Boundaries, Fences and Neighbors: Drawing a Line in the Sand
AUTHOR’S NOTE: In his poem Mending Wall, Robert Frost gives the impression that he is rudely baiting the neighbor who keeps telling him earnestly “Good fences make good neighbors” as they work on repairing their shared stone wall. (“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” Hmm. Why do I feel that Frost would have loved our current “open-borders” policy?) I often see tarot readers advising their clients to “set some boundaries” to avoid being trampled by others, which brings me to this essay.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with letting people know exactly where we stand, and by inference how far they can go before we push back. But I’ve never really examined how this might be expressed in the tarot cards beyond the usual aggressive or defensive postures. Here is a list of the cards that say in no uncertain terms “Don’t tread on me!” or less vehemently “Stay in your lane.” (Although I can understand sociopolitical animosity in internationally perilous times, in this model I’m assuming that we’re all “neighbors” in spirit because we all breathe the same global air, and that acknowledges no perimeters.)
Many of the trump cards are uncompromising as noted; others, like the Empress and the Lovers, are more accommodating and I’m not including those on the list. The Fool operates on an entirely different wavelength — it is too footloose to care - thus it is also excluded. At the end I’ve appended some brief notes about the court and pip cards. (In most cases, the “you” in these remarks refers to the offending party, not to the querent who takes on the persona of the card.) I’m proposing that they can all serve as “border guards” when they turn up in a sensitive spread position.
The Chariot stands apart as first-in-line because one definition of the Hebrew letter Cheth (the Chariot’s glyph) is “fence.” This card generally means “triumph,” but we might stretch that to include “keeping the competition at bay” (and the rabbits out of the cabbage patch) or — going farther afield — jet fighter missile-deflection systems such as the metal “chaff” that is deployed in its wake. Another useful notion is “Eat my dust!”
The Magician is like “Teflon Ron” Reagan, nothing will stick to him and he can weasel out of anything. So he is not incommoded by interference.
Next is the chilly High Priestess, who is clearly saying “You are not worthy!”
The Emperor is calm but keeps his “big stick” handy.
The Hierophant will let you in only if you promise to behave and “play by the rules.”
Justice (whether as “8” or “11”) won’t let you get away with anything.
Then we have the Hermit, who wants no part of anybody and just goes his own way.
The Wheel of Fortune “keeps on rollin’ along,” indifferent to acrimony. It suggests Mark Twain’s quip about New England weather: “If you don’t like it, wait a minute.” In other words, just ride over anything unpleasant and wait for it to go away.
Strength will easily put transgressors in their place, “no holds barred.”
The Hanged Man is cautioning “I’m minding my own business, you mind yours.”
Cold-eyed Death warns “Stand back or I’ll drop you in your tracks!”
Temperance prefers to keep things at “arm’s length.”
The Devil will only have you on his terms.
The Tower smirks like “Dirty Harry:” “Make my day!”
The Star is too uppity to stoop to anything as prosaic as “friendship.”
The Moon is not socially ambitious, nor is it interested in being seen as approachable. In the context of keeping losers away, it reminds me of the famous W.C. Fields quote: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.” It could well be the “patron saint” of the 7 of Cups.
The Sun is entirely comfortable in its own skin and feels immune to encroachment. (“Bring it on!”)
Judgment will herd you in with the rest of the “cattle” unless you make a ruckus about it; then it will single you out for “special treatment.” The advice for the querent seems to be “Don’t be too available” while standing firm against superficial inclusiveness.
The World (as an expression of Saturn and Earth) drives a hard bargain. To be admitted, applicants will need to bring their identification and their entry fee. In other words, regarding threats to your sovereignty, keep ’em honest and out of your hair unless they’re willing to meet you halfway.
Among the court cards, the stern King and Queen of Swords stand out as particularly unsympathetic to incursion; I would want one of them as my “gate-keeper,” with the rowdy Knight of Wands as my “enforcer.” That Knight of Swords also looks like he could “scatter the rabble” without breaking a sweat.
The pip cards are generally unperturbed by histrionics because they function at such a low energy level, but the RWS deck has a few “zingers:” the 2 of Swords knows how to “just say no;” the 4 of Swords is “asleep on the couch” and ignores the doorbell; the 5 of Swords will deliver a “kick in the pants” as he ushers miscreants out the door; the 6 of Swords is “giving you the cold shoulder;” the sly, sure-footed 7 of Swords is nobody’s fool (he’s kind of like a “junior Magician”); and the 8, 9 and 10 of Swords won’t even acknowledge the presence of an intruder. Among the non-Swords, the 7 of Wands is fiercely resistant to imposition; the 9 of Wands looks suspicious of all peddlers and meddlers; the 10 of Wands has its back turned and is trudging away; the 5 and 8 of Cups aren’t engaging; the 7 of Cups is too befuddled to know he’s being importuned; and the 2 of Pentacles has learned how to juggle and tap-dance at the same time, the perfect way to foil opportunistic ingrates. You might think the 9 of Pentacles is unflappable but, similar to the Empress, the woman is entirely too comfortable in her surroundings to stand up for herself; this card reminds me of the urban myth about “boiling a frog:” once the pot starts to simmer, it’s too late to think about escaping.
Almost any of these cards showing up in a “boundary-setting” scenario would be a good place to start, although some of them are more about fastidiously avoiding (or refusing to acknowledge) friction than about “drawing a line in the sand.”
A Simple Example Reading:
I created a basic three-card spread I’m calling the “Border Guard” Boundary-Setting Spread” to illustrate this technique The left card reflects the querent’s stance in a matter of potential conflict, and the right card indicates the adversary’s posture. The middle card, which I’ve titled the “pinch-point,” is intended to reveal the nature of any stand-off that could occur (I also think of it in a not-quite-Shakespearean sense as “the rub”), and how the querent might handle it to his or her advantage. The random pull turned out to be more nuanced than it might have been for my purpose, but here goes! (The peripheral cards could also be intentionally selected in advance.)
The 6 of Pentacles is a card of material success, and in the image the wealthy individual has turned away from the looming controversy, deeply engrossed in his own affairs. The adversary is the Page of Wands reversed; the reversal suggests “disenfranchisement,” and the youthful Page seems to be looking hungrily at the well-off man in the 6 of Pentacles, saying “I want some of that!” The “rub” is where it gets sticky from a narrative standpoint: the mild-mannered King of Cups has no desire to be the Page of Wands’ insurgent in a “hostile-take-over” scenario, but the reversal could mean that he has been reluctantly forced into it. (He doesn’t look like he needs the money, so there must be some other incentive; perhaps that pushy Page would resort to blackmail.) The querent might be advised to “beware of Greeks bearing gifts,” particularly if the uneasy King is able to put on an ingratiating front.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on April 25, 2024.
