Wheel of Change-6's

I beleive we discussed the 6 of cups and the 6 of wands in the very first thread about the Wheel of Change deck, if I'm not mistaken, but I encourage anybody to add to that here with new insight, ideas, opinions and observations!

I'm particularly interested in the 6 of Swords card. It's been awhile since I read Alexandra's interpretation of this card. I think I'll go purely with my own thoughts before re-reading it.

What a striking image! A majestic caribou lying lifeless and bloody against the frozen ground. This in itself overwhelms me with feelings of responsibility, guilt, and the gravity of the situation. For me, the decision to kill such a creature would have been an extremely difficult one, and probably based on the fact that my family depended on it for survival.

Then, the sky and the canadian geese both speak of transitions. I like to think that the sun is rising, that the darkest part of night is over. Likewise, I like to think that the geese are flying back North, that the darkest part of winter is over.

This would inspire hope in me. That the difficult decision and action I undertook to kill this powerful and beautiful animal was not in vain. That the future holds a promise of improving and that we will survive.

I found this card interesting too, but I'll have to do some work before I can get back here and post comments.

I'm rather amazed at what we covered in that original thread!

I haven't looked up the original thread to see what has already been said, so I hope I'm not being redundant. Also, I used the pronoun "he" only for convenience.

6 of Wands

The smoke is colorful and curving, like a rainbow. The flame sticks up proud and tall. I feel that whoever is behind this enterprise will go down in history as an innovator: the person who brought___ to humanity. He makes a statement to the Universe, "Look what I can accomplish with these raw materials!" But, of course, the 6 means balance, and for every action...The cost is pollution, overreliance on the artificial, and ending up without the original resource if he uses it up faster than it can be replaced (to name a few).
In a reading, I might see this as a warning that desire and drive and the need to prove oneself, even when tied to (and justifed by) a "useful" end, need to be weighed against the eventual cost.

6 of Swords

I see this card as kind of tying in with what I wrote about the 6 of Wands, in that, if the 6 of Wands entrepreneur had had the 6 of Swords experience, he might never have built his factory. The time involved in the hunt, the cleaning, and the making of the tools for both have made whoever killed this animal very aware that there is a cost to taking. He has seen the caribou fight during mating season, and maybe starve during a hard winter, and knows his is not the only species that hunts them. He knows they are not an inexhastible resource, and also feels they have their own purpose for existence besides feeding others and have a right to not be hunted for trivial reasons.

I like your perspective, Galadriel!

What about the 6 of Disks? Money, money, money. Did you ever get into Abba?

I get a real sense of the idea of value from this card. Notice I said idea and not reality. This is getting what you work for. Reward in exchange for labour. But how do we decide who is worth what? It's hard for me to look at this card and not immediately think of poverty and war, imperialism and materialism, consummerism and injustice. So much of the world revolves around money. Money is power for some, survival for others.

The Rider-Waite deck portrays a giver of alms to the poor. Money being redistributed, an attempt at creating equality and balance.

But I don't necessarily see that aspect in The Wheel of Change. What is emphasized here is... what? Wealth? And perhaps we should be struck by the image of all that money. Ask ourselves, "what would I do with all that money?" So, are we to assume we have a certain amount of freedom and the power to do what we choose with this accumulated wealth?

I apologize for my lateness, I had to get a job done. One of the things I like about studying for a week is that it gives people a chance to catch up, and yet it still moves along doing the four cards at once.

We discussed the 6 of Cups and the 6 of Disks in the original thread.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?threadid=13495&perpage=10&pagenumber=2
I want to say how much I appreciate this study group--that 6 of Cups had me absolutely baffled but now I look at it and can see the message. It's just great when discussion like this can visually capture an idea in your mind and yet allow you to still interpret in a reading.

6 of Swords

I find this much more interesting than the classic R-W imagery of the boat on its mysterious journey.

In the Tree of Life symbolism, the 6s mean sacrifice and wondedness, which is much clearer in this literal image of the caribou that has given its life to feed and clothe the hunter. I like the image of the Canada geese too, flying south, another cycle and season of life.

It's all underpinned by the glimpse of water and water. Her depiction of water in this deck is often hard to discern from images of galaxies and stars, and in this card it's a reflection of the stars in the water, but she's got this continual connection showing up throughout the cards.

I liked her take on the mental/intellectual aspect of swords tied into planned, careful hunting needed to sustain life in a harsh environment. As well as the physical sacrifice depicted, she talks about sacrificing to attain goals--her phrase was "selective sacrifice" which ties in with deferring gratification or perhaps taking an uncomfortable, ambiguous journey to somewhere you might not want to go, but it's better in the end. Slightly more depth than the R-W, and so many details to give you clues, to tell the story.

6 of Wands

Another one I had trouble with at first. It usually shows some celebration of triumph, my favourite of this being in the Victoria Regina deck.

So here we have the triumph of industry. Smoothly shaped ducts feeding into each other, ladders to the sky and beacons to tell planes of this city of pipes and ducts belching its rainbow-coloured miasma into the night sky to envelop stars. The triumph of man to fuel dreams, to override nature, to blend things to his purpose and work ceaselessly through night, humming, electric, productive.

Also a warning of pollution and overwhelming/obstructing nature. Notice the mountains in the background, apparently superseded and overcome by this triumphant maze of industry, as is the night sky. I like it, a fresh vision and it seems to hum and vibrate with the energy of the message, and the burdensome prescience of pullution.

Again, the selective sacrifice, the choice, the path to victory. Perhaps even a lingering question of what victory "really" is. I liked Galadrial's way of putting it: "even when tied to (and justifed by) a "useful" end, need to be weighed against the eventual cost." G. also saw this correlation between these two cards that I did--neat.

And I also felt as Belladonna did that the 6 of Disks was more about the celebration of wealth and the possibilities for its use, rather than charity or alms. There was a certain power in Alexandra's imagery, the richness of currency, the diversity and the "cache" of possibility. More about action and getting people to work collectively (that image of collective/diverse currency) and make money grow, rather than the more passive R-W imagery of alms for the poor. In this card, I see the poor starting up their own co-operative and channeling their full energy into gaining a foothold in society with active participation. This might be a reflection of our own global attitude toward the individual and power, contrasted to the attitude of earlier centuries.

Belladonna said:

I get a real sense of the idea of value from this card. Notice I said idea and not reality... So, are we to assume we have a certain amount of freedom and the power to do what we choose with this accumulated wealth?

Click to expand...

I also appreciate the week long study as I meant to get back sooner but am sharing the computer quite a bit of late.

The different cultures represented and the cowrie shells vs. the money make me think that sometimes a differing perception of value can lead one to be taken advantage of. Beads for land, or very low pay and gruelling conditions to out of country workers. But I like your take, freesiaskye, that perhaps this is changing as the world "shrinks" and material values become more universal. The less fortunate may start their own cooperative rather than work for an overseas company. Still, I think there could be a cautionary note here to regard a deal with someone who's values are quite different than your own with some suspicion.
The dice made me think that besides the power to choose what to do with the wealth, we have power over our perception of how much wealth we have. I watch some version of Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" nearly every year, partly because it reminds me that how much "wealth" you perceive you have is largely dependent on how lucky you feel you are to have it. Even though you earned it, it would be very narrow minded not to realize that your ability to earn it- you are not crippled, you live in a place where there are jobs, etc.- is dependent upon many factors beyond your control. And a person who, through circumstance beyond his control, has very little materially, may yet enjoy what little he has if he appreciates it (you may know the old saying, "I felt bad that I had no shoes, 'til I met a man that had no feet.").

I just read the original discussion of the 6 of Cups and found it very illuminating; thanks for posting the link freesiaskye. I think the song you were thinking of might be Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" ( "...when the rain washes you clean you'll know, you will know.")