Page of Coins, Seven of Cups
I was feeling a bit down in the dumps this morning, and wanted to get some insight into the reasons why. Of course Pagans have their ups and downs as much as anybody – myself included. Indeed, it has been my experience that the more one commits to following some path of spiritual development, the more ups and downs one has. Of course it could just be me, but I believe that one of the reasons is that most paths of genuine spiritual development involve attunement to something greater than and outside ourselves, and the growth of awareness and sensitivity. This automatically puts one at odds with the human world that we have created and have the pleasure of living in – which encourages lack of awareness, the dulling of sensitivity, and a robotic existance in service of the employer. Sensitivity and awareness leads one to the conciousness of pain – there is so much pain in this world, so much unrealised potential, so much thwarted desire for expression of the true self, so much hunger and poverty, so much destruction and abuse of nature, so much mechanisation of all aspects of life. The pain of people is not the only thing. The pain of the non-human world also comes crashing through when the gates of sensitivity and awareness begin to open. The pain of slavery, the pain of clear felling, the pain of destruction. I was talking to someone the other day who mentioned that they’d been reading a book by someone whose main thesis was that depression and despair are unavoidavble in today’s world, because at a deep level, all of us feel the depression and despair of the destruction that is being wrought upon our dear Mother Earth. Of course many are successful in shutting off theses feelings, and immersing themselves in their egocentric existance, making a virtue of seperation and independance. Yet every genuine spiritual path that I know of makes it its business to broaden the consciousness, to break down the egocentric self conception, and open an awareness into the collective intelligence that embraces all.
Dealing with these feelings that well up from the deeps can be over-whelming for people who first set their feet on the path. Especially so for paths that embrace the modern Pagan world view, that the world is alive, and the body of Our Goddess, our dear Lady, our Mother. There is only one thing I know that can counteract these feelings, and that is to embrace and fulfill one’s true nature – the path, in my view, laid out by the Blessed Mother, which leads to that point where inner and outer meet and become one. In this, there is the cure for the wound, and for the wasteland, the inner distress, and the outer distress, respectively. I’ve written much more about this in my book “The Great Work”, so won’t further belabour the point here.
Back to my story – I decided to draw a tarot card in order to gain some insight into the melancholy condition in which I found myself this morning. It was the page of coins. The deck I chose to use this morning is “The Circle Tarot”, put together by Ann Franklin. It is a very Pagan deck, featuring a lot of traditional British, Wiccan and Druidic symbolism, and the interpretations are very alligned with my own Pagan spirituality. It is always an education to draw one of these cards, which feature the sacred sights of the Brittain and Ireland, herbs, trees, totem animals and God forms familiar to Celtic and Wiccan pagans.
The interpretation for the Page of Coins was the need to pay attention to balance in the physical body – a balance of exercise and relaxation. The implication being that I had become out of balance. This was fair enough, and a welcome reminder. The next card that came up was the seven of cups. In the Sacred Circle deck, this card is associated with delusion, and the need for careful choices. I am no stranger to this card, and its message. One of my regular stumbling blocks is trying to do too many different things, and being unable to choose one direction over another – for fear of loss. Yet life will force the choice that isn’t made pro-actively, after much distress, usually, and failure in many directions for want of focus and commitment.
Of course, being a Pagan, I have several Tarot decks, so naturally I felt like checking on things with another deck. What card should be first up? You guessed it, the Page of Coins! What card should come up second? None other than the seven of cups! OK, OK, Ancient Ones, I get the message!
However the interpretations given by my second deck (The Dragon Tarot by Peter Pracownik and Terry Donaldson) are a bit different. Page of Coins is given the intepretation “the desire for a new line of work”, and the seven of cups “The need to choose among several options”.
It is interesting to note the different interpretations, especially of the page of Coins. How can these be reconciled? Both interpretations are expressions of the Page energy (Air, changeability), applied to the Earth element (Physical Body, Money matters, Job). Yet another traditional interpretation is of Good news (communication – air) about a job (Money – Earth).
For me, perhaps it is an indication of needing new beginnings in the Job world – of finding a job that more closely alligns with my Nature. The inattention to this need then leads to physical imbalance in the body. I will keep you posted how I go!
I wrote the above almost six months ago, but somehow didn’t get around to posting it. In the interim, I have been offered, and accepted, a voluntary redundancy package from my workplace. Page of Coins and Seven of Cups indeed!
BB,
Rob