When you read the word “abundance” what comes to mind, what do you automatically think of?
The Empress from Tarot Illuminati Deck
For many people the word “abundance”, particularly when it comes to the deliberate creation practices of manifesting abundance, generally has a meaning or a feeling that has something to do with money. An abundance of money. Living the good life, without a financial worry. Being able to afford to live the life of your dreams. Which are all fine and good, except….
The reality is that the word ‘abundance’ simply means a large quantity of something. And ‘something’ could be anything.
An abundance of money; living the good life without financial worry. etc. can all manifest through a variety of ways – all of which can be related to the word ‘abundance’ but not all ways are ones that reflect how we want ‘abundance’ to show up in our lives.
Trying to manifest abstract concepts like the word ‘abundance’, or ‘joy’, or ‘freedom’ can sometimes be tricky. There’s nothing physical about these concepts that we can interact with through any of our senses, so it’s challenging for us to gain crystal clarity on exactly what we are looking for, what we are trying to manifest. We know exactly what a ‘car’ is. If we are trying to manifest a new car we can find photos of the exact car we are trying to manifest. We can easily ‘feel’ ourselves sitting in the driver’s seat of the car we want and clearly visualize the experience of driving it.
But because of the abstract nature of words like abundance, or joy, or freedom, each individual has a slightly different understanding of, or meaning for the word that’s based on that individual’s education, life experiences, and understanding of what ‘abundance’ or ‘joy’ or ‘freedom’ means to them. And sometimes these concepts can be slippery enough that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to actually put into words or visuals exactly what these concepts mean to us.
To manifest abundance we first have to translate “abundance” into exactly what we mean, what we are wanting to manifest, and how we want these to show up in our lives.
As an example of how differently the same word or concept can be interpreted and understood, both Tarot cards on this page are of The Empress, the archetype that reflects abundance (among other things) in the Tarot. In each card, the meaning of the Empress is being understood and expressed in very different ways. Each card reflects a very different, very personal understanding of what, or feeling towards what, The Empress card means. Each meaning has manifest into our lives, into reality, in a very different visual image of the same concept.
So what does this have to do with manifesting abundance?
The Empress from the Thoth Deck
When we try to manifest something like ‘abundance’, we need to gain clarity on what it is that we are trying to manifest so that what we are trying to manifest shows up in our lives and in a way or a form that we want it to show up. For example, if we are trying to manifest an abundance of free time, what we don’t want is to lose our jobs.
In fact, what we are looking to manifest might not actually even be ‘abundance’. What we are wanting to manifest could be something similar but very different from ‘abundance’ and we just didn’t realize it.
For years I believed that what I was trying to manifest was ‘freedom’. It was only after trying every different manifesting technique I could think of without success, that an amazing life coach mentioned that what I was actually trying to manifest was “authentic self expression”, not “freedom”. This was definitely one of those lightbulb moments when everything falls into place and clarity appears.
The one thing I hadn’t done over the years of trying to manifest ‘freedom’ was to gain that crystal clarity on exactly what freedom meant to me and how I wanted ‘freedom’ showing up in my life. I had a vague intuitive understanding of what freedom was, but not really any understanding on how the feeling of freedom should be showing up in my life.
Before gaining that clarity around what freedom looked like in my life, I had been going after all the wrong things. I had been thinking of quitting my job, perhaps living on my own, perhaps selling everything and becoming nomad!! The more I tried to achieve freedom, the more I failed, and the more frustrated I got. Once I gained the clarity that what I actually meant by freedom was authentic self expression, I started incorporating more authentic self expression into my life and achieved the feeling of freedom that I had been looking for.
Gaining that level of clarity is not always easy. Sometimes our mind accurately makes the connection between what our intuition has identified as being what we are looking for and how our logic wants to interpret, communicate or conceive it. Sometimes it takes someone outside of ourself to make that connection or interpretation for us. Either way, without that clarity, trying to manifest ‘abundance’ or ‘joy’ or ‘freedom’ or whatever, can be an upstream battle of frustration, delay, and struggle.
Powerful manifesting always begins with clarity.
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Cheers
Anne
