Today's Card - Charmaine Chartreuse

Today's Card
Charmaine Chartreuse

Now that we're a few weeks into working with these cards, for my own benefit and practice I thought I would spend a little time with the card before reading all the stuff in the book about it.  When I look at this card I see someone who is living a bright and vibrant life and making everyone around her maybe a little jealous or annoyed.  She's holding a paint brush in one hand and paint in the other, and her house is brightly painted as well.  It makes me think that she's working to create her own life and happiness and that might make the other people around her "green with envy".  Ok...now on to the book!



The message with the card is "I never met a person I didn't like."  The card is from the green spectrum.  Green has energies of healing, prosperity, peace, growth, harmony, and hope. Working with green can bring balance as well within these things.  When you have the energies of growth, peace, and prosperity in balance and harmony anything can be accomplished.  But green will also force you to face your blocks and shadows in order to achieve these things.  It's a healing energy but it's not always a gentle energy.  Different shades of green carry different levels of intensity.

Chartreuse is a loud type of green.  It's bright and flamboyant but when it's in its right balance it is a color that represents someone with an open heart and no reason to hide anything.  But with it comes the other side of things; it can be too loud, so much so that it pushes people away even though it's a color who's energy has no intention of causing such reaction.  It's a color of openness and truth with the intention of love behind it.

The general idea of Charmaine Chartreuse is focused on gossip. When you gossip too much your perception can become distorted. 

The Story...in brief
Charmaine was a free spirit, a woman who lived her life her way, even though it somewhat baffled those around her.  She lived in a house that had been left to her by her parents.  It was up on a hill about the town and when she took over the property she painted it a bright chartreuse and every two years repainted it the same bright color, something that didn't make Mrs. Grant from the historical society too pleased.  But Charmaine did her thing just the same even though Mrs. Grant would have preferred that the house stayed the brown color it had been all the years before.

Charmaine spent her nights at her mansion listening to opera music, dancing, painting, and enjoying herself.  The sounds from her house would fill the air around her home and break up the silence and boredom that seemed to fill the nights in her town.

Charmaine loved interacting with the people in the town.  She would go for a walk every day, saying hello to everyone and wishing everyone well. She would go by Mr. Plum's fruit stand and watch all that was going on there and say hello.  She would go to Ivey's Boutique and look at the beautiful scarves every day, eventually going back each Friday and buying the one she'd admired all week.  And every Wednesday she went to Olivia's Nail Salon to get her nails done, and each time she'd leave a big tip for Olivia knowing she had a son in college.  

But when Charmaine walked away from the fruit stand Mr. Plum would thing "if she'd only eat my fruit she wouldn't be so fat."  Ivey thought she was incredibly strange because she'd come in every day, ask lots of questions about the scarves, and then just by one a week.  "She needs to get a life" she'd say when Charmaine left.  And each week after leaving the nail salon Ophelia would complain about how Charmaine's long nails would take up a whole bottle of polish.  "I appreciate her money but I wish she'd let me shorten her claws!"  

Each week Steve would go up to Charmaine's house to deliver her groceries.  People would ask him about the "weird old drunk" but Steve would ignore them.  When he would go to her house they would talk about art and Charmaine would encourage Steve to explore his artistic side.  Everyone else made fun of him but Charmaine saw the uniqueness of his spirit and encouraged him to be himself.

When Charmaine died everyone when to her house for the estate auction.  A small group of people went to see what was in the barn and they were shocked at what they saw. Charmaine pained a detailed and beautiful picture of Mr. Plum's fruit stand.  There was a painting of Olivia doing someone's nails titled "My Friend the Manicurist".  And another painting was of the beautiful scarves from Ivey's shop.  They were stunned. Mrs. Grant found a series of paintings of historical landmarks from the town and was impressed with how beautiful they were.  

They all realized they didn't ever really know her like they thought they did and Mrs. Grant decided that since Charmaine had left the house to the historical society that in her honor the house would always remain chartreuse, since after all, brown was so common.

And the best thing was that Charmaine left Steve all her art supplies knowing that he was meant to be an artist and that this was her way or helping him follow his true dream.

The Meaning...
I see this card as having two possible sides.  First the meaning for you and then secondly a meaning for others.  For yourself, I see this as a card about courage.  Live out loud, as the saying goes.  Be who you are and don't feel you have to hide your true self.  For others it's about looking for the good in them, no matter how weird or different they may seem.  It's better to try and appreciate the things they have to offer you than to spend so much time and energy on assuming things about them. You never really know what's in their minds or hearts until you ask or get to know them better.

Charmaine Chartreuse is a card that warns us that we could miss out on a chance to get to know someone that could help us learn more about ourselves in the same what that Steve really learned his true calling through his relationship with Charmaine.

For Today...

Instead of looking for the things that make someone different and cutting them down for those things, take time see the differences between you and others and use them as a way to learn more about yourself.  If you feel really opposed to something you see in another person, ask yourself why?  A lot of times you'll find there are things very similar between you and that person and their trait that bothers you.  Use this as a mirror to find the answers within yourself about who you really are.

If you feel that you are Charmine Chartreuse ask yourself if you're doing things to somehow create distance between you and others.  Are you being intentionally, or maybe unconsciously aloof?  Are you trying to keep a distance between you and others because you are afraid that they wont understand you or accept you?  Give people a chance to come into your life and get to know you!