The Plantation: a Rumi spread to make the best of a crisis

Chiriku

This spread is part of my series of spreads based on the scripture and poetry of several religious traditions. It is inspired by one of the poems of Rumi, the famous Sufi poet.

Sufism is, to me, much more a part of Islam than I believe many Westerners acknowledge (or know). As someone whose chief interest is the three Abrahamic religions, I always look to Sufism as one of many facets of the desert religious traditions. I don't much care for the recent tendency in some circles to divorce Sufism from its Islamic locus and see it as part of a hodge-podge, "grab bag" spirituality.

However, it's true that much of Sufi thought is inspirational for people of a variety of religious and cultural backgrounds, and I have created a few Sufi-inspired threads, mostly taken from verses of Sufi poets' poetry.

Many have noted that the recent translations into English of Sufi poetry are a bit too liberal; although they are very beautiful and inspiring in many cases, they are more the works of the late 20th/21st century (often Western) translators than they are the original Farsi- and Arabic- speaking poets. As such, the translations I choose for my own reading are usually the more cumbersome (but precise) ones--just fair warning for all of you.

This is from poem #65 in my copy of Mystical Poems of Rumi (translated from the Persian in the 1960s by AJ Arberry and annotated and prepared by Hasan Javadi). This quote forms the basis for the spread, below, which I hope you find useful:

The springtide of lovers has come, that this dust bowl may become a garden; the proclamation of heaven has come, that the bird of the soul may rise in flight.
...
Though the whole world be laid in ruin, yet every desolation through love becomes fellow-mariner with Noah, and so is intimate with the Flood. Did the flood abate, the heavens would not go round; through that wave beyond direction these six directions keep in motion.

You who remain fast under these six directions, at once sorrow and do not sorrow, for those seeds beneath the ground will one day become a plantation of date-trees.

One day that root will raise its head from the dust, it will become a fresh green branch; what if two or three branches should wither, the rest of the tree will be pregnant with life; And when that dry branch is set afire, the fire will be joyous like the soul; if that is not this, it will become this; if this is not that, it will become that.

--- Rumi, Jalal al-Din. Mystical Poems of Rumi (p. 67-68). University of Chicago Press, 2009 reprinting.

The Plantation: a spread to make the best of Crisis

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1- The Flood-- what "flood" is a necessary part of my life (or the world)?
2- The Fresh Green Branches-- what will flourish among the ruins left by the flood?
3- The Dry Branch Set Afire-- what must I affirmatively give up instead of trying to salvage?
4- The Bird of Your Soul-- what will "raise it into flight" above the ruins?


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Alessi

Thank you again for posting another wonderful spread which can be a light in dark times.

I have been living through some crises of my own recently and the cards I drew really helped me to get a sense of perspective.

The poem is also beautiful.

Thank you.
 

Chiriku

Thank you again for posting another wonderful spread which can be a light in dark times.

I have been living through some crises of my own recently and the cards I drew really helped me to get a sense of perspective.

The poem is also beautiful.

Thank you.

You're quite welcome, Alessi, and I thank you for giving this spread a try.

It's funny that I have created a fair few spreads meant to be used during times of crisis even though I myself often let tarot fall by the wayside during such times in my own life; I'm too busy doing damage control to think of doing an intellectual exercise like a self-reading. However, I have been making a conscious effort to use tarot during difficult situations and you are good inspiration for me to continue in this initiative.

I hope your trying times are soon behind you.
 

Alessi

Chiriku, I would like you to know that this spread and your 'All shall be well, spread for comfort', have been extremely helpful to me over the last few months, which have been very testing times.

They have helped me to remember that better times will eventually come.

Thank you again :)