bravery

What can we gather from this card?

Well, the first thing that stood out for me were the colours: the purple hues, the darker blue hues. But mostly the sense of purple coming through. And whenever I saw those colours, I instantly was drawn to my 3rd eye and crown chakra.

So I feel that this card is very much about getting out of your head and going inward to yourself using your imagination, your strength of vision, connecting with the Universe. I feel the higher chakras are coming into play in this card and are important. Because this card is inviting us to explore your inner wild places; a very nice way of saying what could be, your shadow side. We each and every one of us has a shadow side and it's something we're usually told and taught to be ashamed of, to keep hidden, not to reveal. Because when your shadow side comes out to play, it isn't always the most accepted side of you and, yet, we have, each and every one of us, that shadow side. And it's important to acknowledge that.

Not one single person is just pure and utter light, pure and utter perfection. It's important that we know we have a shadow side and we work with our shadow side. Because it's only whenever you go into darkness, sometimes, that you can reveal the light.

And that's what our shadow side is there to do. It's to challenge us, encourage us to look to the more dark sides and aspects of our personality that we all have.

This card is based around the Greek goddess, Artemis. Artemis was the Greek goddess of hunting, of wild animals, and she was really adept with the bow and arrow. That was her weapon of choice. She could aim them perfectly.

So, whenever you're looking inside yourself, to consider your wild places, to consider your more shadow side, call on or imagine yourself like Artemis with your bow and arrow so that, whenever you shoot that arrow, you will perfectly pinpoint the areas that you are ready to investigate, that you are ready to bring light to, that you are ready to bring to the surface.

Quite often that means addressing fears, addressing worries, concerns, anxieties, limiting beliefs - all the things we have acquired as awe have been growing. So sometimes it can be a bit frightening to go to our shadow side, to explore those wild places because sometimes it can reveal the equivalent of wild animals that you may be afraid of.

We've got the wolf and we've got the bear on the card. And many people, if they were out walking in the woods and they knew there was a wolf or a bear, they would be frightened because they're afraid of being attacked. Many people see these animals as being ferocious, as being frightening. But, if you think about it, animals only usually attack whenever they are backed into a corner or protecting their young, whenever they're being fearful. So, it's important to show these animals respect, to investigate these wild places and bring them out of the dark, investigate why these wolves and bears are part of your very being.

If we think first about the wolf. What do we know about wolves? Well, you tend to talk about a pack of wolves. They're very sociable creatures. They like to hunt together. They have success whenever they hunt together rather than if they hunt on their own. They're also considered highly intelligent animals. And most of the world, now, respects the wolf. Still, in Europe, there's more fear than respect for the wolf. But that will change through time. And it's a matter of understanding this creature more. And it's the same with yourself. If you find, in the depths of yourself, in the shadows of yourself, if you find a wolf lurking, don't immediately run away and be afraid, don't think it's going to attack you, understand why that wolf is there.

Perhaps, whenever it comes to being social, perhaps being social is a darker side of you that maybe you don't like to be social, maybe you like a quiet, more solitude style of life. And, for you, being social is an unknown, an unwanted side. But it's important to bring a light to it because you shine your light in this world and sometimes you need to be more than yourself for that light to reach other people, so you need to investigate the wolf within you. And, also, the wolf within you is an incredibly intelligent creature. So you have inner wisdom, inner depth to explore as well.

If we look at the bear. What do we know about the bear? The bear is incredibly protective of its young. Mama Bear will fight for its young. Papa Bear, who also looks after its young whenever it's growing, will fight to the death to protect its young and also any family member. So, how can that be a shadow side? Perhaps you're maybe a little bit too protective of those that you love and maybe you're not protective enough of yourself. Perhaps with your boundaries, you're letting people overstep them. Investigate why the bear may be rising whenever you are going to the wild places.

Also, think about the bear. We usually see them on their four paws. That's how they travel mostly. And for an animal that is so big and can look a bit cumbersome, they can travel quite fast. A bear can almost travel as fast as a wolf, something that you wouldn't expect. They can travel at speed. And when they come across something that threatens them, they will stand on their back hind legs, they will stand on two legs just like a human. And that's whenever you see how tall they are, they stand tall. And perhaps this is an invitation for you to start to stand tall, to stand up for yourself. Perhaps there are things that you are doing in your life, people have said things about your life; you listen to them and you act on them, but they don't quite feel right at your core, and, as a result, you are pushing away who you truly are. This is something that you may need to address.

So, call on Artemis, call on her strength, her courage, her bravery to look into your shadow side, to consider those wild places that we all have. It's important that we have those places and investigate them. Don't push them aside and pretend they don't exist. That's like saying it's only daylight 24hours a day, that there is no darkness. We need to have balance in our life just like nature has balance in life. And, bringing in the balance whenever you do start looking in the dark places, don't forget you may uncover a unicorn.

Unicorns are such magical creatures. Whenever I was looking and reading about unicorns, one of the beliefs that I read about was that whenever they are walking on grass, their hooves don't make a mark. It's almost like an encouragement to have that respect for nature and for life around us - don't make a harmful mark on it. Move through life creating change, creating beauty (because unicorns bring beauty) and create magic like the unicorn, but don't be harmful to life around you.

It's interesting that the unicorn on the card is in the background. Whenever you start to look into the shadow side of things and you start to delve in the wilder places of your soul, at first the wolf and the bear may come up because they are considered, by many, ferocious creatures bearing their teeth, ready for the fight. But the unicorn is in the background; the peaceful, magical, mythical beast that can travel between realms, that's encouraging us to look beyond, look beyond the initial beliefs of the wolf and the bear. Find the positives. Find the strength and courage behind them, how they protect their own, how they are sociable animals, how they are so intelligent, how they stand tall. Find the positives because that's what you want to bring to the surface.

You've perhaps found or known about the wolves and bears in the dark side of your life and you've kind of tried to bury them. You don't want to bury them, you want to look for them. Find the beauty in them, find the positivity in them and that's what the unicorn's encouraging you to do, from the background. That's why the unicorn's not taking centre stage. Because the 'darker' creatures, supposedly, in your soul need to be brought forward. It's only whenever we start to investigate the darkness, that we can truly see the light.

This is a challenging card today. It requires us to have bravery - explore the inner wild places. And that tells us that we need to have courage, we need to have strength, we need to understand and evolve from the darker side within us because each of us has light and each of us has darkness. And we need to embrace that darkness and turn it into light. The darkness is there for a reason, for us to grow, for us to evolve, for us to learn, for us to become better people. It's not something to be ashamed of - that's what we've been told and taught. It's not wrong to have darkness, we need to embrace all of who we are. The more we embrace and change the darkness to light, the more light we have to shine.

This is a challenging card because, whenever you're going into those wild places, whenever you're uncovering your darkness, it is uncomfortable because, perhaps, it is something that you have never done before. And yet Artemis is here today to say, it's time. "Take my bow and my arrow". It means that, whenever you go to the wild side, you can pinpoint exactly what you need to bring to the surface today. And that means that everything doesn't rush to the surface and overwhelm you. Rather you can find one or two things to bring to the surface that you can work on, that you can transform (unicorns also represent transformation) from something that is dark into something that is light.

Reference: This beautiful card is from Goddess Dream Oracle by Wendy Andrew