Gimme a break (through)!

Ok, I won't say anything about how the Five of Swords is a perfectly fitting card to go with the theme of   my cards this week -- a inquiry into the balance  between the spiritual and the intellectual.  (But it really is!) 

The number five is said to have a somewhat chaotic nature, a number that sits between the earthly 1-4 and the spiritual 6-10.  The Pope, a figure considered by some to be the intermediary between heaven and earth, is V in the Major Arcana.  In any case, I have been very much in a "five state of mind" lately.  I can't go so far as to say this is negative, though, and in some modern decks this card gets a bum rap.  

I have been intellectually very alert this week, mostly with respect to my investigations of shamanism and other forms of traditional spiritualism, healing, and energies.  At the heart of all this is my need to stay "on guard" against just jumping into some of the older (and newer) forms of spiritualism without bringing my intellect into the discussion.  In this card, the red sword (again, my very passionate intellect) is crossing through the light blue spiritual self, not so much to get rid of it, but to try to find a way to reconcile the two and not see them as competing or as mutually exclusive.  I like that in this deck the red sword can be seen among the light blue weavings on this cards. 

And those flowers, which could indicate the four cardinal points?  Could they be reminding me to look everywhere for my answers and not just in the first convenient place?

How do you balance your spiritual and intellectual sides?  Do you ever feel that the sword of intellect is preventing you from having "buy in" into a spiritual system?   Or does the spiritual overwhelm your intellect, making you follow a teaching, a way, a school, or dogma without questioning it enough?

The Object of My Desire

Every time I pull this card I get a new vibe from the queen's expression.  Not only are the faces of this queen so different from each other between decks, even in a single deck the expression changes from one glance to the next.  She can come across as shrewd, evil, nostalgic, caring, concerned, coniving, wistful, gracious, humble, and on and on.  

Here she is attending to matters of the material world, specifically material possessions.  This could be things such as the bank account, the home, the garden, or even by extension the family or work.  But today the card is speaking to me more of objects:  my books, pens, notebooks, bookbags, etc., the things of my day-to-day life.  The objects I decorate my house with, the mirrors and goat figures, the colorful tablecloth, and the industrial end tables.  I also think of the objects I use, like the knives and pans in the kitchen.  In many cases, I will spend what some others might see as obscene amounts on these things.

It is fitting today to contrast the spiritual concerns of the cards over the last few days with the physcial concerns of this card.  

Do you like to have "nice things?"  How much is too much to spend on a fountain pen?  A blouse?  A book? Couldn't that money go to feeding the hungry, providing scholarships, or helping to fund research for a cure for cancer?  What do you think the Queen says about "nice things?"

My personal take is that we should try to be discerning when chosing the objects we buy.  Does this object add to our personal growth?  I know that with a nice fountain pen and notebook, I write more, think more about what I'm writing. Writing becomes meditative, prayer-like, healing.  For others, that same money might lead to similar fulfillment if it were spent on a good comptuer.  I have had the same knives and pans for the last 25 years.  The quality and performance is well beyond the "outrageous" price I paid for them back then.  They make cooking a joyful and even at time artful experience.  And though I'm far from being a clothes horse, I do tend to pay more for quality shirts and pants that will hold up to my daily walks to work and back.

So how about the objects of your own desire? Where's the true value in them?

A wonderful article by Alain de Botton addressing some of these ideas  can be found at

http://www.thebookoflife.org/good-materialism/

Just do it? Maybe not.

This morning's card, the Knight of Swords, got me thinking more about my interest in not only shamanism but all the many aspects of spirituality and intuitive-poetic living.  As I was out on a two-hour walk this morning, I realized that this Knight is so full of information for this area of my life.

The very spirited horse reminds me of this inner desire to develop my spiritual sense beyond my current curiosity. (In this and a few other older Italian and French decks, he is light blue, which is for some a color of spirituality.)   The Knight is looking to the left, which could be seen as the past, traditional religions or even the dogma of a guru, a particular school of yoga, a tai chi instructor with a following, etc.  And though the horse is looking that way too, his front feet lifted off the ground tell me he's not just going along with it.  The passitionately red sword of intellect got me thinking about how important it is not to just jump into some aspect of spirituality (and even formal religion) without really paying attention, without using some critical thought. The spaulder on the Knight's shoulder has a face pointing to the right, the future perhaps.  In any case, it tells me to be sure to have another perspective on my spiritual endeavors.  Don't just bite into something hook, line, and sinker.    

I continue to have an intense interest in shamanic practices,  but I have to caution myself to use a rational thought and clear thinking. Before too long, I would like to spend a few months traveling through Central and South America as a physical/spiritual journey.    I do want to meet and learn from shamans, but I know there are a lot of pseudo-shamans out there. And there is always the danger of romanticizing a new spiritual endeavor.  I see that with people who take on Asian practices.  They enjoy the ritual but don't try to apply the teachings in day-to-day life, as if the teachings were "too good" for the mundane parts of life. Or people take on a religion with such passion that they become fanatic about it and lose all compassion.  This Knight seems to be a warning about such.

How can we stay balanced in our pursuit of the spiritual-psychological-poetic journeys?   Do we really remember to keep our minds open and in check with our thought?  

Pizza anyone?

Could a Tarot cord really refer to something as mundane as pizza?  In my world it surely can!

After drawing the Eight of Coins this morning I was a bit stimied as to how the card would relate to the day, a Sunday on a holiday weekend.  My immediate thoughts for this card are usually in the realm of my work, my finances, and even my home and family.

The Eight of Coins calls to mind industry, not just big industry like manufacturing, but personal industy as well.  And then my mind centered on my upcoming day.  Today I'm having a cookout--pizzas of every sort.   I had gotten up at three this morning to make yet another pizza dough.  I already have five others in the fridge which I started  yesterday.  It's a lot of work, but it's something I love doing, and I have to say the pizzas that I make are pretty tasty.  Ok, they are better than just about any other pizza I've ever tasted.  There, I said it.  :)

So I'm seeing a kind of perfection from this card, not necessarily the perfection of a pizza, but the perfection that comes when one's interest and industry come together to make something.  The Eight of Coins would be the card of my father, who started his own business, and though he made a lot of money from it, it was his intense love of working with customers that made him go to work every day with such enthusiasm.  

Yes, the work is hard, but if the passion is there, it's a joy to do the work.  I wonder how many people find a calling that allows for this union.  If we aren't there yet, we should definitely keep searching, don't you think?

Now, did the HAND OF FATE make the Coin card come up today because coins look like pizzas?  You'll have to decide that for yourself.  

It's ok to have your head in the clouds, but make sure your shoes are tied.

I'm reading a lot into the Seven of Coins that really fits my current life sitiuation.  Most of the TdM portrayals of this card show a triangle (spiritual, conceptual) on top of a rectangle (material, earthly).  This card prompts me to think about the relationship between the two.  And though I'm not a stickler for reading reversals, my morning card pull was the reversed Seven of Coins, so I'll go ahead and admit that perhaps the spiritual and the material in my life are not necessarily in harmony right now.  

With the coins we think money, naturally, but there are other material things like our homes and families, our jobs and coworkers, our physical environments.  The Seven of Coins asks us to look at how we relate our spiritual perspective to the very practical world around us.  Are these in sync?

I need to work on this balance.  Currently my mind is running on overdrive spending much energy on its psycho-spiritual well-being and development.  This involves a lot of cloistering, being quiet.  And even when I'm with others, I'm not very participatory.  But what does that mean for others around me?  Do I just claim my spiritual mindset as more important than my relations to the physical world around me?  No, I can't do that.  I have to spend time with students, visit my aging parents, be responsive to my partner, (especially since our schedules will soon be on high-hectic and we won't get a lot of free time together).  And what about taking care of this house I live in?  As much as I want to lie in bed with the insence on full blast, I also have to vacuum, clean the tub, pay bills.  

The Seven of Coins invites us to evaluate this relationship between our spiritural and physical existences.  When they are in balance, we can let their true value shine through.