A Guided Tour of Libra Taro
Integrating my Venus Retrograde Season
Today, October 7, 2023, Venus will leave her retrograde shadow bringing her retrograde season to a close. I have done quite a lot of work during this season, some planned and some less so. I have been struggling a bit to share with you, some of what has happened since July. This struggle has been part of the integration process.
Since we find ourselves in Libra season, and since Libra is ruled by Venus, I think the best way to approach this entry is to do another of my periodic deep dives into the astrology behind the Tarot, specifically, the cards associated with Libra. These cards are particularly poignant for me at this time and bare on what I have come out of the Venus Retrograde season with. So, instead of simply unpacking the cards and their conventional meanings, I will attempt to weave some of what has been happening in my work and life over the past few months into the mix. I hope this will serve as an example of how the wisdom embedded in the structure of Tarot can be applied in our lives.
Libra is one of two signs ruled by Venus. Libra is represented by Justice which makes sense since Libra is all about balance and social harmony. Venus, Goddess of beauty and love, is represented by The Empress. The Empress embodies everything that is beautiful, bountiful, filled with wealth and power. But why does she rule Libra? What does she have t do with Justice, Libra’s representative in Tarot??
Justice holds a sword aloft in one hand, a scale in the other. When things are out of balance, something needs to be trimmed. Sacrifice of something beloved (Venus) is often necessary for justice to be served. Justice becomes the preconditions for a beautiful harmony between and within people, a harmony that might produce abundance and wealth for all. But not everyone all the time. We are inclined to think of Justice in strictly legalistic terms but the etymology of the word suggests deeper philosophical roots - each thing in its proper sphere or serving its proper purpose. This idea links Justice to beauty.
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Venus retrograde in Leo asks “how do I wish to be seen”. My intention was to use the season to rethink my approach to content creation. Should I extend into videos, actively seek more and steady Tarot clients, market my physical merchandise (I make loose incense, oils, charms, etc)? What would any of these choices mean for this blog? How will I make ANY of this fit around the things I need to do to keep our primitive off grid home operational?
While I was trying to work all this out, a serious family medical emergency recast all of these considerations in a bright, rude light. On August 22nd, my Mother-in-law suffered a stroke. Most of the family gathered at the hospital that night to offer support and make difficult decisions about her medical care going forward. At the time I am writing these words, her recovery has proceeded better than expected, but there is still a long road ahead for the family and much remains unknown about how full a recovery she will make. What we do know is that the foreseeable future will be filled with lots of trips to the hospital and to my in-law’s home to help with all the things that Mom would do if she could. Then there is the emotional support we extend to one another as we all deal with our own feelings about what is happening. Naturally this increase in family obligations has complicated and slowed normal life as well as my creative process.
We sometimes speak of the limitlessness, the eternity of love. But the means by which love is expressed: our time, attention, the material resources that we put at the disposal of love – these are, as all material things, subject to limitation. We might say that justice governs the proper expression of love given the constraints of material existence.
Among writers there is an expression: “kill your darlings”. This has to do with editing. Every word and sentence must be justified in the court of the composition as a whole. Some variant of this rule applies to all forms of art: the composition and orchestration of music, the balance and symmetry of painting and sculpture etc. As in art, so in life. One might do many things, but no matter how much energy and creativity one enjoys, there will always be a limit to the number of things one can do WELL. This doesn’t mean that it will be easy or even obvious which things should command what share of our attention. But what ever we do, we should strive for the most beautiful of outcomes.
The 13th Century Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas gave us a formula for beauty. It consists of three essential virtues. First, wholeness, a beautiful thing must contain all that is necessary for it to be what it is. The second virtue, proportionality, concerns the way the parts of a thing relate to one another. Finally radiance is the virtue that awakens our understanding of what the work is to express.
It is the same in life. When we say we love our families and communities, when we wish to “make something of our selves”, we must bring all that is needed for wholeness. As the saying goes, “what is worth doing, is worth doing well”. Wellness then, is an expression of wholeness.
In art as in life, the desire to bring something whole and radiant to the world always some practice. In practice we learn the skills of bringing together the elements of a work. Creating harmony among flavors, colors, textures and sounds requires boldness here, restraint there. This requirement is met through practice. It is worthy of note that the arts of medicine and law are typically referred to as practice. The more effective our practice, the more just and beautiful - the more radiant the outcome.
We speak of the radiance of good health, the light of justice. When the body is in good order, all of it’s members thrive, when the community is in good order, it is the same. Health and justice, art and life, when they are well, they are radiant and beautiful and inspire love. Love causes us to seek justice, justice nurtures love. The Empress lives at the heart of Justice, or at least should. Justice brings things into balance when it knows when to raise the sword and when to lower it, knows what must be included and what left aside, and how much of each. This is a practice for life which increases love and beauty. The Empress is reconciled to, and by Justice in the Sign of Libra.
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For most of my life I have felt a tension between the life of the mind and the pleasure of the senses. I have sought the resolution of this tension through art. Art makes available to the senses what is visible to the mind only. This is the radiance that we spoke of above.
But art takes time and life is short. Anyone who has made a serious attempt to create art learns that the demands of the practice are not always consonant with what we must do to earn our daily bread and make our self an asset to our community. Consonetia is Aquinas’s term translated as proportionality. Finding the proportion of elements is not only critical in the work of art, but also in the life of the artist. I am defining art broadly as any practice which seeks to make clear to the senses an invisible idea. The idea of health in the practice of medicine is not so much about the well being of the particular parts of the body as about their proper relationship with one another. The well being of the parts arises from this relationship. It is the same in law. Law doesn’t apply to the individual as much as to the relationship between individuals. Practice in any field is the attempt to bring consonance, proportionality to the area upon which the practice is brought to bare.
Those who seek excellence in any arena of practice often find that choices must be made about how much of their limited resources will be devoted to practice. This bares upon what will be left over for life. The Historian William James Durant has observed that great statesmen are seldom great family men. A look at the personal lives of our most profound artists shows a similar pattern. There is risk in devoting too much of our selves to a single area of endeavor. The investment it takes to become a concert pianist or Olympic figure skater is such that if something were to interrupt that path, an injury, illness for example, there isn’t much to fall back on. There is, perhaps, no greater example of this then the situation of a person who forsakes a career in order to raise children. To do a thing well, to realize and execute good proportion, demands choices, choices imply sacrifice. These are often painful.
I have felt the pain of these choices, of making them or failing to. The work I have done during the recent Venus Retrograde has been an attempt to face what these choices have meant in my own life that I might make better, more conscious and intentional choices going forward. As we turn our attention to the decans of Libra and their associated cards we see the process of choice, how it unfolds and what we must come to terms with through it.
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Each sign of the Zodiac is divided into three sections of ten degrees each. Each of these periods are ruled by one planet or another. These planetary rulers of each decan are always, in one way or another, subordinate to the ruler of the sign as a whole. The degree of this subordination is spelled out in the doctrine of essential dignities. Finally, each decan is associated with one of the minor arcana cards 2 – 10. The images on each of these cards tell us something about the way the decan rulers interact with the sign ruler and their part in the sign as a whole.
The first decan of Libra is ruled by The Moon. The Moon carries our connection to our bodies, our past, our habits and most importantly, our unconscious mind. The Moon possesses (nearly) the lowest form of essential dignity in the Sign of Libra, dignity by face or decan. Planets who rule by decan posses some special power which belongs only to them that allows them to perform necessary a service to the sign and its ruler.
In Tarot, The Moon is represented by The High Priestess. She sits between two pillars, one black the other white. On the black pillar we see the letter B. This stands for Boaz. Boaz has to do with negation and severity, what magical practitioners might recognize as the power to banish. Jochin is associated with beginnings and mercy – the power to conjure and manifest. These are what is needed to bring balance and proportionality to things. In a work of art, in our relationships and in the community at large, some things must be suppressed, others encouraged. What these things are will depend on the intention of the one who wields this power, but both Boaz and Jochin are essential to creation.
The High Priestess rests her foot upon the crescent (Moon?). Upon her chest she bares the cross. The Crescent represents the material, and therefore limited (waxing and waning) form a thing must take in order to embody the infinite spirit of that thing. The cross indicates the interpenetration of spirit and matter. The place of crossing between spirit and matter is the abode of the soul. The The High Priestess is the door that opens (and closes) between the spirit and material planes. She controls incarnation (and reincarnation?) there by. The lunar crown upon her head which portrays the three visible phases of the moon, demonstrates the power of her mind deciding what and who will come and go, and when. The multitude of pomegranates that surround her are an ancient symbol relating the the ovaries. Each woman is the mother of all future mothers, the gate of all gates through which spirit becomes ensouled as it enters the material plane. The pomegranate is, therefore, an ancient symbol of fecundity. Behind her is a veil which shrouds a total mystery. What exists beyond the world of matter whose gate she opens is a mystery known only to her. AND YET, if we deeply contemplate the mysteries of this card we may come to see the strand of moments that produced the person we find our selves to be in the present. Through her power, so strongly associated with The Moon, we come to understand the specific pattern that makes us who we are. If we are to follow the call to “know thyself” there is no better teacher than this sacred figure who knows and remembers everything that has passed through the veil which she herself embodies.
Finally we come to the Minor Arcana card associated with this decan. In the Two of Swords we see a figure in white. Blindfolded, her thoughts turn inward. Above her we see The Moon echoing The High Priestess. She holds two swords crossed. This is a card of decision. It represents the moment in life when the mere inertia of daily activities can not carry us across some threshold, a moment that calls for deliberation and a choice. The Sword represents the mind. These two swords show the mind set against itself – the need to think about our thoughts. This is the state of indecision which we must resolve if we are to move forward.
When an important choice needs to be made, one that may change the course of our lives or the lives of others, we must look within first. This is why the figure wears the blindfold. If we make our decision based on things as they appear to our conscious mind, we may choose something that seems, (according to external beauty, value, the status it may bring or the trouble it may seem to avert), to be the proper choice. And yet, many times we find that acting from these superficial concerns leads us into unpleasant or even dangerous territory. To act in as unprejudiced a way as possible, we must consult our deepest feelings, our habits, the biases or fear born of anger, insecurity, greed etc. These are as much, if not more, a part of us as what we present to the world and even to our self as the ego. When we hear advice like “trust your instincts” or “trust your body”, this is what is meant. By looking to our deeper self. The Two of Swords looks to the High Priestess. The High Priestess, in turn, serves Venus by revealing the true beauty and harmony (or lack thereof) which motivates our choices.
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Venus Retrogrades occur roughly every 18 months. Her next retrograde will be on March 1, 2025 in the Sign of Aries. By an accident (or miracle) of celestial mechanics, the Venus Retrograde occurs in roughly the same area of The Zodiac every eight years. During any given retrograde season, we might reflect upon where we were in our life eight years previous to gain insight about that area of life. The Moon as an astrological force and the High Priestess relate to recurrent cycles such as the reappearance of Venus Retrograde within the same zodiacal sign every eight years. So when we view our life as it was eight years previous to determine what the Venusian aspects (beauty, love, value, etc.) were then, we are doing the kind of inward turning suggested by The Two of Swords under the guidance of the High Priestess.
As I have said, my passion for art and the demands of my life have not always been in consonant relationship. In the summer of 2015 (eight years ago), I was producing shows for a fledgling community radio station in Knoxville. I wanted to make these shows a work of art, to weave individual songs with spoken word, field recordings and other sonic elements to create a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts. I called this show “The MetaText”. Before long I found myself devoting upward of 30 hours a week to a two hour weekly program. After a few weeks, despite my enthusiasm, I found the intensity difficult to maintain. Meanwhile, as it had in other periods of great creative output, my personal life was beginning to suffer in a number of ways.
When one is seeking excellence in any field one of the greatest challenges is the management of the ego. Another expression that one hears in the world of literature is, “one is never a poet, they are either a failed poet or an ex-poet”. What this means is that one is always either worrying about the quality and value of what they make because they haven’t achieved recognition OR one receives recognition but also the pressure to keep producing. This is true in any art, one is either struggling to bring something to the world, with all the insecurity (or grandiosity) that comes along with the struggle or they are struggling to maintain their position as a relevant voice in the field. This is especially true in a world where the most visible sign of recognition is money. Failing to make money, many artists turn to other things, either to feel a sense of accomplishment or soften the pain of not feeling this sense. All sorts of vices can enter the scene at this point. But even when one achieves fortune and fame, there is still the nagging sense that one hasn’t done all they could have, or worse, that they have simply run dry. This hyper fixation on one’s self and one’s work often causes the artist to loose sight of the more basic aspects of life: loved ones, health and a general sense of proportion about the ultimate importance of their task. Although I have never garnered enough success in any of my creative endeavors to do much real damage, my experience with creative obsessions and all that comes with them give a good sense of how people who achieve much greater renown must struggle.
As I look back on the 2015 Venus Retrograde in Leo, I find myself once again facing these same questions. How will I use my inspiration and creativity to share my vision and perhaps gain some worldly success. The difference now is that I have the High Priestess helping me to look inward. I see how the struggles I just described have played out in my own life and, hopefully, am in a better position to deal with them as I know myself and my limitations better. I seek the power to negate what does not serve my greater intention and bring forth that which does. But this isn’t necessarily a joyful process. Which brings us to the second decan of Libra.
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The second decan of Libra is ruled by Saturn. Saturn is the planet of structure, discipline and limitation. In astrology it is often referred to as “The Greater Malefic”. This designation does not, in my opinion, do justice to the role Saturn plays in creating beauty in art, or in life. Saturn is dignified in Libra by exaltation. When a planet is exalted it means that this planet, although not the ruler, occupies a position of great power and responsibility. It is like being a high official who does not make the rules but is free to interpret and execute them on behalf of the ruler. In this case, Venus seeks Justice as a rarefied form of beauty in the name of love. It is Saturn’s duty to carry out the work of miking this a reality. He does this by setting limits. We must develop a strategic and disciplined attitudeto meet and, if possible, extend these limits
In Tarot, Saturn is represented by The World Card. We see a beautiful dancing figure, nude except for a sash. She dances in mid air holding two wands. These wands resemble one held by The Magician Card. But in the latter, only one wand is held aloft. Tho World figure is encircled by a wreath with the cardinal signs of The Zodiac inscribed in the corers of the card.
The World is the card of completion. The world is EVERYTHING. While it might seem that the card for everything should contain, well, everything, the wreath reveals a paradox inherent in the notion of completion. Everything is what it is partially by virtue of what it is not. Any kind of partnership, in business, friend ship, love, is founded upon the separateness of each partner. Organization (one of Saturn’s duties) is not an instance of loss of boundaries between its’ parts, it is the submission of each part to a greater whole. This greater whole can accomplish things that the individual parts could not accomplish on their own. Thus, under Saturn’s rule, the individual, in order to be an individual, must recognize their limitations. Being something is purchased at the expense of not being EVERYTHING.
Nor could an organization function if each part acted independent of the others. Another way of saying this is that the limited power of each individual is only resolved when he/she/they submit some of their individual power (autonomy) to the organization as a whole. To see how this is true we need only look to our bodies. None of our organs could accomplish what the body as a whole does. In fact, these organs would cease to function without the contributions of their partners. If they do not work together, they would die (or be seriously handicapped) alone. Separation is painful, this pain is soothed by union, but union implies the separation it seeks to overcome. The World is one thing composed of an infinite network of individuals who consider themselves to be one thing, but who always feel a sense of incompleteness as a result. To be clear, we are not looking at a choice between being happy together and sad alone (or vice versa). It is a choice between the pain of recognizing our isolation as a thing apart, or the pain of having to relinquish a bit of our already limited existence in order to become something more. Becoming involves sacrifice,
This is how Saturn Works for Venus in Libra. Health involves the mutual service of each organ to the body as a whole. Justice involves everybody giving up a bit of their self in order to do and be more than they could alone. Beauty involves an appeasement between the elements of a work of art so that each can play its role in expressing the meaning of the work as a whole. This is a fractal pattern which runs through and is the precondition of everything.
In The Three of Swords we see a scene of heaving clouds and torrential rain framing a bright red heart pierced by three swords. We might say that this is The Sword of Justice interposing itself between the two swords from the last card, the decision that resolves the conflict in an attempt to bring about balance. When we are presented with a choice, it is seldom between something desired and something not so. Usually it is a choice between something we love and something else we love slightly less. The severity we show to the latter in banishing it (remember Boaz) is the condition of a new beginning (Jochin).
It might come as a surprise that this is one of the cards traditionally associated with marriage. When we marry, we forfeit a share of our autonomy “forsaking all others and cleaving to our beloved”. Marriage is a good analogy for any serious commitments we make in life. The more investment a life path demands of us, the less we will have to invest in alternative paths. This brings with it great risks which should always be considered when we embark upon sincere practice. When ever we make a consequential choice, we close the door to other things which might have been. Love always demands a cacrifice.
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In September of 2018, Susan and I moved to a 180 square foot off grid cabin. We collect water from the roof for drinking and washing and get the electricity we use from a small solar power system. Our consumption of these resources requires constant vigilance since we are entirely dependent on The Sun and Rain. Susan’s long commute to work means early mornings. Because we have no running water I must begin each day hauling and heating water for showers. In winter time this sometimes means defrosting the water supply. The small space means keeping our possessions to a bare minimum. Because I can not drive due to my visual impairment (another limitation) and because Susan has to be gone for 12 hours a day or more, I am tasked with most of the hauling water, doing dishes and laundry (often by hand) and, most importantly, emptying the compost toilet. In short, we are more interdependent than we would be if we were living in town with even basic conveniences. This interdependence has greatly increased our appreciation for the hard work and sacrifice we both make to have this life we both love.
Being away from the social distraction and general “noise” of living in the city has given me leave to concentrate more on my creative endeavors. These have shifted from strictly artistic pursuits to more properly magikal ones. Magik has become more central to our lives here as such practices give the mind the focus and perspective to manage the sometimes tedious, often grueling pace it takes just to keep us in minimal comfort. Despite all this, I am beginning to feel that my “art” and life have found a happy marriage.
I will admit that much of my life has been marked by a lack in sense of proportion. I have always had a difficult time prioritizing things because the thing that commands my attention right now always seems like the most important. Viewing myself primarily as an artist has made it possible for my to create things that I am truly proud of. Unfortunately, the single mindedness of focus has sometimes left other, possibly more important aspects of my life in too much shadow. As I have shifted my creative focus more toward magik, I feel I may be gaining some perspective and the better sense of proportion that comes along with it. I will have more to say about that as we move into the final decan.
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The third decan of Libra is ruled by Jupiter. Although Jupiter himself is concerned with big things (big business, long distance travel, great wealth, law and religion to name a few), his essential dignity is limited to his ruler ship of this decan. But like The Moon, he plays a role here that only he can.
Jupiter is represented by The Wheel of Fortune. This card shows us both the inevitability and necessity of change. Jupiter is, as we have said, the planet of law, change is perhaps the most fundamental of these laws. He is also the Lord of all growth and expansion, of good fortune. But this gift can not be delivered to all things at all times. Jupiter is still subject to the limitations imposed by Saturn. Because of this, Jupiter must deliver his gifts to all things at different times.
We see Jupiter and his Great Wheel revolving through all of nature. The Sun has his moment at mid day, the night belongs to The Moon and Stars. But as the old song goes: “day destroys the night, night divides the day”. If The Sun had not to bare the misfortune of dusk, The Moon and Stars would find no venue in which to delight and instruct us. The lion eats the gazelle, the gazelle grazes upon the grass that grows from the lion’s corpse. Good fortune and misfortune are interdependent. In this way, Jupiter enforces Justice through its law of changing fortunes.
We see this law literally written all over The Wheel of Fortune card. On the wheel itself we see the Hebrew letters that spell the unpronounceable name of God. We see the alchemical symbols for Sulfur (Fire) which is the light of consciousness and the soul, Mercury (Air) the activity of the mind, reason and spirit, Salt (Earth) the body to be animated by spirit, and water into which all things are dissolved. If we look back to the first decan and The High Priestess Card we might remember that the soul resides in the junction where spirit enters and awakens matter. Every living thing flares up from these elements, but this fire is extinguished by water, the universal solvent. This is The Law.
The English letters TORA [mis]spell the word Torah, the Hebrew book containing God’s Law. These letters also spell ROTA (wheel) and TORA, these magikal images by which we might divine fate. Change is a law that brings Justice to all things by letting each have its moment. But this moment can not last. The wheel keeps turning.
Outside of the wheel we see at top a sphinx. The sphinx tests our wisdom by presenting us with riddles, his sword (the sword of justice?) brings woe to those who fail to answer correctly. Moving anticlockwise around the wheel we see a serpent, the life force returning to the earth. It sheds its skin to facilitate growth. A serpent is vulnerable during this time, but if it did not bare this risk, growth would be impossible. This reminds us that we must periodically “shed” the skin of what we have been in order to become what our fate dictates. The dog headed man who emerges from beneath the wheel is Anubis. An Egyptian God, Anubis is the patron God of embalmers, guide to the souls of the dead and guardian of graves. Beside preparing the dead for their trip to the after life, guiding them there and protecting their resting places, Anubis has another duty that is especially poignant in the context of Libra and The Justice Card. Anubis weighs the hearts of the deceased against truth to determine their fitness for entrance into the after life. Hearts who come up short are doomed to wander the earth as ghosts.
As in The World Card, four figures occupy the corners of the card. These represent the fixed signs of The Zodiac, the background against which all change takes place. But unlike in The World Card, these figures read from books. These books are where everything is written down. They might represent The Book of Life or The Akashic Records. They are the place where fate and change are preserved into eternity and become one with the laws that guide fate.
Finally we arrive at the last of the Minor Arcana cards associated with Libra, the four of Swords. We see a man in repose upon a coffin. He is in an attitude of prayer. Three swords hang upon the wall above him symbolizing the trial we saw in the Three of Swords. The fourth sword is carved upon the side of the coffin. This symbolizes the mind that was divided against itself being unified once more. In the stained glass window we see the figure of a saint (Perhaps The Virgin Mary) bestowing a blessing upon the one who kneels before her. From the word we see in the halo that surrounds her head, we know this blessing to be peace (PAX).
When we see this card we are reminded to view the trials we must undergo in life in the light of eternity. The figure in repose is often assumed to be a knight. A knight may do many things, but these things are always done at the behest of the ruler. Whether he lives or dies in this service is less important than whether he has acted honorably. Death will come to him sooner or later regardless of what he does, This is a lesson to all who draw this card. We each have a fate we must fulfill. It is up to us to determine what that fate demands of us. There is always the possibility of failure, either in understanding or execution. But still we must spin the wheel. Before we do however, we must “go to church”.
Church might be anywhere but it is always the place where we weigh our earthly cares against the light of eternity. In sacred moments of divine contemplation we might come to see our individual lives as enactments of myths or archetypes. We see the troubles of mortal existence in the light of reincarnation or the bridge between the spirits of ancestors and those of our decedents. We might recognize ourselves as the servants of a God or Gods in the material world. Or perhaps our aspirations are more bound to this world. We may serve some “cause”: political, social, economic or scientific. Yet even here the trials of our individual lives might be contextualized as part of a larger whole. It is this perspective that allows us to set aside concerns about our own interests that we might serve something greater than our selves. Remember that Jupiter is the God of religion. Religion means to be tied or yolked to a greater force. After this solemn moment we may bare our sword (mind) into the world, free of doubt and fear born of misgivings about our mortality. There is no misgiving for we know that we will die. But we also know that what we do will reverberate through space and time beyond our time, our turn.
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Over the past few years my magikal practice has increasingly involved working with ancestors and deities. As I have come to know these entities who take no part in the affairs of mortals, they have blessed me with a glimpse of their perspective. This post is the result of my work with Venus. I began with a simple question: how might I make by work shine with beauty. Initially my interest was in monetization, or at least greater recognition of my work. What I have come away with is a greatly increased sense of what my work actually entails.
On of my principle guides in the in magik is Ramsey Dukes. In his work he delineates four areas of human inquiry and action: science which seeks truth, Religion which seeks goodness, art which seeks beauty and magik which seeks wholeness. The idea of magik as a search for wholeness links it with the ancient occult concept of “The Great Work”. For most of my life, I have viewed my practice as that of an artist. Even as a student of Philosophy I conceptualized the creation and interpretation of theory as primarily an artistic pursuit (having more to do with beauty than truth). But as my creative path has led me further into the domain of magik, the emphasis has shifted increasingly toward wholeness as a life goal. Ironically, this shift was made most plain to me through my recent work with Venus.
As I have said, the Venus Retrograde in Leo is a great time to think about how you would like to be seen (as beautiful). I approached Venus with offerings and prayers in the hopes that she would shed her enchanting light of beauty over my “work”. What I hoped was that she would help me find a wider audience for my musings upon magik in theory and practice. But as I have tried to come to terms with the amount of band width my “work” must share with familial and domestic obligations, Venus put a question to me: “How would you like to be seen by your ancestors, how by your decedents, how by the Gods”. This question forced me to terms with something that many magicians come to realize, there is no real difference between life and work. Our ancestors and The Gods make no clear distinction between our “career” and the rest of our lives, nor will our decedents. They are interested in the wholeness of our lives. If the wisdom gained through gnosis does not extend to everything we do, our lives will be haunted by a rift between what we DO and what we ARE. A knight does not cease to be one when he lays down his sword, nor a magician when he lays down his wand.
This realization has led me in the direction (I still have a long way to go) of reconciliation between my art and my life. I recognize that if my actions in regard to everything I touch do not carry the will and intention I would put into a spell or act of divination, these magikal acts will not be supported by all that surrounds them in my life as a whole. From the perspective beyond the veil, a mortal’s life shines with beauty when it contains all that is needed to serve our fate, when all of these parts live an a relationship of proportionality and express a radiant purpose. This is what makes us beautiful to The Gods, our ancestors and, perhaps most importantly of all, our descendants.
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Afterwords
This entry has been one of the most challenging ones to date. I haven’t even begun to tally to time I have spent editing and rewriting it, let alone the hours of contemplation and prayer that have revealed and helped to guide my true will and intention in writing it. Moreover, nearly everything that has happened to me in the days since July 22nd, when Venus began her retrograde journey has formed the loom on which these words are woven.
The wealth of understanding I have gained over the past few month has more than compensated for the fact that I still do not have a clear sense of what I should do about this blog and the other projects I am contemplating.
The amount of time and attention I put into this blog, even with the roughly bi-weekly publication schedule I have tried to keep for most of the past year does not seem sustainable. So, in an attempt to place quality over quantity, I have decided to limit the publication of this blog to four times a year. These will correspond roughly with the cross quarter celebrations in February, May, August and November. I am considering ways of reworking the format to include several smaller essays over a range of topics that will roughly follow seasonal themes.
Of the entries I have made over the past year I have really enjoyed those that cover the Taro and Astrology correspondences. But since these are quite time and research intensive, I am considering peeling them off as their own thing separate from this blog. As I have mentioned, I am interested in exploring the possibility of producing videos on the topic and getting them published on YouTube in an effort to get the ideas before more eyes. However, the idea of producing some sort of coffee table book about Tarot and Astrology is also quite appealing. Although one of these ideas doesn’t preclude the other I need to think about which one makes the most sense to do first. Again, reader feedback would be most helpful.
Finally, I am most interested in seeking out more people to read Tarot for. So if you or anyone you know might be interested in a reading let me know. I have been doing a few public events and have enjoyed these immensely. I am doing one of these events at Maybry-Hazen House in Knoxville over the last weekend of October and would love to see your faces. These readings aren’t nearly as in depth as my private ones but they give a good sense of my technique and are cheaper.
So, that about wraps it up for this entry. I hope you have found it interesting and, as usual, your attention and time are of incalculable value to me. Thank you all. If all goes well, I will publish my next, retooled edition of this blog around the time The Sun reaches 15 degrees of Scorpio (early mid November). Of course, this date will depend on a lot of things including officiating my youngest daughter’s wedding, preparing for our annual feast for the dead on Samhain and everything else that keeps house and home, body and soul together. Stay tuned for updates.
Until then
Blessed Be and
Venus Wishes Ring.
Beautiful summary of the continued re-assembly experience after this Venus Retro season. Has anyone landed with full clarity on what unraveled since July? Wishing the greatest recognition of your wholeness as you establish more direction!