Personal Agency

This week I'll be using the Albano Waite Tarot, a recolored version of the RWS created by Frankie Albano and published by U.S. Games. The oracle deck I'll be pairing with it is the Rumi Cards, created by Eryk Hanut and Michelle Wetherbee and published by Tuttle Publishing. Today's draws are the Fool and 'Don't Despair:'

What people have the capacity to choose, they have the ability to change.

~ Madeleine Albright

I think the Fool often gets a bad rap. Yes, he has little experience in the world, but that bright yellow background is a hint that he's aware moving forward has unknown risks. Now the Fool could plant himself on that edge and curl up in a neurotic ball, imagining every worse case scenario. However, he understands that just staying on that cliff is to choose to be stuck. He doesn't want to abdicate his personal choice and pretend that life has left him no options. There are always options, though not all are fun and pleasurable. His landing won't be smooth or easy, but it will be an exciting adventure. The Rumi card is a reminder of impermanence, suggesting that the flow of life is dynamic and ever changing. Hard choices might bring hard landings, but even those won't remain the same unless we give up our personal agency. 

Holding On

From the Albano-Waite Tarot, the Nine of Wands; from the Rumi Cards, 'Don't Despair:'

There are times in life when people must know when not to let go. Balloons are designed to teach small children this. ― Terry Pratchett 

          Both the cards today reflect tenacity - refusing to give up while holding onto hope without clinging to expectation. Usually, when I want to retreat and curl up in a cocoon of pity, it's because I have lost any meaning of life beyond a self-centered purpose. Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen wrote:

Meaning does not change the particulars of our lives; it changes our experience of those particulars. Finding meaning requires seeing beyond the superficial to the essential, seeing what is familiar and even commonplace in new ways.

How do we discover such a purpose? Viktor Frankl wrote that we can find meaning in three ways: experiencing reality authentically (experiential), expressing oneself through art or craft and doing deeds for others (creative), and changing our attitude when faced with a situation we are powerless to change (attitudinal). That sounds like an ongoing, lifelong task; I'd better get cracking.

Rachel Maddow speaking about our community.

The Demanding Teacher

From the Albano-Waite Tarot, Death; from the Rumi Cards, 'Don't despair:'

From the wise words of Buddhist teacher Judy Lief:

Death is the great interrupter, unreasonable and non-negotiable. No amount of cleverness will make it otherwise.

Death is a strong message, a demanding teacher. In response to death’s message, we could shut down and become more hardened. Or we could open up, and become more free and loving. We could try to avoid its message altogether, but that would take a lot of effort, because death is a persistent teacher.

Death turns out to be the teacher who releases us from fear. It’s the teacher that opens our hearts to a more free-flowing love and appreciation for life and one another. When we get stuck in self-importance and earnestness, death steps in. When we get caught in self-pity, death steps in. When we become complacent and take things for granted, death steps in.

Death spurs us forward with a sense of urgency and puts our preoccupations in perspective. Death lightens our clinging and mocks our pretensions. Death wakes us up. It is our most reliable teacher and most constant companion.

We have all kinds of thoughts about what happens when we die and how we and others should relate with death, but through meditation we learn to recognize thoughts as thoughts. We learn not to mistake these thoughts and ideas about death for direct knowledge or experience. We learn not to believe everything we think or everything we have been told. (Don't despair!)

Past and Present

From the Albano Waite Tarot, the Six of Cups:

The children and flowers in this card represent healing the past and integrating it with the present.  The number six symbolizes a return to harmony; it may be a memory I need to come to terms with, a person I need to reconcile with, or someone I've lost contact with whose reunion will benefit me.  These children are outdoors, away from the protection of the castle.  I must let down my guard (see the one walking away in the image?), and become vulnerable.  Honesty, gentleness, and goodwill will serve me well in this process.

     From the Rumi Cards:

Don't despair if the friend sends you away;
He may chase you away today;
He'll call for you tomorrow.

It's funny how time can change your perception of things.  What seemed like the end of the world at one point in my life barely even registers in my memory banks now.  It's good for me to take a long range view of things when I feel hurt or angry.  I could be laughing about the same situation a year from now...