Infinite Illumination?

In the Major Arcana there are two keys in particular whose placement within the twenty-two majors are traditionally presented as interchangeable.  Those keys are numbers 8 and 11, Strength and Justice or Justice and Strength, respectively.  The stories they tell apparently share a common thread of kin inkling.

Some days I think their singular meaning is clear.  On other days the two natures poise behind a muddy fog of tension. It’s the sort of discomfort that can only occur between the prideful showy and the superficially loquacious.  Who wins out in this throw-down to present the higher road?

Justice’s fair maiden seems to teeter effortlessly through life as an iron fist in a velvet glove and Strength’s gifted woman comes across as birthright mighty in every situation.  Infinite illumination comes from pondering over these two keys along the road of “evolving” archetypes.  Find a tarot deck with images of Strength and Justice that compels you.  Ponder upon them, even after quite a few years, ponder and ponder and ponder continual.

Ace of Pentacles

Root – Foundation – Protection – Tools

“Ma, pull out the trumpets and polish up the brass.  It’s harvesting time! ”

 The Ace of Pentacles (or Disks) heralds that a present from the origin of our world is manifest or manifesting.  Quality of the things constituting “our world” is of our own choosing.  Energy symbolically contained in the Ace of Pentacles does not pick or detail those experiences for us.  It is simply the ripening, collection and distribution of whatever that was seeded by the individual.

 Traditionally the four Aces in a standard tarot deck represent the four natural elements.  Ace of Pentacles is associated with the element Earth.  Ace of Cups is associated with water.  Ace of Wands is usually associated with fire and Ace of Swords is usually associated with air.

 *  There are some decks where the elements associated with the Wand and Sword suits are reversed.

Ace of Pentacles card is from The Halloween Tarot.  Kipling West is the artist.

Eight Swords

In some tarot decks the Minor Arcana (wand, cup, sword, pent suit cards numbered 1-10) have pictures showing a scene the deck creator feels embodies the quality of the card.  In other decks these cards consist of symbols characteristic  to the suit in various layouts according to the number that is associated with that card (i.e. 8 swords has eight swords on it, 2 cups has two cups on it etc).

8 swords is often a curious scene in any picture deck.  The norm consists of a woman swaddled in loose cloth, slightly bound and blindfolded, walking amid a path of swords with their sharp edges wedged into the ground.  Will she cut herself on the swords sharp edges?  Will she slip on the waters below her feet and crash into the blades?  Will she manage to loose the tethers and free herself from an obviously precarious position?  Is she even, remotely aware of where she actually is?  This card summons the questioner to find the mental where-with-all to disrobe a victim’s mindset and take control.

Purposely I try to live a stress free (or most certainly stress less) existence on my own slow paced and subtle terms, however, to keep a finger on the pulse of life and all that’s going “on”, I do analyze various situations I observe on television with tarot.  With that being shared, I recently scoped a perfect 8 swords situation on a court show.  In the court show’s episode there was a woman who was betrayed by her husband and sister.

The husband and sister had an affair for years behind her back.  Of course the woman was hurt and rightly so.  She stated that she had a feeling something was going on but because her husband denied it when asked she claimed to “let it go”.  The husband was older than the sister and an obvious manipulator.  Throughout the episode he defended his lack of self restraint with accusations against his wife of verbal abuse that hurt his sense of manhood.  Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, he continued to perpetuate the role of victim by following every question about the affair with an excuse that the affair was not intentional.  When the sister was questioned about the betrayal and the children she birthed by her sister’s husband, she repeatedly stated that whatever happened happen and that people can’t fight fate.

These types of rationale are good examples for this card.  Do you see why?

Eight of Swords is from The Halloween Tarot.  Kipling West is the artist.