KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

December 26, 2022, through January 1, 2023

With the exception of Mercury turning retrograde on Thursday, this week should unfold in easy and flowing ways. Monday's Aquarius Moon could cause some electronic or communication glitches as it joins forces with Mercury, but keep in mind this is designed to get our attention and alert us to where change might be needed. (For example, if you got a new iPhone for Christmas and it's not working right, might be time to take it back to the store for an exchange!) In fact, if you do have any gifts you are looking to exchange, this is the week to take care of that as Mercury prepares to go backward, ideally Thursday or Friday under the Aries Moon. New Year's Eve and the first day of 2023 unfold under a Taurus Moon, offering us a grounded and loving position from which to kick off the start of a new year. New Year Resolutions will be a snap under this determined sign, as we prepare to greet 2023 with better health, more financial security, and tangible progress towards our new dreams. Happy New Year to everyone!

How to Ask Yes-Or-No Tarot Questions, by Jack Chanek

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

It's something people say all the time: Don't ask a yes-or-no question in a tarot reading. Just about any introductory tarot book you pick up, or any reader you ask for advice, will deliver this counsel sooner or later. There seems to be a broad consensus that tarot is just not good for yes-or-no questions, that it can't (or won't) answer them, and we should never bother to ask them. But most people don't talk about why that's the case.

Tarot is a narrative medium. Whatever question you ask, you get an answer in the form of pictures, symbols, and abstract themes. A tarot reading tells a story with its own characters, conflicts, and even a progression from the past through the future. This means that in order to get the most out of tarot, you want to ask questions that can properly be answered with this kind of story.

In divination, it's tempting to ask small, narratively closed questions—things like, "Will I get the job?" or, "Is he going to call?" After all, we come to divination because we want answers about our lives; more often than not, we'd prefer a straightforward yes or no over something more complicated. However, these questions don't give tarot room to do what it does best. They don't lend themselves to the narrative expression that characterizes tarot as a divinatory medium. Asking tarot a yes-or-no question is like asking Michelangelo to draw a stick figure; sure, he can do it, but he'd much rather be painting the Sistine Chapel.

The best questions for tarot are the ones that give your reading room to breathe. These are, generally speaking, open-ended questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how. Questions like these can't be answered in a single word. They require elaboration and context. To know, "Is X going to happen?" you really only need a yes or a no. To know, "Why is X happening?" on the other hand, you need a much fuller picture. You need to know who the people involved in the situation are, what drives them, and what effect their actions have on you. You need to think about what's happened in the past, the relationship between the past and the present, and the way that current events will continue to shape the future. In short, you need to tell a story.

This is the kind of question with which tarot excels. Tarot is adapted to answer open-ended questions that encourage you to take a step back and consider the whole of your situation. Even if you sometimes just want an answer to a smaller question like, "Will I get the job?" you'll find that your tarot readings provide narrative context anyway. If you ask, "Will I get the job?" and you pull the Six of Swords and the Eight of Wands, that tells you not only that you'll get hired, but that you'll hear back very soon and the whole hiring process will move very quickly. If you ask, "Will he call?" and you pull the Three of Swords and the Queen of Cups, that tells you not only that he won't call, but that he's more interested in someone else. Tarot always tells a story.

Does this mean you must never ask a yes-or-no question in a tarot reading? No, not necessarily. You can ask tarot anything you want to know. However, if you ask a small question without room for storytelling, you may find that interpreting your cards gets a lot harder. Imagine asking, "Will it rain on my vacation?" and drawing the Three of Pentacles. Is that a yes or a no? The answer is ambiguous. The themes associated with this card are teamwork, creativity, and mastery, but it's not obvious how any of those things relate to a question about the weather. You could plausibly look to the specific imagery in your card to see if the weather is depicted as fair or foul, but it feels like thematically, the card is trying to express something that just can't come through.

Now think about the card, not as answering, "Will it rain?" but as answering, "How will the weather affect my vacation?" Here, the themes of the card leap out: You'll find yourself around other people. The weather won't isolate you or keep you stuck at home; rather, it will push you toward other people and encourage you to find a dynamic social setting. Chances are good, then, that the sun will be shining and you'll be able to get out and about.

In a way, the card still answered the closed yes-or-no question, but it did so by telling a story. That is to say, the best way to answer the smaller question was to take a step back and answer a bigger question first. This is how tarot shines. Even if we only want a yes-or-no answer, we often get that answer by asking a narrative question and using tarot to tell a complete story. We get better, more satisfying answers by letting tarot do what it does best. The way to get the most out of your tarot deck is to let it tell you a story in every reading, rather than trying to confine it to a strict yes or no. If the yes or no is what you really want, you'll find that the story leads you there eventually, and does so in a more satisfying way than if you try to take a shortcut and avoid the story altogether.

The advice to avoid yes-or-no questions in a tarot reading is solid, but it doesn't mean that we can never ask those questions or that tarot will break if we try to use it for something specific and concrete. Instead, it means that even if we're looking for a yes-or-no answer, we'd do well to keep ourselves open to other information, and to look for the ways the cards supplement a simple "yes" with information about who, what, where, when, why, and how. What we really mean when we say, "Don't ask yes-or-no questions" is, "Don't only ask yes-or-no questions." Don't look for the yes or no to the exclusion of everything else your reading might be telling you. That extra information tells a valuable story, and you'll understand your situation better for having listened to it.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2022. All rights reserved.

Is there any basis for the idea that spiritual change and renewal occurs every seven years? Are there any other timely cycles that govern our journeys through life? Please advise. Thank you!

Jeanne

Susyn:

According to science, the human body renews itself every seven years. This timeframe can also be applied to spiritual renewal.

There are many different cycles that govern our journeys through life, and one of the easiest ways to recognize them is by studying astrology.

To begin, letís consider the cycles that are most apparent. The months of the year, the four seasons, and birthdays can all be seen as times of change that are dictated and defined by the planets in our solar system.

When you note the physical changes that occur during these phases, you can also see how they affect you emotionally and spiritually. For example, the monthly cycles of the new and full Moons are known to have a big effect on us. The new Moon addresses beginnings, fresh starts and renewal, while the full Moon activates a cycle of release and closure. Because the Moon rules emotions, its cycles govern emotional changes.

The Sun marks the seasons of a year based on its position. We tend to live very differently in the winter than we do in the spring time, and similar changes can be seen throughout the different seasons.

Venus and Mercury create change in one-year cycles that are directly related to our passions and ideals. Awareness of what these planets are up to can help us recognize the change and renewal they create. For example, Mercury travels backwards three times a year, and during these phases, we are primed to review and change various aspects of our lives.

Depending on a particular planetís nature, when it travels through a sign connected with spiritual matters, spiritual renewal occurs. If the planet is moving through a personal development sign of the Zodiac, weíll be focused on self-care and personal growth.

The cycles of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto also affect on our lives in various times and ways. While Mars (movement) and Jupiter (expansion and education) create change and renewal in two-year cycles, the outer planets involve larger timeframes. Saturn brings renewal every eight years, while Uranus, Neptune and Pluto cycles can vary from 12 to 24 years based on their orbits.

Astrological readings are one way to keep track of which area of your life is in transformation and renewal. You can also get daily updates on what cycles are in effect through my horoscopes here at Kajama.

*****

Astrea:

When I was growing up, science taught us that our skin, hair, nails, and other parts of the body that grow and have to be maintained are renewed every seven years. Whether that's true or not, it's probably not the same when it comes to our spiritual growth because some people learn faster than others, and some just never learn. Each Path to Enlightenment is as individual as the person who walks it.

In Nature, cycles tend to be more predictable. Summer follows spring, fall follows summer, winter follows fall, and then it's spring again. Within the natural Wheel of the Year, we all have our own separate cycles, which can be much less predictable as far as time periods are concerned. One person may renew their commitment to their spiritual growth every few years, while another may do it once every ten years. Some people never realize that they're growing at all, and some just fail to grow.

As Global Warming has reduced the time between our seasons and made them more extreme as time goes by, it seems that people on the path to Enlightenment find that cycles of change have sped up as well. Perhaps we don't have the luxury of as much time as we used to, so we are trying to gain more Spiritual Knowledge in less time than ever before.

I think most of us feel more pressure to get it than we did before because the Light workers are trying to figure out how to keep the Earth from dying. At this point, renewal in seven years sounds like a big chunk of time.

Our summers are hotter. Our winters are brutal. Spring and fall come and go faster. Light workers feel the need to come up with solutions in less and less time because time is running out on us and we know it.

Humans follow the Natural Order whether we plan to do it or not, so it's smart to think that we are evolving in tandem with the Universe. Soon the Crystal and Indigo Children will come into adulthood in great numbers and be able to solve some of these problems.

Of course, each of their paths is as different as those of the other humans on the planet, so each individual has to find his or her own way at his or her own pace.

All of this comes down to my advice for you, which is to honor your own schedule regarding your own growth, and avoid measuring your progress by any sort of standardized cycle.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.