Illustrations from the Albano Waite Tarot@deck reproduced by permission of US Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT 06902. Copyright c 1990 by US Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT. Further reproduction prohibited.
I asked the question, “How do you tell a people that most everything they believe in is a lie?”
With this in mind, the cards I pulled to contemplate today bring me comfort and trust in the winds of joy that come with change. The Tower is never easy but when matched with Temperance you can be assured of wings to transcend the crossroads of change. Creation requires creativity in the face of the only constant in creation, change. Temperance helps us rise to new heights when faced with change outside of our control.
The path of Temperance is one of holding balance in the face of overwhelming events outside of your control. This path is the Crossroads of music legend that has to be crossed in order to create with the muses. The angel depicted on this card is said to be a hermaphrodite (child of Aphrodite and Hermes). In India this dual being, two sexes united in one personality, is the primal force, the Light from which life emanates. This symbolism is repeated on the hermaphrodite’s forehead in the symbol for the center of infinity: emanation or first cause. Human creativity soars to rainbow heights at this crossroad. The figure has one foot rooted in the water, feelings, and one foot planted on green earth, living form. This path balances sexuality (creativity) and love (creation). Art, creation, brings feelings into living form. The water flowing between cups in the angel’s hands is actually flowing from the lower cup to the higher cup symbolizing rising to a higher consciousness. Higher conscious also symbolized by the golden road that leads out of the water and to the “crowned” mountain peaks in the background, Temperance is a path of direct transcendence to whole consciousness.
The Tower, also known as the Lightening Struck Tower, is the path of sudden change of consciousness, completely out of our control. As the picture on this Tarot card depicts, the energy on this path can strike us with overwhelming devastation. This path balances mental will and victorious life mastery. Where there is a will, there is a way, but this Tower symbolizes the reality that the way is never what we expect it to be. There are two figures falling from the tower. A monarch is falling; he is resistant to change, without hope. While the other figure is diving with the flames, cloak flapping like a super hero’s. This figure is afraid, but going with the flow, diving into the change, surrounded by flames in the shape of the Hebrew letter Yod. Yod is the symbol for that from which everything is created. The energy on this path is painful to live with either way we fall. But how we deal with the fall dictates the power we have to master life when we land. Change is the only thing we know for certain will happen. Wholeness requires us to stay out of the way of right change happening; even dive into the flow of right change happening.
Please note
This reading is meant for the practice of Tarot meditation designed to build fluency in the symbolism to aid in personal transcendence. People also consult the cards as an oracle. Caution is advised. An oracle opens the door to spiritual deception as easily as spiritual truth. To read more about Tarot application to the Tree of Life go to http://bit.ly/9BiovO
Mary T. Ficalora, is the author of the award winning book, Choosing Honor: a philosophical treatise that applies the symbolism found on the Tree of Life to reveal an unpredictable tonic for what ails America.
Choosing Honor 