Something New
Since it was not one of my best days -distracted and irritated by the sounds in my ears, worried and in pain- I started to work on the Empress card for my course on tarot and bible in between the chores I had to do on this Saturday. Luckily it was the Empress, so I could make something comforting that suited me on this day.
It is a one-card spread followed by a visualisation.
GIMEL
17 Do good to your servant.
I will live and I will obey your word.
18 Open my eyes,
That I may see wondrous things out of your law.
19 I am a stranger on the earth.
Don’t hide your commandments from me.
20 My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times.
21 You have rebuked the proud who are cursed,
Who wander from your commandments.
22 Take reproach and contempt away from me,
For I have kept your statutes.
23 Though princes sit and slander me,
Your servant will meditate on your statutes.
24 Indeed your statutes are my delight,
And my counselors.
The Empress is seen here as the third station on a spiritual path. The spread about the High Priestess, second station, was about hiding/putting a special promise in the heart, in order to fall back on when times are hard. Today another theme is central. Every path harbours secrets that you do not see when you start your path. These secrets can be challenges or can be wonders of beauty which nourish you. For the psalmist the secrets are wondrous things of the law, and he wants his eyes to be opened so he can see them. Today the spread seeks something wondrous and new on the path, something that nourishes: an insight or something that is not yet experienced in full. The nourishment is meant for the rest of the road (or for situations in life) when bumps come up. Therefore it ends with a visualisation, which helps to let the nourishment sink in.
FIRST STEP
The first step is to draw a card as an answer to the question: “What is the beauty of my path that I have not seen yet, or not yet experienced in full, and that can nurture me?”
The card that I have pulled is Two of Swords from the Motherpeace Tarot.
I was surprised to having drawn this card. While shuffling I suddenly thought: “What is the path I am actually on? Is it tarot or is it Christian? (This doubt about the path will be something people in class will definitely also have, must keep it in mind.) I did take the Christian path in mind, but got an answer for the tarot-path as well, because I’ve never understood this card in the Motherpeace tarot.
The woman on the card draws a lemniscate in the air with two feathers (symbol for calmness). The stork teaches her to keep her balance. The card is about stillness and calmness of the mind, about refreshing oneself by seeking balance. Behind the woman is the sea and the full moon from which she can draw power on a deeper level. The stork brings babies, symbolizing the fertility in the peace and stillness of mind.
This gives a new insight to me on my Christian path. That balance, non-action, stillness and emptiness of mind belong to this path is new to me. I experience Christianity as a demanding, radical and challenging religion, asking too much of me (hence the Nine of Wands as a block for me following my path in the spread a few days ago, tired and burned out). Very new and very comforting and very surprising to have drawn this Two of Swords.
SECOND STEP
The second step is to relate the card to a colour of the rainbow and visualize the colour around you and flowing through you, together with the card (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). I choose between indigo and blue (they are both on the card, but that is not necessary). Indigo makes me tired right now, so I choose blue as the colour to flow around me and through my cells, the blue of the quiet sea on the card.