#four of swrds

[numinously-yours]

Pick a pile: Your shadow self

This week's reading is about your shadow self. I asked the cards to show me three things:

What aspect of your shadow self is coming forward?

What does your higher self want you to know about this part?

How can you address this part?

There are three piles to choose from. Let me know if they resonate <3

Aspect of shadow self: The Tower

You have a tendency to be self-destructive. Sometimes they’re conscious decisions that play into it and sometimes it’s your subconscious. Life feels chaotic and you’re looking for a sense of control, but the choices that you are making are not the best ones. They are burning your tower down more quickly.  

What your higher self wants you to know about the part: Nine of swords

Continuing down this path only leads to more anxiety, depression, and fear. Your higher self wants you to see that you’re creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. “I’m a mess, so I’ll just do things that messy people do.” “I can’t change anyway, so what is the point of doing things differently?” Your fear is in your head. Examine your situation(s) from a different perspective.

How you can address this part: Eight of swords

The eight of swords tells us that our current thoughts and actions are not serving us (which we know from above). I know that the more you think about how to change, the more frustrating and anxiety-inducing it is. It feels overwhelming. But, you have to push through the overwhelm to actually feel the changes. Changing your thoughts will soon change your reality. Replace your negative thoughts with positive ones, no matter how cheesy it feels or sounds. “I suck” is “I’m doing what I can with what I have.” “Food/alcohol/weed/spending money is the only thing that makes me feel better” is “I haven’t even explored all the other ways to ease my anxiety. There are options out there.” You must accept the choices that you DO have and find which will work best for you – even if you don’t like the process.

I’m sending my love <3

Aspect: Ace of pentacles & five of pentacles reversed

You are trying to repair your relationship with faith/spirituality. I can’t tell for sure if it was something you used to feel strongly about or if you are just starting to explore now, but I feel like you are looking for something “higher” to help remind you of the good in the world.

Higher self: Three of pentacles & High Priestess

I love these cards SO much. Your higher self wants you to know that it is with you every step of this journey. Even if you don’t know what you believe in yet, your higher self supports your journey. A spiritual journey requires learning new things and implementing them into your life. Continue to tune into your intuition because it is working side by side with your higher self. They want you to know that you are on the right path and answers are coming soon.

How to Address: Four of swords reversed

Continue to look for answers within. I think you’re doing a good job at listening to yourself as you take part in this journey. It’s totally okay to seek validation from outside sources (church, tarot, meditation, etc.), but if something isn’t sitting right for you then that means it’s NOT for you – and that’s okay! Just like every person who picked this pile isn’t in the exact same situation, not everyone is going to connect with the exact same parts. We are all our own people who have our own needs. Do what you KNOW is in your best interest (and trust me… you DO know 😊)

I’m proud of you <3

Aspect: The star & Chariot in reverse

You are questioning your purpose in life. I do believe this is a newer aspect for your shadow self, but it has been overwhelmingly at the top of your concerns. Maybe you quit your job, are a new parent, just became an empty nester, or moved somewhere new where you don’t have the same support system. You don’t know what to do with yourself and it’s making you so anxious that you’re not doing anything – definitely sensing some task paralysis vibes.

Higher self: Nine of cups

The nine of cups indicates that your current situation IS (going to be) really fulfilling. Your higher self knows you’re confused. The imposter syndrome you’re feeling is completely normal and it will go away. You are being reminded to count your blessings and remind yourself of the good things that are coming out of your situation. Continuing with the examples I have above: you left a toxic work environment, you get to explore so many new things, you get to be independent, or you get to create your life from scratch. These are all amazing!

How to Address: King of wands & Queen of swords

Be the leader of your own life, pile 3. With this new slate, you can look at your life less biased than you could before. You get to set new boundaries and feel good about them! You are strong, independent, and can live your life with intent. You are the determining factor of your purpose.

You got this <3

[un-local]

do you ever have any issues with perfectionism keeping you from writing? and maybe any advice on how to overcome it?

You know, to my own surprise, I’m inclined to say perfection isn’t my big demon. I think I deal with it some, but paranoia is probably what I’d characterize as my biggest problem. 

To clarify: I make art to satisfy whatever deranged impulse bubbles up from the unfathomable depths of my broken brain, right? So as long as I do that, I’m happy. But for me, it’s in the act of posting that trouble arises. Everyone else’s standards are totally alien to me, and it seems that often, they’re way higher. So I have a sort of paranoia that there’s something in my art—which is good enough for me—that everyone sees but I don’t. And it isn’t something endearing, or likeable. I’m not aware something everyone else is, and it’s a real problem. 

So, I think the end result is the same, but the root cause is probably different. 

To me, perfectionism is an inability to meet your own standards. But since I write for emotional satisfaction/catharsis, my own standards aren’t so much a factor.

Perfectionism strikes me as a kind of impatience, at the end of the day. You want your art to be  a masterpiece, right now, first try. And you’ll put yourself through hell when it isn’t. 

But the thing about writing is that you kind of have as many tries as you feel like giving it. It’s not like you’re carving it into a stone tablet—you can hit the undo button. (Which can be its own form of infuriating, I know.)

In terms of advice: 

I think patience is the way forward. Trust, too. Trust in yourself to make it a little better in the next pass-through. That whatever it is now, it isn’t final, if you don’t want it to be. 

It’s not even necessarily giving yourself permission to suck—but permission for your writing to just be whatever it is right now.

I think this is where advice about using fonts like comic sans for your first draft is helpful. It was for me. It kind of lowers the stakes, in a way. 

I think my focus on making sure writing fulfills a very personal emotional need has been beneficial for combatting perfectionism. Words don’t have to be pretty, or groundbreaking, or even noticeable, so long as they all come together to serve the emotional purpose of a scene. 

I think another thing that’s helped combat perfectionism in my writing process is the way I write—it’s probably like sculpting. I get all the basic forms down first, then refine and polish with many pass-overs after. My first draft doesn’t really have much detail. It’s mostly the major building blocks. So I think having a foundation like that helps me keep my focus on what I’m doing and why. And as I refine, if something isn’t working well, I can erase it and still have my end goal in mind. Having that (broad) end goal helps keep your focus on your piece, rather than how it is or isn’t meeting your standards. 

But really, I do think patience has been my best ally. If I can’t see a way out, I change tabs lol. I think being able to keep things on the back burner helps. Having the patience to step back and change gears means you can recharge and come back with fresh eyes. It also means that you can take the progress you have made and take that into the real world for a bit. 

There’s a line in SWRD where Magdalene is in the background, stretching her back in a moment between enemies. I got that from real life. 

In my personal work, I’ve had a story running for ten years. Literally. And over the last four years, I’d spend a few months making huge refinements and restructures in the draft, and then let it sit for anywhere from a few months to a year. And that gave me a lot of clarity in terms of what I was trying to say and why. 

TL;DR:

Hope this helps, anon. Good luck with your writing! Stick with it. In my experience, it all turns out in the end. You’ll get there just fine 🖤

[tarotbiscuits]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎂 🎊

My initials are C.T. 💚 🦋

If you're still doing the game, I have two questions.

Will I get married in this lifetime?

Will I have best friends when I am an adult/older?

Thank you sooo much lovie <3

Will I get married in this lifetime?

seven of pentacles clarified by the artist rx, ten of cups rx, two of wands clarified by eight of wands rx and page of cups rx, four of cups clarified by five of swrds and queen of swords rx, nine of wands

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but no. I feel like there will be a time in your life when you will be dating multiple people OR multiple people will be interested in you romantically. I'm seeing 4 people confessing their feelings to you. 3 of them will be only looking for flings/casual relationships/long term relationships without marriage, but one of them will be interested in marrying you. I felt like they will either propose to you or they'll let you know early on about their intention to marry you later down the line. Nevertheless, you will be faced with a serious decision regarding this person. You will have to choose between rejecting this proposal/person and keeping your guards up, as in being very serious about your decision and not letting them convince you otherwise OR getting married to them. You are more inclined to say no and you will end up saying no, because you will feel like the idea of being married to this person won't bring you ultimate happiness. You might feel like the marriage will be a lot of work and no fun or your idea of being a family is different from each other (ex. you might want kids and they don't or vice versa).

2. Will I have best friends when I am an adult/older?

three of swords, the empress, queen of pentacles, two of cups, two of pentacles rx

I'm so sorry, but this one is also a no :( You will find some "friends", but actually you'll be the one putting in more effort in the friendships than them. These friendships won't feel secure and they will end up causing you a lot of hurt because of the unbalance presented in them. There's also the possibility that if you're in a group, they might end up going out without you and you'll find out on social media/ from other people about "all the fun stuff they did together without you". I'm so sorry :(

[robinwatchtower]

FINALLY FOUND A GOOD QUALITY VERSION FO THE FOUR SWRDS MANGA

[shafrrazm]

1926 දී රත්මලානේ අන්ධ බිහිරි පාසලට තමන්ගේ පෞද්ගලික අක්කර 4ක ඉඩම සහ මහරගම ළමා ආරක්ෂක සංවිධානයටද කොළඹ අසෝකා විද්‍යාලයටද (මෑතක් වන තුරු කොළඹ ආනන්ද විද්‍යාලයේ ප්‍රාථමික අංශය) තමන්ගේ පෞද්ගලික ඉඩම් බෙදා දුන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ බිහි වූ විශිෂ්ට මැණික් ව්‍යාපාරිකයෙක් සහ මහා දානපතියෙක් ද වන අල් හාජ් NDH ගෆූර් මහතා ගැන කෙටි සටහනකි මේ.

1926 දී අැමරිකාවේ පැවති ජාත්‍යන්තර මැණික් ප්‍රදර්ශනයක දී වැඩිම මැණික් ප්‍රදර්ශනය කරපු ව්‍යාපාරිකයා ලෙස සම්මානය ඔහු ලබා ගත්තා.

වරක් එස්. ඩබ්. අාර්. ඩී. බණ්ඩාරනායක මහතා පැවසුවා "මුස්ලිම් අධ්‍යාපනයට සේවය කල මිනිසෙක් ලෙස ප්‍රසිද්ධ වුවත්, එතුමාගේ සේවය මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවට පමණක් සීමා වුවක් නොව. එතුමා මා දකින්නේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් බිහි වූ ඉහළම තලයේ විශිෂ්ටයෙක් හැටියට යි."

මහ ධනස්කන්දකට උරුමකම් කියූ ඔහු ඉතාමත් චාම් ජීවිතයක් ගත කරපු පුද්ගලයෙකි. ශ්‍රී ලාංකිකයෙක් හැටියට මම මෙතුමා ගැන ඉතාමත් ආඩම්බර වෙමි. මෙවන් ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ චරිත ශ්‍රී ලංකාවෙන් තව තවත් බිහි වේවා යැයි මා ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරමි.

- හාලා මරික්කාර්. (19.04.2020)

Mr NDH Abdul Gaffoor, known for his trade in and ownership of some of the biggest collections of Ceylonese gems, propagating the name of Ceylon far and wide across the world, was also one of the most humble, pious and generous men of his time.

Much of his wealth and land was spent in philanthropic causes, such as the donation of four acres of land in 1926 for the construction of the Deaf and Blind School in Ratmalana, an institution that grants equal opportunities for education even for those who are differently abled. He also donated much of his land for other educational and humanitarian purposes such as the Maharagama Child Protection Center and Asoka Vidyalaya in Colombo (which until recently was the primary section of Ananda College).

In the words of SWRD Bandaranaike, on the passing away of this great man,

"Though he is perhaps best remembered for the contribution to the cause of Muslim education and religion, his generosity was not limited to the Muslim community alone. I regard him as one of the outstanding Ceylonese gentlemen of his age and appreciate this opportunity of paying this tribute to him".

-Haala Marikar (19.04.2020)