Haindl Tarot

Weekly Card Celebrating the 3 of Cups

May 14, 2015
150430 3 of Cups Yoga
Yoga Tarot

Wow! We’re getting the Tarot version of 2×4 between the eyes (anybody else have that dent there from calls to pay attention?). It’s been less than a month since we last saw the 3 of Cups.

So what does it mean when we repeatedly see the same message in the cards?

150514 3 of Cups Gilded
Gilded Tarot

One possibility is that we’re being shown places where we’re stuck in a rut. I have to say, 3 of Cups isn’t such a bad rut to be in.   Of course, we can get caught in celebrating heart connections (the dancing women in the Gilded Tarot) when we have practical things to do. Or we can be overly emotional (those overflowing cups in the Haindl image) when what’s called for are rational decisions. Or we’re putting our creative ventures on public display (Yoga Tarot) right when there’s a big media storm to blow our projects away.

150514 3 of Cups Haindl
The Haindl Tarot

Another is that we’re in a long-term process. We’re not in the habit of being highly sociable or expressive and creative or of letting our emotions flow. It can take time to un-make an habitual hermit or logical Spock or repressed artist.

And a third is that, although we’ve got 3 of Cups in our repertoire, we’re focusing elsewhere. It’s the “hey, over here!” attention call.

How many times have you put aside social connections because you’ve just got too much to do? Or decided that now is not the time to celebrate; your problems are way too big and pressing? Or shelved creativity in favour of the sure thing to please the boss? And we all know that emotional stifling is the order of almost any day in the life . . . .

Here the message is, despite the apparent strong demands in other directions, the useful action or useful focus is to choose creativity, to choose time with your heartfelt friendships, to choose joy.

So which is it for you: long-term process, an unrecognized rut, or a repeated call to re-focus? And, since life is a many-layered thing (why am I thinking “cake”?), it could be all the above.

Celebrate the loves in your life!

Weekly Card 3 of Swords

May 1, 2015

This post is part of a Tarot Blog Hop.  You can find the previous blog here, the master list here, and the next blog here.

150501 3 of Swords RWS
Rider Waite Smith tarot

Oh, we so don’t love to see these kinds of cards . . . the “sad” ones, the “bad” ones. We’ve had a couple of encounters before, here and here.

And here, at the 3 of Swords, we’re encountering sorrow at a very personal level. How much more clear an illustration of heartache can we get?  Since we can’t spit it out, how do we deal with this distasteful card?

Look back to the heartaches in your life. What brought them on? Loss of a love? Loss of social standing? Loss of a cherished pet? Loss all around, isn’t it?   Nothing we would have asked for.

Then again, when have you heard yourself say “he certainly asked for that one”? We could look at any situation and see how the ending had its seeds in the beginning. Heartless as it is, I’ve had people tell me that I was just asking for trouble by living in an hurricane evacuation zone.

And there’s the opportunity in the 3 of Swords. We’re putting our mind – the mental world of the swords – into our hearts. Rather than dissociating our thoughts from our humanity, we come to a deeper understanding of why it’s worth making connections regardless of the inevitability of endings.

For a writer or an artist, this can be a brilliant opportunity, this meeting of intellect with emotion. What needs to be expressed? Is there a story to tell? Is there a sorrow to be danced, painted or composed?

For the rest of us, the lemonade out of lemons involves developing compassion. For ourselves. For others who’ve travelled a similar path. And that requires taking heart in the positive sense: courage. Courage to believe in a life that continues. Courage to look outside ourselves again.

150501 3 of Swords Baroque Bohemian Cats
Baroque Bohemian Cats Tarot
150501 3 of Swords Haindl
Haindl Tarot

But how do we deal with the pain? You’ve got lots of clues in the multiple images for the 3 of Swords. The sad grey puss in the Baroque Bohemian Cat image finds the pain too difficult to take in. She has her angel holding the pierced heart. It’s still close at paw, but she’s got assistance. Who are your angels?

The Haindl Tarot image speaks to the isolation that pain can bring. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Time alone to mourn the loss, to replace what’s no longer there with tears, is a healing action. Recognize where your paradise has come to an end and grieve. It’s not necessarily fun, but healthy grief helps us move forward, back into life and connectedness.

150501 3 of Swords Gilded
Ciro Marchetti‘s Gilded Tarot
150501 3 of Swords Contemplative
Contemplative Tarot

By getting to the heart of our sorrow, by understanding what happened and who we’re becoming as a result of our loss, the Gilded Tarot image offers us the possibility of enlightenment. Our old way of thinking, our old way of expressing ourselves has cut us to the heart. As we recognize the old ways, we can move into the light of the new.

But not too quickly, says the Contemplative Tarot image. Life is possible, says the vine around the bleeding heart – and life with love, says the heart shape in the vine. It’s even going on around us. But so is the fish out of water, belly up in the cloudy sky. It speaks to the discomfort of no longer being the self we recognize. Allow the new life of connection to grow out of the wounded self, in its own time.

In your own life this week, what has pierced you right at the quick? How can you use your mind to get to the heart of the matter? And how can you express yourself about it all?

Let your mind and heart work together to keep compassion in the foreground this week.

 

This post is part of a Tarot Blog Hop.  You can find the previous blog here, the master list here, and the next blog here.

Weekly Card Ace of Cups Revisited

October 6, 2014
141016 ACe of Cups Haindl
Haindl Tarot

 

It hasn’t been that long since the new emotions of Ace of Cups were before us. And now the beginning energy, the seed energy, of relationships and creativity is back for another visit, this time with the beautiful image from the Haindl Tarot. So far you’ve seen the mundane Housewives Tarot depiction and the mystical Gilded Tarot image. The Haindl is another mystically directed deck, somewhat older than the recent Marchetti Gilded Tarot (the Housewives Tarot is also very recent).

Now that we’ve come down to earth from the excitement at all the goodies Ace of Cups offers (totally up to us to take them!), let’s look at the image before us.

This is a very alive cup, energetic, glistening, swirling. It’s hard to imagine actually picking it up, the way we would a real container. The energy inside the cup seems to permeate the cup itself and jet into its surroundings.

Haindl’s cup is pure, precious, royal – all the attributes of gold. The golden sun comes to mind. This is not creative, relative, emotive energy spreading rays into darkness. This is bright and active daytime energy. And it offers cleansing and elevation, stripping away all that isn’t purely us, keeping (or putting) us on our Divine path. Anything that allows us to connect and create from our true selves is certainly a gift without price.

Then there’s that single drop falling into the cup. The red within is like the activating sperm falling into the receptive – and already highly active! – cup. There’s no meek waiting here; this conception is one with plenty of mutual passion in the receptivity. Perhaps that heavenly drop is the already fertile egg, complete in itself, ready for the vessel that will allow it to grow. The red within the drop also reminds me of the egg yolk, ready to be consumed by whatever is ready to grow within the egg. In all cases, we have everything we need for life to begin for new emotional connections and creativity.

Haindl’s system of directional correspondence is just one of several.   He associates the suit of Cups with European traditions, via the Grail legend. Within his global structure, that puts Cups in the north. You can decide, with each deck, whether or not you “feel” the correspondences and want to use them. If they don’t make sense to you, there’s nothing that says you have to attend to them. I’m comfortable changing with the various decks I use, when there’s a tradition in place, and have a system that makes sense to me when there’s nothing specifically connected to the deck.

This week, then, is your chance to allow new emotions (even the less comfortable ones!) to surface, finding the ways they contribute to your unique life journey. Attend to the possibilities for new creativity and make space to begin new relationships.

Accept the seed for connection!

 

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