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

Friday, September 25, 2020

To Suffer, To Endure, To Free Oneself

From the Nature Spirit Tarot, the Three of Swords; from the Australian Wildflower Reading Cards, Water Ribbons:


          The passionflower is so named for the Passion of Christ, the short final period of Jesus' life. The flower's corona is said to represent the crown of thorns and the three stigmas to symbolize the three nails. The word passion comes from the Latin verb patior/passus sum, which means "to suffer, bear, or endure." This definition might sound strange for fantasy romances, but it hits the nail on the head for real relationships. The Three of Swords asks me to look with logic at what has hurt my heart. Was the other person's words or actions intentional and self-serving? Or was this some small slight that I've built up into something larger? Either way, the freshwater plant Water Ribbons suggests freedom can be found. In the words of Ken McLeod, "What is freedom? It is the moment-by-moment experience of not being run by one’s own reactive mechanisms." And what are those reactive mechanisms? Rick Hanson explains: "If you can be with the pleasant without chasing after it, with the unpleasant without resisting it, and with the neutral without ignoring it."


No comments:

Post a Comment