Having been recently laid off from a job that saw 20 years of my service, naturally I was kicked into a sea of introspection as well as to the curb, once the initial shock had worn off. Of course I did readings as to what directions to go from here (which will remain private), but my main tarot inquiry began a reflection on the cards that adequately symbolized the situation and the conditions that led to it. This brought me to a meditation on the Eights of the deck, both minor and major.
My former work environment had been becoming increasingly difficult - little remaining prospects for raises or promotions with respect and recognition becoming even more scarce. The daily negative influences kept me in a tight knot of continual malcontent and frustration. The Eight of Swords is a classic symbol of this negative feedback loop, one that keeps the mind inhibited and caged, eventually convincing itself that this is the reality it must accept, yet this remains a self-imposed prison that is easily escapable. I had already been contemplating removing myself from that sorry situation, and act illustrated by the Eight of Cups. While the despair and depression are clear, so is the message: the jalopy has finally broken down for good and it's time to leave it behind. While the departure was not willful or at a time of my choosing, it kick-started a long delayed change of direction that admonishes to seek greener pastures.
The other side of the equation is neatly filled in by the remaining Eights. The Eight of Wands is the necessary enthusiasm and rapidness of action that must be called upon to conceptualize what can be brought in to fill the gap. While practical matters are up in the air, so are the creative possibilities beyond the obvious. Along with the new ideas must certainly come the footwork to make them real, expressed by the labor depicted in the Eight of Pentacles. This is not strictly the menial tasks that make up the journey of a thousand steps, but also constructing the map of that journey, taking stock of your own skills and resources and cultivating necessary patience.
Depending on what deck you happen to be looking at, a Major Arcana eight could either be Strength or Justice. The numerical switching is a subject for another blog, but both cards are appropriate archetypes of encouragement and resolve in the face of unemployment. One of the original titles for Strength was, more appropriately, "Fortitude" - strength maintained over time in response to an ongoing challenge. It finds a synonym in "courage", denoting a condition of conviction that tames the fear that would overwhelm one's common sense and better judgement. That better judgement is put into action with Justice, which engages the mind as a disciplined and objective process of making decisions, distanced from emotion. Rather than 'just deserts' or 'what's fair', Justice is about analysis, adjustment and doing what is necessary.
Strength has taken a greater importance in this rumination in light of earlier thoughts about this sudden life change. Qabalistically speaking, Strength is a path that connects the opposing spheres of Chesed and Gevurah, receptively "Mercy" and "Severity". In an allegory of metabolism, Chesed is the anabolic process of storing and building up ingested energy while Gevurah describes the catabolic breaking down and burning of that energy. Between the two, a living and self-regulating system is produced, and in the traditional image of the woman taming the lion, it reflects a human dynamic of higher and nobler faculties harnessing and controlling the base instincts. In the instance of suddenly loosing one's job (or in any challenging situation), it becomes a call to both order and action.
It was little coincidence that I ended grouping the small Eights in respective pairs, either totaling to 16. Strength itself is echoed on a lower level by Key 16, the Tower, which also forms an equalizing path between the polarities of Mercy and Severity and usually indicates an abrupt upheaval in one's experience. Never a popular card, it has an often overlooked aspect of this is the opportunity that comes with the shattering of a outmoded form of security. Here the equalization comes more from external influences beyond our control, forcing us to reckon with patterns of living that do more to restrict us than help us evolve. This is the condemned property being razed to clear the way for something more appropriate and profitable to take its place.
Then there comes the obvious: I am writing this as an aspiring professional Tarot consultant. I wonder what it all could possibly mean...
Showing posts with label Qabalah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Qabalah. Show all posts
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
A Supernal Evensong
As I sat down to engage in a Qabalistic pathworking tarot spread (courtesy of Joy Vernon), designed to affect an awareness of the sephiroth Chokmah and its conjoined relationship to Binah on the Tree of Life, I desired an ambient soundtrack to keep my mind open and engaged. Not halfway through the spread, I indeed had a revelation about the subject I was exploring. Not from the cards, but from the music.
The music in question was that of two of my favorite musicians, Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, in a short-lived but extremely influential collaboration. Much of their work centered around an analog tape delay system, in which a recorded sound would be continuously fed back into the recording device at regular intervals. The effect is like an echo, but here the echo occurs several seconds apart and is able to sustain itself for greater lengths of time. The result is a perpetual building and decaying of layers of improvised notes and textures, continuously unfolding and evolving over time. Fripp, the virtuoso guitarist, provides most if not all of the active performance, while Eno plays the role of producer, manipulating the mechanism that sustains and structures the performance.
In effect, Fripp is acting as the Chokmah to Eno's Binah. Chokmah is described as "the Will to Force", in which the aim is to project an intention outwardly; Binah is the "Will to Form", which seeks to contain and mold the energy it receives. Within the music, there is Fripp's intentional expression captured, modified and reflected back by Eno's apparatus, which in turn inspires Fripp to actively respond in kind. The process is a dialog between two very different modes of operation; one active and dynamic, the other passive and absorbing. This reciprocal dualism has its parallel in the Taoist principals of the yang and yin, which by themselves don't accomplish much of value but create a vibrant living quality when acting in consort.
If I had to pick a tarot card to represent the two musicians, Eno would be the Magician and Fripp would be the Hierophant. In terms of character, Fripp has usually been seen as the grand philosopher, taking an almost spiritual attitude toward the act of making music (even to the point of spouting aphorisms and axioms) while remaining devoted to disciplined technique. One the flip side, Eno's intellect stems from a more amorphous source, often employing calculated uses of chance elements and using his skills to manipulate elements provided by others. It's absolutely no surprise that the corresponding paths on the Tree of Life connect respectively with Chokmah and Binah. True to fashion, with Binah being the "Supernal Mother", it's amusing to note that Eno began his musical career as a glam rocker; more esoterically, the name of Fripp's seminal band, King Crimson, is allegedly a synonym for Beelzebub, an anglicized corruption of "B’il Sabab", Arabic for "the man with aim". (It should be noted, though, that Beelzebub happens to be the archdevil associated with Chokmah).
Together, their interaction produces a sense of timeless power, both hypnotic and awe-inspiring. As Chokmah and Binah are both dualistic expressions of Kether, the "first swirlings" in which the unified source resides, the music of Fripp and Eno provides a spiraling sonic expression of what Kether is, and in fact provides a clue as to the abstract mechanics of the Supernal Triad as it is enacted through the pair. We get a sense of time as an infinitude of possibility, and yet experience it in real time as a generated artifact (this could be viewed as a natural trickle-down into Chesed, the first perceivable idea of form). The traditional goal of trance music is to bring the listener into a state of divine rapture, in direct contact with the source of life, with Kether. Here, it just happens to take the form of modernist conceptualism. More power to us.
Listen to Fripp & Eno's "The Heavenly Music Corporation"
The music in question was that of two of my favorite musicians, Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, in a short-lived but extremely influential collaboration. Much of their work centered around an analog tape delay system, in which a recorded sound would be continuously fed back into the recording device at regular intervals. The effect is like an echo, but here the echo occurs several seconds apart and is able to sustain itself for greater lengths of time. The result is a perpetual building and decaying of layers of improvised notes and textures, continuously unfolding and evolving over time. Fripp, the virtuoso guitarist, provides most if not all of the active performance, while Eno plays the role of producer, manipulating the mechanism that sustains and structures the performance.
In effect, Fripp is acting as the Chokmah to Eno's Binah. Chokmah is described as "the Will to Force", in which the aim is to project an intention outwardly; Binah is the "Will to Form", which seeks to contain and mold the energy it receives. Within the music, there is Fripp's intentional expression captured, modified and reflected back by Eno's apparatus, which in turn inspires Fripp to actively respond in kind. The process is a dialog between two very different modes of operation; one active and dynamic, the other passive and absorbing. This reciprocal dualism has its parallel in the Taoist principals of the yang and yin, which by themselves don't accomplish much of value but create a vibrant living quality when acting in consort.
If I had to pick a tarot card to represent the two musicians, Eno would be the Magician and Fripp would be the Hierophant. In terms of character, Fripp has usually been seen as the grand philosopher, taking an almost spiritual attitude toward the act of making music (even to the point of spouting aphorisms and axioms) while remaining devoted to disciplined technique. One the flip side, Eno's intellect stems from a more amorphous source, often employing calculated uses of chance elements and using his skills to manipulate elements provided by others. It's absolutely no surprise that the corresponding paths on the Tree of Life connect respectively with Chokmah and Binah. True to fashion, with Binah being the "Supernal Mother", it's amusing to note that Eno began his musical career as a glam rocker; more esoterically, the name of Fripp's seminal band, King Crimson, is allegedly a synonym for Beelzebub, an anglicized corruption of "B’il Sabab", Arabic for "the man with aim". (It should be noted, though, that Beelzebub happens to be the archdevil associated with Chokmah).
Together, their interaction produces a sense of timeless power, both hypnotic and awe-inspiring. As Chokmah and Binah are both dualistic expressions of Kether, the "first swirlings" in which the unified source resides, the music of Fripp and Eno provides a spiraling sonic expression of what Kether is, and in fact provides a clue as to the abstract mechanics of the Supernal Triad as it is enacted through the pair. We get a sense of time as an infinitude of possibility, and yet experience it in real time as a generated artifact (this could be viewed as a natural trickle-down into Chesed, the first perceivable idea of form). The traditional goal of trance music is to bring the listener into a state of divine rapture, in direct contact with the source of life, with Kether. Here, it just happens to take the form of modernist conceptualism. More power to us.
Listen to Fripp & Eno's "The Heavenly Music Corporation"
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