The Moon: stirrings in the unconscious; new moon (a critical moon phase) stimulating dreams, that seem themselves premonitions of "the beginning of the end".
The Hermit: waking up with company like this, you would rather find yourself alone, and attempt to meditate to (re)gain some peace of mind. Well done for seeking spiritual guidance through an experienced Tarot reader (lil ole me!): hopefully I did listen as sympathetically and compassionately, as you wished! Yes, some periods of solitary spiritual practice seem necessary to realizing "the wisdom of the Hierophant", as you put it, but then Hermits do not seek official religious office or recognition, as represented by the Hierophant, either! Nor do they have "hermit" blazing in a neon sign above their hermitage (despite the remarks of one psychiatrist to hermit Thomas Merton, lol!).
In my Tarot, the little dove of the
grail hermit holds a branch, not of olive, but of acacia, i.e. Australian wattle, the real green and gold, in her beak. A stands for Australia, acacia, A-frame hermitage, amethyst, asylum, amnesty for unicorns nestling in the shady cedars... "My little dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, let me see your face, let me hear your voice, for your face is sweet and your voice is lovely" (Song of Songs). Your face reflects my own, as a mirror; we can see all projections for what they amount to in this moment of clarity. The woodsmoke from your chimney smells as sweet as the devil's smells acrid. Only a virginal hand may stroke the neck of the velvety, but virile unicorn.
7 of Wands: How many times I thought I had spiritually "come home", from the early "born-again" fundamentalist days, to becoming a "born-again pagan" and Sufi adventurer. Sometimes he has the prophetic zeal of Elijah, which in turn consumes me, to "come home to a place I've never seen before". Do all these "born-again" phases amount only to "just phases", unlike my "feminist phase" which has remained with me lifelong? And yet look at me, now that the goddess Hera has awakened in me, as even a "born-again wife", when I never thought myself the marrying kind before! Do they all just amount to deliria of Elijah's fevered imagination, yet more mad "chariots of fire" drawn by the tigers of wrath, painted on the walls of his island-cave and refuge, glowing eerily in the firelight? Could it just amount to another hobby-tiger, this new bee buzzing in his bonnet? We did everything in a whirl, from Zenith Pleiadian colour healing to Sufi whirling, drunk in the mystic "tavern of ruin". "Elijah, Elijah, what do you
do here, keeper of the flame of the heart?" I ask.
And he answers, "Anything, anything, as long it keeps the fire of the heart still burning."
Only the transmuted gold will survive, when we have passed all the straw through the fire.
Knight of Wands: beauty of fire – sama’: the ecstatic dance – Whirling enraptured in Sufi ecstasy, in committed shamanic dedication of buckskin and prayer-fringes, what can this mean, but
joy, such as you have possibly only previously encountered in your own
adolescent peak-experiences? The mountain won’t go to Mohammed, but Mohammed must dance all the way to the mountain… (Also see reading below, in Lovecraft reading: Aidan as young sidereal Leo?) Also the Nemean lion that Hercules must tame and overcome, in order to pull his triumphal chariot? ;-))
The Universe: see
World in Lovecraft below ;-P
The Aeon: the moment of truth, the moment of
judgement has come - it seems necessary for someone to make a choice!
Judgement: forgiveness? They said Jesus cast out evil spirits (of judgment?), but they also say he will come back, not to forgive, but to judge the world! lol The universe contains many riddles, paradoxes and mysteries, corn circles representing one of the most mysterious. Who or what creates these stunning spirals and patterns in the fields? You judge!
When Jesus drives out the evil spirit (of judgment?), by ‘judging’ it as ‘evil’, it emerges as a salamander, in a blast of dragon-breath, and escapes into the heavens, *free at last, free at last, thank god i'm free at last*, from wrathful, judgmental scrutiny! Who dares ‘judge’ Jesus? “Judge not, lest they judge you” – but who can avoid making value-judgments on an almost routine, daily basis? This card challenges you to make your habitual reflex of judgment conscious. And Lord, save us, from the false, so-called “forgiveness” masquerading as sympathy (see A Course in Miracles, ch. 16 here)! Can you forgive Jesus himself for the doom of blight and damnation he has cast upon the world, in the form of churches set up in his name, or will you judge him?
By the way, the ‘little dog’ (Procyon) amounts as much to a star, as its big brother Sirius… All hail, the hounds of heaven: woof, woof!
Three of Cups (Abundance): A strange but beautiful occurrence. It refers to a postcard I sent once to my son from not-so-distant Warburton: "having a lovely time - wish you were here", which can also summarise Nathaniel's recurring dream! Dreams can also seem like postcards or emails from apparent strangers we know we have known "before", or indeed "messages from yourself, to yourself, to whatever part of you happens to listen at the time" (with apologies to Fritz Perls). The "3" of the card also referred to a weird dream of my own at the time, in which I had not one, but three sons! (Cf. Sebi's dream of the 3 Horuses!). Eat, drink, be merry, but remember that one person's idea of a good time does not necessarily equate to another's, nor do one's dream symbols equate to another's... or do they? What this card seems to represent equates to finished, or unfinished karmic business?
The Priestess: Sophia: must have the last word! Hiding behind her battleaxe/labrys, because I found I could not draw her face. As hidden as the hermit, as veiled as Moses from beholding the glory of the transcendent Great Face. She has crossed the desert-abyss by the dark paths of gnosis to reach this point, riding her trusty camel. She has left even the moon and stars far behind, as she plummets straight upwards into the immeasurable abyss of the Crown, that crowns her in turn with a halo of glory like the silver light of the moon. She only half-appears as either Isis or the Virgin Mary, but she seems also my grailsister, or soror mystica, my blood sister who holds the cup of the holy blood, the holy grail. She also comes as spear-maidens, guarding the grail with their lances. Veiled in mystic lunar white, fringed with a crone's gypsy prayer-shawl of crimson suf, her grail shines silver in the half-light, her altar shimmers small and immaculate, her two blended incense-sticks send up a pleasing fragrance to the Most High, that amounts to a holy thing in itself, as does her temple fire. She has ignited her prayer-sticks and feathers with the power of magick. She also has her own grimoires of feminine mysteries, lunar Magick, magick lunacy. She also wields her labrys with reason, for she has many enemies, who would burn her at the stake as a heretic, and a witch, while really a saint, though needing no patriarch to validate this!
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