Eight is the Word

Today, I flopped down onto my bed with my tarot deck in hand yearning for a bit of guidance or purpose or something. I slid the deck out, randomly cut it and found myself face to face with the Eight of Water. And then I look over at the top of the deck (which I had pulled out of the box face up) and found the Eight of Earth. Interesting.

So I read about the Eight of Water and it says that the card shows a person looking down the path they have strayed from. The picture in the book showed the person standing next to 8 full cups looking longingly down a path that goes between two mountains. My card showed an empty circle enscribed in an empty rectangle on the top of the card and a hexagram containing eight circles housing blooming flower pots on the bottom. The gist of meaning was that although you may have a full life now, it isn't quite the one you were imagining, nor is it the one you are meant for and you need to move forward and work hard to achieve that original goal. I really did have a sense of "Is this what I signed up for?" when I pulled that card since I had just emerged from the shower to find a runny nosed toddler whining about wanting shoes and some other random thing and I just wanted to shower and dress alone. So that seemed sort of a given... but what is it that I am missing? Where did I step off the path and how to I get back on it?

I realized that the Eight of Earth was also speaking to me and that it was my clarification card. The clarification card that I never even asked for! It was just thrown in my face, really. So my book informed me that I am a master craftsman and that I am the envy and the pinnacle that those around me are striving for! Whoa baby! Really? I do get told, quite frequently, that I am able to "do it all" and am "always so calm" and apparently having four children in itself is some sort of a SuperWoman feat. I don't get that. I feel like I'm making all these mistakes and that I am sooooooo imperfect and I have this list twenty miles long of things that I should be doing better. I think what this card was telling me though is that I'm doing okay. In fact, I'm doing more than okay and if I could just let go and accept that, then I will be able to move on to achieve those other things that the Eight of Water was alluding to.

According to Wikipedia, a common meaning for the number eight is power and/or sacrifice. The Chinese meaning is sudden fortune and prosperity. I'm not really sure how that ties in. I was sure there would be something profound about the number eight, aside from being my favorite number. Power through sacrifice leading to fortune and prosperity? I'll have to meditate on that one.

But, what I do know is that it is time to move on. Action instead of reaction. Peace instead of angst and worry. Time to look out from atop this mountain I've built and see where the next step takes me. SuperMom? Who knows, but I am doing alright and now it's time to go after what I really want.

Analytical Eye Spy - Major Arcana

Top to bottom, the imagery I see in my deck of cards

0 - The Fool

• large yellow moon, top right
  
• black earth, bottom left
  
• blue sky between the two
  
• blond-haired, blue-eyed boy (nymph) running from the moon to the earth
  
• definite feeling of movement of earth and sky from top left to bottom right
  
• boy wearing crown of lotus flowers, blue vest with feathered cap sleeves and multi-colored buttons with a feathered skirt
  
• triangle emblem on vest
  
• carrying a green square purse with a blue oval symbol in the middle (the universe?) in one hand and a large flower resembling cotton in the other
  
• shadows (reflections?) of the flower trail in the top left corner
  
• rainbow streaks in the earth and sky... very Starry Night
  
• wearing red slippers with a large rose on the toe
  
• the Hebrew letter Aleph is on the shoe
  
• a wolf is running next to the boy
  

I - The Magus

• yellow infinity swirl of magic
  
• masked magician
  
• "the hand is quicker than the eye" - the magicians hands are pointing three different directions in a sort of lambda configuration
  
• black vs. white robes
  
• man vs. woman - magician is androgynous
  
• all four elements on a block: full cup top center, sword and wand crossed in center, coin shining at bottom center.
  
• symbol for Mercury on the bottom front of the block
  
• swirling red and green pools at the feet of the magician
  
• The Hebrew letter Bet/Vet in the bottom center of the card
  

First Impressions - Major Arcana

Free-writing & thoughts inspired by the emotional response of the cards. Some cards speak to me more than others and this may change over time.

0 - The Fool

nymph, untrustworthy, lightness, fancy,Icarus, Hermes, game of marbles, Call of the Wild

I - The Magus

bandit, illusion, infinity, misdirection, ecompassing, unity, vibrancy, motion, Shazaam!, Fourth of July sparklers, yo-yo tricks, envelope/fold, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, ILM (logo; the Halloween party that year that they handed out Star Wars figures from a foyer tent just outside the party; the Christmas party that year with the room of tarot readers in gossamer tents), The Princess Bride (that scene where Vizzini stages a battle of wits with The Man in Black), joyful fun & games, lasso rope tricks

II - The High Priestess

serenity, coldness, all-knowing, emotion to analysis, sand to water

And the Tarot Speaks

For the longest time, I've been wanting to concentrate on the education of myself once more. At one point, several years ago, I would rise just after dawn and read The Classics and then stay up late learning Latin declensions. That time has eluded me and I miss it dearly, but there's always an excuse... an early-rising toddler; a pregnancy sapping all energy from me; a baby seemingly sucking every brain cell from my head with each suckle of breastmilk, a five-year-old with a million questions who won't even let me finish a thought, much less a sentence, much less an education.

Today, as I was preparing to pull a couple of casual tarot cards, I was thinking about this, in general, and specifically about learning the tarot. I've always felt that I really needed to study the tarot more in depth for the simple reason of not having to check a book each time I drew a card, if nothing else. I thought, I really should start that in-depth, one-by-one study of the cards that I've been meaning to start. But no, this isn't the right time. Not with a newborn. When it's the right time, the tarot will tell me with That Special Card in the deck or with a One of Something... gee, what's the first suit? That's the kind of stuff I should know. And so on with thoughts along that line. Here is what I pulled:

The Situation
Ten of Wind: Major changes taking place. Death of the old ways to make way for the new, better ways.

The Action
I - The Magus: A great force flowing through you that you have not yet connected yourself to. A focus on education and learning.

The Result
Three of Fire: You are standing on a border about to embark on a great journey. Get busy with the plans you have been nurturing for so long.

OK, I can take a hint.

I am blogging my journey for several reasons. First of all, I am the kind of person who needs to write things down to remember them. Facts go in one eye and out the other if I don't physically write them down. I'm not sure if just typing them will work the same way, but if nothing else, I know that blogging helps me organize my thoughts. And that's basically reason two: blogging will help me to move beyond the textbook definitions and other people's visions of what the cards mean. It will make the journey and the knowledge mine. Finally, accountability. If I am "supposed to" write down what I've studied and learned than I will be more likely to follow through instead of quickly losing steam.

So there's the what and the why. Here's the how. I am going to study one tarot card each week. I am going to read about it, meditate upon it, gaze lovingly at it, and maybe ever sleep with it under my pillow (a friend recommended that technique). I am going to look at different versions of it. I am going to dissect the artwork. I am going to know that card and its innuendos inside and out. At least, that's the plan. And then I will share it here.

I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I am looking forward to it. Wish me luck.