Today's Draw: Queen of Cups from the Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery in the Unconscious Desires position from the Deck of 1000 Spreads. When it comes to things like God and love, would you rather know all the answers? Is your hope in contemplating the mysteries of life that you may one day light upon an answer? Or is the mystery more valuable than any answer could ever be?
Just so you know, we're going to use this deck for the rest of the week because I'm digging it. If you have issues with that, feel free to contact one of my assistants. :D
The Queen of Cups thoughtfully contemplates a mysterious cup. Yet she's not opening it up to see what's inside. Could it be that some things are better left a mystery? When this card falls in the Unconscious Conscious desires position in a spread, that could very well be the case.
What immediately occurred to me is our spiritual beliefs. They're better left a mystery, I think. With mysteries, all possibilities are possible. There's room for magic. And if there's one thing I like to make room for in my life, it's magic.
So consider if there were no mystery or interpretation left in the Bible, for instance. It really is the word of God. It really was told exactly as God told it. It is a completely unbiased accounting history. There is only one way to interpret it. And everything within it is indisputable. So there is only one religion. Only one way of seeing God and his law. No mystery. No questions. No magic.
Wouldn't God and religion lose some of its zest and awe? Isn't it the questions and all the possible answers that keep us searching throughout the millennia? Isn't it the searching that gives God his superawesomeness?
The same is true of the cosmos. What is there to look up and wonder about if you have all the answers about the millions of galaxies and life on other planets? And love....where is the juicy excitement if you know before you even meet someone what role they'll play in your life? And life...consider all the things you might never attempt if you were born knowing all about how it were going to go.
It's funny how much time we spend contemplating the answers of things that are better left a mystery. Though there is great drama, magic and possibility in that contemplation.
If the Queen leaves the vessel closed, it could be filled with diamonds, chocolates or even a fairyland of delightful little ponies...anything! But if she opens it to find dust—or even gold—all the magic goes away. The mystery itself is worth more than a vessel full of gold. Perhaps the Queen is wise enough to know that. And so she will continue to ponder and dream.
Today's Draw: Seven of Staffs in the What to Let Go Of in the Future position from the Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery by Robert Place and the Deck of 1000 Spreads. Do you ever yell at telemarketers just because you can? Do you treat those less privileged than you differently than you treat those more privileged than you? Has there ever been a situation in your life when you've been the bully?
First of all, for reasons that should be obvious just by looking at this one card, I'm thrilled to have Robert Place's new deck in my grubby little hands at last. He funded this deck through an Indiegogo campaign and it feels like I've been waiting FOREVER. He had a majors only version of this deck that I got a couple of years ago, but there's nothing like having the full deck to play with. His illustrations and colors are just beautiful.
So in this deck, he labels the Seven of Staffs as "The Bully". And that's what we're supposed to let go of moving forward. This can be construed as aggression, competition or uncontained anger or passion toward another.
People never like to think of themselves as bullies, but I think most, if not all of us, do it at some time or another. Maybe we get passive-aggressive with a cashier who isn't moving fast enough for us. Or we yell at a telemarketer. Or we get touchy with our child after having a bad day. Anytime there is a power differential and we treat the person "beneath" us differently than we'd treat our boss or someone "above us", like it or not, we're being a bully.
And that "beneath us" thing could even be someone who is less well liked than us, quieter than us, more meek than us, or someone who is in want of our forgiveness. Sometimes the power differential also comes in the form of more people being on your side. So, like, say you're at a pro-choice rally and you're nasty to the handful of pro-lifers who show up...haha. That's being a bully. I've also seen people justify being a bully because the person they're bullying is a bully. That's being a bully, too.
This card showing up in the What to Let Go of in the Future position is calling us to be aware of when there are power differentials, whether they're one-time situational things (the pro-choice mob) or whether it's a more permanent thing (boss/employee). And when there are power differentials, to be aware of the power we wield simply because we are in a place of power. Ideally we should treat all people equal, but it could also be argued that we should be more careful of how we deal with those who hold less power than we.
So if you treat your employee differently than you'd treat your boss, you're doing it wrong. If you respond differently to the sour person online than you would respond to the sour person who lives two doors down, you're doing it wrong. If you're acting differently because you're part of a group than you would act on your own, you're doing it wrong. And if you're acting poorly toward someone because they acted poorly toward you, sorry, but you're doing it wrong.
At some point in our spiritual journey, we have to make the leap to showing kindness and respect to others, regardless. Society and the Bible teach us the law of an eye for an eye. But Jesus and Buddha do not. They teach us the power of forgiveness, integrity and raising others up to our light through example, rather than lowering ourselves into the darkness. And they also teach us to treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves.
These are difficult lessons to learn because they ask us to be conscious before we act. They ask us to come out of ourselves and consider the other person. They ask to act from a place of self reference, rather than a place reaction to an outside source. And they ask us simply to be a better person than we were the time before. When you think of it as "that cashier was moving too slowly", you can justify being nasty. But when you think it of as "I used my elevated power as a customer to humiliate and embarrass this speed-challenged cashier," it's harder to justify and continue.
Continuing with the former won't make you any different from many of the people who walk this earth, nor will it cancel your entry to heaven. The only tangible consequence is that you may feel bad about doing it afterward. But in spiritual or personal terms, you do continue to let this cycle of anger and guilt churn on in yourself. Doing the latter allows you to transcend that cycle, see it more honestly and understand the situation from a higher plane, one where there is no power differential or different options for response.
Today's Draw: The Seven of Holy Water from Robert Place's Vampire Tarot. What tempts you? How often do you make choices that you know are bad for you? Do you still find yourself making bad choices without realizing they're bad choices?
The Seven of Holy Water corresponds to the Seven of Cups. It's a card of choice. In traditional decks, each cup would be filled with a wonderful thing. And your job is to choose among all the options available to you..to make a decision...to take a stand.
But in this card, it's a little different. There are three doorways, only one of them leading to escape. Do you choose the one with all the money and see where it goes? Do you choose the one with the vampire...maybe he's guarding the exit? Or do you choose the third one?
Life is often like that, isn't it? Full of difficult choices. Heck, the empty doorway could be clearly marked "Exit" and we may still choose the one with the money. Or even the one that promises eternal life. Or maybe we think we can scoop up the money, be given eternal life and still make it out exit!
In one of the questions up top I asked if you still find yourself making bad choices without realizing they're bad choices. I asked that because it seems like there comes a time in our lives where we see the clues to a bad choice and can keep from choosing it. This, of course, isn't 100%. But we do get to a point where we know the earmarks of all the bad choices we've made in the past and we, nonetheless, make them again. We make them consciously.
I feel like when I make bad choices these days I know when I'm doing it. I mean, I'm not blind to the fact that that piece of chocolate cake is not nutritionally equal to a sprig of broccoli or that smooth talking misunderstood playboy is going to turn out to be genuine and loyal. Obviously there's a shadow side issue at play when we knowingly make bad choices, even if we're only marginally conscious of it. We have to search ourselves and ask, "What story is this keeping me stuck in? And how is that story serving me?"
By story, I mean the stories we tell ourselves, like "I only ever meet the wrong men!" or "All the good men are taken!" or "But his smile was just so irresistible!" Your story can also point to a cycle or pattern. For example, one ex was a drunk, another a womanizer and another a workaholic. They're all different, right? No, they're all the same. They're all unavailable. So why do you keep going for unavailable men? And, more pointedly, what is unavailable about you that you only attract unavailable men?
Shadow Week ain't easy. Oprah once said she had a breakthrough about her weight issues when she realized they weren't about the potato chips. Whatever it is that's recurring in your life...whatever bad or limiting choices you're making, it's not about the potato chips. It's about something far beneath the chips. The good news is that, if you're making the bad choices consciously, you're way ahead of the people who are going through life blindly wondering why bad things always happen to them.
Other shadow issues with a Seven of Cups might be an inability to make a decision for fear of making the wrong one. Or wanting/needing to have it all. Choosing and regretting. Or worrying you've made the wrong choice and so you take the choice you made for granted. Or not showing gratitude for the options you do have. The Seven of Cups doesn't offer the kind of choices you're meant to regret. It only offers cup after cup of enjoyment. Your job is to choose the ONE that works best for you and be happy with it.
Weekend Reading: Five of Swords from the Alchemical Tarot Renewed. This is a good weekend to make repairs around the house. But it's also good for righting wrongs and fixing other things that are broken, like relationships. You can't fix another person, but you can reach out to someone. If they're not responsive, then you know you've tried. And if they are, you can get input on whether or not the relationship is worth salvaging. If there's nobody like that in your life, look at other areas that could use a little spackle and sanding. Decisions can be re-decided, wrong turns can be re-turned and mistakes can be made good.
Weekend Reading: Two of Swords from the Alchemical Renewed by Robert Place. This card is about actively questioning and seeking wisdom. It's about not taking things at face value. It's about finding out for yourself. So this weekend, ask questions. Maybe you need to have an internal debate about why you want such-and-such thing. Maybe you're questioning why your kid needs to borrow $50. Or maybe you're asking if something you've being doing for 40 years is truly genuine to you. Whether you're buying $5 cups of coffee or spending 15 minutes every morning warming up your car, ask yourself why. And keep asking why until you get to a REAL answer. We do too many things on a daily basis just because it's the way we've always done it. Or because everyone else does it that way. But if you want to start living more consciously and nourishing yourself more effectively, it's time to start asking some questions.
