Time for John Barleycorn to die again - Wheel's on fire

How cool to draw Lugh on Lughnasadh! Though I prefer the traditional Anglo-Saxon name Lammas, from 'hlaf-mass' or 'loaf mass'. It's the time to celebrate the first harvest, and we can see the first fruits of the harvest all around us. Just this week I've been noticing a few leaves on the ground, the rowan trees are in berry, and we sit under a beech tree every day at lunch and the other day the hubster got pelted on the head by falling beechnuts several times! (None of them hit me.)

Here Lugh stands with his many symbols of fertility -- beehive, wheat field, cornucopia of fruits and vegetables, a blazing sun symbol on his chest and a great big spear representing...masculine power. Wahey. (Even if he is the Empress, which is kinda weird.)

Today is the day to recognise the bounty of the earth, and how some things must die to give forth their fruits. It is time, even in the heat of summer, to contemplate the decline of the year, and to think upon the beauty of the changing seasons, the turning of the earth, the passage of time, the continuity of life. Earth in her ancient, eternal, endless loops around the glorious life-giving sun.

Listen to Steve Winwood sing the traditional song about the harvest of the barley -- John Barleycorn Must Die.

Why not bake a loaf of bread today and light a candle and give thanks to the bounty of the earth.

Jesus as Hierophant

Jesus turns up in tarot decks more often than you might think. He's the Magician in Grail Tarot: A Templar's Vision. He's the original World figure in the World card. (Seriously. Look it up.) And in this week's deck, Sol Invictus: The God Tarot, he's the Hierophant.

Well, his disciples did call him Rabbi an awful lot. 'Rabbi' means 'my master' or teacher. He was a dandy teacher, too. He understood the importance of storytelling in getting a point across. He made his listeners think by relating to their every day lives and concerns.

He was, after all, a poor mendicant teacher, much like Buddha, wandering homeless, living on what was given to him. (Except unlike Buddha who died at age 80 of old age, we know what happened to poor JC at the young age of 33). There are so many parallels between Jesus, a figure rejected by many in the tarot world, and Buddha, a personage widely accepted within the Jesus-rejecting circles. They were alike in many ways. My own beloved Thich Nhat Hanh calls Jesus is his spiritual ancestor as is Buddha, and that he keeps a statue of Jesus on his altar along with the Buddhas. (I also have Jesus and Buddha on my altar.)

And so we should not feel shocked or dismayed by an image of Jesus on a tarot card, with a pentacle behind him and chakras down his body. Jesus, with his hands in the position of the Magician. Why shouldn't he be? Jesus taught the same messages of brotherhood and love that have been taught by all enlightened beings, famous or known only to their circle of intimates. It is no more his fault that a lot of ruckus has been built up around him than it is Buddha's that the same thing happened to him. It's like we can't deal with simple truths without adding a lot of nonsense into the mix. He was a man, and the pentagram is a symbol of the human form, as well as the balance of earth, water, fire, air and spirit. Jesus had a body, a spine, kundalini energy and chakras! He may not have understood them in that way, but must certainly have been aware of the energies of his existence. I love this image of Jesus with a column of light descending on him, the pentagram behind him, his fingers pointing to heaven and light spilling from his open hand to the earth, an open book at his feet.

Jesus is a daring choice for the Hierophant, but his presence on this card challenges us to consider the meanings of the Hierophant and to confront our issues with all the nuances of this major arcanum.

Beauty is the beast

Sol Invictus Tarot 

It's Lammas on Friday, so in honour of John Barleycorn, I'm drawing from Sol Invictus: The God Tarot (Kim Huggens,  Schiffer 2007) this week.

Today's card is apt, as the new moon is in Leo. We have the Strength card, represented by Gilgamesh and Enkidu. I can't really top the thoroughly enjoyable summaries at Schmoop, so here they are: The Epic of Gilgamesh. Do have read; they are hilarious.

So in this picture we see Gilgamesh (standing) and Enkidu (on the floor). They've just been having an epic knock down drag out fight because both are half-god and they have met their match in each other. Enkidu suggests they stop fighting and make friends, and thus begins the first bromance in world literature. (Of course the Epic of Gilgamesh is the first anything in world literature. We know of no older work.)

The Strength card is represented here not just because both of these dudes are very strong, but because one represents refinement and one represents lower animalistic nature. Guess which is which. Just like in the traditional Strength card, we see that when a balance is reached between our higher and so-called 'lower' natures, that is where our true strength lies.

I'd totally forgotten that Strength card is my year card for 2014 as well. So, on the first Monday of the Leo new moon, I draw the Leo card, which is also my year card. I think this may just be a pivotal lunation for me.

It has already got off to a flying start with the Smith Street Party in Warwick on Saturday 26 July.

Smith Street as the day begins...

We had this tent outside the shop (I'm doing that reading -- you can't see me though!)

The Morris dancers decided just outside the shop was the perfect place for all the teams to dance.

So we retired to the quiet oasis in the back garden.

 

Me with the Deck of the Bastard. 

I've revamped my 'About Me' page (click the tab at the top of the page to check it out) using a snapshot from yesterday in that tent.

What a great start to the month!

Tarot Blog Hop: Celebrating the Longest Day

Hubby and I will be celebrating Litha on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. We'll get up early (but not early enough to greet the dawn), then we'll spend the entire day walking the path and enjoying the light. Because even if it rains, there's still the light. 


I've never really understood why people contemplate darkness on the longest day of the year, and dwell on the light on the longest night of the year. It's like living your life in the future rather than in the now. For me, it makes me feel all out of balance. A couple of years ago, taking some advice from a book, I created an elaborate observance for Winter Solstice that involved a round candle encrusted with gold glitter, invocations of the sun, with music and a meditation asking for the sun to light the dark corners of my life. I was to shine light on things I wanted to change. Which resulted in all sorts of emotions being dredged up and causing me to feel very unsettled and disturbed for the following week. I realised later, what I personally needed was to revel in the quiet darkness, to rest and enjoy the fallow peace of that time of year. And at Summer Solstice, it's my time to revel in light and life. That's how I work, and that's how my spirit works. The prevailing energy is all to me. I don't like worrying with the 'yin yang' of the sabbats, and I don't like this constant New Age/neopagan obsession with using each sabbat as a time to 'reassess' myself and 'set goals'. How about just feeling what's there and loving it? What's wrong with that? And so I pray,


Blaze on me, O Sun,
blaze down.
Burn through me,
quicken me.
Warm me from scalp to soles,
Illuminate me.
Glint and glimmer,
tear my eyes,
pink my skin,
swarm and drone and ripen,
and I will wallow in your warmth,
I will squeeze every drop of your sweet juice,
and drowse on the hillside.


And here is my tarot draw for Litha. I decided the natural deck choice is Sol Invictus--the Invincible Sun. For this draw, I removed the entire suit of Wands and major arcana19 The Sun and used only those cards. 

Master craftsman

Today's card from the Sol Invictus Tarot by Kim Huggens and Nic Phillips is 3 of Coins, represented by Wayland the Smith.

You don't need to know anything about Wayland the Smith in order to understand this card. I can't see how any aspect of his back story would have much of a bearing on how it is interpreted in a reading. Clearly from the image, Wayland is a blacksmith and master craftsman who makes everything from the humble horseshoe, to decorative shields, to fine jewelry, and perhaps even coins. (The coins in the curiously skewed perspective of the foreground may be his work, or his payment. It's not clear.) You don't really need to notice that the sun on the shield is the symbol on the backs of the Sol Invictus Tarot cards, or recognise the White Horse of Uffington, or notice that the rock formation seen out his window is Wayland Smithy in Berkshire, although it might make you feel a bit smug that you know all these thing without looking at the companion book. ;) The most important thing is that he is doing the work of master craftsman, and doing it very well. It's hard work, demanding, something he must pour sweat and labour into. But this card isn't just about the work being hard (that would be more the 8 of Coins, which also signifies somewhat boring, repetitive, sometimes 'soul destroying' types of rote work--though sometimes not!). The 3 of Coins also celebrates the skill of an artist who can take one thing and shape it into another. It's the joy of the process of creating, the satisfaction of doing good work, the pride of seeing what you've made and knowing it's the best there is.

One of my favourite cards that captures this feeling really well is the 3 of Coins card from the Vanessa Tarot (Lynyrd Jym Narciso, US Games). Here you have a seamstress in her shop, having just completed a lovely gown, knowing the Vanessa Tarot, it's most likely for some celebrity!  The seamstress looks extremely pleased with herself, and the sun glinting through the window sprays off the gown in rays like the spangles of a star. Why, there's practically choirs singing in the background. Sol Invictus, being the beefy Divine Masculine deck that it is, has chosen a sweaty smith to convey the same idea of hard work done proudly and well.

What this card might have to do with my day today I am not sure, because my main objective is to get 5.00 and be done with it! Alas, I have to work tomorrow as well. Never mind! Whatever I do today, may I do it in the spirit of 3 of Coins, and do my best at it.

Mercury is in retrograde

What will that mean for the rest of this week?

Okay, looks like some disappointment, then, and possibly rainy weather. Well, that's appropriate, as it's been raining and is in the forecast. :)

In this card, Apollo grieves for the loss of his mortal friend, Hyacinth. Apparently, Apollo and Hyacinth enjoyed playing sport together, and Zephyr got jealous, so when Apollo threw a discus, Zephyr blew it off course, striking Hyacinth in the head, killing him. Nice!

The 3 of Swords usually does indicate heartbreak, grieving or disappointment of some kind. I won't be surprised if when I get to work I find that the entire network server is down. Typical mercury retrograde type stuff!

Today's card was drawn from the Sol Invictus Tarot, by Kim Huggens and Nic Phillips. Now watch me get rained on on my walk to work! ;)

How the heck do you say 'Huitzilopochtli'?!

And why would you put him on the Ace of Coins?

Click here to hear it said

That was easy enough, but figuring out why Sol Invictus Tarot creators Kim Huggens and Nic Phillips chose 'Wheat-see-la-poached-lee' as the Ace of Coins is a bit more of a mystery. I must admit to being completely ignorant of Aztec mythology, so the name meant nothing to me when I drew this card this morning. I tried to read the 3 pages of densely packed text in the companion book explaining all about Huitzilopochtli, but I get very frustrated if I can't see an immediate connection between the back story of a card and its traditional meaning. This is why I usually dislike decks that are too heavily themed. I dislike when deck creators seem to have to labour hard to create a tenuous link to the traditional meaning, or worse, give elaborate back stories to the card illustration, then provide the traditional divinatory meaning which seems to have no connection to the illustration whatsoever. That's not to say this is what happens in the Ace of Coins of Sol Invictus, but it's the first truly frustrating card I've encountered so far in the deck. (Admittedly it's early days with it!)

To make a very long story mercifully short, 'Wheat-see-la-poached-lee' seems to have been the primary Aztec god, and was a god of war and the sun. Like many gods of various traditions, he sprang from his mother fighting his siblings, and slew 400 of them to defend her...each night he journeys to the underworld to do battle with darkness and emerges victorious the next morning to provide the day's light. Okay, that's familiar. But what has the sun god got to do with the Ace of Coins? Battle for earthly power, material wealth...possibly...I can sort of see that. But for this card to work for me, I'm going to have to make it work through imagery alone.

So, at the top of the card, the blazing sun, Huitzilpochtli, is actually a giant shining coin, hovering over a temple. In the foreground is a marketplace. There are small figures of people in the background walking, carrying things, greeting each other, trading presumably. On the market stalls we see food, drink, jewelry, weapons--all the things that would have been very important to this war-like Aztec culture, I would think. When you look at the card as a whole, it certainly reminds me of this image:

Eye of Providence

It's the 'Eye of Providence', seen on US currency. To my mind, this card instantly makes me think of money, wealth, commerce, material gain, etc, because it is so similar to an image from the currency I grew up with. So in that way, I can instantly associate it with the Ace of Coins, particularly as I also associate this image with the one dollar bill, the piece of US currency that is most in transaction and that is the basis of accumulated wealth. I mean, you can't have a million dollars before you've got one dollar, right? So...Ace of Coins. Beginning of the material realm.

The market stalls also help me understand the meaning of the card, because Ace of Coins is all about physical health (the food), abundance, competition for material success, pretty much anything to do with inhabiting a body and surviving on the earth.

So, I don't get why 'Wheaties' was chosen for the card, but the picture works for me, anyway. AND it's appropriate for my daily draw, as today is the first weigh-in for a weight loss group I joined online, and I've embarked on a personal challenge to complete 260 workouts over the next 365 days. All earthly concerns!

Shantideva--'Divine peace'

I didn't realise that Shantideva wrote 'Way of the Bodhisattva' until I drew this card and read about it in the Sol Invictus companion book.

The card shows Shantideva resting under a tree. Sanskrit words lead from his head to a floating, shining cup, reminiscent of the Holy Grail. Nearby, three of Shantideva's fellow monks have their tea from the three remaining cups of this Four of Cups card. In the background is the temple/monastery where they live. The traditional Four of Cups card generally shows a solitary person under a tree, surrounded by three cups while being offered a fourth cup by a hand from above. The figure is usually ignoring this cup, and the card is taken to mean boredom, being uninterested or unwilling to partake of what life has to offer, not seeing what is on offer before you... In this card, it is not Shantideva who is ignoring the shining cup in the sky. He is directly connected to it. It's the three bikkhus who seem to be ignorant of what's on offer. Two of the monks are staring at Shantideva, as if in judgement or as if laughing at him, while the third, pointing his finger skyward, seems to have launched himself into some long speech, or perhaps he is merely distracted by the beauty of the day and has lost himself in a revery. I've just noticed that Shantideva seems to be resting beside a pool on which is floating a lotus blossom. Water is a symbol of hidden depths and the subconscious, as well as the emotions, while of course lotus flowers represent enlightenment. Shantideva is hooked in to enlightenment in this card. It's the men in the background of the card who are oblivious to the fourth cup and all it represents. Why? Because they are distracted by their cup of tea, their conversation, their silent (or perhaps not silent!) judgement of Shantideva for sleeping when he should be awake, even perhaps by the beauty of the day. But instead of sermonising to the others or sitting and thinking about things, Shantideva has surrendered himself fully to the experience of the day and the moment, to the extent that he can meet his physical need of sleep in good conscience.

I didn't know that Shantideva was the source of the important Mahayana work, 'Way of the Bodhicitta,' until I read about it in the Sol Invictus companion book. There are several nice retellings of the story of Shantideva online. I enjoyed this one very much:

Shantideva, from the blog 'Bodicharya: Awakening the Heart by Opening the Mind'

To summarize, Shantideva was not thought highly of by his fellow pupils/monks because he never did anything. He was always seen to be lazing about doing nothing, and of course this caused terrible resentment. They wanted to get rid of him, but he had broken no rules, so they decided to try to humiliate him to get him to leave, and pushed him into agreeing to teach a large group of people. They built a throne for him to sit on, to further humiliate him. But on the day, Shantideva surprised them all by delivering extemporaneously the text of 'Way of the Bodhisittva'. And he was then lifted up and disappeared from view.

This is a very rich back story to draw from in order to interpret this card in a reading. You could identify with Shantideva, or the three people in the background. Perhaps the card could be telling you to pay attention to what is obvious before you, take advantage of what is on offer. Perhaps it's saying that the reward that is before you is not something to be worked for but to be surrendered to. Perhaps it's saying to let go of the judgement you are hanging onto and look at things from the point of view of the person you are judging. There may be a great teacher in your midst. In all instances, the original spirit of the Four of Cups is retained--the sense of refusing to see what is before your eyes. That shining cup is pretty darn promiment!

Open the scroll and recite

 

Today's Sol Invictus (by Kim Huggens and Nic Phillips, Schiffer Publishing) draw reflects my start on several new projects all at once. A group of friends and I have decided to band together to support one another over the next 12 months, starting from today, as we each work on our own individual goals. 

The central card, Ace of Swords, clearly represents this new beginning. The Egyptian god, Thoth, the god of writing, knowledge and wisdom, seems entirely appropriate, as the group is an online group and all our shared support will take place in writing. The heiroglyphs on the card read, 'Look, their words are set and writing. Open the scrolls and recite.' You can see a quill writing on a scroll. It has written: 'Lover of wisdom,' 'I think therefore I am,' and 'Dare to know' in Latin. These are all famous phrases. Can you identify the author of each? :)  So here I am on day one, with my written goals preparing to take wing and fly up toward transformation, as represented by the butterflies in the card. Spoken words have always been thought to have the power of creation. So the directive here is not just to open the scroll and have a look, but to open the scroll and recite.

BUT...

Change is not fun for human beings. By our nature, we don't like it. We resist it. Even if we are the ones who intiated it and wanted it, we easily come to resent it. We can easily start to think how 'UNFAIR' it all is, and how 'UNFUN' it all is. Poor us, so put upon. This is what the Five of Coins represents here. It's a card that signifies feeling left out in the cold, shut out from all things good and comfortable and familiar and safe. This particular version of Five of Coins shows Lucifer having landed, charred and despairing, in the snow just after being cast from heaven.  This is one way my new projects could go. I could start to think how HARD it is to eat well, exercise, discipline myself to daily meditation, and all the other goals I've set could quickly come to seem like a big deprivation and self-imposed banishment from all things lovely. 

On the other hand, I can approach my new project with a Four of Wands spirit, as seen in the card to the right. The card depicts the celebration of the harvest in the form of a sacrifice to Agni, the Hindu god of fire and acceptor of sacrifices. The Four of Wands always depicts a celebration of sorts, and the security of firm foundations having been set by positive action and hard work. The people at the celebration are thanking the gods, but that wheat is a creation of man, through many generations of agriculture, and that bread is a result of the hard work of man working in community. The gods didn't just hand it to the celebrants. So, I see this as a celebration of the bounty of nature that has the potential to bring forth bread from the earth, and of the spirit of man who has the drive and ambition, skills and fortitude to make it happen, while retaining the humility to give thanks to the gods for the results of his own stubborn effort. 

Which will I do? I have a choice, each day really. Will I fall into despair and rebellion and cast myself out into failure, or will I put in the work having faith that the result will be something worthy of celebration?

The words of the scroll in the Ace of Swords are pointing toward the 4 of Wands card, the prism of light refracting from the swords hilt leads toward the 4 of Wands, the tip of the quill points toward it, and even the butterflies are fluttering in that direction. Clearly I am steered toward putting in the effort, reaping the reward, and celebrating it with my community.

So, here I go! Where will I be in a year? I've written it down, and today I open the scroll. And recite.

Give em the old razzle dazzle

I laughed when I drew this card this morning, because I woke up thinking about that used car salesman from yesterday and drew the card while still in the fug of my waking thoughts. I have always pictured the King of Wands as 'used car salesman', so when I pulled this card as the energy for today, my response was, 'What! You again!' The tarot is so adept at picking up the energies we are putting out in the moment, particularly if you have no focused question, which I did not. I was merely vaguely thinking, what's my card for today? And Billy Flynn turns up. ;)

In Sol Invictus Tarot, the court names have been changed from the traditional Page, Knight, Queen, King to Awakener, Quester, Nurturer, Master. These are apt descriptions of the nature of each. Thus, today's draw, Master of Wands, is the King of Wands. Traditionally, the King of Wands is sometimes called 'Fire of Fire', because the Wands suit is associated with the element Fire, having to do with action and boldness, will, energy, drive, passions, etc. I have always linked King of Wands to Captain James T Kirk from 'Star Trek'. He has all the qualities of the King of Wands--he is supremely self-confident, a maverick, convinced that failure is not a possibility, the kind of person who comes up with grand schemes but tends to leave the details for others to sort out. He acts quickly, trusts his instincts implicitly, likes to be the centre of attention and knows he deserves it. He takes what he wants, has a strong masculinity in the most literal sense. He must win out--failure is not an option. Even if he fails, he refuses to see it as a failure but as a 'temporarily unsuccessful' attempt, with the next attempt most likely already beginning. He has a sense of honour--but it may be unconventional and includes lying or cheating, particularly if it's cheating 'the system' and not an individual.  In the main, the King of Wands is a likeable rogue or rake. In his shadow aspect, he can be deeply deceitful, backstabbing and underhand in order to achieve the success and attention he craves.

I think it's interesting that deck creators Kim Huggens and Nic Phillips chose Giacomo Casanova to represent the Master of Wands. He is depicted standing squarely in the middle of the card, feet planted widely apart (clad in dashing bright red high-heeled court shoes), arms akimbo, holding aloft a glass of wine. At his side, an admiring fop, and all around him, masked ladies and gentlemen stare in his direction, hanging on his every word and movement. He is smiling broadly, his long curling locks flowing over his red velvet collar and ruffled cravat. Oh, how he deserves this adulation! That highlighted bulge in the front of his trousers is hard to ignore as well, and it isn't all caused by the mask stuck in his pocket, clearly! A complete creature of appetites and showman. That's the Master of Wands. Take him for good or ill, he is, as Casanova himself declared, a 'free agent'.

As for myself, I always willingly acknowledge my own self as the principal cause of every good and of every evil which may befall me; therefore I have always found myself capable of being my own pupil, and ready to love my teacher. 
~Giacomo Casanova, 'The Story of My Life'

All I can say to this draw is, we're off to the movies today to see 'Captain America' and may I not encounter a single used car salesman for the rest of this weekend!

Choices

Today I am drawing a card from the Sol Invictus Tarot, a lovely set that uses multicultural gods, myths, legends, and even real historical figures to represent the tarot through images of the Divine Masculine.

My card today is Two of Swords, Papa Legba. Two of Swords often depicts a blindfolded figure holding crossed swords in front of the chest, or someone sitting at a crossroads, or both! The card is associated with facing choices, having a decision to make, and usually a decision that once you've made it, it's difficult to turn back and retrace your steps for a startover--might even be impossible. You can see in the card, Papa Legba holds two keys to the gate and seems to be keeping watch or standing guard over the crossroads. You've got to pick one or the other, and the gate implies no simple way of turning back once you make your choice.

Papa Legba is a figure in the New Orleans voodoo tradition, who is seen as a keeper of the gateway between the worlds, who can remove obstacles and provide opportunities. What an interesting and appropriate figure for the Two of Swords.

I am facing lots of choices in my life right now, but today in particular I will need to use powers of discernment and decision-making, because we are going to test drive a few cars. And of course it is the case that buying a car is a decision that is not easily backtracked from! Once you've bought it, it's your baby, you can't just give it back. The card also suggests wariness in today's thinking...Papa Legba can be a trickster, so I must be wary of having my head turned by pretty colours, extra features, or the talk of sales people.

Papa Legba, open the way,
that we may see the truth
about the cars we test drive today! :)

It's now 6.42 pm. It was certainly a long day. We test drove 4 cars today. The first place we went was a Honda dealership, where the salesperson was lovely, low key and a pleasure to work with. The atmosphere was completely different in the Volkswagen place we visited in the afternoon, where we were served by a young salesperson who gave us the most high-pressure, most deeply flawed sales pitch in the history of car buying. It was a surreal experience during which he tried to demonstrate that a year's petrol if you drive 13,000 miles a year would cost £18,000. Things were pretty much down hill from there. The only good thing about the VW experience was we found that we loved driving both the Golf and the Polo. But I don't think we'll be going back to that particular VW dealership, even if we decide to buy a VW. Thank you, Papa Legba, for the warning and the discernment!