1 + 1 = 3

This week I'll be using the Tarot of the Sidhe, created by Emily Carding and published by Schiffer. I'll also be using the Green Man Tree Oracle, created by John Matthews and Will Worthington with Connections as its publisher. Today's draws are Warriors Three (Three of Wands) and Holly (Tinne):

What's interesting about collaborations is the possibility for one plus one to equal three.

―Rei Kawakubo

Three points can make a shape, a third leg can produce a stool that stands, and a couple can create a family. Three is the number that gives form to things, helping them expand beyond the two-dimensional. Carding writes, "A gate is opened in the east; A threefold sum of power increased." Cooperation and teamwork allow for talents and resources to be shared, giving rise to what was not possible before. The Holly's ogham - tinne - carries the meaning of 'ingot' or bar of metal. Erynn Rowan Laurie writes that it was associated with not only wealth but "with creativity, skill, and physical mastery of arts and craftsmanship." Just as Holly requires bees to produce its berries, we need knowledge and talent as well as financial backing to create something innovative. 

Synthesizing Actions

From the Tarot of the Sidhe, the World; from the Green Man Tree Oracle, Holly:

 I am the ceaseless renewing spiral of existence

and the void from which it is born.

~Emily Carding

          One of the keyword's Carding gives for her card is 'synthesis.' Instead of separating and dividing the world into labels of our choosing, we see and understand the full picture. Seeing with that kind of clarity means the ego's prejudices and preferences are taken off the table. As Alice Broadway put it, "Life is about trying to learn the balance, plot our place on the continuum... We're not just made up of good and bad: we're everything else too."

          Holly's wood burns fast and hot; for this reason its message is that we need to temper our passions and channel them into useful actions. Instead of debating whether Democrats or Republicans are better, perhaps we could simply concern ourselves with social justice, peace, and saving the planet. Actions can make more of a difference (even on an individual level) than arguments about who's right and who's wrong.

Coming to a Conclusion

From the Anna K. Tarot, the World:

This simple colored pencil image is perhaps one of my favorite World illustrations; the phases of the moon surround the world tree with the sun glowing behind it.  I am instantly struck by the similarities to this card and the Wheel of Fortune.  In the Wheel, we humans are constantly dealing with change and what comes with it - pleasures and the unpleasant, attachments and aversions.  The World shows change too, with the cycles of the moon, but there is a sense of security and stability with the tree.  Here, even with constant change, things make sense and there is a grounded balance.  Klaffinger writes that this card represents that spiritual place where you no longer feel that restless longing to search for what is missing, that something that you need to feel complete.  I hope the spiritual soil I'm tilling will allow my roots to begin to grow deep, and though I'll never stop learning, will allow my search to arrive at a satisfying and meaningful conclusion.

From the Green Man Tree Oracle comes "Holly:"

I have two huge holly bushes on each front corner of my house.  Each spring when it flowers, it is covered in honey bees, and each winter the birds enjoy its bright red berries.  Except for last winter.  Here in the South we usually have at least a few weeks of below freezing temperatures, but not last year.  And as a result, the holly berries didn't experience enough of a deep freeze to reduce the toxins in them.  So the birds ignored all of them, and they stayed on the bushes until they rotted and fell off.  I am reminded by Holly that sometimes I must go through certain struggles and challenges to make me change inwardly, and only then will I find that feeling of wholeness I'm searching for.