nisaba
From the blog:
Today's draw was the Five Buttons. It's been a cold, windy day, and I'm probably not feeling my most positive, either.
Granny Jones is a homely woman, and has created a homely deck. She's well aware that the Pentacles suit, governing the element of Earth, is about all of us, not just the wealthy. Earth as an element is about the physical world, not just about money, which is one small aspect of the physical world. Most modern decks call this suit "Pentacles" and show us some variant of a golden disc, with or sometimes without a five-pointed star etched into it. However, Granny knows as well as I do that even people grappling intensely with physical reality are, unless they are unusually affluent, extremely unlikely to be carrying big gold discs everywhere.
I can almost hear her in my head before she started drawing, musing about whether she'd go back to the "coins" featured in easly Visconti decks, where Tarot began, in the early fifteenth century. But no, even they were ornamented, even over-ornamented, and carried the baggage of wealthy landed families. No, Granny was going to use something more universal, something every person had. But what? The Haindl deck already used Stones. The SOL deck already used Spheres. Other decks have used things like "Discs", "Pebbles", "Seeds" and even "Loaves" in the Kalevala Deck.
What to do? Well, buttons are round, like all of those. Buttons are universal - we all have them on our jeans, our shirts, even our handbags. Most of us touch buttons several times a day, most days of our lives. And they're about managing the physical world: they are down-to-earth and earthy - you often have to open them to perform vital natural functions, after all! And glamorous outfits that show off your wealth will have ornate ones. So Granny chose Buttons to symbolise the element of Earth.
Five is an uncomfortable number. Many Pagans regard the five-pointed star as sacred and very positive, representing in its two lowest points Earth and Water, in its two mid-points Fire and Air, and in its apogee Spirit, thus symbolising all the elements of a physical and sacred life. Other faiths too, particularly Islam, take it as a sacred symbol, and it even occurs as such on the flags of some non-secular Islamic nations such as Pakistan. As well as that, all Abrahamic religions regard it as one of the series of Seals of Solomon.
Numerologically, it is a number of change, even instability. People influenced by this number find it hard to settle, or find it crucial to settle. Human resilience can wear out when faced with having to cope with too much change in life: if you are young and/or resilient, it can be refreshing, it can be a challenge to rise to. If you are older, or more worn-out, or less resilient, more change ahead can be just one more thing to cope with, one more strain or stress. Most of us wear out sooner or later: I have watched myself become the kind of person I held in vast contempt when I was very much younger, because of time, burdens, and adjustments to who I am. No longer do I look forward to being pushed to my limit by challenges: now I just want to avoid them - anything for a quiet life. And I don't believe I am in the minority.
If you are one of those people who has nothing, no resources physically or financially, then a card of destabilising change is more than welcome. It promises that the assumptions you made about continued poverty/physical weakness/isolation/ poor food resources etc, are going to be challenged, shaken up. For those of us with nothing, this card brings a bright opportunity.
But most of us have something: a super fund, a job, a car, our late great-aunt's jewels, a family, some savings. We all have something to lose. For those of us with something to lose, a card promising us change in the real-world is quite frightening. What is going to change - will we break our spine? Lose a lover? Lose our job?
I often mention that this is only physical stuff that is at risk. We are not our physical stuff - we are our consciousness, our ideas, our ethics, our emotions, our thoughts. Homeless or disabled I would still be me. I might find life more difficult, but I could still go out into the world and do good things, even if the reach of those good things might have been lessened by my potential losses.
And what about those who have less to lose and more to gain? I'll bet you've been looking at the crying figure in the forefront of the card, with the Dear John letter in one hand and a Please Pay At Once letter in the other. On a crutch with a bandaged leg and ragged clothes, he doesn't seem well-off, not with the broken heart next to him and the burglar in the mid-ground running away with a bag of loot.
But did you really look at the background? Yes, the sky is grey and that cloud is black. But that half-covered sun - it is emerging, not being swallowed And a radiant beam of light floods a solitary sacred standing-stone on the hill on the horizon, which we will see again in another card.
For those who have nothing, this card promises hope for the future. A turnaround in circumstances doesn't always have to be bad - it can be beneficial. And even when you do stand to lose a consideable amount of physical resources, the same beam of light reminds you to look beyond the physical, and find intangible assets to cling to: your intellect, your spirituality, your sense of the self, your love of others.
Times of physical loss are not the end of the road, as you can see if you follow that road to the hopeful horizon. Yes, you may have to walk over the sharp, broken stones in the foreground on your bare feet, but keep your mind on that sacred stone and the golden light.
Today's draw was the Five Buttons. It's been a cold, windy day, and I'm probably not feeling my most positive, either.
Granny Jones is a homely woman, and has created a homely deck. She's well aware that the Pentacles suit, governing the element of Earth, is about all of us, not just the wealthy. Earth as an element is about the physical world, not just about money, which is one small aspect of the physical world. Most modern decks call this suit "Pentacles" and show us some variant of a golden disc, with or sometimes without a five-pointed star etched into it. However, Granny knows as well as I do that even people grappling intensely with physical reality are, unless they are unusually affluent, extremely unlikely to be carrying big gold discs everywhere.
I can almost hear her in my head before she started drawing, musing about whether she'd go back to the "coins" featured in easly Visconti decks, where Tarot began, in the early fifteenth century. But no, even they were ornamented, even over-ornamented, and carried the baggage of wealthy landed families. No, Granny was going to use something more universal, something every person had. But what? The Haindl deck already used Stones. The SOL deck already used Spheres. Other decks have used things like "Discs", "Pebbles", "Seeds" and even "Loaves" in the Kalevala Deck.
What to do? Well, buttons are round, like all of those. Buttons are universal - we all have them on our jeans, our shirts, even our handbags. Most of us touch buttons several times a day, most days of our lives. And they're about managing the physical world: they are down-to-earth and earthy - you often have to open them to perform vital natural functions, after all! And glamorous outfits that show off your wealth will have ornate ones. So Granny chose Buttons to symbolise the element of Earth.
Five is an uncomfortable number. Many Pagans regard the five-pointed star as sacred and very positive, representing in its two lowest points Earth and Water, in its two mid-points Fire and Air, and in its apogee Spirit, thus symbolising all the elements of a physical and sacred life. Other faiths too, particularly Islam, take it as a sacred symbol, and it even occurs as such on the flags of some non-secular Islamic nations such as Pakistan. As well as that, all Abrahamic religions regard it as one of the series of Seals of Solomon.
Numerologically, it is a number of change, even instability. People influenced by this number find it hard to settle, or find it crucial to settle. Human resilience can wear out when faced with having to cope with too much change in life: if you are young and/or resilient, it can be refreshing, it can be a challenge to rise to. If you are older, or more worn-out, or less resilient, more change ahead can be just one more thing to cope with, one more strain or stress. Most of us wear out sooner or later: I have watched myself become the kind of person I held in vast contempt when I was very much younger, because of time, burdens, and adjustments to who I am. No longer do I look forward to being pushed to my limit by challenges: now I just want to avoid them - anything for a quiet life. And I don't believe I am in the minority.
If you are one of those people who has nothing, no resources physically or financially, then a card of destabilising change is more than welcome. It promises that the assumptions you made about continued poverty/physical weakness/isolation/ poor food resources etc, are going to be challenged, shaken up. For those of us with nothing, this card brings a bright opportunity.
But most of us have something: a super fund, a job, a car, our late great-aunt's jewels, a family, some savings. We all have something to lose. For those of us with something to lose, a card promising us change in the real-world is quite frightening. What is going to change - will we break our spine? Lose a lover? Lose our job?
I often mention that this is only physical stuff that is at risk. We are not our physical stuff - we are our consciousness, our ideas, our ethics, our emotions, our thoughts. Homeless or disabled I would still be me. I might find life more difficult, but I could still go out into the world and do good things, even if the reach of those good things might have been lessened by my potential losses.
And what about those who have less to lose and more to gain? I'll bet you've been looking at the crying figure in the forefront of the card, with the Dear John letter in one hand and a Please Pay At Once letter in the other. On a crutch with a bandaged leg and ragged clothes, he doesn't seem well-off, not with the broken heart next to him and the burglar in the mid-ground running away with a bag of loot.
But did you really look at the background? Yes, the sky is grey and that cloud is black. But that half-covered sun - it is emerging, not being swallowed And a radiant beam of light floods a solitary sacred standing-stone on the hill on the horizon, which we will see again in another card.
For those who have nothing, this card promises hope for the future. A turnaround in circumstances doesn't always have to be bad - it can be beneficial. And even when you do stand to lose a consideable amount of physical resources, the same beam of light reminds you to look beyond the physical, and find intangible assets to cling to: your intellect, your spirituality, your sense of the self, your love of others.
Times of physical loss are not the end of the road, as you can see if you follow that road to the hopeful horizon. Yes, you may have to walk over the sharp, broken stones in the foreground on your bare feet, but keep your mind on that sacred stone and the golden light.
