Tuesday 2 July 2013

Avoidance

The Tarot Illuminati (Dunne and Huggens, LoScarabeo 2013) offers us 2 of Swords today. The first thing I think when I see this card this morning is 'No'. This woman is saying No to everything. No, I will not see, No, I will not feel, No I refuse to even hear. No, no, no to all of it. She turns her back to the sea, like someone who backs themselves into a corner for protection. Then she raises her swords over her heart and allows the roar of the sea to deafen her while the blindfold shuts out everything else.

I wonder what she thinks she's accomplishing. She is not accomplishing anything. She's not protecting anything, except whatever illusions and self-deceptions she's concocted in her own mind. Still, she would clearly rather be in there than out here, where life is real and has to be dealt with.

Of course, she can't maintain this stasis forever. A storm could blow up and wash her away, marauders could rob her or carry her off, or at the very least she's going to get tired, pass out and fall out of her chair. She could drown. How stupid she's being. How ridiculous to think she can protect herself by withdrawing in this way.

Are you withdrawing from something that you know you're going to have to face at some point? When will you take your blindfold off and drop your swords? Will you wait until the waves wash you out to sea and just drown? Or will you get up and confront what needs confronting?

7 comments:

  1. I don't know, she looks unusually aware to me, her lips parted as though she's just taken a breath and is holding it, intent. Like she's waiting for the perfect moment, then she'll leap into it, at the ready. Until then, though, she waits with all her other senses stretching out, enhanced by her lack of vision.

    That's not what I'd normally see in the Two of Swords, but it's what comes to me today with this lady and the bright glow around her head...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What I wrote today is not what I'd normally see, but it's what I saw this morning. :)

      Delete
  2. this sums up very well what I feel about my PhD program. I could so easily quit. it is so tempting.

    To me she looks like she is waiting for something to happen, but the question is - should she be waiting for things to happen to her, or be proactive and make something happen?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love your interpretation here. This is my card, my moon in libra and I have to admit I do this when I have my serious 'off' days.

    Yes there is another side to this - when I feel full of indecision and feel confused and spread too thin I do this. I shut off the whole world from my mind and spirit and just try to feel out my heart's true desire, what is my divine self trying to say to me and me only. Sometimes I really really have to disconnect from the world and not be aware of the sea crashing round me or the pirates coming to take me away. I just have to find that deep stillness to know what to do... some people see this as just burying my head in the sand, but its more proactive than that.

    Then when I know that, there is no stopping me :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True, there is a positive and negative side to the 2 of Swords. I saw myself doing the negative version. I tend to do it a lot, without even realizing it. Sometimes when I do it, I tell myself I'm listening for the deep stillness, but in fact what I am actually doing, quite often, is stalling.

      Delete

Leave a comment here: