29 May - Monday Magic! Card Reveal

No, you’re not going nuts (as far as I know, mind you). It isn’t Monday. It’s actually Tuesday. But I have always held Memorial Day to be a sacred national holiday and, therefore, decided to postpone our weekly Magic a day so we can honor our brave men and women and the sacrifices they made in service to this nation and its ideals.

I’m so excited to introduce you to this brand new deck! Recently published on May 22nd, this is “The Divine Feminine Oracle” by Meggan Watterson and it’s, in a word, amazing and is one that I’m sure that you’ll be seeing a lot more of in Mondays to come. I definitely recommend this deck if you’re looking for one to add to your collection. The gorgeous artwork and Watterson’s insightful wisdom pack a punch and are sure to be a great aid in your private spiritual work or in working with clients. They’re currently being offered on Amazon for a sale price. Nab a deck for $5 off the regular price while you can! In the meantime, I hope that these beautiful cards bring some loving guidance and insight into your week!

1) FATIMAH - MOTHER OF IMAMS

Love is my lineage. And gratitude is my religion.

WHO SHE IS

Fatimah embodies the love and fulfillment that comes from living in a state of gratitude. Fatimah bint Muhammad was born in the early 7th century and is the only child of Khadijah and the prophet Muhammad to live into adulthood. She is associated with the title “The Mother of Her Father” because she cared for Muhammad after her mother died. She is an object of veneration, love, and respect for all Muslims because she supported her father through all of his difficulties. She was a devoted wife and mother of two sons and two daughters. Her descendants are spread throughout the Islamic world.

To the Shiites she is particularly significant because she wanted to marry Ali, the prophet Muhammad’s cousin. Ali is considered by Shiites to be legitimate heir to Muhammad’s teachings. Fatimah’s many children are considered the the rightful inheritors of Islam.

An imam is a leader in the Islamic faith. And Fatimah is considered to be the Mother of Imams because of the love and gratitude she gave to her family. There are many stories about her devotion and the unfaltering love she provided in order to protect them. She never failed to defend what was sacred to her. It is said that Fatimah stood up to Muhammad’s successor, Abu Bakr, because she didn’t feel that he was honoring her father’s legacy in the way he had hoped. She lived with great stability because she knew that her love for her family gave her a solid foundation, identity, and clarity of purpose.

WHEN YOU SELECT HER CARD

We can get caught up in the ego’s idea of who we need to become or what we need to achieve. Fatimah is the grace that sweeps through our seemingly complex lives band reminds us of what’s core, what’s solid earth to the soul: family - even if family means a few beloved friends. What matters most is the love and gratitude we bring to those who are there for us. And the love and gratitude we feel when they show up for us.

Nurturing, protecting, and taking care of the ones we love is a sacred occupation. My great-grandmother Big Margie advised me that if I ever had children, I needed to make sure I got paid for it. I had no clue what she was talking about. The idea was so foreign. Big Margie believed that women should have a wage for the time they spent raising children so that their work would at last be valued. The role of housewife or of stay-at-home mom is sacred if it’s consciously chosen. It is a profound contribution to raise and reconstitute the world. There is a legacy of love that can be inherited by the whole family from such undivided attention and presence. Fatimah restores the significance and importance to the spiritual path of motherhood.

Fatimah is also a call to take a step back, take a deep breath, and take inventory of how much you can be grateful for right now in this moment. She releases you from unreal expectations of yourself. Whether you have mothered a child, a friend, or yourself, Fatimah helps you see again the vital role the nurturer provides. She offers the perspective that says love is the family we all belong to, and gratitude is the state of wealth we get to live in.

——-*——-

SOUL VOICE MEDITATION
What am I grateful for in this moment?

INTENTION
Love is my lineage. And gratitude is my religion.

2) KHADIJAH - THE MOTHER OF BELIEVERS

I am spiritually and financially abundant.
I provide heaven and earth for myself.

WHO SHE IS

Khadijah is the power we all possess to be aware of the spiritual realm and fully immersed in the material world. Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was a widow in Saudi Arabia in the 6th century. She became a wealthy merchant who was deeply respected and known as al-Tahira, the Pure One, or al-Kubra, the Great. It is said that with her wealth she fed the poor, provided for her children from her first two marriages, and took care of her extended family.

Khadijah had a dream shortly after hiring a young merchant named Muhammad to work for her. In the dream, the sun descended into her courtyard, fully illuminating her home. Her cousin told her that this meant that the prophet would soon grace her doorstep. She realized that her new employee, Muhammad, was the prophet, and so she asked him to marry her. They were married for 25 years.

She is regarded as one of the most important female figures in Islam, followed by her daughter with the prophet, Fatimah. It is said that when Muhammad told Khadijah about his first revelations from the angel Gabriel in the cave of Hira, she was the first person to convert to Islam. Muhammad remarried after Khadijah’s death, but was never closer to a subsequent wife that he had been with her. She was his constant confidante and partner.

​WHEN YOUR SOUL SELECTS HER CARD

There’s an ancient narrative and a destructive misunderstanding that if we are going to be spiritual, then we have to renounce the material world. The body, however, is the soul’s chance to be here. So a healthy relationship to the material world is crucial and integral to reaching our spiritual potential.

Khadijah represents the power and importance of knowing we can provide for ourselves. This power gives us roots and confidence and allows us to create relationships from a place of interdependence rather than co-dependence. We can cultivate the capacity we have to create more and more freedom for ourselves. And we can are choices for our life based on truth, not just on survival.

There’s also a false idea about when true love will find us and how. Khadijah liberates us from fairy tales that we need to be saved, or supported, or provided for by our life partner. Khadijah provided for the prophet. And her older age and significant status in the community made her more attractive, not less. She was a middle-aged businesswoman and single mom. She was ripe with resources and ripened with opportunities to love.

Living into our true power and purpose does not make us less eligible. Khadijah reminds us that there is no linear timetable that eliminates us from having the sun descend in our courtyard. She lets us remember that we are worthy of the abundance measured in the depth of our love.

——-*——-

SOUL-VOICE MEDITATION
Do I feel worthy of abundance?

INTENTION
I am spiritually and financially abundant. I provide heaven and earth for myself.

3) RABI’A — THE QUEEN OF SAINTLY WOMEN

I am in service of divine love.
I move the way love asks me to move.

WHO SHE IS

Rabi’a represents a rare, pure love that doesn’t seek anything other than simply to love. Rabi’a al-Adawiyya was one of the most influential Sufi women in Islamic history. She is a Muslim saint and a Sufi mystic who lived in the 8th century in Basra, present day Iraq. On the night she was born, her father had a vision of Muhammad. He told him, “Your newly born daughter is a favorite of the Lord, and shall lead many Muslims to the right path.”

When Rabi’a was still just a little girl, her father died, and she was then sold into slavery. She would pray every night to be released so that she could spend the hours of her day in service to Allah, the Arabic word for God. When her master overheard her prayers, and saw that she was illuminated with light as she prayed, he realized she was a saint. He released her immediately. She went into the desert and worshipped in solitude. Rabi’a became known as the queen of saintly women because of all of the purity of her love and devotion to Allah.

She set forth the doctrine of divine love known as Ishq-e-Haqeeqi. Her poetry emphasizes her desire to worship for the sake of loving Allah and not for personal gain. In one of her poems, she says, “I carry a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other.” She wants to set fire to heaven and put out the fires of hell. So, that love seeks no gain except to be in service of love itself. She explains, “I do not want to worship from fear of punishment or for the promise of reward, but simply for the love of Allah.

WHEN YOUR SOUL SELECTS HER CARD

In her lifetime, Rabi’a embodied a freedom that divine love offers us. If we see her life as a metaphor of the soul’s progression, she went from slavery to sainthood by devoting herself to Allah. Her only concern was the love that she could give to God. Her every action was motivated by her devotion to God, and through it she received the greatest spiritual gift: self-realization.

Although it can be very difficult, loving without expectations is a profound spiritual practice. More often, our love for someone is loaded with ideas of who that person needs to be for us. But Divine love is unconditional. It’s a love that seeks only to love. No hidden agendas. No strings attached.

Rabi’a relates in one of her poems, “prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.” Each time we are able to love someone or ourselves without conditions to that love, we arrive at this altar within us. We free them. And ourselves. We remember what Rabi’a knew so well, that to love just for the sake of loving lets the divine act through us.

——-*——-

SOUL-VOICE MEDITATION
Are my current actions motivated by love?

INTENTION
I am in service of divine love.
I move the way that love asks me to move.