The Lovers and the Lady Alfreda (January forecast)

The monthly cards are here, pulled from the Dragon Tarot deck and the Oracle of the Dragonfae deck, and the cards are the Lovers and the Lady Alfreda: Justice Will Prevail. These cards bring invitations of devotion, sacred connections, reciprocity, and cooperation with the Divine. There are also themes of recognizing the need to relinquish the ego, and merge into cycles of living, life/death, self/other.

These themes help reveal how everything impacts everything, and how the Lovers (not a card of romantic relationships) speaks to deepening us through wisdom and the responsibility of choice into aligning with our particular pursuits and higher alignment.

Research and other links:
Ritualcravt
Natural law
Underworld Initiation

My Links

Transcript

Ashlie McDiarmid: 0:01

Hello there, dear spirit. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to this episode from the Tea and Tombstones podcast. Tea and Tombstones is a platform dedicated to helping you root into nourishment through the haunted darkness and claim your hallowed ground through tarot education, spell crafting, spiritual coaching, and nature-based based services. My name is Ashlie, the creator and wolf-child of Tea and Tombstones, and I welcome you Hello there my hauntings. I hope that the first few weeks of here. January are meeting you well, in good spirits and in good health. I was really hoping that January would start off calmly, collectively, personally and wow, we are two weeks in, and there is so much energy percolating and permeating throughout the personal and collective spaces, so I hope that wherever you are at that you are tending to yourself and tending to your needs, taking care so that we can get through So, we are going to be using some new decks this year, and in the rest of this craziness, again, personally and collectively. In today's episode, we are going to be this episode, we are going to discuss the messages of each talking about and discussing the monthly cards for January, which are the Lovers and the Lady Alfreda- Justice Will Prevail. I card individually, and then go into more depth on the am using my dragon- based decks. The Dragon Tarot by Nigel similarities and contrast between these cards, discussing Suckling, and then the Oracle of the Dragon Fae by Lucy Cavendish. I was really called to use my dragon bass decks when the haunted and the hallowed elements of both of these cards, I was pulling the cards and going into my year ahead, my singularly and together. So grab your tea, or whatever you're year-forecast spread, partially because I have really been kind of steeping myself into mythology and folklore, sipping on, and let's get started. I am drinking the Turn especially with dragons lately, I love dragons so much, and I've Inward tea by Ritualravt, a very well known metaphysical store personally been reading through the Inheritance Cycle, or I'm here in Colorado. They have amazing teas. If you like real sorry, the Inheritance series. The book first came out in the early 2000s with Aragon was then made into a movie, not a good herbal based teas cultivated and crafted by local herbalists, movie, but a movie nonetheless, and then the other books are, second is Eldest. Brisinger, which is the one that I am then I highly recommend checking out Ritualcravt on their website currently reading, and then Inheritance is the fourth book. I've really been needing these kinds of stories in my life which I will have linked in the description box. So let's go right now, partially because these kinds of stories really ahead and get started with the monthly cards. I think it is elevate my spiritual practice, my witchcraft and magical practice, but they also just really center me. Sometimes I very important before we go into what the Lovers is, we need to need to just get wrapped up in a good story like that, and it's discuss what the lovers is not. So, the Lovers card does not really been helping provide some levity in my life, away from again the craziness. So when I was pulling my decks for the immediately or only speak to a romantic or sexual love year ahead, I was just really feeling called to use my dragon- connection. When we narrow down the scope and the expansive based tarot and oracle decks. invitation of the Lovers, we're doing a great disservice to this card coming after the Hierophant, the Lovers really speaks to calibrating, and using the forces, the knowledge, and those guiding instructions that we gain from the Hierophant and using those forces in a way that serves the overlap, serves the joining and the merging and potential and awakening in creation and in magick. When we limit the scope down to a romantic or a love connection, we take all of that expansion, all of that overlap, all of that union with these higher forces, and we cast all of that power, all of those messages, and all those invitations onto the outline, the shadow or the shape of someone else, every single card that is pulled for you in a tarot reading is meant to be for you. It's not meant to relate or speak to someone else. The reason for that is because the cards came forward as they did for you. So when the Lovers comes forward, it's really about asking you to expand and overlap into these deeper unions, into these deeper connections, and these deeper forces that calibrate and move us through this cosmic spectrum. The Lovers is also about creating this sense of divinity and partnership in sacred reciprocity. So, it definitely can be in relation to a romantic or a sexual love connection. It can be in relation to a marriage to a partnership, but I invite and the card invites us to really consider how we take the deeper knowledge, the deeper wisdom, and the deeper gaining that we get through the Hierophant, and use that and calibrate ourselves through those guiding forces, towards desire and devotion, towards our causes, towards our true, spectral spirit-space that we wish to behold, and that is where the union and the divine blessing and the connection really comes in. This card, in speaking to sacred reciprocity is also about seeing how the world and the universe and those deeper forces that I mentioned come back to you. How is this return in the cycle, in the wave, in the stroke, coming back to you in a way that is of abundance and is of magic, is of blessing, is of deepening and as also stabilizing and supportive. This is why we cannot, I believe, only see the Lovers card as a, as a message or an invitation to look at romantic and love connections or sexual connections. We also have to consider that in polyamorous relationships, people have more than one romantic partner, and these relationships have just as much love and connection and communication and trust and respect as monogamous relationships. Some people do not want to have any sort of romantic relationships. They are not interested in dating. They're not interested in having sex, which is completely okay, and also, some people really like to have a lot of partners and maybe a lot of sexual attraction to a lot of different people, but they don't want to be in a romantic relationship. All of these are fine. There is nothing wrong with any of these. If we discuss and portray the lovers card as simply a romantic sexual relationship between two people, man and woman, let's just say that's also, that's a very patriarchal narrative. It's not an inclusive narrative, and it's also, to be quite blunt, it's just kind of a boring narrative. I mean, again, there's so many different ways to feel into the into the power and the transcendence of love that too limit it to simply romantic beloveds is is quite limiting, and as I said, it's quite boring. So, when we are talking about the Lovers, and if you are learning about this card, or working with this card, or struggling what to do with this card when you pull it, I invite you to really step into the narratives and the messages of this card in a way that's not about simply romantic, sexual attraction, and love between two people. So, let's talk about what the Lovers is. We've discussed what it's not, now let's go into what it is. The Lovers is a card of desire, bringing in sustenance, and this can be with yourself. This can be with the universe. This can be with other relationships, with partners, with friends, with coworkers. It doesn't have to be again, limited by titles or by roles of different people in your life, but really, the Lovers card is about the romantic act and the passionate act of desire, bringing in sustenance, bringing in abundance. It's about opening and revealing the ways that love, desire, passion and cooperation and vulnerability can help us blossom into more wholesome people. It can wound and create traumas within us, but it can also heal. It can also provide a sense of grounding and healing that we can return to when needed. So, when we look at love, desire, passion, vulnerability, we're really talking about stepping into a place of becoming a little bit more wholehearted within the self. So again, that could be a romantic relationship. It could be a platonic friendship, and it could be simply connecting to the desire you hold for what you want to do in this lifetime and in this body, and how that desire, that vulnerable undertaking of doing what you desire and what you're passionate about and not yielding to convenience or settling for what's easy on the straightforward path that brings back into you abundance. It brings back in this sense of sustenance and this prolonged longevity of your actions returning in a way that serves you for much, for longer and longer and longer. It is also about this synchronous feeding and giving, so about it's about this sense of synchronous reciprocity, that the synchronous receptivity and giving really connects us to, this sense of being more wholehearted. When we come from a narrative that it's not only about us, or if it is only about us, we come from it in a way that is not meant to do harm, but maybe just to honor and own internal truth that we are not creating unnecessary walls or obstacles that could prohibit that desire from coming back to us as abundance. When we speak to this sense of synchronous reciprocity, there's also an element of protection with that, because we need to be able to know where the limits are with this sort of synchronous reciprocity. We can't constantly be giving out, and yet we can't constantly be receiving in. There is this balance and this flow. That means that, as I mentioned before, that sometimes this sense of desire, passion, vulnerability and love is going to be what steps us into more alignment, which steps us into our beautiful blossoming as beings. But it can also be sometimes a very challenging wounding process, because it's not always meant to just be this easy flow. There are times where this synchronous reciprocity has to be redefined within the limits, within the boundaries that we have set for it, whatever those are, and this element of protection, synchronous reciprocity and knowing where the limits are, comes down to another key element, and that is the role of choice. The expansion of choice, and the role of choice, and the responsibility of choice really speaks to strength and unseen depths. It goes back to this sense of desire, bringing us into alignment and then receiving back the sustenance of the path that we have been walking. This element of choice in relation to the Lovers is, is quite profound. What we choose in this life and how we choose to engage with the themes that have been previously mentioned, of desire, cooperation, vulnerability, love, the choice of how we engage with these themes sets often the precedent for how that sustenance is going to come back to us, how that abundance is going to come back and if we are not in alignment. If we are not in the space of higher and better self and higher and better truth, then the abundance might not come back to us. Or if we are choosing something that is not of service, that abundance may also not come back to us. So the role of choice is a quite profound choice when we pulled the Lovers card. One way to really step into this card is to ask what choices are before you? What choices are here with you in this present moment, and how does the role and the responsibility of making those choices impact you beyond the present moment? Because when we make a choice, we are creating a ripple effect for all of the different layers of our life and all of the different surrounding elements of our life. I think that the Lovers card really honors this expansion of choice, and that when we make a choice within our higher and better truth that we see this strength and unseen depths. We see this role of stability and again, mutual offering, synchronous reciprocity coming in and supporting us when we are in a space of unknown, and to deepen on the expansion and the responsibility of choice. One of the roles that I see with the Lovers card is that when there is this choosing, this joining, this merging of forces, it creates this profound sense of potential movement going back into that which I just mentioned, of strengthen the unseen depths that when we make these choices, when we step into this role of honoring, respecting and engaging with those themes through the act of choice, when we choose to act on desire, when we choose to act on vulnerability and turn, and not let fear turn us away from potential when we choose to act on cooperation, because we see the role of merging in cooperation, creating something bigger than the separate pieces we speak to this and we engage with the role of this merging to create potential, movement, profound movement. This is why the Chariot comes right after the Lovers. When we step into the space of responsibility, when we honor the responsibility of choice, make the choice from a place of wanting to be more wholehearted, more wholesome within our spiritual and physical sense of self, and when we make those choices from the seat of self, rooted and in alignment with our higher and better truth, we are opening the gates for potential profound movement with the role of choice and the responsibility of choice. We're also talking about the role and the responsibility of values and morals. These guiding forces are what shape and consecrate our choices into the roles that they have. Now, some choices may not be as... may not have such a gravitational pull on our spiritual and physical higher alignment. A choice of tea or coffee in the morning is not going to [sic] it may not profoundly affect the overall outcome. It may not affect the spiral of moving into and merging into this higher truth, but it can create a profound sense that when we make even small choices, we're tapping into our devotion to ourself, that we are tapping into our awareness of ourself, and that we are paying attention to ourself. So if the choice is coffee or tea, we tap into what the body needs, and we make a choice of tea over coffee because we're not feeling that great, and we just need a little bit more nourishing, a little bit more nourishment than caffeine. That is an act of love. That is an act of devotion. That is an act of cooperation, even though some of these smaller choices do not have as profound of an impact on the bigger picture of our lives and the multitude of layers that make up our lives. There's magick in the small choices. There's magick and devotion and a profound sense of love to be found in the small moments. The weight of choice and the weight of values and morals are not to be taken lightly, because those guiding forces create the magick in the small movements, in the big movements. The lovers card speaking to devotion, when we look at the definition of devotion, which I found on dictionary.com, it says to give up or appropriate to or concentrate on a particular pursuit, occupation, purpose or cause. This is directly in relation to values, and this is directly again, in relation to the Chariot coming after that. When we move into this particular path of what we desire, what we're devoted to, what we believe in what our values dictate and guide us to do within this space, within this lifetime, within this body, we are using our devotion as a way to guide us down the particular pursuit, guide us down the theme or the focus that our path holds within us, for us, of us, and the sense of devotion, I think, is very important in taking the narrative of the Lovers away from just romantic or sexual monogamous partnership, because when we are devoted to community, how profound of an act of love is that? When we're in devoted to being of service, when we're devoted to helping someone in need, when we're devoted to changing the world through our actions or using our voice as a way to express that which we believe in, and to fight against toxic narratives, toxic entities, toxic people, those are all acts of love. Those are all acts of self- love, communal love, the love of bringing in and receiving that abundance, or also relinquishing that which is not bringing in abundance. So, when we speak to the Lovers within the space of the light the Lovers really asks us to open up to what is within us in terms of devotion, what particular pursuits are being guided by our choices, our values and our morals, what within our life, within our space, within our community, is needing our devotion, and how can we use that profound, rebellious act of devotion to create that ripple effect and to merge and align with higher and better truth and to align more with universal vision, cosmic consciousness, or even just collective consciousness. One more thing that I would like to say before we move on is that with the Lovers card, with the invitations and the messages, I see this sense of eternal or unending merging, that there's this sense of joy in the joining, and the joy in the joining leads to more joining through the themes that we've been discussing, of desire, joy, vulnerability, love, self, love, devotion. When we speak to these themes, we're speaking to how they ask us to move, how they ask us to merge and to join and to become and yet we're also speaking of the unique container of ourselves. So, when we are acting on the responsibility and the role of choice and devotion, and we join ourselves into that which we have chosen or actively not chosen. We're creating this sense of merging, but we're also creating and embellishing the you can [sic] the unique container that is us, because no one else out there lives the life that we have. No one else out there has the the identity of us as individuals, and yet, through the act of love and devotion and choice, we merge ourselves into this beautiful collective and claiming the collective more into our unique container. So in relation to the haunted and the hallowed, I think that the Lovers card is through the invitations and through the messages, I think the spectrum is a little bit obvious. It's a little bit on the nose, if you will, because when we are in the light, we are moving from a place of profound love, including self love. We're moving from a place of decisions and the responsibility of those decisions. We're moving from a place of devotion and vulnerability and willing to be wholehearted more wholesome within our sense of self. When we are in the haunted space of the lovers, we are resentful, we're guarded, we're jaded, we're cynical, and we're... we're not willing to see the role of joining and merging as a ripple effect. We're not willing to see the consequences or the weight of choice and how that affects our our life. I think especially as we start to move into the other card, the Lady Alfreda, one of the roles with the Lovers card, when we speak to the power and the [sic] and the responsibility of choice, we can really see this in people who constantly have stuff going on in their life that makes their life harder, and yet they don't, they don't seek to change their choices or their actions. They're just constantly confused as to why their life is such a struggle. I... I've known so many people like this, where they're constantly dealing with one thing after the other, after the other. And so when you see them, and you say hi to them, and you ask them how they are, it's always something there's always something wrong. There's something going on. And yet they're not willing to look at engage or see the weight of their choices or their non choices. If they're not willing to address the role that their choices and their actions and their values play within relation to how life comes back to them in this synchronous reciprocity that can really show how the Lovers can stray and many of the other cards, too can stray into the space of the haunted, because it's this denial of change, this denial of the role of choice, and when there is this sense of denial, those who are, who are struggling, who are dealing with these constant obstacles, these constant battles, yet refuse to accept the role and the weight of their choices and their actions, these people, it's very hard to get through to them that through the space of devotion to change, they can lighten their load. They can embrace a life that is more beneficial, more easy, more a part of what they want their life to be, and yet denial and ignorance or fear and doubt and just a sheer unwillingness to to do something that is not just easy, really leads people into it kind of keeps them in a box. And love is expansive. The whole role of love, even self-love, is to expand and to merge and to claim these bigger forces as part and parcel of ourself, because we are all energy, and the vibrational energy that is within me is within you, is within the trees, is within the universe. It's within everything. So we really can look to some people, perhaps in our life and our social spheres, and see how the Lovers and the denial of the responsibility of choice and denial of devotion and denial of expansion leads people to really kind of box themselves in when it comes to the themes that are associated with the Lovers, and that is something that can be quite hard because it requires a lot of bravery and a lot of courage, but in the light, as I mentioned, the Lovers provide strength and unseen depth. So, if that choice can be made, and there can be a pivot to making that choice from a more wholesome perspective, beautiful, beautiful things can happen. So now we move on to the Lady Alfreda- Justice Will Prevail. This is a card that really speaks to the ways of natural law, the law of karma and of karmic truth. Also, she speaks to the relation of magical law, which is as above, so below, as within, so without, as you think, so will you live. What this means is that the Lady Alfreda speaks to to the roles and the relation of, again, how our choices and our actions create this ripple effect. That's the very first similarity, and it comes right off the bat. Right in the beginning messages of this card, we see this role of karmic truth, magical law, natural law, that what we send out into the world, what we send out in for in the form of what we say, what we think, what we do, what we choose, returns to us now. In the book, it says that she speaks to the relation of the power of three, the threefold return, which means which is a very well known law that whatever you put out comes back to you times three. I personally do not subscribe to The Law of Three. I think there's no way to really gauge, quantifiable measurement with what comes back to us. Oftentimes in the form of energy, what we put out comes back to us, and there's no real way to measure whether that's, you know, a numerical threefold return. I also find that when we speak to karmic truth or that which we send out will return to us. It's really more about it's not always about what we put out into the world, but more about where we are at within our state of being, as I mentioned with the haunted aspect of the Lovers. When someone holds a lot of negativity, they're constantly dwelling on the negative things in their life, and they just have this attitude and this perception and this energetic holding of the negative over the positive, or that which is hard, an obstacle, a challenge, something to be overcome more than that which they already have a lot of times. What you think creates your reality. One thing that we obviously must consider is that bad things happen to good people all the time, and good things happen to bad people all the time, because magical law, karmic truth and natural law do not exist in a vacuum, that other influences are part and parcel and apparent in the daily and in the small and in the large moments of each experience. So when we speak to the threefold return, or to karmic truth, I would like to just put a little bit of a pin in there, or a little bit of an asterisk that this is in relation to that her that the messages of the Lady Alfreda are in relation to natural law, karmic truth and magical law, which are real, they're apparent, they're abundant, they are all around us at all times, but there are other factors and other elements that can contribute to the projection of these laws in our physical lives, or the hindrance of these laws in our physical life. One thing I noticed in the guidebook for this card was that it mentions that she is the sister of Melusine, and Melusine is a freshwater spirit, most notable as the logo for Starbucks. She's often depicted as a mermaid, as a woman with a woman torso, head and arms, and then either a fish or serpent tail, or sometimes two tails. She is...she's portrayed as having two tails. I could not find anything to verify that lady Alfreda is actually the sister of Melusine, but that's what it says in the guidebook, so I don't know if the author just took some liberties there, or if there's a book or a thing that she has that I do not have that speaks to this because I couldn't find anything online. But as we mentioned, she is about understanding these natural laws, reminding us that the process of natural law has its place in all of our lives, throughout all of our lifetimes, when we are even when we are in a state of not thinking about natural law, karmic truth or magical law, everything impacts everything, because everything is connected. So everything is a part and in connection to everything else. So when we choose, are devoted to, are vulnerable to, or invite ourselves to be more wholesome to something that creates a ripple effect that affects the surrounding layers of our life, even if we cannot see or feel these shifts, these effects, they are there. It's the same thing in reverse, that when we actively withhold this sense of when we actively withhold this sense of interconnection, when we deny it, or when we refuse it, it's still creating an effect, but it's just creating an effect, and then the opposite of what would be of service to us. Also with natural law, it's important to note that everything is in some sort of life or death cycle, even if it is just energetic or what is of service that life and death cycles are all around us at all times, especially in relation to natural law and into karmic truth, that and also I should say to magickal law, that when we are inviting in these two extremes, they have to come together. That there is not one without the other. Again, everything is connected to everything. So when we speak to moments of growth and abundance and blooming, we also have to honor and pay homage, or at least recognize that which is returning to the soil, being recycled so that it can be rebuilt and reborn. We also look to things like community, ecology when we are working with the lady Alfreda, because when we speak to karmic truth, natural law and magickal Law in relation to everything impacts everything. What this is inviting us to do or to see or perceive or feel or sense ourselves into is how we are a One of the other things that the Lady Alfreda mentions to us or part of the bigger picture? This is again a big similarity back to the Lovers card, that when we are invited in by the Lady Alfreda, we are being asked to consider all of the actions, the speaks to within the guidebook is the sense of the underworld roles, the choices and the energies that we hold, and how that affects the bigger picture. Because everything impacts everything. Everything is connected, as we saw with the initiation, the sacrifice of the self at the or on the Lovers, that there is responsibility and a profound sense of weight when it comes to choice and devotion and opening sacrificial altar of the universal self, and that when that up for potential movement and for potential pursuits that are of service and move us more into alignment. And the Lady Alfreda is basically asking us to consider all of the ways that our ego is torn down, as are the faults, myths, and narratives we have invited the Lovers into our lives, or basically all of the ways that we have invited in choice, action, devotion, that we hold within the ego, as the ego is torn down, we are vulnerability, all of these energetic holdings and how that created the landscape that we find ourselves in, and this speaks directly to karmic truth, that we are the creators of our exposing ourselves to more of the collective consciousness, own spaces. So, if something is here that is that is not of service, we have to consider how or why, with what reason we brought this into our life, and it's not meant to be a place of the collective archetypes and the collective narratives that judgment. It's meant to simply say, now that we know better, we do better, but we have to take ownership for the landscape that we have created in our own life. And we have to take ownership we have shunned or rejected in service to the ego. I would like over the ripple effect that we have put out into the ecology, into the fabric network of the universe. Because, as we mentioned again with the with the Lovers, that no one is no to share something that I found on one of the websites when I one can hold our unique container as we merge and join into the bigger picture, no one can hold the unique container that is ourselves, because we are sovereign beings. Because we are sovereign beings, that also means that we need to recognize was doing my research, and it states, this is from the Joseph the responsibility of choice, and we also need to accept and realize the responsibility we hold as these unique, sovereign beings, and then when something returns to us that is not of Campbell website. I will have this article linked in the service, that we recognize the reasons why we brought that into our life, if we knowingly brought it into our life, and use that experience, that return, that sacred reciprocity description box below. But I thought one point in particular as a form of creating wise counsel within ourself to do better, to know more, and to actively create more ripple really spoke to this underworld initiation. And it says the effects, where everything impacts everything in a way that is more of service and is more unique unto the vision and the choices and the values and the morals that we hold and that we opening of the underworld pulls our consciousness down into the have. Now I am not saying that the ego is all bad all the time. In dark roots of our collective history and its mythic depths, fact, I think sometimes we need to look to the ways that the ego where a deep sense of belonging emerges as a consequence of the teaches us how to be our unique container. What does the ego descent. An initiation into the psychic realms of memory and contribute to the unique container? And certainly, we forgetfulness, historic notions and long lost ancestral shades. have to give the ego a place, just as with the life and death It is where we must give the blood of sacrifice that makes cycles, we have to give a space for the cycles of spirit and the dead speak again. The initiatory journey. Journey is ego. It is not one without the other. They are again, they come certainly not one for the faint of heart, for rather than together, and I feel that we need to approach them both as receiving encouragement or positive vibes, we are met with equals, as I say, with all the spectrums that they are. They the signs of absolute negativity, the spectral are each their own teacher, and the ego can be that too. So we afterlife of psychic and existence characterizing the cannot, I would argue that we cannot fully sacrifice the ego, collective psyche in its unworldly aspect, taking us because to do that would be to fully relinquish all of the beyond our instincts for taking us beyond our instincts for self areas that make us unique and sovereign onto ourselves. But I preservation, initiation into the depths, moves our do think there is an element with the underworld initiation consciousness towards the knowledge of being itself in the that we need to consider and take ownership where we have integration of existence and non existence, the conscious mind placed out through actions and choices and narratives or belief with the unconscious process. Therefore, it requires a full systems or values we placed out into the into the universe, or intellectual engagement with the crazy logic of the psyche, its we energetically held these vibrations that or these negative and self contradictory psychologic as the spiritual narratives that served the ego, placated the ego, but did not life of the world, soul and time when we are going through an challenge us to be more fully steeped into the collective root underworld initiation, we are basically placing ourselves system, as the article says, into the psychic realms of within the deep roots of the historic timeline of the memory and forgetfulness, historic notions and long lost communal timeline, of the unconscious collective timeline, ancestral shades. It is where we must give the blood of sacrifice and we need to break down the ways that our karma has not served us. In our attempts to serve our ego, we have at times, that makes the dead speak again. Basically that means that we're put out actions or created ripple effects that might serve giving life to that which is lifeless at this moment that we us in the short term, might serve our ego, but they may not are the continuation of the life and the death cycles, and that serve our spirit. They may not serve the collective sense of the death cycles that have gone, that have gone before us, create sacred reciprocity, because the ego wants to to stand alone, to the life cycle that we are here in this moment again, that be individuated, and to be able to point to all the others in speaks very directly to sacred reciprocity that we saw with the the multitude of layers of life and name them for what they are. lovers. Unlike the Lovers, the underworld initiation asks us to sacrifice the self, where the Lovers [sic] the Lovers, asks us to join and merge the self into the bigger picture, and the sacrificing of the self is in a way, joining back into the ancestral, historic and archetypal root system of the collective conscious and unconscious. There's a little So how do we work with these cards for the rest of January? What do we get from these cards? What messages or invitations are they asking us? I think there's a few things that kind of come bit of a difference, though, because with the Lady Alfreda, out, come right to the mind. The first I would like to point out is, now this is not like... this narrative is not a narrative we're kind of being asked to go through a death cycle of the ego that I made up. I've actually heard and read this narrative in other places, but if you break down, if you take the Fool out of the Major Arcana, and you place the rest of the 21 Major and the Lovers does not ask that of us. We don't... we don't Arcana cards in groups, in three groups of seven cards. So you have the Magician starting the first group, and then the Chariot ending that first group, and so on and so on. What we necessarily use the ego when we are in the space of devotion, have is actually the narratives of life, death, rebirth. So the Chariot ends the life cycle, or the lifeline in the Major Arcana. And then, depending on which deck you have, it's either love, vulnerability or cooperation, all of the messages Strength or Justice is number eight. I have a few decks that differ. Then Temperance is the end of the second line of the and the themes that surround the Lovers. We may be in the ego, it death line, and the Devil is the beginning of the rebirth line. As I mentioned before with the Lovers, that the Lovers kind of sets up the Chariot. The Lovers sets up the potential and the may be that, but it's not really asking us specifically to do opening for movement, for pursuit, for a particular cause, a particular sense of moving, or a particular sense of ownership that is in alignment with the choices, the values and all the that, where the lady Alfreda is kind of specifically asking us guiding forces that come with the Lovers. I think, however, that when we look to the lady Alfreda, and we speak to this level of underworld initiation and sacrificing of the self, we to take a look at our ego and see how our ego has contributed could make the argument that the Lovers is also, in a way, setting up the energies for the lady Alfreda, that as we move into this sense of joining, and as we move into this sense of to the self perseverance of self above everything else at all merging into higher and better truth, into bigger, cosmic, universal energies, as we connect and engage more with the wholesome devotion which is within us, we are setting up times, and to how that natural law, which is part of natural that underworld initiation to take place where we sacrifice the karmic residue, and we sacrifice the ego on the altar law, can be reworked, rewired, or reconsidered so that the of universal self, and recognize that everything impacts everything, that everything contributes to life and death, cycles together as one. And it also helps set up the idea that karmic truth is a place of freedom, not of hindrance, not the community, the ecology, that the atmosphere and that the ecosystem that we are surrounded in, and all of these surrounding layers within our life are about sacred reciprocity. So in of boxing us in that when we look to our karmic truth and working with these themes for this month, I would invite you to consider, where is sacred reciprocity showing up for you. release our karmic residue, or reinstitute our karmic residue Where are you joining and merging, and where are you moving through an underworld initiation? Where are you within the cycles of metaphorical life and death? Because these themes in a new way, in a new form, in a new shape, and In a new time help support each other, they have many similarities, as I've pointed out, and they have a few differences, I think, more than anything, though, these energies help support each other. The that we are creating a ripple effect that is more of service Lovers, helps prepare us and also soften that initiation into the underworld, so that we can shift our karmic residue into more of A sense of sacred reciprocity. We can also create to communal, to the spirit, to that sacred reciprocity, and not that space more out of our own intent, that we are not doing it through force. We are not holding on to leaning into devotion or vulnerability because we feel the ego needs creating space for for the ego. that because usually the ego doesn't really want that. It's more about using our own intent to deepen devotion, to deepen vulnerability, to create ourselves in a more wholesome spectrum and to also more physically connect ourselves with the into the interconnection of everything into that fabric of universal energies. I think it's also important to consider how the how these cycles are being repeated, how they are being stopped or changed. Because when we look to taking ownership over these themes, we have to almost like when you place a pin in Google Maps on a location. We have to do that with ourself. If you look at the picture again, I will have it on Instagram or in my blog post, you will see that in the Third Eye of the Lady Alfreda, she actually has the symbol of the triskele. It's like a wheel, like a spiralic wheel with three spirals. The triskele can speak to life, death, rebirth. Mentioning that theme again, it can relate to past, present, future. The triskelee can relate to the threefold return. If that is an idea that speaks to you. I will also have a list of some of in my research, some of the other things that the triskelee can represent, which include earth, water, sky and creation, protection and destruction. On this website, it says each one deals with some aspect of personal growth, human development and spiritual progress. One theory posits that the triskele represents reincarnation as it consists of one continuous line that can be analogous to the unbroken movement of time. I think it's important to note, in relation to the Third Eye placement, that this is speaking to the ability to see and perceive the movement and the connection of all things. If we speak to everything impacts everything, the triskele at the Third Eye Center speaks to the ability to perceive that, to know that, and to use that in the space of wise counsel, to direct and govern actions and those heavy choices that the lovers presents to us so that we can shift our karmic residue into a space of intention for creating a ripple effect and sending out words that which we want to receive. And I invite you in working with these cards to really consider how these three energies are working, whether that's past, present, future, life, death, rebirth, earth, water, Sky, creation, protection, destruction, how any of these themes are really circling and moving within your space? And like I said, just really speaking to sacred reciprocity. I think that's one of the biggest things that I see with these two combined, with these two combined cards. Finally, I would also say that her message Justice Will Prevail speaks to how in the end, that which is right will always be righted. That which is right will always come forward. Things will turn out right in the end, that if it's not right, it's not the end, and that's because the universe and those universal energies are with us at all times. They are part of that guiding force. They are part of our magick. They are part of our of our tapestry, and when we connect to that, and we speak to that, and we merge with that, through the Lovers, and we create and shift our actions and our intentions and our choices at the universal altar of self, then we create the space for sacred reciprocity to be more fully in alignment with that which we need and that which we want. So really see how the theme of justice comes forward for you and what that means to you. What does it mean for justice to prevail in your life, and how is that in relation to the lovers? I would say that for me, one of the biggest themes that I have been leaning into with this card, with these cards, is I have really been having to lean into and trusting the unknown, and that which is meant for me and is coming for me may take time. If justice were something quick, something easy, something inconsequential or forgettable, it wouldn't it wouldn't take that long to get here. So I think that at least for me, these cards are asking me to consider where I need to be patient and where I need to lean into trust and use devotion as a way of moving through the spaces where I want to be impatient and where I want the answers and where I want things to be clear and defined and calculated for me immediately. So that's one of the ways that I'm really having to kind of break down myself right now, is just really trusting that the things that serve me, that are meant for me, that I have sent out and are returning to me, I just need to be patient. I need to sit with them and hold on to them, and they may look entirely different for you. I again, I invite you to consider what Justice would look like for you and your life, and what sacred reciprocity looks like, and all of the themes of devotion, love, connection, cooperation, vulnerability, how are all these themes coming forward for you? And yeah, I think that is where I wish to end this podcast episode today. Thank you so much for listening. I would like to give a personal shout out. And thank you to my spooks patrons, Lisa Zimmerman, Bobbie McDiarmid, and Deb guy. Thank you so very much for your support. Your continued support helps support the platform of Tea and Tombstones in so many different ways. And I thank you, and I'm humbled by your support and your pledge and your patronage. One mention that I would like to put out there is if you follow me on Instagram, or if you've seen my Instagram and all you know that I usually every Sunday, I try to put out a little bit of some poetry that I've been writing. I'm actually working on creating a poetry manuscript of the Major Arcana cards. I'm so excited for this endeavor. I've been working really, really hard, and there's still a lot of work to do. It's nowhere near ready to be published and put out into the world. But if that is something that would interest you, if you love poetry and the tarot, definitely keep an eye on my page for when that will be ready to be unleashed out into the world. If you like poetry and tarot, again, you can also listen to my last podcast episode, which was on Panther meditations, I go into the poem pursuit by Sylvia Plath, one of my favorite poets of all time, and I discuss the themes of that poem in relation to the card from the wild unknown animal spirit, the Panther. Also, if you would like to join my newsletter, I am going to be starting to create a monthly newsletter that is going to come out. I I'm hoping the first week of every month. I sometimes am not the best at timeline. So if you would like to be up to date on what is dropping on Tea and Tombstones, what podcast episodes are coming up, and all the other stuff that I just mentioned, you can head over to my website and subscribe to my mailing list, and then you will be on board to receive the monthly newsletter. Finally, if you would like to work with me, you can find all of my offerings and my services on my website, at Teandtombstones.com, you can connect with me and follow me on social media, and if you have any comments or any feedback, I would love to hear them. If you like this podcast, please consider leaving an honest review. It helps other people to find the podcast, connect to the podcast, and it would really mean a lot to me to know how this podcast is reaching you and where it can improve and where it is shining for you. So yeah, thank you again. So very much. And I will be connecting with you towards the end of the month for the second January podcast episode. Until then, take care. Thanks.