Of Wands and Swords and What to Do

'Stop wasting time,' I found myself writing in my journal today. 'We don't have 'all the time in the world'. Get on with it.'

So.

What is time? How can I make best use of it? What should I do with the time I have been given today?

I was certainly not expecting the cards I drew from the Original Rider Waite Tarot Deck:

Original Rider Waite, US Games 1993

I turned to the cards for an easy answer. But 1) the tarot doesn't give the easy answer, it gives the answer, and 2) this question doesn't have an easy answer.

In the human experience, which really is the only context in which we can understand it, time really is a constant battering of conflicting priorities. Our attention is called from all sides. We can but pay attention to one thing at a time before turning to the next thing. This is not to say that time should be spent in a reactionary way. The boys in the 5 of Wands card are not just reacting. They are also taking initiative, both reacting to events and planning their next step. They aren't actually trying to hurt each other and neither is time trying to hurt us. But the activity of the boys in the card is a relentless barrage, and so is the human experience of time. It can be as spirited or as gentle as we can manage to make it, but it is relentless nonetheless. This is an important lesson. If you drop your wand, time may beat you down. It might hurt you without meaning to. It neither wants to hurt nor heal, it just wants to keep whacking away. How you take the whacks is up to you.



You know, I keep drawing Knight of Swords when I dare to ask about what I should be doing or how I should be living. And I really don't like the look of this guy. I'm more of wand-dropper who gets whacked on the head in the previous card and stands there wondering what happened. To put on armour and climb on a horse and go charging headlong into time?? Still. This guy certainly seems to embody the message that came to me during my journal writing this morning. 'Stop wasting time. Get on with it.' I do need to listen the cards once in a while. This week they told me to put away the Knight of Cups mooning and whinging, and now they're telling me to pick up my sword and charge into something.

The first thing to do with the time I have been given today is just accept the fact that it's finite. This is something that needs doing every day. The time is finite, and if I keep putting things off while I sit on my daydreaming Knight of Cups butt, then I will find it's suddenly 11.30 at night and I've done none of things I'd thought of doing and now it's too late. This is how I can decide to do some sort of project and then realise a month or more has passed and I haven't started it yet. Because I don't face the finite nature of each day. Time ticks away, like the clacks of those wands hitting each other in the 5 of Wands.

Clack, clack, clack.

Then the day is done.

Will I pick up my sword today?