Daily Angel Oracle Card: Sphinx ~ Challenge, from the Goddess Oracle Cards, by Amy Sophia Marashinsky and Hrana Janto

Sphinx ~ Challenge:

“If I ask the question that provokes

will you stretch to find the answer

Will you take up the gauntlet flung

boldly

and defiantly answer the call

Will you meet my challenge

with tingling in your blood

with your hair blowing electric in the wind

with all your being

Knowing that every challenge

is an opportunity

every challenge presents a gift

every challenge

is there to serve you

or not

It’s your choice”

Mythology: The sphinx appears in Greek mythology as the monster – a woman’s head and breasts, a dog’s body, lion’s paws, wings of an eagle, and the tail of a serpent – who questioned Oedipus. To the ancient Egyptians, she symbolically represented the Nile and its seasons. She was also a manifestation of Hathor, Goddess of birth and death. The Sphinx of Egypt was built as a guardian of the horizons, the rising and setting of the sun. It held the keys to the wisdom gates. In the path to deep knowing, initiates has to confront the challenges that the Sphinx posed.

Meaning Of The Card: The Sphinx will not let you pass until you respond to her challenge. She asks: ‘How can you meet a challenge and prosper in all the aspects of your being?’ You can let yourself get torn down by challenge, or kicked and pounded or defeated, but how can you take the challenge and use its energy to nurture yourself? Have you been running from challenges all your life and now find you haven’t developed the energy or power to face them? Perhaps it is easier to ignore challenge and go on with self-limiting behavior. Or maybe you feel that life is all messed up. Whatever way you have been dancing with challenge in the past has to change. The greatest challenge in living is how you respond to challenges. The Sphinx says the only way to wholeness on your path is to meet your challenges face-to-face.”*

~by Amy Sophia Marashinsky and Hrana Janto

What if we looked forward to a challenge just like a soccer player looks forward to the game? What if we always embraced the opportunity to learn and to grow, with the courage and confidence that we really couldn’t lose? What would that feel like? IF we refused to back down, took on the challenge with gusto, a prize fighter itching to take on the opponent, an eager scientist searching for the cure? The mathematician solving the equation. There are so many ways to look at challenge.

We often fear that which we don’t understand. We assume that challenge will be difficult or painful; we fear the future that we can’t see. We stay stuck in what we know as it’s safe and secure. We doubt our ability to solve the puzzle.

This time, we take on the Sphinx. We accept the challenge. We solve the riddle. We move forward fearlessly.

Strong and whole and free.

Namaste

*Goddess Oracle Cards, by Amy Sophia Marashinsky and Hrana Janto