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The Cartomancer: Between the acts

The Cartomancer: Between the acts

Last updated on: March 23, 2017 at 11:57 am by Camelia Elias

The Cartomancer: Between the acts 2017-03-23T11:57:31+00:00 Camelia Elias

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Speak to me

The most obvious question to ask, when we stand at the threshold of anything is this:

‘What am I jumping into now?’

On the vernal equinox day I recorded a short video where I talk about thresholds, embedded in a winter tale.

The gist of it is that what we can do when crossing a threshold is be aware of just how cold and impersonal the threshold is, and from this learn a lesson, namely the lesson of standing neutral when facing whatever comes your way.

I simply ask whatever comes, not to just come, but to speak to me, whether that be spring, the past, nature, or parts of myself that I’d rather not encounter anymore.

Spring is coming, and naturally we think, ‘now I can do some cleaning,’ of the house, of thoughts, of habitual patterns, of relationships.

In addition to my greeting in my Tale of Winter, I want to offer here a string of cards reflecting what I asked, while the Sun was ingressing into the new astronomical year.

What am I jumping into this spring?

I put down three cards first:

The Hermit, Death, The Pope

Jean Noblet Marseille Tarot, 1650, as reconstructed by Jean-Claude Flornoy (Photo: Camelia Elias)

Upon seeing these cards, what with their ends extended, as it were, with the Hermit looking at the past and the Pope looking at the future, I drew more cards to close the narrative: Temperance and Justice on the side of the Hermit and the Tower and Judgment on the side of the Pope.

Jean Noblet Marseille Tarot, 1650, as reconstructed by Jean-Claude Flornoy (Photo:

The cards were pretty brutal, and fair, all things considered. And by this I mean to say that the context and the question lead the reading and the story.

You’re done seeking, compromise and balance. Enough of that already.

Get thee to that pulpit, and in your own irreverent church, start preaching.

Your school – [as I decided to have one] – can be called ‘The School of Devastation.’

Well, ‘ain’t that the truth,’ I thought to myself.

Many familiar with my work often tell me: You really take no prisoners, and that’s your strength.’

I guess not. Or, I guess so.

I go blasting to everyone willing to hear that it’s rather liberating to stop thinking that you exist, that your actions, love or hate, aggressions and excitements, craving and denying, have any meaning. None whatsoever.

The only meaning there is, is the meaning of you standing wherever you’re standing, on the threshold or in the fire, and paying attention to all.

If your mind is accustomed to that, then you’ll have a body full of spring already. Full of vibrancy and vitality.

As a last practice, here, the practice of reading cards, what you may also want to ask is the following:

‘What’s between winter and spring? Between then and now?

In my case, more concretely also:

What enables the move from ‘enough of this already’ to ‘preach, sister’?

My cards in between are the Sun and the Charioteer.

The message here is very much aligned with what spring does already: Bring back the sun, the sharing, and letting you get on with the program, even if that be riding away from a community and into establishing your own personal velocity.

Happy thresholds to all. Enjoy your spring.

♠

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