With the 8 of diamonds you are invited to be ready for surprising turns. No time for blinders! Let your project grow wings and expose it to the wind. Start every day anew, open yourself to new impulses. Learn, grow in everything you do.

Mojud - A Sufi Story Full of Surprises

There was once a man named Mojud. He lived in a town where he had obtained a post as a small official, and it seemed likely that he would end his days as inspector of weights and measures.

One day when he was walking through the gardens of an ancient building near his home, Khidr, the mysterious guide of the Sufis, appeared to him, dressed in shimmering green. Khidr said, „man of bright prospects! Leave your work and meet me at the riverside in three days’ time.“ Then he disappeared.
Mojud went to to his superior in trepidation and said that he had to leave.

Everyone in the town soon heard of this and they said, „poor Mojud! He has gone mad.“ But, as there were many candidates for his job, they soon forgot him.
On the appointed day, Mojud met Khidr, who said to him, „get rid of you clothes and trow yourself into the stream. Perhaps someone will save you.“

Mojud did so, even though he wondered if he were mad.
Since he could swim, he did not drown, but drifted a long way before a fisherman hauled him into his boat, saying, „foolish man! The current is strong. What are you trying to do?“ Mojud said, „I don’t really know.“
Your are mad,“ said the fisherman, but I will take you into my reed-hut by the river Yonder, and we shall see what can be done for you.“
When he discovered that Mojud was well-spoken, he learned from him how to read and write. In exchange, Mojud was given food and helped the fisherman with his work. After a few months, Khidr again appeared, this time at the foot of Mojud’s bed, and said, „get up now and leave this fisherman. You will be provided for.“

Mojud immediately quit the hut, dressed as a fisherman, and wandered about until he came to a highway.
As dawn was breaking he saw a farmer on a donkey on his way to market. „Do you seek work?“, asked the farmer, „because I need a man to help me bring back some purchases.“

Mojud followed him. He worked for the farmer for nearly two years, by which time he had learned a great deal about agriculture but little else.

One afternoon when he was baling wool, Khidr appeared to him and said, „leave that work, walk to the city of Mosul, and use your savings to become a skin-merchant.“
Mojud complied.

In Mosul he became known as a skin-merchant, never seeing Khidr while he plied his trade for three years. He had saved quite a large sum of money, and was thinking of buying a house, when Khidr appears and said, „give me your money, walk out of this town as far as the distant Samarkand, and work for a grocer there.“

Mojud did so.
Presently he began to show undoubted sings of illumination. He healed the sick, served his fellow man in
the shop during his spare time, and his knowledge of the mysteries became deeper and deeper.

Clerics, philosophers and others visited him and asked, „under whom did you study?“
„It is difficult to say“, said Mojud.
His disciples asked, „how did you start your career?“
He said, „as a small official.“ „And you gave it up to devote yourself to self-mortification?“
„No, I just gave it up.“ They did not understand him.

People approached him to write the story of his life.
„What have you been in your life?“, they asked.
„I jumped in a river, became a fisherman, then walked out of his reed-hut in the middle of the night. After that, I became a farmhand. While I was baling wool, I changed and went to Mosul, where I became a skin-merchant. I saved some money there, but gave it away. Then I walked to Samarkand where I worked for a grocer. And this is where I am now.“

Practical for you:

• you get down to work
• you are reliable
• you appreciate small progress
• the next step is revealed to you from the step you have just taken
• you are in harmony with what is happening and do not let yourself be rushed
• regarding your work you stand with both feet on the ground
• you recognise the signs, the help, the 'coincidences' that come to you from outside

Understanding were words fail - or:
The Little One with the Cleaning Rag

" Hey, Mom, what is the meaning of 'work'?"

My son, who was barely two years old at the time, surprised me with this question. Stunned, I sat there and kept quiet. He was sitting on his colorful high chair at breakfast and eating his honey bread with pleasure. His clear eyes shone with curiosity. With a direct gaze he waited for an answer, so natural it seemed to him, because I was the big one who always knew everything. I stared at the red fire engine on the table. Emptiness in my head. We were alone on this sunny spring morning. "Come on, let's find out!", I said to him after the pause in my thoughts, lifting him out of the highchair.

I handed him a damp rag and we began wiping down the table. On we went to the bathroom, where we cleaned the sink of hair and toothpaste residue. "And now?", I asked him. "Where do you want the rag to go from here?" He climbed higher on the stool and wiped splatters from the mirror. Then we stalked further into the living room. With detective eyes, he spotted crumbs on the coffee table. Even the few water stains on the parquet disappeared with his magic cloth.
"Now I'm going to play," he said suddenly. He dropped the cloth and away he went.

I stood there and was amazed. Obviously, the little one had understood something.