Plans and Pipe-Dreams

So you get an idea: you want to do something new, try a different approach to things. You want to have something worthwhile to channel your energy, your passions into. Perhaps this new start can be that for you - new leaves, bright green sprouting from an upright branch; a dance among spring, flowers, blossoming. You want to grow, to do more than you are currently able to do. You want to be better. You want to do, to involve yourself with creative, impressive, fulfilling pursuits.

And so you have this idea, a spark of insight, the outlines of a plan, a course of action you could take to make it all come together. Or vaguer than that, a sketch in your mind still, this new opportunity, project, adventure...

And yet...how do you know, whether that flash of inspiration holds the seeds of a real, viable plan, or whether it is all a pipe dream? Mind games, escapist daydreams that flit across your mind because it is so much easier to get lost in perhaps perhaps and eventually than to deal with the difficult things right in front of you: that months-long fantasy, born of nothing more than a walk in front of an embassy, of running away to Australia...

Standing in front of a throne with a scepter of power in his hand, this man may be a king now, may have the power and the authority, but he never really did leave behind who he was: that knight, that dreamy-eyed, over-romantic knight. Still he focuses on the cup, his own self-indulgence rather than the larger picture. He drinks and enjoys the muddy-headed feeling as he ponders things he might do, project he might undertake, eventually, the things he might accomplish if he actually took this or that step...perhaps, perhaps...

Below, in his fields, with the castle where he takes his pleasure in view, simple people toil. They work and they work, force themselves through day after day of monotonous unrewarding labor. Does the king think of them? Does the King consider how his actions might effect others? Does the king account for those little details of reality in his grand plans?

And why do they stick to it, those people, day after day breaking their backs and see nothing for it? The same concept: the vague dream, the vague plans and ambitions - they too want something greater, something more. Perhaps if they work hard enough, are careful enough, are diligent enough, are good enough, perhaps they too will have a chance at those fresh young leaves sprouting up. Is this really possible? Is the system too skewed for them to have a chance at real success? Should they just give up then, collapse in the sun and refuse because why bother, why bother when nothing will ever change and they will grow old with age and still have nothing? Or is there that chance, if they, too, let themselves dream? Is there a difference between the dream-gaze into the bottom of a cup and the longing dream as you stare at the castle up there, in the distance?

Where exactly does the outline of a real plan end and the foggy edges of a pipe dream begin?

story time, take three

Here's another go at the three card story-writing exercise, this time with the Harmonious tarot.

There was once an old man who was a fool – royal fool, to be exact. He would dance and contort in front of the King and the courtiers. He would joke, play with words, play with props exotic and mundane. The royal family adored the fool; the king was generous and gave him all manner of expensive trinkets over the years as gifts. The fool always wore the same plain clothes though, and lived in the same simple shack with his son. In this way, no one paid much notice to the old man; no one envied him, nor acted to make his life more difficult, as was not uncommon a pastime in that court, at that time. One night, Death came for the fool, ethereal, dressed in black robes. Death carried the hourglass whose grains of sand marked the Fool’s lifespan. As the last of them ran out, the Fool began to dance – the funniest dance he’d ever choreographed, in fact. In his last moments, the old man was spry again, free.

After his father’s burial, the fool’s son found the chest where his father had kept all the gold he had ever received from thing king. In this way, the old man had ensured that the son would not be forced to take up the Fool’s mantle in his father’s place, and instead could follow his own path, whatever path it was that his turned out to be. The young man, uncertain at first, opted to join the ranks of the king’s pages. But there was Fool’s blood in the boy, and he didn’t make a very good page at all: he spent too much time dreaming, sketching ideas for contraptions he might someday create in the dusty ground. He was a curious young man, one who wanted to learn more than there was to learn among the pages and knights of the court. One day, a member of the king’s Academy of Science saw one of the boy’s sketches; impressed, he offered the page admission and apprenticeship instead. Thanks to his father, the young man could pay the fee, and so joined the ranks of the king's inventors instead.

Freed of the military garb of the page, his mind allowed to run wild in the halls of the Academy, the Fool’s son began to dress not unlike his father once had, and as his training progressed he created ever more interesting gadgets. One day the King decided to hold a contest – he erected a large obstacle course and decreed that whoever could pass all of it would be granted a boon. The Fool’s son, using his inventions, won out against the knights on horseback and the noblemen who competed, and as he was crowned winner asked the King for the hand of one of his daughters. The king shrugged – if one of them will have you, fine, he said. The king had two daughters, and the women were intrigued by this strange young man who had beaten their father’s challenge. So together they went to meet the young man. They talked with him, asked to see his laboratory, examined his strange clothes. Afterwards, they conferred. The older sister decided first – I don’t see a husband for myself in him, she told the younger, and shrugged; in truth, she already had her eye on another, a prince from a neighboring kingdom. Then the younger pondered a bit, and after a while nodded. Yes, I like him, she stated. I’ll choose him for a husband. And so she did, and the two youths were married, and to the surprise of much of the court, turned out to be quite well-matched. At the wedding feast, the groom even danced for a few moments just as his father once had, all those years ago.



this bothers me more than it probably should

So decided to try out one of those spreads I've had an eye on...decent reading, not really 'off' but not notable enough to type up either. Art-wise, I find the Harmonious tarot quite pretty, but I am already wondering if it won't end up on the trade-block due to a certain lack of connection in reading with it. Will see. Anyway, though, one of the cards that came up really kind of bothered me.

When I saw this card, I spent a good minute or two thinking it was the Queen of Wands. Why? Well, to be honest, in RWS styled decks I kind of automatically associate sunflowers with the Queen of Wands given the frequency with which they appear in her card. Then you have the bright golden tones, and...most notably, the RAM in the background. Working with Thoth has made me more aware of astrology as of late, and this, symbol of Aries, is most definitely a fire sign; fire, which is almost always associated with Wands. I mean, there is the Silicon Dawn with its quite deliberate and unique (to my knowledge) reversal of Wands and Coins suit elements, but in a deck like this, where there is no real elemental associations in the suits and certainly no deliberate effort to do something different... it just leaves me scratching my head about why are there all these wands/fire associations in what is supposed to be the earthy coin queen.

It's a pretty card, certainly. One of my favorites in the entire deck, aesthetically. And I suppose sunflowers can be an earth associated  as well, but the whole card image. to me, just says...growth, passion, energy, self-development, creativity...that ARIES mountain pointing upward, goals to achieve... I cannot see anything at all that I associate with the queen of coins in this card. Mentally I know that is what it is supposed to be, but visually I really do see another queen entirely.

It's one thing if a deck is really conceptually doing its own thing, but when it is essentially pretty straightforward RWS-based in a different/interesting art style... Maybe its my mood or stress level at the current moment, but this just...quite rather annoys me...

the right approach to idealism

So lacking time for longer/more interesting reading (I've seen several spreads lately I really want to try out!) decided to simply do another take on the idea of drawing one card from two different decks and interpreting them together. In this case, from Thoth and from my new deck for the next week or two, the trimmed Harmonious...

It's kind of funny, but I don't have a particularly high opinion of the Knight/Prince of Cups generally - relating this to others, I kind of see it as the kind of guy that is liable to pursue you a bit TOO hard, to the point of getting creepy and uncomfortable; the type that just doesn't want to HEAR it when the answer is no. In yourself, I kind of see it as that same kind of tendency toward...over-idealism, romanticizing things rather than dealing with reality, single-minded pursuit of dreams when a more pragmatic approach would get you further; the rose-colored glasses approach. I suppose that makes sense, that someone who identifies mostly with Queen of Swords and Knight of Pentacles might not see the Knight of Cups so positively...

But I think the message here is that sometimes, a little idealism - some devoted following of some dream or idea, some determined optimism - can be a good, or an even necessary thing. It's a good counter to negative thinking, to that kind of 'there is no way you can get that done, why even bother' voice. Maybe this knight isn't the most....together, in his approach toward that castle, but he's still going, not letting anyone or anything convince him otherwise. I mean, the fact that he has to have a cup of - what, liquid courage? - with him isn't the best sign, but...it's about HOW you go about the idealism, the dreams.

Virtious thinking. Positive thinking, not just in terms of optimistic thoughts but... positive in terms of being pro-active, pragmatic - what kind of goals do I have? What effects do I want to have, and how can I best go about doing that? It's self-confident, optimistic, directed thinking....

The Sun in Aries, we have in the three of wands - all the good, energetic, bright, right energies of the Sun channeled into action, into boldness. Relating to the majors associated with those astrological signs, we have the Emperor and the Sun: discipline that leads to success, fulfillment. There's a lot of bright orange and yellow color, which goes well with the color palette of the Knight of Cups as well. By taking the idea of the three of wands, combining that with the best aspects of the knight... well, some obstacles or difficult tasks ahead of us may just start to look a bit more manageable.