Pontificating

From Songs for the Journey Home, the Luminary (Hierophant); from the Magic Neko Deck, the Nine of Spades:

In the East, we have a saying, 'When the wise man points to the moon, all that the fool sees is the finger.' —Anthony de Mello

The Luminary represents the seeking of meaning and wisdom in our lives. However, part of the stumbling block in finding these insights is that we rely on intellectual explanations and the beliefs of others rather than personal experience. We have become too literal in our understanding, and we often prefer the shortcut of being told than discovering for ourselves. So how do we get there without a teacher? Joseph Campbell stated, "We have to have poets, we have to have seers, who will render to us the experience of the transcendent through the world in which we're living." The Nine of Spades shows a kitty smoking and represents the habits we have that are crutches. Our belief system can also be a type of crutch if merely transactional or a form of escape.  To live in contentment, to have a moral compass, to love without motive, to see interconnection rather than separation - these are the fingers pointing to a true spiritual experience.