by Lezli Censullo

In the Garden of Old Bones, we grow many things:  ideas, companionship, spiritual seeds, delights of many kinds.  And we play.  We play with ideas.  We experiment.  We experiment with art and different ways of knowing.   We try on beliefs.  We explore one another’s ideas.  We share and nurture one another and partake of nourishment together.  And what nourishes me may not be the food you need; yet I trust that you will take what you need and leave the rest; and that you will offer what you have and allow me also to choose. 

And the garden flourishes as do its members.  And the garden knows its seasons and reaches for the sun when it is time and surrenders back into the earth again. And every season is different and no two repeat in exactly the same way.  The Garden shuffles its deck repeatedly and every time we enter we get to see what has changed, what has remained the same, and what is shimmering in mystery.  Kind of reminds me of Life. 

In the introduction to her book “A Walk through The Forest of Souls”, Rachel Pollack says “Unlike books of spiritual ideas and the lessons of famous teachers, the pages of the Tarot are not bound in any real order.  The cards appear to contain a linear message, for they come to us numbered and labeled with such titles as ‘the High Priestess’ or ‘Judgement’.  Many books describe the step-by-step development of this great message, but unlike sacred books or the works of psychologist sages, the Tarot can change and become new every time we pick it up.  This is because we can shuffle it.  We can take the cards, with all their intense symbols, mix them, and lay them out as a new work.” 

Don’t read Tarot?  Stay with me for another moment anyway if it feels good for you. 

The idea that we can create our lives anew by shuffling reminds me of something my father said to me when I graduated high school.  He told me that many people will tell me that there is a particular order to the ways of living:  that some will tell me I’m supposed to go to school, graduate, get a job, find a partner, marry, have kids, help them grow, retire, stop working, etc. etc.  But, he said with a twinkle in his eye, while it is important to know the general rules, it might indeed be more important to know how and when to break them.  He then asked to sign my yearbook and wrote: “May you always achieve your dreams, but more importantly, may you always have dreams to achieve.”

So, I ask you what is in your Deck of Life?  Is it time to add some new cards?  Some new ideas?  Some new beliefs?  Is the story you’ve been telling yourself making you happy?  Or does it need some new chapters?  Are your days filled with routines that serve you?  Or could they benefit from a break in routine, from an out of step tune, from a note that is different from the one you usually play? 

Have you shuffled your deck lately?  I’d really like to know.