Performance Props

From the Motherpeace Tarot, the Three of Swords; from the Toltec Oracle, Koskakuautli:

          My first impression of this Three of Swords was that it looked like a play being performed; indeed, the booklet describes the scene as 'emotional drama created by the mind.' My mind is excellent at creating stories. If I've been deceived or hurt by someone else, I become the righteous one, lily-white, innocent of any part of the wrong. The other person becomes the monster in the story, reeking of manipulation, self-centeredness, and cruelty. Yet somewhere locked in a mental closet is the thought that I too was an actor in this performance. It whispers that there was some payoff for me to keep pretending everything was fine. Koskakuautli, the Vulture and 'elegant cleaner of death,' suggests that there is a time to mourn but there is also a time to take in and recycle what is valuable. Perhaps in hindsight I will see the red flags I ignored, the behaviors I excused, and the enabling I contributed. Everything leans on something else, even if it is passive complicity.