King of Wands
Wands, representing our fiery passions, our willfulness and what makes the world go round! Last night when I was backstage at the burlesque show I was performing in, one of our kittens said, “if you’re doing something (for a career) that you aren’t passionate about, you’re wasting your life.” And as a person with an Aries Moon, I must savagely agree. Also, I understand the limitations of living in a capitalist driven society and how hard it is to fight for our lives well lived. Artists especially find it difficult to find our place in the machine. Functionalist sociologists would say that our place in the functions of society is to keep people entertained, and indeed we do! But that work is not always acknowledged nor respected for the time, effort, training, and the occasional existential crisis it takes to do something worthwhile.
Which leads me to today’s card, the King of Wands! This card is all about keeping your ducks in a row, ducks being your interests, a row being allocating your time and resources accordingly to bring out the best in you in relation to your interests. Simply put, get your shit together and make it shine! As a burlesque performer, and I know I’m not alone here, I have a tendency to start too many new numbers. EEK! And then I get frustrated when I don’t feel like I’m showing my best to my audience. A lot of burly mentors will say get 2-3 numbers really polished and that’s what you should be submitting to producers. But man, how do I choose just 2 or 3? My anxiety takes over and starts considering the themes of the shows, the other cast, the producer’s style, and all of these other factors that I have limited control over. The mind reels.
What I could put my focus in, once again, is polishing those damn 2-3 numbers that represent me, my talent and my interests best. And if I submit them and they’re not accepted, then I wasn’t meant for that particular show. Move on with your glittery self! We cannot be everything to every show, cast and production. We can however find our own flavor, and I think that journey for me has been the most healing and satisfying part of being a burlesque artist. Before I started burlesque, I couldn’t even choose a favorite color or decide which styles of clothing I liked to wear or where I wanted to go on vacation. This is part of healing from trauma of course, sometimes trauma survivors have no idea what they like or want because no one ever fucking asked us! Burlesque artistry is healing. Are you a vampy diva? A sparkly cowgirl? A tap dancing crab? A jokester that likes to sing opera and tease the audience with your words? You can be any of these things!
When people approach me about burlesque classes, it feels like a loaded question because there are sooooo many different types of burlesque. But what I always suggest is to first GO…WATCH…BURLESQUE SHOWS! Every show has a different flavor, you will have to engage with it as an audience member and figure out what lights your fire. Fire, that brings me back to the wands.
When we are in control of our work, we are organized baby, and we are getting shit accomplished, we are embodying the energy of this card. But on the flip side, you can also embody the energy of this card that is hyper critical, procrastinating, throwing your dogma at others, throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. It’s messy, and we can do better. I think reversals are a call to action when they come up in a reading. So if you get a reversed King of Wands, consider how these behaviors are showing up in your life.
And I’ll end here with this, if you are feeling confused, please have some compassion for your confusion, it does no good to shame yourself. If shaming helped we would all be superstars. My call to action for you today, is to center yourself by meditating on being the artist you wish to be. How does she look? Is she smiling? Glowing? Jumping up and down in a jug of jello? It’s your life, will your dreams into existence one beautiful inspiration at a time.