Lovers Wisdom Reading

Well, I've really fallen behind in my wisdom reading assignment, but I'm going to try to catch up!  (Don't you hate it when work gets in the way of tarot?)

Lovers Wisdom Question:  Is there such a thing as true love in this world?  Which I’m defining as the experience of complete trust, selfless giving, grateful receiving, and physical attraction between two people.

I really want to know this and don’t have a preconception about what is the correct answer!

This reading came to me in fortune-telling style, so here you go:

0-Fool-Clear Quartz on Knight of Wands.  Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.  Love before you leap.  Love first, ask questions later.  Well begun is half done.  Love like you’ve never been hurt.  Faint heart never won fair maid (or dashing gent).  You get the idea.  There are no guarantees in the relationship biz.  You can’t expect someone else to commit just to make you comfortable enough to commit yourself!  This knight looks like he’s been shot out of a cannon.  He’s on a quest for love, but it’s not a sentimental journey.  It’s all about expending the energy and committing yourself without expecting anything in return.

13-Death-Mahogany Obsidian on Knight of Swords.  Over-thinking can cause love to die a-borning.  Here’s another knight.  He’s aiming in the right direction, but he’s going about it in the opposite (wrong) way.  (Both knights and horses are heading left, but the Knight of Wands is leaping up, while the Knight of Swords looks like he’s going down, even if it’s just because we’re looking at him from above.)  This knight wants to pin down what he’s feeling and experiencing with his two swords.  His hands aren’t free to hold the reins, let alone reach out to someone.  His mind is going a mile a minute (as fast as the birds beside him), but where is his heart going?  If he sees something he doesn’t like in the other person or the incipient relationship, his mind is not going to let the seeds of love germinate in his heart.  He looks like he’s going forward swiftly, but it’s in the wrong way.  He’s being penny wise and pound foolish by prudently avoiding a taste of trouble, when it might be something easily overcome on the way to a feast of love.  (Cliches are the specialty of the day, with a generous helping of mixed metaphors on the side!)

17-Star-Blue Lace Agate on 2 of Wands.  Finding true love requires faith and works.  Lots of people are sitting around wishing on a star that true love will find them.  2 of Wands (and the Knight of Wands) are saying we need to go out and find it!  2=force + Wands=energy + Mars in Aries--this card is all about action, action, action!  Do something, even if it’s wrong!  Star is here, not as a contrast, but as a plus:  While you’re acting, looking, and finding, keep hope alive for the truest of loves.  And don’t settle for anything less.  If you can dream it, you can be it.  True love is only possible if you believe in it, but believing isn’t enough.  It also takes the Foolishness of the Knight of Wands to go out and find it!

Well, that answers my question and opens my eyes.  I feel more hopeful just looking at the cards and stones!

Hierophant Wisdom Reading

Hierophant Wisdom Question:  What time-worn, clichéd truism should we take a closer look at?

Let’s get right to the clichés!

 

9-Hermit-Fluorite on the Ace of Disks.  Love of money is the root of all evil.  A hermit withdraws from normal, everyday concerns for a spiritual purpose.  That includes worries about material things and work for income to get hold of material things.  He not only avoids worry and claims on his time, he also avoids the temptation to value possessions over more important things, like people, learning and spiritual pursuits, and even his/her own health.  We householders walk a narrower line:  We have to get and have enough to live on and to provide for our families without letting the getting and spending take over our lives.  Yes, in our minds we know that money is just a means to an end, but a sense of security is oh so seductive!  And some of us go even further, to a taste for (dare we say love of?) status symbols, luxury, and all the rest.  And then who is really in charge, the person or the money?  A deep root of evil indeed!

10-Wheel-Botswana Agate.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  We always hear about how things are so different these days, and how everything is changing so fast, but, as I get older, I’m more and more struck with the fact that human nature is human nature.  Our circumstances change, but our responses to them stay in a pretty narrow rut throughout our lives, and throughout the range of humanity.  It takes a strong will and great energy to break out of “the way we’ve always done it.”  We just need to figure out which new circumstances require the old tried and true, and which need a whole new approach!

4-Emperor-Carnelian.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  I’m glad the Emperor is here again, because I so wanted to use this cliché in the previous post, but I couldn’t work it in!  I’m one of those poor innocents who is always shocked when I see examples of people doing anything, and I mean anything, to get some power, and, most of all, to keep whatever power they have.  Sometimes when watching the news, or reading history, for that matter, I get the feeling that the concepts of public service and personal integrity are just sad jokes perpetrated on the gullible.  Buddhism’s three poisons can be updated for the 21st century to be greed, lust for power, and an unlimited power for self-deception.  (Actually, these are the three poisons--craving, hatred, and ignorance!)

Well, we took a closer look!  I’m sure everyone knows these things, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that the well-known truth doesn’t cease being true!

Emperor Wisdom Reading

Emperor Wisdom Question:  What do we need to do to get some good world leadership around here?

This is the first time we have the stone of the question in the reading, and the first time we have two stones on one card.

4-Emperor-Carnelian and 12-Hanged One-Sodalite on Prince of Wands.  There are obvious color connections between the Emperor and the Prince of Wands.  And the Emperor stone landed right on the face of the Prince.  In brief, this combination means we need to wait (Hanged One) until a younger generation of energetic, active people are reading to take the reins of power.  The Prince is  moving forward in a chariot, unlike the solidly seated Emperor.  Hopefully, that means this younger generation of leaders will be more mobile in responding to issues and problems instead of being more concerned with maintaining the seat of power.  Now the Prince’s chariot is pulled by the Leo lion, so these aren’t going to be perfectly selfless people.  They will be concerned with status and looking good, but a concern with reputation is often an aid to correct behavior.  Hanged One says the waiting won’t be very comfortable.  We might feel like giving up hope.  But it’s probably right at that point that changes for the better come along. 

10-Wheel-Botswana Agate on 7 of Swords.  There will always be hidden motivations, for money and power, of friends and enemies, that leaders have to deal with.  Different times bring different challenges, but good leaders can juggle the needs of the larger group and special interest groups in a way that will get done what needs to be done.

Well, once again, an answer I really wasn’t expecting.  It is encouraging to think that we can have hope in a new generation of potential leaders.  I’m often impressed with the tolerance and open-mindedness of my son’s generation compared to ours.  I hope this reading is correct that we will be impressed with their leadership skills, too!

Empress Wisdom Reading

Empress Wisdom Question:  What do we need to know about the upsurge in interest in the divine feminine (since the 1980s)?

Disks and swords, and the Priestess, just what we should have expected.  No cups, though.

16-Tower-Red Jasper on 5 of Disks.  Well, this is kind of a shocker for such a “touchy-feely” question!   But I think it is answering the question by telling us what we need to know.  Fortune-telling style:  Putting physical concerns above spiritual ones (5 of Disks) will be the downfall (Tower) of feminine spirituality.  The 5 of Disks shows an inverted pentagram, so that the four elements are placed above the fifth element of spirit.  (On each disks is a tattwa, the Indian symbols for the elements, so this is stated very plainly.)  It looks like the gears in the background are cracking under pressure.  Behind the cracks is fire, the cause of the destructive pressure.  The fiery Tower brings the destructive aspect right to the foreground!  I might be prejudiced here, but I don’t think the emphasis of groundedness, ecology, and health is the physical concern that is the problem here.  It’s more likely to be the “abundance” and wish fulfillment focus that today’s teachers, whether sincere or cynical, are putting into new age and feminist spirituality.  Honoring the earth and the human body doesn’t mean only caring about comfort (especially the comfort of a cushiony bank account).  The whole downfall thing might seem a bit dramatic, but the stones are saying that, not me!  Looks like it’s time to bring the focus back the unpopular traditionally feminine values of unconditional love, softness, nurturing, and sacrifice.  Mercury in Taurus points out that you are what you communicate.  So Tower says be careful what you say; it might come back to bite you!

0-Fool-Clear Quartz on 4 of Swords.  Here is the 4 of Swords again meaning closed mind.  I think this combination is saying that one of the enduring gifts of feminist spirituality is its teaching on questioning everything you hear, as the Fool does.  A truly open, questioning mind trumps a conventionally closed one every time.  What is seen cannot be unseen.  (But an open mind can be gradually closed by complacency and concessions to conformity.)  Feminism’s mind boggling switches of what is denigrated to something of value were foreshadowed by the Christian ideas of the cornerstone rejected by the builders and the cross itself (an instrument of torture becoming a symbol the highest transcendence), as well as by Crowley’s promotion of the whore of Babylon and great beast to ultimate deity status.   When questioning and reversal of values become the highest values themselves, spiritual authenticity wins.  (Think of shocking Zen masters and Sufism’s crazy wisdom.)

2-Priestess-Moonstone on Ace of Disks.  This combination is giving us a way forward from the Towery one.  What is needed is a lot of soul searching and deep reflection on the true meaning of feminine, and especially earth and matter, centered spirituality.  While I feel very strongly that that we need to turn away from the perennial and new age tendency to totally devalue matter as negative or even an evil to uproot on the way to higher, more pure, white light spirit, it is important to know exactly what you are valuing when you say or act on valuing materiality and earthly life.  It’s a narrow line, even a razor’s edge, to tread, but the Priestess, that is, our own inner knowing of the truth when we hear or feel it, can lead us aright.

Well, when I asked the question, I was totally not expecting a grim warning, followed by advice to come up with a solution on our own!  But I did ask what we need to know!  Tarot is always full of surprises and much-needed nudges, if we will only pay attention to them!

Priestess Widsom Reading

Priestess Wisdom Question: 

How can we get a look behind your veil of light, travel across the desert to a higher realm, and grow into what we are supposed to be?  (Take a look at the Priestess’s veil, camel, and potentially perfect seeds, fruits, and crystals.)

In other words, what is the best way to learn what is truly true by listening to wisdom within (without our needs and wants leading us astray)?

I don’t want to take us too far into Thoth (or Kabbalah) territory, but I am struck that we ended up with the two minor cards that are most closely tied to major cards in the Thoth. 

The Queen of Cups is very similar to the Priestess, as you can see.  Same colors, and she has her own veil of light (with a swirl and downward curve, instead of the Priestess’s lemniscates and upward curve).  In these readings, I have been removing the cards that don’t have stones land on them, but I automatically left the Queen in the reading, probably because subconsciously I saw that she belongs here!  More about her below.

The 9 of Wands is closely related to Art (the Temperance card of the Thoth).  It shows the kabbalistic path from the moon to the sun that Art is also assigned to.  And that leads us to:

5-Hierophant-Orange Calcite on 9 of Wands.  Organized religion and traditional scriptures and teachings are a very good place to start on our journey to the Truth.  They can take us on the straight path from the moon (Yesod) to the sun (Tiphareth), which is the middle of the Tree of Life, half way to the top, complete understanding of the Divine!  As I mentioned, that path is the path of Art/Temperance.  So we might need to take traditional religion with a small grain of salt (in moderation) in order to get that far.  Also, traditional material has to be worked with intentionally if you want to use it for self-transformation.  Singing hymns every Sunday, or reading lots of Zen koans, is not going to get you where you want to go!  Using those things as ingredients in your alchemical chemistry set just might!

It’s interesting that there is no straight path from Tiphareth to the highest place (Crown, Kether) on the Tree.  It is said that this non-path gap, the desert, can only be crossed by the Priestess’s camel.

So all this means that conventional means will get you somewhere, even half way there, but not to the top, not behind the veil of the Priestess.

 

Stepping back from the heights a bit, Queen of Cups says that sometimes the best spiritual quest is simply “know thyself.”  She is all about emotions, and reflecting on emotions.  (The entire bottom third of the card is a reflection of the top two-thirds.)  Knowing your own motivations and feelings--and shadow--might be the greatest truth that you need at any given time.

12-Hanged One-Sodalite on 10 of Swords.  10 of Swords is the shadow side of the Hierophant.  10 (too much) plus swords (ideas) equals fanaticism or at least fundamentalism, when concepts are more important than people--or the truth!  We’re all familiar with people who claim to know the truth, but their truth is simply what they want to believe.  They have made God in their own image.  A Hanged One experience might be just what the doctor (karma? fate?) ordered to help them/us let go of the fundamentalist illusion and see everything differently. 

13-Death-Mahogany Obsidian landed to the side near the middle row of cards.  I thought of this when thinking about the question:  Will we only know the Truth after death, or between lives, or after many lives?   Some say that humans are the only animals that know their own death is coming.  (I’m not sure that’s true.)  But that kind of self-awareness, and the ability to be aware of morality and compassion, knowing that everyone is going to experience this final(ish) destination, is an advantage that humans have over other animals.  Living without being completely driven by instinct or survival concerns is the baseline to begin our journey to the truth.

So the answer is:  Organized religion is not the devil in this piece, even though it has the potential to be.  It can only get us so far, but with the help of that experience, we might have the clues we need to go stronger, higher, faster toward the top, with the Priestess as our inner guide.

Magician Wisdom Reading

Magician Wisdom Question:  What are the advantages and disadvantages of using magic, as opposed to other forms of spirituality?

I’ve always been a bit leery of the actual practice of magic:  casting spells, ceremonial magic, summoning angels or demons, spiritualism.  (Obviously, that doesn’t carry over into divination, so maybe I’m just splitting hairs!)  I wonder if using spiritual means to more or less physical ends incurs unnecessary karma, or is just not quite the right way to do things.  Thus my question.  But I didn’t want to skew things too much to my overly cautious take, so I tried to make the question neutral.

And here’s the reading:

First of all, the stones seem to be the right ones for the question:  Justice, Hierophant, and Chariot--karma, tradition, and spiritual path.  Now let’s see where they landed.

11-Justice-Aventurine on 4 of Swords.  Oh, snap!  A slam to me from the cards!  Four (en)closed plus Swords mind = closed mind!  My ideas of karma and justice are too limited!  Looking at the image of the card, magic is an organized, carefully crafted, way of pointing to the Truth with a capital while keeping much of the chaos of life out of the picture.  Yes there is organization and things that make sense “out there,” but magic brings ideas and ideals down to a human scale.  The colors of the 4 of Swords and the Magician card and the Justice stone are all very similar, medium blue with splashes of green and yellow, which make sense because they are all Air, all about mind. 

4 of Swords is Jupiter in Libra, and Justice is Libra.  This is saying that Justice is not really in the eye of the beholder, but is in the heart of the individual (Magician).  Jupiter says if you think what you are doing really is for the best for yourself and everyone, then it probably is.  Intention is what’s important, not the specific things the magician actual do.

5-Hierophant-Orange Calcite on Knight/King of Swords.  [Very brief explanation:  In the Thoth, traditional kings are called knights and ride horses, and traditional knights are called princes, and ride chariots.]  Tradition and spiritual teachers know and teach that magic can be an appropriate spiritual path for Knight/King of Swords types.  They are fire of air, people who like/need to follow an intellectual path with their full force.  This reminds me of tantra (which I’m just learning a little about), which consists of elaborate scenes and visions carefully and energetically built solely with and in the practitioners mind. 

The king’s horse and the Hierophant are a similar color, suggesting that traditional teachings are an appropriately swift vehicle for a study- and learning-minded aspirant.

7-Chariot-Amethyst landed below the group of cards (wanting to be read on its own!).  It’s here to tell us that the right spiritual path depends on who is following it.  It’s up to each individual to know what is the path that will take him/her forward.  The Cancer connection is a subtle hint to me that if I’m uncomfortable with a certain way, then by all means be cautious (even self-protective) around it.  (I’m an emotional but cautious Cancer sun.)  But I shouldn’t let my impression of what probably isn’t right for me cause me to denigrate a perfectly acceptable practice.  Just because it doesn’t work for the Queen of Cups doesn’t mean it’s not good for the King of Swords!

Well, I feel like I’ve learned something today. 

My attitude will be just a bit different than it was about the practice of magic, thanks to the Magician himself!

22 Days of Wisdom Readings

And the Fool Reading

I was able to sustain 12 days of posts for Christmas, so I’m going for 22 days this time.  My assignment is to ask a “wisdom question,” a kind of philosophical or spiritual exploration, for each of the majors, and answer them with Arcana Stones on tarot minors readings.

So here’s wisdom reading number, well, zero!

Fool Wisdom Question:  Will the world ever be able to fulfill its potential to be a better place to live for all people?  I know suffering will never be completely eradicated in this world, but we have so much, and the ability to do so many things.  Will this potential go toward a better life for people, or in some other not as desirable direction?

I laid out 9 minors from my trimmed pocket Thoth in magic square order, and then dropped 3 Arcana Stones on them.  I read only the cards on which a stone landed.

1-Magician-Chiastolite on Ace of Cups.  It takes effort, planning, communication, and organization to create and sustain universal love.  Even though it’s “just” an emotion, it doesn’t just happen.  Really wise and clever people have been working on this problem for a long time.  And we can’t get complacent that talking about it (loving and caring for everyone) is doing it.

18-Moon-Mother of Pearl on 3 of Cups.  In fact, the concept of the brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity is just a pleasant but impossible illusion.  People will always put themselves and their own families, country, or co-religionists first, before any ideas of what is good for ALL people. 

14-Temperance-Rose Quartz on 9 of Cups.  But that’s not because humans are naturally evil.  They are naturally natural, that is, animals.  We have evolved to think of, care for, and do for our own first, as a matter of survival.  It’s up to this and later generations to realize that taking care of everyone and the earth itself is now the path to survival.  9 of Cups is the wishing card.  If a whole lot of people moderate (Temperance) their wishes and wants to something more sustainable, we could possibly be on the path of fulfilling our potential, and allowing more people on earth the chance to fulfill their own potentials. 

But that’s going to take the ingenuity and perseverance of lots of Ace of Cups Magicians today and in the future. 

I’ve always wondered if things are getting better, or we’re just going in cycles, or things are and always were bad.  This reading makes me think that human nature is human nature, so things definitely won’t get better on their own, and they might not, even if lots of us try.  But if lots AND LOTS of us try, improvement is at least possible.

Check in tomorrow for the Magician wisdom reading!