What Do the Archetypes in the Tarot Have to Do With ME?
What we've got here is a picture of a hibiscus from my backyard. Take a
look at it. What do you see? Well, of course you see the intense, pink
color and the pistil 'calling all bees', but what else do you see?
There's some foliage supporting the flower and the hint of another bud
growing. The setting is green, the sky is blue, the sun is shining.
There is some white around the inner edge of the hibiscus appearing to
plunge deep inside. See? There's more to this picture than you realize
at first.
This photograph could easily become a tarot card. Why? because the left
side of the brain sees a flower. The right side of the brain sees the
details, and from those -- draws symbols. Those symbols come from the
deepest part of our minds: the part that tries to find meaning in our
lives.
Let's back up a little bit. Mozart wrote Don Giovanni in 1787. Back in
his time, going to the opera was a bit more laid back than it is now.
People ate and talked all through the performance. They did this
because they usually did not need a translation like most of us do. But
the main reason they were so blase` about it all, was that Mozart was
writing operas that were telling time-worn tales that the audience
could relate to. This was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt when
wunderkind, Peter Sellars (not the actor, but the conductor) directed
Don Giovanni in the early 1990s as a gang war set in Spanish Harlem.
Two centuries later, the archetypal story was still the same, all that
Sellars changed was the setting, proving that the opera isn't some
lofty, inscrutable enigma, but just a simple story that all mankind can
understand.
So, here's the point: We can't escape the archetypes. Our brains are
wired to see them and to live them. People were the same 400 years ago
(or at any time in the past) as they are, now. Only the form has
changed. Now, we have cell phones and web cams and things that
primitive man would never be able to wrap his mind around -- but we
still have the same old dramas -- they just wear different clothes.
When someone reads your cards, they look past the form and down into
the content of your life. Each card offers up many, many symbols (such
as in the photograph above) that the reader will regard until something
sticks in her mind. It gets a little complicated, here...but stay with
me.
Maybe the bud in the background of the 'hibiscus card' is what catches
my attention. From my point of view, the reason that is the symbol that
catches my attention, is because that card appears with the Tower card.
The Tower depicts destruction, and my mind begins to see the story: The
querant is beginning a new project, and has misjudged it's readiness to
be put into play -- The Tower is warning that it could all fall apart.
The project has not reached a mature enough stage to 'blossom' on it's
own, and if the querant continues to force the project, all the hard
work will be lost.
Ok, there are no guarantees that the story I have drawn in my own mind
is exactly what is going on in the querant's life, but look below the
form (the word 'project') and insert another form: the word
'relationship'. You see, this is a pattern that is recognizable by all
humankind. It just comes in different forms. Sometimes we want to push
something that just isn't ready. If you take the souffle` out of the
oven too soon it will fall.
The best art evokes in us a feeling of belonging. What we belong to is
not really that mysterious. Once the Emperor's removes his clothes,
he's just like you and me!
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