I use tarot and oracle cards as tools for reflection and contemplation. Rather than divining the future, they are a way for me to look more deeply at the "now."
"The goal isn't to arrive, but to meander, to saunter, to make your life a holy wandering." ~ Rami Shapiro

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Clarifying Impermanence

From the Prisma Visions Tarot, Death; from the Secret Language of Color Cards, Yellow:
          As the skeletal hand around the rose implies, loss and change are inevitable. Yet humans continue to believe we are not a part of this natural cycle; we think it is abnormal when it happens to us. We cling tightly to what we like and want, to what brings us pleasure. Yet we open our hands to find only ashes anyway. And then our suffering is doubled: first because of the actual loss and secondly because we refuse to accept it. Yellow has been given the keyword 'purification' - a way to remove any elements that debase or contaminate something. Age tends to increase one's losses - the physical decline of the body, the deaths of family members (furry and human) as well as the wear and tear of material things. But if my memories are focused only on how this loss affects me (clinging to what was), I have no space left to celebrate what has been, what is and is to come. I've polluted the gift with my self-centeredness. Impermanence can bring a sharp clarity; we don't really own anything, we just have a chance to appreciate it while it's here.

8 comments:

  1. It seems that all the Prisma Visions Tarot cards this week are dark and foreboding in nature. Are all the cards in the deck such, or are you dealing with some troubling issues? I send you the wish of a bright beautiful day.

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    1. They have been a tad foreboding, but I'm trying to look for the slivers of color and light to be found there. :)

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  2. But also with aging loss seem to become more bareble...

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    1. I think so too; you begin to notice a lot more of it and thus it seems more natural than abnormal.

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  3. Make no apologies for being human. It is the only option we get.

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  4. Yours is also a powerful image, the hand opening on a pile of dust. In some ways, I think one of our modern problems is not mourning what was enough - not truly letting the sorrow flow through us, and then out again. Instead, we try to stop the sadness, and so keep it with us for longer...

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    1. I can relate to this; I was brought up to be tough and told not to cry (which was seen as weakness). That sorrow came out as rage when I was a young adult. That kind of emotion you just can't box up and ignore. But then at the other extreme are people who cling to those ashes...

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