Ace of Frogs

I had another extraordinary dream a few nights ago. As if the Smiling Moon dream weren’t enough, here came another. I am receiving a tarot card reading in the dream. Four cards are shown, two in the major arcana that I don’t recall, the Ace of Swords (I am told exactly what this one points to for me now), the Ace of Frogs in the 4th card. I know in the dream that there is no such suit as the Suit of Frogs in the tarot deck as we know it, that this is somehow a whole new one. The Ace shows up for me in this reading.

I have studied the tarot for two decades, and use it regularly in reading for myself and for others. I find that tarot and dreams compliment each other exceptionally well. Twice over the last several years I have been shown a card in a dream that does not exist in the deck as we know it. As I awakened from each of these dreams, which were about 4 years apart, I was told to add that card to the deck. Everything is evolving, right? So I have added each of these cards to the deck that I use for readings.

I wasn’t given any message about adding to the deck in this dream, just received the Ace of Frogs. I don’t really have a clue what this means. Well, I do have some clues, but that’s all they are. I have written on my blog about the way Frog has shown up as an image in my life, but I will briefly summarize here again. I hope this is interesting for the reader as a means for musing upon the mystery of images, their potency, re-occurrence, and power to lead us along like bread crumbs through a dark forest. Here are a few of my bread crumbs:

• While on a 10-day Vision Quest in 2000, living alone (from human company) under a tree, a little frog moved into my watering can. He perched with his front legs and snout hanging out of the spout. When I had to pour water, I poured him gently onto the ground, then used or gathered water from the stream. Shortly after I put the can down again I would find him right back in his perch. I loved the company – so sweet, steady, alert, soft, relaxed, present.
• Sometime later I had a dream of finding my very favorite toy from childhood in my attic, a stuffed frog. I was very emotional about recovering it, so pleased. In real life there was no such toy.
• The night before leaving for Italy for a writing retreat 3 summers ago, I was staying with a friend in Chicago. This is a waking story. She went to her front door and noticed a frog jumping down the sidewalk. It deliberately turned the corner onto the walk in front of her house, jumping right up to the front stoop. She picked it up, brought it inside and plopped it onto my lap as I sat on her couch, telling me it came to the door like a gentleman caller. She was being funny. She had no idea about any history of frogs showing up in my life.
• Within the last year I had a dream in which I realized I had a new cell phone and should start using it. It had been a gift from the Dalai Lama. The phone was in the shape of a frog, with one leg toward the ear, another toward the mouth, a very nifty little design. It was covered with sparkling crystals in the colors of sea green and pink.
• The photograph that I attach to this post was taken just off my porch in pitch black night a couple of months ago. I was outside looking at the stars and heard a sudden sound. Something living was right next to the porch. I was curious and went inside to find a flashlight. This is a picture of what I found. When I went back indoors to get the camera, the frog stayed right there, posing for the shot. It was still there when I went to bed sometime later. By morning it was gone.