Mastery through Discipline

From the Tarrochi Celtici, the Nine of Air; from the Art of Asia Oracle, Ito Jakuchu's "Octopus and Fish:"

          While one pixie stands on a holly leaf and sounds a call to action, two other pixies struggle with swords that seem to be stuck. The holly represents intensity - that feeling of needing to do something that will create positive action NOW. Imaginative people and intellectuals can get stuck much like those swords; they easily imagine everything that can go wrong and often overwhelm themselves with too much information. The ogham for this card is Tinne, suggesting mastery (in this case, of the mind). As Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard explains, "You stop being always projected outside. You start looking in and seeing how your mind works, and you change your mind, thought by thought." The quote paired with Jakuchu's work is from H. Jackson Brown, Jr.: "Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways." Just as people can get physically fit through training, so too can the mind be trained.