OshoZen;Fire.Stress; 7 of Wands

Briar Rose

Osho Zen; Fire, Stress, 7 of Wands

A juggler on balloons in the air tossing candles, and blowing a trumpet with a monkey about to pop the balloon.

This card means to me that after the success, slow down a bit, don't take on so much. Actually it's telling me to deligate responsibilites.

This reminds of the holidays. I was juggling building a gallery (800 square feet , ripped the walls, floors, and ceiling out and putting it back together and ordering all the supplies, and this and that) having it done in two weeks! It's the Holidays right? That means shopping, family, food...no time for me. I ended up in the hospital twice with Diverticulitus scare.
 

Judith D

I look at this card today and see myself today - a timely reminder to slow down and smell the roses.
I have personally found that I can usually keep going and keep going, and it once the stress has died down and the crisis is past that I fall apart.
However, this week's stress is because I think have to finish everything before I leave tomorrow lunchtime, so I am consciously slowing down right now and remembering that I am not indispensable and I can only do what I can do.
Breathe in, breathe out. The monkey is looking quite disappointed!
Life does indeed go on at its own appointed pace, however tight the circle we run around in.
 

Briar Rose

I like your last sentance. Good quote.
 

Grizabella

This card really, really hits home with me. I was trying to single-handedly run my adult care home----cooking and cleaning up after three meals (perfect meals) for not only my family but my five clients every day. Stripping and changing 5 beds a day. Caring for 5 clients a day, one of them bedbound. Doing all the paperwork, shopping, appointment-making, dealing with home nurses and the care each client needed, record keeping daily for about 4 hours, PLUS five loads of laundry a day, mopping the floors every day, all the other cleaning-----and trying to do it all perfectly. I was well paid, but still----. There's so much more to it. It was extremely high stress work in addition to the perfectionistic way I dealt with it all. Oh, and listening to a monitor at night, too, to get up and care for people at night. I did this for two full years, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, without a day off. Let's not forget, either, taking on the care of my first little grandchild I'm raising when she was less than 24 hours old. And a 5-day power outage due to weather so that I had to cook on a fireplace insert and heat water to keep my residents clean on the same insert, while still caring for the baby.

And then I physically crashed. I nearly died. So here I am today.

Would I do it again? Never!

That's my 7 of Wands in the Osho. :)
 

Alan Ross

This is one of my favorite cards. I laughed the first time I saw it: it is such a brilliant depiction of how it feels when you're completely stressed out. And that monkey with its sharp pin and evil little grin is priceless! This is one card I think just about anyone can relate to. A few years back, during a very stressful period dealing with work, school, and personal issues, the vicious little monkey popped my balloon and I ended up with a very painful and debilitating case of shingles. This normally hits later in life, but stress had depressed my immune system and left me vulnerable to this viral infection.

In the LWB entry for this card, there is a statement that "The essential man is not a doer." I've read somewhere else that our Western culture has turned us into "human doings" instead of "human beings." Our society, which tends to value external achievement over inner growth, discourages us from idleness and encourages us to be constantly busy and productive. It can be difficult for those of us who have been conditioned by the frenetic pace of modern living to take the advice in the book to "relax and be." However, it is not possible to live fully or mindfully or free from stress unless you give your life space to breathe.
 

Judith D

Yes, did you also get to feel you weren't behaving correctly if you weren't actually DOING something.
It is such bliss these days to be able to just sit
"sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits" (can't remember where that comes from but it is so apt).
 

squeakmo9

I see this card as being caught up in the moment. There's a nervous feeling that not all precaution have been taken.
I think the reality is that expectation have been set too high, in conjunction with no time to really think.
The 7's, for me, are about victory, and that this clown is on the cusp of discovery, but first the fall.
 

armonia

oshozen 7 of fire: stress

Sorry Allan! This is one of my least favourite cards!! Whenever I have it in a reading, it just reinforces how stressed I am feeling. Maybe I feel trapped, obligated, short on time, succumbing to others' demands or expectations on me (the monkey on your back - worse! this little one ready to burst your balloon) and I know it will only be a matter of time before I fall on my own accord with all the juggling I am doing. Who wouldn't get burnt juggling candles??!! Yes, it is a strong message to step out of the situation, and reduce your stress, but easier said than done.
 

Master_Margarita

After success comes stress, and so the Six of Fire leads us in to the Seven of Fire, if we attach too much importance to our ride on that tiger. I could also pair this card with the Wheel of Fortune. Our world goes around and around with success and stress, success and stress until....pop.