Connections between Oracle Cards and Poetry with the Whale

This episode is another look at connecting poetry to oracle cards, focusing on the poem "Song" by Brenda Cardenas and the card "The Whale" from the Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Deck. The poem describes a profound emotional experience of witnessing whales, evoking themes of presence, expansion, and overcoming fear.

In this episode we discuss the poem's imagery, highlighting the simplicity and beauty of the scene of the whales rising from the ocean. We see how themes of transcendence, awareness, and awakening between both the poem and the oracle card, the Whale. We see invitations for expansion, both internally and externally, and the importance of being fully in the present moment.

Finally, we take away the need for profound peace, noting that it is found amid difficult circumstances and experiences, and the importance of understanding the interconnectedness of all life and the role of compassion and communication in overcoming challenges.

Here are the links that I used for research:
resource 1
resource 2

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Transcript

Ashlie McDiarmid: 0:23

Hello there, dear spirit. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to 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 services. My name is Ashlie, the creator and wolf child of Tea and Tombstones, and I welcome you here. Hello there, dear hauntings. I hope that you are staying safe and well and warm as much as possible. It has been absolutely freezing here in Colorado, and I think this is a good time to record the podcast. In today's episode, we're going to be diving into another poetry and card connection episode. I really loved doing the first one with Sylvia Plath's "Pursuit" and the panther. You can still find that one. It is still up and available on my episode directory. I'm going to now name this series, that first episode with the Panther was called the Panther Meditations, and I named it that simply because we were really diving deep into the focus and the theme of the Panther and the archetype of the Panther, but as I said, I'm going to rename this series, and I'm going to call it Poetry and Card Counsel. The reason that I'm going to rename it to this is because I find the energies that I take away from gathering my notes, doing the research, putting them all into an outline, and getting all of my script set up for this episode, I've... I have found that all of the insights I have gained from gathering all of those different notes and resources to be quite profound and highly influential in my daily life, and I hope yours as well. So grab your tea, or whatever you're sipping on. I am drinking some black tea with orange spice and cinnamon and clove, and it's just kind of perfect for this cold day. Let's get started talking about the Poetry and Card Counsel for this month. The poem that I am going to be sharing is titled "Song" by Brenda Cardenas, and it is going to be accompanied by the card the Whale, again, from the Wild Unknown Animal Spirit deck. I found this poem on Poetry Foundation. I really loved this poem. I connected with it quite immediately, so I decided this would be a great one to share on the podcast and to bring into the narrative of how poetry and the cards really align to create that profound insight and to provide clarity and transcendence and deeper understanding. So, the first thing that I would like to do is just read the poem, not dissect it immediately. I just would like to read it, let you really sink it in and let whatever is coming through, come through for you before we start going into the accompanying messages with the Whale, because the poem is going to have its own invitations and its own messages, and I want that to stand alone at first. So, here is this [uh, here is the poem Song again, by Brenda Cardenas. You shout my name from beyond my dreams, beyond the picture window of this Rosarito Beach House. Rushing from bed to shore, I glimpsed their backs, volcanoes rising out of the sea. Your back, a blue, black silhouette, feet wet with the wash of morning waves, fountains spring from mammal minds. My hands lifting a splash of sand. I'm on my knees, toes finding a cool prayer beneath them, fingers pressing sea foam to my temples while you open your arms wide as a generation raise them to a compass point, dive. If you could reach them, you would ride their fins under the horizon, then surf the crash of waves left in their wake. And if I could grasp my own fear, I'd drown it, leave it breathless and blue as this ocean, as the brilliant backs of whales surfacing for air. That poem is just so, so beautiful. What I love about that poem so much, and why I knew I wanted to share it on the podcast, is because, first and foremost, the imagery. The imagery is so simplistic, and yet it is in that simplicity that that is where the sweetness is. In this one moment of seeing these whales rise out of the ocean, there is a whole spectrum of, of emotions and of transcendence and of awareness and awakening that comes through for the narrator, and there's no need to dress that up. There's no need to make it into something bigger or better, because it it already is beautiful and complete in just the mere form of that memory, and in the mere way that that memory unfolded. That conjuring a memory, makes me return to one of my own most cherished and precious memories. It was the first time that I was staying in Cabo with grizzly and his father. The place that we were staying at had this beautiful patio, and it was the night before we were going to be flying back home, and this patio went across the whole back of the building and actually turned a little bit onto the sides of the building too, so we had a beautiful view of the ocean below, and Grizzly and I were sitting out on the patio, and all of the sudden we see this whale just breach out of the water. Now we're not very close. The place that we were staying at was kind of further up on this like, kind of cliff side, and the ocean was below, so we weren't close. But actually it was such a beautiful way to view this whale, because we were able to see him just breach and breach and breach the water as he moved across the water from one side of the view of the ocean that we could see all the way to the other side. And I think he must have breached the water. I wasn't even trying to count, but I would guess maybe 20 times, coming from a landlocked state, I don't get access to to wildlife like that. I don't get access to nature like that. So when I was in Mexico, I was already just obsessed with, with the beach, with the food, the people, the whales, everything. I just I love Mexico so much, but that one moment I felt was such a gift, because if I had been anywhere else, I would not have seen that, and it's such a fleeting moment when we see these animals come up from the deep, and that's quite profound once we get into the messages of the whale. But to me, it looked like this whale was almost like playing. It looked like he was just, he or she, but it just looked like this whale was just completely in a state of play. Just coming in and going out of the water over and over and over, and I cherish that memory, because when I was watching that and experiencing all of the emotions that were coming in and flooding me at that moment, it truly was like falling in love for the very first time. Falling in love all over again, that as I was watching this, I just felt that complete rush into the oblivion of sacred and pure emotion, and I didn't want to ever not experience that, and to me, that's what being in love is like. That is what falling in love is like. So it truly was like falling in love all over again, and this rush into the oblivion of sacred and pure emotion is where I find such sustenance within this poem. The poem starts you shout my name from beyond my dreams, beyond the picture window of this Rosarito Beach House. So there's this element of calling from the beyond that there is this need to go into the beyond. Go into this other space beyond what is seemingly picturesque, because what is within the beyond invites us into anticipation, invites us into possibility. And then it goes on to say, rushing from bed to shore, I glimpse their backs volcanoes rising out of the sea. Again. There is this sense of being picturesque, but it's in a completely different way this time. It's not sterile. It's not this it's not this image that you could just place on a on a postcard, and have it be have it speak for itself in order to see something like whales coming out of the water, yes, it's beautiful to see in pictures or in documentaries or in film, but truly, it's more that it's a gift of observing it. That given access to this fleeting and momentary gift of what is part of this world, what is part of the precipice, on the edge between seen and unseen. That's where it's picturesque in a completely different, in a completely different way. The poem goes on to, say you're back a black a blue, black silhouette. So we're seeing this similarity from the back of the whale to the back of this person, feet wet with the wash of morning waves. There's the sense, at least for me, with this image of feet being washed in the morning waves, of holding reverence to, to the captivating invitation. It feels like almost at the edge of the earth, in a way that when we are standing at the ocean, we're again standing on the edge of its own oblivion. Our tangible abilities, our sensory abilities and our The ocean represents this vast expanse that is perhaps even less known than some of the planets and satellites that are orbiting us in the sky. The ocean is truly a world of its own, and being able to have something as sacred as feet being washed by morning waves, there's this there's this sense of reverence with that, and we see that in the next line too, with the fountain spring from mammal minds my hands lift a splash of sand. There's this sense of childlike and tangible, pure presence. That when we are in this state, it is everything. It is expansive, and it is holding us completely, utterly completely. This sense of tangible and of sensory, this ability to see and perceive the gift of this present moment is seen in the lines,I'm on my knees, toes, finding a cool prayer beneath them, fingers, pressing sea foam to my temples, and going back to the line where the narrator says, My hand's thinking abilities, the fountains that spring from our lifting a splash of sand. What it is saying is that, at least own minds allow us to step across the threshold and into what I'm taking from this is that it is saying that through the complete totality and into the complete presence of this moment with something that is so utterly, in a way, untangible, these tangible moments, we are getting as close to this something like a whale coming out of the ocean is not really threshold as we possibly can. We are getting as close to the something that we can, you know fully just reach out and touch unless it's comes from an from a very, very lucky act, but most threshold of merging into the complete totality of this of the time it's beyond our reach, so these tangible moments moment, at least as much as our human form, with all of its align us into this space more fully, more completely. So all limitations, can, can go. of these themes so far are creating a sense of expansion, the whales, the beach, the waves, the sand, and yet we see a sense of expansion within the self with the lines, while you open arms wide as a generation, raise them to a compass point dive, there's this sense with these three lines that we have all of the expanse within us, and as we step more fully across the threshold into this tangible moment more completely, we are embracing and allowing ourselves to expand internally and externally as well. If you could reach them, you would ride their fins under the horizon, then surf the crash of the waves left in their wake. I love this little part of the poem because it speaks to just being completely in alignment with the moment, no regard for fear, no regard for what is not possible, what is not practical, almost very childlike, again, in the sense that there is this, there's this dreamed reality where the limitations that we have don't hold any sway, but we see the exact opposite of that One final note that I have, that I want to mention before we move on to the meanings and the imitations of the whale is this gift of presence, and this ability to be expansive, and for there to be so much reference to the shape and structure and form with the lines and if I could grasp my own fear, I'd drown it, of the back the spine, what I see with this, in regards to The gift of presence and into this role of expansion is that as we become more in alignment with the present moment, as we step leave it breathless and blue as this ocean, as the brilliant into that natural, that complete totality, picturesque moment that simply is what it is, and that is where the anticipation, the excitement, the dreamed reality come through is that everything that we carry is not merely meant to be burdened or backs of whales surfacing for air. As we get older, we become it's not meant to be merely a burden or a weight. It is meant to be something that surfaces and gives breath and new life and awareness to the expansive nature of all things. When she says at the beginning that she glimpses their backs volcanoes more detached from the present moment. As we get older, we rising out of the sea, I see this line to hold almost a subliminal reference to unseen creation and unseen consequence. Volcanos are the reason that we have our atmosphere. They are become more detached from the complete totality of the present the reason that we have our oceans. They provide building materials. So there is so much that is created from such a strong structure, and we could say, we could argue that volcanos are the backbone of this world, again, referencing experience, because we are burdened by the truth of things. this, this element of the spine, this gift of presence, this this structure and the shape and this form of unseen creation and unseen consequence also leads into this gift of presence, that there are unseen consequences and there are unseen creations We're burdened by responsibilities, by realities, all around us, and when we find this gift of presence, and we align into what is elusive, into also what is apparent when we connect more to the complete totality of the present moment, and yet she's saying here that if she could, she would grasp we help become that back[sic]... we help become that backbone. We help become that structure and that support for the unseen creations and the unseen consequences going forward. That doesn't mean that it's always going to be beautiful in her own fear and drown it, that she would resurface herself as love and light, but it does mean that our roles as witnesses of whales coming out of the ocean has actually a profound effect on other elements and other factors, just as the volcanoes have helped build our atmosphere and our water, we are helping this expansive, brilliant back of the whale, surfacing for air, through this gift of presence, to build and shape and structure the spine of the whole world within our limited form, more fully and more completely. So now let's move on to the meaning surfacing for rejuvenation, surfacing for new breath. So messages and invitations from the whale from the Wild, Unknown Animal Spirit deck. Taken from the guidebook, the key phrases that are listed are a desire to delve deeper, profound peace and ancient wisdom. Starting with a desire to delve deeper. One of it's almost as if, at least for me with this poem, that as we the things that I really see with whale energy is that diving deeper requires us to gather our strength, to endure. We cannot just fall into a state of complacency if we wish to dive deeper, to know more, to understand more and to become address our adult fears, our adult burdens, and we allow more. This is why the whale is actually the last card in the suit, or the element of water. There's no numerical association with the Animal Spirit deck, but there is a level of consciousness with each card in each suit, and there's 14 cards, ourselves to be more expansive, step into the space more fully so we can almost see the whale in somewhat comparison to the Kings in the Tarot. What I will say about the whale is that the whale, however, holds almost a very childlike or feminine of the present moment, and use those tangible moments to be energy about them, so I don't want to like place the title of they are in relation to the Kings. Just that level of awareness, that level of consciousness gained through experience and through journeying through the rest of completely and utterly what they are, to not have some defined or the cards arrives us at the Whale. There's this need to be committed, that we have to be willing to traverse the difficult terrain. We have to be willing to bear the pressure that comes with diving deeper in order to really get to the sweetness that lies in the depths. And this sweetness is so profound and vital, and yet many attached deeper meaning that that is actually how we dive people choose not to to seek it. Many people choose not to dive deeper into the role of emotions and expressions. All of the animals within the water element represent our emotional world deeper into into our spaces, into our circumstances, into our and our ability to express this is the element that speaks to the giving and receiving of emotions, communication and compassions, values, morals and the sustenance that gives sacred selves. If we just let the rejuvenation and the breath meaning and regards to the rest of life's experiences. So with this need to dive deeper, or this desire to delve deeper for the whales that a helps ensure survival, but it also allows them to bear and go further and further and further, and it surface and the fear drown away the[sic] there's this balancing seems almost impossible, however, this is where they can actually find nourishment. So for us, taking this out of a physical need in the animal spirit world and into a more metaphorical analogy that we can work with, for us, our desire to and this surrender that what is coming is going to be bigger and delve deeper is what gives meaning and purpose to life's experiences. This could also include shadow work in regards to really understanding how the burdens we carry, again, going back to the element of the back and the spine. How have we been better than we have been carrying on our backs up until burdened by the shadow? How have we carried the weight without understanding the again, unseen creation and unseen consequence that comes with the shadow? This doesn't have to be just shadow, this point. though, although going into the depths does provide a little bit of an on the nose analysis that the deeper you go, the darker it gets, but it doesn't have to be strictly in relation to the shadow. This can also be in relation to the role of overcoming and embracing the many layers and folds that come with life's experiences. I think this is one of the biggest reasons why the Whale is the last card in the water element, because this ability to endure, to overcome and to still be committed to to the distance, be committed to the process and be committed to embracing and surrendering to the layers and folds of circumstance that build our experience, build our compassion, build the stuff that we are made of that is what gives meaning and purpose. With the Whale, we also, I also mentioned profound peace is one of the key phrases. This profound peace does go back in relation to this desire to delve deeper. It's not that those who are it's not that those who have found peace within their lives, or more peace within their lives than others is it's not that they have removed all of the elements that would seek to overthrow that sense of inner peace and stability. It's that those people who choose to find peace in the midst of certain circumstances and certain experiences is where the profound peace comes in. We cannot completely remove all of these stressors and triggers in our life. What we can do is find a way to find gratitude and compassion with each circumstance and with each awareness or awakening within us to what is within our control and what is within us to endure the coming circumstance, the coming situation, so that our strength is not meant to be this overwhelming over the top, apparent or overt tool that we use to to push everything that would be problematic away. It's something that sits quietly within us, and when we need to traverse the difficult terrain, when we need to step into the role of awakening to that full spectrum of circumstance, we have the strength within us to accept and appreciate each moment, each moment for what it is, what it provides us and what it can teach us as we dive deeper into the into the layers and folds of that circumstance, we can understand the why, the how, and the what next. And this is something that can be quite hard for us at times, when we look at fear not within the realm of our being part of our survival plan, we obviously need a healthy level of fear, because that's what is keeping us secure and stable and supported in our health and in our bodies and in our Survival. But when we look at fear that is unattached to anything except fear itself, we can see at how this moves us out of being in The title of the poem is called Song, and whales are known for their beautiful songs that they sing to each other, and this song carries their message, and it connects them across the the complete totality of the present moment. When we cannot distance, and across it connects them to the wide expanse of each other within the ocean. This ability of song, in a metaphorical sense, is our ability to find the song within find or release the hold of fear within us, we are not able to us, even in times of fear, even when the distance is long and wide and again, it feels impossible. There is the song that connects us to to others, to to that which we know, that open up further and to be more accepting and embracing of the which we tend and that which we nurture, so in this ability to step into profound peace, we can look to seeing what is our internal song, what is within our internal truth as song that complete totality of the experience, so fear is something connects us across distance and time and across the depth in order to provide that sense of peace and security and to release the fear that is not attached to anything but fear itself. The final phrase I mentioned before was ancient that we have to contest with as we get older, we have to be wisdom. From my notes, I wrote that the intermingling and the millions of layers and folds of situation and circumstance are the trajectory and the lineage of the world that for millions willing to again, dive deeper into the role of fear and see and millions of years, the survival and instinct leading to the creation of the species as it is today is what interconnects everything on this planet. So when we look to the what it is providing for us, and if it is attaching itself to evolution of the whale, we cannot, in any way detach ourselves from the evolution of the whale, that we have to look at how the connection to the evolution of the Whale something that is trying to send a message that we are in danger strengthens, supports the evolution of ourselves, and how this co- creation between all things creates a sense of wisdom that again, we lose as we detach ourselves from the complete totality of the situation, but we've also lost it in the form we're not safe, or if it's just worry and doubt that is being of how society has morphed. When we look to evolution, and society is clearly part of evolution, I would never say that it's not we have to be willing to understand how fed to us through our... that is being fed to us through fear in convenience has perhaps taken over the role that natural evolution would play. And when we look to the whale, perhaps we are being reminded of this ancient wisdom that compassion and song and lineage and connection and nurturing and order to keep everything complacent, convenient and traversing the deep. Distance is what connects us and allows us to evolve with our strength, with our with our support and compartmentalized in a way that is direct and immediate, and with the stability to move forward into these unseen situations, these unseen circumstances yet to come. In, I found a few websites. Again, I will have all of my linked in the description box below, but one of the websites that I found that is the exact opposite of what Whale energy is. was called Animal talk.net and this website was actually quite fascinating, but in relation to dolphin and whale messages, they include both of those animals here in the same page. They mentioned that dolphins and dolphins and whales expedite deep growth and healing on many levels, accelerating the telepathic connection of all life on Earth and beyond. The Whales are wise, loving evolutionary guides. I love the idea of whales being the emotional guides for us that as we connect more deeply to this animal, even in the role of a poem or in the role of picture, however we connect to the role of the whale, we are stepping into a space of being guided towards what is within our internal Wisdom, what is within our eternal evolution, and how we can embrace the expanse, and how we can embrace the totality of the complete experience and dive deeper in more meaningful ways. The website goes on to say that all life is conscience. Every form of being is conscious. We all have choice. We all have choice to live in the greater consciousness that is love, or to live in the smaller consciousness that divides. This is the choice. The choice now is to move into the greater love that pleases the deepest heart, or to remain in the division that creates the feeling of pain and suffering. This is our choice, and we as Whales, whole division the cradle of the greater consciousness that is Divine within all beings. I believe that the writer of this whale song, Penelope Smith, she wrote this beautiful... it's a much longer whale song. I just wanted to share that part of it, because I think that is one of the things that in speaking to guidance, the Whale is really inviting us into how is communication and compassion and stabilizing us to go through the deep darkness? How is compassion and communication helping us to traverse the difficult terrain and make it to the other side and to still be nurturing, still tend and to come back from the brink of all that we have had to endure. How does compassion and communication enrich our lives, even in the moments that are hard, even in the moments that are difficult, painful even. How do we use compassion and communication to overcome challenge and to find a sense of gratitude and surrender to the experience as it is? This idea connects us back to the poem. One of the things that I wrote down was that wisdom is gained in small moments. Rushing from bed to shore, I glimpse their backs, volcanoes rising out of the sea. There's the sense of gaining, gaining a glimpse into deeper wisdom in the small moments. There is no need to have wisdom come in this big show, come carding down into us in this long path that is arduous. It is really just about connecting into the complete experience, into the totality of all that there is in this moment. And that is where wisdom is gained. We also see this again, this sense of depth and magic with the fountains springing from the animals, from the mammals mind, excuse me, this beacon of Wonder connecting back to both childlike and into magic is what allows the tangible to be the magical. It is what allows the tangible and the sensory to fill the complete experience with the multitude of layers and energies that envelop us in order to create that picturesque moment that is natural, that it is of this world, of this moment, and it is at the root of all that is sacred is the present moment. I think that is where I wish to end this episode. I've said what That as we find ourselves in this present moment, we can find I needed and wanted to say in relation to the poem song by compassion for ourselves. We can find forgiveness. We can find love. We can find this deeper awareness of what is within us to carry into the next moment and into the next and into the next. I also see with this within the lines, opening the arms wide as a generation, raising them to a compass point. To dive, this reach to the deep ensures that all that everything is granted something. As we go into the deep, those that take the risk, take the leap, will be granted something, even if that's just the exhilarating experience of diving into the ocean, or if it's something more profound, like some sort of deeper wisdom that's gained. This desire to delve deeper means that we can set ourselves loose in some sort of way. That we can set ourselves loose in to the expanse, into the encompassing moment, and see how, how it makes the LEAP more sweet, more satisfying, and how it allows us to find that profound peace. I wrote here next to the line, if I could grasp my own fear, I drown it that as we desire, as we take our desire to delve deeper and set ourselves loose into this leap, into this expanse and into this complete experience. I wrote, What would life be like without fear? And there's that famous fear if you knew, or that famous quote, if you knew you could never fail, what would you try? I think, really, what I'm getting at with this part of the poem, and what I feel into with this part of the poem, is that when we take the leap knowing that fear is possible, but also setting ourselves loose into that space that we create, that profound peace, we invite that Brenda Cardenas and the whale from the wild unknown animal profound sense of peace more completely into ourselves, and that is what really aligns us within our Health and our stability and our ability to nurture ourselves and others, that as we take the leap in all things, we connect more to that ancestral lineage of survival. We connect to that ancestral lineage of health and strength and stability to do what feels impossible, to overcome the challenges, to traverse the difficult terrain and to use the wisdom from each experience that we have gained more completely, more more intentionally and with more magick and with more of a sense of the tangible creating the layers and folds of each moment and the one thereafter. spirit deck. If you like this podcast episode or any of the previous ones, if you've listened to them, please rate review or subscribe to the podcast. That really helps me see what is getting high traffic from you, the listener. It also helps reach it also helps the podcast reach more people. I would also like to thank my spooks patrons, Lisa Zimmerman, Bobby McDiarmid and Deb guy, as always, thank you for your continued support for the tea and tombstones platform. If you would like to work with me, you can go to my website, will be linked in the show notes and see all of my services and offerings that I have available so far. If you would like to keep up to date on what is new and coming out each month with tea and tombstones. My website, you can subscribe to my newsletter, and finally, you can find me on all platforms of social media again, all of those links will be in the show notes. My theme music is as death approaches by gravedancer. Thank you so much for listening and for letting me come into your day, come into your space. However, I have so thank you so much. Until the next episode, be well. Stay warm. Take care. Bye.