TarotBlogHop #10: How to Be the Best Candle


Greetings, and welcome to BeautyHistoryMagic! It's very likely you're here because you're exploring the Imbolc "Brigit's Day" TarotBlogHop, organized by Arwyn Lynch. You just came from Chloe's post.

At the bottom of this post, you’ll find the next link in the TarotBlogHop.

I am Claire-Marie, one of the witches at BeautyHistoryMagic, and each day we meditate on a candle flame, focusing on breath, and holding the simple awareness of the energy of being alive in the moment. Naturally, as happens with this very common and universal meditation, thoughts and feeling arise through the blankness and we set them aside to be examined later.

Often the thoughts that float up during Candle Gazing is the nature of the transitional space. The liminal:  the point where so much of our magic occurs: at menarche, at the shore, at dawn, at sabbat, and at that point where fuel becomes fire in a candle flame.

A candle flame is astoundingly miraculous yet ordinary “state change” where a solid long-chain hydrocarbons are transformed into gas and energy at room temperature. Just focus for a moment on how awesome is the chemistry of that transformation of fuel into fire.

Focus for a moment on how easy it is to “light a candle”. We initiate a state transition via friction, transforming solid dab of salts stuck to the end of a stick of paper into a flame, and then bring that flame close enough to a bit of cotton thread such that it achieves an activation energy to begin yet another state change reaction in the waxes stuck in the wick. We do that every morning as easy as you please. With such technological magic, is there any wonder why this action is a universal act of prayer?

In addition to our daily sitting breath practice the Witches at BeautyHistoryMagic will follow that session with a meditation on a tarot card. On fire holidays, like Brigid’s Day, we often will have a little party with the Court of Wands, which we associate with Fire and the energies of passionate power. For today’s focus on candle magic, we remember that the Court of Wands illuminate different kinds of rapid state change--of fire-quick transformation from one stable material into the light and heat of different metaphorical interpretations. We see this Court of Wands as people we know, or people we know inside us. Until this TarotBlogHop, we hadn’t thought of them as types of candles, so we thank you Arwyn for inviting us to be part of this exploration.

The Novice of Wands, which might be known as the “Page” or “Princess” in other decks, is a Catalyst. She is like a candle flame who can transfer passion from one person to another--but is little changed herself.



The Lady of Wands, who we often find on horseback in other decks, is a seeker. She is like the candle in a lantern of a person who is exploring the unexpected. Her fearlessness is an inspiration.




The Chatelaine of Wands lives as the King in other decks--she is the Woman who holds the keys of a castle. In our tarot, she is the passionate energy of women’s friendships, like the candles on the table at a dinner party. The illumination of sisterhood, the warmth of loving friendships, the clear light in the face of friend who knows you well, and loves you anyway.



The Queen of Wands is the deep red heat of the hearthfire, the love that glows dark and hot as we spoon together in front of the fire, all candles extinguished, save for the memory of how they transform something that is, into something that is felt.




We realize that this exploration may not help you understand how to be the best candle. Superlatives are subjective. We hope you've been inspired by these options for being a passionate little flame, today, on Brigit's Day. Solas Bhríde! The next step on the BlogHop is Donnaleigh. Enjoy!
Posted by The Witches at 1/31/2012 12:00 AM
Categories: Tarot
Tags: arwyn bloghop brigit wands page of wands knight of wands king of wands queen of wands candle magic
 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this post
  • No trackbacks exist for this post.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Leave a comment

Submitted comments are subject to moderation before being displayed.

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.