For this week I drew the World card, signifying coming to a full circle, with a sense of expanded awareness and maturity. This card signifies that we are ready to broaden our horizons, grow and change. The world is number 21 in the deck and is ruled by Saturn. Saturn is associated astrologically with ideas of of discipline and the restrictions which are imposed on our physical interactions with the material universe. Saturn also rules the forces of time. We can go anywhere at any time in our minds, but Saturn shows us the limits of our imagination-what’s physically. possible and what isn’t.
The World card is the Hanged Man flipped. Both card's have a figure with one leg crossed over the other. The figure in the World card stands right side up and the Hanged Man is suspended upside down. This signifies the perspective from which one is looking at life. The World is oriented to outside influences and is interactive in the material world. Conversely, the Hanged Man is inward looking, influenced by ideals and self-sacrifice for things which may not have anything to do with worldly considerations. By the time we get to the World card at the end of the Tarot deck, the ideals and expectations we've built into our identities have been tempered by the parameters of experience in the physical world. We can imagine what we'd like to do and the type of person we'd like to be, but when we are faced with reality, our reactions are very often more complicated than our narrow perceptions of what's right and wrong in any given situation.
As I said on Sunday, this week's a good time to get out and test our own limits, which the energy of Saturn shows us. This means getting out and seeing if our our ideals match with the expectations of reality by asking questions and engaging in dialogue with people who don't necessarily agree with us. How well do our beliefs and opinions hold up? What is the true value of beliefs and opinions when faced with objective facts? The energy of this card enables us to see where we can expand the limits of our minds and where we need to erect boundaries and be more pragmatic. We are encouraged to recognize and experience the beauty of the path we are treading in the here and now, the one which is uniquely ours, instead of vicariously living through someone else's visions, expectations or prejudices.
It’s always a good time to think about what our place as humans really is on this earth. The World card brings global considerations to the fore and reminds us of our interconnectedness as humans. We are faced collectively and individually with questions of how we can preserve life for the future instead of a few profiting in the short term by its poison, destruction and the desperation of the miserable. Its a reminder that the only wealth we have as humans comes from the Earth. We come from here and we return when we die. We don’t own the World, there is no us without it.
Playlist
Bo Weevil-Fats Domino
Seven Years in Tibet-David Bowie
Oh No-Gogol Bordello
Shoes-Kane Mayfield
Borrow Love and Go-Leadbelly
Hotshot-Nikki Hill
Here Beside You-Holly Golightly
Land of the Free?-Pennywise
Down Rodeo-Rage Against the Machine
Submission-Sex Pistols
Ballrooms of Mars-T-Rex
Fate of the Human Carbine-Cat Power
