Mythic Tarot - Two Swords

rwcarter

Orestes, hands clasped to head in despair, stands between his mother, Queen Clytemnestra, and his father, King Agamemnon, who have locked swords before him. She is angry at the King for the sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia so that he could go off to fight the Trojan War, and he is defending himself.

Overview
  • a state of paralysis, where opposing forces have created a standstill and no movement is possible
  • Orestes refuses to pick a side, instead choosing to stay out of (and, to a degree, unaware of) the impending conflict
  • the need to face an unpleasant reality, but the individual is unwilling to upset the status quo
  • a situation where one is neither happy nor unhappy but one also can’t move or grow
  • the storm that looms in the background is a reflection of the storm that’s brewing in Orestes’ life, even as he tries to ignore it
  • being afraid to upset a balance, even if that balance is not a harmonious one
  • a conflict of opposing principles
  • an uncomfortable state of precariously balanced calm, beneath which there is great tension and anxiety
  • knowing that something must change yet being afraid to do anything to start such a change; preferring to blind oneself rather than risk conflict that must happen anyway
  • a feeling of unrest that’s uncomfortable to live with, but preferable to upsetting the status quo
Random Thoughts
  • hear no evil, see no evil
  • if I stick my head in the sand, it’ll all go away
  • public compatibility, private tensions
  • being on eggshells for fear of what’s to come
  • la la la la la la la la la la la
  • being between a rock and a hard place
  • being forced to choose
  • parental tapes playing in one’s mind, parental mind games

Keyword/phrase I came up with in my workbook on 14Mar92 was "stalemate".

Rodney