A journey with the tarot

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e-pipeman

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The Tarot is very rewarding. I wrote a sequence of poems a while back about them - I'll bore you with a short one:

THE STAR

The Dog Days are over. Light
Pours on to water. See
How generously it gives
Itself, that all may live.

This is the start of a new life.
The little bird that carols
From that leafy tree
Is watery in his music, is
Starlike in his hardened brilliance.
 

Kate

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Thanks for the description BigEyes, that gives the symbol much more substance than I can. I had forgotten about the moon and deception influence but I see that as being more under control with The Priestess rather than mad and out of control in the way it manifests with The Moon. It's still there under the surface and lots of lunar scary things, I guess that's why the Priestess has to be so careful with the secrets, they could make people ill. I used to get intuition mixed up with emotion more than I do now and that can throw things off course. An intellectual analysis of intuition rather than an emotional one is helpful.

The Artemis connection is nice too, I'm in love with Artemis ;)


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Thanks very much for the poem E-Pipeman, that's lovely :)
 
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e-pipeman

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That sounds like a good idea. Here's The High Priestess:

THE HIGH PRIESTESS
ONE

You balance red and white
Lit only by the moon, your bedside light
By which you read a book
A feminist text
With implications for your counterparts.
It weights you on your throne,
A weight in equilibrium with your strength.
The certainty behind your eyes is veiled
As you are veiled.
I have a question for you.
Will you reply
Or are you scared to share your mystery?

TWO

You ask who I am. Very well.
Names have been drawn to me
As moths to a candle. They dance
Around my face, but never settle.
The greatest wisdom lies in naming well.
One labelled me Sophia, which God knows is
A flattering but inexact summation
Of qualities I bear. Another way
To put this is to call me Hecate,
For we can have no plus without a minus.
A third damned me as Lilith. All these three
When bound into uneasy harmony
Trace shadow outlines of my form. Consider:
How far do names reveal their subject's nature
Or do they rather force extremities?
Your task is to balance these.

Behind me you will see a door.
The door is closed, and I sit in your path.
How will you pass through it? For you must
But first you have to understand my word.

THREE

Years gather dust in this annexe.
The dust lies deep.
Tracing regular figures with a stick,
Shaping forms that move with hesitant feet,
These pass the time, but the time passes wider
Of the mark fixed upon. Pails of sand
Hang waiting for the fire that does not kindle.
There is a tinder box, but it is locked.
Where is the jailer with his hoop of keys?
FOUR

There is no jailer. Better to wait for
The visitor who walks in unannounced,
Who stoops to listen when you do not speak.
Then you will feel heat without a fire.
Then you will hear hopeful creaking sounds.
Then you will name names, and then begin.

The door is open. You must play or pass.
 

e-pipeman

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It's ok, The Fool is always with us so post anytime about that one. It encompasses everything even though it represents nothingness.

Post them both now E-Pipeman, I'd love to read them.


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OK Kate,

Here's The Fool:

THE FOOL

Those eyes are blank.
The octopus ink
That fogs through water
Both to conceal and show,
That jets through water
In a swirl of black
Has yet to leave its mark.
What a smile!
It is a rictus
That locks neutrality into the face:
He hears nothing
But the sound of the starter's gun.
Something is beginning.

Yes, this is a beginning,
A tentative foot,
A shoe that shies from the ground,
A toe that moves to a dip
With the nervousness, the twitch
Of an animal nose.

Chasms are said to yawn, and yet
When proximate to the feet
They keep the mind alert,
So careful, very cautious,
Aware of the wide awake
Deep.

He daren't look , turns away
Whilst hanging his leg from his hip
As if to swing it up and out
Led by the foot, held
By the heel's insistent weight.
Ready to start.

He is beginning to happen.
 

Kate

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Ha, your High Priestess poem made me think of this E-P:

feminist.jpg


The Fool one catches a primal mood and stepping into the abyss.

I love your poems, please stay with us and join the story.


Just to clarify why I posted a picture of Jesus as The Priest/ess. Although s/he is given female attributes s/he is actually very well balanced and can be represented by extraordinary men. Christ and Buddha both had access to christ consciousness and that's what we can find in this symbol. I'm not convinced about The Sun/Saviour attribution for Jesus because so much misinformation exists about his methods but for me he fits with The Priestess symbol (it's just not easy to get away from gender typing).


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e-pipeman

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Hi Kate,

Gender typing and spirituality tend to be in opposition to each other.

Just trying to catch up with you guys here:

THE MAGICIAN

His is a threefold mastery at work,
Hermetic skills that wear a nonchalance,
An easy balance. Certain of his tools,
His hand hangs vaguely near a special box.
The contents are all known, but not all named.
He thinks that naming is a sacred form
That carries the full weight of consequence.

Air, water, fire, earth,
These line his path.
He made the bellows that exhale his breath.
He made the pump that circulates his blood.
He keeps a double loop inside his hat,
A double loop of known significance.
His Sun and Moon are welded at the hip.

And now he will begin to make things plain
And now he draws the stars down from the sky
And now he speaks aloud of mystery
Controlled, yet truly uncontrollable
By those who lack his steadiness of grip,
His eye that holds a universal shape,
His wisdom that he stole and keeps in chains.

A juggler of symbols , he can keep
Their motions wholly circular in air.

He is despised because we fear his power
And wonder at his subtlety of thought.
He owns things that are neither sold nor bought.
He owns the leasehold to our human fate.
 

e-pipeman

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Is it time for The Empress yet, Kate?

THE EMPRESS

ONE

You are woman and everyman,
The eagle flies before you like a shield.
An earth-mother untethered to the ground
You are a creature of flight, a loose emotion
Enfolded in the drapery of your dress.
I feel that I have walked with you before
And yet your eye seems brighter to me now.

TWO

Yes, you know me well
But now there's something more than in the past.
Beware my ever fluctuating mood.
The dark in me you'd do well to avoid
Unless the name of Kali does not strike
The fear it should into your brittle heart.
You must both keep me close and at a distance.
You must be fruitful, yet command restraint,
For luxury has snared so many men
Leaving them dry, and impotent, and broken.

THREE

There's comfort in this warmth, and yet I choke,
Smothered by pillows of heat. I sweat
The sweat of recognition, will take care
To keep you at arms length, though at your feet
A part of me must make obeisance.

But now I must move onward in the dance.
 
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