The Magician - Jean Noblet Tarot

Jean Noblet Tarot, Flornoy 2014

Yesterday was miserable. No air conditioning at work.  My workplace registered 32C on a thermometer we keep near the computers, and even though I did no walking, my ankle and calves broke out in the golfer's vasculitis I usually get on a midsummer long-distance walk. (Though in the last few years, this has popped up more and more and for less and less reason -- though always in warmer months.) I hate heat and so does my poor body. I went to sleep in the middle of the floor last night at 8 PM and only woke up to get in bed. So last night I actually slept 10 hours, as opposed to my usual 6. That's how depleted I was. Stupid heat.

Today we have Magician. For some reason he seems to be holding a small pink penis, though it looks rather like it might also be a digit bent backward. Whatever it is he's holding in his other hand is small and pink -- maybe he's giving a demonstration of how to put on a condom. Well, who knows what the creator of this deck was thinking in 1650 Paris. There's a lot of debate about this detail. Many think it is the result of a broken wood block. Others think it was Noblet's play on words: une verge means both rod or wand and penis, apparently. Rather than any esoteric meaning, it was probably either a mistake, or a joke. I suspect it's a joke. Some people say it has to do with 'beginnings' and 'generation', but for me, and traditionally, that is represented by the female and not the male reproductive organs. It's just a silly cock joke. 'He's holding his wand. Fnar fnar.'

He's not even the Magician, he's Le Bateilleur, a street performer. He has some of the tools of his trade on the table: dice, 3 cups and 3 peas (or that could be some sort of chain or hoop trick), a couple of knives (maybe he throws or juggles them?) and pages from a book which he probably can't read but likes to amaze his audience by either pretending to consult or reciting some memorised lines while pretending to read. It is 1650 after all, and this is a street performer, unlikely to be literate. Whatever's going on in his hands has less to do with symbols of new life and more to do with illusion and prestidigitation.  He's probably just about to make the 'coin' he's holding disappear up his quite voluminous sleeve. His routine is so well rehearsed, he can afford to look away and pay attention to something else. Maybe he's bored. Work is work, after all. It's his job to fool us, maybe even amaze us, but for him, it's just a routine.

'The function of the Magician is to make us question everything, including why we may feel uneasy about being conned. But we are also meant to question why we like being conned,' writes Camelia Elias in Marseille Tarot: Towards the Art of Reading. 'Indeed, what if the illusion of reality is more interesting than the real? What is the real? The mind is high strung when this card is present. How about winding down the stress?'

Where are you feeling conned today? Where are you conning yourself? And what is stressing you out? Move on down the street and leave 'LL Batelevr' to carry on without you.

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.

Three times in one week I've drawn the Magician

Intuitive Tarot and Devas of Creation (both by Cilla Conway)

I have drawn Magician again. That's the third time this week. I decided to draw a Deva card with the card this time instead of after, and look at them side by side. The Deva card is called Element of Earth. So we have the Magician card combined with Earth. I feel pretty certain I know what this third appearance of the Magician is trying to tell me. It's a stern message, a strong prodding. It's trying to kick me in the pants.

I have to tell you, my magical working planned at London Tarot Festival was to find motivation to eat well and exercise. And since I selected my cards and started a to-do list at that workshop, I have eaten cookies and chocolate and baked a cake and eaten chips, and done no exercise. I haven't even yet tidied the bedroom and redecorated my altar. I've just ignored my intention to work some magic in this area. I keep shuffling and drawing the Magician all this week. Do I want to follow through on this or not? It seems to be asking me. It's up to me.

So today, I draw it again, this time with the Element of Earth Deva. 'When this Deva appears in a reading...it may be a timely reminder to notice what is going on in your body, have a massage or generally just be aware of the physical world around you,' says the Devas of Creation companion book. Of course, thinking what I'm thinking about, the image on this card reminds me of digestive processes and fleshiness. Glub glub. Squish squish. Also, sluggish arteries, clogged with fat! Am I going sweep this away, burn it with the fire of exercise and proper nutrition? Or am I going to keep eating cake and waddling around, not knowing what it's doing to my internal organs, blood sugar level and future? It's my choice. It's my choice.

Okay, so I'm going to work today, but I've set up my altar and here it is: a yellow candle to represent burning fat (!), tokens of the four Elements (in their actual positions -- when I sit at my altar, east and north are behind me to the left and right -- that's just the way the room is orientated), and my 3 chosen tarot cards. I have used the Giant Rider Waite, because they're HOOGE. So I've got my fiery colours and all my things are in place:

More on this later. Have a great weekend!

Playing with fire (water, earth and air)

The Intuitive Tarot by Cilla Conway (St Martin's Press 2004)

The London Tarot Festival was on Saturday, 4 July, and I came home with five new decks, amongst them a completely impulse buy of a deck I'd never even seen, the Intuitive Tarot by Cilla Conway. I almost never -- well, actually never -- buy a deck when I haven't seen every single card in it, let alone having seen NONE of the cards. But I was at Cilla's table buying the Devas of Creation, and there was one copy of this deck, and I thought, what the heck, and bought it, too.

The card I've drawn today is Magician. One thing I

Thoth Tarot

noticed straightaway about this deck is its many Thoth influences, which I will continue to explore over the week. The figure in this card, a golden, naked figure making a sweeping gesture, echoes the Thoth Magus, but with more fluidity of movement, far fewer details (esoteric references) and less refinement in the artwork -- no bad thing.  It's as if the fairly static and formal Magus of Thoth broke out of the shell of that statue-like figure standing tiptoe on an upended surfboard and with a sweep of his hand cleared the card and began his dance of life and magical practice. In fact, a lot of these cards feel like that -- Thoth cards that have broken free of their rigid 'ceremonial magic' pomp, as if the energies of the cards have burst free and are moving and wriggling and showing their true colours.

The Magician in the Intuitive Tarot is not the 'master of the elements' we've come to expect him to be. He is just one step removed from the Fool. I like the way he's swirling the elements around; it's rather like a little kid who's just discovered that you can swirl water around your arms in the bath or a swimming pool. The swirls look mostly like fire and what might be either air or water, though looking closely there are a few things that might be rocks on the lower left side of the oval, representing earth, perhaps. Now that I look at it, maybe he's on a beach with fire, and that blue bit above the fire is the sea, water, and the transparent swirl is air. I'll go with that. :)  'The Magician is the child learning to manipulate the world and its elements,' the companion book says. 'Along the way, we will lose the natural, unconscious sense of connection with the Infinite, but for a while we take that connection and its phenomenal power for granted.' He certainly looks joyous -- and mischievous.

I have come out of the London Tarot Festival feeling somewhat renewed, and one of the workshops (Tarot Magic by Chloe McCracken) gave me some insight into an issue in my life and the start of a to-do list which will help me make positive changes in this area, if I follow through. The Magician reminds me that I have the ability to make those changes. In fact, how much more of a reminder of a 'Tarot Magic' workshop do you need than the card called 'The Magician'?!

Looks like it's time to make an altar-ation. (That's what I call it when I take down and redecorate my altar.)

Devas of Creation: Metamorphosis

As a support to this draw, I have drawn a card from Devas of Creation (Cilla Conway). It is Metamorphosis. 'When this Deva appears, you may well be in the process of metamorphosing into a new state -- after illness, depression, or some other withdrawal from the world,' says the companion book. 'The Deva shows that we need to let go the ties that keep us incomplete. However, the appearance of the Deva is also an indicator that transformation is happening, and all we need to do is to trust, acknowledging but not acting out of resistance.'

That card certainly reinforces the message of the Magician! The cards even echo one another in coloring and the sweep of blue and black moving from the lower left corner to the upper right corner.

I can see I'm really going to enjoy working with these two decks.

Divine connection

Well, I've drawn this card three days in a row so I guess I am going to have to take a look at it, Magician from Tarot de St Croix.

The little companion book to this deck says that the figure depicted here is the Sufi mystic, Rumi. His name was Jalal al Din Rumi, and he lived in Aghanistan, 1207-1273, a mystic and poet who wrote in Persian, and whose influence is far-reaching. The general thread running through Rumi's works is the longing for connection with the All, or as Rumi called it the 'Beloved'. He believed strongly that ritual music, poetry and dance could help with a pure connection to the 'Beloved', and it's from these ideas that the 'whirling Dervishes' emerged.

So, on the card we see a man dressed much like one of those whirling Dervishes (and looking a lot like a fairy tale wizard, too), standing in the middle of a wagon wheel, apparently pulling tarot cards down from the heavens and directing them towards the earth, while basking in a blazing sun.

Deck creator Lisa de St Croix writes, 'The Magician is the root number of the Sun which radiates above and the Wheel of Fortune on which he stands as it spins over a vast desert. The elements are represented on the tarot cards which he brings forth from the Great Mystery and circulates out toward us. His robe indicates the cosmos and the symbol on his cap refers to the moon phases.'

The tarot cards looming at us in the foreground are the ace cards, showing the elements: fire, earth, water and air (wands, pentacles, cups, swords). The figure's arms are raised in an as above-so below formation, so this card is not that different from the traditional RWS Magician. The meaning is also traditional: 'Through focused energy we are able to harness the means to create our destiny.'

It's probably no secret that lately I haven't been feeling like I have much hand in creating my own destiny. I think sometimes we misread the Magician card, and say things like, 'The Magician has everything he needs within himself to manifest all his desires.' But if that's so, why wouldn't the Magician have his hands over his heart, or have them thrust forward with lightning bolts emanating from them? No, we always see him drawing down power from above and manifesting it below. He is a conduit or channel for something. His Higher Power.

'Love came and it made me empty.
Love came and it filled me with the Beloved.
It became the blood in my body
It became my arms and my legs.
It became everything!
Now all I have is a name,
The rest belongs to the Beloved.'
                                                  ~Rumi

The Magician is not bending energy from the Universe to his will. He is not commanding and directing the elements. He is rather completely infused with the Universe. He is in submission, he has surrendered entirely to it, and this is where his power comes from. It's not his power. It's the Higher Power.

When we don't feel that we have much hand in creating our destiny, it's a sure sign we are living by Will and Ego and resistant to the flow of the Beloved (or the All, the Universe, the Higher Power, Goddess, or even God -- whatever you want to call it.)

Reminders come from all directions.

Tarot and the 12 Steps: 1-3

Introduction

This is the first in a series of 4 posts in which I examine how (if at all) the first 12 tarot majors fit in with the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (and thus all 12-step recovery programs.)

1. We admitted we were powerless over _______, that our lives had become unmanageable.  

Tarot readers usually think of the Fool as representing  positive energy and possibility, and often overlook his very harmful shadow side. The Fool can equally be impulsive, reckless, heedless, ignoring advice, indiscreet, stupid, lacking in judgement, childish, making bad decisions, and in dire peril of harming both himself and those around him at all times. The Fool can easily embody the bravado and overconfidence of the addict who thinks they've got it all under control, or that no harm can come to them, or that they don't really care whether something harms them or not, and who take no notice at all of the impact of their actions on others, helplessly watching them put themselves in danger.

At some point, the Fool may look down and realise...'Oh my god, I'm taking a step off a cliff! I'm falling off a f**ing cliff! How did I get into this position? Where can I turn? What can I do? How can ever, ever get out of this stupid perilous position I have got myself into?'

The Fool will have admitted that he is powerless over the impulses that got him where he is, and that yes, absolutely, where he stands now, his life has become unmanageable. (Is his little dog codependent, that's another question!)

The Indigo child, oh my

Now this is one of the cards in the Sirian Starseed that may do your head in. It's the Magician card, but instead of a magician doing the Saturday Night Fever 'as above so below' pose with a table full of elemental symbols, we have an 'Indigo child' holding a crystal. A creepy smirking child...with creepy Midwich cuckoo eyes...

So what the hell is an 'Indigo' anyway? I'm glad you asked.

Once upon a time in the 1960s, there was a psychic called Nancy Ann Tappe, a synesthete with a gift for seeing 'auras' (though many proponents of the Indigo child idea deny it was 'auras' she saw). As you probably know, an aura is a kind of emanation that surrounds living things and is considered to be its essence. Some people with special sensibilities  claim to be able to sense them, even see them. Nancy Ann Tappe could see them and see their colours. She called these 'life colours'. (She also claimed to be able to taste shapes.)

Nancy saw so many colours around people. She saw magenta, red, blue, orange, pink, lavender, yellow, tan and green. She went around seeing colours and tasting shapes. But in the 1960s, she started seeing a new colour infants, indigo. She hadn't seen this colour before. So she called these 'indigo children.' A few were born in the 60s, with the numbers increasing until today, she says (or would say, if she hadn't died in 2012), most people under the age of 30 are indigos. Her website says that in the 60s, about one in 5000 births were indigos. Now, '95% of the population are indigos'. I guess it means 95% of the population born after the 60s are indigos, or else lots of others will have changed colour, not something that appears to be possible.

How can you tell if you're an indigo? Here are some traits of the indigo:

• Feeling like an alien -- like you don't belong here, that you are different from most people
• Anger -- which some might call righteous indignation and others might call an overblown sense of entitlement
• Tenacity -- you won't be beaten down, also called willfulness 
• Resistance of authority, structure and hierarchy -- Dislike/distrust of teachers, doctors and authority figures of all types
• Seeing through lies -- always asking why, always seeing through those in power trying to pull the wool over your eyes, but you are not having it!
• Defiance -- (which more forgiving New Age types call 'breaking down structures') -- basically, trouble makers, but always felt to be justified trouble
• Radical authenticity -- the indigo must 'be himself', refuse to 'wear a social mask', no matter the consequences
• Love -- very powerfully throw themselves into emotions
• Depression -- see above
• Sense of mission -- indigos feel they are here for a reason, and they search diligently to try to figure out what it is
• Power, creativity, energy -- multi-talented, creative, with lots of energy toward things they want to do, and a big 'F you' to the things they don't want to do
• Intuition -- make decisions based on gut feeling; just 'kind of know' things
• Loners -- enjoy company of other indigos, otherwise don't mind being alone
• Sensitivity -- sensitive to textures, colours, etc, sensitive to situations, for example big parties can overwhelm; it varies with the indigo, but they are all 'sensitive'
• Other traits -- attracted to animals or children, tendency to be vegetarian, defy age classification (hard to tell age), do not respond to 'guilt' discipline 

A lot of people see the whole 'indigo child' thing as an excuse for problem children or poor parenting. I shall withhold comment other than to say that as a former teacher, I can certainly imagine a parent/teacher conference during which a parent might say, 'Well, he's his own person you know--he's an indigo.' I never had anyone call their child an indigo, but I certainly had parents say they couldn't exert any type of meaningful influence over their children's disruptive behaviour. Heck, my own kid was a little hellion in school, but that wasn't because he was an 'indigo' -- though he fits most of the 'traits' listed above. Shrug. Who knows -- maybe his aura is indigo, I certainly have never seen an aura around a person, so what do I know. I've taken online quizzes and according them I'm indigo.

Are you an adult indigo?  

I'm skeptical of all this 'Indigo' business, so I'm not thrilled to see 'Indigo' as a major card, but I will get over it! If I leave aside all that I personally see as nonsense in it, I can still see in the card the representation of a kind of pure potential, and the art shows me powers of the universe converging and taking shape in human hands -- as above, so below. So I can live with it. :) 

A personal reading: leaving a job

I have requested to go back to my regular job 6 months early. Even though my regular job has its problems, too, and has its own risks, and even though the secondment paid a bit more, I really don't want to spend a full year doing that work. I certainly know that I would not wish to ever do the job permanently. There seemed little point in prolonging the matter. And so I decided to pull some cards, now that I've taken official steps to end the thing early: 

What results to my advantage from leaving this job?

I decided to focus my question on the positive side of this move. The cards I've drawn are tremendously encouraging. 

Tarot Illuminati by Eric C Dunne, companion book by Kim Huggens Llewellyn 2012

Despite my strong Queen of Swords aspect, I became more acutely aware of some things about myself over the last few months, and these are well represented by the King of Cups. As Fire of Water, the King of Cups is the action of emotion. My first (and hopefully last) taste of life in a corporate office has brought home to me my need for work based on my strong feelings about something. I have mentioned that all my work has been in helping professions - teacher, customer service, librarian. It's true that a Queen of Swords tendency to be organised and self-controlled certainly helps in these roles, but the crux of the matter is King of Cups. Without a deep conviction that the work I'm doing matters in a meaningful way to other people, I cannot muster enthusiasm for a task. I need to help. I need to be of service. Healer, counsellor, advisor, compassion, active emotions, care, spiritual wisdom, emotional experience -- all these are associated with the King of Cups, who in his most positive aspect represents all these things (and in the company of the two following cards, he is most definitely positively aspected).

'Mine is the power of active compassion,' the King of Cup declares in the companion book, 'the power to see pain and suffering and heal it, to purify the wounded and injured, and to guide the lost soul in times of trouble. I travel upon the ocean, because to swim in it would let it overcome me; I rule my emotions, not the other way around, and it is this which allows me to heal the wounded feelings and souls of others.'

It is a strong indication to me that I belong in work where I feel that I am helping other people -- directly helping other people, not doing back room work for an organisation that ostensibly helps other people. I need to be able to look in the eyes of the person I am helping, to see the connection I am making, to see that the work I do has a direct positive influence on someone's life. Dealing in abstractions about 'big work for a bigger good' is not fulfilling for me.

It's true that these things are more immediate and apparent in the jobs I will be returning to, but even more so in pursuing other goals -- and these goals are to expand on my deep interests and skills. The Alchemist, or Magician, is highly supportive of new beginnings, new projects and goals. The Alchemist has all resources at hand -- earth, water, fire and air -- and this is representative of having everything you need within you and without you to make your dreams reality. What you imagine can happen. The Alchemist tells me to direct my energy toward my goals. 'Sometimes it can indicate that something the querent is doing or working on seems to be inspired by or linked directly to a higher cause or power, as if they are channelling it and they simply are the messenger or means by which it reaches manifestation,' writes Huggens. Now is the time to pursue these goals, becoming more fully committed to helping others directly. So this would be another advantage of making this change in jobs - it provides opportunity to move in this direction. Just how it does remains to be seen...

Finally, the 2 of Wands is a card that shows possibility and forward momentum. I was struck by the words of the 2 of Wands in the companion book: 'The strong will, by necessity, must be expansive in nature, not happy to be cloistered and shut away...I know the limits of my dominion, and therefore I know what is not my dominion, and what is waiting for me. But knowing is not enough, because I also know that I have not yet expanded my will and desire far enough. I am the explorer, the entrepreneur, the leader, the conqueror. I do not seek to take from others, but my influence will be felt...' That is how I felt in a corporate office, cloistered and shut away, certainly not my dominion. And so, this card represents the expansion of will into action. The card encourages me to move in the direction of my will -- and my will is to do work that is truly and directly helpful to others. That is where my passion lies. It must said that 2 of Wands is a very auspicious card to draw in relation to business endeavours, and I so very strongly wish to do work that makes a difference in people's lives, that brings them comfort and enouragement and builds them up and makes them feel good and strong. I know that my gifts lie in that direction, and are manifested in card reading and spiritual counselling.

This is the direction I want to take. This is direction I will take.

Captain Caveman

In Greenwood Tarot, the Shaman is the equivalent of the traditional Magician card. He holds symbols of the four elements: a roebuck skull rattle for air, a stone knife for earth, a smudge stick for fire and a hollow antler cup for water.

The robe is decorated with famous cave art from Grotte de Trois Freres, in Ariege, France. The depictions here are based on the sketches of Henri Breuil, and to my eyes (and many others) great liberties have been taken! The figure with the antlers for example -- doesn't seem to have near the detail of Breuil's sketch, and it is disputed whether there are any antlers there at all, and it appears to be sitting rather than leaning forward dancing. For some reason, Breuil's drawing has become far more famous than the original cave painting. I can't even find a photograph online of the bison playing the bow. I did find a sketch of the entire panel of scratchings/engravings on the wall of the cave, and you can see him near the centre (he's small, and facing the left of the drawing):



We love to think we know what these images meant to the people who created them, but that is impossible. 'Ultimately,' writes Ronald Hutton in Pagan Britain, 'the significance of most of the images in the caves must elude us. Randall White has pointed out that research among living tribes who have carried on a hunting and gathering lifestyle in the Arctic, such as the Aivilik of the Inuit people, has proved that accurate interpretation of their painted and carved representations depends upon comprehensive understanding of their belief system and environment. In the case of the European Paleolithic, we can reconstruct the latter, but not the former; and there has been no hunter-gatherer people in modern times that has possessed a culture exactly like those of Old Stone Age Europe. The consistency with which similar images, locations and activities were reproduced there over twenty millenia argues for a very strong framework of beliefs, but one completely lost to us.'

Much of what neopagans say about prehistoric art and beliefs comes from early archeologists whose work has now been seriously called into question or entirely discredited. However, the truth has never been seen as an obstacle by neopagans -- it's the meaning 'we' give these things that counts to them, and so we see here appropriated symbols from cave art, given meaning on a tarot card, though the wording is speculative. At the very least, the symbols on the Shaman's cloak attempt to connect to him an ancient spirituality that is earth-based and animistic.

 Scratch beneath the surface of the Shaman and you get traditional Magician meanings:

He is the bridge between the natural world and the spirit world.
He is a man of action - he envisions an outcome and then takes step to make it happen.
He has all the tools he needs to fully engage with life.
He is vigorous, creative, focused, centered.

I am going to the dentist today to have this overhanging filling removed and replaced. I hope the new dentist I see will be able to work some magic and place a filling that fades from my awareness, as all good dental work should.

Magic warrior

Legend: Arthurian Tarot 

Today's card from Legend: Arthurian is Magician, represented of course by Merlin. I like this image of Merlin, wearing his mantle of feathers and a purply-blue hooded cloak. He walks barefoot, accompanied by a wolf ('lone wolf' that Merlin is) toward a cave. The scene has strong sense of the fey, with the running water, foxgloves, and the rocks. A mysterious figure, Merlin would often appear to help Arthur during trying times, but would disappear again into his woodland realms and not be seen or heard from for years at a time.

Everybody could use a Merlin in their lives.

Ferguson's companion book, 'A Keeper of Words,' says that the Magician card means skill, wisdom, noble use of one's talents. Harmony with one's environment. Power of influence. Wise counsel. Sensitivity to unseen powers. Independent thought. Showmanship, originality, self-confidence, risk-taking, strength of will, self-discipline to complete tasks. Diplomacy. Grace under pressure.

Wow, everyone could use a Magician in their lives, too.
I wonder how I will be called upon today to use these qualities from within myself.

The Camelot Oracle card I've drawn to accompany Merlin is Gawain. What a great image this is, the ginger-haired Gawain with piercing blue eyes, holding his famous pentacle shield and all dressed in green with a huge leather belt tied up around his waist. In tarot terms, he is much like the Knight of Wands, hot-headed and impulsive and not necessarily the sharpest tack in the box. That doesn't mean he doesn't have a kind of wisdom though, and a rough-hewn integrity. In many versions of the story, it is Gawain who openly accuses the Queen and Lancelot of adultery. He is on the whole, though, quite courteous and definitely honourable. On the path to the Hermitage, Gawain's challenge to us is: 'What alternatives have you not yet considered?'

Now if I apply this question to the Magician, I must think on what alternative types of self-discipline, risk-taking, showmanship, diplomacy and grace under pressure have I not yet considered. I don't really know.

I suppose today I need to be open to opportunities to be impulsively magician-like. (But all I really want to do is get through the day and get back home. The goal of my life lately.)

I see...trouble on the way

If you draw the 10 of Swords, is your first thought, 'Oh no!'?  Mine is. So when I drew it this morning from CBD Tarot, I quickly turned over the next card to find out more. 5 of Coins? You must be joking. Next, please -- Magician.

So...an interesting day ahead. There will be an exhausting and complex situation, probably conflict, caused by a disruption. There will be something discovered today which throws a spanner in the works. Someone is going to have to do some 'magic' to fix it. Hopefully, if it's me who has to do it, there will be others on hand to help out.

I like the way the Magician is looking toward the two troublemaker cards, and pointing the wand in their direction, too, in the attitude of a spear chucker! Zap! Take that! He seems to say. And his expression shows no fear whatever, but rather, more like amusement. From this I take courage that the 10 of Swords and 5 of Coins may be a tempest in a teapot or petty complaint from someone, that I will have to sort out for them. It will be a big deal to them and they will try to make it a big deal to me, but really it's nothing. This I can handle.

ETA: Well, the work day is done and things played out pretty much as predicted -- instead of it being a member of staff, though, it was a customer! I had an absolutely vile customer complaint via phone, which also pivoted around the number 5 (can't go into details of course), and though I managed the situation well, it did shake me up enough that after the call I went upstairs and to my surprise very briefly burst into tears. So there it was.

Can you dig it?

Aquarian Tarot

Our final draw from the Aquarian Tarot is The Magician. Wow, isn't it groovy. It's got wind chimes, it's got palm fronds, it's got Doug Henning as the Juggler--all it needs is Beverly Moss from 'Abigail's Party' asking us if we like olives and pressing us to have another gin and tonic and would we back in the 70s or what?

I like this Magician, he looks a bit spaced out. Forget the as above so below business, I think this Magician is comfortably numb. He may have forgotten he's even got hands. Bless him.

I'm off to London tomorrow to the UK Tarot Conference 2013, and very excited I am indeed! I will give a full report upon my return.

Magic Monday

Titania's Star Tarot, 2003

Girded about with a snake, his third eye glowing gold, the Magician in Titania's Star Tarot stands behind a table ranged with the symbols of the suits: sword, coin, rod, and cup. His right hand holds a wand topped with an infinity symbol (lemniscate), and his left hand points to the ground. Pretty traditional, in many ways.

'In readings, the Magus tells us we have a strong will. He encourages us to create and realise envisioned goals...it is better at the present to do the wrong thing than to do nothing, so ACT with will and determination.' ~ Titania Hardie, Titania's Star Tarot Companion Book

The card has the symbol for the planet Mercury and so could be associated with swiftness, boldness, action and will power.

I have just returned from a few days away, during which I saw some lovely things and enjoyed lengthy conversations, and even a couple of tarot readings, all of which have given me lots to think about, and even more encouragement to 'act with will and determination' in ways that are unfamiliar to me and out of my ordinary habits.

My main objective for today is to get through it without wilting entirely! Some people love a heat wave; me, not so much. I prefer a cool breeze, even it means a grey sky. There's a lovely cool breeze blowing through the window right now (6.15 AM), but we'll see how it feels at 5.30 PM when I get home to a flat that's had its windows shut all day!

Off to the docs

Golden Dawn Magical Tarot, Llewellyn

I'm off to a hospital appointment in another town today to get a second opinion about my hearing loss. I thought I'd do a one card draw on it and got 9 of Cups, then decided to go ahead and draw the next two cards to see a fuller message.

The Prestige

Today's draw from Kat Black's Touchstone Tarot (Kunati, 2009) is The Magician. This Magician appears to be an occult scholar, most likely an alchemist. His turban is quite elaborately decorated and suggests both riches and an otherworldliness, even a sort of holiness. His inner robe appears to be golden silk, intricately embroidered. His outer robe is decorated with large stars and moons, as one would expect of a wizard. Multiple rings on his fingers, he is grasping in two fingers a chain that ends in a golden orb. (The forefinger touching the thumb is a mudra symbolizing knowledge. What sort of knowledge might that golden orb represent?) On the table before him, the suits of the tarot deck, also representing the four elements: cup, wand, knife, coin. Clearly he is seated in a library, just next the stairs that lead up to more books above. An owl perches nearby. On his face, a very enigmatic expression, as if he knows all sorts of things he's not quite willing to share. Or wants you to think that.
The Magician represents the ability to turn thoughts into reality.  He takes the knowledge he has gathered over the years of study or contemplation, and through concentration and will, makes them happen in the real world. The ultimate expression of this ability was alchemy, 'a process by which paradoxical results are achieved or incompatible elements combined with no obvious rational explanation'. The primary objective of the alchemist was to turn base metals into gold, or finding the 'universal elixir'.

What could this have to do with daily life in a reading?  The Magician reminds us that we can make things happen. We can use all available tools, combine them in unusual, even unique, ways in order to make our dreams reality. There's a shadow side to the Magician, though, and his earlier manifestation in tarot was as The Juggler, ie, a sideshow trickster. So we are also warned to watch out for too-good-to-be-true schemes, sleight of hand or out and out illusions. Thus that enigmatic smile!

May I use all resources at my disposal wisely today, and keep my wits about me so as not to be misled.