Charged with the Transfiguration of All Things

 

Today Archangel Seheiah blesses us with his presence. He is the angel of longevity, protection and good health. The LWB describes him as "one who heals" and he is asking us to "reconnect with the original source". A rather vague and let's face it, vast exhoration but an intriguing one. He appears on a beautiful, buoyant cloud that pillows out to fill half the card. He looms large with his  gold wings, deep teal cape and pink robes belted with green at the waist. His left hand blesses and his right hand holds what looks like the golden spokes of a wheel at the end of which are three cherubs, just heads, auras and wings. Are these his divine messengers? His assistants? It's unclear what their role is but as they're cherubs being guided by Seheiah one might presume a kind of angelic teamwork here, a group of heavenly guardians overseeing one's physical well-being. It's a romantic and comforting thought. 

Today Rilke is my poet of choice and his words for this day are from a letter to Sophy Giauque  entitled, "Charged with the Transfiguration of All Things" which could very well be the title for this card given the gentle, missionary purpose it exudes....

How all things are in migration!
How they seek refuge in us. How
each of them desires to be relieved
of externality and to live again in the
Beyond which we enclose and deepen
within ourselves. We are convents of
lived things, impossible things; all that
is in awe of this century saves itself
within us and there, on its knees,
pays its debt to eternity.

Little cemeteries that we are,
adorned with the flowers of our futile gestures,
containing so many corpses that demand
that we testify to their souls. All prickly
with crosses, all covered with inscriptions,
all spaded up and shaken by countless
daily burials, we are charged with the
transmutation, the resurrection,
the transfiguration of all things.
For how can we save what is visible
if not by using the language of absence,
of the invisible?

And how to speak this language that remains

mute unless we sing it with abandon and

without any insistence on being understood.

 So many lines in this letter find a place in my body. And feeling them moving within I turn to my Tarot cards along with the question of where I might need Seheiah's blessings today. I draw the Three of Cups and the Wheel of Fortune, an enigmatic pairing. Every time I draw cards from this deck I fall a little bit more in love with it and today is no exception with both of the cards depicting a differently nuanced version of the card. And I notice the theme of three begun with the oracle card now echoed here in the Tarot card.

This Three of Cups is more sober and restrained than many other versions I've used with its themes of friendship, celebration, sisterhood and serendipity. I often call this card the Three Graces card. Here we see three young women dancing together, each holding a cup but only one has hers raised. Their faces show a quiet, modest joy, a sense of deep connection with each other and an understanding of grace and movement. In one sense they are the three faces of the Goddess dancing around the cauldron of life, the sacred vessel of transformation. So while on the surface this card appears to be full of gaiety and ease there is something much deeper at work here. True celebration arises with an awareness of our three-fold self and a rivering between those selves, not one or the other but all three simultaneously. Now that is cause for celebration.

I'm aware of the kinetic effect of the leg of the girl in white. Its outline is seen beneath her dress as she bends and sways to the music, the effect being of knowing when and how to surrender the body to joy. She sinks into the earth of it with ease. The right hand of her partner is open outwards in a lovely receptive gesture. Behind them the third girl raises her cup to the musicians in the background, two noblemen who are playing a lute and two flutes. They stand respectfully at a distance from the these three ladies but fully engaged and involved. The scenery is lush, green grass, large expansive trees and dog sits between the dancers and the musicians having his own canine experience of smells and sounds, the feel of the breeze gentling his noble snout, the peace of his surroundings. He has time to do this and that is the feeling this scene inspires, presence. Along with feelings of containment and embrace, quiet joy, ceremony and the healing power of the earth these are all cause for celebration.
 

In the Wheel of Fortune we have more cause for celebration in a nativity scene. With its muted tones and earthy but refined figures this card exudes mystery and wonder. A bit of a departure from the traditional Wheel card. And yet...My eye is first drawn to the large scarlet-rust coverlet that lies over the bed, such life-affirming color of vitality. Beneath the coverlet and sheets is a mother who has just given birth to her child. She cradles him to her breast and he returns the gesture snuggling sweetly into her neck. Below the bed the father works diligently to prepare a meal for his wife. He blows on a small pot of soup which is sitting over a fire, a bowl and spoon at the ready for when its done. His body is pleated in the mudra of devotion and effort. His brown boots and blue cap speak to me of balance and ease within the world of the heart and the body. Above the woman and child is a wooden wheel hanging on a wall. The LWB tells us it is surrounded by the four Evangelists, an angel, an eagle, a winged cow and a lion. Behind the wall a donkey and a cow watch from a thatched manger. Traditionally it is the four fixed signs of the zodiac. It is an interesting depiction of the Wheel of Fortune with these christian overtones of the nativity and the Evangelists perhaps speaking to the sacredness of all the points along the wheel, all the risings and fallings. Though we, with our limited perspective, don't generally experience the low points as sacred. A recognition of the universal cycles and our ability to adapt to them is what's being asked of us in this card.

Combined with the Three of Cups my interpretation would be that of fully embodying joy when it arises with the awareness that it's all coming into being and passing away...How all things are in migration!  There is only the present moment, this one right now as your eyes fall upon these words, as you take a breath, release it and then another, as you sigh or shift in your seat, hear a car go by, as your day runs through your mind like constant background music...How they seek refuge in us. And Seheiah with his blessings of health and wholeness, the ongoingness of Love is perhaps speaking to the deeper alchemy of the temporality of things...

How each of them desires to be relieved
of externality and to live again in the
Beyond which we enclose and deepen
within ourselves. We are convents of
lived things, impossible things...
Raising the cup of celebration, knowing we have only the present moment in which to truly embody it...

And how to speak this language that remains
mute unless we sing it with abandon and
without any insistence on being understood.