Bodymind Treasures

A Tarot Garden of Verses

9/11/21

Tarot Card: The Tower – The Light Seer Deck

Anniversary of the Destruction of the Twin Towers

“Fierce and Radical Illumination”

Surrounded by towers.

Towers of books,

Towers of half-baked projects,

Towers of responsibility.

Towers of ideas and judgments,

Towers of greed and grief.

My towers are constructed from choices of viewpoint and belief.

Where you build your tower determines what you see.

When the towers fall, I am aware that I have been trapped in caskets of my own making.

An Egyptian sarcophagus, elaborately painted with superficial details while hiding flesh and bones.

Breaking out is both liberating and terrifyingly vulnerable.

In one of those processes, I dreamed of a poplar tree in the front yard of my childhood home that cracked open and released a beautiful butterfly.

A reminder that the structures we build so seriously can come between us and the beautiful, scary, ephemeral nature of life.

 The Star (Rider/Waite)

The Star is light in the vast darkness of the universe.

Wishing on a star, we ask for access to the possibilities in that vastness.

The pouring of water to the land and river is an offering,

An indication of the humility required to be open to the guidance of spirit.

Our own view from the tower is limited to what we can see,

So how can our wishes transcend what we already have?

When the tower comes down,

There’s an opening for a vaster wisdom to make itself known.

The Moon (Rider/Waite)

Let what is hidden remain indistinct, to be revealed in its own time.

Trying to prematurely sharpen the outline eliminates crucial aspects that are part of a still murky truth.

In this process, age has advantages.

Looking at events of 40 years ago, I see that they are still taking shape.

Like things in the moon’s shadow, the outlines are forever changing.

There is some relaxation to accepting the ambiguity as a function of time.

In the mystery, we expand.

The Sun (Rider/Waite)

In every version of the Sun card, the rays are prominent.

In Egyptian carvings they have little hands to touch and caress.

Bright, warm, and expansive,

Basking in the sun is what Joy feels like.

Joy is playful, like the child in the card, riding the horse without saddle or reins,

Confident in the moment, moving freely with change.

The Sun reminds me to look for the sources of light and warmth in my life.

Just a spark of interest, curiosity or delight can be coaxed into flame when I give it space in my heart.

Why do we hold back?

Our nature is to shine and to encourage the spark in each others’ hearts.

The sun rises each day for everybody, no matter what.

Every dawn I have something to be thankful for.

A daily gift of joy.

Tower/Star/Moon/Sun

The blinding destruction that brings down our carefully constructed towers leaves little to be sure about, lots of questions and some fear of the dark.

In that chaos a star appears in the darkness to guide us.

The light grows with the rising of the moon, but the way is still in shadow.

It is a time to tolerate ambiguity and watch what arises from intuition.

A time to explore rather than choose.

A time to be curious about what is only partially revealed; letting commitment wait until things are fully revealed by the Sun. The Star and Moon lead us in the direction of the light. They give us hope for possibilities that can become fulfilled as we allow the Sun to fully reveal the path of joy.

Judgement (Rider/Wait)

I think of Judgement Day, when souls will be sent to heaven or hell.

But in this Tarot journey, it is almost the end.

In the light from the Sun we have examined what is arising within us.

 We can distinguish between illusion and joy, and choose what to keep.

The World (Rider/Waite)

Symbols of the directions, the elements, the sources of life, all together, turning.

Like the yin/yang symbol, everything makes up the oneness that is the Tao.

What has been, what is, what will be.

All are coming and going seamlessly within the totality.

“The universe” is that wholeness,

Creation arising from the elements as they are dispersing.

Ouroboros. The circle of living and dying.

On “Arriving.”

My accumulated knowledge and experience is a bundle I carry with me.

Like the old time traveling salesman with his wagon and horses,

I travel from person to person, telling my stories;

Sometimes exchanging something in my bundle for a place around the fire.

Giving it away keeps the load light.