Tilt-a-World

Cosmic Tarot ~ Oracle of the Radiant Sun

Today's trio is apt in a rather unpleasant way. I woke up with vertigo. This has been a sporadic occurrence over the past decade plus, first visiting me when I was pregnant with my son. It shows up once or twice a year and this morning is one of those times. Ugh, if I lean the wrong way the room suddenly spins like I'm on a thrill ride. Nausea accompanies it today which has limited my movement considerably so looking at these three cards I'm feeling their relevance in a visceral way.

Submission ~ Venus in Pisces ~ Oracle of the Radiant Sun

From the Oracle of Radiant Sun I drew the card Submission which depicts the quality of Venus in Pisces. I think my whole week with this deck has focused on either Venus or Saturn!

In this card we see a lovely bird inside a cage whose door is left open though the bird remains inside. The cage is placed within an ornate window draped with cloth and is looking out onto spacious skies with the glyph for Venus replacing the sun. Two fish, symbols of Pisces, float in the upper right corner and a cherub appears in the left one.

The sense with this card is of being constrained by inner conventions rather than outer ones, by personal restriction and limit due to extreme sensitivity. The bird can leave the cage at any time but chooses to remain inside. Our cockatiel loves to roam around the outside of his cage when the door is open, as it is daily, and even take a fly-round from time to time. His impulse is expansion every time unlike this bird.

The LWB tells us that this card can indicate either shyness that can lead to a sense of martyrdom and isolation or it can indicate a genuine love of solitude and quiet. I fall into the latter camp and today is no exception as my equilibrium struggles to find homeostasis. The title of this card is, I think, pejoratively viewed from a cultural standpoint, a culture that values individuality and power, and yet at its essence submission speaks to the mystery and grace of yielding, of opening to something larger than oneself. Today my surrender takes the form of listening to the wisdom of my body, a wisdom far larger than anything 'I' might come up with on my own.

Ace of Pentacles ~ Cosmic Tarot ~ by Norbert Losche

Working with the Cosmic Tarot has been a peculiar experience. Every card I've drawn the previous day as the second card has shown up as the first card drawn the next day. Today is no exception as yesterday I drew the Ace of Pentacles second, today it's first.

It's very comforting to see that solid, stable earth Ace today, seed of its suit. It makes me feel and appreciate the solid, stable ground beneath me as I tread carefully through the dizzying world. This Ace shows a disk on which a Pentacle is engraved sitting on a plain surrounded by rocks. In front are bricks of gold and crystals on a yellow bricked road.

I'm aware of the sensory qualities of Pentacles, of how we take in the world through our bodies and how today that's a bit skewed for me. And yet seeing the gift of this Ace feels like a blessing, a Guardian perhaps as I feel my body in relation to space and the ground in a more tentative way today.

Six of Swords ~ Cosmic Tarot

The Six of Swords is one of the first cards I go to in a new deck. This version is quite a bit different in appearance than the traditional boat and travelers across choppy waters. Here we see a dancer poised on one foot. Behind him a caduceus stands near a pyramid. The sun is high overhead and is repeated as a circle within which the dancer stands at the tip of five swords. Where is the sixth?? I don't see it anywhere.

Is the dancer meant to be the sixth sword? Certainly he is honed and one-pointed in his discipline and focus. Still, I'd like to see an actual sixth sword for this card of sixes. In relation to a traditional meaning there is the feeling of this figure orienting himself towards newer vistas. His foot and hand are pointing towards the future, the right, while his body and face look towards the left, the past. And one could surmise that his past experiences are informing his new directional aspirations.

Today looking at this card I feel the tremendous sense of balance this figure is embodying. Such a precious quality, balance, not only emotionally or psychologically but today, phyiscally, that quality swims into relevance.

Seeing all three together I feel the sense of surrender to quiet and solitude being asked of me today, combined with a respect for the ground beneath my feet as I tend to what positions make me feel literally most balanced. Like the figure in the Six of Swords, being upright helps (though I won't be standing on tiptoes in arabesque!) but leaning to either side sets the spins going. Mary Oliver writes so eloquently of the blessings of the earth, of the ground beneath and around us and how it rises up to support us effortlessly...

Sleeping in the Forest

I thought the earth remembered me, she
took me back so tenderly, arranging
her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds. I slept
as never before, a stone
on the riverbed, nothing
between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated
light as moths among the branches
of the perfect trees. All night
I heard the small kingdoms breathing
around me, the insects, and the birds
who do their work in the darkness. All night
I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling
with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

Your Solitude Allows You to Take Part

Concentration ~ Saturn in Gemini ~ Oracle of the Radiant Sun

As I was reading the description for today's oracle card aloud to my son we both had a moment of thinking it might relate to him. A quick check in one of my folders confirmed that yes, he does have Saturn in Gemini. As I read along I was able to relate to this combination in a very immediate way by simply reflecting on my son's attunements and proclivities. Concentration he has in spades! Me, not so much unless I'm fully engaged with my subject, then concentration abounds but otherwise it takes effort, and with so many things vying for my attention these days I find I need to be actively intentional about priorities and goals. Rilke describes an aspect of concentration so beautifully here in Letters to a Young Poet, dated October 1903...

From such impressions you gather yourself, you win yourself back from the clamoring multiplicity, and slowly learn to know a very few things in which the eternal is reflected, which you love and in which your solitude allows you to take part.

Concentration ~ Oracle of the Radiant Sun

The card depicting this quality is quite a playful one for a planet with such weighty themes as responsibility, boundaries and structure, restrictions and obstacles. Saturn also indicates an ability to apply oneself to a project with perseverance and patience and a determination to see things through to the end.

In this image we see a red star framed by a delicate spider web spun between branches of graceful foliage. The web suggests the patience and concentration the spider brings to such a task. Above this quiet, creative endeavor an imp appears from between two full lips. He cavorts mischievously while around him seven swords dance dangerously nearby. In the background a heart with what looks like a sigil of some kind hovers in the air.

There is a contradiction unfolding here with what's going on below and what's going on above. Reflecting on this visual polarity I can think of several areas in my life where the temporal whims of the moment are at odds with my deeper aspirations. I wonder what the tightly closed lips represent? Perhaps that aspect of the self that is continually whispering sweet nothings into the ear of one's conscience. So obviously, for me, the question as I shuffled my Tarot cards had to do with where might I need to apply more concentration today?

The Magician ~ Kind of Wands ~ Cosmic Tarot

Another dynamic duo! Look at the penetrating gaze of these two figures. This pair is nothing if not concentrated! Upon seeing The Magician for a second time in a row my son exclaimed, 'hey, that means I'm to do a magic show for you today!' So that's a treat in store for me as my son has quite the skill with sleight-of-hand and the part of me that wants to believe solid objects can disappear and reappear out of thin air is alive and well.


Coupled with the King of Wands I'd say it's going to be a day of creative doing! On my list is tidying and rearranging of rooms among other things.

The Magician ~ Cosmic Tarot

Seeing The Magician again today I wondered what lesson I missed yesterday lol. Though s/he does appear in the more receptive position on the left so one hopes that some of yesterday's teaching has been absorbed.

Today it's the eyes and triangle that draw my attention more completely. Transmission by glance, called darshan, is a facet of many eastern teachings and that's what I'm picking up here. It's a dynamic experience to sit in the presence of a teacher and receive unspoken wisdom simply through an exchange of eyes-mind-heart. What skills and attunements would this Magician offer, I wonder?

Creative imperative, practical application of the esoteric, organizer of elements...these are some impressions that come to mind as I spend some time with this image.




The second card I drew felt intimately related to The Magician, a distant cousin perhaps. This King of Wands is an interesting mix of masculine and feminine. His gaze is piercing in its intensity and he looks directly at us as if expecting something, as if his will alone might elicit his desire.

King of Wands ~ Cosmic Taro

The pinks and purples of his clothing and crown suggest a receptive nature as do the rose at his side and the tulip at his neck. His wand glows and has red drops spilling off it, suggesting passion and creative effort, 'sweating blood' comes to mind. The land behind him looks like a desert ecology furthering the feeling of heat and fire this suit expresses. A single bird flies high overhead indicating perhaps a far-reaching ideas and inspiration.


His kingly stature indicates mastery and a way of teaching by doing rather than by telling. Kings act from a place that keeps in mind the good of the whole. There is a sense of social responsibility and outward accomplishments. As I can't think of anyone in my immediate life today that might represent this King I'm seeing him as encouragement in areas of creativity and vision for myself. Spending time organizing various areas of the house may seem more like a queenly duty than a kingly one and yet I've also been extremely active and rigorous in my decluttering efforts, tossing things without much nod to sentiment, decreeing 'this shall go!' as I keep in mind the flow and equilibrium of the whole family.

Cosmic Tarot ~ Oracle of the Radiant Sun

Together these three cards feel indicative of the need to focus creatively on projects that need manifesting. Not just thinking about things but bringing all that inspiration into the actual here and now. Distraction will be the undoing of this vision so I'll be paying extra attention to any imps that might be cavorting about in the atmosphere (hello internet, knitting and boredom). And lastly I shall look forward to seeing some good magic tricks from my Saturn-in-Gemini son.


Outside of poetry and art, security is only and ever achieved at the cost of the most inescapable limitation. This diminishment consists of choosing to be satisfied and pleasured by a world where everything is known and where preoccupation with self is both possible and useful. But how could we want that? Our security must become a relationship to the whole, omitting nothing. 

Rilke, Letter to Ilse Erdman, October 1916

The Unspeaking Center

Birth ~ Oracle of the Radiant Sun

Venus has appeared for a second day in a row, this time in Cancer manifesting as Birth. Here we see the angel of birth hovering above a newly born infant. The rocky cave that is sheltering the baby is suggestive of the hard carapace that Cancer wears to protect itself. Above it all the Sun and the Moon act as guardians over the birth that is occurring. To the left and right of the birth angel are two sacred sigils, one representing the Seal of Venus and the other representing the Spirit of Venus. The moment here is replete with blessing and potential.

This astrological combination highlights the home and the nurturing and loving atmosphere that can unfold within it. Children figure prominently in this partnership and there is, in this planetary placement, a great desire to nourish and create an environment in which a family can flourish through love and attention to detail. The LWB suggests that when this card is drawn there might be a birth upcoming (!) or the need to connect with one's mother or with general family roots and lineage.

My mother has been gone now for several years but of course our relationship continues. I go stretches without thinking of her and then stretches where she's quite prominent in my thoughts and heart. Seeing this card she comes to mind but more specifically I'm drawn to the little baby within the cave. How brave we are to make that journey out of the womb. Recalling my son's birth this was driven home in that tangible, visceral, painful, love-soaked, widening way of all births. Today I'm feeling moved to tend to my own birth pangs and this is precisely what I asked of the cards, what areas of my life need midwifing, what areas of today are there birth pangs to attend to?

Justice ~ The Magician ~ Cosmic Tarot

What a captivating couple these two Majors make. My immediate response is to see them as the parents of Venus in Cancer depicted in the oracle card, Birth. Balance and Truth coupled with Mastery and Initiating Energy, what a dynamic and fruitful marriage.

The first obvious similarity is the light issuing from both their eyes as long, luminous and penetrating beams that glow and flow off the page suggesting their effect and skill is far-reaching. Both of them look at us directly yet, like the High Priestess of yesterday, there is also something oblique about their gaze, a veiling of something intrinsic.

Justice ~ Cosmic Tarot

Justice, here, is depicted with many references to the theme of balance and equilbrium. The sun and moon, night and day skies, yin and yang symbol with its purple tones, a nod to authority, in her heart and throat center, the scales at the bottom. Her cloak spreads over the star-filled sky. A tower rises behind her and a falcon sits at her left shoulder.

In this deck Justice occupies Key 8 and Strength occupies Key 11. This references the earlier Marseille system which uses these positions as opposed to the Rider-Waite-Smith system which switches them. The astrological association for Justice is Libra and interestingly there is also a sigil on this card seen at the base of the scale.

She doesn't wear the traditional blindfold but her eyes are radiantly piercing through the darkness of preference, ego and ignorance nor does she have a sword though the falcon behind her intimates that realm of air and discriminating wisdom.

Her scale arises out of a rose suggesting grace and care form part of her inner world and the tower behind her inspires thoughts of stricture and constraint, a 'container' for qualities and actions that don't serve her higher and noble purpose. The scales contain two red triangles pointing upwards with two black triangles within them pointing downwards. Presumably this is a nod to the human embodiment of both spirit and matter and the reconciliation this seeming-polarity requires.

All in all this is a fascinating depiction of Justice, more sensual than other depictions and in some ways more accessible yet still maintaining the themes of equilibrium, radiant unbiased view and discriminating wisdom. Her presence today feels more earthy, more immediate. And personally right now I feel I'm in a place of balance in many areas of my life. I can feel it in my body and my daily rhythms, my aspirations and my interactions with others. And yet I'm also aware of how much fine-tuning needs to be done to maintain this. It's not a place of static arrival, not an either/or but rather an ongoing dance with continual need for reflection and adjustment day by day.

The Magician ~ Cosmic Tarot

Master of the Elements, bringer of practical Wisdom, potential and experience...such are some of the qualities that speak to me of The Magician, a card that doesn't often show up for me.

This Magician has both masculine and feminine features leaving me with the impression of a gender-neutral figure. It's not often we see a female magician so, despite the delicate goatee and refined mustache I'm going with a female interpretation for novelty's sake and also to see how it feels to relate to this figure as a woman.

The gaze is penetrating and radiant reaching far beyond the edges of the card, the four elements are on the table in the form of a Cup, a Sword, a Pentacle and a Wand. There are roses and lilies lying at the front of the table symbolizing passionate dedication and pure, single-minded devotion respectively. The table itself glows with an otherworldly light imbuing the ritual implements with sacredness and power. The starry night sky spills across her hair and her third eye radiates a glowing lemniscate and triangle.

She who reconciles ill-matched threads
of her life, and weaves them gratefully
into a single cloth--
it's she who drives the loudmouths from the hall
and clears it for a different celebration

where the one guest is you.
In the softness of evening
it's you she receives.

The Magician appearing as the first numbered card in the Major Arcana sets forth the theme of the quest and as such represents this initiating energy. Hers is the suggestion of embarking on an inner journey with a hint as to some of the tools we'll need and thus the kinds of challenges we might encounter along the way. She's a charismatic figure with a magnetic personality and creativity and initiative are indicated when this card is drawn. Hers is the promise of knowledge of the unknown, the invisible. She is linked astrologically to Mercury, messenger and fast-moving planet. With this in mind one can conjecture that the Magician has a message to convey, a transmission to share.

Looking at these three cards together I feel a sense of spiritual parentage within, of something nascent coming into form that might need the balance and clear sight of Justice and the mastery and innovation of the Magician. What could that be? I've got a week-long class upcoming to co-teach with my dh. Certainly there are qualities in these cards which I could draw on.

But more than that I feel a kind of dialogue between these two figures in relation to their 'child', a sense of co-creation unfolding that has yet to take form, as if I'm hearing a half-whispered conversation between partners. It involves love and an acknowledgment of innocence or inexperience. It draws from a place of equilibrium and initiating energy. It has authority but not self-assertion. There is something important to be transmitted in the practical sphere. All of these are aspects I can draw on in relation to the upcoming workshop. I've not taught in this kind of configuration to this many people before so I shall be listening to what these two embodiments might have to tell me about how to proceed skilfully. Having both cards as women makes their presence resonate all the more. 

...where the one guest is you.
In the softness of evening
it's you she receives.

You are the partner of her loneliness,
the unspeaking center of her monologues.
With each enclosure you encompass more
and she stretches beyond what limits her,
to hold you.

Rilke ~ The Book of Hours I, 17

Cosmic Radiance

This week I'll be working with The Cosmic Tarot by Norbert Losche paired with The Oracle of the Radiant Sun by husband-and-wife team, Caroline Smith and John Astrop. As I sat in front of my altar in the early morning, little canine familiar at my side, I thought of what question there might be within that I wasn't aware of, what question wanted a voice, wanted embodiment?

Transformed? Yes. For our task is to take this earth so deeply and wholly into ourselves that it will resurrect within our being. We are bees of the invisible. Passionately we plunder the honey of the visible in order to gather it in the great golden hive of the invisible.    Rilke, Letter to Hulewicz, 1925

So what invisible honey is wanting its sweetness to know the country of my tongue, I wondered. And I had to smile when this card bubbled up to the surface....

Flirtation ~ Oracle of the Radiant Sun

Flirtation ~ Venus in Sagittarius. A traveling troubadour or bard serenades a lovely huntress in the bloom of youth and beauty. He holds a lute symbolizing the pleasure-loving nature of Venus and she holds a bow symbolizing the far-seeking adventurousness of Sagittarius. Together they complement each other quite nicely.

According to the LWB this combination denotes someone who is fair and philosophical and honest in relationships. The element of openness in communication is a theme for this combination, sometimes to a fault. There is a love of freedom which results in speaking openly from the heart making for very playful or flirtatious conversation.

The word flirtatious felt both ambiguous and limiting and a quick dictionary check revealed...showing an attraction for someone that is not meant to be taken seriously ; coquettish ; endeavoring to gain the attention and admiration of someone.

I can see both the Venusian and the Sagittarian aspects here with the element of beauty at work (Venus) focused on the goal of gaining attention (Sagittarius). However I have enlarged that definition a bit to include playfulness, levity and lighthearted give and take. Where specifically do I need to bring these qualities to the surface, where do I need to regard my day as Beloved?

Temperance ~ The High Priestess ~ from The Cosmic Tarot

Seeing these two Majors come up was a nice surprise. I think of them both as threshold cards, of embodying the liminal without the need to arrive at either/or. That's a fairly powerful place to speak from and being asked to bring such a lighthearted approach to cards that have a fairly sober energy about them is intriguing.

I note immediately that there are three beautiful women depicted in the trio of cards and the element of blending, harmonizing or navigating polarities is a theme. Though the figure in Temperance appears to be looking to the High Priestess for...support? affirmation? her eyes are closed and perhaps her veiled glance is a recognition of shared duties. There is a bit of a Siren quality going on with all of these cards.






My room and the vastness around it,
awake in the oncoming night,
are one. I am a string
stretched taut
across resonating distances.

The above excerpt from Rilke's poem, On the Edge of Night, speaks to this kind of encompassing of energies. And I spend some time ruminating on the idea of spaciousness and light-dark energy within the Majors I have drawn.

Temperance ~ The Cosmic Tarot

This depiction of Temperance makes me think of a dancer flirting or engaging with someone just out of view.  A beautiful and very sensual woman pours water from two cups which spills as a clear, strong stream into the waiting pool below which disappears around a corner, presumably to the sea. It is edged with irises and greenery, the hills behind her are verdant and rich, a tree supports and witnesses her alchemy as a heron stands behind her taking note. The heron is a bird comfortable on both water and land. Irises, too, speak to this ability to navigate two realms. Iris was the Greek goddess who took messages from the Gods on Mount Olympus to earth by way of a rainbow.

One shod foot touches the water, the other rests on the shore and the sun shines from behind a cloud. This lovely figure wears a graceful sarong and is bare-breasted with a necklace spilling down across her heart center. Her eyes are closed and her half-smile suggests an intimate dialogue with the Beloved.

The theme of blending, of tempering and mixing is present here as well as the sense of purification and cleansing. Our alchemical goddess is poised between worlds here with one foot in the spiritual and emotional realm and one in the earthly plane. She is shod though and wears rich jewels and this suggests a kind of semi-cultivated consciousness, as do the fields behind her. Her partial nudity gives me the impression of her ability to move between the world of logos and eros.

My eye is drawn into focus on the pouring of water, this is her meditation and as such I sense I'm being asked to gather memories, experiences and impressions as well as half-conscious material and work with them so there is a feeling of flow through my hands, which is to say, through the way I shape and tend to my day. Integration of this material feels like a key theme here along with balance and moderation, neither too much, nor too little. Today that feels do-able. It's a mom day of driving and tending to duties here at home but there will also be some time for a hike and later, a walk and it's during these times that I most feel a sense of balance. Perhaps I need to widen that feeling of balance into other areas, allow the flow I feel while hiking to permeate other less 'spacious' parts of my day. Temperance, the quality, feels like a much sought-after gift, something achieved not through effort so much as non-effort, as 'relaxing into reality' as a wise friend describes it, a grace, really.

All things are the body of the violin,
filled with murmuring darkness.
There, grieving women lie down to dream.
There the resentments of generations
surrender to sleep...
A silver thread,
I reverberate:
then all that's underneath me
comes to life.

The High Priestess ~ Cosmic Tarot

Eternal keeper of ancient wisdom, balancer of dark and light, harmonizer of the spiritual and the mundane, moon goddess, radiance of silence, binary consciousness...The High Priestess is most often a welcome sight in my draws and she appears with more frequency for me than some of the other Majors.

Here she is qualified by oceanic tides and a star-studded cosmos running through her hair. A yin-yang symbol on her third eye points to union and separation. A book depicting the Alpha and Omega letters lies at her throat center, center of communication, as does a thin crescent moon.  She is in harmony with opposites, the first and the last, the tides and the pulls and she gazes at us with a directness that is yet full of mystery and secrets.

There are no pomegranates on this card, no pillars, no veiled background and yet somehow this High Priestess manages to convey those intimations of descent, polarities and enigma.


Her sexuality here is both hidden and manifest, her gaze both beguiling and remote, her lips full and sensual yet telling nothing and this quality is a magnetic one, empowering her with a kind of holy and sacred and sensual ray of the Feminine. Today that feels like something that might occur only on the inners as I tune in to the places where my body feels pulled by the Moon, by my dreams, by desire for connection to something larger than myself and yet of myself.

Looking at this trio today with its emphasis on beauty and flow, harmonizing body and psyche, mystery and purification I feel that a good session of authentic movement is in order. What will my dreams tell me through the dance of my limbs and sinew, what recent experiences need the cleansing energy of movement to release them, what kind of body will desire have today?



These questions will be good guides for my day as I flirt with deeper themes of union and alchemy, flow and ascent, duty and inspiration.

And what has lost its way
will, by my vibrant sounds,
be at last brought home
and allowed to fall endlessly
into the depthless source...

Rilke, The Edge of Night from Book of Images