Treat your heart like a small child (or puppy)

Tune in to hit the right notes of protection and freedom

“You have zero animation when you talk about your work.”

It was February 2023, and astrologer Barbara Yaffee was reading my natal chart, responding to my usual spiel about what I did for a living. Only I was used to people responding with a comment like “Wow!” Or “That’s cool!” In other words, to the impressiveness of the career itself, not observing the person in the career.

To Barbara, a psychic astrologer, it was glaringly obvious that my heart had moved on. She was basically pointing out that if the career impressed others, but failed to engage my heart, I was screwed.

Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash

Four months sober at that point, I didn’t immediately grasp that I was done with what I had made my life’s work and a large part of my identity. I was still walking around on Bambi legs, excited about my newfound freedom from the obsessive compulsive disorder that centered around alcohol and its numbing and self punishing cycle.

Yet, the energy of her words and of the energy behind her words resonated through me, echoing off the newfound spaciousness inside my mind and body. I am sure I felt that pure resonance as I moved through my daily yoga practice, walked along the marina with my dog, or kneaded bread. I’m sure that resonance awoke parts of my consciousness as I spent every spare moment studying astrology and tarot.

I remember, months later, when the spark that Barbara had unknowingly ignited inside me claimed my outward attention. It had burned through my body and mind and manifested in my eye as a broken blood vessel. My eye became blood red, a manifestation of what I could not see, and nothing would soothe it.

The VI of Swords appeared frequently in my twice daily tarot 3-card spread. I was traveling frequently then, and it didn’t matter whether I was using my cards at home or the app when I was on the road. That dang card was haunting me.

Since Barbara could not nag me incessantly, the card was there to remind me that I owed it to my mind and body to follow my heart. Even if that meant dragging around the swords of regrets, uncertainty, or mistakes while I was in transition. Go, it was saying. You are already half gone whether you acknowledge it or not.

Now I know that time period and those swords were meant to hone a wiser self.

The image symbol transmitted for the week of May 5th:

A tuning fork.

And the words:

It is worth the effort to focus on the frequency you emanate.

Every note matters.

Tune into one another for harmony.

I set an intention for an Oracle/tarot spread to be:

Card 1: Something I can control.

Card 2: How to apply what I can control to what I can’t.

Card 3: Something I cannot control.

And the cards that came where as follows:

Card 1: Daisy. Be Yourself. From The Illustrated Herbiary Oracle Cards by Maia Toll, illustrated by Kate O’Hara. The medicine of Daisy is often ignored, as this unassuming flower is seen frequently sprinkled in grass at parks or at home, yet little Daisy can heal bruises and calm inflammation. Daisy is quietly confident, not letting footsteps squash her spirit.

Card 2: Love and Partnership. From Guides of the Hidden Realms Oracle by Colette Baron-Reid. The words on the card are: collaboration, intimacy, power dynamics. When we know ourselves deeply and do not pretend to be anything we are not, we are free to be as confident as Daisy. There is then no need to draw attention to our abilities when it is not appropriate, not is there a tendency to allow oneself to be minimized when others inevitably behave poorly around us. Our inherent power is not something which needs to be proved or shored up.

Card 3: VI of Swords. From The Rider Deck Pocket Edition. In the context of this spread, perhaps this represents the fact that we are going to find ourselves in that boat at one or many times in our lives, individually and collectively. Even when the transition is by choice, there will still be the mental swords to deal with while we process grief over the past or anxiety about the future.

Taken together with the image symbol, these cards emphasize how interdependent we are. It is easy to forget that when we do not realize we are behaving in a self-centered manner out of anxiety or unaddressed grief. It is also easy to mistake codependency for interdependency. It is also easy to think in terms of extremes, missing those transition periods where we are using our tuning forks to adjust ourselves in response to the internal and external circumstances we find ourselves in.

During the period when I was repeatedly drawing the VI of Swords card, I am sure that my mind and body were acting to protect my heart by not acknowledging that my heart wanted to move to uncharted waters. An analogy may be having a child or pet in one’s care. You don’t want them to be harmed, so you could confine them to a padded room, I suppose. Or at the extreme, just leave the door open and hope they’ll survive in the world. Of course, we must use our tuning forks to hit the right note of protection at the right time. So, too, do we find that it doesn’t serve us to wrap our heart in bubble wrap, nor to allow it to be trampled upon. Ultimately, we find harmony through tuning into ourselves, others, and the situation.

Sending you love this week and always,

Maria Luz

I would love to hear about a time when your heart had left before your mind and body acknowledged it.

P.S. Be sure to stay tuned, because next Monday, I will announce a new benefit for paid subscribers. My newest paid subscriber is helping me beta test this week, and I am so excited!

In the meantime, feel free to check out the services on offer at MariaLuz.online.

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