View Full Version : Adjustment
MystiqueMoonlight
12-05-2003, 17:32
"balance against each thought. it's exact opposite. For the marriage of these is the annihilation of illusion" Aleister Crowley
Colour: Blue
Astrology: Libra
Herb: Cinnamon
Hebrew: LAMED:- suggest everything which is extended, raised or displayed. It is the glyph of expansive movement, including all ideas of extension, elevation, occupation and possession. Lamed is the image of power derived from elevation
Rune: ELHAZ:- Divine weapon that bodes danger. Do not grasp or try to use...you must become. Then you can use to protect and/or bring change for a positive outcome. Use a double edged sword when using the wisddom required. Divine connection.
there are a lot of elements here, the spheres, the rays, the lines connecting the spheres, the mantle/wings of the woman, the head-dress, the sword, the scales and the chains. but what always strikes me when i look at it is first of all - the colours, blue and green
and then the posture of the woman - balancing on her toes whith her soles up against the sharp edge of the sword. that is concentration for you!
oh and the blindfold that is not really a blindfold but a mask with slits infront of the eyes. she can see - bur her vision is focused on just the thing at hand, there are no distractions here.
Lamed - outstreched hand
or to learn or teach
personal responsability, to take the fall yourself and not attribute blame on someone else. boundaries. making the rules and stick to them even when it is hard. Karma
extreme intellect. cold and harsh but rewarding in the long run.
The alpha and omega signs within the spheres; that which has been started must be completed.
The name of the card, Adjustment `clicks` with me far better than Justice does. Makes me think that something in my life needs to be adjusted, a big decision needs to be made and carried through.
Love and light
Crystalmynx xx
Just been looking at this card again and noticed that the sword is the same sword as the Ace Swords but pointing down. Do you think that this is to symbolise the truth, justice and clear thinking of the ace being made tangible and real, bringing it down to earth?
What are the significance of the spheres / bubbles?
Any thoughts?
Love and light
Crystalmynx xx
Melissa`
22-05-2003, 05:21
Originally posted by crystalmynx
Just been looking at this card again and noticed that the sword is the same sword as the Ace Swords but pointing down.
I had noticed this as well a while back. I laid out all the swords cards, looked them over. I assumed (yes I know - bad) possibly at first all the swords were similar. Yet they weren't. These two seem to be the only two swords that resemble each other or exact copies of each other. I had given it thought but didn't come up with any answers. I do however like your idea of bring it down to earth, tangible. That makes sence to me, I'll have to give it more thought now.
Amaya
isthmus nekoi
02-06-2003, 16:33
I think the greek word on that sword is "thelema". Someone correct me if I'm wrong. This may imply that personal will plays a role in adjustment - that you must sync up to.... the greater order of things.
you can find the goddess and the sword at the feet of the heirophant too
Originally posted by crystalmynx
The alpha and omega signs within the spheres; that which has been started must be completed.
in my eyes the ALPHA and the OMEGA say that neiter is more important [ultmately] and that t6hey balance each other out. in every siutuation one is needed more then the other...
and it is is a sum zero game [ALPHA + OMEGA = zero]
And also this is JESUS business card [I'm the ALPHA and the OMEGA]
Originally posted by Sulis
Just been looking at this card again and noticed that the sword is the same sword as the Ace Swords but pointing down. Do you think that this is to symbolise the truth, justice and clear thinking of the ace being made tangible and real, bringing it down to earth?
Greetings, Tarot Friends!
This is my first post to the forum. What fun! I've been reading cards for about 10 years, but have never been part of an on-line group.
Thanks for calling my attention to the unique connection between the Ace of Swords and Adjustment. Like another poster, I at first assumed that most of the Swords were the same.
I have a habit of pulling a card for the day. I cut the deck and look at the top card as the primary card. This morning it was Adjustment. I often look at the card on the bottom for further meaning. I once did a workshop with Rachel Pollack and Mary Greer and they talked about a bottom card as a hidden foundation of the reading. My bottom card this morning was the Ace of Swords.
A number of years ago, I had my cards read with a very intuitive reader who talked about the Ace of Swords as meaning "choosing to win," at least that is what has stuck in my head. So in this combination of cards, I read Adjustment's upside down sword as the opposite of needing to win or to be right. The person in Adjustment balances between opposites (right and wrong, beginning and end) and in those moments of perfect balance goes beyond small things to see the perfection of the universe. Of course, seemless perfection, like constant balance, might not be that interesting, even if it was possible. This meaning, too, seems to be built into the card through the asymetrical diamonds at the top of the picture, extending further down on the left.
So that is my offering, built from personal meanings I've developed with the cards. Hope they offer someting to you all who have created this great resource!
Be well,
CAC
There is a special dignity given to planets when
they are said to be in Exaltation. The sign of Libra
houses the exaltation of Saturn, which connects
VIII Adjustment to the cosmic unification
represented by XXI The Universe.
The Ace of Swords signifying Air also harmonizes well
with the energies of Libra, and Saturnine Aquarius.
Moonudjat
21-07-2004, 03:41
Originally posted by CAC
Greetings, Tarot Friends!
This is my first post to the forum. What fun! I've been reading cards for about 10 years, but have never been part of an on-line group.
I have a habit of pulling a card for the day. I cut the deck and look at the top card as the primary card. This morning it was Adjustment.
Wow what a coincidence
I'm fairly new too to writing posts. I'm glad i found it becasue unlike you I have had little experience with tarot
From the Book of Thoth:
"It is the final adjustment in the formula of Tetragrammaton, when the daughter, redeemed by her mariage with the Son, is therby set up on the throne of the mother; thus, finally, she 'awakens the Eld of the All father'"
Can anyone help me understand this?
This woman is suppose to represent Ma'at an Egyptian Goddess, who balanced her feather against the hearts of men to see if they were pure.
Frank Hall
21-07-2004, 09:21
This picture is full of fours,including the fourth- circles at the corners. The center being is in a diamond. Four chains balance Alpha and Omega.Hands and feet hold the sword. Etc. I'm not sure why there is so much fourfoldness in perfect symmetry around the center being. But it conveys a moment of soul-balance without any emotional swings. No red-hot here.
CreativeFire
21-07-2004, 12:55
First of all - welcome CAC to the forum :)
It is also very timely that you have posted in this thread, as 'Adjustment' is the card due for this week for the Study Group, so we may as well continue on with this older study group thread instead of creating a new one, as there are already some interesting thoughts contributed here.
I had not noticed until reading this that the sword in the Adjustment card is the same as the one in the Ace of Swords which is food for thought!
All the lines on the background of this card also give me the impression of interconnectedness, wherein if something effects one sphere in one corner of the card, then this will affect all the others, especially the one that she is so carefully balancing on at the bottom of the card, which will cause her to have to adjust her balanced position.
CreativeFire
TaranRavenfrost
21-07-2004, 18:47
Well, I studied this card over AOL IM with VGimlet (another user on this forum). So, below are my notes from our study:
This card looks VERY balanced. The woman/man (it) looks as if its TRYING to balance itself. She is balancing against the sword, requiring being concous, not passive. Inside the scales is an 'A' and a '(upside down U)'. The green's and blues represent to me prosperity and growth. She is aware of herself. This card seems to mean "Blacalnce in self" like you need to change yourself. Given knowledge of the LWB, This card may also be about legal matters. The checker pattern suggest "Win some and lose some" Also, concentration. It also means passive or active change based on dignities. Also "Nature will adjust you, or you adjust yourself."
Hope I dont have to many mispellings in there :) . Anyway, hope that helps.
i like what Crowley himself said about this card, in a letter to Frieda Harris...
These notes on Justice, or as we have preferred to call her 'Adjustment'. Please note this title. In reading through my description of the card, I noticed a correction to be made, Phalax should be Phallic. There are several mistakes in spelling and punctuation, but no doubt you can put these right by your own ingenium. I suppose I was in a very bad temper when I made my criticism, but I do feel strongly that the plumes of Maat are too insignificant, and the Dove and Raven look simply stuck on; nor do I think that the tessellated pavement is quite right. The general criticism is that the card is a little too cold; Liber is the sign of autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close-bosomed friend of the maturing sun. In your card you have got the idea of balance static, whereas it ought to be dynamic. Nature is not the grocer weighing out a pound of sugar; it is the compensation of complicated rhythms. I should like you to feel that every adjustment was a grande passion; compensation should be a festival, not a clerk smugly pleased that his accounts are correct. It seems to me that this doctrine is very important as a commentary on the text "Existence is pure joy", and I feel sure that the connection of Venus and Saturn with the sign is significant in this respect. The compensation is surely the awakening of the Eld of the All-Father, the constant reproduction of the original purity from the last stage of illusion. (Compare what I said above about the number Ten).
isthmus nekoi
21-07-2004, 21:06
To expound on the bolded section of Alobar's post - when I look at this card, the system of homeostasis comes to mind. Sometimes ppl think of homeostasis as simply "maintaining status quo". But this isn't exactly the case - look at the incredible the human body goes through to reach sexual maturity - all the while, maintaining homeostasis.
Frank Hall
22-07-2004, 09:25
Alobar,your quotation from Crowley is illuminating. He wanted more passion, more dynamic in the image. The artist kept it cool. So, his idea and her expression of it do not -- in his view-- match. I wonder why she emphasized cool, static balance and four-fold symmetry so completely.
it does seem as if the card represents something other than his wishes. however, we don't know if that letter was written in reference to an earlier version or not.
in another letter he stresses the need to keep a certain continuity in the pack (see my post in the 'Thoth vs Toth' thread below). perhaps what we see is a compromise.
however, having read that i can never think of this card (or the idea of balance in general) as static again.
Frank Hall
22-07-2004, 13:40
Good point. At least, as collaborators, they had some difference of approach. That's dynamic and healthy.I looked up a few interpretations of this amazing image-- Arrien(Tarot Handbook),Banzhaf(The Crowley Tarot),Wanless(New Age Tarot),Levitt(Intoduction to Tarot).Looked at Crowley's wide-ranging comments in his book on Thoth. What a huge range of interpretations. One of Banzhof's many diverse approaches struck me as unique :"... for the moment we should turn away from external actions and become clear as to our inner motives; this is shown by the sword pointing downwards." I realized from this how the image is perfectly now-centered, past and future equally distanced. Also, Crowley identifies the image with Maat and Karma. Many,many meanings...
dynamic and healthy, and NOT static! ;)
i tried to find an alternate version of this card here...
http://www.occultartgallery.com/occultartgallery/harris/harris.html
... but unfortunately Adjustment isn't included.
Goldenhair
24-07-2004, 17:36
The first four that comes to mind are the four suits of the minor arcana. Cups (emotions), swords (thought), wands (physical action) and disks (physical items-matter) need to be adjusted in our lives.
The four suits can represent the four elements - water, air, fire and earth. These, also, need to be in constant adjustment to support life. A plant grows in the earth, needs water, extracts gasses out of the air and needs the light of the sun (fire). Any imbalance affects its survival.
The Goddess Ma'at weighs the human heart against her feather. The human heart is a four chambered organ that pumps life thru the human body. The heart adjusts its pumping rate when we exercise or when we rest.
There are the four seasons of the year. And four weeks in a lunar month.
I don't know if any of these examples are consciously reprsented on Adjustment but they are food for thought.
The number four beats within us and extends to the four corners of the earth. ;)
Moonudjat
24-07-2004, 18:59
Originally posted by Goldenhair
The first four that comes to mind are the four suits of the minor arcana. Cups (emotions), swords (thought), wands (physical action) and disks (physical items-matter) need to be adjusted in our lives.
The four suits can represent the four elements - water, air, fire and earth. These, also, need to be in constant adjustment to support life. A plant grows in the earth, needs water, extracts gasses out of the air and needs the light of the sun (fire). Any imbalance affects its survival.
The Goddess Ma'at weighs the human heart against her feather. The human heart is a four chambered organ that pumps life thru the human body. The heart adjusts its pumping rate when we exercise or when we rest.
There are the four seasons of the year. And four weeks in a lunar month.
I don't know if any of these examples are consciously reprsented on Adjustment but they are food for thought.
The number four beats within us and extends to the four corners of the earth. ;)
Four medium circles below and four above, four “feathers” along the legs on each side, four small circles (3 in the sword one on top of Ma’at’s head) Could these four points have something to do with chakras? I wonder if the four in Qabalah has any significance with this card? It seems as if all the fours of the four suit are all ordered and balance.
Just some side stuff
During the journey to the afterlife (which Ma'at was a part of) The removed internal organs were separately treated and, during much of Egyptian history, placed in jars of clay or stone. These so-called Canopic Jars were closed with stoppers fashioned in the shape of four heads -- human, baboon, falcon, and jackal - representing the four protective spirits called the Four Sons of Horus. (maybe this has something to do with the statues in The Chariot, but it's still four) Maybe 4 had a significance then also?
Frank Hall
25-07-2004, 07:48
The four-chambered heart. Perfectly joins the fourfoldness. Also, the canopic jars fit in. There is in this picture something cosmically expansive , yet crystalline. The quarter circles in the four corners suggest the four masks in Hierophant and the four beasts in Universe-- as to where they are in the whole picture. I still do not see all this as karma . Maybe it's about how the Universe in its entirety holds harmony or restores it ?
Moonudjat
25-07-2004, 21:11
Originally posted by Frank Hall
The four-chambered heart. Perfectly joins the fourfoldness. Also, the canopic jars fit in. There is in this picture something cosmically expansive , yet crystalline. The quarter circles in the four corners suggest the four masks in Hierophant and the four beasts in Universe-- as to where they are in the whole picture. I still do not see all this as karma . Maybe it's about how the Universe in its entirety holds harmony or restores it ?
Interesting i never really thought of the four flowers to the four masks in the heirophant and the four beasts in the Universe.
Adjustment balanced equal partnerships.
mooiedragon
20-12-2006, 13:53
I know this is kind of an old thread, but I pulled Adjustment as my daily card today and couldn't quite get a hold of what it was, so I started reading.
I really like a lot of the ideas from this thread, it's really given me a much clearer picture of what this card represents!
For me, this is a card of focus, of re-evaluation. She is balancing Sooo many things and it's taking all her concentration. It's like there is only one way in which to make it work, and she has found this way. And I do see the double edged sword there because perhaps it's not the way she had envisioned it. These speres, etc are bound to her, they don't seem to be of her choosing and yet she finds a way to hold them all up.
For me, this is a card of focus, of re-evaluation. She is balancing Sooo many things and it's taking all her concentration. It's like there is only one way in which to make it work, and she has found this way. And I do see the double edged sword there because perhaps it's not the way she had envisioned it. These speres, etc are bound to her, they don't seem to be of her choosing and yet she finds a way to hold them all up.
I think your last line is important. To me there seem to be so many opposites and contradictions in the card, but with the caveat that she makes them all work.
To me the card is very Zen (in a straightforward way) of being X yet not being X. For example a point of balance (on her toes) but having no chance of moving from that very fine point. It is not a comforatble stance, but she can maintain it. It is like an inverted mountain perfectly balanced on its peak.
And yet it is also NOT like that! It represents to me infinite skill in 'being able to keep all those balls in the air at once" and hence is a *dynamic equilibrium*. This is like homeostasis, mentioned earlier, but where everything changes but everything stays the same. You see this when you walk down the up escalator. Or if you fill a bath with water, keep the taps running and pull out the plug. Moving, but balanced.
So she seems both frozen in the moment of perfect balance, unable to move and also keeping everything going and making it work. Any adjustment to her position and she will topple, but to maintain the balance adjustments must be continually made. Talk about contradictions. A rock and a hard place. Irresistable force and immovable object. The perfect moment.
Just some thoughts.
Sedi, I like your description. Really added to my understanding of the card.
I also think that the very 'adjusted stillness' of the card in some ways allows other things to happen. It is not just a card of maintenance to me. But an ability to allow things to keep working because of this stance.
Yes, that is interesting too. It is another contradictory duality. The point (sorry about the pun - the purpose, then) of the balance is to maintain the balance, so it is focused on itself. (If it loses concentration it may fail.) But in doing so it allows something else to happen. That would seem to make it both internal and external balance and focus.
This is however within the context of *adjustment* though. This implies something is being monitored for changes in some way (monitored pre-, during and post-) and that change may be micro- (to keep your tippy-toe balance) or macro- (to keep everything under control).
Change of subject - it just hit me again. . . Does anyone else find that once they start writing like this that suddenly everything seems to click and you have to just stop writing and just let the thought explosions go off like a firework display before you can go on? Kind of 'blissed out' there for a moment. :)
mooiedragon
22-12-2006, 17:15
Change of subject - it just hit me again. . . Does anyone else find that once they start writing like this that suddenly everything seems to click and you have to just stop writing and just let the thought explosions go off like a firework display before you can go on? Kind of 'blissed out' there for a moment. :)
Yes! I totally feel like that sometimes. I just get to a point where the more I write down, the more warbled my exlplanation becomes. In some small way perhaps this is representative of the Adjustment card, too! To really understand it you must just accept it and not try to make too much sense of it or else it all comes toppling down.
I've had a few other revelations on this card as well. In some respects I agree with some of the information at the beginning of this thread that indicated Crowley had hoped for a more dynamic image for this card. I think that it's meaning might have been missed had this vision been called to fruition. Adjustment is when you are always striving for that "perfect moment", but we must also understand that this moment is always changing and we must change with it.
Also, in my last post I put forward the notion that the spheres, etc where bound to her and, indeed I see that some are. But I wonder too, if some are there because she has put them there to balance the rest. Just a new thought.
ravenest
22-12-2006, 19:07
This picture is full of fours,including the fourth- circles at the corners. The center being is in a diamond. Four chains balance Alpha and Omega.Hands and feet hold the sword. Etc. I'm not sure why there is so much fourfoldness in perfect symmetry around the center being.
Because she is Maat.
ravenest
22-12-2006, 19:09
. I wonder why she emphasized cool, static balance and four-fold symmetry so completely.
Because she is Maat.
ravenest
22-12-2006, 19:21
To me the card is very Zen (in a straightforward way) of being X yet not being X. For example a point of balance (on her toes) but having no chance of moving from that very fine point. It is not a comforatble stance, but she can maintain it. It is like an inverted mountain perfectly balanced on its peak.
And yet it is also NOT like that! It represents to me infinite skill in 'being able to keep all those balls in the air at once" and hence is a *dynamic equilibrium*. This is like homeostasis, mentioned earlier, but where everything changes but everything stays the same. You see this when you walk down the up escalator. Or if you fill a bath with water, keep the taps running and pull out the plug. Moving, but balanced.
As a martial artist I can affirm that a point of balance (even on the toes) offers every chance of executing a perfect movement. I think one of the points about Maat is that with her perfect equpose she is within the centre of the Universe and everything resides within and without her.
So she seems both frozen in the moment of perfect balance, unable to move and also keeping everything going and making it work. Any adjustment to her position and she will topple, but to maintain the balance adjustments must be continually made. Talk about contradictions. A rock and a hard place. Irresistable force and immovable object. The perfect moment.
Just some thoughts.
I half agree but half disagree as I think that from that 'frozen moment ' any thing or direction is possible. The dualistic interpretations about Maat are, I believe a product of the modern mind trying to interpret what and how the ancient Egyptians thought about this principle.
ravenest
22-12-2006, 19:22
Change of subject - it just hit me again. . . Does anyone else find that once they start writing like this that suddenly everything seems to click and you have to just stop writing and just let the thought explosions go off like a firework display before you can go on? Kind of 'blissed out' there for a moment. :)
You are having a 'pre-Eureka!'moment. :)
As a martial artist I can affirm that a point of balance (even on the toes) offers every chance of executing a perfect movement. I think one of the points about Maat is that with her perfect equpose she is within the centre of the Universe and everything resides within and without her.
I agree. Having studied a martial art too, I know what you mean. It seems to be another contradictory duality here too - there is the perfect balance where the least little thing will topple the balance and there is also the martial art balance I think we are referring to where there is a total awareness and point of focus - a kind of sublime attention where everthing is under control and no matter what comes (in the form of an attack) you can sense/feel/respond and nothing can catch you unaware. A bit like a spider totally attuned to the slightest vibration of her web.
I am fascinated that so many dualities seem to be in this card.
I half agree but half disagree. . .
Yet another duality :D
Here's another - the thread was started, then it fizzles. Nearly a year goes by and the balance of interest shifts again and another flurry of posts followed by another long pause. Then, three days ago, the same thing happens again! A cycle of activity and non-activity. (That said, I have not been on this board to know if this is a common pattern in all honesty ;))
Excerpt from a letter by Crowley to Harris concerning an earlier version of Adjustment:
In your card you have got the idea of balance static, whereas it ought to be dynamic. Nature is not the grocer weighing out a pound of sugar; it is the compensation of complicated rhythms. I should like you to feel that every adjustment was a grande passion; compensation should be a festival, not a clerk smugly pleased that his accounts are correct. It seems to me that this doctrine is very important as a commentary on the text "Existence is pure joy", and I feel sure that the connection of Venus and Saturn with the sign is significant in this respect. The compensation is surely the awakening of the Eld of the All-Father, the constant reproduction of the original purity from the last stage of illusion.
Ross G Caldwell
23-12-2006, 09:07
Excerpt from a letter by Crowley to Harris concerning an earlier version of Adjustment:
You know those letters are forged, don't you Aeon?
;)
You know those letters are forged, don't you Aeon?
:shhh: That's a secret known only by one person. :laugh:
ravenest
26-12-2006, 20:20
Okay you guys, out with it! What's this about forged Crowley harris correspondence.
Ask Fulgour. I still can't stop laughing. :laugh:
Ask Fulgour. I still can't stop laughing. :laugh:Don't spit your dummy :laugh: Aeon418!
Don't spit your dummy :laugh: Aeon418!
That's a dummy spit? Here's a good example of the real thing......until it gets edited. :laugh:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=752181&postcount=27
ravenest
29-12-2006, 18:42
Now now boys!
Well Aeon I read the above link and all the posts and it still doesn't explain anything to me about forged Crowley / Harris correspondence.
So: as this is the only reference I have ...
Ross and/or Fulgor what is this about forged Crowley / Harris correspondence?
[LATER] Ah! s'okay I found it. Damn! Now I am going to have to start reading R.W. thread (I've been avoiding it). :(
Here you go..., the "proof" that the letters are fake! :laugh:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=974217&postcount=37
ravenest
29-12-2006, 19:57
Yeah, I saw that. of course I assumed it was a joke - a Lady don't sweat.
(like the 'Lady' in the Importanance of Being Earnest, that had never seen a spade.)
What's the central refrence for these letters anyway? Are they published in a book? On line somewhere?
{Oh oh, library closing time - getting kicked out}
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/crowley-harris.html
ravenest
01-01-2007, 19:11
Cheers mate! That'll keep the library printer busy.
{Bill Heidrick ... I should have known !}
R.
rachelcat
30-01-2009, 12:29
IDS Study Post: Once again, all this has probably been covered better elsewhere; I'm just putting it together for studying purposes. Use at your own risk!
Drawn for Monday-Tuesday, January 26-27
Written Friday, January 30, 2009
Adjustment
This is obviously a card of balance. Everything is visually balanced, left to right, top to bottom, colors interchanged, etc. And the woman is literally balanced on the point of the sword. And she IS a balance (scale). She wears feathers, like Maat, the Egyptian goddess of Justice. But that is a strange looking “feather” on her head. How can the it support the metal pans of the scale and the orbs in them and the chains? I think the veil/curtain around the figure is made of feathers, too. Feathers are light but strong. They can lift a large bird like an eagle or stork high into the sky. The touch of karma is light--we might not feel it or see it, but it is always in action!
This goddess is not weighing a heart against a feather, though. She is showing that the end is, if not the same then equivalent to, the beginning. Each ending is a beginning of something else.
She is not blind justice. She has eye holes in her mask.
I had the hardest time understanding the background of this card. BoT and Suffin say she has a throne behind her. I guess it is a kind of platform to which the pyramids with balls on the ends are attached. And she is balanced via the sword point on another ball.
Color is overwhelming in this card. According to Snuffin, they are the colors of the path of Lamed (between Geburah and Tiphareth) in Aziluth and Briah. Well, it certainly makes sense for Adjustment to be related to Tiphareth, the center of the tree on the pillar of balance. I chose aventurine as the crystal for Justice/Adjustment because it is the green of this card. Random crystal books and sites say this about aventurine: visual acuity, decisiveness, balances male and female energies, healing.
Hitting the books: It takes most of the chapter for Crowley to get around to saying the card represents karma. To me this is the most obvious meaning. Karma means action. Every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. Cause and effect. Crowley says the chains are the chains of causation. He even mentions the “butterfly effect”--one change changes the entire universe in some way. He also says that (since the chains are attached to her head?) just a thought could sway the balance one way or another. The “actions” of karma are intentions, thoughts, not the physical actions. If you give a million dollars to charity just to get your picture in the paper, the karma will be commensurate to your intention.
Karma is not “retribution” (although it was translated that way in early translations of Buddhist scriptures), nor a moral force of a personal god or goddess, but a completely impersonal force of nature. (Disagreeing with Crowley, who says nature is not just. I guess he means in a way that humans understand justice. Why do the wicked prosper?) We may not see karma as justice play out (it might do so in private or in another lifetime?), but it is always there!
The books mention that the woman resembles Harlequin, with her patterned tights/skirt and mask, relating her to the Fool. Together they spell AL (God) and LA (Not), being and nothingness, another union of opposites.
Along with the green and blue are the black chains and “pyramids,” black for Saturn, exalted in Libra. I really like the concept of Adjustment--balance only happens in the flow of time. Saturn is the lord of time. Stability in change. Like in an ecosystem, nature keeps things in balance over time. (Earlier posts give me the words I’m looking for: equilibrium and homeostasis!)
Snuffin brings out the sexual references that Crowley hints at. (Very helpful!) “The Woman Satisfied” means that she has changed (in time!) from being the daughter to being the mother by having sex. (Duquette points out the “smirk” of the Woman Satisfied!) Snuffin brings up a great meaning relating this to the Justice concept: Someone or a time of coming of age and being responsible for ones own actions.
Female symbols: Obviously the woman herself and the vesica piscis made by the curtain of feathers.
Male symbols: The sword between her legs and the two spheres together. As others have pointed out, this is the sword of the Ace of Swords, the sword of Thelema. As a phallic symbol, it once again gives us “Love under Will”! Crowley goes on about two witnesses in a court of law TESTifying and two TESTES. Is there an actual etymological connection between these words?
So we’re back to opposites, male and female, and the union of opposites that lead to new life, a baby. Information (genes) are passed on to future generations. Perhaps she gives birth to herself? (She is the mother and the daughter.) With every action we take, we are creating a new future for ourselves.
As a card of the day: I can’t remember what happened on Monday and Tuesday . . . My husband and son had off because school was closed for snow. (Husband teacher, son coach.) Maybe it means I had to go to work because I always say if the subway is running, I’ll be there. Doesn’t give me much snow day wiggle room, huh?
In a reading: Karma. The time has come to take responsibility for your actions! For every action . . . Butterfly effect. You create your own future by what you do with your present.