Alder is a member of the Shaman's Net and an all around interesting and wonderful person. He has many talents and explores shamanic and magical realms very deeply. He has offered to do Tarot readings based on the blessing of the current season as an offering and expanded toolset for Shaman's Net members.
Should these readings generate questions regarding how to work with the information and tools, Alder is available for consultations at alderwanderer@yahoo.com
Enjoy, Reflect, and Explore. Many blessings.
Readings #1 (Spring 2006) - #7 (Fall 2007)
On this page:
Readings #8 (Spring 2008) - #
Reading #8 for (Spring 2008) -- the Blessing of "Fulfillment"
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Alder's Tarot Reading for Shaman's Net Spring 2008 Season -- "Fulfillment"
Query: What are the keys to Fulfillment for the Shaman's
Net members this season?
My Friends,
I am happy to be offering this work to you again, after taking a short break
over winter. As I focused on the intention/query of this reading, I had in
mind a central Tarot card surrounded by a circle of eight others, like the
points of a compass. Not a pattern of spread I have used before, but I decided
to go with it.
The central card, setting the theme for Fulfillment this season, is the Ten
of Wands, the Burden card. Much as I like my deck, Ciro Marchetti's
Tarot of Dreams, the traditional Rider-Waite cards that most of us have seen
have a great image for the 10 of Wands: A man carries a large, heavy, unwieldy
bundle of ten big sticks. He walks along a road, and we can look ahead of
him to see the road winding over hill and dale, to the city that is his destination,
way way off on the horizon. Are you beginning to think, this is fulfillment?
It sure doesn't look like it. It looks like hard work, and many miles
to go before I sleep. And that is the message of this card: Boy, you're
going to carry that weight, carry that weight a long time.
The Burden card is all about having responsibilities, and how we handle them.
We might start to focus on how far we have to go, and feel weariness, or worse
yet worry. Fear, anxiety. What if I drop my burden? What if I'm not
strong enough? What will everyone think if I let them down? But remember:
These responsibilities weren't given to just anyone. They were given
to you because you earned them. You have gone through the training, you have
proven yourself. You have the skills and the strength. You are ready for this
task. You wouldn't be here if you weren't.
Responsibilities and Fulfillment go together. Many of us have tried the rootless
Kerouac path from time to time. Ultimately, though, we find Fulfillment not
on vacation but at home, doing our part in our lives with old friends, committed
love relationships, participation in our communities, and meaningful, right
livelihood. That is where our power, and our responsibility, lie. However,
this does not mean we have to take on any burden anyone wants to give us.
We are not slaves. The 10 of Wands has a self-care message, too: Your first
responsibility is to yourself. You always have the right to drop some or all
of the sticks in the bundle whenever you choose. You can say, I'm not
taking on that job right now. Let someone else do it. It is not right for
me. Oh, but what will people think when you refuse the responsibility? Who
cares.
So now we turn to the cards that surround this fellow, who carries a heavy
burden but is strong enough to bear it. I laid these cards out in pairs, top
and bottom, left and right, upper left and lower right, upper right and lower
left. I was surprised at how clearly they formed dualities, the first card
specifying a problem, the second offering a remedy. Here they are:
(top and bottom) Over the Burdened Man, the Knight of Swords, reversed. Court
cards almost always refer to people in the Querent's life. For us, this
knight is a guy who is too much in his head, too intellectual, always arguing.
This is a confrontation we must face, and we aren't looking forward
to it. Since the card is reversed, the knight's upraised sword hangs
over us like the Sword of Damocles. Below us, though, is the Nine of Coins,
the Lady in her Garden. This is a card of deep wisdom, wisdom within us that
we can access whenever we need. But to get to it, we need to step back, take
as long as we need in our own garden, our own place of peace and beauty. Looking
into the composed but expressive face of the lady of the 9 of Coins, I get
the strong intuition that this is a physical person in our lives. A lady who
will take us in to her peaceful, private realm and sit us down and give us
some tea and help us to ground and center.
Side note: My Tarot deck also gave me the message of a thicket of swords through
which we must push. Swords is the suit of thinking, logic, words. Those of
you who practice meditation know how hard it can be to get through this, to
quiet the chattering monkey mind. But who lies beyond the thicket? The Empress,
the Queen of Life, the source of all creativity, fertility, and richness in
our lives. It's all about getting out of your head and into your heart.
(left and right) Before the Burdened man, like a mirage, is the Four of Wands,
reversed. This card is the Harvest Party card, offering romance and harmony.
The work is done and we can rest easy, the money in the bank. Retirement.
But reversed, it means we can certainly have happiness and Fulfillment in
our present, but we aren't to the end of the road yet. The obstacle
to Fulfillment here is getting into the mindset that we have to get “there.”
We haven't “arrived.” We don't have the brass ring,
we have more work to do before we can rest. We get too caught up in the future,
and in trying to make it happen according to our schedule. To avoid that,
we have to look to the other card of the pair: The Seven of Coins, the Old
Farmer. The Farmer leans on his hoe, watching the fruit ripening in his orchard.
He knows he has worked to make the orchard healthy, and now he can do nothing
but wait for the harvest. It takes rain, and sun, and time, and more time.
He doesn't control these things. His face is stoic, and he drawls, “Yah.
It takes as long as it takes.” Patience.
(upper left and lower right) Here is the Two of Cups, reversed. The 2 of Cups
is the Avowal card, the card of True Love. Reversed? Yikes! Perhaps some members
of the Net are looking for true love, and it's hard to admit the perfect
soul mate hasn't arrived yet. Perhaps some of us are in committed relationships,
but realize it isn't happily ever after. The person we are in relationship
with is a human being, not our idealized fantasy mate. The love may be true,
but it's still hard work. To balance this, we have the Four of Cups,
reversed. This is the Dissatisfied Man card. He ignores three rich cups before
him, staring up at the one that floats in a cloud. Reversed, we get past that
delusion: Count your blessings, look at all the blessings you have. Together
these cards have a simple message: In the end, the love you take is equal
to the love you make. Love what you have, right here, right now, in your life.
Love yourself.
(upper right and lower left) The Fool reversed. The Fool is often shown about
to step off a cliff. Reversed, we are holding back from the cliff. But what
would happen to the Fool if he stepped off, would he fall or would he fly?
The reversed Fool is the fear card–fear of the unknown, fear of failure,
fear of looking like a Fool by trying new things and stepping out of the comfort
zone. Hey, these fears are real. It takes a powerful force to get over them.
Voila: The Devil, card XV of the Major Arcana. I hear William Blake's
sardonic laugh: “Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is
weak enough to be restrained!” The Devil represents a very primal level
of our self, a level of self that never suffers from anxiety or indecision.
It knows what it wants and it wants it now. It is in Shadow for most of us,
this unrestrained animal, ecstatically dancing. Sure, we have to be careful
about giving in to our addictive hungers. But one writer describing this card
said, “Inhibitions can enslave as easily as excesses.” (That was
from www.aeclectic.net, an excellent site to learn about Tarot). In many decks,
the Devil has people chained or in cages, but if we look closely, the chains
are loose and the cage door is unlocked. Passions enslave only as long as
we let them. But if we follow our wild hearts, we can get over our fear of
stepping into a new life.
Blessings of the Lady to all in the Net! May these keys open some delightful
and strange doors for you!
Alder