Big Bear Tarot

The Queen of Cups and Finding a Lost Puppy

We rescued this handsome lost puppy and reunited him with his family. This is Axel and this is how a card of the day worked out. We may see other card-of-the-day posts, but don’t often see anyone talk about HOW a card of the day actually DID appear in our lives. This is a good example.

I give card of the readings here and in more depth in other places (link in bio). A card of the day gives people a lens through which to watch a day unfold, a way to meditate, a focus for understanding. It gives a bit of sense to our chaos. Or it can if we let it.

Jan 15: Queen of Cups, clarified by the 9 of Pentacles, 5 of Pentacles. These were the cards that day.

I felt like the queen was asking us to view the day through the eyes of compassion and sharing security or comfort or kindness to those who may feel left outside, who are outcast, or who may just need some kindness today. You can read my original post here on Instagram.

Enter Axel, a lost puppy.

My partner lives in a cabin in the woods and his nearest neighbors are down a very long road or over a hillside. Occasionally he will see a stray dog. Sometimes people abandon dogs in the area. The closest road is a dead end one. With his two cats, my partner couldn’t take a new puppy, so he couldn’t afford to have it imprint on him. Besides we could see that the puppy was well fed and well taken care of. It was someone’s. It needed to find its way back home. But it was cold outside. If he was a stray, too much kindness might be seen as welcome to stay… so we tried to shoo him away but he just hunkered down, came closer. It was obvious that he was lost . I didn’t have the heart to bang the pot to scare him off.

We changed tactics.

I sat and petted him for awhile and it calmed him. I knew that it may just make him stay, but it was cold and he was scared. And I couldn’t add to his fear.

I’ve been a lost kid before, getting off at the wrong bus stop in a city I didn’t know well. I’ve been terrified and hoping the people who found me were nice to me. I’m glad we understood the dilemma early enough. I’m glad we got him to his family.

We couldn’t let him in the house. So I took this pic of him (and he is extraordinarily adorable and the pic turned out amazing) and we put it on a local fb group.
People thought the pic might be AI. We assured them that he was actually that cute and that we were real. Meanwhile I went to get a box and a blanket.

I’ll be honest. I didnt think of the cards right away. And I don’t want to say here that you need cards to tell you to be nice. Or to be moral or to be ethical. The cards aren’t in my life to tell me what to do. I find that they remind me who I am and what part of myself to remember when I’m stuck in a dilemma— do you shoo away the dog so it doesn’t adopt you, or do you risk going up to a strange dog and offering it kindness.

I did a different tarot spread about what to do with the puppy. I knew then that someone would claim him very soon and, if I had read the cards closely, I could have seen that the puppy got lost and had given up leaving this porch for now. He didn’t know his way back. I might have even seen that his owner was walking through the woods and lost him. The Queen of Wands came up in the outcome with the Knight of Pentacles and the King of Wands reversed. This particular version of the Knight of Pentacles has a trail of pentacles that he’s dropping behind him. I also inferred from the reversed King of Wands that this was a short term dilemma. King of Wands is a long term vision guy and reversed he can be shortsighted… but I didn’t really understand a lot of the reading right away, and that can happen.

An hour or two later, his mom contacted us through the fb page, and we were able to drive around the hill to bring Axel home. All the while, in the car, I held Axel in my lap and he got more and more excited when the landscape looked more familiar.

We found out that Axel had been walking with his Dad in the woods along the ridge behind our hill and when two other dogs he was with took off and ran around in the forest, Axel went with them and then got left behind and didn’t know what to do… so he went to the nearest place he could find, and this was us. His Dad looked all over the mountains and ridges for him, but hadn’t been able to find him.

And that’s how it happened–how Axel got lost, and how Axel got found.

And how the Queen of Cups told me a little about a pivotal moment in my day, a day that would make Joey and I really happy. We solved his dilemma of a stray imprinting on us, and found Axel’s home so he could be happy. And I got to hold a beautiful puppy for a little bit in a car as we drove to his parents’ house.

The cards-of-the-day talked about having compassion and love on someone who was lost and feeling like an outsider today. It was a call to share comfort and security and safety. I knew on the way back home that the cards had tried to give me a heads up on what might be needed today. I’m glad I knew instinctually after a moment what I needed to do…but the cards, in retrospect, helped me understand that maybe they knew something and I could work with that energy too.

__________________

Maybe this gives you an insight into how a card-of-the-day might manifest in a given day. I think we need to see the practical ways these cards show up.

Frankly I like to see this from a reading. I like knowing how things turned out. If I interpreted the cards well. Or even if it matters to get a little guidance every day. I think it does matter, and I felt assured that Spirit or the Universe or God was letting me know that I needed to be ready to be compassionate even when it didn’t seem like the right way to solve the problem.

We do cards for the day to prepare ourselves for what is coming, by priming ourselves for what is needed.

AXEL IS HAPPY AND FED NOW, AT HOME WITH HIS FAMILY AGAIN.