Card of the Day – Tuesday – January 17, 2012

Today’s card is The Beast, the angry and unhappy dragon of deep emotions that rages within the hearts of all of us.  The Beast is a natural part of being human, as tiny children we allow him to express himself freely, as parents of two-year olds learn very quickly!  But as adults, most of us learn to put him behind a hidden door in our minds, only letting him out in measured doses, under the cover of “civilized” camouflage such as sports, duels, work-place politics, martial arts or even military training.

But no matter the masks we use to try to keep him to the back of our mind’s hallway, he is ever-ready to rush forward to the front and attack us when we least expect it.

There are no easy ways to deal with The Beast, but ignoring him does not make him simply go away, instead he gets ever more clever in figuring out ways to sneak past our defenses to lash out in dangerous ways.  This is another reason that healthy people and societies find the least dangerous ways possible to allow his expression.  Not to mention that from our earliest days, people needed to be able to hunt and compete for resources in order to simply survive.

This led to the idea of family and tribal bonds, within which The Beast was only “allowed” to express himself in certain defined ways.  People being people, there were always some who personally expressed the Beast more than others.  I’m sure the image of “The Angry Man” of the “Shrewish Women” would be as recognizable to people living 30,000 years ago in European caves as they are today; but to live in groups, their behavior had to be tempered and channeled somewhat, or in extreme cases they could be exiled from the group, which usually meant certain death or at least a life-time banishment from their original group.

In any case, one of the ways that people (and some of our great-ape cousins) seem to channel The Beast is to attack those outside of one’s family, tribe and later nations.  By historical times, entire populations could be whipped up into a collective expression of the Beast that allowed them to over-come the usual aversion that humans have to killing each other and instead lash-out in massed attacks that we refer to today as: warfare.

Early warfare seems to have been mostly display, where all the warriors dress up and challenge each other a lot (combine with vicious and swift raids on enemy villages to steal wives, resources and kill a few people).  Later this morphed into the more recognizable State Vs. State battles and struggles you see from the first City-States to the Modern Era.

There are no easy ways to deal with the Beast, for individuals the combination of recognizing he exists in everyone (no-one gets a pass on this one) and must be both acknowledged and harnessed can be helpful.

Try to run away from him, and he will over-power you, find ways to let him out on a leash and like a chained dragon he will rattle his chains but generally be held in check.

Also realizing that there are reasons for The Inner Beast/Dragon and that he is what gives us our inner fire and strength to perform the impossible and continue on when all things hopeless.

That sometimes, rage and anger can be appropriate responses – when you or your family are under unjust attack or suffering.

However, even when justified, The Beast needs to be chained not repressed; under a chain he can be guided by those with cooler heads (in other words your rational mind) to be let out at exactly the right moment to create positive, if sometimes drastic changes.

People with Beasts a bit closer to the surface than the rest of us, can often find certain types of action and meditation to be helpful in doing this.  Anything from extreme sports to meditations and shamanic work with animal powers (especially predators like wolves, lions or hawks).

As individuals, we can find it very hard to direct the actions of large groups; though of course all change starts with each one of us.

I am concern that on a macro-scale, today’s energy is very dangerous in terms of human conflict of all types; but especially that of violence and warfare.

Yesterday in a private world-reading, the cards for Union and Work came up; which also suggests possible labor confrontations, strikes, contract negotiations etc which could be affected this week.

When you have attempts at negotiations, settlements, contacts, problem-solving, budget cutting, business alterations etc going on, as you do all over the Western-World right now; the Beast card is the LAST card you want to see.

It means that the energy affecting everyone in these areas is going to be stressed, angry, jealous, unwilling to budge or even violent in nature.  This doesn’t mean everyone involved has to act on these energies, it does mean that they are the foremost energy “in the air” and going to have an effect on people, especially those who are not aware the energy is there in the first place.

Finally, in a time where violence (including street riots) and warfare are very close to the surface, again the Beast is the LAST card you want to have your primary energy for the day/week/time period.  That’s because under the influence of the Beast, leaders and generals of Peoples/tribes/nations are much more likely to simply “React” to a perceived threat rather than think about it and plan carefully.

Even when acting with violence may be the appropriate thing for a nation/military to do (in response to an actual attack or extreme threat of one), doing it under the influence of The Beast is quite frankly terrifying in terms of the chances for miss-calculation, error and bad-judgments.

Let us hope that we all get through this time period with a Beast held back a bit by the Chains of Rational Thought and Spiritual Wisdom; rather than a Raging Beast whose devours and tramples with his fire.

As always, as individuals, knowing this energy is out there we can simply take care to remind ourselves that if those around us are more quick to anger, upset, arguments, strife etc (of find themselves ready to explode when the pencil sharpener breaks) take a deep breath and say

“It isn’t just me, it isn’t just my co-workers/boss/neighbor/spouse/child, it is The Energy of the Day.”

Then let go of it, set your mind to the tasks at hand and try to be as kind and helpful as you can to others.   This will not only help you keep the Beast at Bay, but will also encourage this reaction in others.

So, that’s the rather heavy card for today, remember you can get your personal cards today or any day by ordering a reading.

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