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

Thursday, January 11, 2018

One Pocketful of Experiences

From the Hezicos Tarot, the Page of Coins; from the Way of the Horse Oracle, 'Rivalry:'
          The Page of Coins is a student of all the Earth; he wants to understand everything from how a seed develops into a plant to why humans make the choices they do. But he's not content to learn things from a book - he has to test things for himself to see if they are true. There's a quote attributed to Will Rogers that describes him well: "There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves." This Page's personal experiences can create a solid foundation of knowledge and skill, but he must be careful not to think his experiments can be generalized to cover all. The Rivalry card illustrates competition, which is not always a bad thing. If each side is determined to best the other, they may grow and develop in ways they might not otherwise have done. Yet if each side simply struts about declaring it has all the answers and knows the right way to do things, nothing concrete or helpful gets accomplished. I am reminded by these cards that my experiences and knowledge allow me to see one tiny facet of the world. There are other timelines, places and circumstances in which I have relatively little factual information. I'd do better to keep an open mind (and add to what I've learned) than declare that I have a greater depth of understanding than someone else.

6 comments:

  1. Open-mindedness is something which is harder to come by when growing older. It demand a constant awareness not to fall for the temptation of thinking that everything was better the good old days... :)

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    1. What I've noticed about myself as I age is I can sometimes be arrogant in thinking that because I've been around longer than some little whipper-snapper, I know more than they do! :D In reality, information is mushrooming at such an enormous rate, and it would be impossible for one person to keep up.

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  2. Keep our eyes open and our mouths shut.

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    1. You've just accumulated so much knowledge, there's no room for the new, so some gets tossed for the new stuff. :)

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