Line reading the Emperor

Noblet Tarot, JC Flornoy 2014 edition

I drew Emperor for today and thought, hm, what's he looking at? So I drew 6 of Coins. But then I wondered, well, what? And I drew King of Swords. Well, then. What are these two looking at? And I drew Ace of Swords, which felt like the end of the line, so I stopped.

I'm seeing here a lot of clarity and mastery in the material realm -- finances, health, security, etc. The Emperor is certainly looking over the remainder of the spread. Six is the most harmonious of the numbers, so the Emperor rules over the material realm quite well. He's aided by the King of Swords who looks toward Ace of Swords, his emblem -- he's prepared to marshal all his strengths and skills to create this material harmony. Logic, rational thought, careful planning. The Emperor's crown is held aloft by the strengths of the Sword.

I guess this means I'm heading in the right direction lately. That's good news! I do feel like I've had more clarity, less fog, the last few days. Long may it continue.

Some line readings:

Taking control of financial and health situation requires mastery of emotion and clear thinking. 

Keep looking forward with the knowledge that you have the skills and the power to take control of your financial and health situation. 

Turn your back to the past and face the current situation. Wrest control of it with logical and clear planning. 

Control of the situation depends upon being rational. Emotion plays no part in it. Keep your eyes on that prize of a simple plan. 

Oh you better watch out - King of Swords

Well, look who turns up again today. This time I actually drew from the Original Rider Waite Tarot Deck. (The image I was referring to as Original yesterday must have come from a PCS deck. I googled it.  I'd forgotten the brown coloration of the Original. Pardon the scan, my mac and I don't see eye to eye on things).

The King of Swords has the elemental affinity of Fire of Air. The other Fire of Air cards are Ace of Swords, 4 of Swords and 7 of Swords. The Fire of Air personality has a passion for what is 'right', and puts his or her principles before everything, including relationships. The King of Swords in particular tends to be a confrontational skeptic, a crusader against injustice, and so might become a class action lawyer, political theorist, ideological apologist, or take on the role of spokesperson for a particular cause.

He holds the sword in his right hand, the hand that corresponds to the left hemisphere of the brain, which is dominant in language, perception of facial expression, body posture and linguistic functions such as tone of voice, pauses, stress, and rhythms of speech (known as 'prosody'). In other words, the King of Swords can read you like a book, as soon as you stand before him and open your mouth.

He sees you when you're speaking,
he knows what you don't say,
he knows when you've been bad or good
 so be circumspect for goodness' sake

... or something like that.

Anyway, I've drawn the King of Swords two days in a row, so what's he saying to me?

'Oh, you better watch out,
You better be sharp,
Don't let anybody keep you in the dark,
The King of Swords
Is telling you now.'

King of Swords - where did those butterflies come from?

Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot 

The King of Swords is my astrological correspondent, apparently. Aquarius is King of Swords. Let's take a look at him.

He sits on a black and white throne engraved with a sort of inverted triple moon -- but instead of a full moon in the middle, there's a butterfly. Beneath that, two more butterflies. Beneath that, just behind his left shoulder, what appears to be some sort of dancer in the clouds. I don't tend to associate the King of Swords with butterflies or dancers, to be honest. I wonder how they got there. Funnily enough, I never noticed this before in all the years I've used RWS. Let's take a closer look at the original...yep! There it is! Big and bold as life. Actually, that 'dancer' is rendered in more detail in the Original RWS. It's actually a couple, facing us, looking toward the King's head, and the figure in front is pointing. Interesting.

Original RWS

I wonder why the birds in the sky were left out of the Radiant image. I wonder why the King's foot isn't visible. I wonder why his perch on the edge of the promontory is given so much more emphasis in Radiant, and why the Radiant cloud formation looks more like it has a hole in it than the rendering in Original RWS. Maybe no reason. But that hole really catches my eye, and doesn't lend King of Swords good associations!


All these variations could impact the way we read this card. The King in Radiant looks more isolated to me. Without the birds, there is less movement in the card. He appears 'higher' in the scene in Radiant than in Original RWS, more set apart from it. Also, in Radiant, the top of his throne is seen, whereas it goes off the top of card in Original -- this seems to bring him forward a bit in Original, but makes him more static in Radiant, to my eyes. His foot peeping out gives him more a feeling of leaning toward the viewer, whereas having them tucked under the robe in Radiant makes him seem more closed off. Finally, the face in Radiant has a glassy stare, whereas in Original, his eyes seemed cast to the side as if in thought. These are all very subtle cues that will play on the subconscious of the reader and could render quite different results, depending on the sensitivity of the reader to visual cues. (Plus I just prefer the Original, which probably explains why instead of talking about the King of Swords, I've ended up comparing Radiant to Original RWS!)

Well, I'm emerging today here on the blog, a bit like a butterfly (and I did use a butterfly as a logo for a few years, now that I think about it), and I've analysed a card in a King of Swords sort of detachment. So not entirely out of step for today.

Can you believe I have to work today? Sunday working. Oy.

Reading using directionality and reversals

Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Tarot  

This is the reading I've been exploring in my journal for the last few days. I'd drawn cards of the number 5 two days in a row (not pictured). Five being associated with finding balance, I asked 'What is attempting to find balance in my life right now? What is out of balance? and What is maintaining equilibrium?' I drew Magician Rx, Strength, Star.

So, a weakened Magician is attempting to find balance right now. Personal power is not being used to bring my needs into reality. I am not identifying my true needs. Strength has come forward as what is out of balance right now -- again a card of personal power and taking the bull by the horns (or lion by the jaw). The Star has maintained equilibrium -- hope has not been lost. I have felt all along that there is plenty of time to address my issues. I just haven't done anything about them. (The reason why is seen in 9 of Pentacles later).

To rectify the reversed Magician, I drew Hermit and placed it above Magician. I can identify my true needs and establish balance in my personal power within myself, or with the help of a mentor, or in a spiritual tradition or practice. wondering what the Hermit's lamp was lighting, I drew another card to see what was in his line of sight. Queen of Cups. Her posture echoes that of the Hermit -- both facing to the left, both intent upon the item they are holding, for the Hermit, the lamp of enlightenment, for the Queen it's the world's craziest cup, shaped like the Ark of the Covenant with the seraphim on either side (if the Ark of the Covenant were made of spare pipe and hood ornaments nicked from the cars of pimps in Starsky and Hutch.)  Queen of Cups is Water of Water -- and so was the daily card that prompted this draw (not in the photo), 5 of Cups, another Water of Water card. This imbalance or disturbance is in the realm of emotions and relationships and personal power.

 Looking at the Queen of Cups and Hermit makes one long to know what is in their line of sight -- so I drew another card to see what they are looking at and got 8 of Cups reversed. Another Water of Water card! 8 of Cups is recognition of time to move on; reversed suggests confusion or delay in making that move.

How can I overcome this confusion, find some clarity? I drew a card to rectify the 8 of Cups reversed and got -- King of Swords reversed! Fire of Air, reversed. I am Aquarius, and King of Swords is the card associated with Aquarius. He's sort of my default setting. But here, to overcome my confusion about what needs looking at and changing, I can't do it through King of Swords, but through King of Swords reversed. Usually, I tend to be rational about things but now that is not what is needed. To clarify this, I remembered a technique of identifying reversed court cards by identifying their elemental opposite. If King of Swords is Fire of Air, his opposite would be Air of Fire --Knight of Wands!

Knight of Wands, that maker of 'down and dirty' plans, that explorer and adventurer, that risk taker! Knight of Wands? How the heck do I access Knight of Wands energy when I don't even feel that I remotely have it right now?

I took the card out of the pack and looked at it for a while. I noticed the pyramids in the background. The Knight of Wands is not drawing energy from his surroundings, which are dry and barren. His passion is inside him. So it must be somewhere inside of me, even when there is nothing in my environment or situation to feed it. What is the Knight of Wands charging toward? What is he charging away from?

I put the card back in the pack and shuffled to find out which cards he would end up between. I found the Knight of Wands and laid him out with the cards on either side of him: Chariot, Knight of Wands, 9 of Pentacles.

The Knight of Wands is moving away from 9 of Pentacles (Air of Earth), whose energy and line of sight are directed away from him (though her body posture is still open to his direction). Her attention is definitely elsewhere, focused on her bird (Air) of prey (Earth). As Air of Earth, she contemplates the material/physical realm. Her satisfaction with her status quo is evident. She is complacent, self-congratulatory, self-satisfied. These are not bad things, but the way she spends her leisure time may no longer be balanced -- too long standing still. Too long watching others move (her bird of prey, which she will presumably set loose to watch fly).

How does the Knight of Wands move me from too much physical luxury? What does he move me toward? The Chariot, a Water card, associated with Cancer and the Moon. Okay, so the Water of Water cards led me to draw a variety of Water cards that have laid me a path to -- a Water major! The emotional plane is dominant in this issue. Not the material plane or the logical plane, but the emotional plane, and how to take action with balanced emotions.

'Cancer is the gateway to incarnation, as Capricorn (its opposite) is the gateway to ascension. Cancer's energy guides us to learn the distinctions of our emotional and logical reasoning so we can recognise how they don't always agree' - agent64.com/cancer-the-chariot

Like a Cancerian crab, the Chariot has a hard shell and a soft centre -- appearing tough on the outside but deep down quite sensitive and vulnerable.

The Chariot card is full of this tension between opposing forces: black and white sphinxes, male and female, facing in opposite directions, meant to be pulling the chariot but not hitched to it and lying down (they seem ambivalent), the lingam and yoni on the shield (which to me looks like a top that spins in place but doesn't actually get anywhere), the chariot is a conveyance but is built like a cube of concrete, no reins and no motion in the charioteer who is encased in the concrete cube (he seems ambivalent), chariots are often associated with the sun ('chariots of fire') but this one is decorated with moons and starry night skies and is associated with the moon.

In other words, the Knight of Wands is me progressing, through my own inner drive,  toward a state of balance created by acknowledging that there is always a state of perpetual tension, and harnessing that tension to drive my life forward. I have been looking for balance rather than acknowledging constant tension. In fact, I have turned from acknowledgement of tension, turned from the areas that need attention (Water and Fire) and settled into some complacent wallowing in the material realm. And there I've wallowed for quite some time.

'To be useful, either to herself or any higher purpose, she had to use her ambivalence as a driving force in her life, a force that would power the Chariot' (Rachel Pollack, The Forest of Souls, 75).

Much to ponder. The Chariot and the Knight of Wands are going on my altar.

Some of these techniques were shared by Caitlin Matthews in a session at the UK Tarot Conference, October 2015. A webinar and DVD of line of sight and rectifying reversals, etc,  may be available at some point. Visit her website at Hallowquest.

Other techniques seen herein have been shared by Alison Cross in TABI conferences, by Benebell Wen in her book Holistic Tarot, and many others.

Daily Draw with the Mosaic Dream Tarot

Mosaic Dream Tarot by Bridgett Trejo, 2014  

Do this: 9 of Wands
Today I will have to go back to the drawing board with something, but I also need to remember that the hardest part of the battle is over. The resolution is nearly there and I should persevere. I must look to my strengths (9 of Wands is known as Lord of Strength) to assist me.

Don't do this: King of Swords
Today I must avoid being too coldly logical and expedient. The King of Swords would sacrifice himself or others to do what's 'right', but this is not the day for that.

Outcome: Fool 
If I am willing to do the painful work of a do-over, and I don't stick doggedly to what appears to me to be the best and simplest way (regardless of people's feelings about it), then unexpected solutions, cooperation and vistas will open up.

All good news. In actual fact, I am having to go back to the drawing board with something at work today. I've got a meeting to discuss it. No matter how hard-nosed I feel about it, I must not let that overshadow proceedings. I should dig deep and find my more subtle strengths of empathy and compromise.

The Hamburger Moment: A Reading

An article that's making the rounds on Facebook caught my eye the other day:

The Hamburger Moment: I wasn't treating my husband fairly and it wasn't nice

I recognized a lot of my own patterns of behaviour in that article, and not for the first time. I know from experience that I am not the only woman who tends to come down very hard on her partner for small things. I've listened to women complain to each other vigorously about such sins as leaving wet towels in the floor, not opening the hamper but leaving clothes on top, and putting toilet paper the wrong way round. I have certainly seen a lot of this sort of behaviour on TV shows like 'Everybody Loves Raymond' and 'Home Improvement,' etc (forgive my ancient TV references, I don't watch a lot of sitcoms anymore). I guess we've been doing this crap for a long time; it's even mentioned in the Bible: 'A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand' (Proverbs 27:15-16). Ha ha!

I don't have a clue about the bigger picture of why there seems to be a pattern of women nitpicking. Maybe it has something to do with some underlying pressure to be perfect ourselves, imposed on us by cultural and societal expectations, maybe it's learned behaviour from watching our mothers, don't know, but what I do know is I can try to recognize and address this sort of thing in myself. Better late than never. So here is what I asked:

1. Why do I slip into the habit of constant fault-finding in my husband? 

2. What is the best course of action to address this? 

3. What is the biggest challenge in this course of action?
4. What is the biggest support?

5. What is the outcome? 

I then pulled 5 cards and examined them:  7 of Cups - 2 of Pents - 10 of Swords - 10 of Wands - 6 of Cups. I was getting an impression of the reading, but decided to pull clarifiers for each card in the spread (not something I usually do) and laid them in a second row beneath: Sun - Ace of Wands - High Priestess - King of Swords - Queen of Wands. Each card I laid down felt like 'Boom! There it is!' They just solidified the original draw so well. Let's take them in pairs. 

 I do this because of deceptive, destructive fantasies of perfection. It's not just him I hold to these unconscious rules, it's the entire world! I've been reading a lot about irrational beliefs that underlie our unhelpful responses to life, and I've identified several from a list produced by Albert Ellis (12 Self-Defeating Beliefs). The ones at work here seem to be:

*People should always do the right thing and when they don't, they must be punished.
*Things must be the way I want them or life will be intolerable.
*My unhappiness is caused by things outside my control, so there is little I can do to feel better.
*Every problem must have an ideal solution, and it is intolerable when one cannot be found.
*To be a worthy person, one must succeed at what they do and make no mistakes.

I have no idea how these irrational rules and beliefs become embedded in us, but I have found that when I feel upset about something, if I have a look at these lists, I can usually quickly identify the irrational belief or demand that is causing the discomfort. It is rather uncanny. So what's the best course of action?

To create 'a partnership working with proper energy flow and support', I must remember that 'mood swings may threaten stability' and that 'anger and not fully understanding the consequences of actions' will break down the balance. (The quotations come directly from the LWB of the Sacred Rose Tarot deck. It's useful to keep and to check the LWB! Sometimes what you find there is spot on!)

The key here is to learn to catch myself between the irrational belief and the consequences (that's the exact term used by Ellis -- fits, doesn't it!) of that belief. It's almost impossible to do that, so the only way you can change a habitual response is by doing what Ellis called ABC analysis (see previous blogs here and here). Over time, with reflection and by disputing irrational beliefs after the fact, the behaviour begins to change. That's the theory, and it's certainly helped with my tinnitus, so why not try it here.

The biggest challenge is of course rooting out and recognizing the self-defeating actions. That's reflected in the pairing of 10 of Wands and High Priestess. The LWB says there are 'excessive pressures and problems to be resolved' and that good judgement is based on 'logic and knowledge removed from the confusion of emotion.' That is precisely the process of REBT. It's not easy, it's hard work. So it's the biggest challenge.

The biggest support comes from the cerebral nature of the whole thing. This is the death of irrational beliefs and the meticulous re-training of the thinking needed to challenge and change them. If the King of Swords were to identify something as entirely self-defeating, he would be merciless in rooting it out. This is a good thing. When my King of Swords nature recognizes how illogical and pointless certain beliefs are, he simply won't allow me to believe them anymore. And when I don't hold a certain belief anymore (like 'people must be perfect and they if they make a mistake they deserve to be punished') then I won't react to events based on that belief anymore (like if my husband or I drop the cafetiere and break it, it is cause for a flash of anger and sharp words). -- If my underlying belief can be changed to 'People make mistakes and though it's inconvenient it is not intolerable and we remain worthy human beings regardless of our mistakes', then dropping the cafetiere would result in 'Oh crap, oh well.'

The outcome of attacking this behaviour using these techniques? I will become responsible (or accept responsibility for) my own emotions. This will allow me to access the better qualities of my Queen of Wands nature: warmth and affection coupled with authority and determination.


I then asked, 'What is the overall message to me about this issue?' and drew three cards:

It's up to me to recall the source of love and emotion and to exercise my free will in deciding how I will react, what path I will choose in response to the cycles of the day-to-day. There is always a choice in response to the Wheel of Fortune. May its genesis be love, and not flawed beliefs and unconscious rules. 

All images in this post are from Sacred Rose Tarot (US Games 1982). 

Learn to release -- time to drop that sack

I rarely post about oracles because to me, oracles tend to be straightforward, personal messages. There is not a lot of interpretation involved, whereas of course tarot cards are so full of esoteric symbolism and associations that they could be discussed and written about forever (and hopefully will be!).  Today's draw from Conscious Spirit Oracle by Kim Dreyer (2013) gives us an affirmation:

'I release that which does not serve my higher purpose with gratitude and love.'

What unwanted clutter is holding you back from your full potential? We've all got it. It's just a matter of realising you're holding on to it. 

This reminds me of a story I read somewhere. A man is walking down a path, carrying a huge sack on his back. The sack is quite a burden; he's nearly doubled over. The man stubs his toe on a rock in the path and stumbles. 'Oh, idiot,' he says to himself. He stops, picks the rock up, smashes himself in the head with the rock and throws it into the sack. He continues down the path, trips on another large rock. 'Stupid! Stupid!' he mutters, stops and picks up the rock, smashes himself on the head with it and throws it in the sack. He does this another three or four times and finally a second man who had been standing on the road side observing this (the man with the sack wasn't able to move too fast or get too far for obvious reasons!) finally steps into the road. 

Note to self: Avoid throwing bull chunks at angry goddesses

    DO THIS                                      DON'T DO THIS

Important thing at work today. The cards seem to be saying to be logical and controlled, and not to worry about the outcome. I suppose the cards have a point. This is not a life or death thing here. Nothing is riding on the outcome of today's events. So why should I worry about it? I like the way the figure on the left is throwing the arrow over his shoulder, as if he's chucking the 5 of Disks over his shoulder with it. 'Psssh!' He seems to be saying. 'Away with you.'

'Mystic Bastard' Day Four

Mystic Faerie 2007, Deck of the Bastard 2013

I really like the pentacles suit in the Mystic Faerie Tarot. In each suit of this deck, a story is told through the progression of the cards. This works and doesn't work--it's a fun idea, but some cards are bit off the mark as far as traditional interpretation goes. In the pentacles suit, a faerie gets lost from her family and decides to live in an area where she finds herself--there's plenty to eat there, and she can make baskets and a shelter. But she soon finds it lonely without company, and after having her little home ransacked by some rats, she is befriended by mice, who take her into their community. The Six of Pentacles shows the faerie and the mice sharing their bounty with one another, in the spirit of charity and generosity often associated with this card. It's a really cute card. I love those little mice!