Help from the Faeries!

One of my favorite gifts this year was Brian Froud's Faery Oracle Cards. I have really been enjoying them, and it occurred to me that it might be useful and helpful to ask the faeries if one of them would be willing to lend energy, support, and guidance to the Prosperity Project this coming year. The answer was yes, and this is the faery who stepped forward:

The Singer of Courage

This is the reading: Someone once said that courage is not the absence of fear but that which enables us to experience fear and not be stopped by it. It is also what enables us to do what we believe to be right even when there is pressure from others around us to do otherwise. It is what enables us to go ahead into the unknown or the perilous, where there are no guarantees of safety or security.

In our lives we are often, even constantly, confronted with a new world, a new way of being in the world, a new way of seeing and of being seen. Ordinary living takes courage, and to rise above the ordinary into the extraordinary takes even more courage. One of the keys to courage is to consider the fear and find a way to let the energy of the fear itself power the action. That is true courage.

Often people think of courage as being part of high heroism. It is, but it also has its quiet, hidden side as well - and that may require greater courage because we cannot expect the rewards of praise and approval for it. For example, no courage is needed to be unhappy and self-pitying. We do not need to be self-disciplined or wise for that. However, to open our hearts to the risks and vulnerability of joy and trust requires all of those things especially courage.

Within each of us, there is the terrified inner mouse, and there is the brave inner hero. Either part of us can take over from the other. We get to choose which is in charge. The mouse is a magician with only one trick. It can cast an illusion that it as big as an elephant. Then fear nearly overwhelms us - but we still have a choice. Learning to live with and manage the reactive animal within involves transforming emotions like rage and fear into courage through self-discipline and the help of the Singer of Courage.

And here is another interesting thing: Most people have decided by the age of three or four what they must do in order to survive. From this decision, this belief about how the world is, most of our fears and self-limitations grow. Have we the courage to discover and break through these limiting beliefs, awaken to greater possibilities and go for our objectives?