Episode 5: The Broom, The Bucket, & the Anchoress

Susan Very happy to be here today. Likewise.

Cassidy Likewise. Good morning from the crucible.

Susan Yeah. From the fiery pot.

Cassidy Um, so for context, uh, we call this stage, this trail marker, uh, that we have crossed over around May 1st, which in the Celtic tradition would be Beltane or. We also refer to the Bull's Gate, which happens around the 5th of May, so that mid-spring point, or in the Celtic tradition, it was early summer. Is it late spring, or is it early summer? It's both.

Susan It's both, right?

Cassidy Yes, and. Yes, and. So it's both.

Susan It's true. It is both. It really is.

Cassidy So we call this cross-quarter point, the crucible, in accord with Joseph Campbell's road journey, the ordeal, but I really like the crucible as a befitting metaphor for the psycho-spiritual, alchemical process. you. Thank you. Thank That the journey takes you through. And so I thought to myself this morning as I was putting on a sweater and a beanie, I was like, this isn't really like crucible weather clothes, especially in Oklahoma, but it was chilly this morning. So anyhow, that is the context, at least for where we're at in the annual heroic journey. And we are here having a conversation about our chapter five retrospective, looking back at this last lunation. And we have our Dixit cards, as well. And if you're listening to this, and you, if we start to talk about them, and you want to actually see them, because they're fun, and they're worth looking at. And I will have these on the show notes on our website. So you can always kind of pause and take a look at that. So that's setting the stage.

Susan That would be fitting. That would be fitting language for us. So, oh, my goodness. Well, before we get into the cards for a second, let's just talk about this chapter. Mm hmm. Oh, like, did you have some highlights? Did you have some crucible moments you want to share? Like, what's the crucible been like for you?

Cassidy You know, it feels like relatively comfortable this this year. Uh, and, you know, it's, every year is different. So I, one year I got a third degree burn on my hand. I'm sorry I'm laughing.

Susan I mean, I'm laughing, I'm laughing too, right?

Cassidy I'm laughing too. Uh, and I know, um, I know others who've had injuries, you know, around this crucible. So, you know, every year is different. And, and certainly the astrological weather of April was, uh, pretty intense, but I feel like I really used, I heeded the wisdom of our seasonal show, our seasonal spread of golf. I really worked with that and I feel like I navigated it quite consciously, conscientiously, and you know, it seemed to me interestingly too that although like in the, at the new moon point, at the very start of this chapter, I had used this specific deck from the Lenormand system and where it's like, if you get these two cards together, beware. Like music comes out of that. I know. two cards together.

Susan I know.

Cassidy So, although that was, you know, potentially ominous and again, it was just. Uh, befitting of, um, what the, the energy of that, that new moon held. Uh, it felt like having made certain choices, new approaches, right? So before we lead into the crucible, we're in like that new approach. And so it felt like some of the choices that I had made in like the prior, the previous chapter had set me up. to a successful and by successful, I mean, like smoother sailing through, through this chapter. So, you know, it's, um, it truly like this system we have, it's, you know, live life guided. And, uh, so that's, that's a little of a little bit. But in terms of how it's felt, this ability to find peace and stand at the center of the labyrinth, which was that guidance card. And in my mind, my mind's already going to a plot twist from the end and something that was revealed, but I don't need that right now. Yeah, also, you know, it wasn't just the birds and the birch broom together, that pairing that was potential. I had the snake also appear in the creation or manifestation, which we had talked about in these traditional systems, whether it's in tassiomancy, like the tea leaf reading, or in the Lenormand system, like, if you get the snake, watch out, you know, and I was able to experience these cards. And the energy of these cards at such a different register of consciousness, you know, and that I feel like is what ties in these Dixit cards when I get, if and when, you know, we get to those. Also just the new approach of like, so you and I have started to pull these and do our blog together and see them, a whole new approach that is like very fun and exciting. So getting to journey side by side and have the coherencies and the touch point there that has also in terms of like the crucible, what supports moving through the crucible. And it's fellow travelers. Right?

Susan Isn't that interesting that we chose to do this this year? Yeah. And I really feel, I don't know. Support of fellow travelers. Yeah.

Cassidy Yeah. Um, there's nothing immediately jumping out more on that right now. Yeah. I, uh, I feel like, so the new moon we had for this past chapter five was that there was this Aries stellium and, you know, just in general, the energy of this year is very fast.

Susan And, uh, it's like.

Cassidy Even the way I'm talking right now is very slow. There might be more specific memories that come up, but I'm curious what big picture things are coming up for you when you look back?

Susan Yeah, well, it's interesting, this concept of slowness, slowing down that you mentioned earlier. That has been my approach this whole year, just really slowing down enough to pay attention each... Even more than each day, like each moment, what's arising, what's just coming to the surface. And so usually there is, in the system that we've developed, there is a period during the year that we really do that. Like we really encourage that during winter, typically. And to continue that slowness and that quiet, reflective nature that naturally comes in winter for us through spring, and not even just early spring, but mid and late spring. Um, has been... And a very interesting practice. And I think I described to you just yesterday, feeling like I'm just like holding on to the reins and whoa, just keeping the horse slow, you know, and I feel, feel this tremendous sense of purpose around it. Maybe a little out of sync with the rest of the world. And even maybe a little bit uncomfortable at times. But I feel like it's been very fruitful. And I feel like it definitely has. I the greater picture of the theme of this chapter, especially if you recall that first card that I picked was in the intention position to get the lay of the land. Well, you can't be speeding through the land if you're trying to get the lay of the land. So I feel like that slowness really supported being able to navigate that lay of the land. And then also in that navigating wisdom or action position, the empty well, and even depending on how we even define what that card meant. JANET did For me, or whether it was it was both ways of viewing, I think it was really both ways of viewing it. For me, I think that card was really very significant. So the empty well, meaning taking time to replenish, but also the empty well in terms of spiritual emptying, and taking, you know, having that slowness, and that time to both empty the well and fill the well, fill the empty well. You know, that has been a really fruitful activity. You know, if you want to call it an activity, know, going to lay in the hammock or spending two hours having tea, you know, in the shade with the breeze. But that has been what a lot of the season has been about. Spending much more time at home. Much more time staying in bed later than I was. And so I feel like that slowness was fruitful in that regard. I still feel a little curious and questioning about my fortunes wheel card. You know, it talks about right timing. And that came, oh, excuse me, I have such a little froggy all of a sudden. Excuse me. That came in the manifestation or heart's creation position. And so I feel like what that card is. Seeing was slowing down and doing that work of getting the lay of the land and emptying the well, or filling the well, however you want to look at it, was the setup for right timing. I feel like it laid a solid foundation for that positive aligned timing to come about. I'm not quite sure that there has been a manifestation yet of that. Not that anything bad has happened, that's not what I'm saying, but I don't feel like any fruit has really announced itself yet. So I'm still curious to see what comes from the right timing. And the closing door as well. I got that card in the last... Blue Nation. That card showed up again. It is a very slow closing door. It's kind of like . So you know what? That's okay. It is what it is. And I feel like the Dixie card, if it's okay for me to start to get into that, I feel like the Dixie card was super fitting. I'll just describe it for a second, the image for people who aren't flipping over to actually look at it. It's a scene of a broom in a bucket. And it looks like a house on a black and white checkered floor. And they're both animated. They both have expressions on their faces.

Cassidy So imagine that.

Susan Anthropomorphized! Imagine a broom with a face and a bucket with a face. And the broom even has little arms and it's like he's got his hands on his hips, kind of talking to the bucket. And they both have interesting expressions on their faces, like, um, so let me go to the bucket for a second. So the bucket's expression is kind of like weary looking. And I'm a little confused by the bucket and I'm finding the bucket very interesting. And I feel like it weirdly describes the double, the double entendre, if you want to call it that, of the empty well that we've been talking about. Um, because he's leaking all over the place, right? The bucket's leaking, but the bucket is full. So I'm finding that fascinating that his face looks drained, right? He looks like a little weary. The bucket is full. He's dripping on the floor. And there's the broom guy with the expression like, dude, like don't make a mess all over again. So I just feel like that card really kind of describes my internal state, maybe, number one. And two, oddly speaks to that going back and forth around that card, the empty well, like what does it really mean? Because he's like full to the brim. And also looks drained at the same time. And so I kind of feel like that speaks to both sides of the empty well in a very strange way, like full of spirit or emotion and at the same time a little drained. And almost, I don't know, to me he looks weary. I don't know, that face looks a little weary. And, you know, the floor I also find really interesting because it's that black and white checkered floor, which has come up so many times for us, not even over just this year, but over the years. And I feel like those checkers inevitably represent like polarity's choice point. captive. They want-book. It's even sometimes discernment and the way we need to or require of ourselves to consciously navigate through things, through our inner states, through systems, through the things that come through life. I feel like the floor speaks to that in this scene as well, like consciously navigating the lay of the land, if you want to call it that. So that's what I'm seeing in my card. Also, I had started to say before, cut myself off, almost a conversation between the broom and the bucket. I feel like it's the conversation that I'm having with myself.

Cassidy You know, because...

Susan On the one hand, it's like there is a part of me that is clearing, doing the sacred maintenance, right, the disciplined purification that I've been talking about all this year, and then there's like the leaking bucket. And I feel like I want the bucket to stay to the broom in this picture. Is it okay if I if I kind of make little word bubbles out of these guide mouths?

Cassidy Yes, yes.

Susan I want the guy, the bucket guy to stay to the broom, but I need to leak on the floor because it's part of the cleansing process, like there is this piece of emotional. Cleansing that's happening. did I, I may have even spoken to that, um, with you yesterday when we were in council together, um, this, um, this idea that in, in really coming to stillness during this, um, this year, I'm not even going to say this season, I'm going to say this year. Um, I feel like I'm able to tune into like those much smaller emotional ripples that, that are present. Um, and, uh, so I'm very aware of those. And one, I feel like it's interestingly, um, increasing my capacity to hold emotion. Mm-hmm.

Cassidy Um, and.

Susan And not turn into the puddle, if you know what I mean, to not collapse around it, and to literally feel my way through this major transition in my life. And, you know, I'm not shy to share, you know, it's been the menopause transition over the past several years, it's coming into elderhood at turning, how old am I turning this year? I think it's 59. I'm turning 59 this year. And so, just like this, and whatever other transitions are going on, that it just is, you know, I'm talking spiritually, I don't mean to leave it like, ooh, what else is happening? I'm talking just spiritual transition. These other life transitions happening in terms of purpose, etc. And it just, it just, one, it requires the emotional clearing, I think. And two, it brings up, it just, because it's changed on such a grand level, it just brings up emotion, you know. And it's a way, mean, it's this kind of sounds strong, but it's, it's similar to a grieving process, because there's this tremendous letting go that needs to happen. So I feel like, I feel like this Dixit card really, as much as I talked about putting it back. I'm pulling another one. I feel like it really does speak to the energy that I'm sitting with right now, just this dichotomy of how we clear, what the cleansing is even, what the dance is between stuff How, how we, how we do sacred clearing. Are you seeing anything else in that card that I, that I haven't seen? Like what, what draws your eye?

Cassidy So there were a couple of, of things, including connections to, to my cards as well. So one thing I noted is in the background on the counter, there's One cup that's upright and one cup that is tilted over and knocked over. So a little juxtaposition there in terms of containers and leaking and all that good stuff. Of course, the black and white checkered floor stood out. It's the Alice in Wonderland wink. It is the duality or polarity. It is the the chessboard and yeah, the name of life we refer to, right? Right. Well, and interestingly, I have this game dice game die on on the other side. So that that black and white game reference, I'll go into it more maybe in a minute. But I feel like at some point in one of our conversations recently, I feel like I bring it Often, I bring up the whole like chess as left brain logical, you know, there are a certain number of moves on the flat plane that are possible, and it is very masculine in that way, if you want to say, versus when you play games like poker, or Magic the Gathering, or life, you introduce variants, or chance, and so I do feel like that came up in one of our blogs, it was either the new moon or the old moon that this came up, and as you were talking, I don't know why it took me so long for it to click, but I was like, oh, it's the birch broom, you know? I have the birch broom in the-

Susan Oh, that's so, like, went over my head.

Cassidy I It's so funny. So in my intention position, that heart's desire, that combination of two cards, was the birds and then the birch broom, and I had talked a bit about the birch broom, at least for me, partially signifying castigation, like self-castigation. It can be discipline, like a whip almost, like, oh, that birch broom tillip. And discipline, you think about spiritual discipline as well, like, you know, what is it? After enlightenment, sweep the floor, you know, that whole Or chop wood and carry water. Or wood and carry water. know, that's, there are plenty of little zen aphorisms about, about. the Administrator mim. But I think I love how this feels like a conversation of aspects within the self that are anthropomorphized. And so you have almost like this inner masculine, inner feminine, you know, you have like the rod of the broom and then you have the vessel of the bucket. And so there is this inner dialogue, this inner relationship between the masculine and feminine. I know you've had this journey with the animus going on this year too, right? So it's really fun to see that depicted.

Susan Is it fun, Cassidy? Is it fun? It's really fun for me to see this depiction. And funny, obviously.

Cassidy Yeah. It's... It is funny. So, yeah, I love sort of seeing this relationship between the intermasculine, the inner, like, spiritual disciplinarian, and then like the, the, the feminine. And yeah, man, like, I feel like this is the feminine, this is collective, like, we are weary. We are weary. Oh, my God, I think it is collective. I really do.

Susan And I think that this inner feminine, intermasculine conversation is going on for everyone. Yeah, not just women. No, yeah, it's going on for everyone. And even my dreams have been tracking the Uh, the conversation between the masculine and the feminine. And, um, I will add, I've come a long way in my dreams. Um, but like I said, I want the, um, I want the bucket to speak up to the broom. Right. Right. Right.

Cassidy She's not, she's not saying anything. I know. She's just like, and unable to make eye contact either. Yeah. Right.

Susan Um, that said, I, I really, um, I do feel like I have been able to make progress with that dialogue this, this year. Um, and I think that, um, My inner masculine is starting to get in line a little bit more, because if it hadn't, I would not have been able to take the time this year that I did to really slow it down. Yeah. That inner masculine really does need to get in check and be the quiet support for the feminine. Otherwise, you can't allow yourself to do it, right? And so as much as he may be in the image, kind of at least sharing his opinions, it doesn't mean that we need to follow. And, and listen to his instructions.

Cassidy Sure, there is. So I've picked up Tango again, recently. And this is a fun. This is fun. This is like a latest update. So I had, we got all the DVDs and the DVD player and there was on the the deep discount, like 12 a 12 DVDs. series on Argentine tango. And I was like, I'll take, I'll take that. And, and so in it was even incorporated in my visionary board for the year, you had the the tango dancers in, in the, in the vision. And so I, I was like, Okay, we've just started this on on Friday evenings. Well, My daughter's watching a movie in the other room. We clear out all that Turkish floor furniture. We can just move it and put on the tango lesson DVD or, to practice, put on some music on the speaker, and I get dressed up in my old tango outfits. So I used to tango in Istanbul and Manhattan, and then I haven't done it in a long time since then. And so broke out the heels, broke out the heels, God bless, and then it was so funny. I was at this lovely community dinner yesterday, and I ended up meeting a fabulous woman who owns, it's called Temple of Dance, this awesome, their whole thing is like adult dance. It's, you know, it's never too late. To start dancing and they have all these different styles of dance and I told her, I said, yeah, I was like, I did your hip hop, you know, did hip hop at your studio last year. Loved it so much. I wish Tulsa had tango. And she said, we just had our first tango, Argentine tango class that's going right now. And we're going to have a milonga in a couple of weeks. And so anyway, I digress a little bit. So that's a fun little aside. But I can't help but look at these, like the broom and the bucket as, you know, what's the conversation? What's the dance that's happening between these two things? And they're not even, again, she's not making eye contact. They're not facing each other. They're like, right?

Susan So they can't work together.

Cassidy And it's one of those things that if the bucket didn't feel so weary. And just emotionally overwhelmed and leaky and tired. And, you know, if she wasn't making a mess, it would actually be way more efficient, right? So Broom, if Bucket felt seen and, you know, her holes were patched and, you know, she felt contained in that way, then it would ultimately end up being way more efficient. There is a productivity gain to this, Mr. Broom, and, you know, I love how you were like, I want to give them speech bubbles. This is in, I feel like. I was Highlight Magazine, but you know, I loved these magazines as kids, as kids, I guess I'll speak for us, as kids, you guys remember, right, the magazines where they would invite you to submit your artwork, or they would have a picture and it would say caption this and you could send in, it would be like some funny looking picture and you could submit captions and then they would show the one from last time and put people's captions. So I almost want that for like this podcast, like, can you guys send us, send us your captions, send us your captions, your speech bubbles for the broom and the bucket. So that, and I'll render it on Canva, and it would be really fun.

Susan If, so, if we actually, I think we could figure out how to do that, because on our website, people can submit a love letter. Yeah.

Cassidy Yep, Yeah. Can we set it up so that they can actually upload an image? form? Yeah, well, or they could just, you know, type it in, right? Type, you know, Bucket says this. Broom says this, Bucket says this. do it. Just like, yeah, go on the contact page and the love letter. And I want to start throwing out these invitations more for fun. And if you do it, I'll mock it up. And I'll put it on there, because I think it'd be really... See, this is the thing. It's not just entertaining. It is also, it's illuminating, right? speaks to a masculine, feminine dynamic that is both internal and external. Right. So the idea is that whatever dynamic you have going on internally, that's the dynamic that's going to likely show up externally.

Susan It's so, so true. And... ... ... ... ... And, you know, I really have been tracking the animus throughout this year in my dreams, and it was remarkable because that was, that was my animus. He was demanding, he was like all over the place. He was, what other words could I come up with? Let me think back to a few dreams. He was, he was like a little bit of a bully.

Cassidy Yeah.

Susan A little bit of a bully, and like had stupid ideas all the time. And I'm like, dude, what? Like, no, in my dreams. And, uh, so. Over the course of how long has it been on November, December, January, February, March, April. So over the past six months, like it is remarkable to see the changes in the masculine energy of my dreams. It's very exciting to see how much it has changed and how much more aligned and true my inner masculine has become to the archetype, like what the divine masculine really is meant to be, which is just like there, strong, silent, supportive. And so, in my dreams, that has actually come about. yay. It's a lot of fun to track. Yeah.

Cassidy Highly recommended.

Susan Well.

Cassidy So speaking of tracking, in doing my little astrology thing earlier this year, Joanna had mentioned the, you know, the pairing of new moons and full moons every six months. So when you have a new moon in a certain zodiac sign, six months later, there will be a full moon in that sign. And you can actually look back to see, you know, kind of what arc has, you know, what has manifested or what has, you know, transpired since then, right? And so I was like, oh, this is a really cool tool for our cartomancy practice, right? Because we have these logs of every chapter. And so I was able to go back this for like the full moon in Scorpio, this past chapter, and go back to last November, six months ago, and see what was the seed of desire that was like, I don't know. it's That entered consciousness there, entered awareness there, and what has come to, you know, fruition six months later. And so I love how you pended it, oh, like, six months ago, and now here's this, right? So a very cool, I realized that these cards, really, they're not just about, they're certainly not just about trying to project, like, and see what the future is. They're really a tool for alignment, day by day, to live life guided. They're for reading the current energy, and to be able to flow consciously through these choice points in the direction of the soul's evolutionary intention. But also, they're a tool for meaning looking back as well. And I had just had another meeting with Joanna. This is Joanna Pitt. She's an awesome astrologer. And she was She's about this course she's taking about moon and memory and how do we, what is memory? And how do we create and change memory? So anyhow, it's, I'm getting kind of getting until the, this is like one of my cards, the, the monkey in space in the die, whose, whose mind is just like melting. It's like, what is reality? And I think spiritual awakening sometimes can feel like that a little bit when you can, oh, the mind starts to try to grasp the multidimensional nature of, this is what I feel like sometimes when it comes to our work, I'm like time and space, time and space, time and space.

Susan Yeah.

Cassidy Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I've given up on trying to figure that stuff out.

Susan It really does melt the mind.

Cassidy The mind wasn't designed for that.

Susan You need to access that from the heart, not the mind. I know.

Cassidy My brain can't help, but I've been fascinated by the nature of consciousness for a long time. I'm trying to look into that post-materialist science stuff. It is cool to have some of that framework through which to understand, start to conceive and understand how this stuff works. As you were speaking, by the way, did you hear shouts and screaming in my background?

Susan I did not. You did not? Cool.

Cassidy Well, no, it was literally the playing out of that broom and bucket. ployed background! not. you.

Susan I could hear it.

Cassidy I could hear it. No, I was like, oh, my God, because my daughter, my daughter, I love her so much. She recently, she spilled water on the DVD player. And, you know, we had pushed this cheap Amazon DVD player to its brink. It was the portable one anyways, using it so much. It was our proof of concept to whether we would actually like the DVD thing. So, to be fair, but, you know, the thing was toast. Like, it was dripping water from the machine. Like, it was, it was toast. So was like, okay, we'll order a new one, and we'll get one that could go in the car, and dah, dah, dah. It just came yesterday. And then I'm sitting here, and you were talking, and all of a sudden I hear, like, expletives, like, dah! Dang, damn it! Because somebody spilled water on the brand new there.

Susan And I hear the waterworks.

Cassidy I hear the crying. I hear the like, what's it like? And like, crying. It's like this whole... The whole thing.

Susan The whole hands on the hips. The whole hands on that whole thing.

Cassidy I was just like, I'm hearing it downstairs and just like looking at this card. And I'm like, oh, yeah. think that you should just bring this down and go like this.

Susan Just bring the card down, silently hold it up.

Cassidy Well, and this is the thing like in terms of coherency and like, how these how these things arrive, you know. It's, and the monkey with its mind blown. You know, like last night I was reading, I brought this, this book up upstairs. And it's the old school I spy where my millennials at. So speaking again, you remember, you remember the things that we had to caption? Well, you remember I spy, right? The picture riddles. Yeah. So I was reading this playing this with Clarissa last night. And I was like, looking at it. And it said, Happy Mother's Day on it. Oh, my gosh.

Susan Right.

Cassidy And also Mother's Day people.

Susan I know.

Cassidy I know. And so there were these other coherencies as well. One, one I'll share soon. But I, you know, that is what life feels like. It feels like a game. Right? Like the level of coherency that we're at at this point, it's beautiful. And yeah, it's also, it's playful. And so one of the takeaways from the, I had used some Supplemental Artist's Way cards, if anyone's familiar with Julia Cameron's work. And the part of this Full Moon was releasing old, old wounds, like historical, past life, like matrilineal, like old wounds of guilt and shame. And like, going back to like Adam and Eve story, being able to release that in order to have a creative reclamation. Well, isn't that story about the animus and the anima as well? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And the outcome being the understanding about the paradox of creativity that you have to take play seriously.

Susan Serious play that's necessary.

Cassidy And so that's the thing on one hand. It feels like very delightful and fun and magical, if you like that word. When you start to understand the nature of consciousness and attractor patterns and spirit. I want to say more manageable.

Susan So sure, because it seems to put a container around life or puts life into a container of sorts and gives it boundaries and tools. We talked about tools a lot for you this past, I think it was the prior lunation, if I'm not mistaken, right? And I think somehow it allows you to be in two positions at once in it and observing it at the same time. And I think that makes it much more manageable. Mm hmm.

Cassidy Mm hmm. No, it's infinitely practical as well.

Susan It is.

Cassidy It is definitely practical.

Susan Yeah. I agree with that. I'm looking at your cards though, girl, and I need to get on to some of these other ones here.

Cassidy I know. I know. Let's see if I can like get the, get the gist. So, uh, there are.

Susan You want to describe them first and then get into, uh, how, how befitting.

Cassidy Yes. So there is, I had already mentioned, there's this monkey in an astronaut suit who's like in space, but his spacecraft is the inside of a game die and his eyes, he looks a little weary too, honestly, but he's just like, but that monkey mind is just like mind blown. He like can't conceive of, he just got dropped into like the sixth dimension, like an interstellar. And if you've seen the movie. inaudible speaking of. you're great. J So, uh, so there's that, but then also these other two cards, um, both depict stormy seas. The seas, let's just say for a second, the seas, the oceans, the water has been very topical in our seasonal cards.

Susan Um, and we also, of course, have the water in the well and the bucket, but the water in the well. just want to, um, point out all the water that we have going on.

Cassidy Yeah. If you watched the, the spring show, there was an emphasis on a ship at sea and how to navigate a ship at sea. And so here it is, here is, um, it looks like, uh, a small child at the helm of a boat. this small child is smiling, uh, while the storm kind of rages about and there's a rainbow. região. uh, That is either perspective wise, it could be behind the child or above the child as they sail in the yellow, in the yellow raincoat. And then next to, I put them side by side because I love when cards, it looks like one image carries over into another, right? So it looks like the little kid is like sailing the boat over to this other card where there is this.

Susan Where the rest of the family is. Right.

Cassidy So there's, there's this pillar. And I'll say a pillar, a platform that is, you know, rising above the sea. And so you have, you know, a handful of other people who are seemingly maybe a little bit older, but there, you know, you got a handful of people who are standing on the top of, at the middle, in the middle of this raging sea. And. Each of them is holding up a totem of sorts, a tool or a totem. It could be a trophy or a staff, which also those who saw spring season.

Susan masculine and the feminine right there. Sure. Masculine and the feminine.

Cassidy And also the staff was a repeating image of.

Susan Yeah.

Cassidy From our seasonal cards. From our seasonal cards, right? So it's, right, how do you unpack it all? So the child also reminds me in the joy and delight in our to-do position. We had a small child to become like a child again. And so it feels like this is coming kind of full circle to when you'd asked me about this chapter. It's like, what are the storms on the sea? The sea could be. The ocean of the collective consciousness that is roiling and, you know, thrashing and raging and stormy. And it could be also the influence from the celestial bodies and the heavens and seas and how those interplay from the highest dimension to the lowest dimension as above and so below. But this is the thing about the MVP challenge, y the minimum viable practice and spiritual practice and alignment. You know, I like this idea that the yellow raincoat over the child is like this protective, it's like the light shield, this golden light. You know, there's like this protection and smooth sailing, you know, despite all this seemingly all this turbulence around and I love the rainbow. So in my visionary board, I had cut out, I had saved, it had gotten broken. But somehow it made it all the way here to Tulsa from my own two-year-old, three-year-old bedroom, a picture of Noah's Ark with all the animals. And I cut out the rainbow from that picture, from the poster, and I actually put it on my board here from space to, you know, this Ark of the Covenant. Like very esoteric looking here, but, but yeah, so there's, there's the, the rainbow, the promise. And I also want to say you had the rainbow very prominent in last chapter's cards.

Susan And it does show up in these cards in different ways as well. You have it in the car, in the card with the, with the bird and the bird house, a kind of that, that light shining through has a little bit of iridescence to it. But, um. . So I feel like that is a bit of a theme coming through more than one chapter here. For sure.

Cassidy So I see going to get fellow travelers, you know, you know, going on the ship to go to these fellow travelers and each person being a hero in their own story. You know, when I love seeing this, it feels like also this Lady Liberty energy, this like strong and, you know, holding up your torch, holding up your staff, you know, it feels very powerful and triumphant that each person has their superpower, each person has, you know, their tool at hand. And, and it feels like this rounding up of the other, the other superheroes.

Susan And during this, this time of great change, I can't help, I've got that song in my head again, Return to Innocence is playing again in my head as I look at that little kid in the yellow raincoat, kind of sailing his vessel that that song comes to mind again. I also had a different interpretation of the cards come to mind. And I don't, I'm thinking it through right now. I don't know that it's fitting for, for what we're talking about through the season and through this chapter, but what's coming to mind is the question of whether the of That little kid was originally on the pillar with the people, and he actually created his vessel and departed from the little pillar in the middle of the ocean. So that pillar still begs the question for me of the idea of the man alone on the island. It's like these people, almost like castaways in the ocean, you know, and feeling like we're here together. together. So we are triumphant, but they're still in the middle of like the raging sea, you know, with no food, no water, but they've claimed themselves triumphant. And it's the little kid who knew to get off of that little pillar and leave and sail toward the rainbow. So it's totally different, like a whole flip-flopped kind of way of looking at it that he's not going to rescue them, but he rescued himself. Which is, you know, kind of a beautiful way of thinking about it, you know, in terms of the heroic journey. As much as we want to be there to support others, we need to rescue ourselves.

Cassidy Sure.

Susan And so his little, his little smile and his little... yellow raincoat, which is so cute. I kind of like the idea that he rescued himself from standing on the on the deserted pillar in the middle of the the turbulent ocean.

Cassidy Sure. So I had another coherency that I'll share and see if I can tie in the revelation I'm sitting with and goes back to a question. from for this year. So also on that page that I spy page, I looked and there was a note. And it's like so strange, it looked like someone had put that note there. And I looked in, and it was almost like a post it note. And it said it was a quote from a stoic philosopher, Epictetus, Epictetus. So the quotation was, one must not talk. A ship to a single anchor, nor life to a single hope. And it was like tiny print, and I wrote it down. And so it's a quotation about cultivating inner stability, diversifying your sources of happiness, stability, and goals, how focus on too few external things can lead to fragility, fragility and unhappiness. But it was also coherent. So there's this sense of, where does my, where does my hope come from? And there's a classic like Christian song.

Susan Where does my help come from?

Cassidy My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. So where does my hope come from? Where does my help come from? So what are you, what are you anchored in? And this was also coherent and mind-blowing for me because Matthew had just shared with me from his latest crazy find in his study of the history of Christianity, he was looking into, there was Gnosticism, but also then he ended up getting this text on Christian mysticism. And you had these saints, these, in particular, female anchoresses, and he had never heard of the term anchoress, and I had never heard of the term. Have you heard of the term anchoress before? So an anchoress, it's like a 13th century term. There were these women recluses. So in terms of options for women, you know, it's like Mary and probably You by age 30 in childbirth, or you can become a nun, or there was this other option of becoming an anchoress, and it was considered a living death. So, you know, someone would read, you know, basically give you a ceremony like for your death, and they would wall you in, so you would not be able to leave, and it would be attached to a church. So it would be like stone or brick, and there would be a little squint. was called like a squint. could look through and see like the altar of the church and listen to the services, and there would be a window through which you could be fed and, you know, chamber pot, I guess, but your entire life would be lived as a recluse, as an anchoress attached to this church. And people would come. So And seek the guidance of the anchoress so they would be literate, they could write, they could be scribes, and they lived the life of devotion, know, daily, daily prayer, you know, there's also so in order to support these anchoress, they had to be patroned, and even had some of these anchoress patroned by, you know, noble figures, like the crown, you had kings. and lords who came to the window to ask the anchoress for guidance on vision and direction. And I, I got chills again, you know, as I learn about these, these anchoress, I If you look in our seasonal tattoo position, there's out to sea. And there's a woman who's alone in solitude and prayer, drop anchor, you know, the anchoress. And even like this tradition of the spiritual recluse or anchoress, mean, it goes so far back, obviously. So this is the question from earlier. It was what is the postmodern priestess? What is the Pythia 2.0? What is the real? The real function of, and the need for a priestess in these times. And so you also have a history. You also had anchorites. It wasn't just women, but the anchorites, the dudes got a little more freedom to travel and stuff. Like the women that you were, you were walled in until you died. And Then there were, so it goes back to the word anchor meaning hermit and hermit also meaning desert dwellers. So you had the mystical Christian or not, you know, mystical Christian sects, early Christian sects who were desert dwellers. They were desert mothers and desert fathers. And also you'll see in our to-do position folks, if you watched the spring show, we had the desert passage. And this is anchoring the to-be position of the mystical healer or the mystic and mysticism. So anyway, I, that was my last night's, you know, revelation. And it feels like, um, ironically, you know, the soul goal, the first soul goal that I had gotten at the beginning of the year was public life. And the plot twist it would seem is that The anchoress had a public life, right? But she was not good. The way in which that manifested was different. So anyway, I thought that was very, very beautiful. And I wanted to share it as a sort of close to, oh, you're muted. I don't know why you're muted. There we go.

Susan I was, I was speaking, but I was muted, probably because I coughed before and never unmuted myself. I really appreciate that. And I know we need to close out the session, but can't help but find it super interesting that one of the first One that I crafted this year in my relaxing time outside on rocks was an anchor. That was the first image that I etched into rocks this year. So I'm finding that super interesting. And I also am finding it interesting that on my collage for this quarter, we have the image of the water, we have a bird, and we have the black and white floor. Mm-hmm. So just so many synchronicities really showing up for each of us. And I don't know, do you have any announcements? Because this is to be continued. I feel like we have so much more to talk about. We'll be back next month with another podcast continuing the story. Okay. But— we have an ounce—

Cassidy So announcement wise, we're in the midst of our minimum Bible practice challenge, but at any point, you know, we have that free and available for the public if you want to get the tracker or just get the gist and, you know, start five minutes a day of prayer or birdsong, whatever that, whatever that looks like for you. Also, we have passed the sort of mid spring point, as we mentioned at the beginning of this video. And so we have that spring show replay available all season long now that you can purchase and replay. And I will actually throw a discount code as we get towards the latter part of the season. If you want to check out the spring show before we get to summer solstice, head to robesoflight.com. And. And. You'll see it on the homepage. We'll discount it like 35%, you know, something like that. And I'll give you a code. Hmm. What's this? Code. What's a good code? Codename. I was going to be cute, like weather the storm or, you know, I was going to like try and be cute about it. It'll probably be like mid spring 26, but I'll have it on the, I'll have it on the promotional banner. Go, go, go check it out. And we, we look forward to continuing the journey as always. To be continued.

Susan To be continued.

Cassidy So good to see you today.

Susan Thanks for the updates.

Cassidy Likewise. The laughs.

Susan Right.

Cassidy Well, that's the thing we, we laugh.