“Radical empathy isn’t the fashion of the day. Late-model capitalism works overtime to keep us focused on the product, not the people. That’s why we need Sugar so badly right now. You’ll see what I mean when you turn the page. Run toward the darkness, sweet peas, and shine.”
—Steve Almond, from the intro to Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar
Life lessons take time to be learned, especially when we are unaware, unawake, still asleep or telling ourselves the same stories that keep us stuck in our comfort zones instead of feeling the growing pains of evolution.
It becomes a question of how many times are you going to get a message from the Universe, and how many different sources, before you finally listen to the message; to hear it for what it really is?
Some people call these moments “come to jesus” moments, and think the message is outside of themselves, simply because the message IS coming from the outside: a song on the radio that keeps repeating, a quote in a book that strikes us as similar to what we just heard on TV, or similar messages coming to us at the same time, forcing us to pay attention to them in a greater way than if they happened singly.
I was watching Super Soul Sunday: an interview with Sister Joan Chittister. One of the things she said within the full episode really struck me (and I’ll paraphrase as best as I can here): that we have sold our souls for the technological, the efficiency. What she really was saying hit me again when I read the above quote from the intro of the compilation of the Dear Sugar advice column. That consumerism has stopped us from doing our own human work, of love and compassion for the other humans we are on the journey with. The journey may be an individual one, but we’re all on the path of life together.
My belief is that things happen in threes. Usually it’s the tragedy that is focused on, like how most celebrity deaths come in threes.
But in this case I was faced with the beautiful synchronicities I just described, and then as icing on the spiritual lesson cake, the writing course I’m was on for 10 days (day 8) was about cliches: “I don’t write because… someone’s already said it, and said it better than me.” [Unstoppable Day 8]
Riiiiiiiiiight. It’s a little sad that the Universe has to go to so much trouble to get us to listen, isn’t it?
I’ll put another spin on it… just like Dorothy’s ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz, we really did have this power inside of ourselves all along. You may be hearing this wisdom from an external source right now (little ole me) and think that just because it is external, the wisdom must be external as well.
Maybe you think that because it’s coming from me, that I’M the wise one. This isn’t so.
Wisdom isn’t very useful until YOU decide to give it that importance.
Theresa Reed also talks about this in her Hit List post “It’s meaningful”: “What is meaningful for one person may not be meaningful to another.”; “You find meaning where you choose to. (And in some cases, where you have to.)”
Wisdom needs your stamp of approval so that it can begin to change you; so that you can let it in. Whether that wisdom comes from an external source, an internal source, or a tarot reading from me … there must be some part of you that agrees that the piece of wisdom you have received is meaningful so that you can begin to do the work of integration and action.
This is the reason why many people find continued resonance in Doreen Valiente’s Charge of the Goddess:
“And you who seek to know Me, know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not, unless you know the Mystery: for if that which you seek, you find not within yourself, you will never find it without.”
Blessings,
~*~Hilary~*~
www.tarotbyhilary.com
hilary@tarotbyhilary.com
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HILARY PARRY HAGGERTY is a tarot reader, witch, mentor, editor, and teacher. She has been reading tarot for over 21 years (13 years professionally). She was the winner of Theresa Reed’s (The Tarot Lady) Tarot Apprentice contest in 2011, and has taught classes on tarot and spell-work at The Tarot School’s annual tarot conference Readers Studio and at Brid’s Closet Beltane Festival. She writes a weekly blog on tarot at her website www.tarotbyhilary.com and has been featured in Maxim Magazine and BuzzFeed.
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© Hilary Parry Haggerty | Tarot by Hilary
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