The
message may be obscure or ambiguous but, hey, that's how oracles stay in
business long-term. As a divination deck, our Coincidence Cards can't be beat.
We come up with a one-time deck, exclusively for us, that will never be used in
this form again.
Of
course, some of the messages are "keepers". My journals are stuffed
with index cards whose inscriptions remind me of big dreams and coincidence
fugues, of wildly funny incidents and of moments of insight and epiphany when
we punched a hole in the surface world and saw into a deeper order of reality.
I've
been looking over my collection of Coincidence Cards and I'll share some of the
messages here, without attempting to recall the specific meanings that each of
them assumed in the context of the intentions. Notes from the dreamworld
included:
I’m
in a wedding procession. As we walk down the aisle of the church and step up to
the altar, I realize we have entered a diner.
Circus
elephants circle around linked trunk to tail, lovingly, caringly giving each
other a way to follow. Each is a leader as much as a follower.
I’m
in a large room where we each have to fly up to the ceiling every 2 or 3
minutes to breathe, as if the room is under water.
I
was traveling from one space to another looking for my dad and my dog who have
recently died. In what space would they now be? Are they standing in the
galaxy? Are they in my dad’s house? Or in a new landscape by the sea?
I recognized myself as a spider. The spider
spits white webbing around the people. I am told, “It is a unifying force”.
The
Moon goddess stands in her majesty above the Sea of Tranquility. She is flanked
by her armored Moon soldiers and carried on the back of a giant crab moving
gently through the sea.
The
dragon sits on your shoulder. His fire breath drives back the dark.
Two
men are taking me to my execution by beheading. I fight until my mother appears
and tells me it will be okay. I submit myself to the execution and I am happy.
A
jaguar leaps out of the forest and into the driver’s seat of a pink Firebird
convertible. It morphs into a cartoon version of itself, puts on sunglasses,
and drives away, waving as it says, “Hasta la vista”.
Standing
near the refrigerator. The door opens, it’s packed, there is movement. Oh my,
the turkeys are alive and they want to come out. Some of the messages come from
observations on the roads of everyday life: My daughter hands me the feather of
a blue heron and tells me I will need it this weekend.
A
red passion flower lying in the roadway all alone.
A
death’s head skull is floating in mid-air. I look for its origin and find that
it is the reflection of a pattern on a woman’s purse.
A salmon pink trumpet-like flower opens before my eyes, bursting with joyful life!
Some of the cards contain insights harvested from the workshops:
You do
not need to hunt your power. Your power will hunt you. Find a sacred space
where your power can find you.
Throw
out your net and fish in the River of Dreams.
The
child does not need to grow up to be complete.
In
playing the Coincidence Card game, we sometimes draw our own card, which is
statistically improbable and often very interesting. It suggests, for one
thing, that you already have the answer. You don't need to look outside
yourself, only to go deeper within. Over the years, I've assembled quite a
collection of cards that I wrote myself that spoke back to me in the game. Some
of the messages are from dreams:
A woman is falling to earth from a great
height. I spread my falcon wings and swoop down to save her, catching her just
before she hits the rocks. We soar straight up into the air before I gently
bring her down to a house on a headland overlooking the water. I leave clear
instructions for her on living on earth.
Some
are reflections:
Before lightning strikes, it sends down probes
to find its path to earth. In a similar way, we are rehearsed for BIG events by
trial events, which may be diversions, dead-ends, first sketches or caricatures
of what will come later. Don’t mistake the test drive for the big journey.
Some
are quotes:
Everything can be taken from a man or woman but
one thing, the last of human freedoms: to choose one’s attitude in any given
set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. –
Viktor Frankl
On
the last day of one of my depth workshops, I wrote on an index card a summary
of an essay I had been working on in the early morning. My intention, in
consulting the Index Card Oracle that day, was simply for "guidance on the
week ahead". I drew a card from the deck. When my turn came to read out my
message, I found I had drawn my own card. Here’s what it said:
In the miasmic conditions of life on this
planet, it's easy to forget the mission you came to fulfill. If you are lucky,
you'll get a reminder - from a dream or another person with stars in their eyes.
That,
for me, was the right message, for the week ahead and for any week.
Now
my ability to get on airplanes and lead on-site workshops has been shut down by
the pandemic, I find it very satisfying – and sometimes shocking – to draw a
card from the huge deck of cards I have collected in past gatherings. This
brings back delicious memories and sometimes gives me starter dough for new
writing and a spur to fresh projects. And messages for any day and every night.
