It was still pitch black dark outside. I had been up for some time. Unable to go back to sleep. This time it wasn’t because I was sick or stressed out. After all, I just had a long weekend. My mind had been filled with random ideas.

Ideas for the day (I should run first before attending my first 9 AM meeting), for the week, month and the end of the year. Faster than those ideas were the ideas on what to write for my NaMeWriMo drafts.

I tried to remember some of these ideas while dismissing the others because the last thing I needed on this garbage of a year is feeling burnt out. Especially, this close to the holiday season. After some more time passed, and it was clear to me that I would not go back to sleep, I sneaked out to the living room.

Once outside, I reached out to my trusty tarot deck — waiting for me on the bookshelf — took a few deep breaths and pulled out a card.

Two of Wands

On point.

For me, two of Wands (Aries) carries the energy of contemplation.

The tea-brewing of ideas. I’d need to let it steep first, witness the colour change adding flavours thanks to the heat before sipping it.

All these metaphorical ideas brewing made me crave for an actual hot cup of tea. A perfect company for the cold Melbourne morning (mornings in Melbourne generally tend to be on the cold side no matter what time of the year it may be). On this morning it was Singapore Breakfast tea from T2Tea.

While waiting for my tea, I rummaged through my witchy-drawer where I kept the rest of my tarot decks. I pulled out the Two of Wands from The Light Seer Tarot and This Might Hurt tarot decks to company the first Two of Wands from The Spacious Tarot deck. The card from Rider Waite Smith tarot deck was not required as I have memorized the traditional image.

A man, wearing a red robe, holding a globe in his hand, standing on the fortress, overlooking the sea with two wands standing in between him.

It’s not too different from the This Might Hurt deck, which has my favourite depiction of the Two of Wands. On it, a girl is sitting on her car front, reading the opened map in her hand, there are two different sized wands in between the car.

Though the Two of Wands is often associated with travel (both the globe and the map), today I see it more of the planning stage. The stage of collecting and brewing some of those ideas who came knocking way too early.

I considered waking Fafa up, so he could take a picture of me ‘contemplating’ from the balcony with the sunrise as the background as the image depicted in The Light Seers Tarot deck, but decided to let the man sleep in peace. Also, the sky is too grey to make an Instagram worthy picture.

Instead, I opened the laptop and wrote this in morning silence, while sipping my tea. I must say, among those many 5 AM ideas, writing this experience felt like a good one to follow.