Turn turn turn

Roots of Asia Tarot was one of my first decks, purchased as a sort of replacement for my very first deck, Osho Zen. The Osho Zen and I fell out. I decided it made me feel bad, and it just seemed to want me to feel that way. But I resisted buying Roots of Asia because to me the art was muddy, imprecise and, well, foreign. Someone on Aeclectic Tarot recommended it to me because I was seeking a deck with a deeply Buddhist sensibility, and I truly don't think you can get much more Buddhist than this deck. I know the deck is by a Thai artist who is/was possibly a Buddhist monk, and he used his hands and a knife to create the art, but that's all I know and to be honest, I'm not really terribly interested in details like. When it comes to decks, I'm more concerned with my personal reaction.

Two things I really appreciate about this deck. One, the names are all traditional RWS names, which is unusual when a deck is adapted to a theme. It really annoys me when people mess around and change the suit names. You got a Native American deck? Oops, better change the suits to sticks, arrows, rocks and peace pipes. You got a cute girly deck? Uh-oh, quick,  make that buttons, bows, lipstick cases and curling irons. It's ridiculous. But I digress. Two, the LWB is amazing. It's 87 pages long and uses every card meaning as an opportunity to educate the reader in solid Buddhist teachings. Plus it contains 3 powerful spreads and a surprisingly detailed introduction to insight meditation!

One thing I don't like about this deck. The backs. I think they're just repulsive. There's something here that is deeply sinister to me. Some people have that reaction to the Haindl backs. Well, I love the Haindl backs, I find them soulful. But Roots of Asia backs? No...just horrible, nightmarish even. I may have to devote a whole blog entry to parsing this back, but just look at it. A nose spouting smoke out of its nostrils. At the top of the nose, the eyebrows sort of turn into arms and then it looks like a man's back, with the red dot for the back of his head. But the arms/eyebrows are flaming claws, and one eye's a shiny moon that looks like the eyeball has been punched out and this light is piercing through. The other eye is covered over by a buxom angel with glowing nipples. Which then leads the eye around to notice all the big-breasted angels on this card. There's one at the bottom that seems to have three boobs, each one spouting a beam of light onto a smiling mouth. Then you notice the hands at the bottom of the card and realise the whole thing is a portait of a meditator. But if this is the stuff swirling in the mind when meditating--no way! Speaking of swirling, what is that gaping maw in the middle of the card sucking everything into it? Why is it between the nose and the mouth? Oh, it just doesn't bear thinking about. I never look at the backs of these cards if I can help it. They just freak me out.

But back to the reading. I asked the cards, 'Why am I drawn to use Roots of Asia this week'? I then pulled Hermit, Magician, 8 of Cups. Well, I've just embarked on a new project this week, and there's the Magician. I am feeling drawn again into my magical/spiritual/meditative path, which I've been away from for many months, and there's Hermit and 8 of Cups.

Let's have a look at a sample of one of those wonderful LWB tidbits:

8 of Cups. Awareness of Change and Impermanence. As nature has the motions and changes of the seasons of the year, so too our lives hold various changes and times. We wish to hold on to those seasons of happiness and run away from those seasons of anxiety. Our goal is to learn how to move freely within and in between the seasons that continue to come to us. The eight seasons of our lives are: time of accomplishment, time of loss, time of dignity and fame, time of obscurity, time of being blamed, and time of being praised, a time for happiness, and a time for pain.  Divinitory key: Searching for insight. Introspection.

I have noticed something about the seasons in the last couple of days. It's a curious thing. But I'll share that with you later.

Who are you trying to impress? What are you trying to prove?

Today's draw from Touchstone Tarot is 6 of Wands. This card shows a triumphant return from battle. It is often interpreted to mean recognition for success. Coming as it does after the 5 of Wands, which depicts minor squabbles, it could also mean being victorious in a small way, as well. Or it could even mean being victorious over something so minor and petty that it doesn't even really matter. In that case, it would be an irony, that the figure in the card looking so lordly and puffing himself up is doing it over something that is of no importance or real benefit.

Every tarot card has its shadow meaning, its darker side. We sometimes forget them when reading. Some readers like to mix their decks up so that some cards turn up reversed, and will use that as a cue to read a shadow meaning of a tarot card. I personally believe that all cards are meant to be viewed right side up, and one should use one's intuition (or perhaps the designated positional meaning in a spread) to determine whether to read a card's shadow meaning. Whoever meant for a picture to be viewed upside down? No one. To me, reversals are a silly tradition--I can't stand to see an upside down image, it really annoys me!

This card is making me think of the rioting going on in the streets of England now. Mobs of youth have been burning and looting city centres in London, Birmingham, Nottingham, and elsewhere. They may feel like some sort of victors, but victors of what? Their actions are meaningless. Their efforts have earned them the loathing of a nation, and served only to reinforce negative stereotypes held about this country's youth. Are these perpetrators puffing themselves up with pride? Do they think they've got something over on someone? Over on who? What victory have they won? What point have they proved? Nothing. It's all empty. The guy in the back of this card is looking at Mr Pride in the foreground, and he looks embarrassed. A servant from outside the card is leading away a riderless grey horse. No point. No victory.

What will it take to end this episode? I drew Strength. I'm not seeing the usual message of the fair maiden overcoming the lion through her gentleness. This is old-fashioned strength. That lion is being completely subdued, his head twisted right round. He doesn't look submissive, or reconciled to what's happening to him. He is being forced into submission, by someone, judging by the look on her face, who can actually do it quite easily. She's had enough and quietly reaches over and twists the lion's head half off. She looks down into his mouth with an investigative air. Sure, she looks as if once she's got the lion on his back, she can be compassionate. She will take the trouble to find out why the lion was misbehaving. But for the moment, the objective is to get the lion down. It's going to take force, strength, confident authority to put an end to this thing, and eventually the compassion to look into the deeper sources of this episode. The point is knowing which comes first.

On the other hand, there are the legions of folk taking to the streets with their brooms to clean up the mess. Maybe they're the Strength that will take the lion down, the true strength of the majority, in their pure motives and essential goodness. 

May all this mess end today, whatever it takes.