Bard of the Card: Building a Bouquet

One of my favorite Tarot and Oracle pairings is The Intuitive Night Goddess Tarot and The Lunar Nomad Oracle. Today I pulled the six of swords, five of pentacles, and bouquet. I did take a peek at the meanings this morning to get a sense of the cards and any insight they might bring to my day. I typically pull tarot first and then pull an oracle, but today I pulled an oracle card first.

A bouquet is often something that is given or received to express some level of affection or care. I love the big roses featured on this card. The guidebook encourages one to accept the gifts they are given or acknowledge the goodness that has been sown in order to await the beauty that shall come.

This somewhat goes hand in hand with the tarot cards I pulled. For the six of swords, the land seems quite barren and the woman appears to be looking into the distance with a longing. I noticed the bunch of flowers in her hair, which is almost like a bouquet, that she can’t really see. In the five of pentacles, the coins are around, but the woman doesn’t have her eyes open. Her third eye is open. The guide book asks, “How can you break free to claim the bounty that the stars are offering?” when reflecting on the six of swords. The five of pentacles “represents something built from barren beginnings. The book continues to reiterate the need to shine inner light and strength to bring about the things we want from the unseen realm into manifestation into the physical.

So together, I feel these cards were telling me to “look around!" See the gifts the universe has given you, especially when you feel “barren,” tired, or at a loss. Initially I felt, “You deserve your flowers!” I know I have been working hard to reach my goals. I struggle, but there are many gifts to be found along the way. Eventually, with all the gifts, I will have built the life I hope for. I have many of them right now and need to honor the good things now.

When I pulled the bouquet, I thought of a flower mandala I created yesterday. My husband and I decided to mow the lawn, which made me kind of upset because we would have to cut many wild weeds and flowers that I love to see. My lawn was covered in dandelions, violets, periwinkle, purple dead nettle, and other little flowers. I clipped a few to give them a more honorable death than by the hand of the lawn mower.

I then arranged them in a mandala. Taking my time to place the delicate flowers in a simple pattern, rings around each other. I knew they would wilt and not be as pretty by tomorrow, but the flowers would eventually meet that fate. In their death, beauty was created.

As I reflect on these cards and that experience, I acknowledge that we go through continual cycles of hardship, struggle that push us to dig deeper within ourselves in order to open up pathways to bigger and better things.