8/78  Surfer Tarot

Chinese Spring Festival Lunar New Year of the (yang brown earth) Dog 

When this year’s dog barks, heed her warning. Look out for the welfare of others and stand with your brothers and sisters in solidarity. Practice nonviolent communication and random acts of kindness, and senseless acts of beauty. Refrain from our per usual indulgence in American excess and in the name of convenience. Waste not, want not, and use only what you need. Invest in renewable energy and remain down 2 earth. ‘Tis a good year to make lifestyle changes, to take up new address and/or startup a biz. Eat well, get out of the house and shake a leg. Get your downward dog on. You are caring, good natured and a true companion. Do the right thing. Stick things out thru thick and thin. If you are feeling melancholy, consider to open a dialogue. Alone and all one, resolve to share (more) of yourself.

 

Injustice and oppression does not sit well with the peoples and this year of the dog may be a “ruff” year for the Donald. Do the right thing. If America has indeed lost her generosity, decide to be more generous. Move with the integrity of loving kindness and recall that wisdom is gentle in its application. Move from unshared resources to a showing of love and respect, and acting out of a sense of empathy. In moving from the fire bird of 2017 to this year of the earth dog, real eyes that life can again be extra ordinary.

moonbow * soul of winds

illustration Alexandre Flores Torrano

Legendary surfrider Tom Blake lived in the Wisconsin woods for a time out of his car, and of which is nothing new under the moon for our hometown fave Moondog. He’ll live in a milk truck on the beach if he has to. He’s surf “gist and jest in one.” As “eminence grise of our surf cult,” he eats, sleeps and surfs. He’s usually found between the latitudes of the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. He prefers southern climes as the Northern Hemi is hard on his lifestyle. He is surf truant living grass shack, ascetic style, under a palapa. He has been known to homestead in abandoned Quonset huts. As surf gypsy, he doesn’t think “surf bum.” He’s the “Winnie the Pooh” of surfing. As beach mendicant he’s found “whispering surf sutras about the Mother Ocean from behind the palm fronds.” With waves in the bank and the wind at his back, he’s “got stars in his future.” Our beachcomber is really busy surfing. He has to have water time. “If the conditions are right, he’ll walk away from any job or woman, to spend a day in the water with friends.” He has the courage to be true to her. As a true surfer, he lives in a tiki hut and sleeps in his board bag. Whether on the cliff or lying in marine grass, he blows with the wind and shifts with the tide. He is our Lancelot of surfing. As surf icon, he goes out again and again.

illustration Daryn McBride

Moondoggy wouldn’t trade his life for nothin’. He’s dug in, and just hangs out. All traditional workaday careers have long ago lost any and all appeal in his world. He is a slave to the rhythm, and “sheds clothes like distractions.” He’s a minimal man and doesn’t have problems to solve. He deals with things in an unorthodox way. Of a wayward and intractable mind, he never falls in with rules and regulations. Of valid discord and unequivocal in his disregard, he relates on another level. As beach savant, he’s telepathic and clairvoyant, and runs outside the norm. “Unorganized in our over organized world,” he is “deprogrammed,” and unbound by social censure. Misunderstood due to a lack of a goal or quantifiable achievement, he poses questions for others. He thinks for himself. A man of simple ways and means, he’s got no car nor TV, and comes unencumbered and unadorned. He’s priceless. He’s sacrificed his material well being to be at peace. He’s paid the piper and been humbled. Not self lauding, he aspires to spirit and is emotionally accessible. Noninterfering, he is passive, tolerant and patient. Serene and grounded, he takes his time and is thoughtful. When at ease and relaxed he can be quite personable and a storyteller. As beach bard, he is a tender companion with soft body and a gentle soul. As beach chum and safe harbor, he stays put and is forever resigned to the beach life. His natural bohemian lifestyle feeds his mystique, but his only real desire is to have food and herb for the day without exerting himself too much. He has no timetable and no watch, with no plans and no itinerary. He probably didn’t notice, and was at least oblivious to you, as he only wants to be healthy and happy.

illustration Paul Nathan Gibbs

Moondoggy is the itinerate surfer wrestling with his white waters of emotion. Characterized by deep emotions that are not always well expressed, he can be found brooding and overcome by emotions. He can be a burden, as he is burdened by an uncertain destiny. Iconoclast and indignant, he finds social norms as nothing but a nagging irritation. Sometimes mistaken for a beach heathen or reclamation project, self doubt is his constant companion. As social discard or ragtag peasant, he is melancholic and feels marginalized, and is seen as troubled. His appearance of idleness leaves him looking slovenly, and of slackness. His perpetual inaction and indolent pastime, mark his languorous nature. People think he’s doggin’ it. He questions his esteem and can be hypersensitive. Irritable and territorial, he can be ornery and a bit crabby. Bottomed out, he is at his surf nadir. He’s a dog. Lazy and not ambitious, he can even be a bit scroungey. With no money, and no honey, he’s got no prospects, and “will never make a suitable husband.” He’s been rejected, neglected, and found out as generally unacceptable. At stasis, he’s been rendered near soporific. Of sentimental drift, he’s on auto pilot, “a symptom perhaps more of a societal sickness than a personal one.” Moondoggy’s got no use for technology and is not of the modern age. Not always of the best equipment, he surfs unevenly, “like he’s lugging something around.” He’s an enigma, and at once, of both a chimerical and low brow sensibility. At times removed and an ambivalent intellectual, with scattered thoughts and without focus, he maintains a frivolous aura. With others, he can be recalcitrant, and laconic, even pithy. “Peculiarity breeds contempt.” He’s a surf dope that just never left. More than anything, he’s just “tired of feeling guilty about enjoying surfing.”

illustration Alexandre Flores Torrano

Drop your troubles by the waterside.” The beach life is a reward unto itself. “Plan for what?” The meek shall inherit the earth. Moondoggy accepts the ocean and earth lifestyle as his life. He accepts himself. Do not envy as the best things in life are free. “Solutions to what?” Technology enslaves. Material differences have become too pronounced. He shares of himself. “What’s there to evaluate?” Less is more. Be truthful. Tomorrow never comes. No worries. Moondoggy is right here, right now. Wow! He is in the moment, at present, and all the while, mired deep in his “compost for the soul.” His soul can touch you. He is modern day Dodah and owns “an understanding not known by our dominant culture.” Trying too hard? Vanquish the mind and learn to move freely with your thinking. Get by with what you have. Take only what you need. From materialism to spirituality, find a guide unto your underworld. With good mind and guardianship, you may well come upon, “unsuspecting divine mind.”

Box 6234 Alameda Ca 94501
949.610.2103

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