Saturday, March 9, 2013

Significant events in tarot

Recently I have been getting a lot of cards in daily readings which indicate significant events to me. Notice I say to me: we all know how the books tend to push a rigid division between the relatively significant major arcana and the 'mundane' events of the minor arcana. I have been pushed into reflecting on how some minor arcana have indicated major changes or transitions in my life.
Parallel to this are Rachel Pollack's 'Gateway Cards', cards which contain & draw you into deeper layers of meaning. They are: 3 of wands, 8 of swords, 6 of swords, 5 of cups, 8 of cups, ace of coins, 5 of coins, 6 of coins (tentatively), and 10 of coins. All Minor Arcana cards which open the gates.
Apart from this the tarot cards which mean great change to me personally are these:
Fool: All together now: 'one more step along the world I go...' This is probably the first time a hymn has been sung on a witchcraft blog. Incidentally it has always been self-evident to me that the Fool can see where he is going. That is the whole point of the RWS card for me, he's not just stepping out completely foolishly but what he can see will vary according to the querent.
I Magician: a time of opportunity & choice, which is quite literally what you make of it.
VII Chariot: a difficult time of testing & growing up. Traditionally the animals drawing the chariot face in different directions so this time will involve conflict where you mettle is tested & you have to stand on your own two feet.
X Wheel of Fortune: indicates unpredictable & uncontrollable change.
XII Hanged Man: refers to stagnation & the 'homeostasis' of the elements, which since we live in a perpetually changing world, means that this stasis can only be temporary & must be followed by change.
XIII Death: an unavoidable monumental change, often one that the subject of the reading will resist literally with every last breath.
XVI The Tower: whatever change this refers to is always monumental. A situation - or whatever 'edifice' the tower refers to - must come to an end. You have yourself built your own problem here, so naturally its resolution will ultimately be to your advantage, even if it feels painful at the time.
XVII Star: you are getting over the monumental change of the Tower, can see hope in the distance & begin to rebuild on a better foundation.
XX Judgement: but you knew that, didn't you? The arms in RWS spell LUX & reference a Golden Dawn ritual of death & rebirth.
XXI World: the figure in the World card is traditionally the fool, having completed his journey, & ready to start the cycle once again. N.B. This cyclical approach to the divinatory tarot surely must come from the 19th century interest in Eastern philosophy, usually mediated for occultists through Theosophy. I have no doubt at all that in the Europe which gave birth to the cards, if they had been understood allegorically at all they would have been understood as a single linear journey.
Aces: we can forget how weird the images on the RWS-tradition aces actually are, until we compare them to the aces in a gaming tarot, or even a modern deck of playing cards, which show the suit symbol unadorned. In an occult sense the hand coming out of the clouds holding the suit symbol signifies the raw undifferentiated power of the element bursting out into the open, 'for good or ill', as the old books put it when there isn't a judgement attached to an event, it just is.
2 of Swords: this frequently comes up to indicate something unseen; if the person is willing & able to remove the 'hoodwink' from their eyes, great change will certainly ensue. It often comes up in a past position to indicate a great change which has already happened.
4 of Swords: for me this card, being a Sword, refers to a rest in between exertions. None of the Swords is *that* restful!
5 of Swords: are you one of the people going off into the background? If you're not, where on earth did you get the idea that picking up 3 swords & running with them would be a good idea?
6 of Swords: not necessarily a literal journey, of course. Waite said that the swords in the boat were a light burden, so this 'journey' shouldn't be too traumatic.
9 of Swords: the 'not seeing' theme of the Swords is heightened in this card. The higher the number of the minor arcana card, the lower it is on the tree of life. These higher-numbers hit you over the head to draw your attention with their sense of urgency. You must open your eyes to see what you are refusing to see, I.e. change something or else the energy will move on to...
10 of Swords: Why does nobody ever notice that the clouds are clearing away? Also the man's hand in RWS is in a Japanese mudra indicative of renewal.
2 of Cups: this will usually include exchanging one thing for another, not necessarily an emotional thing; the people are contained in a garden in many decks & it can mean leaving one setting & exchanging it for another.
4 of Cups: in RWS decks this suggests more something you're not seeing, but since I learned tarot on the Morgan Greer deck & also use the Aquarian deck which heavily influenced it, I like to think of this card as almost another ace. Yes, it indicates stagnation, but I like to think it builds on the 3 of cups, the merriment of which can be almost blind. In the Aquarian 4 of Cups what you are not seeing is the hand from the clouds adding another chalice to those you already have.
7 of Cups: this card always comes up for me personally at times of tradition, & for me signifies the ability to dream dreams & reimagine your situation.
8 of Cups: indicates you doing something to alter a situation in which there is something wrong: not necessarily leaving, in occultism things are rarely seen as totally predetermined.
2 of Wands: the world is quite literally in your hands & you should feel free to take the bull by the horns & make changes.
3 of Wands: continues the energy of the 2 & heightens it by the addition of another emblem of Will. Your will can master whatever you are looking at.
4 of Wands: can indicate a journey into a new 'family' in the Roman sense, or even simply a wedding.
7 of Wands: I like to think of this as a situation that can't be continued forever: you are almost at the 'end of your tether'.
8 of Wands: self-evidently things are now speeding up!
10 of Wands: now you really can't go on. The effort that has been going on since the 7 really is too much & will come to an end before something new starts.
2 of Pentacles: again this is a card which depicts a stasis, but once again this stasis must necessarily lead to change. 2 is actually less stable than higher number, a 2-legged stool wouldn't be a great deal of use, for example.
5 of Pentacles: would it be over-simplistic to say that the sequence of events pictured in RWS is allegorical of the energies? - holding on to your money in 4P, being poor in 5P, & giving it away (or receiving it) in 6P.
8 of Pentacles: the back-handed compliment to this card is that whatever is happening to you, you've brought it on yourself. Key words for this card are often things like learning, work, apprenticeship, & of course a major way we humans learn things is with a right royal cock up.
Knights: the mature yet martial energy of the Knights refers to a person who is mature enough to have come into their power. You have dealt with your own shit in the domain referenced by the suit & can get on with the work in hand.
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