June 11-13, 2014; Five of Swords

Al-Shariyf

DEFEAT
Five of Swords

Meditation Pattern: Place Atu III, The Empress, and Atu XVII, The Star, side-by-side, with the 5 of Swords above them.

Traditional Description: Two pairs of swords extending from the lower corners of opposite sides of the figure, nearly upright, but falling apart of each other, right and left of the card. A fifth sword stands upright in the center as though it had disunited them. The petals of the rose, which in the Four of Swords had been reinstated in the center, are torn asunder and falling. Above and below are the symbols of Venus and Aquarius for the Decanate.

Geburah of Air: Mental severity, pain, or anguish (requiring mental strength and resolve of character). Defeat, loss, malice, spite, disruption, slander, evil-speaking, dishonor.

Venus/Aquarius: Failure, defeat. Intellect weakened by sentiment. Loss of competitive edge. Contest decided against the querent; weakness, anxiety, trouble, poverty, avarice, grieving after pain or loss, laborious, restless, unresting; loss; vileness of nature; malicious, slanderous, lying, spiteful, treacherous, tale-bearing. A busybody and separator of friends, divisive, hating to see peace and love between others. Cruel, cowardly, thankless, unreliable. Clever and quick in thought and speech. Feelings of pity easily roused, but unenduring.

Mars + Venus: Excitability, strong passions and emotional force, disharmonious, divisive, disruptive of relationships, enkindling of enmity.

http://shadesofmidnight.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/5-of-swords-thoth.jpg

Danica

Intellect and feelings in disharmony, mutually demolishing each other, or fettering each other.
Paradox of relating to the other human as to Transcendence (Kierkegaard Vs. Levinas).
In a wider sense, every encounter of the paradox of Spirit (individual mystical experience) with moral and ethics; more particularly, with the side of it based on reason alone (“rules” that are general).
In Geburah (action, karma, warrior-like Service to Adonai) reason is defeated.

Insult; crudeness to one’s neighbor.
Daleth + Heh is that inside the idea of defeat which “saves things” – there’s a basis for balance to be applied into practical issues of reason vs. feelings, etc. ; that is: productivity and fertility of authentic nature of a particular Star.
5-of-Swords demands clash/conflict/purification in the sphere of intellect. So with the right approach, it could mean: complete respect of the other being (human or not) even when (and especially when!) we hit him/her deadly as our rival in a fight – but also when he/she hits us.
NB: the one who knows not defeat, does not know victory either!

The heart is stricken with discord/strife.
Maybe defeat is a form of probation, test? Test of our ability and willingness to go on with true Devotion, surrendered to Adonai’s lead, even in circumstances when it seems that what we have to do is in complete opposition to our personal volition, feelings, thoughts?
The very fact that the ego (the “I”) is surrendered to something Absolute, unknown and Unknowable, is a defeat for the ego-mind. (But aah, it’s Triumph of Love!)

Al-Shariyf

Day one:
Emotionally over-reactive & excitiable, logic and rationality usurped by emotional instability, logic clouded by over-sentimentality, mental tension, being triggered, an amygdala hi-jack, emotionalized thinking in response to a sudden disruption in the stability of a situation, the defeat here seems to be connected to the mind losing control, losing it's authority or being dominated in some way.

Day two:
Feeling thwarted, feeling edgy & testy, sore loser, jealousy, an ill reaction to a sudden change, wishing ill-will on others, shit talking & spiteful gossiping, dashed hopes, slandering

Day three:
bruised ego, having the rugged pulled from underneath, being attacked when one's guard is down, being trumped, being swindled and bamboozled