Dance without a net upon the wire

Spiral Tarot, 1997

She walks a tightrope in her stockinged feet, a slender rope that runs parallel along the rocky edge of a waterfall. Her thin dress blows lightly about her legs. She holds a heavy sword in each hand, crossed by the wrist at chest level. She clutches her arms to her chest to balance the swords, their lengths rising above each of her two shoulders and pointing upward into the starry night sky. She is blindfolded. Her chin juts forward as she makes use of her remaining senses to guide her. She has gone deep within in order to maintain her balance and achieve this task of getting to the other side. Her foot reaches out toe first to take her next step. There is the tension of concentration in the image, but also a sort of calm. Her shoulders are down. Her face is smooth. Her arms and hands are solid and sure, braced against her upright body. She is going to make it.

Rachel Pollack suggests in Tarot Wisdom that the figure in the Two of Swords appears to be engaged in a kind of meditation or martial art, and I agree with that. Sometimes to get to the truth of a matter, you have to put on a blindfold. To see things from a new angle, you have to shut out the things that seem most obvious, and 'feel' for subtler truths. Shutting out what everyone else 'sees' can be a challenging experience, you can feel like you've put yourself in a dangerous position and that there's no one to help. But really, at these times, no one can help but you. Any input from an outside source at this particular moment in the life of the woman in this card would upset all her balance and send her teetering off the wire. True, we can't see what's below her -- could be a churning abyss, could be an 18 inch drop to a nice smooth rock for her to stand on. But she doesn't want to drop, she wants to get across on that wire, and she can do it if she keeps to her purpose and does not allow any distractions.

Today may my resolve remain strong in the face of any attempted distractions, even if they're meant to be helpful.