(![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
syncategorematic Dec. 31st, 2007 07:49 pm)
syncategorematic Dec. 31st, 2007 07:49 pm)It has been a beautiful year.
Certainly, it was a year that had pain in it, and anguish, and doubt, and indecision, and revelation, and truths that set you free but first they make you miserable. But it has also been a year of joy, a year of beauty that made my heart sing and my throat dance. It has been a year of knowing myself; indeed, it is true, it has been a year of the Hermit.
Certainly, it was a year that had pain in it, and anguish, and doubt, and indecision, and revelation, and truths that set you free but first they make you miserable. But it has also been a year of joy, a year of beauty that made my heart sing and my throat dance. It has been a year of knowing myself; indeed, it is true, it has been a year of the Hermit.
Of all forms of divination I have ever heard of, numerology is the one I am most scornful of. My inner mathematician and linguist gang up together and demand, "Shift the number base, shift the writing system, shift the calendar, and all of your elegant conclusions are gone to hell on an automatized catamaran. Who is to say that I am going to calculate conclusions about this year using the Gregorian calendar? Why not the Jewish calendar, the Muslim calendar, or heck, the Baha'i calendar?"
I like divination systems that allow for leeway, that are actually just plain taps into the subconscious, by some method. Ones that are too free --- gazing at random patterns of whatever type, pendulums, just letting your mind go --- do not always work for me, especially on questions I am emotionally involved in. I am told that on questions about people I cared not a fig about one way or another, I have been eerily accurate; however, for myself, I tended to see what I want to see. Although I did discover later, on reading my old notes, that I foretold my withdrawal from the co-op program, to my own surprise; that is one of the few times I have been right on free divination about myself. Hence, I like tarot cards. Once the cards fall into the spread, you can't really argue with them, even though you want to. There is plenty of flexibility in the general pile of meanings associated with them, but a Three of Cups ain't becoming a Two even if you stare at it and ask it really nicely.
The meanings of tarot cards, especially major arcana, are fascinating. When I read for others and a major comes out in the spread, I always try to get as many different interpretations of it to apply to the given situation as possible, to "milk the major for meanings." A major means business, "now here's where you sit up and pay attention, this is serious informational dumping right here." I can probably write a decent essay about the philosophy of any of the major arcana archetypes, and that is just from about a year of tarot practice (and, um, five working decks and the books associated with them, plus three I hardly ever use.)
However, despite my reservations on anything numerological, I am willing to consider year cards on a hypothesis /deduction basis. If I assume that, me being born on April 23, and this year being 2007, that 4 + 23 + 2007 = 2034, and 2 + 0 + 3 + 4 = 9, then this iwas a Hermit year. What is the Hermit?
The Hermit is isolation. Voluntary or involuntary withdrawal from society. Why? So as to seek knowledge, to illuminate what is dim (with his lamp or torch) and to bring it back. It is always a temporary withdrawal, the Hermit's --- can't be otherwise with the Wheel of Fortune coming right behind it. Seek with fire by daylight. Alone, the Hermit looks within himself, for his own intuitions on what must be true --- and without the disturbance of his or other people's worldly desires. It is a hard journey; it is journey where, even if friends help along, by occasionally bringing the isolated Hermit a packet of Cheetos (or chocolates, or tea) and a newspaper, the vast majority of the work is his own. "Work on yourself," is one of my father's clichéd homilies, but it does have a grain of truth in it, despite being overused. The Hermit is left to his own resources, left to discover what they are, and to learn that they are far from meagre. Left to discover that, even lacking others, he can work his own joy.
The Hermit throws away what he can bear to do without, and learns that he did not actually need it that much. Whatever the things he threw away be --- jewelry, perfumes, needless relationships, wrong relationships, values handed down from childhood that no longer fit the current world, the door off my closet that occupied way too much floorspace --- the Hermit pares things down, and rebuilds a new himself from what remains. It is painful to throw away some of the junk of the pre-Hermit life. But it is worth it.
The Hermit goes voyaging. Mostly alone, though he raises his lantern to the faces of the people he meets, and looks them in the eye and asks them if they are honest people. The Hermit tries to rely on no one but himself, although the aforementioned friends do step in when they see he cannot always do that. The Hermit learns about the world, despite, by definition, being distinct from it. He observes it from a distance, without his presence affecting the course of events --- yet.
Alone, the Hermit works. The Hermit creates works of art and science. They are not yet ready for publication; that is the job of subsequent points in the arcana sequence; but they are prepared, ready for polishing. And in that sense, in the preparation of yet-unfinished, green, but clever works of art, it has been a very productive year for me. Indeed, in many, many ways, this has been a year of laying foundations, writing first drafts, having first experiences, of things that are nowhere near ready for anything, anything at all --- but they are there, they are made, they are not as scary as a completely white sheet of paper staring back at you!
However, in the beautiful duality of major arcana, the Hermit can also mean that you are too isolated from society and need help from your friends. And friends I gained this year, despite being a Hermit. I hate to mention Facebook in the same breath as major arcana --- ah, heck, I will mention Facebook in the same breath as major arcana, because neither should be taken too seriously, and both are, in their own ways, tools of communication. But I have had some delightful and insightful communications face-to-face, in the flesh, in meatspace this year, and learned a great deal about how unexpectedly wonderful the people I know can be. I get by with a little help from my friends. I do need those Cheetos and that newspaper, right, and that box of chocolates and that box of tea?
Now the Hermit is ready to come back into the world, bearing his drafts and the works of his isolation. Taking constructive criticism, polishing, improving, knowing at least somewhat who he is and what he wants and what he is going to strive for. Turning the Wheel of Fortune, the arcana that comes next. The symbol that represents life's ups and downs that come in cycles --- because life is a Sine Wave, of course --- but although we are all going through cycles and changes of mood and fortune on the wheel, we all need a hub on it. The things that do not change, the things you love, the things you stand for.
The things that remained with you when you threw most away to go a-Hermiting, they will remain with you on the hub of the Wheel of Fortune too.
I like divination systems that allow for leeway, that are actually just plain taps into the subconscious, by some method. Ones that are too free --- gazing at random patterns of whatever type, pendulums, just letting your mind go --- do not always work for me, especially on questions I am emotionally involved in. I am told that on questions about people I cared not a fig about one way or another, I have been eerily accurate; however, for myself, I tended to see what I want to see. Although I did discover later, on reading my old notes, that I foretold my withdrawal from the co-op program, to my own surprise; that is one of the few times I have been right on free divination about myself. Hence, I like tarot cards. Once the cards fall into the spread, you can't really argue with them, even though you want to. There is plenty of flexibility in the general pile of meanings associated with them, but a Three of Cups ain't becoming a Two even if you stare at it and ask it really nicely.
The meanings of tarot cards, especially major arcana, are fascinating. When I read for others and a major comes out in the spread, I always try to get as many different interpretations of it to apply to the given situation as possible, to "milk the major for meanings." A major means business, "now here's where you sit up and pay attention, this is serious informational dumping right here." I can probably write a decent essay about the philosophy of any of the major arcana archetypes, and that is just from about a year of tarot practice (and, um, five working decks and the books associated with them, plus three I hardly ever use.)
However, despite my reservations on anything numerological, I am willing to consider year cards on a hypothesis /deduction basis. If I assume that, me being born on April 23, and this year being 2007, that 4 + 23 + 2007 = 2034, and 2 + 0 + 3 + 4 = 9, then this iwas a Hermit year. What is the Hermit?
The Hermit is isolation. Voluntary or involuntary withdrawal from society. Why? So as to seek knowledge, to illuminate what is dim (with his lamp or torch) and to bring it back. It is always a temporary withdrawal, the Hermit's --- can't be otherwise with the Wheel of Fortune coming right behind it. Seek with fire by daylight. Alone, the Hermit looks within himself, for his own intuitions on what must be true --- and without the disturbance of his or other people's worldly desires. It is a hard journey; it is journey where, even if friends help along, by occasionally bringing the isolated Hermit a packet of Cheetos (or chocolates, or tea) and a newspaper, the vast majority of the work is his own. "Work on yourself," is one of my father's clichéd homilies, but it does have a grain of truth in it, despite being overused. The Hermit is left to his own resources, left to discover what they are, and to learn that they are far from meagre. Left to discover that, even lacking others, he can work his own joy.
The Hermit throws away what he can bear to do without, and learns that he did not actually need it that much. Whatever the things he threw away be --- jewelry, perfumes, needless relationships, wrong relationships, values handed down from childhood that no longer fit the current world, the door off my closet that occupied way too much floorspace --- the Hermit pares things down, and rebuilds a new himself from what remains. It is painful to throw away some of the junk of the pre-Hermit life. But it is worth it.
The Hermit goes voyaging. Mostly alone, though he raises his lantern to the faces of the people he meets, and looks them in the eye and asks them if they are honest people. The Hermit tries to rely on no one but himself, although the aforementioned friends do step in when they see he cannot always do that. The Hermit learns about the world, despite, by definition, being distinct from it. He observes it from a distance, without his presence affecting the course of events --- yet.
Alone, the Hermit works. The Hermit creates works of art and science. They are not yet ready for publication; that is the job of subsequent points in the arcana sequence; but they are prepared, ready for polishing. And in that sense, in the preparation of yet-unfinished, green, but clever works of art, it has been a very productive year for me. Indeed, in many, many ways, this has been a year of laying foundations, writing first drafts, having first experiences, of things that are nowhere near ready for anything, anything at all --- but they are there, they are made, they are not as scary as a completely white sheet of paper staring back at you!
However, in the beautiful duality of major arcana, the Hermit can also mean that you are too isolated from society and need help from your friends. And friends I gained this year, despite being a Hermit. I hate to mention Facebook in the same breath as major arcana --- ah, heck, I will mention Facebook in the same breath as major arcana, because neither should be taken too seriously, and both are, in their own ways, tools of communication. But I have had some delightful and insightful communications face-to-face, in the flesh, in meatspace this year, and learned a great deal about how unexpectedly wonderful the people I know can be. I get by with a little help from my friends. I do need those Cheetos and that newspaper, right, and that box of chocolates and that box of tea?
Now the Hermit is ready to come back into the world, bearing his drafts and the works of his isolation. Taking constructive criticism, polishing, improving, knowing at least somewhat who he is and what he wants and what he is going to strive for. Turning the Wheel of Fortune, the arcana that comes next. The symbol that represents life's ups and downs that come in cycles --- because life is a Sine Wave, of course --- but although we are all going through cycles and changes of mood and fortune on the wheel, we all need a hub on it. The things that do not change, the things you love, the things you stand for.
The things that remained with you when you threw most away to go a-Hermiting, they will remain with you on the hub of the Wheel of Fortune too.