T. of Prague Cafe Club - 6 Swords

Thanks for the kind words Bean Freasa. I am learning so much on these forums and being able to contemplate a card at a time has been real helpful.

I, too, am hoping to find more of the cross-references in the cards which baba spoke of but haven't had much time of late to delve into it. The Wheel of Fortune analogy is interesting and I am going to think about that. I was thinking more on the lines of the water signifying the subconscious and the water wheel as a vehicle of perpetuity. The woman is trusting her instincts that the better life is ahead of her but subconsciously she knows that what she is leaving behind will always be there, churning away. I guess there is some solace knowing that no matter what may occur, there is a place you can always fall back on even though it may be well below your expectations.

Sort of reminds me of the saying that "evil you know may be better than the evil you don't", or something like that (I am in major brain freeze right now, lol).

Dan

For me the wheel is oh-so-significant in the context of this card.

The ferryman here is not human. He guides the woman through this time, at the bequest of the god who floats along behind watching . . . chuckling . . .

The woman does not know that she is being ferried, nor indeed that she is under a bridge nor on a river . . . To her the arch of the bridge looks like a ceiling, & a leaky one at that. The logs of the raft look like a floor on which too much food has been spilled over the years . . . She feels cold, & hungry, her clothes need washing, & at the moment she's so wrapped up in trying to nurse her baby & calm her older son that the very last thing on her mind is divinity.

From her perspective, where they all wind up tomorrow is entirely a matter of chance.

The wheel is, therefore, oh-so-significant in the context of this card.

P.

I like the angle of this card. It is not the usual angle. The woman had the courage to take a new and drastic path. The futur is not seen and is unknown (the same with the destination). To go to a new place to build something new is not always easy. But maybe there was no other alternative...

This post is going to be more about a reading experience than about the card per se, but this one card was the key of the whole reading, and lingers in my mind as representing everything about Laurie's current situation, so I thought I'd post it here for you all anyway.

Contrascarpe and I met Laurie (and old friend of his whom I hadn't met) for drinks last night, and he'd told me that she was sad about some things in her life but that was it. As we were getting to know each other, she told me all about her five year old daughter, but then we decided to pull out the cards. She found the Baroque Bohemian Cats to, ah, well, bohemian for her tastes so we used the Prague. As she was talking, I pulled two cards for her, the first being the Six of Swords and the second the Ten of Cups. I haven't been reading for months now, so I was very hesitant at first. But one look at the Six and I knew everything about her sorrow. I said, "your husband has turned his back on you. You are pouring your love into your child, and it's a very sorrowful time right now." That was all I said at the time, but after she'd talked a while, I realized the whole story was there. They are still on the raft together, she and her husband, although the foundation is shaky. But they don't, and probably won't, turn towards each other. Her back is turned as resolutely as his. They're still going down the river of life, and there's no major change for quite a while.

(A humorous note, the card has a swan and we'd met at a restaurant called The Whistling Swan.)

Thanks to the Ten of Cups, I was able to point to a happier time coming, eventually, although I felt like it wasn't going to be soon. Contrascarpe was more upbeat than I (she was his friend, after all), saying, this difficult time will pass away. Of course it will eventually (I really liked the dialogue between Bean Feasa and Contrascarpe about the Wheel of Fortune aspect of the card), but I felt that the Six evoked a long journey. What am I trying to say here? Words are still so clumsy in my hands these days. There was so MUCH of this woman's sadness in this card. She spent a long time looking at the six and then the Ten of Cups, and eventually said, It took me a while to see these, at first they were just a six and a ten, but I see the colors in them, the darkness in this card, the light and promise in that one.

It meant a lot to me, to share the card with her. To see her comforted, not just by the promise of the happy card, but also by the recognition of her own feelings reflected back to her in the deep blues of this Six.

Contrascarpe read further for her, and it was of course a very good reading, but I was happy with my little two card contribution.

(PS Of course I don't think this card is always so sad. This is just about the card in the context of the one reading.)

Bumpity, bump, bump, bump!

This appears to be a very sensual card, for me. Or at least, the relationship between the woman and her children.

That little boy holds my attention. What a beautiful young face. He looks tired. The three of them look as though they have been rescued from drowning; scraped up by the man and wrapped up in a big duvet so that they don't catch the death of cold. Is this what is happening here? A rescue. Helping this small family out - moving them from the distress of one situation to a more comfortable one?

Gardener, I like what you say about the backs turned from each other. Very interesting idea. And your story made a lot of sense. I laid the cards out to see. But also, is she breast-feeding? Is the man turning his head away respectfully while she does so?

And who is he? Is he just a boat man? Or is he her lover? The father of the children? Or at least, one of them.

I see the swan and buildings to be the past, also. The bridge feels significant'. Passing under it is like a mini-death in some ways - the end of one situation, to start afresh on the other side, where hopefully, everything is less complicated. There are two swords (togetherness, trust, unity) and also four swords (security, stability). She lays trust in this man and the future. I feel that this transition will be a positive one. The man looks behind, reminding us to learn from our past. The woman faces the future, ready to take it on.

So in a reading, I might see it as a path; learning from the past, as a means to move forwards in the future.

Any other ideas? The deeper I have gotten into it, the less I seem to understand it.

LB

I've skimmed through the other thoughts, so I thought i'd add my own.

Whenever I think of the sword cards the word 'necessity' is always there... and here we have a mother doing what is necessary for her children.
When I ususally see cards like this I think aww dear and to be honest, I almost pity the family moving.. and I have never realised this until looking at this card and I get this huge feeling of strength and determination. She might be down on her luck, but she will do what is completely necessary for her children to survive, to move away from the place of danger and disease (thinking about the floods and what floods like that could have meant a few centuries ago). Desperate to take her chance out of the place, its like shes sold her clothes for the ferryride away from there.
But she doesnt look back and mourn the loss.. she keeps her perspective, and in being strong for her family, she gives what was her home the cold shoulder.
The blue cloth to me reflects the unshed tears - the tears she wants to cry, the loss she is feeling, but yet she remains stoic and a tower of strength for her young family.

Just realised that I saw the boat moving away from the shore, whilst the book suggests they are moving to the shore.... will be interesting to see which way I see it in future readings

Sezo
x