The Nine Of Wands

Johnathan Lockwood Huie, author of Simply An Inspired Life, sent this picture in his Daily Inspirations email that I receive. As soon as I looked at it I thought, "That's the 9 of Wands." Then when I went on to read the quotes he had selected to go with the picture, I was sure of it. The Golden Dawn's title for this card is "Great Strength." It is about calling on the strength we have in reserve when we think we don't have any more strength at all. It is a test of resolve, determination and endurance. Looking at the soldier pictured in the card, I just know he will never give up or surrender. He may go down in the end, but he'll go down fighting with the last ounce of strength he has in his body!

The picture and the quotes below are about bravery, but implicit in the idea of bravery is that determination to endure which I see in the 9 of Wands.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened.
- George S. Patton

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Illustrations are from the Universal Waite Tarot and Jonathan Lockwood Huie.  Please view his website at:
 http://www.dreamthisday.com/

The Tens ~ Part II

10 of Cups

Here's where it begins to get interesting. Bright Ideas has a very different perspective on the tens in the passive suits, and one which I tend to agree with, at least as an alternative way of interpreting them when it seems appropriate. If tens are just a bit too much of a good thing, I think this deck really depicts this idea well.

Everyone is happy to see the Rider Waite 10 of Cups appear in a spread, even when it doesn't seem to apply very well to the situation! Sometimes it does. The Golden Dawn calls it Perfected Success. It generally represents harmonious family relationships, shared love and happiness, affection, contentment and well-being.

Well now, I'm not a cynic but Bright Ideas does show us what a bit too much water would look like. The title is Overwhelmed.   Some keywords are: "admitting when you're snowed under, recognizing when you are too close to a situation to see it objectively, knowing when to say "Enough's enough! Cautions against: being too easily overwhelmed, refusing to see when a situation is unhealthy or unproductive, ignoring danger signs, taking on more than you can handle."

Perhaps this situation could have been prevented if someone had noticed the danger signs before the flood.

Since Cups represent the emotions, when we become too emotional it's easy to get confused and overwhelmed. In this way, air and water, though they do not blend easily, do have need of each other. Air, Swords, tend to be cold, aloof and heartless without water, Cups, to soften it, and water tends to get overwhelmed with emotions without air to help it sort these out and give some objective and rational perspective to a situation.

10 of Pentacles

As with the 10 of Cups I've always thought the 10 of Pentacles depicted a situation that is rare or at least not all that common.  There are so many of us these day who do not feel financially secure.  It generally represents financial security from profitable investment or inheritance and family wealth, family support and tradition. The Golden Dawn title is Wealth. I assume they mean material wealth, though there are other kinds of wealth and prosperity also.

The Bright Ideas Deck depicts something I'm more likely to be able to apply, both to myself and to others I read for. This guy has definitely got too much stuff! And it has become a burden to him. The title of the card is Acquisition, which I have nothing against at all. It keeps the economy blossoming. But in keeping with the central idea of the number ten, it has been taken too far and a good clearing out is what is called for here.

Bright Ideas keywords are: "divorcing yourself from dependence on material things as your source of happiness, escaping the rat race, refusing to "play the game," considering the value of retirement, evaluating whether or not an eventual reward is worth the effort or investment required. Cautions against: having too much stuff, concerns with performance, working with a plan, getting more just to have more, slaving away at pointless or unsatisfying work, failing to see the way out when it is offered to you."

So this is another way of looking at the Tens, and one which has helped me to better understand them both for myself and in readings for others. I think the tens do carry change with them, an ending and a beginning. This perspective is consistent with Key X, The Wheel of Fortune, which represents change. Instead of wondering what one of them means when it turns up in a spread, I will be looking at the area of my life indicated by the suit to see where I need to change something and what I can do to ease my way through whatever is signified by the card.
 
Illustrations here are from The Universal Waite and The Bright Ideas Decks.

The Tens ~ Part I

I've been getting tens more than usual lately in spreads I do for myself. This morning I drew the 10 Wands and the 10 Swords in the same spread, and in an earlier spread the 10 Pentacles. So I got to thinking about tens. They're a bit different than the single digit pip cards. The ten is, at the same time, a ten and a one. It contains within it an ending and a beginning. Not to minimize the number ten, but I tend to think of them as the "pit stop." A place you arrive at while you're waiting to go on to something else, and I also think of the tens as just a bit too much of either a good or a bad thing.

In the Rider Waite standard decks the passive suits of Cups and Pentacles seem to fare much better at the ten level than do the active suits of Wands and Swords. I've never really been comfortable with this happily ever after happy endings, but I'm also not comfortable with the utter ruin depticted in the 10 Swords. The 10 of Wands is the only ten I've really been able to accept. 

It is the Bright Ideas Deck which solved this problem for me by presenting a way of looking at the tens with some consistency, showing how too much of anything can become uncomfortable and out of balance.

10 of Wands

Here both decks have pretty much the same perspective.

The Golden Dawn title for this card is Oppression and the image in the Universal Waite certainly depicts this idea well. It generally means someone who has too much to do and is carrying a heavy load.  Anthony Louis titles it The burdens of success.

In the Bright Ideas Deck the same idea is depicted in more modern imagery. The title of the card is Exhaustion. A few of the key phrases for this card are: "admitting when you're overwhelmed, understanding when enough is enough, taking responsibility for regulating your own workload and schedule."  Reversed it cautions against, "feeling chained to your work, allowing yourself to become exhausted, sloppiness due to weariness, allowing others to overburden you."

The 10 of Wands can represent someone who has too much on their plate because they are holding on too tight and need to learn to delegate; someone who is at the age of retirement and doesn't want to let go; or a situation where others are expecting too much and some boundaries need to be set.

10 of Swords

Well! These two depict very different situations indeed. The Golden Dawn title for the 10 of Swords is Ruin and the idea is well depicted in the Rider Waite card; perhaps even a bit overdone, but overdone is in keeping with the tens in general.  Following the imagery in the Rider Waite 9 of Swords, the "sleepless nights" card, this card seems to represent the result which follows if those issues were left unresolved.

In the Bright Ideas Deck the title is Obsession. Since Swords are the mental suit, I think the Bright Ideas deck gives us a very good modern image of the essence of the card.  Bright Ideas key phrases are "attention to detail, tweaking, recognizing when it's time to move on or cool off, deliberately trying to transcend the way you normally approach a situation."  Reversed the card cautions against, "endless analysis, second guessing, mistaking intensity for insight, destructive criticism, deliberation as a substitution for action."

I usually see the card as over-examination, over-analysis, and unproductive intellectualizing.  It's a mental state I'm quite familiar with, in fact.  When I find myself in it, it's time for me to stop thinking and and go do something, preferably something grounding like taking a walk and getting some fresh air; having something to eat also helps..  However, I've also seen the 10 of Swords represent a difficult ending to something that failed, so I keep that interpretation in mind.  It just seems to me that far more often the card represents some form of mental obsession or mental exhaustion than it does utter ruin.

In the next post I'll look at the differences in the Rider Waite and the Bright Ideas decks of the 10 of Cups and the 10 of Pentacles.

Illustrations here are from the Universal Waite Deck and the Bright Ideas Deck.

Quote from Tarot Plain and Simple by Anthony Louis.

Tarot Affirmations

I love affirmations! I use them because I have an overactive mind which tends to focus on the negative if I leave it untended for long. So I use positive affirmations to keep it busy and out of trouble.

Though I like the idea of daily draws, I've never had much luck with them. Sometimes they are extremely relevant, but just as often for me, they aren't, and I end up playing guessing games with myself about how the card is going to show up in my experience for the day. Also, if it's a difficult card, I tend to react negatively which is not my idea of a good way to either start or go through a day!

Well, I've fallen out of the habit lately of using my affirmations and I decided I should begin to do so again because I was noticing that my overall attitude has become more and more negative since I've been forgetting to do them. Just as I was thinking about this an idea flashed through my mind.  Why not ask the cards what to focus on for the day?  Then I thought of James Ricklef's book Tarot Affirmations, which I don't have yet and was wishing I did, and thought well create your own affirmations!  (I still plan to get his Tarot Affirmations book also.)

So I sat down with my cards, asked for a suggestion from them for what to focus my mind on for the day and drew the Three of Cups, feeling a sense of relief that the suggestion was a positive card!

This is a card of joy and celebration.  The pumpkin in the lower right corner of the card shows us that the time of year is harvest and this celebration is in gratitude for an abundant and prosperous harvest.

It was not difficult to create an affirmation for this card:

"I celebrate my abundance with joy and gratitude."

Then I put the picture of this card in the Windows Picture Viewer and put it on my computer desktop in the upper left corner, so whenever I look at it during the day I'll remember to recite the affirmation, think of something in my life which is abundant and express my gratitude for it.

Of course, my mind tells me that the cards won't always be as positive as this one.  In a case like that I'll accept the card as a challenge and see what I can come up with for a positive affirmation for the card.  There is no card in the deck which doesn't have both a positive and negative side to it.  Some just hide their positive sides better!

James Ricklef's beautiful website can be found here.

Moon in Gemini

Here we have a combination of choice, The Lovers and intuition, The High Priestess. How does our intuition play a role in the choices we make? Do we need to use our intuition in making our decisions? If I were to see these two cards together in a reading, I would say that the seeker is facing an important choice in which their intuition and instincts should be taken into consideration and can be trusted.

The Lovers, which represents the choices we make in life, is often about choosing a life partner, or making a decision about an important relationship that is already established. It can also signify being faced with a choice between two divergent paths, such as education or career paths and needing to make a decision about which path to follow.

The Moon in Gemini marks a time of quick emotional reactions and the desire to talk about emotional issues. It adapts quickly to change, but with the possibility of a scattering of emotional energies. During this time some people may find that they have more than one emotional issue vying for their attention, and they must either choose between them or try to handle multiple issues all at the same time. If the latter is chosen, the Moon in Gemini is flexible enough to handle it all fairly successfully.

Moon in Taurus

The Moon is now in Taurus. She entered Taurus at 5:28 pm PT, Monday July 5 and will be there until 12:50 am PT Thursday July 8. The cards associated with this combination are The High Priestess and The Hierophant.

Though the Moon in Taurus represents many other things as well, here we are presented with two cards which represent two different aspects of humanity’s spirituality. The High Priestess represents the revealing of hidden spiritual knowledge, often the kind which cannot be put into words; whereas The Hierophant represents the teaching of religious and spiritual doctrine, and the outer worldly structures we build to express that.

I've always associated The High Priestess with esoteric spirituality, and I use the term spiritual to mean the inner experience of whatever religious or spiritual doctrine and practice we choose to follow, if any. In order to hear her message we must listen within to the "still small voice" for she speaks in a whisper and is easily drowned out by the louder and constant mental conversation of the ego-mind. One way of stilling the mind is through deep breathing and meditation. Another is prayer, though not the petitionary type of prayer which seeks something  from the divine; but rather the kind of prayer which seeks to know and become one with the divine.

Exoteric spirituality, on the other hand, is the structure and outer expression of this spiritual experience, and is associated with The Hierophant. In the Rider-Waite deck this is depicted by the Pope, the figure-head of the Catholic Church, but the concept applies to any prevailing religion and the religious traditions of its culture.

Traditions of all kinds are represented by the fixed signs, of which Taurus is one. The four fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius) tend to be slow to change and may even resist it, as does the Church; for their purpose is to establish and make permanent whatever has been initiated by the cardinal signs which precede them. In Medieval days, unless people were well enough off to afford a private education, the only place one could receive one was through the Church, and since religious doctrine was also a part of that education, The Hierophant is associated with education as well.

I love this picture of The High Priestess in the Robin Wood tarot deck. It really seems to capture the sense of mystery which is represented by The High Priestess. In her book The Robin Wood Tarot The Book, Robin Wood describes her image of The High Priestess:

“In her right hand she holds a crystal ball, the symbol of mystery and magic, the unseen, mystic knowledge that can only come from within. Spheres are also a symbol of the feminine, so this symbolizes the intuitive, indirect side of a person, as well. It’s in her right hand, although that is the active, not the intuitive side, because that is the way she most often works. That is her strong suit, if you will.”

In contrast, another card I love is The Hierophant in the Gilded Tarot. This strikingly beautiful image emphasizes the structures we build to express our reverence for that inner experience of the divine.

“A leader and teacher wearing vestments, indicating wisdom, almost fades into the background. The stained glass window enveloping him brings to mind the great cathedrals of the past, incredible poems of glass and stone reaching toward heaven. This is an apt symbol of humankind’s greatest achievements of understanding the physical and spiritual worlds. A view of the universe--of all that there is to know, both physically and spiritually--lies beyond. Looking at these elements as three levels, we see in the background the knowable universe, then humankind’s understanding and utilization of this knowledge, and finally the passing on of that knowledge to individual people through formal education and religious training.” The Gilded Tarot Companion Barbara Moore

So, in comparing and contrasting these two cards we have the kind of spirituality which can be practiced anywhere by anyone, simply by turning within and listening; and the kind of spirituality which is expressed in the outer world by structures such as churches, mosques, and temples, and which represents itself, for the most part, as the bridge between the individual and the divine.

The Moon moves into Gemini tomorrow, so I will be taking a look at a different aspect of The High Priestess and the way she may relate to The Lovers.

Post Correction

I miscalculated the days the Moon was in Pisces. She entered Pisces at 6:09 PM PST on Tuesday June 30, and remained there until 6:44 AM PST this morning, when she moved into Aries.

So, the Moon will be in Aries over the weekend. This is an energizing influence; one which is characterized by lots of outdoor activities and lively socializing. It is a fitting influence for 4th of July celebrations since Aries is the sign of the Warrior, representing wars and battles such as those fought in the US War for Independence, traditionally symbolized by the fireworks displays in our 4th of July celebrations. A happy and lively 4th of July to all!

Moon In Pisces

Since we're in a powerful astrological moon cycle right now, and since the lunar eclipse on June 25th got my attention, I decided it might be interesting to follow the Moon's progress this month as she moves back to new, producing a solar eclipse on July 11th, and then on through the rest of the cycle which will end around August 9 when she becomes new in Leo. For today and tomorrow she is in Pisces which is the sign of The Moon tarot card. The Moon herself in the tarot deck is represented by The High Priestess.

Psychic impressions, imagination, and fantasy may be strong for the next couple of days. We feel impressionable and sensitive, and a bit unfocused. This is not a time to work on practical affairs, however time spent in creative pursuits, visioning and even just daydreaming will bring emotional tranquility. Just looking at these two cards gives one a sense of the power of the feminine polarity. In both cards non-action is emphasized. Even though this is the 4th of July weekend, parties may not be as lively as they would be at other times.

The High Priestess, keeper of secret knowledge, communicates to us through dreams and psychic impressions. She sits at the doorway to the inner temple and silently reminds us that if we desire entrance, the price will be to leave our conscious and rational mind behind. Though the veil behind her eclipses view of what lies beyond, we can get a glimpse of it around the veil’s edges.

It looks like pleasant enough terrain beyond the waters, but I believe that terrain leads right to the territory pictured in The Moon card. The two towers look like a gate and are faintly reminiscent of the two pillars between which the High Priestess is seated. The path which leads into the Moon's domain seems long but clearly visible. This may be an illusion for it is easy to get lost in this territory in the pale, reflected half-light of the moon which turns to complete darkness when she is new. Shadows appear to move of their own volition and we easily imagine all sorts of things alive in the darkness when our vision is not clear. The atmosphere is charged with a strange and powerful magnetism and the territory is unknown. It is wise to stay close to the middle path which leads to the distant high mountains, for if we veer too far off, we may not find our way back. Mountains are associated with spiritual ascent in the Tarot so if we manage to stay on the path we are at least promised that the inner reward will be of value.

There is no Minor Arcana card assigned to the Moon in Pisces in the Golden Dawn system, however the Moon in Pisces is assigned to the 9 of Cups by A. T. Mann, "a prominent Tarot scholar who is well versed in astrology."  Anthony Louis, Tarot Plain and Simple.

This is a card of personal satisfaction, comfort, happiness, pleasure and success.

I particularly like the image of this card in the Gilded Tarot. In  The Gilded Tarot Companion, Barbara Moore writes, "In his comfortable home, an innkeeper raises his cup and salutes his comfort, abundance, and good fortune. He has invested in creating a welcoming place for others and a secure situation for himself. His fortune, represented by barrels of beer, is that of good cheer, not necessarily of money or material gain."

Even the mice on the rafter above his head look happy and well fed!

The 9 of Cups is called "The Wish Card" so perhaps the weekend spent in creative visioning and freeflowing imaginings about what we most want in our lives will prove to be a good way to pass our time. And it appears that those 4th of July parties may be more lively than I had first thought!

So let the 9 of Cups set the tone for the celebrations this weekend, and may I wish a happy and satisfying 4th of July to all!