By Lalia Wilson
I live in the United States where Thanksgiving is the major holiday of November. It is set on a Thursday, Jupiter's day, late in the month. For 2017 it is on November 23rd. Thanksgiving is set after the first frosts in most of the country and celebrates completing the harvest and the hard work of the (agricultural) year. There are multiple themes to Thanksgiving. One is thanking the Great Spirit (by whatever name) for the blessings you and your family have received. Another is family coming together. In modern times this is a four day holiday and the busiest travel holiday of the year—it is serious business to see your family at Thanksgiving. Another meaning of Thanksgiving is to celebrate Abundance. The most well-known symbols of Thanksgiving are the First Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims and First Americans, the Turkey and the Horn of Plenty. Thanksgiving can also be a time of sadness for individuals who do not have good family relationships or lack the means to be festive. The tarot can help.
Most of us learned the tarot and perhaps still focus on the tarot as a way to tell the future, or to be in touch with unseen influences or themes in our lives (or those of our clients). When we use the tarot in this way we draw cards and read the archetypes with which each card is imbued, thus we are using the card to receive a message about what is. Here we are going to pick a card face up and use the card image and archetype to plant a message in our being. In reality, you can use any of the cards to plant many messages, but for our purposes, we will look at a couple of cards to indicate family harmony and abundance. We will choose our card shortly. First, we need to isolate the particular blessing we most want to show up in our life. Having chosen the message we then choose the card that most speaks to us of this message in a way we want to receive it. Those of us with many decks get to choose which card from which deck.
Once we have the card we want to keep it in our daily awareness for a lunar cycle, 28 days. For timing, the New Moon in November occurs on 11/18 and goes through 12/18, December’s New Moon. Astrologically you will get the most out of working with your chosen card from one New Moon to the next, or just for the two weeks from New to Full Moon. However, any consistent exposure to your chosen image will be fruitful.
You can bring the card into your awareness by mediating while viewing it. Or by placing it in your private space where you will see it frequently every day. But to plant this “inner” seed—notice how spring is the time for planting seeds for external growth and fall is the season for planting seeds for internal growth?—you will need to deliberately encounter it multiple times a day.
Now, some ideas about choosing a card of Abundance. First, you can have abundance in many ways: many friends, many bills, many jobs, many lovers, many dollars… Different cards will connect with different versions of abundance. I would stay away from the Court Cards (with the exception below), the Aces, and the Two of Cups. The Court Cards are about incorporating the qualities of each element into yourself, which is another project entirely. The Aces are the Potential of each element; you want the Actuality. The Two of Cups is a romance card, but it is the beginning of a romance. It’s more promise than fact.
Another concern is that each card has multiple meanings and some may not be what you want. For example, the Empress card is associated with fertility and abundance. This is especially highlighted in the Empress card in the Legacy of the Divine Tarot created by Ciro Marchetti and published by Llewellyn. If you don't want another child, avoid this card. Otherwise, it shows great abundance in all manifestations.
The Ten of Pentacles card is represented here with the Cook's Tarot written and illustrated by Judith Mackay Stirt and published by Schiffer Publishing Ltd. In this deck's representation, we see the goose that lays the golden eggs and the happy family picking them up. This may be the card for your financial success.
The Queen of Wands from the Osho Zen Tarot (created by Ma Deva Padma and published by St. Martin’s Press) is the epitome of hospitality. This card suggests that you are about to be treated to a royal dinner with good friends and good spirits. I would choose this card for increased positive relationships with family and friends, along with an abundant life.
I hope these examples have given you some ideas. Please write what you chose from your own cards, and your results, in the comment section. I look forward to hearing from you.