Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

THE CARTOMANCER

Home
Pagan
What a Mountain, a Shopping Channel, and Cards Have in Common

What a Mountain, a Shopping Channel, and Cards Have in Common

Last updated on: July 14, 2019 at 7:22 pm by Camelia Elias

What a Mountain, a Shopping Channel, and Cards Have in Common 2019-07-14T19:22:26+02:00 Camelia Elias

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Enjoying the top (Photo: Bent Sørensen)

On top of the mountain in Norway I think of language, expectation, and storytelling.

Imagine this scenario: You climb to the top of the mountain – make that a mean top. If you tell others about it, the most common reaction would be to know what it was like. ‘What did you feel up there?’ You can engage in a tirade: ‘I swear wasn’t looking for God, but when I was so close to the sky, man, it happened.’ Or, ‘I felt utterly transformed, crushed to the ground and reborn.’ Or, ‘I’ve conquered the mountain. I’ve tested my character and discovered that I have a strong spine.’ ‘How awesome’, the other would say.

Compare this to this exchange: ‘I felt nothing. I climbed the mountain and that was that.’ ‘What do you mean, that was that?’ ‘Well, I mean exactly that, that I did it, climbed the mountain. Full stop.’

Now, while this would be the actual case, culturally speaking it’s not good enough. It’s boring. Where’s the heroism, the resilience, god, and the transformative? You must be a different person. Your value must have gone up too. Going through all that effort must generate a story. A story of overcoming limitation, of greatness and reward. This story must inspire others.

This is all fine, until you realize that what has an actual value here is what is the case. You climbed the mountain. Anything else besides that is fiction. Feeling anything presupposes belief in something. And what if you don’t believe in anything? By virtue of its nature belief operates with the fictitious. It that wasn’t the case, belief would have no reason to exist.

In the context of divination with the cards, where we operate with storytelling, inspiration, education, and even belief in the cards to tell the truth about a situation, it’s worth considering what is actually the case.

You read the cards, and that’s that. You read what you see. While this can generate a story, how can it ever be anchored in certitude?

Although based on pointing, depending also on what your method is – and mine is very much based on pointing to what is the case as derived from the visual stories in the cards themselves – reading cards is not unlike watching a TV shopping channel. ‘Look at this diamond, the cut is perfect, the value of this cut is amazing, it’s difficult to cut a stone like this, look at this sparkle, it’s life altering, this is the forever radical, you put this on your finger and the diamond will tell the story of your success, you’re rich, you’re healed from your poverty trauma, and lost loves…’

While the TV merchant goes like that, pointing to all the facets of this diamond and relating them to ‘real’ aspects of life, what can we say is actually the case?

You can’t actually see what the value of this diamond is, how it’s cut and from what stone, as that would require an educated investigation and a special tool. You’re watching TV for Christ’s sake. That is what you actually do.

All the other stuff is stories, certitude that’s not factual. Certitude is transacted with, however, in this form: If you don’t covet the bullshit called ‘diamonds are forever’, something is wrong with you. That’s obviously certain.

I don’t know what is valuable in my work with the cards, but one thing I know as a matter of fact. I promise nothing and I make no claims. I just read the damn cards.

With this in mind, I wanted to ask: What have I actually conquered today, because I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t the mountain?

Photo: Camelia Elias

The World, Temperance, and the Wheel of Fortune showed up to suggest the following: What I’ve conquered today is to keep two wheels going in equal measure. One wheel is about internal relations, and the other about external relations. One is about what you do, and the other is about what others do. To each their own.

The more subtle message here is this: You can’t conquer what is already equal. Although language presses on, and the shopping channels are being replaced by mailing lists, what is there to see stays. Place the factual in relation to the fictitious, and you wake up an alchemist, knowing which belongs to what wheel.

I’ll take this message. Tomorrow I’ll try another mountain top and reactivate my former alpinist ambitions, knowing, however, that the mountain will never be conquered by the world of ideas.

♠

Stay in the loop for cartomantic courses.

About Camelia Elias

Camelia Elias, PhD & Dr.Phil., is a former university professor. After 20 years in the academia, she left her career to pursue her interests in teaching and writing on the philosophy and practice of reading cards. She works with contemplative arts, oracular language, and martial arts cartomancy and Zen at her own school, Aradia Academy. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

July 5, 2019

STUBBORNNESS OR RESILIENCE?

Next Post

July 21, 2019 BEING KISSED BY A PODCAST

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Columns The Cartomancer Uncategorized

Select a Month January 2024 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 November 2022 October 2022 August 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I am a precious stone, tested and chosen. Believers will never be put to shame when they trust in me. What am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A cornerstone A foundation A living stone A rock