Hello Reader,

Another quick(ish) edition of the sporadic newsletter - entirely card based. I haven't got much to say about the sky ballet right now (astrology) because I am trying to stay afloat myself in this watery Scorpio season!

ONE: A soft sell – gift vouchers for present giving this holiday season

TWO: Our superpowers illustrated by Isaac Newton’s emotional incontinence

Today's decks are:

Ur-Lenormand. Reprint of the original cards from 1799 held at British Museum. Edited by Alexander Glueck. Koenigsfurt-Urania.

Tarot Original 1909. Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Coleman Smith. Lo Scarabeo.

---

ONE: Seasonal gift vouchers available to order now!

Looking for a thoughtful gift with a difference? I am offering physical gift cards for readings for those special people in your life who might be curious but wouldn't think of arranging a cartomancy experience for themselves!

Valid for 4 months to capture all the starts of the cycles of the year, vouchers are redeemable from January through to the end of April!

I’ll start mailing them out towards the end of this month (November) so if you’d like to gift one (or more!), please order now to make sure they arrive in time. Feel free to spread the word if you think someone who is not on the mailing list might also be interested in gifting a voucher.

TWO: Emotions can change the world

After I left research science I taught high school Biology, Chemistry and Physics for a while. I noticed that what was often missing in the teaching of the facts was 'the tea'. In other words, who were these people really (warts and all!) and what were they doing when they were working on big things? We often celebrate the success of the person without considering the impact of how they got there… the feuds and alliances, were they empathetic, did they stoke animosity? What life circumstances - hurdles and privileges - meant they were either primed for success or were successful against all the odds?

Perhaps (science) teaching is changing though…let me know what you think!

Isaac Newton was undoubtedly a genius; after all, he was only twenty-three years old when he formulated his theories of gravitation. His Laws of Motion are quoted in classrooms and esoteric spaces alike and, with Kepler’s Laws, gave us an explanation for the elliptical orbits of planets. But surely there is more to his story?

While teaching those bright young GenZ minds (pre-pandemic), I also found myself delivering the fundamental concepts revolutionised by the work of Robert Hooke in Biology – another well-to-do English polymath. He invented the ‘modern’ microscope.

Hooke was a great scientist in his own right and, with good reason, accused Newton of plagiarising his work on the inverse-square law of gravity. What happened next? Surely not Newton having a Rumpelstiltskin-style meltdown and then making a life-long commitment to trashing, undermining and insulting Robert personally and professionally!

The bit where I give you an example of how emotions change history

It is generally acknowledged that after Hooke’s death, Newton ensured that all images of Hooke were destroyed. I used to show my classes a picture of Isaac Newton but none of Robert Hooke because there aren’t any. Even Newton’s well-known quote about standing on the shoulders of giants is thought to have been a dig at Hooke’s personal appearance which had nothing whatsoever to do with Newton’s alleged plagiarism Newton bullied and harassed Hooke for speaking his truth – during his lifetime and after his death. Not much mention of that, only a spotlight on the world-changing ‘good stuff’.

As a teacher, you have a duty to instruct/socialise children in how to manage their emotions (think: no fighting) and be honest in attributing credit where it is due (think: no copying homework). And yet when we’re teaching ‘Isaac Newton’ it’s with his successes front and centre – we portray him as a pinnacle of excellence, and yet he failed to do both things; manage his emotions and give credit where credit was due.

Another illustration of how Isaac externalised his internal monologue of vengefulness in the shape of a fun fact from Wikipedia; Newton so resented his mother (for remarrying) and his stepfather that he admitted (in writing about his youth) that he threatened to burn them both in their home.

No emotional regulation skills here, folks… but he absolutely changed the world as it was and how it will be as we use his principles to understand the universe around us.

The emotional power bit

OK, getting to the connection between the complex man viewed simplistically, the choices he made, and your superpower. The third law of motion states that, ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction,’ and it’s a principle you will have come across in various forms in your own journey in formal education and perhaps in some of the religious or non-religious philosophies you may have explored.

Applied to spiritual and energetic practises, often we think of this counterbalance as a direct compensation. That love brings love, anger meets anger… but, that is just the surface of it all and sometimes we have to ask ourselves – what is the emotional (energetic) force that we are consciously/unconsciously externalising and/or counterbalancing, and is it appropriate?!

The ‘is it appropriate’ part is for us to decide. I expect Newton believed both unconsciously and consciously that his response to Hooke was appropriate, even if we find it distasteful by our modern standards.

I am not responsible for your actions, you are responsible for your actions…

Daily we find ourselves under the internal and external (emotional) forces of all manner of circumstances. They could be mundane, perhaps someone else’s anger and/or expression of love. They could be extraordinary, given we are all coping with the effects of the climate crises and/or the regenerative power of nature).

This is where our ‘equal and opposite’ needs a bit of thought. It’s not that when we are met with the force of fear we should necessarily react by countering it with bravery. Let’s take time to figure out what is actually going on and respond to cause of the resultant force (what the overall emotion is and why it is surfacing). Is there anything that can be done in the moment or do we need to step back and think about it.

We’re complex energetic beings
​Finally, as I clearly signposted the soft sell at the beginning, I want you to know that this is something I do reflect on when I am reading for you. How we are all complex energetic beings and how sometimes it can be hard to hear that, even if it's in the softest dulcet tones. That’s why I am big on naming but not judging!

Just so you know, when I read, especially for myself, I have to still my mind and my emotions to ensure that I am not bringing my internal chaos to the reading in front of me. If I am reading for myself and I can’t do this, I ask another lightworker to read for me. When I read for others, I often feel their struggle reflected in the energy around the cards and I’ll be honest, sometimes I just have to wait for the window when your energy is ready for a reading. This is why there is a bit of a delay in terms of when you ask for a reading and I actually read your cards. We meet energetically and we both have to be ready to do it!

Remember,

You are so powerful that your anger can change the world.
You are so powerful that your love can change the world.
You are so powerful that you can change the world.

Cx