Unemployment Assurance

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...

Prediction, Free Will and Muad'dib

During a recent public reading event, I was rebuked by a hoodied something-teen with the proclamation, "I think it would really boring to know my future." While I can't completely share his sentiment, I can agree with him on principal. In fact, when I attempted to look into the future, I saw the face of Muad'dib staring back at me.

Anyone familiar with Frank Herbert's "Dune" series knows the name. The central character, Paul Atreides, through the agency of the hallucinogenic spice Melange, becomes Muad'dib, the Kwisatz Haderach ("Shortening of the Way"), who can see past, present and future simultaneously. Ultimately, he comes to understand that to know the future is to become trapped by it, funneled into an ever-narrowing door of possibility. While his father Leto had admonished "Knowing that a trap exists is the first step in avoiding it," Muad'dib's son Leto II declares, "I assure you that the ability to view our futures can become a bore." The young naysayer who refused the reading had a bit of mythological backup.

Yet, on the other side of the equation (and there is always another side), the Uncertainty Principal in quantum physics states that the very act of observation affects a change in the observed. When we have a conscious awareness of what lies ahead, alternatives are immediately created. You see the precipice approaching, and in an effort to avoid plummeting over the edge you realize the benefits of turning left or right or even back. The future suddenly branches off into several possibilities, each with their own separate destinations. Once this happens, the future is nearly impossible to predict - to use the words of another omnipotent science fiction character, "Always in motion, the future is."

Faced with these questions about questions and free will versus determinism, I recall a moment where, in a fit of despair, I came to the realization that I was where I was as a result of the choices I had made up to that point. My present is the result of what actions I took in the past, and as such, my future is determined by the actions I undertake in the present. As such, a reading about one's future is not so much about foretelling as it is about projecting which way your present course could take you, and what options you have for altering the vector. Futures are created, not predicted.

The rejoinder I gave to the adolescent striving to forge his own reality was "This isn't about knowing your future, it's about empowering you in the present." And the caveat I would deliver to those desiring that prescience would once again come from the timeless pages of "Dune": "The eye that looks ahead to the safe course is closed forever."