Your Week Ahead: January 1 to 6, 2024 – The Garden Of Serenity

As the New Year unfolds, it is only natural to think about what lies ahead and how our experience will feel. It is really only another day, yet the belief that we can renew ourselves and go after what we want is somehow embedded in our psyche as we move over this perception of a threshold from one time state to another.

As I pulled the cards above for this week’s reading, and for the first week of the new year, I was surprised by the very restful and soft tones and images of each card. Perhaps there has been a lot of mental chatter of late, or a fair amount of interaction. Even the extroverts need time for rest and contemplation, although many have told me that they feel rejuvenated by being around people.

Taken separately and as a whole, this reading is about the power and courage of nourishing our dreamtime. Our inner vibrational reality is calling for some love and attention. What we do now to feel restored will have tremendous benefit for the opening days and weeks, even months, of 2024.

While the swords suit can describe some agitation or conflict, it is primarily about the intellect and how we communicate our thought patterns, otherwise known as beliefs. Our path to wisdom, to accessing our wisdom, takes mindfulness and awareness. The ability to calm an anxious mind is how we bring our intellect under control. Not the control of suppression. Rather, the knowingness of how the wind element of our mind operates.

Occasionally, our anxieties can take on more momentum, particularly if we don’t find ways to release mental tension through meditation, exercise, or breath work. Even training one’s self-talk to pivot gently from a resistant state to a softer, more open state, does wonders at reestablishing a better relationship with the unknown.

Perhaps that is what we’re guided towards in the 4 of Swords. This is a card about restoration and finding time to create boundaries for the activity of the mind and our thoughts. If we don’t rest our minds, the body will do it for us. Unfortunately, this can mean illness, as our cortisol levels may have gotten exacerbated through unreleased stress. I am not suggesting that we will get sick, it is simply a precaution that we should be observant about.

An immune system is always running, even when we have no idea that it is. In fact, most of the time, it is defeating and assimilating a plethora of things. What defeats the immune system is stress, and anything that promotes it, as well as nutritional deficiencies. Fear, isolation, and separation from holistic and cell-fueling energy, will make our systems work harder with less to go on.

I made a t-shirt for myself that says, “I am an asymptomatic spreader of Love”. The idea that has been planted in our psyche these past years, that we are spreaders of evil, that we are killing people and that we have to cleanse ourselves on the baptismal alter of the medical establishment, is in my opinion, the very epitome of sickness. Further, so many have rushed in to ensure that we collectively and silently agree so that we all feel better about the abuse we think we have no say about. But I digress.

The connection between the 4 of Swords and the 9 of Wands is about a nourishing boundary and the resulting benefit to our personal clarity, or integrity. The description for the 9 of Wands says, “She looks around herself, but fear does not stop her.” This is only possible when we calm ourselves down and regain our peace of mind. The peace shown in the 4 of Swords is so healing to look at. The 9 of Wands feels like that fresh new morning before the sun has risen. This describes a reemergence into vitality.

To “embark” on the New Year with this kind of personal gravity (I misspelled it first as grace!), is to feel that one is on the right path. That is probably the best thing we can do for ourselves right now. To know that the details are being looked after, to feel like we can surrender, is to feel safe. That really comes from within and is again a byproduct from having made time to calm our nerves, our stress, and simply to enjoy the softness of our love and from those close to us.

The work may come in the form of ensuring that we have some awareness about what we want. Some courage maybe needed in exploring what it is that continues to feed our sense of space. The 7 of Wands feels like a time for some fine tuning and for intentionally affirming what is important for our continued mental health.

As some may be headed back to work after a holiday break, look at what things you can do to keep your balance flowing. The future is always a creative opportunity. Finding ways to make sure you have what you need will assist in keeping your health vibrant and your stress levels low. Understand what gives you that peace that is so important, then keep that vision alive through repeated attention. The future is calling gently and good things are in the waiting. Take some steps in that direction, and don’t worry, the universe has your back.

Affirmation: I am calm. I take the time I need now to relax and find comfort. Everything is well and I am content with things as they are right now. I know that, when I feel ready, I can take some good steps toward the future and all the ideas about my personal growth and vitality that are so important for me. My future is calling me forth and I gently rise to its occasion.

Thanks for reading, and I wish you a wonderful week!

Daniel Palmo

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