Meeting Resistance with Kindness

Aquarian Tarot ~ The Moon Deck

This morning I felt drawn to work with the Aquarian Tarot But after pulling these two guys and finding no juice with them I decided to look at the top and bottom card of the deck. Sigh. More of the same masculine energy in the Page of Rods and Knight of Ps. My resistance to their presence on my altar was palpable. Nothing poetic to work with here, no roadways into these two closed books, is how it felt. Drew the rest of my cards all the while aware of skirting the edges of these two intractables.

Clearly they had work for me 😆 So in a last ditch effort I reached for The Moon Deck and asked for an affirmation to use with my reaction to these cards. I laughed out loud when I saw the response, 'Resistance'. But honestly reading the affirmation, 'I meet resistance with kindness', turned it all around for me. I didn't realize my absence of kindness until being given this permission. Oh, kindness, you mean I have a choice, some volition here around how I treat my knee-jerk reactions?

The ritual suggested for this card is the yoga pose seen here, Tarasana aka Star Pose. I hopped on the mat immediately and spent some time in this pose, occasionally offering up the affirmation. It was a wonderful release and loosening of the tightness and emotion held in my body, to allow myself to relax my grip on my resistance a bit. It's fascinating how the body tells the real story. 

After a bit of time and space elapsed I was able to go back to the two cards with curiosity and interest. Looking at their own body language gave me a clue into my own reaction. The Page has turned his back entirely on the King. This King is a master of creative imagination. He inspires spiritually and artistically and has the talent of being able to easily influence others around him simply with his charm and positivity. I know someone like this and he's very persuasive, managing to get what he wants and make everyone feel good in the process. But the shadow side of this card has to do with arrogance, self-centeredness and a hot temper. 

Looking at the Page, who is clearly just starting out on his journey to mastery, I can see why he'd be wary of this King.  He is still in the process of developing his creative power. He's a serious student, dedicated and not interested in distractions as we see him steadily gazing at the object of his meditations. Clearly the King is a wild card to his security-oriented, perhaps overly-focused self. Where do I fit in here? I feel both of these energies within me, and both of the frustrations that might arise from each of them towards the other. They have something to learn from each other. Which leaves me with the question, what does my own imaginative and visionary self have to learn from this sober, serious plodder? Fire and Earth, how might they best work together?