World of Work

The Intuitive Tarot by Cilla Conway (St Martins 2004)

I've drawn the 8 of Discs today. This is the work card, the card of the craftsman. Here, a figure is creating wheels to decorate a ziggurat temple, and would seem to be a master, as there is no one supervising. In some 8 of Pentacles cards (as this card has a very strong RWS influence, rather than Thoth), a master is shown guiding an apprentice, who does the work. In either case, the card usually, as here, depicts someone churning out multiple copies of a product. For me, this gives the card a 'practice makes perfect' feel. The card often imparts the message to keep trying, or to have faith in one's own experience, not to give up, and usually these messages are related to work and money, this being the Disc or Pentacles suit. The card may be telling you to keep trying, particular in your job.  It may be asking you to evaluate how you feel about the work you are doing. Is it satisfying to you? It may be asking you to find those aspects of your work that you really enjoy. Do you enjoy the product of your work? Do you enjoy the processes that your work entails, the things that you must repeat? Is your work satisfactory? If not, could the skills you've picked up in your work be transferred to more spiritually satisfying work? For example, John and Caitlyn Matthews have very effectively used their research and organisational skills acquired as librarians to create careers writing books and producing tarot and oracle decks. If you are good at your current work, but it isn't satisfying your spirit, could you turn those same skills to something that does satisfy you more deeply?

Devas of Creation (Conway 2013)

To support today's tarot card, I've also drawn a card from Devas of Creation (Cilla Conway 2013). This card is called the 'Seed Void', and represents dark matter, the 'unseen aspect of the cosmos that exists all around us and includes a new force of nature' (New Scientist, 7 Mar 2009, qtd in Devas of Creation companion book). If we look at the card, it begins to look like a tunnel with some lights at the end of it, and the companion book says, 'The Deva of Dark Energy is the darkness of the birth canal, offering a passage to the hidden side of existence, where worlds are seeded and birthed.'

Seen in support of the 8 of Discs, this card suggests to me that there are almost limitless ways we can apply our transferable skills to new ways of earning a living. We are limited only by our imaginations, the scope of our life experience, and our fears. 'While encountering this strangeness may well engender extreme fear,' says the companion book, 'it is a our great teacher. Indeed, our certainties are often what keep us in sleep mode.'

For myself, I have recently applied for a new job and am awaiting news on whether I am shortlisted for interview. While it is the same job I currently do, it offers new possibilities. It would give me the chance to fully experience the role, as my current job is part time and in a small, quiet work environment, while the new job is the same role but full time and in a much larger, vibrant environment. It would give the chance to fully experience 8 of Discs, and might open up the Seed Void aspect of the role -- things I never expected, never had the chance to explore, never even realised existed. And of course, who knows what transferable skills I might pick up that could be applied at some point to a way of earning a living that I cannot yet imagine.