Let the cards ask the question

West, US Games 2008

Halloween Day with the Halloween Tarot by Kipling West

Wow, another court card, and who better to greet us today than the King of Pumpkins himself. Today I want to try out a technique I read about at Aeclectic Tarot, in a thread called 'Using the Cards to Generate the Questions.' The technique was suggested by a member named Chiriku:

1. Draw a tarot card and contemplate it. What question does this card bring up in your mind regarding the situation you face, or even just the day itself?

2. Draw a second card which will answer the question suggested by the tarot.

The first card will trigger a question, issue or problem that is present somewhere in your mind. Images from the card will likely put a fresh spin on the question. Then the second card will give you a new way of looking at the question, a possible solution, a projected outcome--there are many possiblities.



So...today's draw is Pumpkin King, ie, King of Pentacles. Now I could be analytical and ponder the meaning of the King of Pentacles. ('In what ways can/should I relax and enjoy my life right now?') OR, I could just gaze at the card until a question plonks itself into my head, triggered by some image in the card. ...
The cow skulls just made me think, 'What am I being bull-headed about?' So let's just see what the next card has to say in answer to that...

Judgement. The card shows the dead rising from the grave, at the behest of a very jolly-looking Nosferatu character. The moon looks on expectantly, while the cat passes through the image, a challenge in his glance.

What am I being bull-headed about? Heeding the call to new life. The message is even written on the headstones: 'Awaken sleeper. Rise.' Every day I am presented with chances wake to new life. The choice of what to eat. The choice of whether to exercise. Those are daily opportunities. Then there are the unexpected ones. A challenge laid down to create my own version of a Kindergarten Lenormand (thanks, Chloe!). A chance to read the cards for someone on a train. These are just the chances I've noticed. Being so King of Pumpkins grounded, I have probably missed a myriad of other chances to grow. The cards are saying to me, stop being so bull-headed toward the invitation to awaken! Another sudden thought. Cow skulls. I have just started reading a book called 'Isis Magic'.  Isis wears the horns of a cow. Much food for thought here. Perhaps this new path of exploration will prove fruitful, if I am open to it.

Monday morning on the walk to work, I watched the pigeons wheeling and flocking and lighting again, as I often do. And I noticed a bird flying far, far higher than the other birds. I could not imagine what he was doing up there. Why would he fly so high? What would the world look like from up there? He was the only bird that high; he was so tiny he was almost a speck. I was transfixed and nearly walked into a lamppost craning to keep him in my sight. How cold it must be up there, how lonely. What must he feel like up there? His little heart beating so hard with the flapping of his wings. What would happen, I wondered, if he suddenly got really tired up there? So far from earth, with no one near to help.  Did it even occur to him to consider such a thing? If he did tire out, he'd still continue to hold out his wings, not considering the option of curling them round himself to plummet to earth. He'd work his way down, buoyed up by the current of air. The air! The air buoyed him up...so...he wasn't alone up there at all. Not really. I became conscious of the air around me, against my skin, the breeze. What buoys me up? What supports me that I depend upon so much that I can take it for granted? The bird soared and soared, flapping his tiny wings to take himself higher. I had to cross a street and when I looked for him again, he was gone.  'I'll fly away' indeed.