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

Monday, April 6, 2015

Truth is a Pathless Land

From Songs for the Journey Home, Wind Innocence (Page of Swords); from the Raven Cards, "Speak Simply:"
          When I saw this image of a kite about to get away from the young girl holding it, I had to grin. Last night I was (attempting) to write up some notes on the Buddhist philosophy of karma and rebirth for book club. What I thought was going to be simple turned out to be more complex by the minute. The ideas held about these subjects depended on the branch of Buddhism, the sect of the branch and the teacher. By the time I had scribbled furiously for several hours, I had more pages than the section in the chapter I was supposed to be discussing! Krishnamurti once told a story about the devil and his friend walking along when they see a human pick up a piece of paper. The friend asks the devil what the paper was, and he replies "a piece of Truth." The friend expresses concern that this could cause trouble, but the devil replies, "No worries, I'm going to let him organize it." Because we like to "creatively structure" ideas for mass consumption, I can understand how our small scraps of truth have become almost indecipherable. The Raven Card bluntly states: pare away the fluff and the dogma. Keep it simple and get to the point without going around your elbow to get to your nose. Sigh... I think all my notes need to go in the shredder.


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10 comments:

  1. RoseApril 6, 2015 at 9:09 AM

    This is a wonderful post. I love the poignancy of your sweet self jauntily writing up notes on karma and rebirth with the idea that it would be 'a simple process' ;) Something about that juxtaposed with the qualities of Raven's straight-up delivery....well, the humor is palpable, in the best way. I've been there many times.

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    1. thesycamoretreeApril 6, 2015 at 9:27 AM

      It's a good thing that raven showed up, or I might have gone down the rabbit hole and never returned! :D

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  2. EllenApril 6, 2015 at 9:13 AM

    Ha ha these two cards go very very well together! How wonderful it would be if all the pagers from the bible and the books written by the church fathers would go through the universal shredder and the only page which as left was the sermon on the mountain...

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    1. thesycamoretreeApril 6, 2015 at 9:28 AM

      It would be nice to be able to boil away the fluff and dogma of all the paths, religions and philosophies and see what remains. :)

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    2. EllenApril 6, 2015 at 10:04 AM

      That is what I meant too :)

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  3. Sharyn Mallow WoerzApril 6, 2015 at 9:39 AM

    My posts almost always grow to twice the size of their final appearance. My journalism side keeps shouting brevity brevity and I start erasing.. My typing fingers keep filling up the flexible sack of words.

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    1. thesycamoretreeApril 6, 2015 at 10:13 AM

      Learning and writing about what I learn (or think I understand) is like Pooh finding himself in a honey factory. Moderation is a hard concept to grasp.... :D

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  4. UnknownApril 7, 2015 at 3:08 PM

    Your post gave me a laugh Bev. Boy if I had a dollar for every time I complicated simple matters or cut my nose off to spite my face. Thank god I've made some progress and still have my nose! KISS!

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    1. thesycamoretreeApril 7, 2015 at 3:22 PM

      Well this was a complicated matter, but I was trying to cover it entirely. Now if I was working on a PhD, such depth might make sense, but not for a book club! :)

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    2. UnknownApril 7, 2015 at 3:43 PM

      Lol good one! :)

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