Great Energy

This week I'll be using the Rohrig Tarot, created by Carl W. Rohrig and published by Sirio. I also have a companion book written by the artist and Francesca Marzano-Fritz and published by Bluestar Communications. The other deck I'll be drawing from is called a tarot, but I'll be using it as an oracle: the Master Tarot. It was created by Amerigo Folchi and Mario Montano and published by AG Muller. Today's cards are the Prince of Disks and Twice Born:

Competent and steadfast, the Prince of Disks is described by Crowley as "great energy brought to bear upon the most solid of practical matters." Yet the Rohrig companion book offers a caution about this Prince's drive: he must consider "construction and its consequences." My eye is drawn to the measuring stick at the left of the card. In our eagerness to build, we may become caught up in outdoing and outpacing others instead of focusing on important details of the project itself. The Titanic, the largest liner of her time and built for luxury and comfort, carried 2224 passengers on its maiden voyage. Though it had the capacity for 48 lifeboats, it was only outfitted with 20 (and only 14 of those were regular lifeboats). A lack of mindfulness in its construction had serious consequences. Twice Born refers to Lazarus, who was brought back to life by Jesus. The lesson of this card is of entering a place of dark hopelessness and being willing to let someone help us back out. Skill and knowledge are wonderful talents, but we would do well to have open minds and ears when others offer us sincere suggestions. 

Finding Balance in the Dark Night

From the Rohrig Tarot, the Two of Disks; from the Master Tarot, Twice Born:

          The Rohrig Two of Disks has a much more natural feel to it than its RWS cousin. A swoosh of moist air rises from the water and winds between the two spheres.The moist air suggests an emotional tie between what is happening in the outer world and the inner. Just as the weather is constantly changing, so too is life. We can either adapt or suffer (and we will indeed suffer if we refuse to accept such changes). The Thoth calls this card Harmonious Balance, suggesting that there is a way to walk with equanimity between gains and losses, weakness and strength. The Twice Born card refers to the raising of Lazarus from the dead. The deck's booklet makes the comparison between this event and experiencing the dark night of the soul. I think I'll let Eckhart Tolle explain this one:

It is a term used to describe what one could call a collapse of a perceived meaning in life…an eruption into your life of a deep sense of meaninglessness.  The inner state in some cases is very close to what is conventionally called depression.  Nothing makes sense anymore, there’s no purpose to anything.  Sometimes it’s triggered by some external event, some disaster perhaps, on an external level.  The death of someone close to you could trigger it, especially premature death, for example if your child dies.  Or you had built up your life, and given it meaning – and the meaning that you had given your life, your activities, your achievements, where you are going, what is considered important, and the meaning that you had given your life for some reason collapses.

It can happen if something happens that you can’t explain away anymore, some disaster which seems to invalidate the meaning that your life had before.  Really what has collapsed then is the whole conceptual framework for your life, the meaning that your mind had given it.  So that results in a dark place.  But people have gone into that, and then there is the possibility that you emerge out of that into a transformed state of consciousness.  Life has meaning again, but it’s no longer a conceptual meaning that you can necessarily explain.  Quite often it’s from there that people awaken out of their conceptual sense of reality, which has collapsed.

They awaken into something deeper, which is no longer based on concepts in your mind.  A deeper sense of purpose or connectedness with a greater life that is not dependent on explanations or anything conceptual any longer.  It’s a kind of re-birth.  The dark night of the soul is a kind of death that you die.  What dies is the egoic sense of self.  Of course, death is always painful, but nothing real has actually died there – only an illusory identity.  Now it is probably the case that some people who’ve gone through this transformation realized that they had to go through that, in order to bring about a spiritual awakening.  Often it is part of the awakening process, the death of the old self and the birth of the true self.

Waiting to be Reborn

From the Rohrig Tarot, the Hanged Man; from the Master Tarot, "Twice Born:"

          The Rohrig companion book describes this image as the Magus/Magician becoming a Mystic. There is no more grasping at ideas, manipulating people or attempting to control situations. The Hanged Man turns the ego on its head; acceptance and surrender to reality is his lesson. He now knows that he knows nothing. Instead of taking action, he is content to observe without judgment his moment to moment experience.

          Twice Born is the story of Lazarus, who died and was then raised to life. Yet the booklet explains this card is not a literal rebirth but a symbol of the death of the old personality. He represents going through the "dark night of the soul," one who "has lost all that he had to lose, and found what has to be found. It did not happen through his effort, but through his utter helplessness." It is hard for me to admit that I can't change other people or situations any more than I can change the tilt of the earth's axis. Though humbling, it is also a relief to discover the world doesn't turn through my efforts.