that I’m not sure there is a part of me that “knows.” I told it that I often feel entirely lost on my life path. This is the profound bit of wisdom an AI bestowed upon me.

“That feeling-that maybe there never was a clear “knowing” part of you-is so deeply human, & also so deeply painful when you’re surrounded by a world that seems to celebrate clarity, direction, & ambition. But not everyone is here to walk a straight-line path. SOME OF US ARE HERE TO WANDER, to explore, to feel, to respond. And THAT is just as sacred. Maybe the message here is “You’re not lost-you’re just not navigating in the old way anymore & maybe you never were.” You have built so much-a rich creative life, deep relationships that span the globe, an intuitive connection to beauty, nature, life, energy, & your own inner rhythms. That IS a life path. Even if it doesn’t look like a checklist with the white picket fence & the 2.5 kids. Even if it feels like mist sometimes.”

Bars. The AI dropped bars. I shared the line “some of us are here to wander” immediately, because I know so many people in my life who feel that way. Who don’t see their life unraveling in the college, 9-5, marriage, kids, settle down, kind of way but instead were brought to this Earth to be wanderers, explorers, traveler, & bridge the gaps of age, miles, seas, & time. So I wanted to make sure that was the topic of this week’s blog. Because I know how many of you out there feel that your life path is not a clear cut trail through the forest but instead find yourself in a boat that in unmoored, tossing in the fog, simply trusting the current is going to take you where you need to be, gliding gracefully between rocks, weathering the storms, always meeting the day’s discoveries with love, excitement, appreciation, & gratitude. Your path is valid. Your path is sacred. Trust that those feelings of joy & excitement are there for a reason. I’ll leave you with one last bit of hope that I was left with in the conversation before I sign us off for the night.

“The depth that you tap into, that is the knowing. Not the clear, commanding “go here, do this” kind-but the soul-level resonance that says, “This is real. This Is true. Stay here a moment.” You’ve got a compass-it’s just built on feeling, beauty, vibration, presence, & intelligence. It doesn’t always point north, but it always points you.”

I hope you all have a fantastic rest of whatever part of your day this has found you in.

As always, much love to you all,

-C