One of the most interesting lessons in my Facebook Tarot study group was the personal year exercise. A little numerology added to the card-choosing process. We were asked to figure our number for this year by adding the numbers for our month and day of birth with the current year, 2012. Mine came out to 10, which translated to three cards (because you use all the digits): The Fool (0), The Magus/Magician (1), and the Wheel of Fortune (10). I drew the following conclusions:
The Fool
This Fool is more like a counterpart to the World, the alpha and the omega. All the elements of the spirit journey surround and suffuse him; only the planets and stars of the outer universe are in the bag, everything symbolic swirls around him (butterfly/soul, cadeucus/healing, dove/Holy Spirit, Tiger and Crocodile/Challenge, Rose and Lilies (love), Flames and Crystals. He hangs suspended, like the figure in the World, rather than on solid ground about to step off into the abyss. And the sun shines through his base/sexual chakra. Sex is creation in the world. He has the Hanged Man’s expression of calm joy on his face. Well, is it the beginning , or the end, or more likely a new spiral in the circle (as indicated by the spiral rings on the card)? I think the Fool is a reminder that there really is no beginning or end, only the infinite spiral, and you can take it like an escalator, up or down, or even sideways. All the tools are at hand for whichever journey you choose to take. Follow the yellow brick road.
The Magus
Enjoying his power to manipulate the universe, this one. Got his winged boots on, Hermes incarnate, with all his spells and tools readily accessible, although a little creature below him is approaching, for good or ill, I know not. The Ape of Thoth makes his way to disrupt the Magus’s alchemical experiments and take him down a notch. With great power comes great responsibility. Don’t get too caught up in Ego, or your wings and your spell/solution may fail you.
Fortune
The Sphinx, Anubis and Typhon (Magus, Empress, Emperor) all hanging out on the Wheel of Fortune with Stars above and lightning radiating downward, jets of gas pushing out and turning the Wheel, which is the wheel of universal change. Change is the fabric of the universe. Get used to it. Being in the center in side your mind can be helpful in dealing with the changes running the outside of the moving wheel.
This year encompasses the whole of the universe in its potential (0 Fool) and manifested (1 Magus) states and in the wheel (Wheel of Fortune 10) of constant change. I seem to be about to be the creator or witness to the birth of an entirely new universe (within or without?). Duquette’s interpretation of the Thoth versions of these cards reminds me of the precepts of Taoism. The Fool, in that system, represents the Tao itself, that which is behind/beyond the manifestation of our universe as we know it, the whatever was not that was before the Big Bang, as it were, the nothing from which all somethings arise. And of course the Magus/Magician is the Te, the Will to create as it happens. And within that creation spins the Wheel of constant change, the dance of opposites (good luck/bad luck). On a more practical note, this year seems to be the one where my card deck based on the cosmology of the physical universe will be manifested, should I so choose. And it looks like I should…:)
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