By Christine Payne-Towler
January 2007 - Tarot Arkletters
For an introduction to the World Servers' Spread see ArkLetter 5
What happens when things fall apart? How can people get better at falling together at such times?
Everybody
I know is finding themselves stopping on a dime, turned inside out,
making an unexpected detour, awakening on unexpected turf, or otherwise
flummoxed by the current cast of events. Apparently, our "givens"
were only true in our imaginations. Reality has outstripped our most
fertile fantasies, for good as well as for ill. How to integrate
ourselves now that we are spinning in infinity?
I picked up my dear and comforting Tarot of the Master, the old Vachetta deck that I have in the green-bordered, pastel-colored edition (sorry, folks, can't quote the publisher right now.) Sometimes the little one-word notes printed on this deck will surprise me, so I thought it apt for today's question. I shuffled it very well, introducing reversals with every shuffle. In their wisdom the cards chose to take advantage of that -- all three of our positions are filled with reversed cards. Right off the bat we can see that our instructions will be geared towards our interior climate and attitudes. That seems just about right for the "pit" of winter, when the nights are still considerably longer than the days, and everybody's energy is focused on hibernation, survival and keeping the home fires lit.
World position: 7 Coins reversed
This is the card of the agriculturalist. Therefore, in this position, we are looking at Goddess the farmer, cultivating Her fields. Think of Gaea, Rhea, Ceres, Demeter and other Earth Mothers. You can include any divine manifestation that is watching over the lives in the land, in the water, the whole population of the Earth (as opposed to taking care of the humans only). The title Pride expresses the hard work and cultivation that is the farmer's daily experience, and the source of self-esteem when the harvest is bountiful and the land increases in fertility. The land and its cultivator become one, as expressed through every detail of the farmer's care and loving attention.
One reflects immediately upon one's own life in the presence of this concept. Have I been wasting my time/energy? Is it getting too easy to be distracted away from my primary focus and reason for existing? Am I exerting my best efforts in those areas where I get my main self-esteem? What are the cumulative effects of my actions leading up to? What is the crop that I am cultivating during this period of my life?
Next it's time to consider the reason for this reversal. This placement highlights how few people treat their inner lives with as much attention as they spend when they cultivate their garden, or furnish their homes, or collect toys, or whatever else people find to pour their time and life force into. This card asks the question -- what if the Divine One was as inattentive of our existence are we are of the tremendous living, conscious matrix in which we live and move and have our daily being? Why do we take this enormous, lush and sentient Garden of Eden so for granted? Why do we persist in carrying on as if we were invisible, as if our activities have no consequences or ramifications on other lives around us?
It seems the message here is one of focused application -- connect with all the lives you are intertwined with, stay sensitive to the wake you leave both intentional and unintentional, and take your cues from Great Nature as to what chores to do in what order. You are in possession of a fertile field of manifestation called your mind. Pay attention to what seeds you sow there, tend them faithfully, and keep your guard up against usurpers. You will get the crop that you concentrate on, so if you don't like the thoughts you are growing there, weed and prune and replant and fertilize and weed some more, then look at how your life is changing. We are all a work in progress; so never quit tending this garden.
Fool position; 5 of cups reversed
I have often thought of this card as the "tantrum" card. We are mad at God and don't care who knows it. We are likely to pick fights with everything, including Nature and our own unconscious. Sometimes we are actively hostile, and sometimes we are blackly brooding, but in general there's too much bile and vitriol for comfort in this card. With enough stressors applied, there's a chance of inflicting some damage to oneself if control is surrendered and impulse is unleashed. We have all found ourselves here, in the state of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face.
A standard approach to this card is the "don't cry over spilled milk" advice -- what's gone is gone, so there's no use hanging around grieving its passage forever. There's still two cups filled to the brim with blessing, so it's advised that we get going while the going is still good. The number five is so inherently stressful and unstable that there's no promise extended with the having of the five cups that guarantees keeping all five of them. Following the role model of Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With The Wind, tell yourself that you'll "cry tomorrow", and move as quickly as possible to get to the next stage.
The title Ritual that attaches to this card suggests a sacrifice to the spirits, as in the concept that the first fruits of any endeavor should be placed on the altar of God and ritually burned, or consumed, or otherwise expended towards the welfare of the temple. It is not appropriate to mourn this relinquishment, or begrudge this tithe to the Ancestor Spirits. It is only fitting that those who brought us here should get the first helping of everything good, even if that means charring the most exquisite productions to ash to send them to the spirit world for the Ancestor's enjoyment. There will always be more beauties of the earth to choose from.
This card is in the Fool position, the transitional state between the worlds; therefore it's implying that despite our extremely strong preference for prediction and control, we are always being exposed to risks, many of them entirely out of our control. In the long overview, nobody is exempt from a standard percentage of setbacks.
Looking back to the values of antique astrology, the rulerships of the signs were enmeshed in mutual relationships of sympathy and antipathy, exaltation and fall, prominence and detriment. Then as now, each planet has realms of the zodiac that it traverses comfortably, whereas in other realms the going will be rough and there's no remedy for it. This teaching is mirrored in human experience -- just by having an individuated presence in space and time, there will be situations in which we will be comfortable, and other situations in which we can't flourish no matter what we do. The world is full of strong attractions and strong repulsions, and it is wise to pay attention to all of them, at least to understand where they are coming from and what they mean to us personally.
With this card being reversed, the most likely scenario is that we have all "been there, done that", regarding the tendency to have a tantrum and blame externals for our challenges. As a result of past experience, we can choose to have more balanced responses to our circumstances now. The luxury of being pessimistically consumed with a negative worldview belongs to the young and self-centered. When we get older and wiser, we realize that we can't afford to squander so much life force on a negative object of thought. Perhaps we never could. The truly sane among us know that holding onto resentment and hurt is futile, since it ties up so much energy that we should be spending differently. Feeling doomed, feeling abandoned, feeling victimized or feeling ruined can be educational in a morbid kind of way -- you learn very clearly what you want to avoid in the future, for instance! -- but it's nothing to wallow in once one has got the lesson. There are very few rewards for a full-blown case of the "5 of cups blues", so do what you can to avoid getting caught up in that range of feelings.
The thought occurs that perhaps the reversal of this card is saying, "Be clear on what you don't want so you can steer away from it." There's nothing wrong with admitting and defending both your desires and/or your dislikes. Think about it -- you have a right to your revulsions just as surely as you have to your loves! If something feels wrong, looks wrong, sounds wrong and/or tastes wrong, spit it out and investigate the problem! We are not designed to be unilaterally open to everything equally. Some experiences would be scarring or unhealthy to go through, some losses would be untenable to allow. If something in your life is rousing a non-negotiable "NO!" from your deepest self, it's probably time to take that seriously.
Let's read the reversed Five of Cups in the Fool position as having outgrown all forms of self-victimization via hostile irritation about our circumstances of the moment. Choose instead to spend the energy staying open to what good can come of it all. By keeping your attention on the areas where an optimistic outcome is still possible, you can overcome the tendency to let a temporary setback spoil your infinite potential.
Magus position; King of Wands reversed.
Hold your fire! The suit of wands is generally incendiary, catalytic and energizing. Due to these qualities, it has a tendency to leap to conclusions, go off half-cocked, and get ahead of itself. The speed at which it induces changes in the environment can be dizzying and disorienting, downright chaotic. But here we have the sovereign in the realm, the King of Fire, so I expect to see some wisdom and perhaps more self-awareness than the average fire card can muster.
Being in the Magus position gives this card the prominence that our own egos have in our personal worlds. The truth is, if we are going to get anything done in the objective universe, we have to drag our visage, our form, and our personality along with us to enact the necessary steps in space/time. We cannot live a life and yet never be contacted, seen or judged.
With the name Nobility, we can be assured that this King is very aware of how he is coming off in other people's view. Thus he is correspondingly aware of the need for everybody to live by common rules that help us all "save face". Moving through community, business, and political interactions smoothly from one day to the next is a kind of social currency, adding richness and contentment to an otherwise mundane life. Harmonious social interactions reduce the amount of friction leading to violence and roughness among the people, as well as increasing their cooperation towards the common good over the long haul. In respect of this goal, the King of Wands encourages his people to engage in ritualized collective functions such as festivals, dances and pageants, of the type where every person has a place in the action, but no one has too much room to extemporize and upset the formal pattern.
According to the reversal, this King wants to proceed with dignity towards a face-saving outcome for all, even in difficult circumstances. Being a subtle diplomat and smooth operator, he prefers to get business done in a recreational atmosphere where everybody is having fun, rather than lock the business away in warehouses and accounting rooms. He has class, he appreciates the fruits of culture, and he understands how to win by flattery and strategic affinities what he could never win by war. His style is to induct workers and partners into his extended family, creating an ever-expanding network of courtliness and hospitality up and down the classes as well as across the land. This King gives his people reasons to come together and celebrate in exchange for their loyalty and their labor. In the end, they identify their own well being with their ruler's, an enviable position for the King and one that he maintains with aplomb.
If there is advice to be gleaned from this card in this position and retrograde, it is that sometimes our community needs its leaders to let the little people shine and have their "15 minutes of fame". The abundant and generous King of Wands sponsors the jousts that bring crowds of revelers into the village, engendering a brisk market in the town square and bringing prosperity to the folk who work and live in the shadow of the castle. Yes, all will credit the king, but in the process every participant is getting a chance to show off their special skills and abilities under the social spotlight of hosting strangers in town. Culture is created at such occasions, when different tribes can meet in peace and enjoy each other's music, food, styles and goods. Consider yourself the "head servant of the realm" and ask yourself how you can help the people around you experience their collective cultural richness to a greater degree.
To Sum Up
The question was about how to fall together even if things all around us are falling apart. The answers seem to be fairly clear. First, make a lifestyle of feeding your head thoughts that are inspiring, growth-oriented and nourishing. Cultivate your personal potential for stubborn optimism, and greet each new development with an open mind. By refusing to cultivate negativity, we can go a long way towards staying open to a more positive direction.
Second, don't let the moment's contingencies lure you into the cheap distraction of feeling sorry for yourself, feeling victimized or feeling abandoned by life. Those kinds of feelings are far more likely to be recapitulations of old, historical dramas than they are likely to be true in the moment. Grant yourself the right to see things differently than you have in the past, and stay open to a new interpretation. With enough objectivity you might even come to see why the supposed setback was the best thing that could have happened.
Third, appreciate the gifts of those around you. Become a genius at recognizing other people's genius. Look for ways you can affirm, endorse, and applaud the specialness of each person who crosses your path. Learn to really enjoy the diversity and unequalled creativity of human expression. Consider that it is God's great amusement to create an infinite variety of individuals, no two alike across the whole creation. When you can look with pleasure, humor and acceptance upon every soul you encounter, you will never lack for allies no matter what happens to this world.
Blessings to all on this NewMoon in Capricorn, 2007.
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The TAROT ARKLETTERS are published by:
Christine Payne-Towler
Research: Esoteric Tarot, Literature and Practice; Tarot.com
Publisher, The Tarot Arkletters
Bishop, Gnostic Church of St. Mary Magdalene
Founder: Tarot University;
Author: The Underground Stream;
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