Living my Six of Disks week, I found my life magically aswirl with words—manuscripts by my various writing friends arrived in my inbox for me to read and I in turn sent out a first draft of my own latest manuscript I’m passing around for feedback. The pleasure in the Six of Disks for me is the happy industry of exchange. In this case, words, whole collections of poems, form the currency. I find great joy in helping others hone their writing. And a vulnerable but lovely part of the creative process is that I too need others to help me with my blindspots.

Though I get to walk the spiral path “in” to the quiet center –the peaceful beginning where the core poems live–alone, I still am blessed by companions of heart along the “outer” way as I strive to prepare work for “outside” eyes.

What forms your Six of Disks currency? With whom do you find your ecstatic exchange?

Tarot Tuesday: Seven of Disks Writing Prompt

So let’s look at that image of the Seven of Disks in the Rider Waite Smith deck. We see a gardener leaning on one of his tools while he surveys his ripening garden. His expression, though perhaps a bit forlorn, is neutral enough that we can project a myriad speculations regarding his inner state. Choose the most pressing writing project or endeavor you have been carefully tending and step back for an aerial perspective so you are looking down on it from a distance.

Have you put in your time?

How can you best trust your work to a natural timeline and exposure to the natural rhythms of ripening (sun, weather, other gardeners)?

How can you step back and rechannel worries or anxieties into alternate projects to allow this one its hour in the sun?

If it is clear something is in the way of your ability to reap the benefits of your work, how can you best negotiate or advocate for a fair outcome?

Take a walk–in your neighborhood even–nothing fancy–and walk until  you come across a plant or tree that is beginning to blossom. If in cold climates, observe a houseplant you have that is in blossom. Spend some time noticing the colors and the variations between blossoms and the stages of unfolding. When you return from your walk, describe what you discovered in writing. 

Feel free to respond in comments here or to join the conversation at Tarot Tuesday’s Facebook page to share your word or image response.

The photo of the flower center at the top is by my poetry movie collaborator Robyn Beattie. The petrified wood round is a photo I took at the San Diego Geological Society Museum (with permission) at Balboa Park.