With the Compass of the HeartBy Derek John Thomas / September 20, 2024 Back in the early 2000’s I read a very helpful book called Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck. It gave descriptions of the importance of finding our “North Star” or inner compass in life, and she offered ways of discerning that. Having an inner compass is crucial, I think, particularly in times when things feel like they are speeding up, becoming more complex or even chaotic, and it looks like society is fragmenting into smaller and smaller cliques and what we sometimes call tribes (though I hope we will find better vocabulary for that because it diminishes many indigenous cultures and lifestyles). Every time I see the Star card in the Lenormand, that book and its meaningful discourse come to mind. I know that the idea of an inner compass or a personal ‘North Star’ is probably not unfamiliar to you. I am curious to know how you experience it though, if you do. Where do you locate it? Is it something you feel is part of your conscious or unconscious thought processes? Dou you feel it as a stirring in your gut? Perhaps you feel it as coming from somewhere lower on the body. Or are you more like me, where you feel it as a tugging from and through your heart? I’m not saying one is better or more powerful than the other, but I do think we experience the inner compass differently. As I am pulling the cards and reading the spread, the cards are of course speaking in metaphors and symbols that will make more sense to me because they are communicating to all of us through me. That’s why, I see this spread as speaking to the compass that I experience in the heart. If you feel it elsewhere, remember it is the compass that is the most important here, not the placement. If you want a reading from me, send an email to: thehangedmaninthemoon@gmail.com