You are everything, and everything is you

Sacred India Tarot 

And that means you are nothing, too. But in a good way.

Today's card from Sacred India Tarot is 6 of Discs (Pentacles). The Discs suit depicts the life of the Buddha, and this card is the scene in which Buddha is tempted by Mara and his three daughters, Desire, Unrest and Pleasure. Buddha vanquishes them all and in a blaze of energy experiences all of his past lives. He then passes through eight levels of samadhi to become the Buddha. In despair, Mara taunts him: 'Who is the person so vain as to call himself a buddha?' To which the Buddha replies, 'There is no person here,' touching the earth to bear witness. Buddha has realised his oneness with all, which means he is not an individual at all, and thus 'there is no person here'.

If the 6 of Pentacles is the card of charity, I can think of no greater gift than the teachings of the Buddha. And no greater act of charity than that of the bodhisattvas, who choose to remain on this earth, not passing into nirvana, in order to help others realise their own enlightenment.

The card asks us to give the best of ourselves, and remember that we are part of everything and everything is part of us.

Beautiful.

A time for caution

Sacred India Tarot 

It's poor old Bheeshma again. He's a granddad in this illustration. (I guess his 'terrible vow' didn't quite work out, or maybe 'Grandsire' is an honorific). Outside the window, the youngsters squabble and fight.

The Mahabharata is SOOOO complicated. It is very well known story in India and apparently is the longest epic poem in the world. It is considered as culturally important as Shakespeare, the Bible, the Koran and Greek drama. Obviously I am not going to be able to sum it up in a blog entry.

I did find this useful little article which sheds some light on ways that poor old Bheeshma has gone wrong since his vow of celibacy: Bheeshma - Grandsire, One of the Major Contributors to the Great War of Mahabharat.

He's called 'grandsire' so I can only assume he managed to father some children despite his vow. Apparently, he stuck his oar in where his stepmother's children were concerned (the ones he renounced his claim to the throne for), and it's their squabbles that lead to the big war that destroys the entire world, the battle of Mahabharat. Or so I gather.

The LWB is no help, because it assumes you have such knowledge of the Mahabharata that it reads like a discussion of the next door neighbours, or a popular TV show that everyone watches.

My husband told me he remembered show called 'Mahabharat' being on TV around 1988-89. I googled it and found many episodes on YouTube. Watched a couple of them, but there are 93, and the events of this particular card seem rather late in the saga. So I will find out eventually what is going on, but not today.

Fortunately the interpretations offered in the book are familiar:

plots, conspiracies, office politics, act with stealth and cunning to protect oneself, diplomatic and discreet behaviour, keep cards near chest, lack of attention gives advantage to foes. So -- a time for caution!

Flowers from heaven in the 5 of Swords

The 5 of Arrows (Swords) from Sacred India Tarot depicts the scene in which Bheeshma renounces the throne so that his father can marry a woman. The woman's father had denied his permission for them to marry because Bheeshma had already been proclaimed heir. So Bheeshma renounces his right to throne and takes a vow never to father children, so that there will be no offspring of his to threaten the children of his father and the new wife. Before making this vow, Bheeshma was called Devavathra. After, his name is Bheeshma, meaning 'terrible vow' (or something along those lines.) His father, shocked and awed by this act (but still horny for the fisherman's daughter), transfers all his spiritual merit to his son Bheeshma, thus making him practically immortal.

We see in the card the fisherman's daughter, the angry fisherman, and Bheeshma, raising five arrows as he makes his vow.

Now the question is, what has this got to do with the 5 of Swords?

Biddy Tarot's website describes several characteristics of the 5 of Swords that can be applied here:

1. A time when it feels like everyone is against you. -- Bheeshma certainly feels that his existence is an unwelcome thing in this situation.

2. The need to make a decision about whether something is so important to you that it puts relationships with others in jeopardy. -- Bheeshma faces just such a situation. If he clings to his claim to the throne, he risks alienating his father.

3. You are in a struggle and there are more problems and obstacles ahead than you are aware of now. -- This is also true for Bheeshma. Bheeshma choice does not lead to the peace he had hoped, but instead to a war that wipes out his descendants and their entire world.

So, Bheeshma's sacrifice is indeed a hollow victory, even if the flowers in the picture have descended from the heavens, bestowed by the gods who are impressed by Bheeshma's vow.

What lesson can we take from this card? Do I need to make a sacrifice for my idea of 'the greater good'? And will there be consequences I cannot foresee as a result of that sacrifice? We can look at it from the noble side - a selfless act to create peace, or the shadow side, a misguided act that ends up being a futile gesture, or even makes things worse. Wow, that's a situation to watch out for today.

When Aniruddha met Usha

Sacred India Tarot 

The Page of Lotuses from Sacred India Tarot features Aniruddha and Usha, depicted here fleeing from Usha's angry father (they just got married without asking anyone first, crazy kids).

As usual it's a pretty complicated story. But to sum up, Usha has a dream of a handsome prince and knows she can love no other, so her friend draws pictures of all the princes in the land, which Usha examines until she finds him - Anirhudda, the grandson of Krishna. The artist friend goes and convinces Anirhudda to meet Usha, they fall in love and get secretly married. Usha's father chases them down, puts Aniruddha in prison, but eventually he cools down and they all live happily ever after.

This seems an appropriate Page of Cups card, I suppose, as the two principles are young and get swept up in impetuous actions and emotions. They both certainly trust their impulses and pay no heed to reason or conventions of behaviour.

I wonder what impulsive behaviour I might be tempted by today. Or maybe the card is telling me to be a bit more open and impetuous than I usually am. Hmm. Must watch for it. Considering I'm working from home today, there's not much scope for being swept away!

Sacred India Tarot: Shiva and Parvati

The Sacred India Tarot by Rohit Arya (illustrated by Jane Adams) is based on Indian mythology and epics and was published 2011 by Yogi Impressions. In this deck, the minor suits tell a complete story. Discs (Pentacles) tells the story of the life of Buddha. Lotuses (Cups) tells the story of the courtship of Shiva and Parvati. Staves (Wands) is the legend of Rama. And Arrows (Swords) is the story of the battle of Mahabharata. I'd like to take a look at each of these over the course of the week. Because the story of Buddha is so familiar to me, I'm going to start with the courtship of Shiva and Parvati (the suit of Cups or Lotuses).

Lord Shiva was married to Sati, but Sati's father insulted Shiva  (even gods have silly domestic squabbles) and so Sati decided the honorable thing to do would be to kill herself (gods and goddesses tend to do extravagant things like that). So she does. Shiva takes this hard and retreats to a cave and immerses himself in intense meditation. This probably wouldn't have been a problem to the other gods, except a pesky demon called Tarakasura is causing them a lot of trouble and they need Shiva to get off his butt and help. As that wasn't happening, they asked Brahma what to do. Brahma passes on the helpful information that only a son of Shiva can defeat Tarakasura. The gods are distressed because Shiva is a widower and might not ever get over it! They go to Mahadevi and ask her for advice. She confirms that only a child of Shiva can defeat Tarakasura, but takes pity on them and promises to incarnate herself as a wife for Shiva. (This is handy, because it turns out Sati had been an emanation  of Mahadevi anyway. So this incarnation will be a reincarnation of Sati.)

So Parvati is born to the Lord of the Mountains. She has tremendous devotion to Shiva from a young age and knows in her heart she can marry only him. (Kind of like I was about John Taylor of Duran Duran, I guess). Her parents aren't sure what to make of this and try to convince her to marry someone more accessible, but then a devarishi, Narada, confirms that Parvati is destined to marry Shiva and give birth to his son.

Parvati's father offers Parvati to the deeply meditating Shiva as an attendant to take care of him as he meditates. Shiva is so deep in meditation he can't tell male from female anymore and doesn't mind one way or another, so agrees.

Well, the gods are running out of patience and know this subtle courtship could take eternity, so they send Kamadeva (sort of like the Hindu Cupid) to shoot his arrow into Shiva, which he does. Shiva is startled, notices Parvati and is kinda turned on by her. But he feels bad about being unfaithful to the memory of Sati and turns his attention to Kamadeva, opens his third eye and burns Kama up for disturbing him. Oops. Kama's wife is distressed and faints, Parvati is upset and humiliated and she retreats from Shiva's presence.

Parvati realises she must become worthy of Shiva and win his love herself, so she goes off and becomes an ascetic. She meditates night and day, stops requiring food, then water, and eventually air. The other devas like to come round to have a look at her. She's acquiring great heights of enlightenment and such. She becomes known as The Lady of the Unbroken Fast and eventually even the gods come round for a blessing from her. But Parvati is also Mother of the World and a lover of trees, and she would break her meditation every day to go and care for the trees and feed the deer. She understands that meditation and enlightenment are no good without continuing involvement in real life.

Eventually even uber-meditator Shiva hears about Parvati and knows that she is doing all this because of her amazing love and desire for him, so he goes to her -- in disguise of course, because she needs to be tested! He asks her what she's doing this for, and she replies that she wants to marry Shiva. Shiva,in disguise,mocks her and insults Shiva (himself), which causes Parvati to become angry and she upbraids him. Shiva is besotten. (Rolls eyes).

And so at last, Shiva and Parvati are married. (They have been married many times before in many lifetimes -- these two are always together.) Shiva and Parvati merge into a new aspect of divinity that is simultaneously male, female and deity. In due time, Skanda is born to them, and he defeats Tarakasura, as he was meant to. (And Shiva allows Kamadeva to come back to life.)

Here are few of the cards -- can you figure out which parts of the story are being depicted?

(Left to right: Shiva incinerates Kama; Parvati bows at feet of Narada when he announces she will marry Shiva; Parvati tends to the trees; Shiva - in disguise - tests the ascetic Parvati)

I will draw from this suit tomorrow. :)