Five of Wands ~ Friction Dances

World Spirit Tarot ~ Lauren Onça O'Leary

It all hinges on that annoying Five of Wands which continues to make appearances in my daily draws. So done with seeing this energy show up but apparently not done enough says Spirit. What's interesting here though is the theme of two--two Wands, two combatants, and the two vessels Temperance pours from. In my experience Two speaks to thresholds. The Two of Wands and Temperance mirror that quality and each other beautifully. But that pesky Five stands between them, between the self that is a channel ready to manifest energy and that healing energy going out actively, intentionally into the world.

Sigh. Not only has this card has appeared so often lately but today's draw speaker to deeper themes I'm working with. Fives are all about stagnant energy, energy built up by resistance and fear such that its outlet has been externalized either as friction that radiates outwards as in the Swords and Wands or internalized as victim in the Cups and Pents. Either way the gathering nexus of energy is the ego's contraction, its need to defend/protect itself.

The Dance of Healing

Thankfully Temperance has chosen to step in here to remind me of a deeper/wider perspective. That this is a Major speaks to archetypal energies that are at play within, often times energies that we have less influence over than we might in the Minors.

The two Wands here become two combatants as a result of shadow energy getting hold of the raw potential in that initial card. It's not given any room to manifest, blocking the flow, literally. Step out of the way and allow it, which is to say, let yourself move through the world of earth and water, body and heart, with ease. But perhaps more importantly let that world move through you, through the two vessels of your wisdom and compassion, your intention and manifestation. Sometimes the very movement itself is the healing agent.

My draw from the Devas of Creation deck by Cilla Conway today was the Deva of Spring and its body language mirrors Temperance so beautifully that I couldn't help but notice it. Clearly they are different rays from the same etheric tribe. Spring brings with it new eyes, a vision that is suddenly alive to color, to detail--the pink flame of cherry blossom, the tiny bud. This kind of presence with the wonder of the burgeoning moment is medicine that restores, that heals. And all over the city here the cherry blossoms are alive to remind me of that, sending out their gorgeous song of hope and heart. Pink, pink, pink everywhere...

Star Above, Star Below

Page of Cups ~ The Star, Tarot de St. Croix ~ The Stars, Devas of Creation Oracle

Stars are the theme today in both my Tarot and Oracle card draws. We tend to think of stars as occupying a place in the sky but I recently learned of something called the Earth Star, a chakra that is the grounding point of the whole chakra system and which each of us has located in the soles of our feet connecting deep into the earth to a place of light. I love this idea of light in matter, like the lotus in the card above, life-giving and grounding roots hidden in the muck, flower blooming in the light. I've been working with both this and the root chakra and today after drawing my Tarot cards I brought my earth star chakra consciously into the mandala asking for guidance from it through the devas in the Devas of Creation Oracle by Cilla Conway.

Tarot de St. Croix by Lisa St. Croix

Seeing all the stars in this reading made me smile. Nothing like a bit of literalism from the cards. At the same time I felt a depth of gratitude for the wisdom and inspiration of my own internal star. This depiction of The Star from the Tarot de St. Croix shows Nut, Egyptian goddess of the heavens. Her body arches across the sky wearing a robe of stars that reaches the length of her body and up onto her head to form a crown. Here, in the deep velvet night, she is bending over a desert village below her. She directs her blessings onto a small pool of beautiful, clear water which flows outwards and into a generous river to run beside the village.

In the desert water is a valued element, sacred and, for its scarcity, to be used with intention and gratitude. Here she gives what is most precious, water. Her pose is one of ease, there is no effort here, she simply Is, flowing with and as beauty, inspiration, guiding light, life. I tend to think of The Star as muse and inspiration rather than hope, as she who nourishes hope rather than hope, the inner vision which sustains the heart, itself.

Beside her the Page of Cups, she of imagination and dreamy visions, sits on the water's own version of a star, a lotus. Her nakedness speaks to her vulnerability, her shining unadorned spirit. She wears a garland of flower-stars on her head, echoing both Nut and Innana, Babylonian queen of Heaven and Earth, who is often depicted wearing a crown of stars. Behind her three smaller lotuses are in bloom speaking to her creative powers. In her hands she holds a small pool of water and she meditates here on the waters of life, her head naturally inclined towards and in deference to the heart. In so doing she naturally and unselfconsciously calls forth the majestic and inner life-giving energy of The Star. The Universe can't help but respond as we offer it the gift of our presence unmediated by the egoic self. In many ways this card echoes for me that biblical line, Ask and ye shall receive. Which doesn't mean, ask and you'll get what you asked for, but instead something subtler, more lasting than that to the effect of, in the asking itself is the receiving. Asking opens us, it softens us. To ask is to be vulnerable, to hope, to dance with the unknown. To ask is to claim space on this earth. 

The Stars ~ Devas of Creation Oracle ~ Cilla Conway

Claiming space is an integral part of both root chakra and earth star chakra work. With the latter one connects to the very energy of the Earth herself as we're asked to visualize long roots growing from the soles of our feet downwards some 18 inches into the earth and connecting to a source of light there, our own Earth Star. In this way She roots us deep into her womb. Today I brought my earth star chakra into the mandala asking for guidance through the devas from the Devas of Creation deck. I drew the Deva of Stars 👁👁

The LWB describes this pic as the dance of twin beings who comprise a star: light and energy. It goes on to speak of Inanna and her crown of stars. The synchronicities between the three cards I drew today abound and are compelling in their clarity, their stark 'hello'. Together they form a strong affirmation for me to continue working with a focus, the earth star chakra, that I kind of tacked on to by whim.

But whim is the point of The Star card. It's an inspirational impulse that bypasses reason, logos and the analytical mind and goes straight to the heart of what engages our creativity, our sense of beauty, our healing for at its root The Star energy is healing energy. Sometimes it's as simple and as clear as that.

Mutability meets Transformation

Humanity ~ Devas of Creation

I have to admit as I was shuffling the cards this morning I asked the Devas to go easy on me after yesterday's draw which for some reason took the zip out of my sails. That combined with a few other things resulted in a long nap later in the afternoon, unusual for me. Today I drew the card entitled, Humanity. The colors and gradations remind me of Waldorf veil painting or the wet-on-wet watercolor work I did with my son when he was younger.

The creator likens this card to The Fool in the Tarot and there is certainly a feeling of innocence and wonder about it. The soft colors and barely-there shape give me the feeling of beginnings, of openness and innocence. The figure's position is wide open to receive the world, heart center fully receptive, throat center expanded. It's a figure that feels both strong and vulnerable, encompassing the spectrum of our humanity.

Two of Fire ~ Sister of Water ~ Tarot of the Spirit

From the Tarot of the Spirit I drew the Two of Fire, one of the most watery Two of Fire cards I've seen. Accompanying this is the Sister of Water. This is the fourth water-fire combination I've drawn this past week. If I were to sum up these two elements with one word each I'd describe them as mutability and transformation. The two words feel like different facets of the same gem. Elementally water flows downwards and fire rises. In Sufi breath work, the breath flows out the left nostril for water and in the right nostril for fire.

Interestingly the author describes the Two of Fire as "the intercourse of Wands and Cups, Fire and Water, male and female" seen in the discs with two six-pointed stars representing the integration of masculine and feminine energies. It's all swirling out of a gold ring which suggests a marriage of these energies. The card is called Convergence and there is the sense of understanding the necessity of connection as a means to mastery.

Sister Water has her back to this scene. I like to think she's already absorbed its knowledge and is well on her watery way using her intuition, her vision, and her connection to the power and mutability of the cosmic sea. These give her emotions sustenance and substance. She rides the Swan of Peace and is supported by a powerful sea turtle who also knows about the depths of the water world. The card is subtitled Divine Love and I see her as radiant heart-consciousness emergent.

Tarot of the Spirit ~ Devas of Creation

Together this scene feels quite spacious, the recognition of one's humanity as the path to an awakened heart. That's rather an exalted message but bringing it down to earth could be as simple as a smile to a stranger, an awareness that my friend's impatience is from being tired, or a moment in meditation when boundaries melt as one becomes aware of the gift of breath that unites us all.

Seeding Intention on Wintery Winds

Winter ~ Devas of Creation

It's a hot, late-summer day here, temps were warm enough for a tshirt on the ridge early in the morning which told me the day was going to be a warm one for these parts. Drawing this frosty scene feels like a balance to the warmth outside. It's the Deva of Winter signifying all the qualities inherent in winter, hardship, austerity, things gone to ground, spare beauty, living essentially, and making the best use of resources at hand to survive. I'm aware of how it's followed on the heels of the Sun Deva. There is a sword just barely visible in the hand of this Deva which is a nod to opportunities at hand if one is able to grasp them. This card's qualities remind me a little of the Death card in the Tarot.

Seven of Wind ~ Three of Wind ~ Tarot of the Spirit

How fitting then to draw two Air cards in relation to this Deva and one of them the Three of Air no less!

Seven of Wind, called Many Tongues, shows us seven split and twisted swords. Presumably these represent muddled thoughts with green, the color of the heart, appearing in the middle suggesting emotions are also muddled. It appears to be a big muddle all round lol. The two snakes are unable to understand each other, communication is compromised and confusion ensues. The white inverted triangle at the top of the card holds hope with its allusion to higher consciousness but that must be stretched by the seeker.

In the Three of Air we see lights and pencils as swords. To the left and right of the outer swords are damp butterflies which have just emerged from their cocoons and are drying their wings. This card is entitled Recognition. All three blades are rooted in a purplish red triangle suggesting will and passion are needed for those butterflies to take flight. The hilt of the sword contains all three blades indicating a unity of intention, the recognition that this is what will allow the transformation promised by the butterflies.

Tarot of the Spirit ~ Devas of Creation

Looking at this trio of cards I see the wintery Deva telling me that now is the time to allow those many tongues in the Seven to be still, to go to ground, which is to say to find their voice in the authenticity of the body. What would that energy feel like coiling and arguing and hissing as it moved up and down the spine, through the limbs? And yet there is hope of Recognition if I'm able to bear witness to the trajectory that wants a voice, that wings can unfold and transformation is always possible even when the ground, the body, finds itself in the grip of a sudden winter.

For reasons that aren't entirely clear I'm thoroughly uninspired by this draw. So much so that I decided to pull an oracle card to find out why that might be. Using The Enchanted Map Oracle by Collette Baron-Reid I drew this card entitled Intention

Intention ~ Enchanted Map Oracle

The feeling of expansion this card inspires is a key as to why the previous cards left me 'cold'. This card has warmth, it's spacious and holds obvious promise, a balance to the bleak austerity, the contraction and hard work of the previous cards. And it picks up on the theme of intention in the Three of Air. Today softness and promise feels better than hard work in austere conditions as I'm aware of the pressure of several projects looming and some work-related areas that are hovering beside me.

I love the image of this precious little barn owl, symbol of feminine wisdom and navigation by night, perched confidently atop a huge egg and holding a perfect, gone-to-seed dandelion in her beak the luminescent shape of which also echoes lunar energies. There are many more dandelions on the ground ready to be picked up and wished upon, intentions carried first by the breath and then the wind spreading far and wide. Beneath the cold, hard grip of winter and divisive voices things are seeding, gestating, awaiting both my attention and intention. The LWB suggests that the good intentions of others will inspire me to nourish and send out those of my own. Unfolding doesn't occur in isolation, we are each others' awakening.

Two Ways of Spreading Light

The Sun ~ Devas of Creation

Nothing like waking up to a sunny, light-filled day within and without. Today seeing this card I could feel my inner body light up ever so briefly as if in greeting of this Deva. They offered their salaams to each other is how it felt, the sun in me greets the sun in you, we meet in the warm light of the manifest. The Sun is the unifying pole around which our solar system turns, the life-giver providing us with essential warmth and energy necessary for our planet's continued existence. If you look closely at the lower right corner you can see the eyes and fiery streaming hair of this Deva. Seeing this card I feel encouraged to express the voice that sings, that says yes, that embraces the moment with passion and interest and expansion. Where in my day might I find that voice...

Karma ~ Tarot of the Spirit

The calm crevice of Truth
Truth that breathes hollowly, sends chills.
dispels illusion by the still cool air of the Moon
Truth at the breathy core
Whirling, twirling
the dance of Karma
casting off excess bit by bit
until remains a breathless core
which lives and learns and breathes and grows
from one life to the next
without expectation.

This card, called Karma in this deck, is the card often entitled Justice in the RWS system, Adjustment in the Thoth system though it's Key 8 rather than 11 as seen here. The semantics of 'karma' have a murkiness to them. The word essentially means activity, action, work or deed. Activities have consequences both positive and negative. As such the laws of cause and effect are implicit in the word karma. My actions and intentions of this breath affect my experience of the next breath. Seeds ripen. Says the Buddha, If you want to know the past look at your present, if you want to know your future look at your present. Seeds ripen.

This card stands at the midpoint of the Major Arcana between Keys 1 and 10 and Keys 12 and 21 mediating between the lessons inherent in them, balancing them, adjusting them. Here Karma appears like a spinning top with insect wings. The central axis is a sword which is whirring as if in continual motion. Above it is a leminscate figure suggesting the endlessness of the movement. To the left and right we see two pillars meeting at the center like pencil-points. The sense of as above so below comes to mind or put another way, as within so without. And they remind me of the pillars of the High Priestess implying the sense of navigating inner and outer realms in a balanced way.

Two of Water ~ Sacred Cord ~ Tarot of the Spirit

More balance being asked for my attention in the Two of Water, traditionally the Two of Cups. It's entitled Sacred Cord and there is the sense of the heart moving towards its home. The sacred cord is that quality of interest and engagement that connects us to the object of our affection and devotion, what calls us home to ourselves.

We see two chalices containing the waters of the cosmic sea overflowing with movement and abundance. On each chalice is a six-pointed star representing the integration of masculine and feminine energies. The sea reminds me of the gown of a sea goddess gracefully rippling and changing, the paradox of Love...She changes everything She touches and everything She touches changes.

Above the two chalices are a male and female figure, she winged, he with flippers, she dark, he light. Their hands are joined in a lemniscate figure suggesting perpetual movement and overseeing and blessing their union is the sacred, indwelling immanence. This is the alchemical marriage, the process of simultaneous dissolution and individuation.

Looking at these three cards together I'm aware of the appearance of the lemniscate in the two Tarot cards, the endlessness this suggests, this as crowning energy, that which reaches beyond the small self towards a new horizon, towards vistas of awareness that include a comprehensive reality beyond self and other, beyond a duality that suggests form and void are separate. How to marry those two, how to bring about the sacred union they so desire in us, as us. With the Light of the Sun says the Deva, with a flaring up of attention, the solar burst of engagement, with the warmth and kindling of interest. Which is to say Love. Because ultimately the line between interest and love thins to nothing.

Devas of Creation ~ Tarot of the Spirit

There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.  ~Edith Wharton

The Living Creature After Her Kind

Animal Kingdom ~ Devas of Creation

After yesterday's Void the line that arose when I saw this card was, 'Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after Her kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after Her kind: and it was so.' This card is a lovely depiction of that verse and if you look closely you can see not just the elephant in the center but also a bear, a stag, a bird, a snake, a tiger, and a frog. It took me awhile to find them all but they're all there...

Animal Kingdom ~ Devas of Creation ~ Cilla Conway

This Deva is a guardian for the animal kingdom, caring for and tending to all of them equally. It appears to remind us of our strength and versatility according to the LWB. Cilla goes on to describe this strength as 'masculine, a sense of power and certainty, the ability to get things done and an integral sense of instinctive knowing'. In relation to the two Tarot cards I drew today, the Earth Father and The Emperor, this focus on masculine strength appears to be asking for my attention.

And yet looking at the elephant, a species I most often associate with matriarchal power, I find myself feeling more into the relationship between masculine and feminine strength. Underlying both is versatility, clearly a kind of strength, allowing for choice, openness, spontaneity and ultimately agency and autonomy. These are areas I'm currently exploring and seeing them through the lens of this majestic matriarch is an interesting perspective. Curiously I'm reminded of the levianthan-like presence in the Ocean card of a few days ago.

Earth Father ~ Tarot of the Spirit

Here we have the epitome of earthy strength and power in male form in Earth Father. What strikes me first upon looking at this card is his stance, the kinesthetic power in his upper thighs, the stretch in his arms. The author subtitles this The Spirit of Fertilization. His joy feels rooted in the practical, in the recognition of the earth and its resources.

Earthed/Grounded
Abounding Joy
tilling vast lands
investing well
and Time will tell
as intellects rise and shine and die,
fires rage, lovers sigh...
constancy--
he knows them well...

There is more movement and felicity in this depiction of what is traditionally the King of Pentacles. The author describes him as meditating upon the the idea that the great and small mingle and are of one will. Heaven and Earth are in communion. Strength lies within, glad acceptance lies without. I like this and the reference to strength echoes the qualities of the oracle card.

His arms are upraised, his feet rooted in the depths of the earth's rich, molten core, his hands disappearing into the sky suggesting the communion between these two realms that the author spoke of. The molten core is alive with movement underscoring the sense of stable movement I feel with this card. He is rooted in stability that flows, that reaches, that breathes and creates. He looks like a portal to these worlds, that through him mastery is assured...

The Emperor ~ Tarot of the Spirit

This card is showing up a lot these days. I should start charting how often he appears. Sigh. What do you want of me, O Emperor?

Wise Ruler 
serves by ruling,
rules by serving, 
Power is aligning Love,
Thought, Body, Spirit with
the ways of Nature's Laws
in the context of the 
Rules Ordained

This pithy poetry by the author of the deck does much to enhance my understanding of The Emperor. It exalts his station in a way that befits a Major Arcana figure and thus becomes accessible to me from that exalted station within my own being.

 Serving by ruling and ruling by serving feels very much one of the inner mysteries of this card. "The vision and the voice are one. The creative word calls all into being and yet the word is not the thing," says the author. This, too, points to some deep truth in relation to this card. He both knows the 'isness' of form and at the same time, exists as the substance of the manifest, of form. As such "we utter our Self by the way we see" aka 'and the Word was made flesh'. The author describes him as 'constituting intellingence' and says his lesson is this :: Whatsoever you wish to conquer you must serve.

I don't think I've explored the element of service as an inner mystery of the Emperor before, service as strength, service as mastery of the manifest.  Whatsoever you wish to conquer you must serve...

Devas of Creation ~ Tarot of the Spirit

Taken together I sense the message here could be that strength comes in recognizing the joyful body serving the earth and the joyful earth serving the body in a sacred communion, an alchemy, an ongoing act of co-creation that simultaneously widens the heart and grounds it.

The Intimate Deep

Void ~ Devas of Creation

In a deck of gorgeously colored, many-hued cards I drew the one card that is the exception to the rule, the least aesthetically pleasing of the bunch. And yet out of this dark, dense, nothingness the entire deck arises...

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

I've always loved this verse from Genesis for its poetry, its mystery and its deep teachings on the nature of emptiness. And it's such an embodied and sensual depiction of Spirit, of God, a divinity that actively courts the waters in a slow and intimate dance, searching for something unnameable, longing for completion. God as the act of sacred Longing to know Herself. And the earth with a face as yet unseen, is 'unshining' with desire for a body, a way to become itself more completely. This is a love story like no other, the one from which all others spring.

All the different creation stories begin with some form of nothingness, some form of unarticulated endlessness and this card embodies that state of pregnant void. Void, which is numbered 0, is asking us to approach emptiness as an embodied reality through meditation. For me that moment of emptiness is most pronounced in the pause between the breath when 'we encounter the simultaneous paradox of non-existence and infinite possibility.'

But seeing the card come up this morning I experienced a mixture of dread and irritation. Interesting reactions in and of themselves if I view them as my reactions to the deeper teachings this card offers rather than superficial annoyance over aesthetics. Faced with the mirror of nothingness would my experience be dread? anger? existential agoraphobia? joy? relief? delight? equanimity? Likely a combination of all of the above...and then some. I'm amused by my inclusion of the foot into the boundless black hole of this card. It's a poignant attempt by the ego to orient within the vastness, or perhaps a child-like stamping of the foot, or yet still a claiming of the first step on the journey...

One of Fire ~ Tarot of the Spirit

From the Void into the fire! The accompanying poetic meditation for this aligns seamlessly with the Void card...

Raw Spirit, Raw Power, Raw Force
Breath in the Void
All Possibility...
Breathing Spirals Whirling
Galactic Coils...
True Intent

This card suggests a certain restless energy as fire, the driving force of change and movement, burns. This is unmediated and undirected energy, the seeds that will eventually birth into a creative form. The author equates it to the force of Kether on the Tree of Life, the first sphere--the creative force--that emerges from the void of all possibility. Italics are mine to underscore the relationship with the oracle card.

The symbology on the card suggests that a balancing of male and female energies is key to the potential expansion and creativity this card is hinting at. In the center of the card is an upright triangle (male) containing an empty eye socket though to me it looks like an egg. The triangle is surrounded by spirals of purposeful energy, life force and direction. Overlapping the upright triangle is an inverted one (female) in a kind of ghostly form as integration hasn't been realized yet. There are rods of fiery energy shooting towards the center looking for a form to receive them in, the sense of blind, primal cosmic energy.

This is a far more esoteric exploration of what is traditionally known as the Ace of Wands and it's given me an interesting perspective from which to view it. Something more prescient than simply potential but rather the seeds of that potential as actively stirring within right now. That the card is called Force suggests a certain power inherent in the nascency.

Brother of Water ~ Tarot of the Spirit

From this force we're propelled into the healing and receptive container of Water Brother ~ Wings of Love...

he converts to Art all that which comes
from the deepest part
of his element...
he says Feelings are but fleeting illusions
to be cradled and birthed in Art!

Clearly the author embraces Art as a healing force, capitalizing it to render it a sacred presence. I see a glimmer of myself here in Pamela's description, 'Water Brother strives to conquer his own needs and desires through translating what he finds in the stream of unconscious into art and he encourages everyone, but particularly those he loves most, to tune into that stream in order to make the most of their creative talents.'

His 'skillful means' is the cup because his triumph is found in being emotionally fulfilled. Receptivity lies at the heart of his perfection. On this card he is traversing the cosmic sea, leaving behind the earth, leaving behind the concrete, the container. He's guided by spirits in all directions and is attuned to vibrations from all levels. Water Brother with his Wings of Love stands at the doorway of sound. His is the liminal realm. His cup, aka his heart, extends to the universe and is reflected in a mirror image above. He is the mirror image of our own awakened heart.

Devas of Creation ~ Tarot of the Spirit

Seen from this vantage point it looks as if the Void is the key in bridging the two energies, that this pregnant pause allows all the potential creativity seen in the One of Fire a home in Water Brother--that the heart and fulcrum out of and around which all authentic Art turns is the essential emptiness at its core.

The essence of all great art, all beautiful art, is gratitude.  Nietzsche

The Quiet Benediction of the Resurrected Self

This week I'll be working with the 'Devas of Creation' oracle deck by Cilla Conway published by cc3 and the 'Tarot of the Spirit' by mother and daughter duo Pamela and Joyce Eakins and published by US Games. Both of these decks are rich in imagery and symbolism, with a lush color palette and refined eye to detail.

Ocean ~ Devas of Creation

Deva(s) is a Sanskrit word used to describe a class of beings from the Vedic period meaning alternately 'shining ones' 'angels' 'divine beings' and so forth. I know the word best from my Buddhist studies and the devas have been part of my inner pantheon for several decades now. As such this deck feels quite accessible to me from the start.

Today's card depicts the Deva of the Ocean, a primordial, mysterious, unfathomable environment that surrounds our entire planet. Of this card Cilla suggests that 'currents are moving, the ice is melting. It reminds us of the unconscious, its deep emotions and fears...this Deva's appearance hints at something stirring in the depths, the kraken or the primordial goddess Tethys.' As I look at the image I can sense the weight and majesty of such sub-oceanic energy and try and follow its current in my own body for these streams live within as well as without. I'm able to touch something that is still without name and form but feels like a definite presence unfolding according to its own time, its own place. I spend some time drifting with it, allowing a sense of salinity and fluidity to wash over and through me. The top of the card begins to look like the surface of the ocean where light dapples and beckons in contrast to the slow-moving, sober energy beneath it. Allowing the light to dapple over the surface of my skin while maintaining an awareness of primordial energy moving within my cells is a wonderfully balanced feeling, a sense of allowing both mysteries to inter-be, not one at the expense of the other but both.

Five of Fire ~ Tarot of the Spirit

From the watery depths to the fiery heights! This card, Five of Fire entitled, The Struggle, feels like the direct antithesis of the oracle card. Of course fire applied to water produces vapor in which case the result might be more refined.

Of this card the author writes about the sense of inner struggle being experienced, the conflict between striving and immobility and the feeling of chaos that ensues as a result of this tension. Her suggestion is to allow oneself to 'fail' or to 'lose' and that by so doing the gain will be immense.

In this card we are looking down into the crater of a volcano which is beginning to fold in on itself. The innermost depths are black, the absence of light, the black hole where captured light 'unshines'. The feminine force of understanding, seen in the colors of blue and green, is locked outside the eruption- a key detail. The wands have become rods battering at the eruption, laser crystals cutting away at anything extraneous.

Pamela speaks further about attempts to return to old ideas or to retrace steps as being wholly counterproductive. I was just writing something very similar in a letter to a friend, the sense of lessons learned that can't be unlearned for the way they've taken root in my body. And yet the way forward is not clear. This card very much mirrors the feeling for me, the sense of density, of old structures no longer being useful but with new structures as yet to be known. And that only in the doing will they become manifest, evident.

On the Tree of Life, which the author draws from with this deck, the fifth circle is the Circle of Geburah known as Severity. Geburah represents the energy of destruction, the process of catabolism, of disintegration. And that occurs by Fire in this card. I'm reminded of how certain conifers need a forest fire to allow the release and germination of their seeds from the cone, how it is critical for renewing the boreal forest, how it purifies the ground for new life to begin. And as Spinoza so aptly put it, Nature abhors a vacuum. There is a measure of comfort in this, the sense that something will flower in that disorienting, scorched emptiness if the tension can be maintained...

Nine of Water ~ Tarot of the Spirit

And here it is, a return to the water realm with the sense that if the initiations in the Five have been properly integrated the result is the Rainbow Mirror seen in the Nine of Water. There is a lovely feeling of levity and beauty in this card, equilibrium and stability. Pamela includes some meditations with the cards and an excerpt from this one speaks directly to the lessons learned with the previous fiery card...

The Void is not so deep and burning
the Yearning not so great
in the quiet benediction
of the Resurrected Self

The poet in me appreciates the lyrical way she's approached this card...the quiet benediction of the Resurrected Self has such a spacious and gentle quality about it particularly in relation to the Five of Fire. We see emanations of the Tree of Life in this card with white light pointing in all directions. A rainbow bridge crosses the abyss, this bridge is the embodied knowledge of non-duality. At least that's how I'm interpreting it based on the author's descriptions.

There is with this card, the sense of time being a restorer of wholeness. There is integrity. And this being a Nine suggests a certain culmination and perfection of the original force of the Ace of this suit, which is Love undirected, unmanifest and wholly receptive. It has found a home in the center of the Self with the sense that, You are your deepest intention.

This sphere is the Circle of Yesod on the Tree of Life, the sphere of the subconscious mind, the sphere of the Moon, an interesting correlation with the oracle card. The author talks of journeying into the cosmic sea of Yesod to see the reflected images of the collective unconscious, the mind which we share with each other, the sense that you are me and I am you, a rainbow of mirrors.

Tarot of the Spirit ~ Devas of Creation

Looking at these three cards together I get the sense of slow-moving shifts that are occurring within and the sense that if the discomfort and disorientation arising can be lived with, felt and moved then the possibility for healing and joy is very much a possible reality. I wrote about this in a poem several years ago after a retreat, an excerpt of which is below...

...and how each breath is a bead to touch, 
yourself worn smooth with the heat of opening,
with intimacy which is the magnification
of detail refracted. Your body is a heaven
arising as the ellipse of its own earth,
a celestial bending of light. You are
your deepest intention.