While doing readings last night, 2 particular cards kept coming up and making their appearance, the 10 of Wands and the 7 of Swords.
In the deck I use, the 10 of Wands depicts an image of a person in a box. We see the person through the opening in the back of the box, he is facing forward, and the card is labeled, “Oppression.” The 7 of Swords shows a small person (with light around his head) being menaced by the head of some gigantic creature, mouth agape and ready to swallow the poor person whole, this card is labeled “Futility.”
Although both cards have a variety of meaning and deal with differing aspects of life as wands traditionally deal with knowledge, learning, lessons, and Swords with social groups, business, and interactions, both had similar meanings for the group of people present. Both cards dealt with perspective, personal perceptions and reality.
The 10 teaches the lesson that what we see is not always the truth, we are restricted by our actions, attitudes, and personal choices. Although at first glance it depicts a person trapped in a box, walls above, bellow, and to either side, if the person were to turn around, he would see the back is open and the entire world is there within a few steps. So feeling trapped, isolated, stuck, is in the way you look at the situation, and can actually be a personal choice. The card is also a wonderful, modern depiction of Plato’s allegory of the cave where the box represents the mind of the person looking at the shadows being cast upon the back wall and taking them for reality, a bit too philosophical to go into here.
The 10 is a social card, depicting issues that are blown up into nightmarish proportions. The light around the head of the person (the only area of light in the image) shows two things, 1. The situation is being created or generated from the mind. 2. The mind can deal with it as it is the source of power. In other words, the person is seeing issues is dealings and rather than take control of them and confront them, he has blown them up in his mind and is afraid of taking action, thinking it is too much to handle. The person has the tools and abilities to deal with the issues, he just has to face them, look at them for what they really (not what his imagination makes them out to be) and take it from there. In short, the card depicts things being blown out of proportion.
One of my sitters asked me if “perception makes reality.” What an interesting question, My answer was (abbreviated) that what we see and perceive is our interpretation of reality. It is not the true reality, but what our mind thinks it is. I used an example of his thinking a friend was lying to him. He sees the friend smile, blink, maybe move his head. All of these actions may have occurred, and in his mind were clues confirming the person was lying, but they are all natural reactions, and his mind was applying the association. Our minds perceive reality based on expectations and observes, and sometimes misinterprets things to help build that perception of reality. So everything we observe and take for granted as reality is real to us, but not really true. Everything is colored by our expectations and experiences. And this too is a lesson we should all learn, everyone’s view of reality is a little different, and all of them are biased.
Tony
Concord Carlisle High School held it's graduation on Saturday, June 10th. I had the pleasure of meeting these fine young men and women that night at their overnight event at the school.
