“The Arduous Path” — Walking the Talk
AUTHOR’S NOTE: As the theme for this essay I’ll trot out my slightly cynical version of the hackneyed aphorism: “It’s all good . . . except when it isn’t.” Because I detect a certain weary resignation in the voices of those who use the original as a justification for accepting less-than-ideal conditions, it has always struck me more as downplaying obvious shortcomings than as affirmation of what little good there is in the situation. It’s akin to the English idiom “damning with faint praise.”
I’m well aware of the relentlessly-upbeat mindset that prevails among more mystical tarot enthusiasts, but I’ll go ahead and make the bold claim right now that the tarot is not entirely intended to be a “gentle persuader.” It can be severe to the point of discomfort when such fierceness is necessary to get the message across (frequently in “denial” scenarios). On the other hand, when the situation has already “beaten up” on the querent without mercy, a tarot reading can offer compassionate advice for regaining emotional control and composure.
Here I’m once again “cherry-picking” a choice quote from Benebell Wen’s I Ching, the Oracle: A Practical Guide to the Book of Changes, this time from her presentation of a Buddhist approach to interpreting the hexagrams. I’m particularly keen on such appropriation (duly cited, of course) when there is strong evidence of syncretism between her oracular observations and my own understanding of the tarot. The quote of interest is:
“Execution is always harder than planning; this is the arduous path of walking what has been mapped out.”
Querents tend to shiver when they receive traditionally dismal cards in a pull, clearly thinking to themselves “How can I possibly get my head around that?!!” But treating the spread as a “roadmap” that must be traveled to a specific destination can help to depersonalize its worst aspects to the point that they are subsumed under the situational “twists-and-turns” of the journey. Unless those cards appear as the “end of the matter,” they can be presented as transitional in nature, springing logically from the previous card and leading organically to the next one in the series. (As a forecast of the likely outcome, unfavorable cards can feel like being “left holding the bag,” and in such cases it is productive to pull a couple more cards to reveal potential conditions a bit further out in time; I call this “the rest of the story.” Another approach is to use the “quintessence” card to suggest long-range consequences.)
Keeping everything in perspective is the key to rationalizing why a visually dismaying card like Death, the Tower or the 10 of Swords had to show up in the reading in order to grab the querent’s attention. It’s not always the reader’s purpose (nor is it necessarily in the sitter’s best interests) to muster gratuitous encouragement by sugarcoating or sanitizing the implications of such stressful cards to the point that they are “defanged;” sometimes a quick, clean, surgical chomp is preferable to being “gummed to death” by circumstances. (“I’m not sure, Doctor, but I think my assailant left his dentures at home.”) Then the recovery can commence with less likelihood of succumbing to “post-operative complications.”
I certainly don’t advocate the “Mary Poppins solution” in such instances. You know what I’m talking about: “A spoonful of sugar (in the form of squishy weasel-words) helps the medicine go down.” This evasiveness is of no value to either the seeker — who is looking for a constructive answer — or the reader, who is trying to figure out what is going on beneath the surface of the matter. It is similar to a legal defense that attempts to deflect liability. At some point, ownership must be established and assigned or we won’t be able to gain any headway. Apparently, “We make our own reality” is a Western mistranslation of Buddha’s words “What we think, we become;” but an argument can be made for the belief that we are ultimately responsible for our own planning and follow-through, even if we only set them in motion subconsciously. Tarot can help to point the way, but we must still take that first step under our own power and with our eyes wide open.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on May 5, 2024.
