Christmas Reflection and Holiday Season's Greeting

It is a week before Christmas.

As I continue to travel on my journey, the topic of free will came up repeatedly.

It recently came up again while discussing tarot, divination, fortune telling, fate, divinity, spirituality, and self empowerment.

As I dedicated myself to Advent reflections, I looked back and came across a blog post which I wrote as part of an unplanned 5 year long inward inspection and a much needed healing period. This one I wrote about 3 Christmases ago.

I would like to share that with you.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Blessed Yule, Summer and Winter Solstices, Happy Hannukah, and Happy Kwanza.



“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. […]”


                                                                                                     -- Gandalf the Grey (“The Hobbit”)
 

At 4 am on the day before Christmas, I was awoken by a sound of a TV programme talking about that quintessential Christmas carol, Silent Night. (I often need background noise to lull me to sleep). Along with some inquiries into the mystery of who wrote the poem and the melody to “Stille Nacht” was a story of World War I, the 1914 Christmas Truce.

I looked up the “1914 Christmas Truce” and found several sites with very detailed and personal information and description of the event thanks to the diary the soldiers kept.  My brain was fueled by curiosity, and still caffeine deprived, I simply bookmarked some pages so I can read them later, and in a daze of half-sleepiness moved on to YouTube. There, I found some clips of documentaries related to the event. Words spoken from beyond the graves through diaries, grainy black and white pictures and faces looking back at me from almost 100 years ago, narrations and re-enactments, told me the most amazing story of any war stories I have ever heard, and apparently, never to be repeated again in history.

It started with some singing. Stille Nacht was sung in the German trenches in a muddy and dark Flanders night. This was soon joined in by Silent Night. Same song. Different languages. Flickering of lit candles on a pine tree followed, held up high by a German soldiers risking head and limbs above the trench. Perhaps faith in goodwill, perhaps mere recklessness as they care no more for what could happen to them. Christmas tree was an alien concept outside of Germany at the time, and naturally sparked intrigues and curiosity which combined with war fatigue probably won the day from fear, propelling the British soldiers to stick their heads out to take a look. At some point, a haphazard “Merry Christmas” sign popped up from the British side, and at some other point in this amazing story, a piece of chocolate cake was thrown around, a Christmas gift from the Brits to the German. Enemies to enemies. Friends to friends.

Perhaps faith in the honour of human kind, perhaps mere curiosity, or even indifference to life and death after a long and arduous battle, before long a few people on the German side poked their heads out and climbed over the trenches with their hands up in the air, and their weapon lowered to the ground, and the Brits joined in. They met, shook hands, chatted, exchanged buttons, hats and helmets, belts, food and drinks, showed each other photos of loved ones back home. A British soldier who was a barber in his other life had German soldiers in line for him to wield a sharp object over their heads and necks as they kneeled before him for the job to be done. One person juggled. And somewhere in there, was someone’s interesting choice of packing priority, or perhaps a result of an amazing burst of hopeful optimism, in the form of a football (soccer ball)…! They kicked the ball around together. British khaki and German grey, the narrator said. A photograph of German and British soldiers playing football together in the middle of a world war was amazing to behold. They visited each other’s side, and cross the enemy line freely, shared meals and drinks together. Sitting around and chatting like old friends.

The impromptu truce which started at the bottom of the rank, soon spread upwards. Unofficial sanction by superiors from each side took the form of a gifts exchange, a barrel of alcoholic beverage (from a raid of the local brewery) was first offered by the German side, and the British officer’s stock of plum pudding from the British side (the British was unprepared for the gift exchange). A handshake of gentlemanly agreement sealed the truce and a time when the war was to start again was agreed upon.

The truce never spread widely or equally across the board. It did not happen at all fronts, and in the fronts which did, did not occur in the same manner, or for the same length of time. Incidents were recorded of foes becoming friends and becoming foes again as fears and distrusts crept back in even before the end of the truce was declared.

It appears that decency and goodness, although seemingly so natural, are so very fragile. Especially when competed against human weaknesses. It seems that goodness is always going to have to be fought for.

How can something so natural can be so arduous at the same time…..

At the agreed time, each commander faced each other, each standing on their side of the line, two shots were fired into the sky and the truce was officially over. There was an extended period of long inactivity after that. I suppose it was a lot harder to shoot at friends. Everyone was waiting for everyone else to start the war again. Conscripted German soldiers many of whom did not believe in the war were close to mutiny, returning to their war position only at their commander’s gunpoint.

My early morning YouTube excursion ended with an image of a lone British soldier, walking across the enemy line, to bring his German enemy friends some jam, and to show them some photos. Such a basic human need, to trust, to reach out, and to share. There is something in all of us, we hope, which are more inclined for peace, and friendship, kindness, goodness, and hope.

The solitary silhouette then walked calmly back to his own side.

A sniper, which was said to operate like a lone wolf and exist under rules of conducts that are their own, took an aim, and fired. The lone figure fell.

And peace, which had insisted on lingering long after it was banished, finally dissipated.

One man. One decision.

Hope and faith. Fear and distrust.

The human power that is free will. The human weakness that is free will.

How much power one ordinary person has. How much power each of us have. To decide, and to choose.

We often hear of questions about where God is during wars, and how the true nature of human kind is revealed in all the ugliness of the world.

If one is to believe in free will, and the power of humanity, then surely, the question is: 

With all the goodness in the world, what have we done with it?

It is there.

“Peace on earth, and goodwill towards men”.

[....] Merry Christmas everyone....!

(January, 2013)

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.

Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.

                                                                                      

Tarot of Delphi's Face Cards: Devotee, Artisan, Hero, Enchantress

When I first received this deck, I spent many nights staring at four rows of cards.

Four cards on each row.

They are the face cards of the Tarot of Delphi, the equivalent of the Court cards in conventional decks. The Devotee, Artisan, Hero, and Enchantress of Cups, Swords, Staves (Wands), and Coins.

The delineation between Devotee and Enchantress seems very clearer and straight forward. At least in my mind.

At one end of the spectrum there is "Devotee".

The word "devotee" clearly suggest a certain level of passivity, immaturity, and a degree receptivity that is generally greater than their level of productivity.

On the other end, there is the "Enchantress".

The feminine, the yin, execution of action by inaction, holding the power of conjuring, of invocation, of manifestation. Self-reliant, self-determined, holding power not by action but by influence. In a sense, very King like.

But then there are the the "Artisan" and the "Hero."

In light of these two, suddenly, I had to prevent myself from associating the Enchantress with the Queen. The large and active movements of the Hero of Wands and the Hero of Coins made me want to see all the Heroes as Knights. While the Hero of Swords made me want to think King of Swords. "Artisan" suggesting highly skilled applications of knowledge gained that can only be gained by doing. So this was a toss up between it being the equivalent of Knights, or Kings, in fact, you could argue for a Queen here too. Without the benefit of days of contemplation, I initially had no idea what to make of all this.

The booklet had to be consulted.

It says that the face cards are named and ordered based on "... the history and literature of Ancient Greece and Rome" (p. 17). It continued to explain that "Devotee" represents "Devotion to what the suit represents, "Artisan" represents "Ability to use the suit's qualities in productive ways", "Hero" represents the "Energetic, living expression of the suit", and the "Enchantress" conscious application of the suit for desired ends".

I was still scratching my head.

Reading that, I still thought that the Heroes really have the energy of the Knights more than anything, whether looking at it from the RWS structure or that of Crowley's Thoth. So it was very hard NOT to think of them as Knights.

BUT.

The order in the booklet clearly stated: Devotee, Artisan, Hero, Enchantress.

Which would make the Heroes somewhat equivalent to the Queens...? Hm. Nope.

I scratched my head again.

It was not until I completely let go of the "Court" (Page, Knight, Queen, King; or, Princess, Prince, Queen, Knight) structure that I was able to finally see it for what it is. It is a very different pattern of progression, and it adds to my understanding of other patterns of progressions.

Some of the cards stood out for me more than others.

Face Cards of the Suit of Swords and Cups

The Devotee of Swords is the one most physically active of all the Devotees, while the Enchantress of Swords is the most physically inactive, but the most highly evolved mentally in the form of the Oracle of Delphi, the namesake of this deck.

The Hero of Swords is one who is NOT using his sword, but instead relying on his ability to NOT use it. He uses instead his gentleness to afford others his protection. So there is a sense of the King of Swords there.

In the Enchantress of Swords, I saw another step beyond the traditional King. A stage where not only empowerment has been understood as the absence of action, and execution through influence rather than force, but in which it has also been understood as being empowerment through the highest form of wisdom and attunement to the higher self . It a stage where we can take the best attributes of the Hierophant, the Priestess, the Hermit, and the Emperor combined. That is some powerful stuff!

The other card which stood out for me was the Enchantress of Cups. Her overwhelming emotions poisoned the entire body of water in existence. The Enchantress here seems to be the one that is most out of control. Almost in direct opposition to the suit of swords, where lack of control illustrated a practicing sword fighter in the Devotee of Swords. In this sense, the Enchantress of Cups does remind me of the King of Cups. While the Hero of Cups is depicted by a soldier, fresh from his last battle, sharing his experiences with others. Someone who has seen action, braved it, survived it, and living to tell the tales. Someone who has been scared by the horror of war, defined by courage, and now imparting his stories to anyone who wants to listen, to take them whatever they are worth, as they wish (since we all have free will).

(In this sense, he reminds me of the Hero of Swords. Whose heroism also lies in their lack of physical actions).

Face Cards of the Suits of Wands and Coins 

The Heroes of Wands and Coins are the most active of all the Heroes here. It is interesting that "standing above the rest" take the most active of physical forms in the realm of Earth and Fire: earthly resources and necessities, passion, drive, creativity. Stuff that are generally considered to be a bit more "primal".

The Enchantress of Wand is depicted by a woman who stood up for herself, she did not wait around to be rescued, but did so herself. Not only did she received the justice she deserved, she was elevated to the status of an Empress in the end, obtaining the platform to further social justice focusing on education, which was essential to her own success. This is a stage where you are in a position of not only being able to elevate your own life, or actively elevate those of others by duty (in a way that a King would, presumably), but by a personal desire to do so. In other words, by charity, and by compassion.

The Enchantress of Coins is depicted as invoking abundance instead of praying for it. This stage is then a stage where we do not only command resources, but we are manifesting them. Again, through our intunement to a higher reality.

A Stage Beyond This World

So overall, my biggest learning from these face cards is to understand a new order of progressions: from learning and a position of being like a receptive vessel, to not only the skilful applications of those learned and knowledge received, but most importantly the refinement of these skills and knowledge through experience. Then moving on to a stage where we go above and beyond even such refinement into a level which can literally be considered "of heroic proportion". The kind of state where one stands out above the rest, beyond the norm.

This is where I feel we traditionally left the progression of these stages with the Kings.

Here, at least the way I have learn to see the Face Cards, I can see another stage beyond that.

A stage that allows us the possibility of not only standing above the crowd with mastery and control, but a stage where wisdom extending beyond the yang of the earth into the yin of the divine. Of idealism, of conviction. It is a stage of having the vocabulary and the sight to reach beyond this world. Of having the ability to commune with a higher reality.

A stage where one's skills are not OF this world, even if existing and executing IN this world.

Tarot of Delphi: My Tarot Learning Breakthrough - "Intuitive Reading", Aesthetics, Learning Style, Representation, Worldview

This is my "neutral" deck. My "reset" tarot button. The deck I go back to each time to "cleanse my palate", before moving on to other decks which at times can become a bit muddled for me.

Never before have I been so indifferent about a deck, and turned completely around to be an absolute fan as I did with this one.

In my learning journey, I come to realize that utilizing tarot essentially involved several layers of learning all happening at the same time. 

TAROT STRUCTURE AND LANGUAGE

First, you have the tarot structure itself. Its language, its relationship to each other, its underlying philosophies, and various other under currents you will have to understand before you engage with it. That's just the first part. 

Then, there are the language of the artist, his or her world views, his or her personal symbols. 

AESTHETICS

On top of that, you have the art style, which you may or may not choose to engage with the get to the other two. 

Some think that this is by the by, and not at all important, a mere tool to enter the real deal behind the colours. The Order of Golden Dawn, which many English language "modern tarot" are based on, instructed their members to draw their own tarot cards after all. That instruction is certainly not based on artistic grounds. But more on spiritual ones. If I understand the history correctly. This is very apparent when you look through a lot of Golden Dawn tarot cards.

Others on the other hand, need to engage through the aesthetics of the images, without which, the mental portal through which they have to go through, to arrive on the other side, is shut close.

LEARNING STYLE

Styles of learning varies. This much we know. We do not all gather data, process information, and retain knowledge in the same way.

I need my decks to be visually stimulating. Otherwise, that deck just wont work for me. So when I saw this deck for the first time, although I love the art, I knew they were pre-existing very well known paintings, and that whole idea seemed very blah to me. Yet another deck using pre-existing work. What is new. Very unoriginal I thought.

But I was wrong.


MY OWN EXPERIENCE

I had to go beyond the aesthetic of the deck to realize this very quickly. Something I only do admittedly usually only after I allow myself to be intrigued by the visuals of a deck. Which in this case, I was not.

This deck was pointed out to me again and again, and I finally was curious enough to take a peek.

The first card that I saw was the "Two of Wands" (Two of Batons, Two of Staves, Two of Fire). And just like that, I suddenly realized what was before me. So I scrolled through the images that was available online.

I was hooked.

I suddenly know what they mean by "reading intuitively".

"READING INTUITIVELY"

The thing about reading intuitively is that you still have to read! To me, creating a story around pictures isn't really reading. It is called making stuff up. Everyone works differently of course. To me, with what I have between my ears, I have to have enough structure to provide a spring board for my intuition. Otherwise, why bother with tarot? I can just look up into the sky and start telling stories about the clouds as my imagination ("intuition"?) takes me. Would that be a "reading"? I don't know. I can only say that it would not be for me. I do not believe in unstructured intuition. Intuition without solid philosophical foundation is too close to the realm of imagination for my comfort. Imaginations, and dreams particularly, can be powerful, and can really help you connect to the other side. But they are not "reading". Not to me.

So maybe, I should say, reading *utilizing* my intuition.

Anyway.

For the first time, I can read the cards with my intellect and intuition in unison, instead of each of them fighting for attention.

Usually, I would catch myself reading the title of each cards, while quickly going back to the Raider Waite Smith's (RWS) scene for each of them in my mind, or mentally rehearsing each of its meaning, thereby completely ignoring whatever pictures I see before me. I might as well throw every decks I have and just use the RWS deck exclusively. Or, write the titles of cards on blank pieces of paper and simply use those. Right? Well, I will never find myself using the RWS deck exclusively as I can not really connect with the images on the RWS, so there is that. Then there is my collecting bug, so there is that too.

So I tried to switch analytical brain off. Only to find that although I am no stranger to "intuition", mine is so used to working within the context of the world around me, that it doesn't know what to do when looking at cards with pictures on them. Especially when these pictures are often foreign to me (That's is a whole other topic right there...)

My intuition is used to working in a world I know all my life: the world of human interactions that I know very well. In trying to apply this intuition to a system I am just beginning to grasp, it is suffocated by the analytical need of my brain to process new information.

SEVERAL LAYERS OF PROCESSING

Essentially, I feel, tarot learning involved several layers of processing: the world of the tarot (Golden Dawn? Crowley's? Marseilles? European style?), the world of a particular deck (Myths? Fairy Tales? Cultural? Buddhist based? Circus based? New Age? Sacred Feminine? and so on), and the visual language of a deck (Realism? Photo journalism? Computer graphic? Sketch? Line art? Paintings? Collage? Etc). 

This can result in a highly complex information intake process involving several parallel layers of concurrent cognitive engagements. Having an inclination for a certain type of learning style, my brain would immediately engage in a knee jerk analytical learning, because there are just so many information to go through.

The intuitive side of the brain simply did not get a chance.

FAMILIAR IMAGES

Through the use of well known paintings that were created especially for artistic purposes, and by the use of stories in mythologies to convey the essence of each card in the Tarot of Delphi, the deck's world view overlaps with mine from the get go. 

Although I do not know all the art work and mythology equally well, they are all embedded in a world that is very familiar to me. 

Suddenly my brain is free to make quick associations between images, stories, tarot structures, and situations I am reading for, in a way that I had not managed to do before.

WORLDVIEW 

The larger world within which these stories are told, joined hand with the larger world that I occupy. Once the links are made, they then receded into the background, providing the cognitive space that I desperately need to be able to read properly, while at the same time also providing me with both contextual foundation and infrastructural support.

REPRESENTATION

Almost all the decks I have, as much as I love them (visually and tactilely), hardly ever truly represent the world as I experience it. The kind of familiarity which allows me to feel at home with a deck has been a rarity until now. I had always felt as if I am a guest, trying to juggle a variety of unfamiliar and challenging tasks, while at the same time having to smile politely and watch my manners too.

The Tarot of Delphi provides me with a deck that I am finally at home with.

Where all I need to do is read, instead of interpreting, translating, analyzing, BEFORE I can even start reading, or even DURING!

I've been a minority all my life, and even in tarot, it seems, I could not escape this.

Until I found this deck!


Next, I would like to share with you my thoughts on the Tarot of Delphi's Face Cards. They are the equivalent of the "Court" cards in more conventional decks.

PS:

Other decks which take me feel as if I am welcomed as a friend and not a stranger are "Tarot Everywhere" by Kirsten of Over The Moon Oracles, and "The Urban Tarot" a New York City themed deck by Robin Scott. 

PPS:

I am not of European ancestry, and have been a minority all of my life. Although I identify strongly with being a New Zealander and a Javanese Peranakan Indonesian Chinese. I am not PHYSICALLY represented in these images, but my WORLDVIEW is. I do NOT believe that the content of my brain should match the colour of my skin. (I think that is called "racism"...?)

Spiritual Masturbation? Creating the Divine in Our Own Image

In the Christian tradition, it was said that we have been created in the image of God.

When two parties, each arriving from a very different place, are talking to each other, it just seems to make sens that it would be easier for everyone if they can talk eye to eye.  The Divine, and us. Someone has to go to the other side, so that conversation can happen on a comfortable and manageable level. So Gods and Goddesses in our image, or, us in God's image. It make sense.

Now that Christianity is about 2000 years old, it has become the old thing which cobwebs needed much cleaning, which hypocrisy needed much admonishing, which teaching has grown so repetitive that it has became white noise, which images have became such cliches that they ceased to be inspiring, which God has been so misused that it grew tiresome, even traumatizing; which institutions have been so politicized that it has become irrelevant to those of us who have to live in the real world, facing real moral dilemmas every day. As pendulums go, they swing back, and then forth, and then back; depending on the height of the upswing, it will go on the down swing, and vice versa.

In my own journey and search, I came across a lot of testimonies about personal matrons and patrons in the form of various Goddesses and Gods from various traditions all over the world. Human connections to the divine are often found in them. Well, they have been created in our images, so, of course we see ourselves in them, and so we find it easy to connect with them. We either pick those who resonate with who we are, who we want to be, or those who we feel can make a good companion to the self-in-progress. 

A maternal gentle Goddess when things are harsh. A no nonsense God when we feel as if there are too much bullshit around us. A sensual Goddess when we feel we need to reawaken that aspect of ourselves. A strong powerful God when we feel weak. The Egyptian pantheon because we are 'drawn' to them, or the Greek one because they have stories that are more compelling to us, or the Norse one because they look like what you might imagine your ancestors to look like. 

The words we often found in the handbooks of oracle decks, which are believed to be those of the divine itself, often channeled through the author, either directly, or indirectly. If these soothing words were captured by gifted artists and motivational speakers, and expressed through the divinity of our own creation, of our own choosing. If these words were crafted by those whose tasks is to listen to what we need, what we want, so that we can feel good, and feel better.

Whatever the case may be, we search, and we focus on ourselves, what we need, what we want, what we like, what we think.
 
My question to myself and to whoever has too much time in their hands to be reading this, is this:

If we are the ones to decide what the divine is. If we are the ones to determined what these personifications are like, for us. When the divine actually arrived at our door step and knock on our door, to introduce itself to us, as it actually is, how are we going to recognize it?

Do we dare to be so presumptuous as to claim that we know all there is to know about the divine? So that what we know of it, is all there is to know? If not, I ask again, how are we going to recognize it?

If we are only connecting to ourselves and talking to ourselves, are we not in fact going round and round amongst ourselves?

If that is the case, is this not spiritual masturbation? Not only on a personal level, but also a communal one....?