Day 144 - Five of Cups

 

Day 144

 

Apparently some party in Germany sent out fake deportation notices to immigrants as part of their election campaign. This got me thinking, why are immigrants so often considered a threat? Even if you give them votes, their control over your country will be proportional to amount of them being full citizens compared to the rest of the country. That's a minuscule amount! Compared to that foreign companies have enormous control over the country, just giving a raise during reign of party A and mass layoffs during time of party B can extremely affect people's perception of those parties. And don't forget lobbying, bribing politicians for law changes and breaking laws because when fine is a specific amount you may as well consider it pert of operating costs.

You want your country free and powerful? Don't kick out people who think your country is great, kick out foreign companies who think your country is exploitable.

And with that - to the next card!

Five of Cups

Same vibes as with Five of Swords. Card of regret. This time there is nothing to win, because loosing good relationships in suit of Cups is never a good thing. Card symbolises focusing on hat you lost, instead of moving on. Which is quite fitting card for this suit, how many people mull over a break up for a long time instead of moving on?

In reverse this card has a more positive meaning. Moving on, new hope, finally looking out for new possibilities.

Day 143 - Four of Cups

 

Day 143

 

Everything in excess can tire. For me it sometimes feel like life itself is tiring, especially when I'm overwhelmed by... well... everything. Today I took a day off, nit like anything important was going on at the company anyway. And it would be first day off for half a year or so...

 

Four of Cups

 

Fours are interesting. Remember Four of Swords? Card "safe space to contemplate". This card is similar, except... if you take into account that this is social suit of Tarot, card that symbolises contemplation and introspection isn't positive here, because it also means "alone time". Thus this card means apathy, disconnection, being alone and missing social opportunities.

Day 142 - Three of Cups

 

Day 142

 

Not much happened today. Seems I cannot ground myself energetically, perhaps because I'm of element earth myself.

Three of Cups

It's the card of party, of friendship, of joyous time spent with others. And yes, some joy-kills interpret it as an affair because it's essentially card of third person. It's not a core meaning, it's something added by people who can't possibly use Tarot to anything else than love reading. Quit spewing nonsense, your lover is with friends not having an affair!

In reverse this is card about toxic groups, conflict and drama that permeate social gatherings. Can also mean isolation, though it's rarer interpretation since it fits more to reversed ace.

Day 141 - My Birthday

 

Day 141

 

Today is my birthday! It... doesn't feel much special. Birthdays of my children strongly overshadow mine nowadays. But they also seem to have much more fun from them. A lot changes in one's life between the age of three and four, not much changes in the year before turning 32.

So... what did I achieve in the past year? My wife says a lot, I say not much. Perhaps internal perspective is simply too weak for introspection. 

 

I'm still working in the same company. Decided to leave, then changed my mind. Funny. 

 

I trained fencing, rapier and long-sword. Got somewhat better, especially with some individual lessons.

I did some gardening. Planted raspberries in my garden, built a walkway around one of the corners of my house.

 

I bought my long sword and carved a scabbard for it in wood. Kinda started a carving hobby. 

 

Published my first book! Second one is still in translation... 

Changed my diet, a lot. Did blood tests to check what is wrong with me too. Forst I removed garlic sauce, next went out the milk. Last change was to remove cheese from everyday diet. Appears that I am lactose intolerant, explains why I drank goat milk in my childhood. In addition cheese has more cholesterol that peanut butter of equal amount (as long as you use normal peanut butter, not something hardened with palm oil). Introduced a lot of fish into my diet.

All in all it was a more peaceful year with time to do many side projects.

Day 140 - Two of Cups

 

Day 140

 

Snowstorm rages on. Around noon I managed to shovel some of the snow off my driveway. Wife and kids started making snowman out of it. Not a very good snow for that, but they managed to create something that's taller than older daughter. Snowing slowly turns it into big snow cone.

Next Tarot card!

Two of Cups

Two is a pair. In upright position means a mutual relationship of respect, unity, fairness. Perhaps a true love, if the context is fitting. Can mean a good partnership in business or any other endeavour. Doesn't say if two people who share such positive, balanced relationship are of the opposite gender, so don't waste your time putting "he" or "she" in your readings.

In reversed position means unequal, unbalanced relationship. Perhaps it's a toxic relationship, or simply two incompatible people facing constant miscommunication. This partnership will not yield any positive results, only conflicts and distress.

Day 139 - Ace of Cups

 

Day 139

 

Last training was amazing. A big test to check if my practice helped me in any way. My master made us all do the non-combat parts of competition. Hitting the ball as many times as you can in 30 seconds, reeling as many loops of the thread as you can onto sword in 20 seconds, catching wooden rings with your sword... I ended up coming second which really boosted my confidence.

 

Back to Tarot! We are starting the suit of cups. Cups are a minor arcana focused on emotions and relations with others. In other words they are what we usually expect from Tarot - love readings!

Ace of Cups

As all Aces this is the card of beginnings. Where Ace of Swords talked about new ideas, Ace of Cups speaks about new emotions. New meetings, new relations. New feelings, even for the old acquaintances.

Reversed Ace of Cups speaks about blocking off others, emotions and relations you stay away from. Disconnecting oneself from those around us.

Day 138 - Banned from Reddit!

 

Day 138

 

I never created a fake internet persona, so I speak my honest mind each time I'm online. It sometimes get me banned, I'm an unapologetic mix of personality. Due to this, I get banned from social media twice a year or so.

Funny, half a year ago being banned from a subreddit would be distressing, but now I got a three day ban from Reddit as a whole and I can't see it as anything but hilarious. Especially since ban is just for posting and commenting, while 90% of what I do is reading. It's not even a punishment!

This got me thinking. Social media can't truly ban people, because every banned person is simply one less viewer. They get their money from showing advertisements, so if someone can't see their website it's a financial loss. There are no consequences on social media, because consequences hurt owner of the social media more than they hurt user.

Ah, and why have I been banned this time? Ireland is passing a law that they will cut ties with war criminals and those who trade with them. Probably aimed at Germany for keeping trade with Russia, but the biggest war criminals in the world are also USA and Israel. I commented "Anything that both USA and Israel hates must be a good thing by default" and got banned for Hate Speech.