Tuesday, September 18, 2012

tricky balance - logic and intuition

So to be honest, much as I love it overall, the court cards are my least favorite part of this deck, and really, excepting the knights, possibly among my least favorite of courts in general. There's just something about the people in them that...doesn't do much for me...


That said, we have the Queen of Swords and the Moon. The Queen is bathed in a kind of blue light, illuminated from the crown of her head, her mind - she is of course ruled by logic, the element of air.  Sharp-minded, perhaps a bit of a cynic, perhaps molded in some ways by past suffering, willing to be ruthless when necessary, the fan in her hand made up of daggers... And what does such a queen do when confronted by the kind of situation represented by the Moon card? So much uncertainty, fog, indecision, muddle-mindedness, deception, lies, mental instability...so many questions and so few clear answers...

On the one hand, logic can be useful, a knife to cut through that fog with, to organize a response, make some kind of path to follow. Logic can give you something to ground yourself with when emotions feel like something too tricky, something you cannot trust. Subjective-you feels so confused, upset, scared - so fine, do the objectively logical thing, whatever that is, yes.

That can be a weakness too, though - sometimes our gut instinct, our emotional response, is just as valid as any attempt at logic...not least because no one, no matter how much they may say they identify with the queen or king of swords, is really divorced from their feelings. Actually, looking at these two together, I'm reminded of a certain book I haven't read in its entirety but have read various parts and excerpts. It's called The Gift of Fear and basically the author's assertion throughout is that sometimes, some situation just instinctively feels wrong. Something scares you, makes your feel uncomfortable, creeped out, whatever. And in the moment, there may not be ANY logical reason you can think of for your feelings - that logical part of your brain simply cannot work quickly enough to catch up to what your intuition already feels. Yet, if you allow yourself to 'logic away' those negative emotions...well, in worst-case scenarios, can lead to some major danger indeed...

Even in less extreme situations, sometimes your intuition, emotions, instinct, have important messages that your really should listen to. I think that more logic-inclined folks sometimes have this tendency - which I certainly have been guilty of - of believing that that 'logical' approach is [almost] always superior. After all, logic is clear. You can lay it out, explain, draw on external validation whereas 'this is just the way I feel' can seem so...insubstantial. And yet...time and place for everything; how you feel about something IS important, too.

So yes, drawback and benefits both, to the Queen of Swords approach. Worthwhile to keep that in mind...

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