#tarotperspective

Automatic Associations

When I think of this page in the abstract I think immediately of a student. I think of Anne of Green Gables getting her scholarship to Queens College. I think about the time and dedication it takes to learn a skill, a trade, or to get your education. About the thirst for knowledge that drives many a late night Wikipedia binge, but also desire to share what you’ve been learning.

Justice League Tarot

This card depicts the third Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes. The Scarab fused to his spine was originally designed to possess its wearer, but due to damage it has instead forged a symbiotic relationship with Reyes.  The scarab, due to being originally intended to help a hive mind take over the planet, is able to grant Reyes superpowers. I don’t know this hero well, my familiarity comes largely from the Young Justice TV show, but I DO know that Reyes is very skeptical of the scarab and is a very reluctant student. There are times in YJ where the scarab tries to overrule Reyes’s choices if it thinks their safety is threatened. The scarab also doesn’t always understand the way human beings behave, so sometimes this happens in humorous ways. In a way they are both students. This relationship is interesting in contrast to that between Reyes (who is a teen, hence the position in Young Justice) relationship with his father. Reyes offered to work in his father’s garage (according to Wikipedia) but his father refused, wanting him to focus instead on actually having a childhood and pursuing an education.

As a Page of Pentacles, this offers some new questions to consider when the card comes up in the reading: Are you a willing student? Unwilling? What pushes and motivates you? Where do you need to admit you might not know the right course of action, like the scarab? Are you too focused on the outcome (or, dare I say, income?) of having a job to consider letting yourself learn something new or, lord forbid, enjoy yourself? Who are your teachers in life? Have you considered their motives?

Dreaming Way Tarot

It feels a little weird to be sitting down with this page. Initially it felt like I should just relist my automatic associations, because this card is in no small way their origin story. But I decided to really look at the card this time:

A scholarly looking girl (school girl, let’s be  honest, the outfit is a stereotype) is reading a book while she walks, frowning slightly in concentration. She doesn’t appear to be watching the road/where she is going at all. Behind her, the path she’s presumably already taken rolls on for quite a ways. It winds off towards a village in the distant hills.

I can’t help but think of Bilbo Baggins saying “It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” It’s easy to get carried away while learning, to just get into the information and not think about where it is taking you. This is how people end up with degrees that open doors to jobs they don’t actually want to take -- or how an evening can get lost on a research binge, two in the morning rolls around and you don’t remember what sleep is any more. But, on the other hand, I can see in this card a frustration with learning. How many times has That One Assignment come up in class, that One Task at work that is so frustrating that you can no longer see the progress you’ve made up until that point. Or when you realize you’ve strayed just a little too far beyond your comfort zone, that you would need a map just to find where you started, let alone to push forward.

Darkness of Light Tarot

This page outright glowers at you. Yes, you. Whoever you are outside the card, looking in on her. She’s like a cornered wild animal, you can see it in those eyes. An arm drapes possessively over the coin she carries on her hip. She is solidly built, her dress torn on some adventure or another. Her bare feet root her to the ground. The scene around her appears to be the edge of a stand of trees, low mountains in the distance. The coloring and the fallen leaves suggest that it is autumn. She’s ready to fight you.

I see a lot of myself in this card. Usually I associate stubbornness with the Page of Wands, but it works so well here too. Perhaps it’s a more universal trait than I first thought?

On the one hand, this could be a person who has made mistakes but committed to them. “That’s a choice I made” is something I’ve uttered in defense of refusing to acknowledge that I don’t need to keep making that choice, that new ones are still available. This woman might be cornered, that defiant spark the only thing that keeps her from admitting that the time and energy she put into something might have been misplaced-- or that if something was good once it doesn’t mean is good always. Of course the Page of Earth would be stubborn, that’s what we earth signs are all about. We marry our mistakes, we’re proud of them. Not saying it’s a good thing, obviously it isn’t, but it is something I can definitely see if this card were to come to me in a negative aspect.

But this card can also very much be a seat of power. Sometimes girls come out of the woods more like the wolves they encountered. They learn to be tough, they learn what it takes to survive and thrive and to look after your own. She could be standing there, that defiant look on her face not misplaced pride but well earned confidence: she will show you what she’s learned. Go ahead, try and steal her coin-- she fought hard to get it, don’t think she’s unprepared to fight for it.

After Examination

Oh gosh. I still stand by my automatic associations, but I love the shades these cards took to it.

Mind your path. Do you know where you’re going? Do you know where you’ve come from?

Mind your teachers. What are their motives? What are their lessons? Is what they think is best... really best?

Automatic Associations:

Stubbornness, stuck in one’s beliefs/convictions ideals, discovering new beliefs/convictions/ideals and/or dedicating yourself to a new path of that sort, spreading/sharing said beliefs/convictions/ideals, spiritual awakening, finding your schtick/stick, picking the hills you want to metaphorically die on/drawing lines and defining your limits. (“If you stand for nothing, Burr, what will you fall for?) , having great enthusiasm – nothing is halfway ever

Justice League Tarot:

Disclaimer: I literally have never read a comic about this particular character. This entry was made possible by Wikipedia and my desire to know everything ever.

This card depicts the helmet of Dr. Fate, a name that refers to several characters over the history of DC Comics. The one constant, as far as I can tell, is that the helmet and a few other items connect the wearer to Nabu the Wise – who has a tendency to then possess the wearer, after teaching them sorcery and giving them access to powers beyond the average mortal. I think the fact that we were given just the helmet and an unknown hand says a lot about this Page of Wands and their enthusiasm getting the better of them.

Certain one of the shadow aspects of diehard enthusiasm is the way that our obsessions can possess us. How often have we “gone on a bender” for one thing or another? Where it’s the only thing you know how to talk about for months?  It’s an interesting contrast to last week’s Page of Pentacles because it again asks us to really question the source of things—last week it was what we were learning, this week it’s more about the source of what is driving our spirit. Have you been feeling “possessed” lately? How is this affecting the rest of your life?

Dreaming Way Tarot:

Alright, so I have a lot of feelings about this card on a personal level that I know I have talked about on the blog before. The first thing I see when I see THIS Page of Wands is me at sixteen “against the world”—and admittedly at this time the part of me that still rails against “the world,” though I am trying to move past that. Phrases like “I don’t need X” (sub X for friends, family, school, or any other number of things) “because I have my wand.” “My Wand, my Way.” Which can be a very limiting world view.

BUT: this card isn’t all bad. She reminds me of someone else, too. She reminds me of Jyn Erso from “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” In fact, it reminds me very much of the entire Rogue One team and the moment that they chose to go after the Death Star plans, even though the rebel alliance had decided it was too risky. The Page of Wands can be choosing to do what you know is right, even when others are telling you it cannot be done. She can be finding your Cassian, your Chirrut, K-2SO, Baze, and Rook – it doesn’t have to be a totally isolationist mind set. Sometimes, if a small team of individuals bands together to do the right thing the entire galaxy can be saved.

Darkness of Light Tarot:

I would be extremely remiss if I didn’t mention how much this Page looks like Raul Esparza as Bobby in “Company.” I think it actually works really well as part of how I read this card. Bobby, if nothing else, is the perfect example of a person who is stuck in their ways and unwilling to see where they are making an error. The song “Marry Me a Little,” a personal favorite, highlights this particularly well. In this song, Bobby sings about “how it ought to be” in marriage, according to his ideals: “Passionate as hell, but always in control.” “You promise whatever you like, I’ll never collect.” AND then, over and over again, he keeps declaring that he is ready.

He is not ready. He is so not ready. But that’s the pride of this page, and like all pages he’s got a lot of growing up to do before Joanne says “you’re not a kid anymore, kiddo.”

This Page of Wands meets us in the woods, his wand slung casually over his shoulder. He wears his beliefs with the self-conscious cool of James Dean leaning against a wall. He wants his wand and his ideals and that little half-smile of his to be enough to get him through. But he’s a little more open than the Dreaming Way’s Page, he’s willing to walk with you some (or perhaps to come on over for dinner) and hear some of what you say.

Who knows, maybe you’ll open a door that’s been shut inside of him (or you) for a very long time.

After Examination:

Be careful with what you stand for and who and what you fall for. Being guided by your beliefs is well and good, but being ruled and possessed by them is another.

On the other hand, this Page invites you to not be a doormat: take a stand for what is right, but don’t be afraid to ask others for help. You may be surprised by how many “rebels” are willing to take that stand with you.