Tower Wisdom Reading

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.
            “Anthem,” Leonard Cohen

How do I let the light in?

6-Lovers-Rhodochrosite.  Love is the answer.  The light is love, and love is light.  A broken open heart lets the light in only if love is still within it.  Suffering is redemptive only if it causes compassion.  And don’t forget love and compassion for oneself, of the past, present, and future.

The striations of Lovers-Rhodochrosite once again say this is a world of opposites--pain and love, suffering and light.  And there is never one without the other. 

Feared and despised Tower gives us a perennial opportunity to be perfect in our imperfection.

Devil Wisdom Reading

Why does evil exist?

There are many formulations of the “problem of evil,” some presupposing an all-powerful and all-merciful deity.  (If God loves everyone and can do anything, then why does he allow bad things to happen to people?)  But my question is more encompassing, with fewer assumptions:  Why is there evil or bad things at all?  Why do people do things to hurt other people (sometimes on a spectacular scale), and why are there earthquakes and tsunamis that kill and destroy?

While I was gently pouring the stones back forth and between my hands and thinking of the question, 20-Judgment-Petrified Wood pretty much jumped out of the pile to the table.  I thought it probably needs some back-up, so I dropped two more stones near it,  which turned out to be 3-Empress-Malachite and 12-Chariot-Amethyst.

Judgment makes me think of the Christian idea that this life is a vale of tears, just a testing place for souls headed to some other eternal destination.  Evil exists because that’s what humans are destined for.  To be tested.  Doesn’t really sound like the work of a merciful God, but maybe it’s tough love.  Just as a teenager thinks she can’t bear the agony of missing the party of the year while her father knows that grounding her on that Saturday night is the best thing he can do for her growth.    

Buddhism also teaches that this world is a mixed bag of good and bad for a reason.  We are lucky to live in this world because there’s just enough suffering for us to realize that we want to try to be released from the endless round of birth and death, but not so much suffering that we are unable to find the right way or have an opportunity to try it. 

And probably all religions teach that most evil in the world is caused by people who are doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons, hurting other people in the process.

But Judgment says that’s not the way it is everywhere, all the time.  There is a higher level we can rise to.  There is a heaven or a deathless realm or a nirvana, above or surrounding or within this world of bad things happening to good people.  And the best way to get there is to try to create it where we are right now, beginning within ourselves.

Empress backs all this up by saying, life itself is a mixture of good and bad (especially from the individual organism’s viewpoint).  Humans are born in pain and usually die in pain.  There has to be death in order for there to be life.  Living things eat and are eaten.  The same operations of the planet that make life possible also make weather and geological disasters inevitable.  This world, by its very nature, is a vale of tears--and joys.

Chariot says “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”  (Winston Churchill)  “The only way out is through.”  We’re here in this world of tears and joy, so we have to live by its rules.  Our choices are despair and give up or do the best we can with what we’ve got. 

So I guess the answer to the question of evil is “That’s just the way it is.  Live with it.”  But there is the intimation of something better, something greater, if we keep going in the right direction.

Temperance Wisdom Reading

Temperance wisdom question:  What opposites most need to reconciled at this time in our culture?

I decided to drop two stones and hope they are opposites or could be made to be!

And I got 18-Moon-Mother of Pearl and 8-Fortitude-Tiger Eye.  Interesting and, yes, arguably opposite pair. 

We need to reconcile illusion and imagination with surface appearances and materialism.

Imagination is a wonderful thing.  We need to be able to dream and visualize possibilities before we can pursue them and make changes to the way things are.  But often in our culture, our dreams and imagined worlds (and goals) are manipulated to serve someone else’s agenda (to sell something, or some other, more power-hungry agenda).  That’s when we need a good dose of reality, often of the surface appearance kind.  (If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck . . .)

On the other hand, scientific materialism is the superstition of our age.  If an M.D. doesn’t agree with it, it can’t be possible.  Religion is the opiate of the masses.  Or at least more than a little kooky.  You get the idea. 

A negative (nefarious?) reconciliation of these opposites was the perpetration of the global warming denial hoax.  Smoke and mirrors, bought with very deep pockets and untold political influence, were able to blind people to the plain scientific truth just long enough so that there’s nothing that can be done to prevent serious repercussions.  So we might as well burn the climate and environment down.  (Hopefully, that’s another illusion that we can awaken from . . .)

A positive reconciliation would be a society that values the two truths, those of imagination and the spirit and those of science and reality.  We can dream of a world in which most people live in comfort and justice.  Then we can think of and act on a sensible, solid, practical way to make that a reality. 

Stranger things have happened!

Death Wisdom Reading

I modified my “All-Purpose Four Position Spread” to ask Death wisdom questions:

 

(Questioner) What do we currently think and feel about Death?  5-Hierophant-Orange Calcite.

Most people hold very traditional, accepted ideas about death.  In many cultures, including our own, people who pride themselves on their clear and independent minds, as well as people who avoid religion and spiritual ideas all their lives, are still tradition-bound when it comes to dealing with funerals and the death of friends and family.  It might be superstition, or an inability to buck societal norms at a vulnerable time, or an unwillingness to seem disrespectful, but traditional funeral practices and related religious rites are still usually the norm.  For some people, the death of a friend might bring openness to spiritual, religious, or, as Jane Austen calls them, “serious subjects.”  On the other end of the spectrum, but just as in line with the Hierophant, some people don’t think much about death, except to believe what modern scientific culture teaches, that when you’re dead, you’re dead, and it doesn’t mean anything except that you’re an animal just like other animals.  As with most extremes, I think you’ll agree the truth is somewhere in between!

 

(Issue) What do we need to know about Death?  21-Universe-Onyx.

Death is universal.  Not only do living things die, but everything in existence is guaranteed, sooner or later, to be in non-existence.  Death, as the impermanence of all things, be they animals, plants, mountains, works of art, cultures, etc., is a fundamental basis of the universe.  The Buddhist three marks of existence are impermanence, suffering, and nonself.  This great philosophical truth, one of the greatest of “serious subjects” to be contemplated, can be simply summed up as “nothing lasts forever”!  Easy to say, much more difficult to understand, know, and act on.

 

(Outcome) What will this new understanding lead to?  0-Fool-Clear Quartz.

As we turn from the fullness of the Universe to the emptiness of the Fool, a greater understanding of the truth of impermanence leads us not only the Fool’s openness to new “serious” ideas and feelings, but also a family feeling with all other beings of the universe, whether conventionally categorized as living or non-living, for we are all caught up in the dance of existence and non-existence.  “Ask not for whom the bell tolls.  It tolls for thee.”  And thee, and me.  “This too shall pass” is a comfort to those in trouble, and “nothing lasts forever” can be a key to the freedom of thought and action of the Fool.  Whether one believes in the current new age teachings of reincarnation or not, it’s hard not to be inspired by the idea of a Foolish newly-about-to-born soul gaily embarking on a new, fresh life, simply for the joy of  learning from all the happinesses and sorrows that every life contains.  A greater understanding of death inevitably leads to a greater understanding of life and all it holds.

 

(Advice) What should we do about this new understanding?  16-Tower-Red Jasper.

Tower as advice.  Always an interpretation challenge.  But I look at its positional relationship with the Hierophant and see that just because a teaching is traditional doesn’t mean that it isn’t true, or at least good advice.  The Tower catastrophes of life, especially the Death ones of indefinite, often devastatingly unexpected, separation from friends and family, or even compassion for the similar suffering of strangers, are opportunities to appreciate and enjoy what we have now, without grasping on to wanting it to last forever.  It’s such a difficult lesson to learn, but it does make us think:  What would I do today if I only had six months to live?  As you know, none of us are guaranteed even that.  And you know the advice:  Live each day as if it were your last.  Be just as happy, good, loving, and compassionate as you can be every day!

Hanged One Wisdom Reading

Hanged One Wisdom Question:  It’s said that to enjoy fiction we must willingly suspend our disbelief.  Well, what should we willing suspend in order to have a better, happier life?

I tossed three stones and ended up with an obvious top to bottom order.  There doesn’t seem to be much repetitiveness in color or transparency, but we do have opposites in meaning, Hermit and Lovers, in opposite positions (top and bottom), with Judgment in between.

9-Hermit-Fluorite.  We should suspend the idea that we are alone in the world, or that we have to act alone in order to be strong and effective.  No man is an island.  We shouldn’t believe, and it’s just not true, that what we do affects only ourselves.  There are no victimless crimes, and there is no real comfort in “if I’m doing something wrong, I’m only hurting myself.”  Conversely, depending on our web of support, and even asking for help, are not signs of weakness.  Our friends are part of us, and they are usually more than happy to help us be happy.  And even if we feel alone, or that our friends are few and far between, or far away, each one of us is part of something greater than ourselves.  If need be, suspend the belief that you are unlovable.  There’s no rule against consciously looking for and making friends!

6-Lovers-Rhodochrosite.  On the other end of the spectrum, we should suspend the idea that a romantic relationship is a necessity for happiness.  This idea is ubiquitous in our culture, but remember, a very large percentage of popular culture is geared toward selling things.  Sex sells.  We shouldn’t let that universal truth standing in the way of enjoying a fulfilling and rewarding life.  Romantic love, and sex, can be enjoyable and inspiring, and a source of misery and ruined lives.  Having them certainly doesn’t guarantee a happy life!  As I touched on in another reading, particularly unhelpful are the ideas that being with ideal lover is a completion of oneself, and that sinking ones own identity in the lovers’ is somehow beautiful or noble.  It’s actually just a particularly easy way of abdicating responsibility for ones own life.  Which is getting nowhere indeed!

20-Judgment-Petrified Wood.  Now, what about poor Judgment stuck here in the middle?  (I’ve never thought of the powerful Judgment stone as being at any disadvantage before!)  (It’s also difficult to think of a negative aspect of Judgment, except for the fact that it is a great change, for those of us who are a bit unhappy with change!)  Oh, dear, I’m over thinking this, aren’t I?  Suspend judgment!  Life is not a game, and there’s no need to keep a running score.  Yes, we should evaluate where we are and where we want to be, but not so we can beat ourselves up if we fall short or feel superior if we are on track!  Especially pernicious is comparing our “progress” with other people’s.  My life is not her life.  She might be heading in some totally other direction I don’t even want to go!  And even if I think I want her life, she may have troubles I can’t know about, or I just need to go in a different direction.

So whether we’re lonely or self-sufficient, in a happy or troubled relationship, suspend judgment.  The best way to live a happy life is to live it to the best of our abilities without looking back in anger, or self-judgment!

Justice Wisdom Reading

Justice Wisdom Question:  Is the concept of karma just a way of blaming the victim?  (Or otherwise a not true or not helpful concept?)

Today I used the “Oldest Spread” with Arcana Stones and the Visconti mini.  The spread a very cool way of getting a varying number of major-minor pairs for each reading.  Check it out on Mary Greer’s blog:  http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/the-oldest-spread-by-le-comte-de-m/  To use it with stones, I counted out the minors as usual, turning them over with my right hand, and when I got a minor hit, I closed my eyes and randomly grabbed a stone from the pile of stones under my left hand.

And this is what I ended up with.  (The first minor was the Ace of Coins so I put the stone in the middle of the coin/card on impulse, and then continued that with the rest of the pairs.)

Ace of Coins + 19-Sun-Citrine.  The truth and operation of karma in this current life/incarnation is a plain as the nose of your face, if we would just open our eyes.

3 of Wands + 11-Justice-Aventurine.  Karma does travel with us wherever we go.  (The next pair implies this includes through a series of lives and/or between lives.)

7 of Swords + 13-Death-Mahogany Obsidian.  Death causes us to forget past lives, but just because we don’t know about them doesn’t make them not exist.  In a way, our past life actions sneak up on us like a thief in the night.  We might not know the thief is there, or know who she is, but we know there is a possibility that someone is there.

Page of Cups + 4-Emperor-Carnelian.  We are truly sovereign in our free will.  We can do anything we want with our lives, even though we sometimes feel like innocent victims of circumstance.  The Page also suggests that we should follow our hearts.  Conscience is an innocent, innate feeling of the truth and goodness of the golden rule.  I disagree with Hamlet (which could show the difference between believing in everlasting punishment versus karma)--conscience does not make cowards of us all.  It can help make us strong, powerful, and determined Emperors of our own lives.

4 of Coins + 0-Fool-Clear Quartz.  This is a continuation of 7 of Swords + Death.  When we incarnate, we have to start at the beginning of this life.  So, while it’s true that karma stays with us, it’s also true, and probably more helpful to understand, that we have to life this life, not a past or future one.

5 of Wands + 3-Empress-Malachite.  Here are the circumstances that we feel victim to.  Yes, life entails struggle, for the basics to sustain life plus other needs and desires.  But we can’t make that an excuse to leave our conscience behind.

9 of Wands + 12-Hanged One-Sodalite.  Both of these speak of waiting.  “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”  1 Corinthians 13:12.  We are not wrong to ask this wisdom question, and the reading has given us some valuable tips on how to think about karma, but it’s one of those things that humans aren’t able to understand entirely until we reach or pass through some other state or stage.  In the meantime, we watch and wait for the truth.

Wheel Wisdom Reading

Wheel Wisdom Question:  How do we let go of the fear of change and embrace, or at least accept, impermanence?

(13th century manuscript illustration of the goddess Fortuna turning her wheel.)

Today I’m using the Four Noble Truths/Medical Model Spread, with Arcana Stones for the four main positions and cards (Lo Scarabeo Visconti Mini) for the path cards.

Symptom:  What is the character of the fear of change?  0-Fool-Clear Quartz.  If we are completely honest with ourselves, impermanence is a very, very obviously a fact of life.  But it is part of the human condition to feel naked before it, and yes, fear it.  Simple survival concerns practically dictate a discomfort with and fear of change.  In fact, routine and stability are an important part of a child’s healthy mental and emotional development.  But for continued emotional health, children and adults also need to accept change’s inescapability.  As soon as that cold fact slaps us in the face, we begin to weave a web of self-deception, fooling ourselves into thinking that we’re resting on a firm foundational base of absolute security and permanence.

Diagnosis:  What causes the fear of change?  12-Hanged One-Sodalite.  Just as the Fool feels naked before change, the Hanged One must acknowledge his/her helplessness before it.  When you’re strung up by your ankles, there’s not much chance of getting out of there, except with help, or at least long, patient effort!  So, the feeling of helplessness is the true cause of the fear of change.  If we felt like we have some control or that we can make change happen in line with what we’re aiming for, fear and discomfort would diminish a good bit.

Prognosis:  Is acceptance of impermanence possible?  4-Emperor-Carnelian.  Speaking of control . . .  Yes, accepting and even embracing impermanence is possible, not by fooling ourselves, but by taking control of it in an active and rational manner as much as we can and accepting the rest.  Serenity Prayer, anyone?  And I mean accepting what we can’t control, not by throwing our hands up in the air and sighing, “whatever,” but by taking control of our own minds and the way we “spin” our role in otherwise uncontrollable events.  Am I a victim of circumstance or a competent person doing the best I can with what I’ve got, with an eye toward the next opportunity I can act on?

Prescription:  So how do we accept and appreciate change?  17-Star-Blue Lace Agate.  Count your blessings, 1, 2, 3!  We need to simply realize that all good changes are changes!  Every blessings is a change!  Yes, there are unpleasant changes, but think of all the wonderful changes we experience every day.  Well, technically every experience is a change.  Growth, of a child, a plant, or an idea, is a change.  Life itself is a product of change.  So here we are again, back to the whole unity of opposites--you can’t have good changes without bad changes, or change itself!  Once again, clear as, uh, the Fool, but so often overlooked or confused as we fool ourselves.

Now the Path of cards.  (Since the Star is 17, we get a true eight-fold path!)  How do we put the advice of the Star into action?  I arranged the cards in a numerically progressing path.

Fool.  Here’s the Fool again, looking particularly naked.  The Fool of historic decks is usually a poor wandering beggar who is not quite in his right mind.  The feathers in his hair are allegorical illustrations for “light thoughts,” perhaps fleeting, uncontrollable, and/or recurring thoughts that don’t have much relation to reality.  So the first step of accepting the reality of impermanence is to realize we are fooling ourselves if we don’t accept it!

Ace of Wands and Ace of Cups.  Acceptance is both an active and receptive step.  The important thing is to make a start. 

3 of Swords.  Accept that bad things happen.  To anyone, good or bad or in between.  The race is not always to the swift.  It’s just a fact of life in an imperfect world.  A more numerological meaning for this card gives us 3=manifestation + swords=thoughts.  Manifest your thoughts.  We can accept the whole imperfect world thing in theory, but when it happens to us, it’s often met with “why me?”  The insights of the Emperor are the advice here:  Take control of what you can change and what you think about what you can’t.

4 of Wands and 4 of Cups.  Celebrate and accept your blessings.  You receive them every day, whether you know it or not!

9 of Cups.  Not only do we receive generic blessings every day (like health, good food and shelter, loving family, etc.), we almost always receive the specific blessings that we wish for!  Consider all the wishes in your life that have come true, or may yet come true.  They’re all the products of change and impermanence!

King of Swords.  This king is here to reiterate the message of the Emperor.  In many ways, we create our reality with our own minds.  If I tell myself I’m a victim, or that I never get what I want, guess what, that’s what I am and that’s what I get!  And the opposite is true.  If I think I’m blessed, I know I am!  And if I have a positive attitude toward change, change will be positive for me!