Telling Fortunes

Humans are "meaning making" creatures, and I think about this a lot at New Year's, this time of interpreting the past and plotting the best possible future, which of course includes copious resolutions.

On the last evening of 2009, my songbird friend calls on her way to an all night dance party in the Big City. "Make a list of what you appreciate most about yourself this year," she counsels (Courage, risk-taking, trusting love, learning new skills). Add to that what you want to let go of in 2010, things you want to banish from your psychic landscape (Worry, angst, impatience). On New Year's Day, make a list of your intentions. Then, let's share, ok?" As I hear her musical laugh, I commit, as I always do. She is my sparkling, wise muse, after all.

I like to believe that what you do the first 24 hours of the year sets the tone for the next twelve months. So this morning we ended up (finally) replacing the seat to the loo. But the rest of the day? Housework? I think not. Hiking, dancing, and cuddling on the couch are in order. Sitting quietly watching the koi in the pond, I spy a bright yellow breasted bird, with black pirate stripes atop its head, taking a discreet bath amidst the water-lillies. Yes the first day of the new decade, so many things to do well, including doing nothing at all. Choose carefully!

"On Monday, I'm back to water and gruel," moans a friend who has, like so many of us, dined and drank liberally this past month. The perfect storm of winter inactivity, compounded with rich food, obstinate colds, and hot toddies...Oh well, perhaps we need a few extra pounds of blubber in case global warming causes the seas to rise and we evolve into seals. Blubber could also come in handy if you engage in a New Year's Day "Polar Bear Plunge" into the nearest body of freezing water. Brrrrrrrr.

Last night's full moon was a blue moon , (which won't happen on a New Year's Eve again until 2028) so we sang that silly song we all know as she rose above the ridgetop, veiled in swaths of gray cirrus cloud. Word of a lunar eclipse (in the eastern hemisphere of the world) gave us a feeling of astrological magic, auguring well for new, once-in-a-blue-moon type beginnings.

My evening included the company of happy, uninhibited souls, laughter, dancing, singing, with hugging and kissing at midnight. A grape for each stroke of twelve brings good luck. Noisemakers chase away evil spirits. Champagne bubbles carried us away, back up the mountain and home.

The Tarot card for 2010: Six of Cups, Pleasure.
From Angeles Arrien's interpretation:

• "This card represents emotional pleasure that is healing, like the copper cups, and revitalizing, like the orange lotus blossoms, and renewing and regenerating, like the snakes coiled within the cups. There is an emotional determination to bring pleasure into your life that is renewing, revitalizing and regenerating. The emotional nature is going through a healing process, a disappointment is being released, giving way to a feeling of pleasure. Out of this experience of pleasure, one can give pleasure to others."