April 20-22, 2014: Ten of Wands
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Ten of Wands
OPPRESSIONMeditation Pattern: Place Atu XXI, The Universe, and Atu XIV, Art, side-by-side, with the 10 of Wands above them.
Traditional Description: Eight wands crossed as before. Two more wands upright, traversing the junction of the others. Flames issue from the juncture. The symbols Saturn and Art are above and beneath.
Malkuth of Fire: Blind force detached from its spiritual sources. Overbearing force and energy, cruelty, malice, revenge, injustice.
Saturn/Sagittarius: Cruel and callous power applied to material and selfish ends. Tyranny, oppression, repression. May show failure in a matter, and opposition too strong to be resisted, arising from the person’s excessive selfishness at the start. Self-doubt, feeling overburdened or not up to the task. Ill-will, lying, malice, slander, envy, deceit, obstinacy, if ill-dignified. If well-dignified, a strong sense of justice and morality, asceticism, prudence, helpfulness, objectivity, self-sacrifice, and generosity.
Malkuth + Saturn: Perseverance, endurance, effort, but to little avail. The need for economy. Materialism, possessiveness. Overburdening inertia impedes progress.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sLB9XnEWDNU/TOSw0AHFGNI/AAAAAAAAAxw/8CatkkcEzQY/s1600/thoth10Wands.jpg
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- The card is also on the Middle Pillar, as the previous one, but here the tendency of energy-flow is downward (while in 9 of Wands it was upward): materialization of the Element of Fire, which seems not compatible with its principle, hence – tension, oppression…
- Saturn + Sagittarius: a stone (lapis) that is not “rectified”/purified yet?
- Crystallization of the principle of Fire (lava, Earth’s core, embers); this pression (o-pression) may be used constructively! Isn't this how carbon turns into diamond in nature?
- Earth extinguishes fire! A stone does not burn (except for meteorites – going through the atmosphere with high velocity); but it can melt (magma)… much for contemplation here.
- Working on something that is hard to work on; hard, crystallized forms (clustered in complex structures) that require a lot of energy to be put into motion, to be changed/altered even a little bit. If resistance and inertia of Earth/Saturn overbalance the Fire, it becomes extinguished/exhausted; if the influence of Fire “over-weights”, the Saturn-principle becomes transformed.
- It seems that the Tens (in all Elements) represent a state that resists becoming a process; lack of creativity here; only the cause-and-effect laws: we see the effects, but there’s nothing that can alter them now, idea is fully manifested and at this point we can only observe how inevitably the causation (as the natural law) works. BUT: initiation changes this, insofar that it turns the now natural tendency of energy flow downwards into the opposite direction – from many to One; analogy of the “moving the mountains” by the power of will comes to mind. A tremendous energy and will-power is needed! But once the state has become a process, a subtle and gradual refinement takes place, and the inertia of Malkuth can become a tool in aspirant’s hands, not a blind force that oppresses him/her.
- Almost nothing gained from today’s meditation. When I closed my eyes, I saw dark horses running freely and then coming to drink water from a lake.
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Have you thought any more on this last image?
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@Aion said
"Have you thought any more on this last image?"
If you mean, have I analyzed it in detail - no, not quite
I just concluded it has to do with the fact that we begin with Water the next day. I also remembered a dream I had many years ago, with a horse (it was one of those highly intense dreams, when you become fully awake because of this intensity, while the dream experience continues). -
@Danica said
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I saw dark horses running freely and then coming to drink water from a lake."Just my two cents..
"Oppression" - it gets at the energy, but only as perceived by something else - a different, contrary will.
Perhaps the grass is "oppressed" here by the dark, powerful, Earthen creatures running around on it, energetically and fully completing their will before they desire the water. But do the horses seek to oppress? They manifest their will. To the grass, I'm sure it seems like a harsh, resolute act has been carried out against it. An irrevocable will, against which the grass has no power to defend itself, has trampled it unsympathetically. And that is true, from the perspective of the grass. But the horses are just being horses.
Every completely manifested act of Will must seem like oppression to someone, to something. They could not change its mind. They could not prevent it from manifesting.
"Oppression!"
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Day one:
On one end of the spectrum this card signifies the tremendous amount of self-discipline and work ethic of geniuses and highly successful people, whose strict rules and adherence to those rules allowed them to flourish, on the other end, here is overbearing restriction and burden that inhibits free expression, overwhelm, overbearing load, tyranny and tyranical tendencies, being "hang-dogged"Day two:
Grit, working concentratedly, rationing, forced unwanted discipline, extremely demanding circumstances, looming feeling of stress, high input - low output,Day three:
Restriction of the free flow of will for better or for worse, rigidity, imposed practicality, confronting what it takes to get the job done and doing it, limited rights, limited range of personal expression, confronting the enormity of a given situation, being overburdened, over-worked - under paid, carrying a heavy work load, excelling in a difficult time, nose to the grindstone, cutting out the unnecessary doingness, no fucking around, depression, feeling like "it takes EVERYTHING"