By Christine Payne-Towler
Tarot ArkLetter 56
October 17, 2009
For an introduction to the World Servers' Spread see ArkLetter 5
Today I am working with a 48-card pack of modern Spanish playing cards. This means, no Queens and no Trumps. My goal is to demonstrate the way a regular pack of playing cards can be used as a foreshortened Tarot. The box for this little pack says Playing Cards "Savina" (made in China).
In previous WSS articles I have employed other short-numbered card sets (see October and November 2007, March 2007). In those cases, the packs were created in the mode and shadow of Tarot usage -- they are oracle packs, bearing purpose-designed imagery to reinforce that application. In this case, however, we are using simple playing cards. It is essentially a Mamluk pack, only adapted to the European eye by being much plainer, and showing human forms on the "Kings and Viceroys" cards.
While I was scanning backwards through past WSS articles to find our previous instances of diminished card sets, the sheer weight of all the words I have dumped on you since 2005 came home to me. Blah, blah, blah, my dear friends! It’s astounding that you’ve sat through it all! So today, we're just going to look at the cards, make a few educated guesses (no LWB today) and then let it be. Catch and release, simple as that.
Oh yay! Good on us! The number 9 is considered fortunate in every mystical tradition because of its symmetry -- it is 3x3 or 3+3+3, illustrated as a cube of 3's (3 up, 3 wide). Plus, the optimistic look of these nine golden coins, with their regal profile of a goddess or noblewoman, hints of all good things.
On one of my decks (can't remember which) the 9 coins show nine pregnant women, a powerful fertility omen. Therefore I'm going to read this as a "best of all possible worlds" scenario, and suggest that we take this optimistic inflection with us as we read the next cards. Whatever else is going on, we need to assume that the Goddess is smiling on us from "above", and pouring out riches to support our growth.
It might require determined discipline of the imagination to interpret the present moment as ‘rich and full of everything necessary’, but that is our assignment. If it helps to see the coins as ‘raw materials’, go right ahead. Even a shower of gold coins is no guarantee against the need for hard work on our part, so don’t promise yourself the moon or get a swelled head about it.
Simply operate in trust that ‘life takes care of itself’, and then gratefully pick up your tools and respond in with whatever response seems appropriate.
Fool position: 2 Wands (red wand up)
The way this card is rendered, there is no reversal or uprightness. In the games played with these cards, direction of facing is not an issue, so there can be no intended separate meaning to the 2 of wands, reversed or otherwise. We are left to find meaning where we may. For our purposes, we can derive some sense of difference-value from the color of the upward-pointing wand once the card is laid on the table. Primordial associations with these two colors give us the hint that red equals animal blood and muscle, whereas green equals vegetable chlorophyll and wood. Hence, with the red wand upright, the suggestion is to "get moving; burn some calories and do something to change the world'.
The wand in this pack is being illustrated as Prometheus' club, which in the myth was hollowed out and then corked securely to convey coals from the heavenly fires to earth. There's a hint of subterfuge here, or 'tricking the Gods' which is a Mercurial function. The wands have always been the suit of hereditary rulers -- as opposed to cups as the priestly class, swords as the military class and coins as the merchants and landholders. Therefore one might pick up a whiff of brashness, advantage taking, and entitlement between the lines. This Fool rushes in where angels fear to tread precisely because it knows how the system works, and where the goodies are kept.
The number 2 also suggests an either/or choice coming into focus. Hence, on the one hand we could take a vegetative response and do nothing, simply holding our ground and seeing what happens. On the other hand, we could take a vigorous, animal response, pressing our agenda or at least fiercely defending our givens. Either way, it suggests that the old order is undergoing a change, and one will have to make some kind of life-affirming adaptation in one direction or another. Magus position: 3 Cups (reversed)
In this card, three covered cups enigmatically conceal their contents, although these cups are to some degree designed to evoke echoes of the communion cup or the Holy Grail. Upside down like this they look like spinning tops or Christmas tree decorations, a little gaudy and clown like. In most people’s book, the number three is harmonious, reminding us of a scales with two pans and a fulcrum between them, or three notes defining a musical chord. Even reversed, this card has a merry feeling, as befits the cups' celebratory implication. I envision a small group of friends at a tavern, raising their cups in a toast to their history together.
Because it is easy to see this card's orientation, we have to notice that it has fallen upside down. My sense of reversals is to say, "look within", assuming that the cause for the reversed card is to be found in the inner life rather than the outer. What does it mean when we are put in mind of "old friends", yet advised to "look within"? I think it means we are to make friends with our tried and true hobbies, our favorite old pastimes once again. Pick up you knitting, your whittling, and your instrument. Pack a bag with sketchpad, pencils and eraser and head off to the park. Take that camera phone out into the world and capture something exceptional. Or just tuck into the sofa for a long lazy afternoon with a book. The goal is to grant yourself the lovely and delicious feelings (brain chemistry = cups) that come from being wholly engrossed in something that you enjoy.
How long has it been since you stopped looking towards your housemates, your computer, your co-workers or your TV for entertainment? I think we are being advised to take refuge in our well-known, long-time favorite activities, so we can be in the position to make our own happiness whatever the outer world is up to. That doesn't sound so difficult, does it? This is a good time to practice self-sufficiency in the happiness department; self-consciously generating our own well being so we don't have to jump on anybody else's coattails to get our fix. If inn the process we manage to generate a little extra that we can pour out for others as well, so much the better. In a time of scarce money, scarce energy, and scarce well-being, we are likely to be more comfortable, and more likable as well, if we aren't just an "empty bucket” hanging around waiting to be filled by outside sources.
Also note that those cups we are looking at have lids for a reason -- they are designed to hold onto their contents. They are possessive, self-referenced and self-contained. Whatever mystery they contain, belongs to the one who filled the cups and sealed them. Now they function like canned goods in the pantry -- personal dreams, scarce ingredients, secret resources are safe in these containers, tucked away for a time of need. There's a nice secure feeling to know that, in the dark of the coming winter, one can break the seals and release the stored goodness they are holding, whether it's dinner, seeds for the garden or a little homebrew that warms the heart and brings the people closer together.
To summarize:
In the first position, the macrocosmic “heavens”, we have an affirmation of divine goodwill towards the whole creation and ourselves. There is enough, the 9 of Coins tells us. We can work with the materials at hand and fashion what we need. We are not being punished, but receiving our just rewards in divine right order.
In the second position, the mesocosmic “psyche”, we are reminded that we cannot abstain from participation in the transformations moving through. We have a choice of how we will participate, but not about whether we will. In a certain manner this is a relief to know, because that means we don’t have to waste time fighting against the tide. Whether we hold steady or strike out on a new course, we at least know that change has come and we too are changing with the times.
In the third position, the microcosmic “chopping wood/carrying water” position, we are being advised to have an interior, enclosed source of self-nourishment and self-affirmation that doesn’t depend upon outside input to be operative. Set aside certain things for a cushion, a bit of a buffer, in case the incoming season is harsh and you are thrown back on your own resources. Inventory what is important to you and keep the true necessities close at hand, remembering to think of your neighbor as well.
ArkLetter 56
October 17, 2009
copyright christine payne-towler 2005-2009, all rights reserved
Subscribe to the TAROT ARKLETTERS
Classes, Readings, and Private Sessions on personal and business matters
1-800-981-3582
TAROT ARKLETTERS are published by:
Christine Payne-Towler and Noreah Press
Tarot Interpretation & Charts
Tarot Reading text creation at Tarot.com
Bishop, Gnostic Church of St. Mary Magdalene
Founder: Tarot University Online
Author: The Underground Stream
Since the copyright information for images is radically inconsistent across the web (and even this site), we attempt (!) to attribute images where appropriate by placing a relevant link connecting the originating site when possible. Anyone objecting to the use of their image in this free publication can have it removed immediately - Ed.
Comments